text:
PUMA have announced that JAY Z has now joined the brand as a creative consultant. The 4:44 emcee’s Roc Nation imprint has worked with the brand previously but now he will have a direct hand in some forthcoming projects.
While it was speculated earlier that he would be selecting players for the brands relaunched basketball division that rumour has now been scraped by their global director of brand and marketing Adam Petrick.
In the meantime to celebrate the relaunch of the basketball division PUMA have released 73 pairs of a limited-edition Walt Frazier Clydes who has just signed a lifetime deal with the brand.
The worst kept secret: Puma is back in basketball. Company signing their first endorser Walt Clyde Frazier to a lifetime deal. Releasing 73 limited editions pairs at place on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn today. New handle is @PUMAHoops. pic.twitter.com/fmbgi5B0M0
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) June 18, 2018
NIKE AIR MAX 720 ‘SPECKLE’
The bold aesthetic of the Nike 720 has been fully embraced by the masses and Nike is keeping up with that demand thanks to a string of new colourways and this forthcoming ‘Black Speckle’ option surely won’t disappoint.
With any model, a black on black iteration will never disappoint, but with the Summer months upon us, the Swoosh has stopped short by lacing their futuristic model’s giant air unit with Orange speckles as well as various accents throughout the model. There has been no official release date on these as of yet but with the official images being released already they should be dropping real soon.
Hyper Royal And Cool Grey Nike Air Max 97
The slew of Air Max 97 releases is not set to ease up any time soon as Nike unveiled a new colourway for the forthcoming Summer months.
This iteration of the beloved 1997 runner gets blessed with a clean blend of Hyper Bluew and Cool Grey hues which is an ideal selection for the warmer months. In addition, the hits of the OG silver make an appearance throughout the upper breaking up the light and dark Cool Grey. The swoosh on the middle of the uppers, the pull tab and tongue all are finished off in Hyper Blue.
AThe look is completed with a white midsole and grey air unit and outsole. No official release date for these as of yet but stay tuned to Crepjunkie.com for more info and check out more images below.
AIR JORDAN 8 ‘REFLECTIONS OF A CHAMPION’
Jordan Brand is planning to launch a series of upcoming releases under the ‘Reflections of a Champion’ banner that pays homage to the first three NBA championships won by Michael Jordan’s. The series will feature three respective models the Air Jordan 6, Air Jordan 7 and this Air Jordan 8 that will feature 3M uppers
This iteration of the model features the same colour elements from the bugs Bunny’ 8s except for the uppers are completely covered in reflective 3M material. The ‘Reflections of Champion’ model is slated to drop June 8th So stay tuned to Crepjunkie.com for more info is slated to drop
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New Yorkers may soon be able to hail yellow cabs with their smartphones, depending on the outcome of a state appeals court case that’s expected to be decided this month.
The Bloomberg administration and app developers Uber Technologies Inc. and Hailo Network USA Inc. thought they had finally gotten an official go-ahead to launch apps that would let pedestrians flag down one of the city’s 13,000 yellow cabs with the tap of a smartphone screen.
But after a judge gave the companies a greenlight, a coalition of livery and black car companies appealed the decision and persuaded an appellate court to put the launch on hold. A decision on the appeal is expected May 20.
The crux of their legal argument centers on whether the city regulators overstepped their authority in accommodating smartphone users.
The attorney for the livery companies, Randy Mastro, a former deputy mayor, argued in an appeals brief that the city’s taxi commission had overstepped its mandate by issuing rules to permit e-hailing apps as part of a pilot program. The new app rules are a “sweeping change” that should have been made by the City Council, not by a regulatory body like the Taxi and Limousine Commission, Mr. Mastro argued.
Mr. Mastro contends that the app rules violate the city’s administrative code, because a cab driver using an e-hail app would be able to choose to decline a fare. Under current rules, cabbies picking up customers who hail them from the street are generally not permitted to refuse rides to their customers.
TLC officials and the city Law Department, who represents the city in legal matters, say that the TLC followed all applicable laws in launching the e-hailing pilot program, and that they expect to win on appeal. Even so, the city argues that it can authorize a trial run even if the apps run up against some existing rules.
Hailo CEO Jay Bregman, in a bid to overturn the latest court order temporarily blocking the apps, argued that the technology is simply improving upon the arm flail or the doorman’s whistle.
Smartphone apps that can hail a cab finally started operating this week in New York City
with the blessing
of the Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC). However, an appellate judge has issued a last-minute emergency injunction
, in response to a lawsuit from players in the taxi and livery industry that challenges the apps' legality.
THE FINAL DECISION IS SCHEDULED FOR MAY 20TH
The lawsuit challenged the TLC pilot program under which the apps were being introduced. It was dismissed by a lower court judge
last week, but the petitioners appealed. The injunction will give appellate judges time to review the ruling from the Manhattan Supreme Court.
"This faux ‘pilot program’ is so fundamentally flawed and illegal in so many respects that it had to be stopped," Randy Mastro, the attorney for the petitioners, told Bloomberg in an email
. "And now it once again has been."
"We're disappointed that there is a further delay in implementing the e-hail pilot program," Michelle Goldberg-Cahn, a city lawyer working on the case, said in a statement. "It's unfortunate that taxi riders will not be able to continue to test this innovative tool for hailing taxis."
The motion is scheduled to be submitted to the appellate panel on May 13th with a decision to be issued on May 20th. Uber and Hailo, the two companies that have received licenses from the TLC, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
NEW YORK — The city can experiment with letting taxi seekers hail rides electronically, a judge said Tuesday in a ruling that could clear the way for riders to summon the city's signature yellow taxis with smartphone apps instead of raised arms.
While the cabs have been prohibited in the past from taking pre-arranged rides, testing an "e-hail" system is OK to see whether it leads to a dearth of cabs or other problems, Manhattan state Supreme Court Justice Carol Huff wrote in dismissing a lawsuit filed mainly by livery cab owners.
The judge also lifted an order that had temporarily blocked the program, but it wasn't immediately clear how soon virtual hailing might begin.
Taxi and Limousine Commissioner David Yassky saluted the decision as a victory that expands riders' choices.
"The market will ultimately decide which apps rise or fall, and we have an obligation to give the riding public that choice," he said in a statement.
A lawyer for the livery cab owners, Randy Mastro, said they were considering an appeal.
"This decision is so fundamentally wrong in so many respects," Mastro said by phone, declining to elaborate.
The Taxi and Limousine Commission agreed in December to test the idea for a year, saying the city couldn't ignore evolving taxi technology. E-hail systems are in use in some other cities, and at least a dozen companies said they were ready to provide the service in New York.
One of them, Uber, applauded the court decision as a win for a city seeking to cultivate a technology-friendly reputation.
"You can't stop progress when the people want it enough," CEO Travis Kalanick said in a statement.
Using an app, a potential passenger requests a ride, all participating cabbies within a certain distance get the inquiry and the driver who responds first gets the fare.
Car service owners said it unfairly blurred a legal line between yellow and livery cabs, which are barred from picking up passengers on streets and so depend on prearranged rides.
The livery cab owners - and a senior citizen who doesn't own a smartphone - also envision in the suit that e-hailing will leave people standing on street corners while cabbies zip by to pick up app-arranged fares, potentially reviving concerns about discrimination against passengers based on their race, whereabouts or destination. Those concerns led years ago to measures that barred drivers from taking fares via radio dispatch and from refusing any passenger without "justifiable grounds."
The judge, however, said the e-hail plan might actually combat any discrimination, since drivers wouldn't be able to see their fares when accepting them. She didn't address whether cabbies might shun some neighborhoods to take e-hail requests elsewhere but noted the test program could examine discrimination.
She suggested the electronic system could help, rather than harm, older people by "reducing time spent standing or walking" to find a cab. She also rejected other claims, including an argument that the program was too broad to qualify as a test.
The city's chief lawyer, Michael Cardozo, said the ruling confirms the city's position that the program is entirely proper.
Meanwhile, the state's highest court, the Court of Appeals, was poised to hear arguments Wednesday over a nearly opposite initiative: a plan to let livery cabs pick up passengers on streets in upper Manhattan and the city's four other boroughs.
In that case, yellow cab owners sued. They said the plan would hurt their business. Mayor Michael Bloomberg has countered that it would make travel safer, easier and cheaper for millions of people.
The outcome could have a major impact on the city's budget, as the disputed measure is coupled with a proposal to sell 2,000 new yellow-cab permits, or medallions. Officials have estimated that could make the city more than $1.4 billion over several years.
Las Vegas, Washington, Chicago, and Cambridge, Mass., have all tried to ban Uber, the San Francisco-based startup that connects riders to luxury black town cars and SUVs on the fly Photo by Linda Davidson/The Washington Post/Getty Images
In 1984, the Federal Trade Commission released a report that explained why taxis could charge customers exorbitant prices for dismal service. The simple reason, according to the 176-page study
: lack of competition in the market. The culprit: local governments. City agencies that regulate cabs, generally called taxi commissions, were deliberately protecting from competition the very companies they were supposed to police. With no legitimate safety- or health-related reasons for doing so, the taxi commissions artificially limited the number of cab companies competing on the streets by restricting the number of available licenses. Armed with this report, the FTC took action. It made an example of two of the worst markets, Minneapolis
and New Orleans
, by filing lawsuits against the local governments and accusing them of illegally colluding with private taxi companies to crush competition and fleece residents. (The results of those lawsuits were mixed—more on that in a minute.)
In 2007, two decades after those cases settled, the FTC noted that the taxi industry remained largely uncompetitive. The FTC staff
also observed, however, that “telecommunications advances” might help to disrupt these uncompetitive markets.
Today, this predicted disruption might finally be on the horizon, exemplified by companies like Uber, SideCar, and Lyft that all created mobile apps to revolutionize the ride-for-hire market. But, as before, city taxi commissions are working to stifle competition.
Most recently, Las Vegas
, and Cambridge, Mass.
, have all tried to ban Uber, the San Francisco-based startup that connects riders to luxury black town cars and SUVs on the fly. Other cities’ ordinances are hopelessly stacked against the company. Miami’s requires impossibly expensive minimum fares
($80), while Cambridge attempted to shutdown Uber altogether, claiming
that since a national standards and measurements body had not certified the company’s use of GPS technology for taxi metering, Uber was violating the law. (Cambridge relented the following day.) New York City, which last year declared Uber illegal, is now cautiously experimenting
with the company but has not fully committed to allowing it to compete.
Younger companies like Lyft and SideCar disrupt transportation in a different way: Anyone with a car and background check can provide rides to a willing rider for a suggested fee. These companies have faced their own issues. SideCar planned to offer rides during SXSW, the annual technology festival in Austin that helped launch Twitter and Foursquare into public consciousness years ago. But the city of Austin threatened
to shut SideCar down and arrest willing drivers during the festival. SideCar responded by offering free rides and then filed a lawsuit
against the city of Austin, arguing that their business does not violate Austin’s Transportation Code.
Uber, SideCar, and Lyft are not simply a fad—they are the first indications of a transportation revolution now receiving considerable venture investment. So far, these companies have battled incumbent taxi companies city-by-city, facing off against city taxi commissions that are biased against them. But the harms they’ve suffered will only continue to grow, necessitating a decisive solution, and one from a forum that isn’t effectively controlled by the taxi industry. Three potential avenues are at our disposal: the FTC, state governments, or Congress. And they should be explored in that order.
It might seem odd to call for a federal agency like the FTC to take action in what appears to be a purely local issue. But not only does the FTC have the authority to take these cities to impartial federal courts and end their anticompetitive actions; it also has deep expertise in taxi markets and antitrust doctrines. By law, the FTC’s power to regulate “interstate commerce” is just as broad as Congress’, and that power is famously far-reaching, even covering the growing of plants at home for purely personal use. Here, as the agency noted in its 1984 cases against Minneapolis and New Orleans, the FTC could regulate local taxi markets merely because interstate travelers take taxis (and Ubers) to and from the airport when they fly across state lines. Moreover, Uber, SideCar, and Lyft are California-based technology companies competing in multiple states.
The FTC’s general antitrust authority, however, only sometimes
outranks city authority. Under the Constitution, federal law trumps both state and city law. But antitrust law allows states some exceptional leeway to adopt anticompetitive business regulations, out of respect for states’ rights to regulate business. This federal respect for states
’ rights does not extend to cities—they are subject to the antitrust laws unless states pass legislation absolving them. For example, Minneapolis ended up avoiding the 1984 lawsuit by acceding to the FTC and permitting more competition. New Orleans did something different: It succeeded in lobbying the state of Louisiana to authorize its anticompetitive actions, to the detriment of consumers.
Some states, including Florida, Nevada, and Texas, could argue that like Louisiana, their laws currently authorize the city governments to undermine competition in their taxi markets. Nonetheless, the FTC should test the law in these states with litigation, as the Supreme Court’s position is unsettled. Under the few Supreme Court decisions spanning the past several decades, cities can engage in anticompetitive acts only when the state legislature “clearly articulated
” and “affirmatively expressed
” a state policy to displace competition and replace it with an uncompetitive market. To complicate matters, the court “disfavors
” interpretations of state law that permit anticompetitive city regulation, yet it still permits city anticompetitive action even it is merely a “foreseeable result
” of the state law. Put all this together and the FTC can likely argue that state taxi authorizations do not foresee anticompetitive restrictions on apps like Uber and services that permit average citizens to tip one another for a ride. At the very least, Washington, D.C., is not in a state, so no state law can protect it from the FTC’s antitrust powers.
But if the FTC was unable to secure a court victory against a particular state, that state’s government could intervene. States are probably not as beholden to the taxicab industry as are local taxi commissions. Their legislatures or agencies could easily either pull back any specific authority they’ve granted to city governments, or clarify that those powers are not so broad as to block communications technologies that connect users to black car drivers or to one another. Indeed, states might feel pressure to do so, lest they appear either supportive of anticompetitive policies in their cities or powerless to change those policies.
Should the FTC or states not rise to the task, Congress can preempt all of the problematic state and city statutes by passing a one-sentence law. There is precedent for such action. For example, with respect to mobile phones, Congress declared
in 1996 that “no State or local government shall have any authority to regulate the entry of or the rates charged by any” mobile phone company. The same can and should apply to taxicab services. This solution should be politically feasible: Both Republicans and Democrats can agree that more choices and lower prices in transportation would benefit consumers. Democrats would consider it “smart government” and Republicans “limited government.”
While taxi companies might prefer not to face competition, they deserve no more protection from it than did horse-and-buggy salesmen in 1905 or MySpace in 2005. Like Uber, Sidecar, and Lyft, they deserve no more and no less than a fair shot in a competitive market. The FTC, states, or Congress itself should step in to make that possible, lest city governments run competitors off the road.Source: slate.com
Silicon Valley thinks taxi apps will be the next megabrands
Naval Ravikant is the cofounder of the startup network AngelList
and a small investor in Uber
, the app that lets you order a car service or taxi from your phone. He uses Uber X to get to work, Flywheel for long trips to the outer part of San Francisco, Lyft for short hops, and Uber Black for groups and special occasions. He’s selling his cars, he told The Verge
Each of these companies has a slightly different take, and not all will survive. But these apps could double or triple the size of the market for taxi and car services, Ravikant estimates. He did the math and found that between gas, garages, insurance, and the cost of the car, he could actually save money by using a combination of the smorgasbord of taxi apps available in San Francisco — and he can sit in the back seat on his phone instead of having to drive.
Taxi apps have become the hottest thing in tech. You may not have noticed it unless you live in the Bay area or immerse yourself in industry news, but there is an extraordinary momentum around apps for ordering rides. "It is literally the hot topic among investors and entrepreneurs," Ravikant said.
But taxi apps are doing more than making investors’ lives easier. They’re also creating the first on-demand, person-to-person commerce platform, as well as laying the groundwork for real-time delivery. The gold rush
Hailo just raised $30 million from investors
, bringing its total funding to around $50 million. Uber, the most well-known taxi app, just started signing up ordinary citizens so they can use their cars as cabs. A Danish company called Click A Taxi announced today
that it is launching globally all at once, claiming to cover a billion people. "Our promise is that we aim to get a taxi wherever the user is," cofounder Nikolaj Køster said in an email. "if you're chilling in Puerto Banus in the south of Spain and pull out the app and click — you will be picked up."
For founders and investors who didn’t get in on the taxi app craze in time, there’s a secondary genre
: Uber for groceries, Uber for wine, Uber for dog walking, Uber for car washes (defunct), and so on. The last company that shook an industry this profoundly was travel rental service Airbnb, but the Uber model is poised to be even bigger — or at least, that’s what investors tell us. Why taxis?
Silicon Valley has the tendency to gang up on any new idea that seems good, but the heat around taxi apps seems... uncalled for, especially considering that it’s not a particularly easy business to go into. The industry is heavily regulated, which has caused obstacles
, and it’s a shrinking business. According to the research firm IBIS World, the taxi and car industry was growing at four to five percent before the recession, but has been shrinking by one percent every year since.
"The transit market is the last bastion of really hardcore inefficiency in the modern world," said Jay Bregman, cofounder of Hailo, which found in a survey that drivers spend 40 to 60 percent of their shifts with empty cabs. "These are unbelievably large markets that have massive 50 perceThat inefficiency — drivers cruising for passengers, and riders looking for cabs — is basically money left on the table. Hailo has brought in more than $100 million in revenue in just over a year, Bregman said. Investors believe Uber will be a one billion or even five billion dollar company.
"The industry is absolutely very large and very sexy," said Matthew Kochman, an early employee at Uber who left to do consulting and entrepreneurship. "They’re actual businesses, unlike some other things like consumer-facing social apps like Instagram that are sexy for the weird reasons that I don’t personally understand."
Taxi apps can also scale quickly by converting the existing network of dispatchers and drivers, which is why the companies are racing to new cities around the globe.
New life for an old industry
The taxi and car service industry, at least in the US, is pretty analog. Drivers are still struggling to adopt a widely available device that would seem to be the most obvious thing a taxi driver could do to improve his or her life. "GPS," said Lauren Setar, transportation industry analyst at research firm IBIS World, when asked about technology trends in the industry. "More and more taxi drivers are using it."
The way Uber and most of its competitors work is by giving drivers phones that serve as a dispatcher and a GPS, alerting the driver when a passenger needs a ride and automatically guiding the way. The passenger has downloaded the app and already inputted his or her credit card information, so there is no need to take out their wallet. At the end of the transaction, either one or both parties can leave each other reviews.
While the industry may be suffering here, it is still a huge market. The taxi and car service industry in the US is estimated at $5 billion in annual revenue. Tokyo’s alone is around $25 billion. Apps also present possibilities beyond mere transit, including selling things in the cab, location-based advertising, and coordinating other person-to-person transactions in real-time.
Down the road
But there’s something else going on here. Taxi apps give us a glimpse of a future in which everything is real-time — imagine attaching a moving dot on a map to every pizza delivery driver and FedEx package.
Uber and its ilk also achieved a level of mobile immediacy that other startups have been trying desperately to capture — consider all the failed real-time Craigslist ripoffs that failed to take off. There are only two examples of success with matching people together for a real life transaction in real time: taxi apps, and Grindr, the hookup app for gay men. Only one of those (we hope) involves cash.
If you believe people like Bregman, taxi apps are the foundation for a revolution in convenience. Car ownership becomes passé, and you’ll be able to buy anything on your phone and watch it travel to you in real time.
In this scenario, taxi apps are poised to become the next titans of industry simply because they have your credit card information on your phone. Right now, it’s a land grab for cities as the companies spend millions to sign up drivers and advertise the service. But eventually the arms race will die down and a winner will emerge in each market, and then the startups can expand to mobile commerce and other tangential businesses.
Hailo will eventually be "more like Virgin than Virgin America," Bregman said, referring to the megabrand that started with a record shop and now spans everything from telecom to space travel. (Richard Branson, Virgin's founder, is an investor in Hailo.) "I don’t know where this is going to go and how far this is going to go," he continued. "But everyone knows that this is the future."Source: theverge.com
La ville de New York autorisera les applications pour appeler un taxi grâce à un téléphone intelligent dès février Photo : AFP/JOHN MOORE
Les New Yorkais arrivent enfin au 21e siècle : il leur sera désormais possible de commander un taxi grâce à leur téléphone intelligent.
Jusqu'à présent, le règlement mentionnait que les 13 000 taxis jaunes de la métropole américaine ne devaient accepter que les courses hélées dans la rue. Il était impossible de demander un taxi à distance.
La commission des taxis et limousines de New York a accepté d'ouvrir la voie à des applications permettant de commander des taxis dès la mi-février. Pour une période d'essai d'un an, les utilisateurs de téléphones pourront joindre une voiture située dans un périmètre de 800 mètres s'ils se trouvent dans un quartier au sud de Central Park ou de moins de 2 kilomètres et demi s'ils se trouvent ailleurs dans la ville.
Le site Internet des taxis de New York (yellowcabnyc.com) offre déjà un lien pour télécharger une application.
Les chauffeurs de taxi s'attendent également à augmenter leurs revenus grâce à cette nouvelle mesure, puisqu'ils perdront moins de temps à chercher des clients.
City officials say a company offering a smartphone app to hail taxis and limousines in Toronto is operating illegally.
The city has charged Uber with 25 municipal licencing offences, including operation of an unlicensed taxi brokerage and unlicensed limo service, since they began operating in Toronto in late summer.
The company doesn’t have its own fleet. Uber gives the smartphone, as well as the dashboard cradle it sits in, free to cab drivers from other companies who sign up.
But the company needs a licence to dispatch, says Richard Mucha, acting manager of licensing enforcement for the city.
“If you plan on running a limousine service in the City of Toronto, or a taxi cab brokerage, then you require a licence,” says Mucha. “We met with Uber’s CEO Travis Kalanick in the spring of this year and we advised him in no uncertain terms that they were not operating in accordance with the City of Toronto’s licensing bylaw. So our position should come as no surprise to Uber.”
Uber did not respond to requests for comment.
None of the charges have been dealt with in court.
Penalties range from $150 to $250 for each individual charge, but cumulatively, could go as high as $25,000. “The more convictions that are rendered, certainly the higher the fines,” says Mucha.
The Justice of the Peace who will hear the case could also stop the company from operating by issuing a prohibition order. If that doesn’t happen, the city could go to Superior Court to ask for an injunction.
Application fees for a taxi cab brokerage license are just under $370, but Mucha says Uber has never applied for one.
The company has encountered similar opposition in U.S. cities and is facing fines and lawsuits.
The company’s website
says passengers are charged a 20 per cent gratuity above the metred fare. One Toronto cab driver said Uber takes a portion of that money.
That, too, is a violation, Mucha says.
“If you’re charging anything other than the meter rate then that is contrary to the city’s licensing bylaw.”
The cab driver enters the metered fare into his phone and the application automatically adds the premium. The amount is charged to a passenger’s credit card, which they provide when they download the app.
An unlicensed driver using the app has already been charged and convicted, says Mucha. As of Wednesday, Uber was still operating in Toronto.
The taxi industry has experienced a bit of a shakeup with the onset of the applications.
Hailo, which has an office at Queen St. near Sherbourne St., offers a similar app, but the company has escaped regulatory censure in Toronto because it is a licensed taxi brokerage and works with licensed drivers.
And it charges the driver to use the service, not the passenger.
Since Hailo launched in September
, 30,000 passengers have downloaded the app, says company president Justin Raymond. And 600 cabbies are using the driver app.
But Hailo has experienced resistance from established operators such as Beck
. Some cab drivers for the company say they’ve been pressured not to use the app. The city is currently investigating complaints against the cab brokerage, although Mucha wouldn’t specify what they were.
Toronto is reviewing its licensing bylaws with regards to taxi cabs and the apps will figure in the debate.
“Certainly we’re not against technology,” says Mucha. But “there would be some opposition to having anything charged beyond the metered rate from an issue of transparency.”
Uber and the city will be in court Jan. 30 when a trial date will be set.
WASHINGTON — Summoning a taxi or car service with your smartphone feels like the future. City governments around the world can agree on that. But many are proposing rules that would run Uber, one of the most prominent ride-requesting apps, off the road.
At a recent conference, regulators and car services from the United States and Europe talked about how smartphone apps are changing the hire-a-car business. Some are integrated with car companies’ dispatching systems, while others allow drivers to directly connect with passengers, phone to phone.
While regulators discussed ways to clarify the legality of the apps, they also proposed guidelines that would effectively force Uber, a San Francisco start-up, to cease operations in the United States. Uber also faces lawsuits filed by San Francisco cabdrivers and a Chicago car service and a $20,000 fine in California.
The battle underscores the tension between lawmakers and technology companies as websites and mobile apps outmaneuver old rules. Services like Uber, Airbnb, and Craigslist can cut out the middlemen and lead to more efficient markets. But regulators say they could put consumers at risk.
Uber has an unusual approach. It first consults a lawyer in a target city on whether it is legal to operate there. It contacts local car service companies to discuss working with them; in cities where Uber works with cabs, employees put up fliers or approach drivers. Participating drivers get free iPhones that run Uber’s navigation software, which helps them find people nearby who are requesting rides via smartphone.
The start-up, which has raised $50 million since 2010, generally does not consult regulators. It says it’s not an actual provider of rides and isn’t subject to such regulation. To date, this has generally worked for it in 18 cities, including San Francisco, Washington, New York, Chicago, Paris, and Amsterdam.
Uber suffered its first serious setback in New York, where it was forced to cease its fledgling yellow cab operation in October because of what the city said were exclusive contracts with payment processors. But the company continues to work with luxury sedan companies and drivers there.
Matthew W. Daus, former chairman of New York’s taxi commission and president of the International Association of Transportation Regulators, is a vocal critic. With support of 15 city governments that formed a task force called the Smartphone Apps Committee, he wrote guidelines for laws that, if passed by the cities, would outlaw Uber’s operations. Daus said Uber is a ‘‘rogue’’ app and that the company behaves in an unauthorized and destructive way. He pointed to Uber’s doubling of fares in New York after Hurricane Sandy. The company calls it surge pricing, a move the start-up said was necessary to get more drivers on storm-ravaged roads.
‘‘New Yorkers deserve an apology from Uber for price-gouging them,’’ Daus said.
There are dozens of other car-summoning apps. Lyft, from Zimride, allows ordinary citizens to give rides to others in their own cars in return for ‘‘donations.’’ SideCar offers a similar service. Like Uber, these companies are facing a $20,000 fine by the California Public Utilities Commission for operating without a license.
But Uber is generally adored by customers, who say they’ll pay extra to summon a ride without much wait, especially where cabs are scarce. In Apple’s App Store, Uber has hundreds of five-star ratings.
Cofounder Travis Kalanick, 36, frames it as David vs. Goliath, a start-up revolutionizing a creaky business. He once referred to Cambridge, Mass., as ‘‘home to Harvard, MIT, and some of the most anticompetitive, corrupt transportation laws in the country.’’ To him, regulators are trying to stifle innovation. He says they are more interested in protecting the taxi and limousine businesses than in helping consumers.
Regardless of the motivations of taxi companies and governments, their actions stand in the way of innovation, said Daniel Sperling, a professor at the University of California Davis who directs its Institute of Transportation Studies.
‘‘Transportation has been one of the least innovative sectors in our society,’’ he said. ‘‘When I look at these new mobility companies coming, where they’re using information and communication technology at a very high level, it’s long overdue and should be embraced.’’Source: bostonglobe.com
ontinuing with Uber’s recent legal woes, Attorney Gary Oswald, who represents San Francisco cab drivers, has filed a class-action lawsuit against the transportation startup due to unfair business competition and for violating California Statutory and city regulatory mandates. This news is especially troubling, as Uber is now facing legal trouble on its home turf. According to Oswald:
Uber is brazenly violating this statutory scheme without even bothering to offer a pretext for their overtly illegal actions just as they have in New York City, Chicago and elsewhere. By ignoring the law, Uber is putting at risk the livelihoods of hardworking men and women who drive safely and follow the rules.
Behind the lawsuit The basis of this lawsuit is that Uber’s drivers aren’t licensed as a limousine service or a taxi company. Oswald claims that by partnering with “unauthorized and unpermitted drivers” enables it to “unlawfully compete and take fares from law-abiding taxicab drivers.” It alleges that Uber acted to cover up its true nature in order to avoid all regulation governing taxicab companies and is apparently “intentionally interfering with the drivers’ relationship with the public through their illegal acts.”
Also at the center of this lawsuit is the unauthorized rates and what Oswald and the plaintiffs claim are illegal metering devices. According to the complaint, because consumers cannot pay by cash, this is in violation of San Francisco code. Furthermore, because the fares are measured through the Uber app, which “utilizes GPS enabled iphones [sic] in Black Cars or gypsy cars to determine distance and fares”, it violates SF code because the GPS devices are illegal meters for taxi service. This is the same argument
that the company faced when Massachusetts regulators ordered it to cease and desist.
The company is already facing an investigation by the California Public Utilities Commission and the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency over its operations and have been issued cease-and-desist orders.
In San Francisco, riders can choose to get picked up through one of the service’s many options, including its traditional black car service, an SUV, by a hybrid (UberX), or even through Uber Taxi — which interestingly enough, is not a private cab, but rather a normal one that just so happens to use the Uber platform.
How does the lawsuit define a taxi company? So why does Oswald and the plaintiffs think Uber is a “taxicab company”? According to the complaint, because Uber receives requests for taxi service from a customer, transmits (dispatches) the request for cab service to an independent partner in a Black Car that has entered into a service and revenue agreement with the company, and that the driver renders transportation services, that makes it a cab service.
The lawsuit says that the plaintiffs have “suffered unproductive taxi lease expenses, increased taxi fuel expenditures, and other related out-of-pocket costs” as a result of Uber. They are seeking to stop the company from operating in the city as well as an undisclosed award of damages.
Uber’s been here before Uber isn’t a stranger when it comes to legal challenges to its service. From the infamous Uber Amendment
being considered in Washington, DC to facing hostile crowds in Boston, Chicago, and in New York, the company has still remained focused on what founder, Travis Kalanick, says is industry corruption and that the company would continue to fight the good fight.
During his talk at Y Combinator’s Startup School last month, Kalanick said
that he’s focused on building an “urban logistics fabric” and that the older the industry being disrupted, the more it is protected by government or corruption, or both.
So far, the company has raised nearly $50 million
in funding from many of the tech industry’s prominent investors, including First Round Capital, Lowercase Capital, Jason Calacanis, Mashery’s Oren Michels, Shawn Fanning, Naval Ravikant, Benchmark Capital, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Goldman Sachs, CrunchFund, Gary Vaynerchuk, and Menlo Ventures.
This complaint was filed earlier this month in the Superior Court of California in San Francisco and is Case Action number CGC-12-526017.Source: thenextweb.com
Hailo Network Holdings was the first app-based company to get a taxi brokerage licence in Toronto. But it has come into conflict with established taxi brokerage Beck Taxi over the use of its app by Beck drivers.Handout/Hailo
In Washington, D.C., the taxi commission recently proposed new rules that would block Uber’s sedan business and the company was forced to shut down a trial taxi service in New York City in October.
In Toronto, the city’s Municipal Licensing and Standards division has investigated Uber — which arranges rides for its clients through a mobile app installed on both customer and driver smartphones — for failing to register as either a limousine or taxi brokerage.
Andrew Macdonald, general manager of Uber’s Toronto office, maintains that the company offers a technology service not covered by current bylaws.
“We’re in ongoing discussions with the city. I don’t think anyone wants to see this play out in the courts,” he said. “Our view is that we’re bringing a technology to the table, engaging and partnering with drivers who are already licensed for business in the City of Toronto.”
The city doesn’t share his view. In August it laid charges against Uber for breaches of the Municipal Code related to its failure to get a limousine brokerage licence. The case is due back in court in January.
Bruce Robertson, director of licensing for the City of Toronto, said his department is still investigating Uber’s taxi service, which launched in September and will take enforcement action related to that business as well.
“The city’s position is simply it’s just a different way of people contacting a service. So a licence is required, because they’re arranging service between the public and somebody,” Mr. Robertson said.
Clashes pitting entrepreneurs touting new technology against regulators and traditional taxi and limousine fleets are not unprecedented in the transportation world, said Joshua Gans, chair of technical innovation and entrepreneurship at the Rotman School of Management.
“You can go back all the way to the introduction of the automobile and we had similar issues way back then. All manner of people tried to put restrictions on cars,” he said. “This happens time and time again. It’s very hard to change these sorts of industries.”
“Uber have taken this view that they can’t just apply to the regulatory offices and say, ‘Can you change decades of protection of the taxicab industry?’ ” Mr. Gans said.
“Their strategy has been instead to basically enter, do stuff that looks like it’s within the letter of the law — although there might be some ambiguity — and the consumers will love it and so when the inevitable backlash comes from the taxi lobby, the politicians will listen because the consumers really want it.”
Other technology developers have taken a more conciliatory approach with both the taxi industry and the city.
Toronto-based Winston Inc. first tried to compete with a cab-hailing app of its own before deciding to use its technology to build “white-label” apps for existing taxi fleets, landing Toronto’s Diamond Taxicab Association Ltd. as its first major client.
Co-founder and chief executive Aidan Nulman said part of the reason for the switch was that he felt the new services weren’t improving things for the drivers, who pay a fee to Uber or other app companies used to get fares.
“You’re replacing part of the infrastructure with something that’s only marginally better,” he said.
U.K.-based Hailo Network Holdings Ltd. meanwhile, was the first app-based company to get a taxi brokerage licence in Toronto.
But it has come into conflict with established taxi brokerage Beck Taxi, which Hailo Network Canada Inc. president Justin Raymond alleges has been instructing drivers of Beck branded cabs not to use the app, a complaint he has brought to the city.
Kristine Hubbard is operations manager at Beck, which works with 3,500 drivers in 1,700 cars branded with its orange and green colours.
Asked whether she would demand Beck drivers not use Hailo, she said, “I think I would pose it as a question: ‘Are you making more money? Is this something that’s in your best interest?’”
“The allegation that we’ve been threatening or bullying is just so opposite of the truth.”
The city is investigating Hailo’s complaints about specific incidents but Mr. Robertson said, “We have not determined that there’s been any violation of a bylaw. Until we do, we won’t take action.”
He added that the bylaw is silent on the issue of drivers working for more than one brokerage.
Beck itself is embracing technology, with an in-house iPhone app it launched in May, allowing users to hail a taxi to their location using the GPS in their phone. Unlike Uber and Hailo, the calls go through Beck’s existing dispatch system in the order they are received and not to a driver’s smartphone.
“I’m not afraid of competition; I encourage competition,” Ms. Hubbard said. “No one wants to be the only game in town.”
Mr. Gans said Uber in particular is putting the issue of technology in the taxi and limousine industry on the agenda and “really pushing that.”
“The problem for Uber is that it’s also pushing that for any of its follower competitors as well,” he said. “But Uber are betting on the fact that they will be first, they will be known for what they’ve done and so they will have a better position in the market as a result.”
Neither Uber nor Hailo will share their user figures, but both say customer reception has been good, while Ms. Hubbard said 30,000 users have downloaded Beck’s app and the brokerage gets 800 orders a day on average.
As the jockeying for space on the home screen of every Torontonian’s smartphone continues, Mr. Robertson noted that none of the complaints the city has received have been from the public. Rather, they have all come from licensed participants with a stake in the industry.
“It’s a new way to obtain service but it’s still only a slice of the world out there that uses cabs that uses these apps,” he said.Source: financialpost.com

domain: news


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THE man behind one of Bristol's fastest-growing companies has signed a manufacturing and rights deal which is set to help him crack America.
Rob Law, who was famously told on Dragons' Den that his Trunki child's suitcase was worthless, is set to see the turnover of his firm increase massively as a result of the deal. Based in The Dings area of Bristol, Rob's firm, Magmatic, makes the ride-on cases which have become a huge seller in the UK. The manufacturing and distribution rights deal is with one of the USA's biggest toy companies, Melissa & Doug.
Magmatic has already sold more than 500,000 of its cases in more than 60 countries worldwide, but it is now well on its way to taking the US, South America, Canada and parts of the Caribbean by storm, with 15,000 cases already made and another 35,000 on pre-order.
The deal means that Trunki is now being manufactured in America as well as China.
The factory in New Jersey means that the company will be able to react a lot quicker to market demand in the Americas, as well as the Caribbean.
As part of the deal, Melissa & Doug will be manufacturing original pink and blue Trunki duo, Terrance and Trixie, along with a number of their friends, though characters like Tipu the tiger and Harley the ladybird have been rechristened Sunny and Ruby respectively.
Rob said: "Melissa & Doug is a formidable force in the US toy market and as soon as we saw how much they valued our products, we were confident Trunki would be safe in their hands.
"Our unique range of revolutionary, boredom-busting products are designed to help change the way families travel, and our vision is to creative innovative, affordable products that both engage and educate. It's fantastic to find an American company that understands and shares this vision with us, and we have no doubt that signing on the dotted line with Melissa & Doug will work wonders for increasing our global market share."
The range is already available in Macy's, one of America's biggest department stores, as well as 360 Toys R Us stores, and 15,000 independent stores across the US.
Rob added: "Magmatic has experienced fantastic growth in the past four years. It's long been our vision to make Trunki a truly global success and this deal brings us even closer to our customers on the other side of the Atlantic."
The new deal is another major milestone for Magmatic, which has experienced an increase in sales of more than 300 per cent in the first half of 2010.


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Retailers are hoping for an okay holiday season, amid rising online sales and less mall traffic than a year ago.
In the Eighties and Nineties, Holly Pressman was vice president of business events at Barneys New York.
Trends and Analysis
Key shopping trends from the Black Friday weekend.
The Retail Economist-Goldman Sachs Weekly Chain Store Sales Index fell 0.4 percent, but year-over-year sales were up 3.4 percent.
Designer and Luxury
A battle for luxury brands is unfolding in Northern New Jersey, pitting three shopping centers, including one that won’t open until 2017, against each other.
Attendance at the retail real estate fair was down 3.5 percent in the wake of the Paris terror attacks, but the mood was defiantly upbeat.
Mass and Off-Price
CEO Tony Spring stresses Bloomingdale’s won’t join the industry race to open outlets.
Charles von Abercron, who launched the Berlin-based beauty sampling-service, will stay on as a consultant.
Nordstrom will begin selling Madewell products in 15 doors and online.
Direct, Internet and Catalogue
Kylie Jenner unveiled her Kylie Lip Kit Monday, a collection of three liquid matte lipsticks that come with a corresponding liner.
Marketing and Consumer Behavior
Early promotions and exclusive offerings could have consumers completing their lists sooner than expected.


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Home improvement financing technology platform PowerPay on Wednesday (Feb. 23) announced it has integrated with home improvement contractor and remodeler sales software platform Leap, giving users access to all PowerPay financing products.
That access includes a no-dealer-fee program with 15-year terms, rates starting at 4.99%, a maximum loan of $100,000 and FICO scores from 500 to super prime, according to the announcement. PowerPay also has programs with 12-, 18- and 24-month terms, no interest and no payment promotions.
“It’s a tremendous opportunity for us to partner with Leap because we share many of the same great clients across the U.S. who have been asking for this integration,” PowerPay Co-founder David Haas said in the announcement. “Adding PowerPay to the Leap interface reduces the time from the application to completed loan by 30%.”
Home improvement contractors who use Leap’s platform can submit loan applications to PowerPay, streamlining the financing process for Leap and PowerPay customers.
“Now more than ever, homeowners expect their contractors to offer a simplified, streamlined sales process,” Leap CEO Patrick Fingles said in the announcement. “By partnering with PowerPay, we’re able to offer our customers a robust, best-in-class financing option that provides them with yet another way to exceed homeowner expectations and simplify the home contracting process.”
Meanwhile, Lowe’s fiscal 2021 fourth-quarter earnings, reported Wednesday (Feb. 23), reflect optimism about the home improvement sector and consumers’ willingness to continue doing it themselves, even as the restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic continue to ease.
Demand for tools and building materials and spending on do-it-yourself home projects has remained strong, with builders and handymen upgrading their toolkits as they push to finish the projects that were delayed as the coronavirus kept people quarantined for the better part of 2020.
The Home Depot reported its fourth quarter and fiscal 2021 full-year results Tuesday (Feb. 22), including a 10.7% growth in sales for Q4 to $35.7 billion and an 8.1% jump in comparable sales for the quarter.


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An online community site to bring together AC&Y fans from around the world. The idea is to build knowledge and fellowship by creating an online destination where like-minded people want to hang out.
What b&w printed issues are still available?Luke wrote: ↑Mon Aug 04, 2014 2:06 pmThe Society still has a sizable inventory of printed color News magazine issues (Vol. XIV thru Vol. XVII) which we'll again offer for sale again this Fall - Winter, 2014. There are only a handful of B&W printed issues (Vol. I thru Vol. XIII) which we'll also offer for sale. There is still a sizable demand for printed back issues. Once these printed stocks are gone or mostly depleted, we likely will begin posting our Society magazine back issues online, starting with the earlier B&W issues. Certain we can begin doing so this November or December. The proceeds from the remaining Company Store items including magazines will be utilized to fund specific Archive preservation and embellishment projects at UofA.
Our donation to the University of Akron Archive also includes a complete set of Society magazines, one of only four complete sets of printed issues. Another complete set will be donated to the DeGolyer Library at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. We have restricted the use of those magazines to Library viewing only, but likely will release them for online posting by those institutions at some point.
As you may have have noted, the past three issues or our News magazine are posted on the Society virtual website and are available to viewers as free downloads. That will be the policy going forward since we no longer maintain a membership requirement or collect dues.


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New Zealand has posted the third consecutive fall in the terms of trade.
Volumes of exports and imports are down, reflecting the slowing world economy, but prices of both are up.
The quarterly result caps off a year of dramatic changes in New Zealand’s trade balance.
On an annual basis, total import prices rose 19.2% for the 12 months to December, compared to a 1.4% decrease the previous year, and a 4.4% increase in 2006.
Export prices increase 21.4% for the year, compared to 7.3% the previous year and 8.3% in 2006.
In the most recent quarter, export volumes dropped 1.8%, with petroleum, and petrol products showing the largest drop at 17.5%.
Forestry products were another significant contributor with a 5.7% drop.
Export prices were up 2.5%, driven primarily by the decline in the New Zealand dollar, says Statistics New Zealand.
On the import side, volumes fell 4.8%, with passenger cars (27.1% and capital goods (7.7%) being the principle contributors.
Import prices, meanwhile, rose 3.4% - a rise which follows substantial previous quarterly increases (9.6% and 4.9% for the September and June quarters respectively).
Again, the drop in the New Zealand dollar is the main reason.
However a decline in petrol and related prices (down 22.4% for the quarter) has helped prevent the increase in import prices from being as bad as it could have been.
There have been substantial price rises in mechanical machinery, which is up 18.3% - the largest quarterly rise since the survey began in 1971.
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Federal regulators are looking into whether they should implement more regulations into the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure (CARD) Act of 2009 as a way to prevent banks from unfairly imposing more fees on consumers.
Citing its success of the initial CARD Act, regulators are proposing a new CARD Act to crack down on the banks and how they attempt to increase their profits with fees. While banks insist this will reduce the amount of available credit for its consumers, other groups such as the National Consumer Law Center, the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Center for Responsible Lending say the program does not go far enough.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is scheduled to release a study later this year covering the effects of the law and how it affects the availability of credit, as well as whether cardholders are still being hit by unfair practices. The biggest concern is that the CFPB is still looking into payday loans and debt collection practices and may not have the time to look into other violations in the event the new CARD Act takes place.
While the banks have not complained about the current CARD Act, they have objected strongly to any proposed additional regulations. According to the American Bankers Association, credit card rates have increased by 0.73 of a percentage point since late 2008, while consumer credit rates have sharply declined. Despite its criticism of the CARD Act, the NCLC says a lack of available credit may deter banks from allowing subprime cardholders from harmful borrowing.


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SAN DIEGO, CA--(Marketwired - Nov 4, 2014) - Ivera Medical announced that an independent lab has found that the dark blue IV-Pole Strips and DualCap products for male luer connectors made by Catheter Connections failed in a second test to disinfect all critical surfaces of male luer connectors when used as directed on Candida albicans. Previously, results were published from an independent lab that found these same products failed to reach a 4-log reduction disinfection level on seven of the twelve samples inoculated with this common fungus. In this study, the Catheter Connections product failed to reach disinfection levels on all twelve of the samples tested. In order to promote transparency on this critical issue, the study report including the test protocol and related information for these tests can be found at www.curos.com.
"This second test on Candida, a significant fungus of concern for hospitals, raises continuing questions over the use of the Catheter Connections' product," said Bob Rogers, CEO of Ivera Medical. "Hospitals and patients alike need to understand the potential impact, based on these independent lab studies. The point of disinfecting is to ensure all of the critical areas of a device, in this case the distal end of a male luer, are disinfected. The findings of the independent lab in both tests of this fungus clearly demonstrate that disinfection is not consistently happening with the Catheter Connections product. Prior knowledge of these failures coupled with continued use should raise significant liability concerns."
In the same test, the Curos Tips product reached a 4-log reduction on all 12 samples tested, just as it has done on the prior tests. "These results are a red flag," said Mr. Rogers. "Although there might be other reasons for the products failing to properly disinfect, one obvious line of questioning is the fact their design prevents alcohol from coming into contact with the lumen of the male luer. Since this distal portion of the male luer is the most likely surface to be touched by skin or bed sheets, people should understand that the disinfection they are expecting might be compromised."
About Ivera Medical
Ivera Medical Corporation, a certified Minority Business Enterprise (MBE), is focused on the design, development, manufacture, marketing and sale of products that help healthcare providers reduce facility-acquired patient infections. Curos, manufactured in Carlsbad, CA, is the first disinfecting cap to be marketed in the U.S. and has received FDA's 510(k) market clearance. For more information about Curos and Ivera Medical, visit the website at www.curos.com


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Ongoing progress between Mexican, U.S. and Canadian authorities to integrate border management policies and procedures has led U.S. Customs and Border Protection to consider proposing a tripartite conference, modeled on CBP's popular Trade Symposium, to update industry about their joint efforts, Deputy Commissioner Thomas Winkowski said Friday.
About 800 trade professionals attended the Trade Symposium Thursday and Friday in Washington, D.C., to hear officials outline their vision for customs reforms and trade simplification, as well as industry representatives that are advising the agency or participating in pilot programs to help shape programs and rules.
Winkowski, addressing the audience toward the end of the event, laid out the possibility of expanding the forum to Mexico and Canada to help get the cooperation of businesses there and exchange ideas for minimizing the regulatory burden on cross-border trade.
CBP is working closely with the Canada Border Services Agency to implement many aspects of the U.S.-Canada Beyond the Border initiative and with Mexican Customs on a joint 21st Century Border Management initiative, both of which are designed to make the border more efficient for commerce while strengthening security cooperation to thwart criminals and terrorists from exploiting the trade and transportation system. Efforts are underway to harmonize data required from the private sector and how it is shared among the customs administrations; pre-clear passengers and cargo before reaching the border; and standardize trusted trader and traveler programs in all three countries.
The United States, Canada and Mexico have each developed information technology systems enabling traders to file customs data once for dispersal throughout the government instead of filing separate, and often duplicate, documentation with multiple agencies that need to review entries for clearance purposes. The United States has set a December 2016 deadline to launch its International Trade Data System. Mexico's version of the "single window" system is already in operation, and Canada plans to go live with its system at the end of the year.
In a briefing with reporters, Winkowski, who served 11 months as acting commissioner until Thursday afternoon, when Gil Kerlikowske was confirmed by the Senate, said he has asked his staff to begin crafting some concepts for a North American-style trade symposium.
CBP's mission of securing and expediting trade can best be accomplished through cooperation with international partners, and the working relationship with Canadian and Mexican customs authorities has become especially tight in the past few years, Winkowski said.
"I think we are reaching a point here that we need to have a similar forum involving the customs administrations from the two countries as well as industry stakeholders," he said.
Although the NAFTA partners have made good progress on thinning red tape at the border for legitimate traders, "I think there's a lot more opportunity out there for us to really make the globe even smaller than it is today," he continued.
"In order to do that, I believe, you got to get buy-in from the stakeholders. They have to want to be part of this. And I think there's no better forum than something like this [the Trade Symposium]" for two-way learning, Winkowski said.
The deputy commissioner suggested the event could be sponsored by all three customs administrations, with the location rotating among the nations.
Winkowski also said CBP needs to consider holding the CBP Trade Symposium on the West Coast again. In May 2012, Customs brought the event to Long Beach to gain more participation from companies, especially small businesses, that balked at the cost of traveling to Washington. It held an East Coast Trade Symposium toward the end of the year.


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Renault's hot hatch flagship wants its Nurburgring record back, and will come with rev-matching, more power … and a stick!
RENAULT’S next-gen hot hatch hero will boast four-wheel steering and – joyously – the option of a manual gearbox as it takes the fight to the Ford Focus RS and VW Golf GTI.
Renault Sport insiders have confirmed that while a final gearbox decision is yet to be made, the fourth-gen Megane RS will likely have two options: a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic and a six-speed manual, the latter of which could include rev-matching technology.
“There is a future for both DCT and manual, but it’s a question of economics,” Renault Sport boss Patrice Ratti told Wheels. “With each project you need to look at whether it is feasible or not to have one, or two, gearboxes.”
It is believed both options are under development, with RS engineers revealing manual models will be faster than automatic ones due to their lighter kerb weight.
If two gearbox options are available, both will come to Australia according to Renault’s local boss, Justin Hocevar.
What’s more certain is that the Renault Megane RS will include the same segment-exclusive active four-wheel steering system as the new Megane GT that launches in Australia this week, to help improve low-speed maneuverability and high-speed stability. RS engineers confirmed the news to Wheels in Paris, but hinted the system would be available as an option.
There’ll also be more grunt than before, possibly more than 220kW from a retuned version of Renault’s 2.0-litre turbocharged four-pot, to ensure the Megane RS reclaims its crown as the fastest front-drive hot hatch around the Nurburgring. The most powerful version of today’s Megane, the RS 275 Trophy-R, produces 201kW.
Yet despite the commitment to more power, Renault Sport isn’t concerned with matching the outputs of its rivals.
“We’re thinking more in terms of performance than pure horsepower,” said Ratti. “You have to look at the torque curve, the weight, so it’s the performance that we’re targeting. In the end it’s how you accelerate, how you take corners, so it’s a global way of looking at the engine and gearbox.”
Weight reduction is a high priority for the fourth-gen Megane. Ratti said RS engineers were investigating the use of a range of new lightweight materials and composites, but wouldn’t be drawn on whether the new car would be lighter or heavier than its predecessor.
“You’ll see, you’ll see,” he said with a smile. “Just wait.”
The fact the new Megane will sit on a much larger platform and be offered solely as a five-door body style for the first time suggests it’ll be heavier.
As for timing, engineers told Wheels the Megane RS would be revealed in late 2017, possibly at September’s Frankfurt Motor Show.
And in good news for Aussies, we won't have to wait long after that for it to arrive Down Under. Renault is prioritising right-hand-drive markets once production starts, as the French brand strives to boost international sales. In 2015, Australia was the second biggest market for RS models worldwide.
“Unfortunately at Renault we’ve always struggled to bring our new cars at the same time in Europe as the rest of the world,” said Renault’s general manager for sales overseas, Jean Calcat. “At Renault Sport we’re a very small team of dedicated guys and our engineers tend to give priority to European markets.
“That’s not good, but due to the very good sales on record in Australia and Japan, we’re looking to try and give priority to our top-selling markets.”
In terms of rivals, 2017 will also mark the reveal of Hyundai’s first hot-hatch, the Hyundai i30N. However, Ratti isn’t concerned about a threat from Korea.
“Honestly, I discovered it in the newspapers the other day, so I have no idea about it,” he said. “You maybe know more about it than I do.”


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“VR glasses are a valuable commodity”, Li says. “You can be sure your customers will keep your branded VR glasses for a long time and remember your business when they use them”.
Valley Cottage, New York (PRWEB) October 10, 2016
With the introduction of Google Cardboard and growing hype from Samsung’s collaboration with Oculus, the growing trend of VR technology is undeniable.
“If we ask 10 random people what the latest technological trends are,” asked Vic Li, CEO of PakFactory, “at least one person will mention Virtual Reality and VR glasses”. As a leader in custom boxes and packaging industry, PakFactory is now helping businesses and consumers create their own customized VR glasses, made from paperboard or corrugated boards, similar to Google's Google Cardboard.
The demand for promotional material continues to change with the newest trends, and since Google released GOOGLE CARDBOARD®, for $15.00 on their marketplace, many manufacturers have quickly followed suit.
Now, the market for cardboard VR glasses has become a multi-million dollar industry, as manufacturers in China, India, and all over the world are continuously pushing out new similar products to meet the growing demand for VR glasses.
Creating one’s own customized, branded cardboard VR glasses used to involve negotiating a deal with a VR glasses manufacture, involving high MOQs (minimum order quantities) of 100,000 or more. With PakFactory’s new capabilities, individuals and businesses can now customize their own printed VR glasses starting at quantities as low as 1,000 units, making branded cardboard glasses an option for even small to medium-sized businesses, as well as for schools to use as part of their education program.
Here are some of the production dieline templates and concept drawings PakFactory has recently revealed and are making available to customers:
“Printing custom boxes and packaging for our clients at great prices has always been a focus of ours,” Li mentions, “...but being able to expand our custom packaging lineup and feature this new product, takes us one step closer to realizing our goal of truly becoming the ultimate packaging destination.”
PakFactory (http://pakfactory.com) currently provides a one-stop solution to custom boxes and packaging, providing full-service support with a team of knowledgeable ‘Product Specialists’ to ensure customers are able to build their ideal packaging, without prior technical know-hows.
“I first discovered how difficult it was to order packaging when a client of mine required custom printed boxes for her promotional event,” explains Li. “So many options exist, but there were no companies online that provided me with the full-service experience I needed to order these custom boxes.”
This is when Li decided to fill the hole in the packaging industry, creating PakFactory - the online solution for all custom packaging needs. PakFactory is now able to manufacture the full-range of packaging boxes, from folding cartons to corrugated boards, to even rigid boxes - a special type of non-fold-able gift box, made popular by Apple.
With the introduction of custom cardboard VR glasses, PakFactory continues to make steps in the right direction, leading the industry in custom packaging variety, options and customization. Without even reaching their website’s front-page yet, the news has already triggered thousands of inquiries through a landing page on their website. According to Google Trends data, the global interest of VR glasses has grown exponentially within the past few years.
“VR glasses are a valuable commodity,” Li says. “You can be sure your customers will keep your branded VR glasses for a long time and mostly importantly - they will be reminded of your brand each time they reach for them.”
You can find out more regarding the development of custom cardboard VR glasses by contacting a Product Specialist through the PakFactory website here: http://www.pakfactory.com.


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Loudoun County, VA (March 5, 2022) – The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office is investigating an armed robbery of a Sterling beauty supply store that occurred this afternoon in the 21000 block of Atlantic Boulevard.
Around 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, one unknown suspect entered the store and began placing merchandise into a bag. When confronted by the clerk, the suspect displayed a firearm. The male then left the store with several items and fled the area.
The suspect is described as a Black male wearing a black jacket with a large white Nike logo on the back, a grey hooded sweatshirt, black pants, black shoes with white soles, and a light blue, surgical mask. The suspect was seen leaving the area in what appeared to be an older model Honda Accord with Virginia temporary license plates.
Anyone with any information regarding the possible identity of the suspect is asked to contact Detective K. Mitchell at 703-777-1021. You may also submit a tip through the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office app. The Loudoun Sheriff app is available on the iTunes App Store and Google Play.


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Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA) has issued a recall for nearly 3000 trucks due to the risk of a fuel leak sparking a fire.
The recall was issued in December 2021 and affects 2,843 Western Star and Freightliner vehicles.
According to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recall documents, in affected vehicles “the fuel tubes between the fuel rail and the injector for cylinders 4, 5 and 6 may be susceptible to cracking, resulting in a high-pressure fuel leak … A high pressure fuel leak in the presence of an ignition source may increase the risk of a fire.”
The following makes and models are affected by the recall:
- 2019-2021 FCCC XCP Chassis vehicles
- 2019-2022 Freightliner 114SD
- 2020-2022 Western Star 4700
- 2020 Western Star WJ121
- 2021 Western Star WF110
- 2021-2022 Western Star 49X
- 2021-2022 Freightliner Cascadia P4
- 2022 Western Star 47X
DTNA will notify owners of the recall on February 10, 2022.
Dealers will replace the fuel tubes and install vibration isolator for free as a remedy.
Truck owners with questions about the recall can reach DTNA customer service at 800- 547-0712. Reference recall number FL-915.


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Judging by Wednesday morning’s report from Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) on November sales in Europe, the continent’s buyers don’t want passenger cars any more than their American counterparts. Passenger car sales dropped 9.3% year over year, and total vehicle sales were down 5.4% compared with November 2017.
Sport utility vehicle sales jumped 18% year over year, driven by a gain of 39% in Ecosport sales (to 9,600 units). Ecosport’s year-to-date sales are up 105% for the first 11 months of the year and up 83% compared with November 2017 sales.
For the year to date, Ford has sold 259,200 SUVs in Europe, a new annual record, with the month of December still to be completed.
Ford noted that sales in 20 European Union countries totaled 102,500 units in November, representing a market share of 7.6%, up by 0.1 point year over year, and the best November since 2015. For the year to date, Ford’s market share in the 20 countries is down 0.1 points to 7.6%.
The European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) will release its data on European Union auto registrations (aka, sales) on Friday. In October, Ford’s market share in 27 EU countries was 7.1%, up from 6.6% in October 2017 but down 0.7 points month over month. Ford includes commercial vehicles in its own reports, something that the ACEA tracks separately.
Ford’s top country market in November was Germany, with sales of 27,900 units and a 9% market share. For the year to date, Britain is Ford’s top market, with sales volume of 355,900 and market share of 13.7%, down 0.1 points year over year, but still the best for the year to date. Ireland, with 13%, is Ford’s November market share leader.
Commercial vehicle sales hit a 25-year high and Ford remains the top commercial vehicle brand in Europe, with market share of 13.8% and volume sales of 31,700 units, a year-over-year gain of 4.9%.
For more details on which countries are included and how sales were divided among various models, see’s Ford’s sales report for November.


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Lays releases grilled cheese and tomato flavored chips
Lays has turned a classic American comfort food combination into a chip.
On Oct. 21, the company will begin selling 'Grilled Cheese & Tomato Soup' chips.
People magazine says the popular chip brand hopes to bring, "a dynamic combination of tomato taste and buttery cheese with underlying creamy and toasted notes" to their version of "one of America's favorite homemade meals."
Grilled Cheese & Tomato Soup chips are a limited edition and will be available for $3.49 at major grocery stores.
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AmazonJun 18, 2013 12:00 PM By Multichannel Merchant Staff
Acquity Group has found that business-to-business buyers are willing to stray from their current supplier and make purchases from Amazon Supply not just based on price, but also based on convenience and overall online experience.
AmazonJun 18, 2013 11:05 AM By Daniela Forte
While many businesses small and large are talking about and worrying about the Marketplace Fairness Act (MFA), what do you really know about it?
AmazonJun 17, 2013 3:13 PM By Tim Parry
Even if you don’t sell products geared toward the Black Friday-Cyber Monday crowd, you need to have your ecommerce site in top shape ahead of the holiday rush. Shoppers who come to Party Supplies Delivered come ready to buy, and that leads to its highest conversion rates of the year.
AmazonJun 10, 2013 12:10 PM By Erin Lynch
No matter how prepared your company is when engaging with customers through social media sites there is bound to be a public misstep. It can be a criticism from an unhappy customer or an error made by your social media team but in order to save face, it comes down to how you handle it.
AmazonJun 05, 2013 2:12 PM By Erin Lynch
Retailers including Amazon, American Greetings, and Ralph Lauren earned spots on the 2013 Online Trust Alliance Honor Roll report for their high scores in privacy, security, and consumer protection on their ecommerce sites.
AmazonJun 05, 2013 10:55 AM By Erin Lynch
Amazon has officially launched Amazon.in in India, making it the tenth marketplace for the global ecommerce company.
AmazonJun 05, 2013 10:16 AM By Erin Lynch
Amazon launched it’s latest marketplace in India this week, making it the 10th marketplace for the ecommerce goliath. In this infographic from Amazon, you will get a glimpse into the countries it serves, how many fulfillment centers it has worldwide, and it’s third-party seller growth.
AmazonJun 04, 2013 10:54 AM By Erin Lynch
A new study by Acquity Group has revealed that Gen Y B2B buyers are more likely to shop online than their older counterparts. The study also found that 40% of buyers purchase frequently from Amazon Supply.
AmazonMay 31, 2013 10:48 AM By Erin Lynch
When it comes to getting into the realm of same-day shipping it’s not about building a warehouse in every state or waiting to see what Amazon does. According to Shutl CEO and founder Tom Allason, it’s all about focusing on your brick-and-mortar store.
AmazonMay 08, 2013 6:49 PM By Erin Lynch
The business-to-business community seems to struggle a bit when it comes to captivating their audience through social media compared to the business-to-consumer community. Here are 5 tips on jump starting your social media strategy.


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Articles for Tag: "shoes"
A recent poll finds that driving in flip-flops can be hazardous to your health. Here’s what you need to know.
Summertime means sandals and flip-flops, but experts say wearing flimsy footwear can wreak havoc on your feet.
Surprising new research shows the pros and cons of running barefoot versus with shoes. Find out which is better.


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In an attempt to boost tourism and drive visitor numbers to the emirate, Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority has unveiled a new brand identity.
The fresh-look logo aims to reposition the destination in line with its vision and revised strategy with the rebrand set to drive economic growth and present Ras Al Khaimah as a premier tourism destination, showcasing the new logo via creative marketing campaigns to raise awareness about the emirate’s new identity and positioning.
Highlighting Ras Al Khaimah’s key strengths, the rebrand focuses on the emirate’s natural assets, luxurious indulgence, range of activities for different types of travellers, history and culture, and authentic Arabian heritage offering. With the aim to attract one million vistors by the end of 2018, the emirate plans to further diversify its world-class hotel portfolio, expand its routes, restore historical sites and enhance its digital platforms.
The new Ras Al Khaimah emblem is a representation of the emirate’s most iconic landmark: the Watch Tower. This symbol of heritage, rendered in a contemporary style, is immediately recognisable. Creating an instant connection between the brand and its visitors, the logo also aims to pay homage to Ras Al Khaimah’s enduring history.
Haitham Mattar, CEO of Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority said: “This is a groundbreaking move for us. Our new branding strategy and logo reflect the evolution of the destination, its vision for the future, as well as the authenticity which Ras Al Khaimah offers. It is our priority to enhance the destination and demonstrate its rich Arabian culture, heritage and traditions to a global audience.”
The emirate will leverage its new brand by prioritising sustainable tourism, destination development, capacity building and partnerships with public and private companies.


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Last month, more than 2,500 small business owners from across the country – including nearly 90 from the Garden State – gathered in Washington, D.C., for the 2022 Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Summit. The event, the largest gathering of its kind in the country, was held from July 19-20, bringing small business owners together with politicians, business leaders, entrepreneurs, celebrities, athletes and others.
“It is this type of interaction that allows us to bring the real stories from Main Street to the halls of the Senate so that Democrats and Republicans alike can hear about their fellow Americans,” U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, a Democrat from New Jersey who participated in the event and met with Garden State small business owners, told NJBIZ. “It is through hearing and then sharing these personal accounts that we are able to provide the assistance needed for small businesses to not only recover, but to thrive.”
Over the past decade, Goldman Sachs’ 10,000 Small Businesses has invested $750 million to support small businesses across the country, reaching more than 12,800 small business owners across all 50 states. The alumni collectively represent over $17.3 billion in revenues and employ 245,000 people.
Small business owners took advantage of the opportunity to meet with over 400 government officials to advocate for solutions to the unprecedented challenges they face in the fallout from the pandemic. A survey released ahead of the Summit found that 93% fear a recession within the next year and 89% reported that challenges, such as inflation, supply chain disruptions and labor shortages, continue to take a toll on their businesses.
“Entrepreneurs everywhere are facing a bumpy economic road ahead even as they have overcome the obstacles of the last few years,” said David Solomon, chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs. “So, it’s important that we bring together leaders from the private and public sector who can work together to support the source of economic vitality in America: our small businesses.”
In addition to Solomon, featured speakers included: George W. Bush, Warren Buffett, Michael Bloomberg, Gwyneth Paltrow, Chris Paul, Ryan Reynolds, and a variety of newsmakers and business leaders, such as Jackie Reses, chief executive officer of Post House Capital and chair of the Economic Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. Reses is also the co-author of Self-Made Boss and a native of Atlantic City.
“Total Jersey girl,” Reses told NJBIZ.
Reses, a Goldman Sachs alum who also held a prominent role at payment systems provider Square, said she relishes the opportunity to share her knowledge and advice with small business owners in settings such as the Summit because there are few communities for small business owners to exchange insights.
“So, when business owners can share tips, offer advice, provide relationships, it’s an incredibly powerful format because there aren’t that many of them across the country where you can get pragmatic feedback for small business owners that’s relevant to you,” she said.
Reses described the mood at the two-day event as fantastic and complimented Goldman Sachs for providing a forum for American small business entrepreneurs. “This group is as passionate as it gets,” she said. “So, even though they’re faced with challenges in hiring employees, rising costs for inventory and supplies, and more volatility around supply chains, these are people who are pursuing what they love. And they are going for it.”
Many of the questions and topics brought up to Reses centered on the themes she covered in her book, including hiring and staffing, managing cash flow, marketing and obtaining credit.
“Those are the topics right now that are near and dear to people’s hearts,” she explained.
Those are certainly the types of challenges that Geraldine Keogh encounters in her businesses. Keogh is the co-owner of the Dessert Ladies in Stirling and Biens Chocolate Centerpieces in Denville. She owns both businesses with her daughter, Lindsay.
Keogh, a member of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program, lost 70% of her revenues virtually overnight in March 2020 as events and corporate catering were washed out by COVID-19.
“We lost one contract after the next. And it was pretty scary,” Keogh told NJBIZ. “It all happened within a six-hour period.”
More info for small businesses
Her business was able to survive and she even managed to expand nationally during the pandemic. Keogh created a chocolate centerpiece that could be shipped across the country. She was awarded five patents and set up a new manufacturing plant in Denville to handle contracts with such companies as 1-800-Flowers.com Inc., Neiman Marcus, Lord & Taylor, Macy’s and others.
Despite being able to expand during the pandemic, Keogh is facing the same challenges and headwinds as other business owners, and in some cases, encountering it on a different scale than before. She cited labor issues, especially when competing with big box stores and larger competitors, child care and supply chain as her business’ main hurdles.
“So that’s why this Small Business Summit in D.C. has been such a timely, fantastic opportunity for us to come down and talk to these lawmakers,” said Keogh. “And just be able to share with them the concerns and the issues that we’re having.”
Keogh said the Summit offered the chance to feel like she and fellow small business owners had a seat at the table. “Millions of small business owners here in New Jersey and across America are still facing significant challenges today,” she said.
Chief among the asks of the small business owners gathered in the nation’s capital was a call for Congress to reauthorize the Small Business Administration so it can expand and modernize its systems and processes. “We need the SBA to work at the speed of business,” said Keogh. “It currently works at the speed of government.”
Echoing the concerns Reses heard from small business owners, Keogh said a major focus of discussion was about accessing capital because the cost of borrowing money and the criteria for lending are getting tighter.
Keogh made special mention of the time and attention given to the New Jersey small business owners by Menendez. “Sen. Menendez showed up in person and was extraordinarily patient and kind,” Keogh said. “He took notes and addressed all of our concerns.”
The Small Business Summit was an incredible opportunity to meet with small business owners from across New Jersey representing a wide range of industries and services.
— U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez
“Having the ability to speak with and hear directly from all of them about the challenges they continue to face as we continue to move out of the pandemic, is essential to how we support our small businesses and ensure that they have all of the tools possible to continue to be the backbone of our economy,” Menendez continued.
Menendez said he plans to continue dialogue with the small business owners that he met during the Summit. “When we have the opportunity to engage and hear their personal triumphs and struggles, we are best able to deliver for them in Washington,” he said.
“If someone takes away one tip that’s a gem that helps them build their business, a day like that is worth it,” said Reses. “And I suspect business owners will find valuable relationships that they maintain over a long time. They’ll get incredible advice that gives them insight into how to go build their business, and they’ll probably get some inspiration.”
Keogh said she was inspired by the entire event, especially the diverse group of speakers. She said it offered an opportunity to think and hear about other people’s journeys. “It just gave a chance to sit back and see scalability, see scope, and resilience,” said Keogh. “And it was like a day off from your life with meaning.”
Reses said such forums are helpful and remind current and would-be small business owners that despite the current series of challenges, the greatest businesses are often built in the most tumultuous times.
“Some of the most incredible companies in the world have been born out of the worst economic times,” said Reses. “And if you have a passion and you have a plan, go for it. Your own experiences at a local level can transcend the experience of any economic climate.”


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Javier Cobaleda joins Vidoomy as the new Head of Sales in Madrid
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MADRID, March 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Javier Cobaleda joins the growing team of national sales as Head of Sales Madrid. In his new role, Javier will have the responsibility of designing the sales growth strategy for the Spanish market.
At Vidoomy, Javier will be part of the company with the highest revenue growth in the industry, having reached a growth over 62% of its total revenue in the past year 2020. Javier Cobaleda will lead the sales team in Madrid to take Vidoomy to the next level, and thus achieving its most demanding objectives.
Vidoomy's own technology is directly implemented in more than 2500 global sites, offering target audiences to its advertisers for their video advertising campaigns. Vidoomy is able to offer competitive KPIs, maximizing its advertisers' ROI and achieving a high percentage of visualization in its campaigns, which translates to a very high engagement among its premium audiences.
With the recent opening of the fastest-growing markets around the world, Vidoomy counts already with presence in over 20 digital markets out of its national borders. The essential labour of its sales team has allowed Vidoomy to develop a wide network of advertisers, among which are the main players in the digital advertising space.
Javier Cobaleda will take on the responsibility of developing and coordinating growth opportunities in the company, in order to reach Vidoomy's sales objectives for the year. Together with his knowledge of the industry and his experience in digital marketing companies like Invibes Advertising, where he took on strategic and sales management tasks, or Enfemenino, where he built relationships with the main clients in the Spanish market, Javier Cobaleda will contribute to the expansion of this area in the company. In Vidoomy, he will be responsible for maximizing the sales growth and continue evolving as a digital sales professional.
"It is a pleasure to be part of a company with a technological DNA, with adaptability to change, and a team that works towards giving the best results to advertisers. I'm convinced that Vidoomy is going to be a video advertising referent in Spain" says Javier about her recent arrival to Vidoomy's team.
"Javier Cobaleda constitutes a key role as Head of Sales in our HQ in Madrid. Together with the rest of the sales team and a unique technology, Vidoomy's sales growth forecast for the following years appears to be exponential" says Antonio Simarro, VP Global Sales in Vidoomy.
With Javier Cobaleda, Vidoomy takes a step forward towards achieving its revenue objectives and its sales strategy, each day getting closer to its clients worldwide.
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Like Call of Duty: Warzone, Activision’s Call of Duty Mobile is getting in the spooky spirit with its own Halloween events. The game’s Halloween events are available right now, and they seem pretty great.
First off, a new game mode called “Pumpkin Confirmed” is available. This is the standard Kill Confirmed mode, but the twist is that players must collect jack-o-lanterns instead of dog tags. An eerie new map variant, Halloween Standoff, has also been added to the mix for the event.
Finally, zombies are coming to the battle royale mode on October 30 to mix up the gameplay in a scary way. You can check out a teaser for the Halloween events below.
Call of Duty Mobile recently celebrated its first anniversary with a gigantic update that represents the biggest patch for the game to date. To further speak to the game’s successful first year, Activision released a series of statistics about the game.
Call of Duty Mobile has reached more than 300 million downloads since launch in October 2019. On Android alone, the game reached 850 million hours of playtime during a “peak month” globally.
The most popular gun in the game is the AK-47, and it’s been used 11.4 billion times across all modes. Another notable number for the first year is 23, which is the number of multiplayer maps in the game currently, which is up from 11 at launch. There are also now 182 playable characters in Call of Duty Mobile, including Russell Adler from Black Ops Cold War.
Here are some other first-year stats from Call of Duty: Mobile.
Top 3 Primary Weapons Used In All Modes:
- AK-47 assault rifle – used 11.4 billion times
- RUS-79U SMG – used 11.1 billion times
- DL Q33 sniper rifle – used 9 billion times
Top 3 Scorestreaks Used (non-default):
- Predator Missile – used 2 billion times
- Sentry Gun – used 1.5 billion times
- Shock RC – used 1.3 billion times
Top 3 Battle Royale Classes Used:
- Mechanic – used 1.4 billion times
- Scout – used 1 billion times
- Media – used 936 million times
Top 3 Primary Weapons Used In Ranked MP Mode:
- PDW 57 SMG – used 958 million times
- RUS-79U SMG – used 834 million times
- DL Q33 sniper rifle – used 793 million times
Top 3 Operator Skills Used (non-default):
- Sparrow – used 4.7 billion times
- Gravity Spikes – used 4.3 billion times
- H.I.V.E. – used 3.4 billion times


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Obsidian Entertainment's survival game Grounded has received a new trailer on the Microsoft and Bethesda Store, confirming that it will finally leave Early Access and enter its full release in September 2022.
The game, which originally launched in Early Access in 2020, has had a long road to full release, but it looks like the community's patience is about to pay off.
A new trailer for Grounded outlines more details on what to expect in the full release. Now the "full backyard" is here with features like basic defense, wild biomes, crafting, huge bosses, and upgraded armor that are screaming.
On top of that, it was mentioned that the "full story" will also come with launch. It is also stated in the trailer that there are 10 million players, so the population would need to be healthy to play Xbox Game Pass.
Grounded has you play as teenagers cowering in their backyard, battling all kinds of bugs and huge creatures, as you fight for your survival. Think Honey I Shrunk the Kids and Ark: Survival Evolved and you're in the right ballpark.
No specific date was announced as past "September," but that's not too much for players to hope for. It looks like it's going to bring a lot of content that isn't in the game yet, so mark your calendars... if not a bit in general.


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LG has announced a new OLED TV panel with a vibrating panel in place of dedicated speakers.
The South Korean company has been demonstrating its new panel technology at the K-Display 2022 event in Seoul.
You might think that the sheer size of this 97-inch LG 4K panel is its most noteworthy attribute, and it is indeed the biggest OLED TV panel ever made. However, we’ve seen LG using this vast panel before in the brilliant LG OLED C2.
The real point of interest here is LG’s Film CSO (Cinematic Sound OLED) technology, which enables the TV screen itself to output sound by vibrating. In this way, a whole 5.1 channel sound system is able to be embedded in the display for “a cinematic level of immersion” without the need for a dedicated speaker system.
We’ve seen Sony attempt something similar to this in its own OLED TVs in recent years. The Japanese company’s Acoustic Surface Audio technology again turns the TV display itself into a giant vibrating speaker, pushing sound directly out to your ears from the front of the TV rather than from the back or sides.
It remains to be seen how LG’s solution compares. One thing we do know is that it’s going to look spectacular. LG announced its new EX panel back in December, with a combination of deuterium compounds and machine learning algorithms enabling a 30 percent boost in brightness and more accurate colour and detail.
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The post New LG OLED TV panel replaces speakers with vibrating screen appeared first on Trusted Reviews.


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Apple is advertising for a software engineer to help take its iPhone Maps app to "the next level" - and perhaps to help Cupertino gain independence from its latest smartphone competitor, Google. Two identical job postings - one filed in mid-October and another last week (and spotted by MacRumors) - seek an engineer for the " …
Ooh, is that the shoe on the other foot? maybe now you know how all the app store developers feel. I hope Google pulls the rug out from under them, if only to teach them a lesson.
How do they hope to get the same coverage?
Google has spent untold millions on it's mapping. How does Apple think it can match it at least in the short term?
Are we about to see US centric mapping on the iPhone with crap coverage elsewhere?
So will they total ban it?
Will Apple totally nix the ability to install Google Maps? Sort of control freak thing Apple would go and do.
This will be yet another example of Apple deciding what I can and cannot do with my expensive handset. How much longer will they be able to do this before the tide turns?
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