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Apple’s future looks like it’s on pretty solid ground.
The company reported third-quarter earnings today (its fiscal year ends in September) that came in at the top of its guidance, generating $45.4 billion in revenue, a gain of 7% over the same quarter last year. Apple had said it expected to generate between $43.5 billion and $45.5 billion this quarter, with analysts expecting about the same.
Wall Street responded positively to the results and guidance for the fourth quarter, with shares rising roughly 5% in after-hours trading at the time of publishing. Apple said it expects revenue of between $49 billion and $52 billion for the current quarter, meaning even the low-end of expectations would far surpass the $46.8 billion it generated in the fourth quarter last year.
Apple chief financial officer Luca Maestri also reminded those listening to the call that Apple has a ton of cash to play around with: It now has $261.5 billion—up $4.7 billion over last quarter—in cash and equivalents, the majority of which resides outside the US.
This quarter is traditionally a slow period for the company, as it gears up for its new product launches in the fall. On recent earnings calls, CEO Tim Cook has complained that speculation about Apple’s plans for a premium tenth-anniversary iPhone in September may be causing potential iPhone buyers to hold off from buying a phone from its existing offerings. Apple doesn’t seem to be helping itself out with this though, more or less confirming the shape and capacities of its next iPhone when it seemingly mistakenly uploaded the code for it on Friday.
But that didn’t matter much for Apple this past quarter. The company posted a strong revenue gain over last year, even as iPhone sales accounted for the smallest percentage of Apple’s total revenue than they have in the preceding 12 quarters—roughly 55%, compared with closer to 70% in some recent quarters. This means the company is finding new sources of revenue, which could set it up nicely for future quarters like this where there aren’t a lot of new products.
The biggest winner was the company’s services business, which generated $7 billion in the quarter, up nearly 22% from a year earlier. This business line includes Apple’s subscription services, such as Apple Music, and iCloud storage, as well as apps, games, and any fees associated with Apple Pay and its AppleCare protection service.
This business has proven particularly resistant to the generally cyclical nature of Apple’s sales, meaning that customers are enjoying downloading new apps and games, or paying for Apple’s subscriptions—essentially enjoying what Apple has to offer beyond hardware—even when they’re not buying a new device. In other words: Apple is preparing for a future where individual iPhone sales don’t matter.
Its services business has been a driver in returning Apple to growth, after spending most of 2016 bringing in less than it did a year earlier. Cook said on the earnings call that its services business is now the size of a Fortune 100 company.
Part of the slowdown last year was due to Apple’s hardware feeling a bit stagnated. But new products, including its wireless AirPods headphones, the impressive new iPad Pro, and new MacBook laptops seem to be helping turn around the company’s non-iPhone revenue.
The new iPads have moved that product line in the right direction, generating roughly $5 billion this quarter, up nearly 2% over last year. Apple is dominating the high-end tablet market that it effectively started in 2010.
Cook said sales of the Apple Watch were up over 50% over the same time last year, but the company still doesn’t break out how many watches it sells, or their revenue. Cook added that AirPods are selling faster than the company can make them. Both products sit in the “Other products” business line—where Apple puts all its accessories and smaller businesses, including Beats headphones and the near-dead iPod.
China, with its burgeoning middle class, is a potentially massive growth area for Apple. It’s even kowtowing to local government regulations in China in a bid to grow there. But business has been slowing in the area: While Apple achieved over 13% growth in the Americas, its Chinese business contracted by nearly 10% from the same quarter last year. Some good news, though: Maestri said on the call that emerging markets outside of Greater China were up 19% over the same quarter a year earlier.


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|By Business Wire||
|April 2, 2014 09:05 AM EDT||
DataCore, a leader in software-defined storage, today announced that Menora Foods, Australia’s leading food marketing and distribution business, has successfully implemented DataCore’s SANsymphony-V storage virtualization platform. Backed by DataCore, Menora Foods software-defined storage architecture can now ensure that their critical business applications, including the Menora-developed ERP system, the company’s warehousing systems, distribution systems and more, remain available and don’t interrupt business productivity.
“DataCore’s SANsymphony-V storage virtualization platform protects and mirrors all of our vital storage and VMs across our campus-wide sites and has made our lives far easier,” explained Vikash Reddy, IT Manager at Menora Foods. “Now we can sleep peacefully without the worry of our systems failing as SANsymphony-V provides the high availability and business continuity results we were seeking.”
Menora Foods owns and distributes some of Australia’s favorite and most trusted brands. The leading food marketing and distribution company imports food products from many different countries and distributes them to major retail supermarket chains. Without SANsymphony-V, Menora Foods risked physical disk failure. Prior to DataCore, if a server went down a day or two would be spent trying to restore the primary branch – and secondary branches would consequently fail. The result were damaging to the company’s overhead in production and cost. All of Menora Foods’ data and VMs are now being supported by SANsymphony-V storage.
“With DataCore’s virtualized storage platform, we noticed an increase in performance on the report coming out of our ERP system. When the ERP system was on physical storage, some of the reports were noticeably slow to generate,” explained Vikash. “However, with DataCore in place there has been around a 30% increase in speed and time. The performance has definitely increased and DataCore was the difference.”
DataCore’s SANsymphony-V has increased Menora Foods’ uptime to 99.999%. Two servers are now implemented on DataCore’s virtualization platform and synchronously mirrored resulting in all systems being accessible and operational, eliminating downtime if one server room powered off. According to Menora Foods, the cost savings on IBM and EMC hardware with SANsymphony-V was between $60,000 and $100,000. Menora Foods will continue to cut costs in the future due to the company’s ability to utilize DataCore on existing hardware without upgrading to new models every three to five years, as compared to a traditional SAN vendor.
“As the largest food distributor in Australia, Menora Foods needs to ensure that their critical business applications are always on and running at peak performance,” said Steve Houck, COO at DataCore. “By leveraging DataCore’s storage virtualization platform, Menora Foods has noticeably increased application uptime and performance, all while reducing their storage related costs.”
About Menora Foods
Menora Foods has a proud history spanning over 45 years. Beginning in Melbourne as a small specialty food wholesaler, Menora Foods has now grown to become a national FMCG leader and one of the most progressive and innovative food marketing and distribution companies in Australia. Menora Foods' past, present and future are linked by a strong family culture and a steadfast commitment to growth, by exceeding our customers’ expectations and through strong partnerships with our suppliers. It is through the dedication, skills and ambition of our team that we have and will continue to flourish.
About DataCore Software
DataCore is a leader in software-defined storage. The company’s storage virtualization software empowers organizations to seamlessly manage and scale their data storage architectures, delivering massive performance gains at a fraction of the cost of solutions offered by legacy storage hardware vendors. Backed by 10,000 customer sites around the world, DataCore’s adaptive and self-learning and healing technology takes the pain out of manual processes and helps deliver on the promise of the new software defined data center through its hardware agnostic architecture. Visit http://www.datacore.com or call (877) 780-5111 for more information.
DataCore, the DataCore logo and SANsymphony are trademarks or registered trademarks of DataCore Software Corporation. Other DataCore product or service names or logos referenced herein are trademarks of DataCore Software Corporation. All other products, services and company names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.
For organizations that have amassed large sums of software complexity, taking a microservices approach is the first step toward DevOps and continuous improvement / development. Integrating system-level analysis with microservices makes it easier to change and add functionality to applications at any time without the increase of risk. Before you start big transformation projects or a cloud migration, make sure these changes won’t take down your entire organization.
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domain: news


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The Hyundai Motor Co. logo is displayed on a Sonata hybrid vehicle at a dealership in Seoul, South Korea, on Wednesday, July 25, 2012. South Korea's economy grew at the slowest pace in almost three years as Europe's sovereign debt crisis capped demand for exports and weakened confidence. Photographer: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg
The lowering of gas-mileage ratings on some Hyundai and Kia models also could lower their resale values, experts said Monday.
While Hyundai and Kia are being careful to say they are compensating owners for higher-than-expected fuel costs for miles driven on the vehicles - giving debit cards for the difference between the original and revised gas-mileage estimates - neither is yet addressing any depreciation impact. But Hyundai spokesman Jim Trainor says, "The issue is top of mind with us, and we will monitor it very carefully."
The Environmental Protection Agency disclosed last week ...


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Play’n GO secures approval to operate in Connecticut
Play’n GO has continued its momentum in North America by landing a license to supply its portfolio of industry-leading content to the US state of Connecticut.
The license is the fourth obtained by the Swedish gaming giants in the USA in the past few months following New Jersey, Michigan and West Virginia.
Coupled with being one of the first suppliers to be licensed to supply online slot games in the Canadian province of Ontario in 2022, in addition to a growing North American-based team, it’s clear that the momentum is with Play’n GO in North America.
Despite only being live with a few operators in the USA so soon after acquiring licenses, Play’n GO games, including Book of Dead, are poised to break into the top 10 most popular titles in all of North America already.
Magnus Olsson, Chief Commercial Officer for Play’n GO, added: “Gaining further market access to US iGaming States has been an important goal of the company so it’s fantastic to be able to add Connecticut to our US push.
“Online gaming operators in the US are increasingly looking at retention strategies to mitigate against costly acquisition – especially in expensive media markets like the New Jersey, New York and Connecticut tri-state area. Being able to bring Play’n GO games to Connecticut – the best content in the industry for retention – will be music to the ears of operators and their players.”
“Our strategy is to be the best in every regulated market in the world. Our new license in Connecticut joins the more than 25 other regulated markets we are already thriving in, and we can’t wait to get started.”
Play’n GO is set to release more than 50 online slot titles in 2023 and is active in more than 25 regulated jurisdictions worldwide, including Ontario, New Jersey, Michigan and West Virginia in North America.


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The rewards of being an early adopter can be huge – it’s not called ‘first mover advantage’ for nothing – but so can the risks of adopting unproven technology. Those risks can be greater still for reseller partners that choose to bring new technologies to market.
Emerging technologies are often pioneered by vendors who themselves are brand new, and lack the support services common with more mature organisations. Then there are the problems of a lack of skills, marketing support, proven use cases, reference sites, and the general question of whether the new technology can actually do what it says on the tin.
But these risks have not dissuaded a brave cohort of channel partners from taking on the challenge; some have even made a habit of it. And for those that get it right, the benefits can make all that risk worthwhile.
ASI Solutions: Virtual reality
ASI Solutions might be more than 30 years old, but it is more than willing to take a plunge into emerging technologies. In 2015, ASI became Australia’s sole distributor for the zSpace immersive virtual reality platform, which uses a special computer and lightweight glasses to present images that appear to float above the monitor.
ASI initially pitched zSpace to the education sector, but the reseller’s interactive technologies channel manager, Jacqueline Bergin, says inquiries are now coming in from furniture makers through to transport companies, and the company has sold 30 units into the defence sector.
But she says the local market wasn’t always so receptive. “For the first year I slogged around the countryside showing the technology, but we were too early – people weren’t ready to take it on,” Bergin says. “But in the last three months we have had people knocking on our doors, so the market has definitely turned.”
Bergin says the opportunity in education is just getting started. She says the true value in zSpace is the wealth of content that supports it – something competing solutions can’t offer. And she says the learning and insight that ASI has gained by getting in early with the technology has helped uncover numerous related opportunities.
“A lot of schools are making up green rooms or maker spaces,” Bergin says. “So we don’t want to be just the one solution. As these vendors come on board and are ready to go to market, we’ll be ready to go with them and be part of a total solution out to education.”
Carrington Associates: Cognitive computing
New concepts can do a lot to attract the attention of clients, but they can also present a long sales cycle for those bringing them to market.
For the Sydney-based regional software services business Carrington Associates, the key to success is in introducing clients to new technologies in bite-sized chunks. That reduces risk on both the client and supplier side.
The latest foray for Carrington is into cognitive computing with IBM’s Watson platform. Managing director Sachin Khisti says working with the Watson APIs via the Bluemix cloud platform provided a perfect introduction to the technology.
“We come from a strong BI background, so we thought Watson and AI could be the next logical thing,” Khisti says. “Once we got confident with the project we started doing some proof-of-concepts with customers, and got a feel for it.”
Carrington has since invested in its own instance of Watson – at a not insignificant cost – and has trained up a number of staff. But Khisti says the interest he is receiving from startups, commercial clients and government agencies is making the investment worthwhile.
“They are looking at innovative ideas and how AI and machine learning will help them,” Khisti says. “We are not here to sell the product, we are here to solve a business problem and create a solution. And it doesn’t have to be expensive. But by being an early adopter we are getting a lot of experience.”
Opaque Studios: Virtual reality
The idea of adapting gaming technology for business use has been a focus for the Opaque group of companies. Working with game engine technologies such as Unreal and Unity, the company has now spun out two entities, Opaque Studios and Opaque Space.
According to Norman Wang, founder and CEO at Opaque Studios, the group was founded initially to leverage emerging technology to help solve problems across industries. Hence, its investment in VR technology is being applied in both film and television and aerospace and defence.
“We are a factory for IP, and with this IP we can create a lot of ventures that have genuinely unique capabilities that most other ventures don’t have,” Wang says.
One of its projects saw Opaque combine an Oculus VR headset with Microsoft’s Kinect motion sensing technology to create a spacewalk simulator. That has brought Opaque to the attention of NASA.
“People that can truly build excellent VR content and understand design and underlying technology can apply it in ways that other people cannot,” Wang says. “And the best ways to build that capability is to invest in research and development on sometimes immature technology. Sure, it’s a risk that the technology won’t go anywhere, but the knowledge itself is always valuable.”
3D Printer Superstore: 3D printing
As an industrial designer, Mark Pestkowski got to have early experience with the world of 3D printing and scanning, often being asked to take a client’s 3D scan and convert it into a CAD model. Even back then, he could see the technologies coming together, and eventually getting cheaper and easier to use, and knew that at some point every school would want one.
“I saw myself placed in the middle of all that, so I thought I’d be one of the first ones to introduce it,” Pestkowski says.
“In those days you couldn’t buy a 3D printer from Australia, and there was no expertise here. People weren’t going to spend $5000 on a credit card to purchase something from overseas, especially with a product you can’t touch of feel or see.
“I had the background, I knew the technology, I knew what it was capable of, I knew what requirements industry had in terms of print quality and mechanical properties. So I started with a 3D printer and knocked on doors of schools and talked about how it could be integrated into their curriculum.”
From there he created the 3D Printer Superstore in Port Melbourne, supplying devices, consumables and advice to clients all around the country.
“We are looking at creating our own brand and being a distributor for some more interesting consumables, because there are so many different printers out there,” Pestkowski says.
That also puts him in a good position to capitalise on the opportunity he first spotted as an industrial designer.
“Every school in the next two years is going to have a printer,” he says. “It’s not that big a gap.”
Guava Insights: Unmanned systems
While interest in drones is high, in the commercial world, interest is also high in the data that drones can gather. It was this realisation that led former technology consultants Simon Szwarc and Jonathan Ivanyi to found Guava Insights two years ago.
“Organisations thought they could buy a few drones and train up a couple of pilots, without really understanding anything about the technology itself,” Szwarc says. “But how does that link into their operations, and where are they going to store all this data?
“And how are they going to leverage it? Because the value is in the data, not in the collection process.”
Guava Insights has now expanded beyond drones into other unmanned systems, including boats and submarines, as well as having developed expertise in imaging technologies such as LiDAR, thermal imaging and multispectral analysis.
But Szwarc says the real value is in the consulting services that Guava offers around these. “We really wanted to pull our clients out of the world of drones and into the mindset of business strategy and innovation,” he says. “We understand their business, because that is what our background is.”
It’s this perspective that helps the company create solutions that solve real issues for clients. “The data and the analytics and the business consulting is where we are generating a massive amount of IP,” Szwarc says. “And when you have that IP and specialisation, you walk alone.”
Readify: Augmented reality
Melbourne-based developer Readify has built a solid reputation for innovation around the Microsoft technology stack. It’s no surprise to see it at the vanguard for exploring the potential of Microsoft’s HoloLens augmented reality platform.
Former managing director Graeme Strange, who was recently promoted to a larger role with Readify’s parent company, Telstra, says it is not in the company’s nature to wait until the market is made before jumping in. But at the same time, the company is careful not to go chasing “the next flashy coloured bead”.
“We have a methodology that helps us work out which technologies we think are going to be the most relevant into the future,” Strange says. “Something in the two- to three-year range is actually really good, because there is real stuff being released, yet it is going to come with its challenges.”
This was the approach Readify took to its investment in cloud and IoT years ago.
“We knew they were going to be important, and we started investing in early-stage discovery, getting people their professional development, letting people play in sandboxes, and finding those brave customers that were willing to trust us to try and create something for them,” Strange says.
The HoloLens engagement began two years ago when Strange saw the technology demonstrated at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference.
“That was a significant investment on our part to get involved in that, but we will learn a whole lot,” he says.
Often those learnings can be monetised. Readify was subsequently able to attract the interest of an existing client, construction firm Laing O’Rourke, and began exporting its 3D CAD designs for presentation in augmented reality.
Readify says working with leading-edge tech early can translate to engagements around more established services and technologies later on.
“Early on, margin’s not great, because there are mistakes made and extra capability required to fix up where the vendor hasn’t told you stuff, or the product doesn’t do what it should do,” Strange says. “But ultimately there is a sweet spot where you are the only ones with the real expertise to implement something, and what happens then is we see greater margins.
Aptira: Software-defined networking
SDN has remained stubbornly on the fringes of mainstream adoption in Australia, something that Lumina Networks is working hard to change.
It is relying on partners such as Sydney-based Aptira to bring that technology to market. Aptira’s chief operating officer Roland Chan says his company has found a way to reduce the risk in bringing SDN to market.
“What we have put together is a consortium where we can each stay within our specialities, and have a group of organisations that are like-minded that work together to provide the solution,” Chan says.
Chan says the requirement has been to make SDN appealing to clients who are traditionally conservative in nature, such as telecommunications companies.
“They are always looking to the future, but what they build has to be solid,” Chan says. “We think the technology is close enough that they can realise the gains of SDN without sacrificing quality.
Sphere Drones: Drones
It’s not surprising that Paris Cockinos is a pioneer in new technology. His grandfather started in electronics back in 1954 selling two-way radios, telephones and satellite communications gear to the aviation industry, and was there at the beginning of the PC era in Australia, importing the revolutionary Motorola 6809 CPU.
But it was Cockinos’ enthusiasm for remote-controlled model planes and helicopters that helped him see the commercial potential of a more recent emerging technology – drones – and led him to start Sphere Drones as a separate business once he’d left high school in 2011.
“That established my understanding of how drones could possibly work, and if I didn’t have that I don’t think I would have been able to adopt them and implement them into a business structure,” Cockinos says.
Today, Sphere Drones is supplying a range of drones to large entities including government departments. It has grown to 15 employees, and now offers piloting and training services as well as sales and support.
And while drones are now broadly available, Cockinos says that having got in early, he is able to see business opportunities that are well beyond anything he might have considered when he first started out.
“There are always people coming up with new ideas and new uses for them,” he says. “People using it for mapping and surveying, checking the coastlines – it keeps developing and new ideas are coming up. I think it is still at its early days.”
DiUS: Virtual reality
While some technology might look appealing on the surface, it can still be hard to find that early adopter customer to prove out its usefulness. But look hard enough, and you might find them.
When Melbourne cloud and digital specialist DiUS began investigating virtual reality, that early adopter proved to be REA Group.
DiUS head of technology Daryl Wilding-McBride says his company’s foray into VR continues a spirit of innovation and a desire to use leading-edge technology to solve business problems and challenges to create opportunities that goes back to the company’s foundation 13 years ago.
“We are not just a mobile and web software development shop,” Wilding-McBride says. “We build our own hardware and were working with mesh networks and sensors way before it was called the internet of things. So we have always been pushing the horizon out and trying to be always ahead of the game.”
The VR exploration came via software engineer Matthew Butt, who had joined DiUS from a background in gaming, and got the company interested in using 3D models from gaming in real-world applications.
“We started to think about data visualisation and started to explore how 3D models from the gaming world could help businesses visualise their data,” Wilding-McBride says.
That led to a series of proof-of-concepts, which piqued the interest of REA Group. The partnership ultimately earned DiUS the Customer Experience trophy at this year’s CRN Impact Awards.
“REA is always keen to experiment and try new things, and so that is how it came about to use VR to visualise real estate,” Wilding-McBride says. “It is still fairly early days, and we are still learning as well about how to make it appealing, and find valuable use cases for companies that aren’t on the edge like REA is.
“That is the challenge for us – how to apply this technology in ways that are valuable. It’s a multi-year play, and we don’t really have a timeframe for return on investment. But we do believe it will happen.”
Similar thinking is also driving DiUS’ current examination of AI, backed by the belief that computing needs to become a lot more intelligent.
“Companies like ours can’t afford to wait until something is a sure thing, because then we are scrambling to build expertise and credibility,” he says. “We need to be doing that now, long before it is a sure thing. We can’t afford to rest on what we are good at today, because it doesn’t necessarily mean that we can prosper in years to come if just keep focusing on that.”
Servian: Artificial intelligence
When your company markets itself as being at the leading edge of technological capability, you leave yourself little choice but to investigate all relevant new possibilities as soon as they come to market.
So when IBM’s Watson cognitive computer platform emerged, 10-year-old data and analytics company Servian jumped in from the beginning.
“We have been there from the start, because we felt we had to be,” says Servian’s head of digital, Tim Mannah. “We look at technology from the perspective of what value can it bring into the enterprise, but the only way we learn the value that it brings is to use that technology at our own cost.”
Hence Servian was one of the first Australian companies to get access to Watson via IBM’s Bluemix program, and has invested significant time and effort in learning what it can do, starting three years ago with an internal hackathon to see what they could do with it.
Mannah says while the intention is always to monetise any new investment, the learning gained along the way can also be valuable.
“I don’t think the market is prepared to back AI in the ways we read about it,” Mannah says. “Part of what we need to do is help educate and show customers where they can get wins that are realistic, and what is still science fiction. So you back a technology early with the intent of being able to provide professional services down the track, and that does maximise your ability to monetise your investment over time.”
One of those learning tasks was an AI-powered chatbot Servian created for the real estate website Propertyguru.com.
“When launched, that chatbot was capable of pitching available real estate in an upcoming development,” Mannah says. “And it was asking questions to validate what the potential buyer might want. If it matched the profile of what was available, it would then trigger a phone call to speak with a person.”
Mannah says trials like this are key to maintaining Servian’s reputation among its clients, but are also invaluable in terms of the learnings they deliver.


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FinTech startups were originally perceived as a significant threat to banks of all sizes. Today, we’re talking about “coopetition” between banks and fintechs. Why is that? Let’s start by winding back the clock just two years.
A 2015 Goldman Sachs research report estimated that $4.7 trillion out of $13.7 trillion in traditional financial services revenue was at risk due to new fintech entrants in the lending, wealth management and payments space. Similarly, a McKinsey report, The Fight for the Customer: Global Banking Annual Review 2015, suggested that as much as 40 percent of revenues and up to 60 percent of the profits in retail banking businesses (consumer finance, mortgages, small-business lending, retail payments and wealth management) were at risk due to dwindling margins and competition from fintech startups targeting origination and sales, the customer-facing side of the bank.
The advantage of fintech startups was their ability to offer higher quality solutions at a lower cost with dramatically enhanced consumer experience, innovative ways of assessing risk and a strategy for profiting on the growing popularity of mobile payments with millennials. As a result, the early wave of fintech startups, such as PayPal, Adyen, Stripe and Square, had tremendous success in gaining market traction and inflating valuations.
Early fintech success led to thousands of promising ventures gradually crowding the space and attracting the attention of industry stakeholders. In the last two years, financial services professionals, with decades of experience, have flipped fintech startups’ perceived threat into an opportunity, which kick-started the phase of collaborative initiatives.
Despite tremendous financial success of the fintech industry globally, startups find it difficult to succeed on their own. Matthaeus Sielecki, head of working capital advisory, financial technology at Deutsche Bank, noted in his article for LTP that despite having developed customer-focused, innovative solutions, startups lacked crucial ingredients to scale their product into a viable product or service. Startups lacked access to processing infrastructure, global industry reach and regulatory expertise, and many came without understanding customer behavior in the financial service sector.
Traditionally, community banks have not had many choices for technology innovation outside of their core banking provider. A March 2016 article on theCNBC.com website suggestedthat economic growth and predictions regarding interest rates are felt acutely by smaller institutions. Since smaller banks focus more on interest-sensitive products such as mortgages, prolonged low rates by the Federal Reserve hurt them disproportionately. Working cooperatively with fintech startups present community banks with an opportunity to achieve rapid gains in cost-efficiency, operational efficiency and new product offerings.
All of these factors combined led to the understanding between banks and fintech companies about the value of mutually beneficial work that would bring together the strengths of each party. As a result, banks have contributed significantly to the establishment of accelerators, incubators, innovation labs and other collaborative initiatives with fintech startups. In addition, forward-thinking governments have invested resources and efforts to launch Regulatory Sandboxes to facilitate a relationship between the traditional sector and fintech startups.
In a 2016 survey, more than half of regional and community bank respondents (54 percent) and fintech respondents (58 percent) indicated that they see each other as potential partners. Moreover, the same survey suggests that 86 percent of community and regional banks believe it to be absolutely essential to partner with a fintech company.
CNBC noted that the ability to outsource functions, such as customer acquisition, to startups means smaller banks have more clients to pursue. This enables smaller banks to tap into revenue that previously would have been inaccessible due to distribution, geographic or technical limitations. Advances like cloud technology, APIs, blockchain, InsurTech, RegTech and partnerships with online lending companies are in focus right now as they offer the most return on investment for all banks, large and small. For example, community banks can lower their costs by integrating a RegTech solution for compliance rather than hiring consulting firms or employing whole departments.
Examples of partnerships include Cross River Bank in Teaneck, New Jersey, which works closely with marketplace lenders to originate loans for borrowers who apply via online platforms. CBW Bank in Weir, Kansas, is another notable example. According to an August 2016 article on the Fortune.com website, over the last few years, the 124-year-old bank has become a secret weapon for fintech companies, which rely on both its technology and status as a state-chartered bank to build their own businesses.
For regional and community banks, enhanced mobile capabilities and lower capital and operating costs are seen as the benefits of collaborating with fintechs. For fintechs, market credibility and access to customers are seen as the main benefits to partnering with banks. The unlikely journey of fintech startups going from foe to friend will make the financial services sector one of the most interesting businesses to be a part of in the next decade.


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What just happened? After months of rumors and a report claiming they could launch in March, Apple has finally unveiled its second-generation AirPods. They include several new and improved features, including a version that comes with a wireless charging case.
Compared to the first generation AirPods, the latest version delivers up to 50 percent more talk time, bringing the total to around three hours. Switching between devices while listening to music is now more seamless thanks to two times faster pairing, while connection to phone calls is 1.5 times faster, and there’s 30 percent lower latency when using the AirPods with games. As previously rumored, they also come with hands-free “Hey Siri” support, so you can activate Apple’s assistant using your voice.
The new wireless charging case and the latest AirPods are priced at $199, or existing owners can purchase the case by itself for $79. Buying the new AirPods with the non-wireless case will cost the same $159 as the previous version. Both cases can charge the earphones to last for 24 hours. The wireless case can be recharged with Qi-compatible chargers, and it has an LED light to show the charge status.
Another new feature for buyers is the option to add a personal engraving to the AirPods free of charge. You can preorder the earphones now for delivery, and they’ll appear in stores next week.


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Action star Jean-Claude Van Damme's most recent career comeback wasn't in some ultraviolent shoot-'em-up but a viral video. The video featured the Muscles from Brussels demonstrating an "extreme split” that demonstrated he was still very flexible even now that he's into his 50s.
What's most surprising about the video though was the client: Volvo Trucks. The point of the video — aside from providing some laughs — was to show off a new dynamic steering system in the trucks. Volvo designed a series of splashy videos, including Van Damme's, to act as an umbrella for outreach in local markets. More recently, Volvo Trucks had another hit with "The world's largest unboxing,” which featured a 3-year-old boy named Joel opening the package for an actual truck.
A recent report from Vidyard shows that most B2B marketers have taken note. According to the report, the average B2B-focused business has published 293 videos. Though you might think that target customers for B2B products would prefer a deep dive into white papers to research their purchases, you'd be wrong. Here's why:
Time is at a premium.How-to videos are hot on YouTube because consumers realize they can learn the material quicker by watching than by reading. The same is true for info on B2B products. People retain 80% of what they see and only 20% of what they read. Forrester research has estimated that one minute of video is equal to 1.8 million written words. Video humanizes a business.Most companies put digital barriers between themselves and their potential customers. Because they'd rather not waste time on unqualified leads, websites more often than not have contact forms instead of email addresses of actual humans and few sites offer phone numbers. Video can offer a means of offering a human face while also maintaining those barriers. Vidyard's research shows that most B2B-focused videos aren't slick and have low production values. Even large companies like SAP can use video to show that their companies aren't faceless monoliths but are staffed with real people. Targetability offers relevance. If you're in the market for a $20,000 piece of equipment, that means you have a big responsibility to make sure you're making the right call. In that frame of mind, a video offering more information about such equipment is helpful, not interruptive. Thanks to advanced targeting techniques, marketers can reach executives via title. Targeting by device (most B2B consideration happens during work hours and on desktop) can also minimize irrelevant messaging, ensuring that the videos reach execs when they're in the right frame of mind. Videos don't have to be expensive or go viral. As mentioned, the vast majority of B2B-focused videos aren't slickly made or designed to go viral, like Volvo Trucks'. Instead, think of B2B-focused videos as canned demonstrations and sales calls. Rather than reach out directly, B2B consumers can use video to check out what you're selling first.
The largest argument in video's favor is that it's taking over the Internet. The web used to be a text-focused medium, but Millennials and GenZ, in particular, are watching more video and reading fewer blogs, according to eMarketer. B2B marketers should be increasing their video output just to keep up. But visionary B2B marketers will greatly increase their video output to get ahead, or in Volvo's case, to add some muscle.


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Some of the largest vendors and OEMs on the planet were in agreement at the Axeda Conference in Boston this week – embedded devices will allow manufacturers to monitor their goods after sale, and in doing so, present a wide range of revenue opportunities that are just starting to become reality. New, M2M-driven revenue sources will resemble subscription sales more than the traditional movement of hard goods, and handling “Big Data” will be the key to making that happen.
“Overall, revenue from the sale of finished products is declining. Of course, manufacturing concerns can grow through mergers and acquisition, but that tends to be a temporary solution, and it really represents consolidation. What we’re seeing now is a true transformation in the most basic business models for manufacturing – providing real, organic growth through value-added services that bring a whole range of benefits,” said Mike Wendell, vice president of Industry Business Solutions with backbone software provider SAP (Walldorf, Germany).
In his keynote address, Wendell pointed out that manufacturers will increasingly look to gain revenues through subscriptions and metered usage, and according to Gartner, 35% of the Global 2000 companies that sell hard goods will generate 10% of their revenue from subscriptions by 2015. OEMs at the conference backed him up. The Infection Control Division of Danish medical equipment maker Getinge  (Getinge, Sweden) reports that fully 40% of the division’s total of $700 million in annual revenue now comes from recurring service delivery.
“When we started, we really didn’t know what the revenue impact would be, but now we’re on our third version of our web service, which is basically sold as a service-level agreement. The results have been spectacular. It’s possible to track our machines deployed anywhere in the world through the Axeda web-based platform, and our customers are happy to pay extra for service if they get more for their money through increased uptime and other efficiencies,” said Anders Buch, Getinge’s remote diagnostics manager.
According to Wendell and others, the key to realizing the benefits of subscription revenue will be handling – and effectively analyzing – the massive amounts of data that M2M deployments generate. To cite just two examples at the conference, Cisco (San Jose, CA) and SAP touted their FOG Computing architecture and Business Web SAAS respectively. Both are aimed at allowing enterprise firms handle “Big Data” – something that the typical enterprise is not accustomed to.
GE Jenbacher  (Jenbach, Austria), GE’s gas engine division, estimated that by analyzing big data and avoiding service technician dispatches, the company could see a 50% cost reduction. According to Audi Lucas, project manager at GE Jenbacher, a 2008 case study involving faulty bearings inside a generator shows that preemptive analysis of big data helps limit the downtime of engines. GE Jenbacher developed an algorithm to monitor certain data points associated with the faulty bearings. When a certain threshold was reached the system sent notifications displaying that the bearing was going to fail, and therefore could take preemptive steps in limiting the downtime of an engine. Instead of an engine standstill of six to eight weeks with a failed engine, predictive algorithm monitoring allowed for a pre-fail detection two weeks in advance, and gave the company time to schedule a dispatch to go out and replace the part.
M2M technology not only allows OEMs to put the right technician on the job quickly, but also to better warranty control, streamlined supply chains, better operational metrics, increased conditional awareness, and even better product designs, according to Wendell. “The U.S. Army recently surveyed the use of their Humvees to get a better idea of the field conditions for the vehicles – it was largely an M2M monitoring deployment. The result of the survey was that Humvees spend 90% of their time standing and idling while soldiers go about their tasks. Do you think this will influence future vehicle designs?” he said.


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MEXICO CITY.- Banorte and Mastercard, together with Amazon, launched the debit card ‘Amazon Recargable‘ in the Mexican market, which is avaialable already on the Amazon’s website.
The new credit card is free, without monthly fees or minimum balance, allows purchases inside and outside Mexico, cash transfers through Mobile Banking, as well as deposit or withdraw cash in the corresponding ATM networks, according to Mexican newspaper El Financiero.
When announcing the new financial offer, the general director of Payment Methods of Banorte, Manuel Romo, explained that with products such as Amazon Recargable, the institution takes a new step in the new generation of digital banking.
Amazon Mexico Product Manager, Fernando Ramírez, explained that customers who do not have a credit or debit card will find Amazon Recargable an easy and practical way to convert their cash into a payment method to access electronic commerce and other online services.
To obtain the card, which can be recharged in more than 25,000 establishments, such as Oxxo and 7-Eleven (just to name a couple), customers must be Mexican residents, over 18 years of age and upon request they must fill out a personal data form with their name, date of birth, nationality and gender.
After approval, the authorization process takes three minutes, the user will obtain a virtual card number that can be used to deposit money and start making purchases, while they receive the plastic (which does not have any extra cost), and the user must deposit at least 500 pesos in their new account.
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WASHINGTON — Sales of newly built, single-family homes rose 3.3% in April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 526,000 units, the U.S. Commerce Dept. reported. However, this gain reflected downward revisions to sales numbers reported for each of the previous three months, including a particularly large revision for March.
“The fact that new-home sales are up slightly from a dismal beginning to the spring home buying season in March isn’t much to celebrate,” said Sandy Dunn, president of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a homebuilder from Point Pleasant, WV. “We still need a great deal of help from the Administration and Capitol Hill to halt the downward trends in home sales and house prices that are producing such a drag on our nation's economy and disrupting financial markets.”
April's preliminary sales pace of 526,000 units was equivalent to the previously reported sales pace for March. However, the Commerce Dept. this month revised March's reading substantially downward to 509,000 units — 11% below the revised February reading.
Sales rose in three out of four regions in April. The Northeast posted a 41.7% gain that erased an equivalent decline in the previous month, while the Midwest and West recorded gains of 5.8% and 8.3%, respectively. The South, which is the nation’s largest housing market, posted a 2.4 % decline.
The inventory of new homes for sale declined 2.4% in April to 456,000 units, which is a 10.6-month supply at the current sales pace. Completed homes accounted for 40% of total new homes for sale, up from 33% a year earlier, and the median number of months for sale since completion rose to 8.0 — the highest since mid-1991.
Have something to say? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.


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Editorial: Power rides into auto history
We’ll take a few words to recognize J.D. “Dave” Power, this year’s Business Times Hall of Fame inductee, for yet another honor.
The man who masterminded the ubiquitous brass, black and glass awards is picking up some additional hardware this week in Detroit.
That’s because he’s being inducted this year into the Automotive Hall of Fame in Dearborn, Michigan. Also in this year’s class are Keith Crain, chairman of Crain Communications, which publishes Automotive News; Ferdinand Piech, chairman of the supervisory board of Volkswagen Group and a member of the Porsche family; and the late Alex Tremulis, a legendary car designer who worked at Cord Automobile, Deusenberg and General Motors. He died in Ventura in 1991.
With this honor, Power is joining another elite group. Congratulations to the entire Power family and the team at J.D. Power & Associates, which continues to do great work under the McGraw-Hill Financial banner.


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Internet giant Google has now made ethereum dataset publicly available to its big data analytics platform BigQuery, after adding Bitcoin dataset earlier this year. Google BigQuery is a cloud-based web service for processing very large read-only data sets. The company said that all historical data, including daily updates, will be publicly available on the Ethereum blockchain dataset.
If further added that while the Ethereum blockchain peer-to-peer (P2P) software has an application program interface (API) for a subset of commonly used random-access functions (for example: checking transaction status, looking up wallet-transaction associations, and checking wallet balances), API endpoints don’t exist for easy access to all of the data stored on-chain. API endpoints also don’t exist for viewing the blockchain data in aggregate. Aiming the new service to provide more of a Big Data window into ethereum, Google said:
"A visualization like this [...] is useful for making business decisions, such as prioritizing improvements to the Ethereum architecture itself (is the system running close to capacity and due for an upgrade?) to balance sheet adjustments (how quickly can a wallet be rebalanced?)."
Also Read: ‘Should I leave Ethereum and Work for Google?’ Vitalik Buterin Asks on Twitter
The giant has built a software system on Google Cloud that synchronizes the Ethereum blockchain to computers running Parity in Google Cloud, performs a daily extraction of data from the Ethereum blockchain ledger, including the results of smart contract transactions, such as token transfers, and de-normalizes and stores date-partitioned data to BigQuery for easy and cost-effective exploration.
Google then demonstrated a few examples. The first of which was CryptoKitties (a crypto collectibles game), for which it visualized the CryptoKitty pedigree for accounts that own at least 10 CryptoKitties - Color indicated owner, while size indicated the PageRank (reproductive fitness) of each CryptoKitty. Another example was a look at one of the most popular tokens is OmiseGO ($OMG), with a visualization that shows how on September 13, 2017, there was a large increase in the number of $OMG receivers but no increase in the number of senders. This corresponds to the beginning of the OmiseGO Token Airdrop.
While Google is betting big on the blockchain, it shuns cryptocurrencies. Earlier in July, Google exclusively confirmed to CryptoGround that it hasn't lifted the crypto ad ban after the rumors surfaced on social media platforms claiming so. In March of this year, Google had announced that it will ban all cryptocurrency-related advertising effective June 2018. This was under Google’s newly updated financial products policy, where it said that no advertisements for cryptocurrencies and related content (including but not limited to initial coin offerings, cryptocurrency exchanges, cryptocurrency wallets, and cryptocurrency trading advice), will be accepted.


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Check out the on-demand sessions from the Low-Code/No-Code Summit to learn how to successfully innovate and achieve efficiency by upskilling and scaling citizen developers. Watch now.
Here’s the latest action:
Google tests out a new, more functional iGoogle (with a friend update stream) — The company’s personalized homepage service is looking more and more like a — dare I say? — social network. The latest version has side tabs that can contain elements such as a Google Talk widget so you can instant message from the page and a Gmail widget so you can email from the page. Neither of these are new, but the layout of them is.
Most notable is the addition of an “Update” widget that looks like it will work exactly like Facebook’s News Feed, giving you updates of what your friends are doing around the Internet. In this regard it also seems a bit like the social content conversation site FriendFeed. (Which happens to be started by a bunch of ex-Googlers.)
Google appears to be making it so iGoogle is your main hub on the Internet. Facebook and MySpace along with the other social networks may have something to say about that.
Click on the image above for a slightly larger picture and notice the update stream on the right of that image.
Ahead of the iPhone 3G launch, Apple orders up more — The company’s stated goal for 2008 is to sell 10 million iPhones. However, with the excitement swirling around the iPhone 3G and its impending worldwide roll-out, most analysts are now projecting the number sold to be higher. Apple seems to agree, as it’s reportedly revised its build orders to more than 15 million iPhones by the end of the year, according to FBR Capital Markets analyst Craig Berger. Interestingly, the same report indicates that Apple ordered up two million of the original 2G iPhone as well. Maybe they’ll be stocking stuffers for the holidays?
Giant Interactive takes stake in Chinese social network 51.com — We noted last month that the site was closing in on $50 million or so in new funding, now we know the backer, thanks to Ogilvy China’s Digital Watch blog. Couldn’t they have made it $51 million just for kicks?
NIN continues to pioneer in the digital space — Rock band Nine Inch Nails has created an amazing layer for Google Earth that lets you see where exactly in the world people downloaded its latest work, The Slip, from.
Habbo hits 100 million avatars — The world’s largest virtual community for teenagers today announced the milestone. Since launching in 2000 the network has grown quickly, now attracting close to 10 million visitors a month.
The iPhone and iPod Touch: Your new remote control — You know that dinky white remote Apple gives away with many of its computers? Yeah, it’s about to get blown out of the water. A new application for the iPhone/iPod Touch will let you use either device to control iTunes remotely, according to MacRumors. Text indicating the feature is buried in the pre-release of the new iTunes 7.7, which is currently being seeded to developers to test.
BlogTalkRadio gets a $4.6 million first round — The social network lets users create their own radio stations on the web. The round was led by The Kraft Group, yes the same group that owns the NFL’s New England Patriots. Investor Scott Sipprelle also participated. The company is based in Lakewood, N.J.
We’re number one! (At predicting news…kind of.) — VentureBeat has risen to the top spot on the HubDub PunditWatch leaderboard, The Wall Street Journal’s Numbers Guy blog was kind enough to point out. The debate is still out as to what exactly constitutes a prediction, but we’ll take it and predict a long run at the top.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings.


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|Department of Engineering|
|University of Cambridge > Engineering Department > News & Features|
17 January 2007
A new study by researchers in the Department's Institute for Manufacturing's (IfM) Sustainable Manufacturing Group, sets out a vision of a sustainable clothes industry outlining how consumers could satisfy their needs for clothes and textiles with significantly reduced impact on the environment, and at the same time offer new opportunities to retailers and manufacturers.
The report considers what could be done differently to make the industry more sustainable. Among other things, it recommends the use of more organic cotton, washing clothes at lower temperatures and encouraging consumers to buy fewer, high quality, longer-lasting clothes as well as more second-hand garments.
Some retailers have begun to address these issues but industry-wide change would require the evolution of new business models. Suggestions such as a focus on durability in the fashion world, and business models that would focus on extra services like repair and maintenance show that profit and growth can be achieved.
“The aim is to help answer the question of what we should do to create significant change at the sector level,” Dr Julian Allwood, from the Institute for Manufacturing, said. “We have focused on what might happen if we could make major structural changes to the way our clothes are made and used.
“For example, what would happen if we used different fibres or farming practices? What would be the consequence of washing our clothes in a different way, or keeping our carpets for longer?
“Businesses and the industry as a whole have to remain economically viable - or any change will have no benefit. The key to change is to ensure that government, industry and consumers work together to achieve a more sustainable clothes and textiles industry.”
Among other things the report lays out a model for the ideal consumer, who would drive environmentally-beneficial changes in the clothing industry by, for example, buying fewer clothes, washing them less and recycling them more. At the moment, consumers in the UK spend about £780 per head per year on textiles and clothes, purchasing about 2.15 million tonnes (35kg per person). Of this, just one eighth is sent for re-use through charities and the rest is discarded.
The report is intended to be valuable to a wide range of interested groups. It is written for people in business – who have to balance their personal ethics and the concerns of their consumers with the need for their business to prosper. It is written for consumers who have a limited budget but are concerned about the impact of their shopping choices. It is written for campaigners and those in education, government and the media – to try to provide as balanced evidence as possible about the present and future impacts of the clothing and textiles sector.
If you want to become a greener consumer today, then you can by following a simple practical set of recommendations:
To download or order a hard copy (free + postage & packing) of the 84 page report entitled: "Well dressed? The present and future sustainability of clothing and textiles in the United Kingdom" visit the IfM website.
|| Search | CUED | Cambridge University ||
© Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge
Information provided by web-editor


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In February 2015, YouTube released a secondary mobile app known as YouTube Kids. The app is designed to provide an experience optimized for children. It features a simplified user interface, curated selections of channels featuring age-appropriate content, and parental control features. Later on August 26, 2015, YouTube launched YouTube Gaming—a video gaming-oriented vertical and app for videos and live streaming, intended to compete with the Amazon.com-owned Twitch.
Karim said the inspiration for YouTube first came from Janet Jackson's role in the 2004 Super Bowl incident, when her breast was exposed during her performance, and later from the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Karim could not easily find video clips of either event online, which led to the idea of a video sharing site. Hurley and Chen said that the original idea for YouTube was a video version of an online dating service, and had been influenced by the website Hot or Not.
ChuChu has changed over time—it has slowed the pacing of its videos, focused on the key elements of scenes, and made more explicitly educational videos. But in the wilds of YouTube, the videos with the most views, not the most educational value, are the ones that rise to the top. ChuChu’s newer videos, which have more of the features Johnson looks for, have not had the time to hoover up as much attention, so the old ones keep appearing in YouTube searches and suggestions.
YouTube's policies on "advertiser-friendly content" restrict what may be incorporated into videos being monetized; this includes strong violence, language, sexual content, and "controversial or sensitive subjects and events, including subjects related to war, political conflicts, natural disasters and tragedies, even if graphic imagery is not shown", unless the content is "usually newsworthy or comedic and the creator's intent is to inform or entertain". In September 2016, after introducing an enhanced notification system to inform users of these violations, YouTube's policies were criticized by prominent users, including Phillip DeFranco and Vlogbrothers. DeFranco argued that not being able to earn advertising revenue on such videos was "censorship by a different name". A YouTube spokesperson stated that while the policy itself was not new, the service had "improved the notification and appeal process to ensure better communication to our creators".
“The way YouTube is distributed is not always conducive to ad revenue,” said Tim Bajarin, principal analyst with Campbell-based Creative Strategies, which tracks the the technology sector. “The YouTube ads are on the side, but they are not embedded in the programming, like you see in television.” The current YouTube format might be good for consumers, but that doesn’t mean it’s all that great for the bottom line, Bajarin said. “They are going to have to change things up,” Bajarin said.
In order for a YouTuber to get paid for an ad, the viewer of their video must have Ad-Block turned off (meaning they will see all the ads on videos) and must watch at least 30 seconds of videos they could otherwise skip. Or, this will work if the viewer sees smaller ads like banner ads, according to YouTuber Mah-Dry-Bread. The money generated from the viewer watching these ads is split between YouTube and your channel.
It was after Krishnan joined the creative team, Chandar told me, that ChuChu really began to achieve global popularity. What made the difference, in part, was that Krishnan decided to rewrite nursery rhymes that he felt didn’t end well or teach good morals. What if Jack and Jill, after falling down while fetching the pail of water, get back up, learn from the resilience of birds and ants, actually get the damn pail of water, and give it to their mom? “It was ‘Jack and Jill 2.0,’ ” Chandar said. “I thought, This is how a nursery rhyme should be.”
Google does not provide detailed figures for YouTube's running costs, and YouTube's revenues in 2007 were noted as "not material" in a regulatory filing. In June 2008, a Forbes magazine article projected the 2008 revenue at $200 million, noting progress in advertising sales. In January 2012, it was estimated that visitors to YouTube spent an average of 15 minutes a day on the site, in contrast to the four or five hours a day spent by a typical US citizen watching television. In 2012, YouTube's revenue from its ads program was estimated at $3.7 billion. In 2013 it nearly doubled and estimated to hit $5.6 billion according to eMarketer, while others estimated $4.7 billion. The vast majority of videos on YouTube are free to view and supported by advertising. In May 2013, YouTube introduced a trial scheme of 53 subscription channels with prices ranging from $0.99 to $6.99 a month. The move was seen as an attempt to compete with other providers of online subscription services such as Netflix and Hulu. In 2017, viewers on average watch YouTube on mobile devices for more than an hour every day.
Making a lot of money on YouTube is not as easy as you might think. There are a lot of hurdles to overcome in the process. It's definitely not a way to get rich quick. However, if you have a hobby, are really good at a particular activity and would like to help people, are funny, or even if you just want to have some fun, YouTube is a great option to cash in some extra bucks doing something you love.
YouTube is one of the most popular websites on the planet, receiving billions of views a year and paying out millions to the content creators that it hosts. Money earned through YouTube is generated by advertisements. Content creators who host ads on their videos receive about half of the ad revenue those ads generate, while YouTube takes the rest. Anyone can monetize their videos, as long as their videos do not break copyright law.
Frank Kameny, the last century’s greatest gay-rights activist, filed the first-ever Supreme Court petition challenging discrimination against homosexuals. He led some of the first gay-rights demonstrations. He was the first openly gay congressional candidate. He spearheaded the challenge to the psychiatric establishment’s categorization of homosexuality as a mental illness. He fought tirelessly against sodomy laws. He did a lot more than that. But there is one thing he never did—at least to my own recollection and that of associates of his whom I consulted. He did not use the term LGBTQ, or any of its variations.
In January 2018, the 23-year-old elder Paul brother was kicked off YouTube’s Google Preferred program, which gives favorable ad rates to popular channels, after he filmed a video in Japan that showed an apparent suicide hanging from a tree. He apologized. His income from videos (pratfalls, pranks) and brand deals took a hit, but loyal fans kept his hefty merchandise business afloat.
YouTube allows users to upload, view, rate, share, add to favorites, report, comment on videos, and subscribe to other users. It offers a wide variety of user-generated and corporate media videos. Available content includes video clips, TV show clips, music videos, short and documentary films, audio recordings, movie trailers, live streams, and other content such as video blogging, short original videos, and educational videos. Most of the content on YouTube is uploaded by individuals, but media corporations including CBS, the BBC, Vevo, and Hulu offer some of their material via YouTube as part of the YouTube partnership program. Unregistered users can only watch videos on the site, while registered users are permitted to upload an unlimited number of videos and add comments to videos. Videos deemed potentially inappropriate are available only to registered users affirming themselves to be at least 18 years old.


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Analysis by Julie Dautermann, Competitive Intelligence Analyst
This update helps automotive suppliers inform their legal and operational decisions to help address challenges and opportunities. Contact your Foley relationship partner, or Ann Marie Uetz, Vanessa L. Miller, or Nicholas J. Ellis, to follow up.
- Foley & Lardner LLP partner Ann Marie Uetz appeared on CNBC’s ‘Power Lunch’ to discuss the United Auto Workers (UAW) strike as it enters its fourth week.
- Foley & Lardner shared a number of key impacts and strategies for suppliers affected by the ongoing UAW strike.
- The seasonally adjusted annualized rate (SAAR) for total U.S. new-vehicle sales reached 15.7 million units in September, according to estimates from the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA).
- New light-vehicle inventory reached a 40 days’ supply at the end of September, representing an increase of approximately 25% compared to the same period last year. Inventory levels in October could experience broader impact if strike-related production shutdowns continue to mid-month.
- Consulting firm Anderson Economic Group estimates the UAW strike has resulted in nearly $4 billion in losses, according to analysis released on October 2.
- On October 11, UAW President Shawn Fain abruptly called for a strike at Ford’s Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville which affects nearly 9,000 workers. This is Ford’s largest plant and it produces the F-Series Super Duty, the Ford Expedition and the Lincoln Navigator. Nearly 35,000 UAW members are currently on strike across six automotive assembly plants and 38 parts-distribution centers spanning the Detroit Three in the U.S.
- In an October 6 update, the UAW did not announce additional walkouts for the first time since the strike began on September 15, with Shaw Fain citing a “major breakthrough” in negotiations over contract coverage for GM’s EV battery plants. GM did not comment directly on Fain’s update.
- The Detroit Free Press reports that nearly 4,000 UAW members across three states began walkouts on October 9 after rejecting a tentative contract agreement with Mack Trucks.
- The Wall Street Journal indicates that over 6,000 workers across the Detroit Three and their suppliers are laid off as a result of walkouts.
- Approximately 30% of suppliers have conducted layoffs due to the UAW strike, according to survey data from MEMA featured in The Washington Post (subscription).In addition, more than 60% of MEMA members expect to begin layoffs by mid-October if the strikes continue.
- LG Energy Solution announced plans to invest an additional $3 billion in its Michigan facility as part of a battery supply agreement with Toyota Motor North America.
- CNBC and Bloomberg report GM is taking steps to secure a $6 billion line of credit in preparation for the potential of prolonged UAW strikes. The automaker reported $200 million on strike-related costs in the third quarter.
- Third-quarter 2023 U.S. vehicle sales increased by 21% for GM and 7.7% for Ford when compared to the same period last year.Stellantis reported its U.S. sales fell 1% year-over-year.
- Daimler Truck North America subsidiary Freightliner will offer the new Cummins X15N natural gas engine in its heavy-duty Freightliner Cascadia trucks in 2025.
- Schaeffler AG is offering to acquire Vitesco Technologies Group AG in a €3.64 billion ($3.8 billion) deal that is expected to increase capabilities in areas including electrification.
Electric Vehicles and Low Emissions Technology
- U.S. sales of hybrid-electric vehicles could increase by up to 35% year-over-year in 2023, according to analysis from GlobalData featured in Kelley Blue Book.
- Sales of Ford’s F-150 Lightning battery electric pickup dropped by 46% in the third quarter due to a production shutdown for planned upgrades, as well as delayed deliveries caused by unspecified quality checks. The automaker reported a 41% increase in sales of hybrid models in the third quarter.
- Tesla delivered over 435,000 vehicles worldwide in the third quarter, representing a decline of over 6% from the preceding quarter. The company maintained its full-year 2023 volume target of 1.8 million vehicles and noted its Q3 2023 deliveries were impacted by factory downtime for planned upgrades.
- Chinese automaker BYD sold over 431,000 fully-electric vehicles in the third quarter, representing an increase of 23% from the second quarter.
- The European Union launched an anti-subsidy investigation into the imports of EVs manufactured in China. The investigation will examine issues including whether to establish tariffs on the imported vehicles to “remedy the effects of unfair trade practices.”
- GM plans to begin deliveries of its battery-powered Cadillac Lyriq crossover in Switzerland in 2024.
- Honda will begin delivering its first all-electric SUV, the 2024 Prologue, to U.S. customers early next year. The midsize SUV was co-developed with GM and shares the Ultium battery platform.
- New analysis from RMI and the Bezos Earth Fund predicts EVs could represent at least 62% of global vehicle sales by 2030. The report also indicates that most major automakers are committing at least half of their capital expenditures and research and development budgets to EV development and digital technologies.
- Swedish lithium-ion battery producer Northvolt announced plans to build its first factory outside of Europe in an area roughly 20 miles east of Montreal, Canada.
- Prices of lithium carbonate in China recently fell to their lowest level in nearly two years, due to factors that include restrained customer demand and cautious restocking by vehicle and battery producers.
- Nikola expects to begin delivering its hydrogen fuel cell electric trucks to customers in October.
- A group of U.S. Senators led by Deb Fischer, R-Neb., recently introduced the “Stop EV Freeloading Act” to ensure electric vehicles contribute to a federal highway funding account.
Automated, Autonomous or Connected Vehicles Technologies
- Consumer confidence in fully automated, self-driving vehicles declined for a second consecutive year, according to the J.D. Power 2023 U.S. Mobility Confidence Index (MCI) Study.
- The trucking and logistics sectors indicate cyberthreats could expand as more operations become integrated with computers, according to views expressed in Transport Topics.
Market Trends and Regulatory
- A new bill from Sens. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., would direct the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to “redo” its proposed Motor Vehicle Dealers Trade Regulation Rule, beginning with issuing an advanced notice of proposed rule-making for public input. The Center for Automotive Research estimated dealerships could face significant compliance costs if the rule were enacted. In an October 4 statement, the NADA praised the introduction of the “FTC REDO Act” and urged Congress to pass the legislation as quickly as possible.
- The Detroit Three automakers could risk at least $10 billion in fines between 2027 and 2032 under stricter proposed Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) requirements, according to analysis featured in Bloomberg.


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Tesla opens outlet at Millenia Walk, interested buyers can take cars out for test drives
Interested buyers have to be at least 27 years old and must hold a valid driver’s license to take the car out for a test drive.
The first Tesla retail outlet in Southeast Asia opened on Saturday (Jan 15) in Singapore.
Located at Millenia Walk, potential buyers have the option of taking the Model 3 electric car out for a test drive.
This comes after three Tesla V3 superchargers were made available at the carpark of Millenia Walk in Oct 2021.
The Tesla Model 3 is a smaller, simpler and more affordable electric car compared to previous models.
Potential buyers can register their interest with Tesla to take the vehicle out for a test drive along the East Coast Parkway (ECP) expressway’s scenic waterfront, which is a short three minutes away from the store.
They have to be at least 27 years old and must hold a valid driver’s license to be eligible for a test drive.
The Tesla Model 3 costs about $155k, excluding the price of the Certificate of Entitlement (COE).


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A longtime local business is shutting its doors after 44 years in the community.
Campbell’s Music, which sold musical equipment and fixed sound systems and instruments, is officially closing at the end of August.
President Mike Allen tells Mix News they’ve been struggling for quite some time with the COVID-19 pandemic being the last straw.
He says they’re extremely disappointed for their regular customers.
“We did have a very solid and faithful group of people in the community that supported us and, in a way, we feel like we’re letting them down.”
Allen bought the business soon after arriving in Wood Buffalo 26 years ago.
Things were great for many years, however, they soon began to experience some financial concerns after their property was one of several expropriated in downtown for the proposed hockey arena.
After that, it was hurdle after hurdle. This includes the economic downturn, the Horse River wildfire, a rise in online shopping, and now the pandemic.
“They all compounded to a point where we just couldn’t maintain it anymore and at this point, we just needed to see if we could exit gracefully,” added Allen.
Campbell’s Music will officially close its doors on August 31.
In the meantime, Allen is using the added public attention to encourage those to support other local businesses who are also struggling.
“Please get out there and support all your local businesses whenever you can because without your support they won’t be able to remain in business.”


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Concepts of illicit drug quality among darknet market users: Purity, Arenas of drug transactions: adolescent cannabis transactions in England Social. By R Broadhurst 2022 Citedby 7 darknet markets that sold opioids enabled observation of the impact of law Cooperation (Europol).police agencies from the United Kingdom, the. Previously, Dream Market, another top dark web marketplace, ended operations in April 2022, and a Europol-led police operation also shut. By A Evangelista Cited by 2 Darknet Markets: Competitive Strategies in the Underground of Illicit Goods number of the same countries (US, uk darknet markets., Australia, Germany. A new report jointly published by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs And Drug Addiction and Europol shows that it represents up to two third of the.
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The UK. While darknet markets' total share of incoming cryptocurrency trace some of them back to a regulated exchange headquartered in the UK. For example, a. Lessons from Scraping a DarkNet Market weekend approached in the UK, overall supply shrank, although without more data it's impossible. Through darknet markets, social media and instant messaging apps, young people for gang cannazon market url membership (UK National Youth Agency, 2024). MGM Grand is the first ever dark web market that has a mobile first design for smartphone users Turns out it's pretty easy to buy weed online in the UK. Majory LLP and Photon Pro LLP (uk darknet markets).Invention Bridge SL (Spain-based) and Tamara cannazon market V. Companies Engaging in Darknet Market.
Transaction fees vary with each blockchain and often fluctuate according to the total transaction volume currently taking place on a network. Oct-2017 21:49 - (Ebook - Computer) Hacking The Windows Registry. Wir stehen Euch in unserem Shop für Beratung, Service und Verkauf gerne zur Verfügung und freuen uns auf Euren Besuch. Telegram is built for Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, and Linux. Profits from crime-as-a-service will rise as expert hackers use cloud technology themselves to offer illegal services to the highest bidder. As a Marketplace seller, you can boost your online growth with full control over your business including inventory, retail pricing, fulfillment and customer care. Understanding who the winners and losers are after a market shut down however takes time. In a similar operation dubbed Operation DisrupTor conducted this month, authorities across Europe and the United States arrested 179 people who engaged in tens of thousands of sales of illicit goods on the Dark Web. This already starts with the captcha query when entering the store. But Miller, who knew about the work of Miers’ uk darknet markets team, convinced Wilcox to reconsider, saying he himself would quit his PhD studies to join the project if both Wilcox and Miers’ collaborator Matthew Green got involved.
“Over the last month, a darknet marketplace calling itself TheRealDeal Market has emerged; it focuses on brokering hackers' zero-day attack methods.”
And the cannazon market link vast majority of dark web traders are steering clear of exploiting the pandemic. New data from Ookla shows that internet connection speeds accelerated rapidly over the past year, with average mobile speeds increasing by almost 50 percent compared to this time last year. If user use that type text in any type illegal activity, only user is the responsible for his action. TOR is a torrent based operating system that is completely encrypted and anonymous, allowing users to anonymously browse the dark web. In today’s tutorial I will give you a brief overview of what Monero is so you can understand it better before using it as a payment option. The marketplace does not offer a central wallet that is controlled by the exchange. There, she and another Wutaian operative are to rendezvous with Avalanche HQ, infiltrate the Shinra Building, and steal the conglomerate's most powerful materia. Intro The Binary Defense threat hunting team are experts on today’s threat actor groups. There are new darknet markets every few weeks, we will try to always post fresh and updates lists.


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StarBlood Arena News
Studio willing to pay to keep game online
Sony has announced that it will shut down PlayStation VR shooter StarBlood Arena’s servers in July, rendering the game unplayable just two years after its original release. It’s a story that’s becoming increasingly familiar to PlayStation fans, as the platform holder pr
Online functionality terminated
StarBlood Arena, the online only PlayStation VR title from developer WhiteMoon Dreams, will no longer be playable once its online functionality is terminated on 25th July 2019. The game's product page confirmed the shut down: "Multiplayer and all online features for this product will be terminated and will no longer...
Play the game
We criticised StarBlood Arena for focusing on online multiplayer given PlayStation VR’s smaller install base, but to be fair to the hero-based affair it has managed to attract a very small but very dedicated audience. And developer White Moon Dreams will be hoping to add to that this week with the release of a demo for the title...
Overwatch in virtual reality?
There's nothing really wrong with StarBlood Arena, but ever since its announcement at PSX 2016, we haven't been able to resist the urge to roll our eyes. It's just one of those games that doesn't appear to have any identity of its own – and that's despite its likeable space cowboy façade. Cockpit shooters are dime a...
And there'll be a retail release
PlayStation VR powered first-person shooter StarBlood Arena has gone gold ahead of its 11th April release date. The high-octane virtual reality experience promises to deliver a variety of modes, pilots, and weapons when you strap yourself in to the action. You'll obviously be able to snap this one up from the...
StarBlood Arena, the totally-not-RIGS-but-still-kinda-RIGS arena shooter for PlayStation VR, will launch on 11th April in Europe and North America. In the video embedded above, Scott Campbell from developer WhiteMoon Dreams talks through the title's PlayStation Experience trailer, and expands upon some of the nuances that you may have...


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Eroski has sold two of its hypermarkets in Majorca, those in Sa Coma and Son Cotoner, to Carrefour, which will assume the contracts of store personnel and envisages retaining all the current employees.
This divestment by Eroski is part of a strategic plan to strengthen business priorities and develop a new network of urban supermarkets. Eroski has at present 198 supermarkets in addition to its online business in Majorca, Minorca and Ibiza.
The sale of the stores is included within a batch of up to 36 hypermarkets in various parts of Spain. The agreement, however, is subject to approval by the National Competition Commission. Meanwhile, the two stores will be operating as normal.
The general director of the commercial network of the Basque supermarket chain, Rosa Carabel, is stressing that the Balearics is a priority region for Eroski, which opened fifteen new stores last year. During the current year, the company will continue remodelling the existing network and transforming them with the new business model "contigo" (with you). In stores that have so far been remodelled, there has been a 7% increase in sales per square metre.
The fifteen franchised supermarkets that opened in 2015 had more than 2.2 million euros of investment and generated 90 jobs. Across Spain, Eroski has a network of 53 hypermarkets and 1,288 supermarkets, of which 467 are franchised, as well as nineteen cash and carry stores. The company's expansion strategy, which involved the opening of 95 stores in all last year, is focused on a format of local supermarkets with a new, highly competitive business model.