text:
Individual panel prices
Prices of DIY kits
Installed system prices
Solar incentives and rebates can save you thousands of dollars on installing solar panels. This is our one-stop-shop for all things incentives, including how they work, where they're available, and how much you can save.
Solar panels are a great way to cut down on your power bills but the initial cost can be off putting. Explore the pros and cons of financing your solar system.
Xcel Energy Colorado will provide new incentives that will help spread the benefits of clean energy to a wide range of Colorado residents. Learn more here.
A breakdown of New York’s Megawatt Block incentive program that can save homeowners thousands of dollars when installing solar panels.
A breakdown of how Green Mountain Power’s Bring Your Own Device energy storage incentive program works and if it’s a good choice for Vermont homeowners.
Explaining how home solar works with Eversource, including how to reduce upfront costs, finding incentives & rebates, and determining average payback times.
The Illinois Shines Adjustable Block Program was renewed as part of Illinois' new Climate And Equitable Jobs Act. Find out what this means for solar system owners in the state.
Explaining how much New Jersey’s new successor solar incentive program can save homeowners and what it means for the state’s solar industry.
A breakdown of the NJ SREC program, including what it is, how much SRECS are worth, and how homeowners can make money by selling them.
New Jersey released a proposal for the Successor Program that will replace the popular NJ SREC solar incentive.
California regulators are changing how solar owners connect to the grid & get credit for solar energy. The changes could greatly affect the solar industry.
Congress has extended the 26% solar tax credit as part of their coronavirus relief package.
What saves you more money, net metering or solar batteries? It depends on which net metering option your state provides. Find out what will save you the most.


text:
EA confirms Battlefield 6 is coming in 2018; Battlefield 1 is getting Esports Mode and GOTY Edition this Fall
New Retail Releases: Kirby Battle Royale, Rocket League, Street Fighter V Arcade Edition, More
Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth – Hacker’s Memory, Kerbal Space Program: Enhanced Edition, more coming to PS Store this week
Gorogoa Review: A Museum-Worthy Puzzler
Warp Zoned's 2017 Golden Pixel Awards: A New Beginning for Video Games
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, Beholder: Complete Edition, more added to Xbox Store
Call of Duty: WWII was the best-selling game for all of 2017
Call of Duty: WWII repeats as the best-selling game of December 2017
Life Is Strange: Before the Storm’s Retail Edition will be available in stores on March 6
Lost Sphear, Darkest Dungeon, Kirby: Battle Royale, more coming to Nintendo eShop this week
All Articles: Cars 2
The NPD Group has revealed the top ten bestselling games for the month of July and NCAA Football 12 jumped to the head of the class. None of the rest of the month’s new releases managed to crack the list (including the awesome Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon or the alluring Catherine). Even the heavily-hyped Duke Nukem Forever was unable to maintain its place in the top ten.
With few new releases, only 17 titles were released during the month, gamers spent their money on other things in July. According to The NPD Group’s Anita Frazier, July was the “lowest month [for game sales] since October 2006.”
Maybe that’ll show publishers that the gaming community is pretty desperate for new games in the Summer. So maybe they shouldn’t backload every worthwhile game into the September-November period. In the meantime, check out the full top ten after the break. (more…)
Duke Nukem Forever gives players the option to fish a turd out of the toilet bowl and smear it all over the walls of the game world. So it seems rather fitting that Duke’s latest adventure has landed in the #2 spot in The NPD Group’s list of bestselling games for the month of June. The Mighty Duke was toppled by Rockstar’s L.A. Noire; the detective yarn is celebrating its second straight month at the top after it lead the May NPD report as well.
A trio of other June releases also earned their way into the top ten. Sony’s InFamous 2 took the #3 spot, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D hookshotted its way into #5 and Cars 2 stopped for gas at #9.
You can find the full top ten after the break. (more…)
Disney’s Cars 2 will be racing to theaters this Summer and, as expected, the Pixar production will be towing a video game adaptation behind it.
Cars 2 on the PS3 will take things a step further by bursting out of the screen in full 3D. If the game detects a 3D TV, the it will automatically adjust so gamers “experience 3D in every aspect of gameplay” including combat racing, menus and multiplayer.
“The advancement of 3D technology will allow us to immerse the player into the Cars 2 game environment in a whole new way,” said John Blackburn, vice president and general manager of Avalanche Software, developer of Cars 2. “The 3D effects will ratchet up gameplay in ways that will have fans’ hearts pounding when they embark on dangerous spy missions, while our innovative multiplayer with four simultaneous 3D ports will bring a whole new dimension to PS3 gaming.”
Cars 2 will be available for the DS, PC, PS3, Wii and Xbox 360 on June 21st.

domain: news


text:
Intel & Acer launch Lexington-based new smartphone in Southeast Asia - Acer's Liquid C1
Most Southeast Asian markets will see Acer's Liquid C1 smartphone, powered by Intel's "Lexington" processor, in the "very near future" as the chipmaker capitalizes on the region's move from feature phones to smartphones.
Intel is looking to ramp up the introduction of Atom-powered smartphones to the market, with the latest in the form of Acer's Liquid C1 smartphone which was unveiled today.
Southeast Asia will be early beneficiaries of the chipmaker's efforts to advance its smartphone plans, given that Thailand has been designated as the launch market for the Liquid C1. A senior Intel executive added he will be "disappointed" if it takes three months for the handset to make its way into many of the region's other markets.
Today, with its Liquid C1 smartphone--which is powered by Intel's Atom Z240 processor, codenamed "Lexington"--for the Thai market, Acer's announcement marks the ninth smartphone powered by Intel in nine months, he said, adding this showed the company's commitment to the smartphone platform.
Acer's Liquid C1 smartphone will be available at the retail price of 9,990 baht (US$335.27) in February.
The Atom Z240 processor was unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this month, and is targeted at the "value smartphone" market. According to Intel, the new processor brings high performance for quick Web browsing, rich multimedia, and Android applications experience. Mike Bell, vice president and general manager of Intel's mobile and communications group, said the low-power Atom platform enabled it to address new market segments and broaden its expanding portfolio smartphone offerings.
Staff Portland Business Journal
"We're still awaiting news of who will take over as CEO of Intel Corp. when Paul Otellini steps down in May, but we did get a glimpse into part of the mobile strategy that will likely be a major focus for the new chief executive.
As Reuters reports, Intel on Thursday introduced two phones running on its new mobile chip to markets in Kenya and Thailand. Priced at about $335, the phones were manufactured in partnership with Taiwanese computer maker Acer Inc.
Emerging markets are a key piece of Intel's mobile strategy, said Mike Bell, chief of Intel's mobile division.
While Intel has yet to name a new CEO for Otellini, who announced his retirement in November, it recently made a handful of senior-executive promotions, including five of Hillsboro-based employees".


text:
App.net is a service offered to developers on iOS (iPhone/iPad) and Android that helps monetise and distribute applications cross-platform style. Developers are able to use analytics to track users, create catchy and professionally appealing landing pages and promote their app with greater efficiency.
We've now caught wind that the team behind App.net, Mixed Media Labs, has plans to include Windows Phone, BlackBerry and HTML5 (web apps) to increase the reach and scalability of the service. In an interview with VultureBeat Dalton Caldwell, CEO of Mixed Media Labs, had the following to say:
"A lot of the larger shops have apps on multiple platforms, and there are small developers that are experimenting with WP7. Now that we have the core platform built, adding new platforms is straightforward for us to do. The larger vision of these new features is that we are getting to the point where we want a developer to be able to link to app.net/myapp [the URL of an application on App.net] and App.net will show the best version of their app for the device the user is on. The less end-users have to deal with the platform complexity and compatibility issues, and figuring out whether to use mobile website vs. app, the better."
Head on over to App.net to check out featured apps and/or submit your own. Pricing starts at no cost at all, but the standard subscription for three apps across multiple platforms is $12/mo. Unfortunately, webOS will not be added along with the three mentioned platforms.
See the image after the break for an example of a OneNote WP7 landing page.


text:
Return of The Book
Angelenos are buying books like they’re going out of fashion
EVERYTHING about Los Angeles, from its geography to its climate, seems designed to discourage the art of reading. The sprawling nature of the place forces people to spend hours every day in their cars; the cult of physical beauty forces them to spend even longer labouring in the gym; and the spectacular sunshine sends them to the beach in droves to show off what happened in the gym. Add to that the fact that more than a quarter of the population are immigrants, many of them poorly educated, and it begins to look as if the capital of mass culture, the place that decides whether Chinese teenagers are obsessed with doomed cruise-liners or giant lizards, is also the harbinger of a post-literate society.
And yet on the last weekend in April tens of thousands of people braved packed roads and lousy parking to attend the Los Angeles Times book festival at UCLA's bucolic campus in Brentwood. The Times started the festival two years ago expecting no more than 25,000 people: 75,000 turned up. By this year the number had grown to 110,000, about 10% of the newspaper's readership.
The atmosphere at the festival was a mixture of street carnival and literary salon. Hundreds of exhibitors, ranging from giant bookshops like Barnes & Noble to tiny publishers specialising in New Age spirituality, set up shop. More than 300 authors discussed everything from the state of black America to the art of biography.
The festival was marred by LA's local vice, celebrity worship. The star-struck listened with rapt attention as Oliver Stone intoned about a woman's “prehistoric nipples”, and the announcement that Charlton Heston was about to start speaking sent the crowd surging across the campus. But serious authors got a look in too. Tickets to hear Jane Smiley were sold out weeks before.
The festival reflects the fact that for the past five years Los Angeles has been the biggest book market in the country. Last year Angelenos bought $50m-worth of books more than New Yorkers, according to Publishers Weekly, an industry journal. Big stores such as Borders and Barnes & Noble are full at almost any time of the day. And independent bookshops, some of them highly specialised, are also thriving.
There are now more bookshops in the city than at any other time in its history, according to Steve Wasserman, the editor of the Los Angeles Times book review. These shops increasingly reflect LA's diversity, with specialists catering for every racial group and sexual orientation.
Hispanic bookshops such as the Cultura Latina Bookstore and Art Gallery are going from strength to strength as Hispanics move into the middle class. Bright Lights Children's Bookstore makes a healthy living out of books by and for African Americans. And Circus of Books has a front-room for journals such as the Times Literary Supplement and a back-room for hard-core pornography. They seem to be equally popular.
The city has boasted an impressive colony of writers ever since, for their various reasons, Aldous Huxley, Thomas Mann, Bertold Brecht and F. Scott Fitzgerald moved there in the 1930s. Of the 1,000 members of PEN, a writers' organisation, who live west of the Mississippi, more than half live in southern California, from famous names such as Ray Bradbury and Elmore Leonard to a small army of New Age zealots.
The passion for books reaches the highest echelons of the city. Richard Riordan is probably the most bookish mayor in the country, a man who seems much happier talking about Evelyn Waugh and P.G. Wodehouse than local planning permits.
Why this growing interest in books in Los Angeles? Mr Wasserman speculates that one reason is the sheer anonymity of the place. In a city that is bereft of old-fashioned meeting places, bookshops are becoming the new town squares. The giant shops have deliberately turned themselves into social centres, replete with cafés, easy chairs, music sections and even desks where teenagers can catch up on their homework. Some provide crèches with entertainers; most invite musicians to play and authors to give readings.
Another reason is that the entertainment industry is not quite as hostile to reading as many cultural conservatives fear. Oprah Winfrey has differentiated herself from purveyors of TV trash by declaring that her mission in life is to get America—and the world—to read again. Her weekly Book Club choices, which can be found in Starbucks cafés as well as bookshops, regularly sell to people who have never been in the habit of reading before.
Ms Winfrey is based in Chicago. But a similar sense that books can confer distinction is spreading to Hollywood. A decade ago the tone was set by people like the late Don Simpson, producer of the movie “Top Gun” and a prodigious coke-snorter and whoremonger. While these vices have not disappeared, Hollywood types these days are keener on keeping both their bodies and minds in shape. Steven Spielberg, Whoopi Goldberg and Bette Midler are all avid book collectors.
The fashion for cerebration is likely to continue. Hollywood is now a magnet for well-educated Ivy League types in much the same way as Wall Street was in the 1980s: so much so, in fact, that writing teams for television cartoon programmes such as “The Simpsons” and “King of the Hill” are in danger of degenerating into Harvard alumni associations.
The studios have discovered that great books can also be a source for great screenplays, churning out a regular diet of adaptations of 19th-century fiction. The Hollywood machine is forever scouring more recent books too. Peter Carey's “Oscar and Lucinda” has been turned into a film, as has Jane Smiley's “A Thousand Acres”.
The interest in literary culture is still, however, sometimes surprisingly shallow. A shell-suited man in Blockbusters, a video store, was heard to ask recently whether Jane Austen had made any more films. But the fact that the inquirer had so much as heard of Ms Austen is some testament to the changing status of literature in the city.
This article appeared in the Moreover section of the print edition under the headline "Return of The Book"
From the May 9th 1998 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contentsExplore the edition


text:
LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- When the moon temporarily blocks the sun on Aug. 21, millions of people will be watching. But if you're not wearing certified eclipse glasses, you could be in danger of damaging your eyes.
"If you stare at the sun and you allow that light to get into your eye, you can in fact go blind," Dr. Ed Krupp said.
Krupp, with Griffith Observatory, said this will be the most promoted eclipse in history. But he wants people to be careful with counterfeit or homemade viewing devices, which won't protect against infrared and ultra violet light.
Mark Margolis runs Rainbow Symphony, a Los Angeles-based company that manufactures eclipse glasses. He said they've sold tens of millions over the past three years leading up to the big day.
"There's a lot of glasses that are coming into the market that are made in other places that haven't gone through the rigorous testing that our glasses have. They don't have the ISO - ISO testing has not been done," he said.
The lenses on Margolis' glasses allow a low and safe percentage of light into the eye, while counterfeit glasses may not.
The American Astronomical Society said the counterfeits may have the mandatory ISO mark, but no number. Real eclipse glasses also provide a way for the user to contact a manufacturer.
In Los Angeles, we'll see a partial eclipse, where 60 percent of the sun will be covered. Krupp said the eclipse will start at 9:05 a.m. PST and be done by 11:44 a.m. PST.
"It will look like a big bite taken out of the sun," he said.
The glasses are being sold at convenience stores and at the Griffith Observatory gift shop. Google has also donated the glasses to public libraries throughout the country, where you can get them for free.
Los Angeles experts warn about phony eclipse glasses as celestial event nears
More TOP STORIES News


text:
AT&T, Verizon win FCC airwave auction
WASHINGTON (AP) - The two largest cell phone companies dominated bidding in a record-setting government airwaves auction, according to results released yesterday.
AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless combined to account for $16 billion of the $19.6 billion bid in the auction, an Associated Press analysis of Federal Communications Commission data shows. Verizon Wireless bid $9.4 billion and AT&T $6.6 billion.
The results raised concern that the auction failed to attract any significant new competitors to the cellular telephone market to challenge the dominant companies. For example, Google Inc. was not among the winners, meaning the search engine giant will not be entering the wireless business.
One new entrant, Frontier Wireless LLC, owned by direct broadcast satellite television company EchoStar Corp., won nearly enough licenses to create a nationwide footprint. Frontier bid $712 million, according to FCC data.
Despite the dominance in the auction by the major cell providers, the FCC chairman was upbeat about the auction results. "A bidder other than a nationwide incumbent won a license in every market," Kevin Martin said. As a result, there is the potential for a "wireless third-pipe" competitor to emerge in every market across the nation.
Broadband access is dominated by the major telecommunications and cable companies. Martin wants wireless to emerge as a third platform, creating competition.
But Ben Scott, policy director of Free Press, an advocacy group that supports greater access to communications services, said the auction failed in that regard because Verizon already is a dominant provider of Internet access.
"The prospect of a genuine third-pipe competitor in the wireless world is now slim to none," he said.
Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.


text:
Bitcoin’s founding is the stuff of legend: It was created in 2009 under the alias Satoshi Nakamoto – an unknown entity who believes future currencies shouldn’t be controlled by a central government or agency.
The first Bitcoin hit the market in July 2010 at a cost of under $0.01. It took three years for the currency to reach more than $1,000. Since 2013, Bitcoin has smashed all records. It peaked at $69,045 back in November 2021. The current price of Bitcoin is around $22,259 — or 8.8% lower than what it was just one month ago. All prices are quoted in US dollars.
The price of Bitcoin has changed by $599 over the past day, with yesterday’s price of about $21,504 and today’s price of $22,259. The number of Bitcoin currently in circulation is 19,148,643. While there can only be 21 million Bitcoin created, it’s estimated that this maximum won’t be reached within the next 100 years.
Bitcoin is by far the biggest cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization — or total value in existence. Currently, $424 billion worth of Bitcoin is out in the wild. Bitcoin surpassed a market cap of $1 trillion for the first time in February 2021. Ethereum, the second most popular currency, has a market cap of $210 billion.
Some $40 billion worth of Bitcoin has been traded over the past 24 hours. The graph below depicts the volume of Bitcoin traded daily. This figure can be somewhat volatile, with $14 billion traded on one of its worst days and $63 billion traded on one of its best.
The price of Bitcoin can also be volatile. Elon Musk announced in February 2021 that Tesla had purchased $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin and would be accepting the currency as payment, paving the way for larger companies to adopt Bitcoin and sending the price soaring. Musk reversed that announcement in May and declared that Tesla would no longer accept Bitcoin due to its high carbon footprint, leading to an immediate crash of the Bitcoin price to roughly where it was before his first tweet.
While you’ll find excellent guides covering how to invest in Bitcoin, as with any cryptocurrency, it’s wise to invest with caution.
More guides on Finder
EthereumPoW (ETHW) price, chart, coin profile and news
This guide provides step-by-step instructions on how to buy EthereumPoW, lists some exchanges where you can get it and provides daily price data on ETHW.
Coinbase Wrapped Staked ETH (CBETH) price, chart, coin profile and news
This guide provides step-by-step instructions on how to buy Coinbase Wrapped Staked ETH, lists some exchanges where you can get it and provides daily price data on CBETH.
How to buy EthereumPoW (ETHW)
This guide provides step-by-step instructions on how to buy EthereumPoW, lists some exchanges where you can get it and provides daily price data on (ETHW).
How to buy Coinbase Wrapped Staked ETH (CBETH)
This guide provides step-by-step instructions on how to buy Coinbase Wrapped Staked ETH, lists some exchanges where you can get it and provides daily price data on (CBETH).
Finder Crypto Trading Platform Awards 2022
Find out how major crypto exchanges and brokers fared in our latest crypto trading platform awards.
What is a crypto rug pull?
Learn about some of the biggest crypto rug pulls and how to avoid getting “rugged”
Voyager vs. Coinbase: Which crypto exchange is better?
Which cryptocurrency exchange is better for beginners, Coinbase or Voyager?
Crypto.com vs. Binance.US: Which crypto exchange is better?
Find out which cryptocurrency exchange is better between Binance.US and Crypto.com
Binance.US vs. Gemini: Which crypto exchange is better?
Binance.US and Gemini are two world class cryptocurrency exchanges. Which one is better for crypto beginners?
Uphold vs. Binance.US: Which crypto exchange is better?
We compare Uphold and Binance to determine which platform is better for new users.
Ask an Expert


text:
Slackware-Based Porteus 3.2.2 Portable Distro Released with Linux Kernel 4.9
Today, December 29, 2016, the development team behind the Porteus (formerly Slax Remix) Linux-based operating system series proudly announced the final release of Porteus 3.2.2.
Until today, the Porteus 3.2 series was in development, with no less than five RC (Release Candidate) builds published. It comes a little over a year since the release of the Porteus 3.1 stable branch and promises great GNU/Linux technologies, including the recently released Linux 4.9 kernel.
Porteus 3.2.2 is also the first stable version of the 3.2 series, and it’s distributed in four distinct flavors, with the KDE Plasma 5, Xfce, Cinnamon, and MATE desktop environments. Under the hood, it features the PulseAudio sound system, eudev device file manager, and ConsoleKit2 framework for defining/tracking users and login sessions
“Four desk… (read more)


text:
Of the four models launched by Apple on Wednesday, the company is going to start India manufacturing the iPhone 14 next quarter in the fastest-ever local production start in the country. It expects the made-in-India units to be commercially available by December. They will be produced at the Foxconn factory near Chennai, two senior industry executives said.
Analysts and industry executives also estimate the December quarter will mark Apple's highest ever shipment of iPhones to India at around 570,000 units compared with 370,000 units last year.
Apple has been progressively reducing the India production lag of new iPhone models since launch. It went from 10-12 months to six months for its last flagship model, the iPhone 13. This year, it's going to be 2-3 months from the launch though trial runs are scheduled to start by next month.
11-12 m Units may be Made Locally Apple didn't respond to queries.
This is part of the company's strategy to set up new global production hubs to lower its reliance on China, where production has been hampered multiple times since the pandemic due to the country's zero-Covid policy forcing local lockdowns. However, the launch phase supplies of the iPhone 14 series in India and globally will be from China.
"Apple's iPhone 14 is expected to be the largest volume grosser in India amongst the new iPhones launched and hence that is likely to be the model to be first locally produced," said Tarun Pathak, research director at Counterpoint Research. "Since the selling price is also high, it will help Apple to achieve its production linked incentive target in India."
He said the series is expected to account for more than 20-25% of all iPhone sales in India in the December quarter.
Apple on Wednesday announced the launch of four models as part of its new iPhone 14 series-the iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max, with prices ranging from ₹79,900 to ₹1,89,900. The company will begin selling these models in India on September 16, with the exception of the iPhone 14 Plus, which will start on October 7, at the same as it's doing so in bigger markets such as the US, UK, China, Japan and France. Apple is expected to make 11-12 million iPhones in India through its three contract manufacturers in 2022, up from 7.5 million in 2021. Locally made iPhones are expected to account for 85% of domestic demand in 2022.
Market researcher CMR estimates Apple's iPhone shipments will grow by 50% in the launch quarter this year. "This will be driven by early local manufacturing and the festive season sales," said Prabhu Ram, head, industry intelligence group, CMR. "This is potentially slated to be the best-ever launch quarter for Apple in India."
Apple is going to have another big quarter and a record year, said Navkendar Singh, associate vice president, devices research at IDC India, South Asia and ANZ. "Spending on premium devices is growing, hence the next six months will give good volumes to Apple in the premium space till we see Samsung's Galaxy S23 in February." The iPhone 13 and 13 Pro will still drive volumes in India, he said.
Both CMR and Counterpoint Research predict Apple's India shipments for the full calendar year to reach 7-7.5 million, up from last year's 5 million units.
Counterpoint Research has estimated Apple's overall market share in the Indian smartphone market to touch its highest ever 4% this year with around 47% share in the premium segment.
India being one of the world’s foremost digital powers among emerging economies, over 70% of the CFOs consider the implementation of digital technologies as their topmost priority. On the other hand, rise in stringent regulatory policies has also contributed to enterprises digitally transforming their finance function. Lakshmi Nair, Partner, IBM chats with finance leaders S Tirumalai, CFO , Tata Chemicals, Tanushree Bagrodia, CFO, Laxmi Organic Industries , Yogesh Patel, CFO, Mahindra Logistics to know Are CFOs Digitally Ready For The Future?


text:
Sep 7 2023 :
Heads and Tales Bookshop, Barwon Heads: Kate will discuss The Hummingbird Effect with Mark Smith
Sep 1 2023 :
Ink Bookshop, Mansfield: Kate will discuss The Hummingbird Effect with Charlotte of the Ink Bookshop
Aug 31 2023 :
Antipodes Bookshop, Sorrento: Kate will be in conversation with Andrea Rowe
Aug 27 2023 :
Fairfield Books August Sunday Soiree features Kate chatting about The Hummingbird Effect
Aug 26 2023 :
Verso Books will host an intimate literary lunch with Kate Mildenhall and Maggie MacKellar at the historic Healesville Hotel.
Aug 23 2023 :
Matilda Books, Adelaide. Kate will be in conversation with Pip Williams to celebrate the launch of The Hummingbird Effect.
Aug 17 2023 :
Eltham Bookshop: Kate will be in conversation to celebrate the release of The Hummingbird Effect
Kate’s first book, SKYLARKING was published in Australia by Black Inc. in 2016 and in the UK by Legend Press in 2017. Her second THE MOTHER FAULT is published in Australia by Simon & Schuster in 2020 and in the UK by Harper Collins UK in 2021. Kate’s third novel, THE HUMMINGBIRD EFFECT, will also be published in Australia by Simon & Schuster in 2023.


text:
Professional Community for Automotive Marketers, Car Dealers, OEM and Suppliers
Gone are the days you throw up an expensive auto dealership website and count on car sales prospects being wowed into filling out a “contact” form. The internet is a dynamic communication platform, and to connect with car buyers…Continue
Added by Big Tom LaPointe on May 15, 2013 at 8:53am — No Comments
You probably have noticed J.C. Penney's
heartfelt apology taking over the airwaves after posting a 13 billion decline in revenue while trying to attract young customers to their stores. In this new, the company admits it made mistakes and alienated many of its longtime customers. The voice-over in its most recent ad, "It's No Secret" states: “Some…Continue
Added by Ketty Colom on May 15, 2013 at 8:34am — No Comments
Over the past several months, we’ve been doing a ton of research in the automotive industry about how dealers perceive social media marketing. It’s something that has both thrilled and alarmed us because the results have been greatly mixed. On one hand, many dealers are starting to realize that social media is more than just a fluffy form of marketing that has not demonstrable ROI, a…Continue
Many people really don’t know exactly what a Public Relations firm does. The common answer is “write press releases,” but I can guarantee you public relations firms do not sit around all day and just write press releases (or at least good ones). So what, exactly, do we do?
As defined by…Continue
The 2013 Chevy Volt is a popular choice of a car dealership in Mason, Ohio. It is a good choice for supplementing with a solar panel array. The Volt driver fills up the gas tank just as you exceed 900 miles since the gas engine starts only after the battery has been depleted. Even if you cross 1300 miles on the first tank from the dealer, it does not fill up.
Things to Consider
Temperature Run: A Chevrolet dealer in Cincinnati, Ohio will tell you…Continue
Added by Tom Brown on May 15, 2013 at 4:13am — No Comments
Researchers at a Dutch university have developed an online programme that is able give the age and gender of users purely based on the content they post on the social network Twitter.…Continue
Added by Bill Cosgrove on May 14, 2013 at 7:06pm — No Comments
The latest car lease credit approvals data show 2013 has started out with the strongest credit health since the recession. According to credit approvals data from Swapalease.com, the nation’s largest automotive lease marketplace, 77.3% of customers were approved during April, up from 70% during the previous month.
Credit remains the lifeblood of car leasing, and lenders…
Added by John Sternal on May 14, 2013 at 2:30pm — No Comments
ALBANY, N.Y. – May 14th, 2013 – Auto/Mate Dealership Systems (http://www.automate.com) announced today that its AMPS Dealership Management System (DMS) is fully integrated with Xtime ServiceCRM, the leading cloud-based customer retention management (CRM) and scheduling platform for the automotive service industry. Dealers using AMPS can now take advantage of seamless, bi-directional data exchange with Xtime Service CRM to improve customer relationships…Continue
Added by Mike Esposito on May 14, 2013 at 12:39pm — No Comments
Stressed about your Online Marketing Strategy? Don't know what you should be tracking and what benchmarks to measure? Then watch this week's Think Tank Tuesday Video, Leave Your Comments below the video and Share it Please.
Added by Paul Potratz on May 14, 2013 at 11:31am — No Comments
Written by: Rebecca Chernek
The glass ceiling for women’s acceptance in the finance industry was shattered over a decade ago.
According to the 2012 Catalyst Census of Women Executive Officers and Top Earners, which counts the number of women in upper management in Fortune 500 companies, women comprise over 18% of all executive officers in the finance industry, and 19% of board directors in the finance and insurance industries in…Continue
Added by Garry House on May 14, 2013 at 7:40am — No Comments
Daytona Beach, FL – May 14, 2013 – DMEautomotive’s Driver Connect has been named a finalist for “New Product or Service of the Year” in the Software - Mobile On-Demand Application category in The 2013 American Business Awards, and will ultimately be a Gold, Silver, or Bronze Stevie® Award…Continue
Added by Crystal Hartwell on May 14, 2013 at 6:40am — No Comments
Everyone who plays in the Facebook page strategy game has their opinions about the types of content to post. Car dealers and vendors have tried different things over the years. Some have found success while others have let it fall off completely, dismissing it as unimportant or too time-consuming to mess with on a daily basis.
For those who are doing well or…Continue
Added by J.D. Rucker on May 14, 2013 at 6:30am — No Comments
Dealerships today spend most of their marketing budgets on acquiring new customers. Those ads in the newspapers aren’t really meant for current of past customers, they are meant to attract new customers. The cost of customer acquisition ranges from…Continue
Added by Mike Gorun on May 14, 2013 at 4:43am — No Comments
Dave Anderson is president of LearnToLead.
He is an international author and speaker.
MMA fighters require a blend of disciplines to become champion in the caged octagon where they fight. However, a champion in any endeavor is likely to tell you they…Continue
Added by Bill Cosgrove on May 13, 2013 at 4:30pm — No Comments
Here is the most recent used car market report from Ricky Beggs and Black Book. A few months back we talked about the effects on the used auction activity, especially on the physical lanes, when we have a fifth week of the month of auctions. While attending a manufacturer related meeting this past week I had a remarketer say the reason for more no sales during this past week was due to the extra week of activity for the month. We did have…
Added by John Sternal on May 13, 2013 at 1:22pm — No Comments
Added by Jody DeVere on May 13, 2013 at 11:30am — No Comments
Branding is important. It’s something that most businesses want but few do well enough considering the tools that we all have at our disposal through the internet in general and social media in particular. However, too many are starting to use social media as a branding tool only. The reality for local businesses is that it can and should be used to drive…Continue
Added by J.D. Rucker on May 13, 2013 at 6:30am — No Comments
Professional Networking as a Competitive Advantage for Car Dealers
About a month ago I had the honor and privilege of speaking at the…Continue
Fix your sales problem in 5 easy steps – sounds great, doesn’t it? Formulaic approaches such as this are very tempting. Furthermore, they align with our fast food, quick fix mentality. Seem too good to be true? That’s because it is. Don’t get me wrong, I revel in an easy solution.…Continue
Facebook has been a challenging venue for marketers and advertisers ever since it started really getting popular in 2009. At that time, it was clear that it was the social network to beat and the company started trying to cash in with different types of advertising options. Most of them failed miserably for the same reason that many marketers continue to fail today: people go to Facebook to be…Continue
Added by J.D. Rucker on May 12, 2013 at 6:00am — No Comments


text:
Mark Pincus, Zynga Founder, is stepping down from all operational roles, to become a non-executive chairman in the company. His latest title was Chief Product Officer and that didn’t last long.
Don't forget to like us on FACEBOOK, thanks so much!
Pincus founded Zynga in 2007, and held position of CEO until last year when Don Mattrick took over. According to Pincus, his position change follows a 10 month transitional period, which begun when he stepped down as CEO last year.
“I had wanted to stay on doing the product role for a while, because I wanted to put my hands on the product and make sure the company continued to also pursue its social mission,” Pincus said. “Don and some of the existing team and new people really embraced that and, so, ultimately a ship is better with one captain putting a hand on the wheel.”
The social gaming giant was worth more than $10 billion in March 2012, though it went down the hill fast when company’s shares hit the market. Don Mattrick became CEO last year and introduced several changes to Zynga. The shares went up a little, but still far from the original value. Mark Pincus plans to stay involved with the company, just one day a week at most, and won’t have any management duties. He will focus on personal investing, as he has done few times in the past.
While Mark Pincus has no plans to start another company anytime soon, he has thought of creating an incubator, and we might just see a new social gaming rival in the future.
“I am going to invest in ideas that I think can be breakthrough products, and I don’t feel any burning need to go out and start a company,” he said, adding that. “I want to do things that are more organic, because that’s where Zynga started.”
When Zynga was founded, Pincus had no gaming experience, yet he managed to create a giant in casual social gaming industry. Unlike Pincus, Don Mattrick has an extensive experience in the industry and has started appointing experts to help brighten up Zynga’s future.
Alex Garden, the former Microsoft Xbox Live executive and founder of Relic Entertainment, has been appointed as the head of Zynga Studios. That seems like a move into a right direction for a company that wants to regain its old glory and dominate the market once more.
Henry LaBounta, an Academy Award-nominated visual artist, joined the team as Chief Visual Officer. We could see improved art-style of games such as FarmVille and other Ville titles. Although to revive the audience, these games need more than just a redesign.
One of the games that started it all was Mafia Wars. The only true social game made by Zynga and still holds loyal players who learnt to cope with bugs and just enjoy the social part of it, because social gaming is all about having fun time with other players. Will Zynga create another title like Mafia Wars, or will they continue to throw Ville after Ville at us? One or two Ville games might be fine, but when you have a whole bunch of similar titles, it just gets too much to keep user’s attention in a long run. Some say Zynga made a wrong decision to disregard Mafia Wars and that it all went down for the company ever since.
Dolores is SEO and Digital Marketing consultant who has been completely hog-washed into doing this site by KC.


text:
Singapore: Purchases related to the wedding season in India, the world’s largest gold consumer, have dominated gold trading in Asia this week, but volatile prices curbed the appetite of Japanese investors.
A firm rupiah has boosted purchases from jewellers in Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest buyer, but trading has yet to pick up in China after the week-long Golden Week holiday, dealers said on Wednesday, 9 May. “Demand is still good and, in fact, Indonesia has been buying gold because of the strong rupiah. They would normally sell, especially if the gold price goes up,” said a dealer in Singapore.
The rupiah was firm around 8,900 per dollar (219 per rupee) on Wednesday even though the central bank cut interest rates the previous day and saw room for further reductions. Dealers said such cuts would boost foreign demand for local assets and, therefore, the currency.
In demand: Gold’s fall from an 11-month high in April is luring buyers.
Gold’s fall from an 11-month high of around $693 (Rs28,413) hit in late April was still attracting buyers in India, dealers said, even though the wedding season was now nearing its end. “India is buying each time the price comes off,” said the Singapore dealer, who quoted premiums for gold bars at 10 US cents an ounce to the spot London price.
Gold jewellery is the most common gift during religious events in India and forms an essential part of the dowry basket. India accounts for 20% of the annual global demand for gold, devouring 800 tonnes of the metal, mostly as jewellery.
Premiums were unchanged in Hong Kong at 20 US cents an ounce to the spot London price. “There’s not much movement in China. Of course, there’s some buying there, but not too much. Maybe a technical correction is coming in,” said Ronald Leung, director of Lee Cheong Gold Dealers in Hong Kong.
After hitting its highest on 23 April, gold tumbled to a one-month low of around $667 on 2 May because of a rise in the US dollar. Currently trading around $685, the metal may see more of a correction because of its failure to go through $700, a level last seen in May 2006, dealers said.
“We could find some demand from the industrial side after the holiday,” said a dealer in Tokyo, referring to Japan’s Golden Week holiday last week. “However, because the price of gold in Japanese yen is still very high, liquidation from the general public is getting stronger,” he said.
Gold bars in Tokyo were offered at a premium of 50 US cents to the spot London price, unchanged from last week.
Purchases from Japanese investors helped gold reach multi-year highs in 2006, when it spiked to a 26-year high of $730 an ounce in mid-May.
But many investors were likely to stay on the sidelines this week, ahead of central bank meetings. “Investors will take their cues from the rate-setting decisions, which often affect gold prices because of interactions in the currency markets,” Investec Australia said in a daily report.
On Wednesday, standard gold closed at Rs9,120 per 10gm in the Mumbai bullion market.


text:
March. 29. 2022
Samsung Smart School initiative to improve digital literacy
|Students at Suwon Yeonmu Elementary School in Gyeonggi Province participate in class using Samsung Electronics’ IT devices, March 20. / Courtesy of Samsung Electronics|
Samsung Electronics has been running its Samsung Smart School program, providing devices and software to elementary school students as part of its corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities to boost digital literacy.
|Logo of Samsung Electronics / Courtesy of Samsung Electronics|
The tech company said it will bring this year’s Samsung Smart School program to eight elementary schools and two special-education schools that need to build an environment for digital education.
The Samsung Smart School initiative, which was started in 2012, bridges the digital education gap and improves the future capabilities of teenagers by providing its devices, educational content and training in schools that have relatively poor education environments.
So far, the company has established the system in 98 schools and 193 classrooms nationwide.
For this year’s Samsung Smart School program, the company offered a larger number of IT devices and renewed its education program to increase practicality and narrow the digital education gap.
The number of Samsung Smart School classes will increase from one to two per school. In each smart school classroom, there are three Samsung Flip displays, Galaxy Tab tablets and Galaxy Chromebook PCs.
The program provides a variety of exclusive content, including existing lessons such as math, English and science, as well as software to help students learn through activities and games that enhance their digital identity, communication skills and digital literacy.
For teachers taking part in the Samsung Smart School program, the company offers training programs twice a year to enhance their ability to utilize IT devices and educational content.
Also, a group of trainees who have doctoral degrees in education visit the schools once a month to provide consulting on the overall operation of the Samsung Smart School classes and provide educational models suitable for each school.
|Students at Suwon Yeonmu Elementary School in Gyeonggi Province participate in class using Samsung Electronics’ IT devices, March 20. Courtesy of Samsung Electronics|
The program has been received well from teachers, Samsung said.
“For a good education, we always have to pursue new learning methods and move forward, but there were many difficulties. Thanks to the Samsung Smart School program, Cheongsong Elementary School is grateful to be able to lead future education in the local education field,” said Song Sun-sook, principal of Cheongsong Elementary School in South Chungcheong Province, who participated in a test run of the program last year.
Na Ki-hong, head of Samsung’s human resource division, said, “We hope that students will receive fair and high-quality education without restrictions based on regions and environments and grow with creative and convergent problem-solving skills.”


text:
The first 901 Wings
was in the 662 — Southaven, to be exact.
The second location will be opening at 97 N. Main in Downtown Memphis as soon as Thursday.
According to general manager Patrick Brown, the restaurant is finishing up its last inspections.
901 Wings serves nine types of wings, including mild, hot, honey hot, and country fried (!). They've got Party Wings, Whole Wings, and 901 Wings (boneless).
They also serve philly cheesesteak, turkey burgers, salads, and loaded fries (in both steak and chicken versions), what Brown calls the "whole nine."
Brown says with the Southaven location packed out and all the customers coming from Memphis, the new location made sense.
"We can't wait to open and serve the city of Memphis," Brown says.


text:
YouTube to release a documentary about Coachella festival
YouTube already goes back a long way with the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival: it has been streaming sets live from the annual event for a decade. Now it’s going back even further. YouTube is launching a documentary...
January 7, 2020
YouTube Coachella festival livestream generated 82m views
YouTube says that its livestream of the first weekend of the Coachella festival last month set a new record: 82m live views, up an impressive 90% on the figure for 2018’s event. “After nine years of success in the desert,...
May 3, 2019
YouTube continues its livestreaming partnership with Coachella
YouTube will be the exclusive livestreaming partner for American music-festival Coachella this year – the ninth year for the partnership. In fact, the deal is expanding, with YouTube now the exclusive playlists and livestreaming...
January 4, 2019
Sandbox Issue 202: GDPR FYI (General Data Protection Regulation)
This week’s lead feature looks at how the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) comes into effect on 25th May in Europe but it has huge global implications for those holding and using consumer data. Against the backdrop...
April 18, 2018
Instagram boosts its video features with themed channels
Video is becoming ever more important to Instagram, partly because its users want to share and watch it, and partly because it’s a route to more advertising dollars. The latest evidence is the revamp of Instagram’s...
April 15, 2016
Snapchat could have made $800k from Coachella ‘live story’
A year ago, Snapchat launched a feature called Live Stories that involved aggregating photos and videos from specific events, including music festivals. Now the company has been talking about how popular those stories are....
June 18, 2015
YouTube to livestream Coachella festival again
Dance festival Ultra may have ditched YouTube for Twitch with its livestreaming plans, but Google’s video service has renewed its partnership with the Coachella festival. This year’s event will be streamed on three live...
April 2, 2015
Sandbox 107 – Info Blizzard
Lead: the music business used to run on guesswork and now it's awash with intricate data. But are we now generating data for data's sake? Or is this actually helping in refining music marketing and getting the most possible...
April 23, 2014
Now get set for hologram Tupac to go on tour
It seems the hologrammatic Tupac Shakur who took last weekend's Coachella festival by storm may not have rapped his last.
April 18, 2012
Hologrammatic Tupac Shakur takes Coachella by storm
There's bags of online buzz about Dr Dre's headline set at the Coachella festival on Sunday night, particularly the posthumous appearance made by Tupac Shakur, in hologram form
April 17, 2012
Black Keys and Snoop Dogg are most-pirated Coachella headliners
Music analytics firm Musicmetric has published some new research into the level of BitTorrent piracy for the headliners of this year's Coachella festival.
March 29, 2012
4m people tuned in to YouTube’s webcast of the Coachella festival
As we reported earlier this month, the US Coachella festival was one of the first big music events to take advantage of YouTube's new live streaming service. Three days' worth of bands were streamed on the service, with viewers...
April 21, 2011


text:
How the New York Yankees Logo Became a Bona Fide Fashion Statement
Source: Douglas Greenwood from Highsnobiety.
From humbling beginnings in the Bronx the Yankees logo is now being used seen on a Gucci runway in Milan, here’s how the iconic ‘NY’ insignia transcended sport and became recognizable the world over.
First, let’s look at the Yankee Insignia’s inception
The Yankee logo we know and love has a strange backstory, rooted in New York’s other symbolic squad: the NYPD. “[It] goes back to the birth of the franchise in 1903,” Yankee historian and writer Marty Appel tell Highsnobiety. “One of the team’s co-owners was former New York City Police Chief Big Bill Devery, and [in 1877] he had commissioned Louis Tiffany – yes, of that Tiffany – to design a police medal to honour a fallen officer.”
While it was originally developed to pay homage to John McDowell, New York City’s first officer shot and killed in the line of duty, Devery soon realized that the ‘NY’ insignia represented a shared spirit of unity between the police force and New York’s favourite sports team. A design that once appeared on a modest medal, was now on the breast pockets of Bill Devery’s team – a new symbol of togetherness and sportsmanship.
And how it became a fashion statement
New York has always had a global draw, you see it in the movies and on the TV and you want to be there, live there, be part of it, but most of us can’t or don’t, so the next best thing was apparel from New York, and you couldn't get more New York than a Yankees cap.
Before becoming the rich and famous’ wardrobe staple
Empire State of Mind…along came to the early noughties and the Yankees cap was everywhere – Jay-Z, Manhattan-born Macaulay Culkin had been wearing his since the home Alonedays. Then, back when puffers had their first fashion moment and slack jeans were all the rage, Brit-born soccer player David Beckham was spotted wearing his too. But maybe it was President Bill and First Lady Hillary Clinton who bucked the trend, donning theirs when the Yankees visited the White House back in 1999.
And becoming the golden logo for streetwear obsessives
New York is the inimitable home of streetwear, so it’s no surprise that the Yankees insignia has made more than a few cameos on pieces created by the industry’s foremost brands too. Co-labs with Supreme, PublicSchool and Kith as well as Louis Vuitton to name a few.
Now, Gucci’s Alessandro Michele has re-appropriated it
High fashion designers these days are fascinated with irony and ubiquity. Vetements’ Demna Gvasalia tapping into DHL’s iconic logo and transforming it into a statement tee with a $500 price tag was considered one of the most subversive examples of fashion anarchy the industry has seen in years. It makes sense that his equally on-trend counterpart, Gucci’s Alessandro Michele, would try it out too.
Michele first officially linked up with Major League Baseball back for Pre-Fall 2018: that Giallo-inspired collection transformed the humble baseball cap into a luxury accessory, with staple Gucci florals and colored stripes wrapped around the logos of MLB teams. Still, it was Michele’s ability to completely re-contextualize the insignia barely a season later that left us all astounded.
For Gucci’s FW18 collection, Michele unveiled a seriously luxurious take on the Yankees logo. It included silk floral suits emblazoned with a Yankees chest patch, gigantic knitted beanies and intricate, feminine overcoats that pay homage to the original insignia from 1903, when the ‘N’ and ‘Y’ sat on either side of the player’s jersey.
The historical logo that once adorned a humble $15 cap is now appearing on the breast panel of thousand dollar suits; the switch-up is monumental. If anything, Michele’s seal of approval could cause the Yankee cap to have its own fashion renaissance, stepping out of everyman shadows to become a truly coveted piece once again.


text:
The creators of beer festival Craft Beer Rising have announced a new event called BrewLDN, to be held for the first time in February 2020.
BrewLDN will take place at The Old Truman Brewery – home, until now, of Craft Beer Rising – from the 27-29 February. At this stage, the project sounds remarkably similar to Craft Beer Rising: organisers Daniel Rowntree and Chris Bayliss have promised 200 exhibitors at an event with two trade and four consumer sessions, 'showcasing the world’s best brewers, quality street food and a fantastic music programme'.
The event expects to attract 8,000 consumers and 4,000 trade visitors over the three days of the event.
Craft Beer Rising was criticised for blurring the lines between genuinely independent breweries and brands owned by multinationals. The new event will continue this synthesis, it appears, with a promise to 'champion every corner of the industry', as Rowntree wrote in a post on LinkedIn.
There will be 'vastly reduced' stands for start-ups, and organisers will be launching an incubator scheme offering stands to outstanding new beer businesses.
The new event has raised serious doubts over the future of Craft Beer Rising, which is now owned by C&C Group, the company that produces Magners, Bulmers and Tennent’s. The organisers of BrewLDN have stated that theirs will be the only beer event held at the Old Truman’s Brewery in 2020, meaning CBR would need to find a new venue. C&C Group was contacted for comment via email and telephone but had not responded at the time of publication.
In 2017 Rowntree and Bayliss sold Elastic – which owned Craft Beer Rising – to Matthew Clark, which was subsequently bought by Conviviality. When Conviviality went into administration, it was picked up by C&C. Rowntree and Bayliss left Elastic in March 2019 and it has since been wound up, with all staff made redundant, according to Rowntree.
Rowntree has spent the past few months visiting other beer festivals, including GBBF, London Craft Beer Festival and the Craft Beer Conference in Denver, to hone his vision for the new event.
'We want to champion every corner of the industry, while keeping on top of innovation and what’s coming next – not just the latest beer style, but unique brewing techniques, new technology and new ingredients,' he said. 'We want to demystify trends, talk about CBD beer, healthy alcohol, low/no and fruit beers/radlers. We want to provoke an open discussion within the industry: we can’t stop progression. Big will always want to buy cool. That’s the capitalist cycle within which we operate, so let's embrace it.'
BrewLDN will aim to reflect the creative, open-minded culture that modern beer prides itself on. 'Innovation in brewing and discovering new tastes and trends are central to our ethos as is championing diversity and sustainability within the industry,' said Bayliss. 'Craft Beer Rising was an incredible journey and something the team are all very proud of. We are keen to take all of those learnings to deliver the ultimate trade and consumer show in the UK.'


text:
We’ve recently raised questions about just what the social video space is and how it works. Clearly, advertisers and investors are big believers. Unruly Media, which has made a serious push into the U.S. over the past year after establishing its roots in Europe, just landed $25 million in series A funding. According to officials, the relatively unknown firm pulled in $25 million in revenue last year and is on pace to double that this year.
It’s easy to tie Unruly’s funding announcement to recent cash infusions for video ad networks like Tremor Video and YuMe. But Unruly claims to play in a different world: thesocial video arena. Unruly offers to seed videos across the Web through editorial relationships and the like; the company actually got dinged earlier this week by apparently paying bloggers to tout Google Chrome. Still, Unruly works with major brands campaigns like Evian’s Roller Babies, as well as efforts for Coke, Old Spice and T-Mobile.
It makes sense. Brands have fallen head over heels for social media, and it stands to reason that anyone who can do recommendation marketing at scale will benefit. The problem is “predictable” and “viral” rarely go together. Unruly’s challenge will be making sure it’s above board in how it gets videos spread, since advertisers are unlikely to keep paying if the views they’re getting aren’t genuine.
As for the funds, Unruly gives usual reasons: expand internationally and become a global leader in the nascent sub-industry. It already boasts it reaches 725 million people in 74 countries.
More in Media
An analysis of four publishers’ Q4 and full-year 2023 earnings.
Sharing a stage with leading media executives from PepsiCo, Samsung Mobile, and Unilever, leading execs at the DSP shared their vision for the year ahead.
The U.S. Supreme Court addressed separate cases about a similar question: Can states limit social media companies’ moderation?


text:
NEW YORK, Jan 22 (Reuters) - T-Mobile US is stepping beyond cellphones and offering payment cards in the latest effort to differentiate its service from bigger rivals.
The No. 4 U.S. mobile provider said it is offering a Visa card with banking features and a smartphone money management application with reduced-fee or zero-cost services for T-Mobile wireless customers.
The company, which has gained attention with promises of more flexible and cheaper cellphone services, is hoping to attract a similar following in personal finance.
The card, issued by a Bancorp Inc subsidiary and licensed by Visa Inc, is similar to a bank account. It will allow consumers to direct deposit paychecks and checks from smartphone cameras, make retail purchases, pay bills and withdraw cash from more than 42,000 ATMs with no fees.
The service could be attractive to people who struggle to qualify for traditional bank accounts but is unlikely to bring in revenue for the operator, at least in the short term, said Jackdaw Research analyst Jan Dawson.
“This has to be seen today as strictly a competitive differentiator and not a revenue opportunity, though I would expect T-Mobile to offer a broader range of financial services over time, and perhaps try to make some money on those,” Dawson said. “For now, though, this is another marketing effort from T-Mobile that will cost money rather than make money for the company.”
T-Mobile Chief Executive John Legere managed to turn around four years of customer losses with subscriber growth in the last three quarters of 2013 by offering discounted services and loudly criticizing bigger rivals Verizon Wireless , AT&T Inc and Sprint Corp.
T-Mobile shares were down 3 cents at $33.14 on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday.


text:
|Day's Range||3.369 - 3.69|
|52 Week Range||1.5500 - 8.6900|
|Volume (24hr) All Currencies||530.70M|
South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb is reportedly entering the Singaporean market via a deal with local crypto platform BitHolic. News1 Korea reported the news on Thursday, saying that BitHolic changed its name to Bithumb Singapore this month.The post Crypto exchange Bithumb to debut in Singapore via local platform BitHolic appeared first on The Block.
Cryptocurrency wallet provider Abra has announced some major changes for its U.S. users due to “continued" regulatory uncertainty in the country.The post Crypto wallet Abra restricting US services due to regulatory uncertainty appeared first on The Block.
Cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex has announced the introduction of seven new asset pairs, with three markets tied to USD Coin (USDC) and four tied to Tether (USDT). The post Poloniex introduces new asset pairs for Tether and USDC appeared first on The Block.
Private-key management company Torus has just closed a seed round, pocketing $2 million in funding, Coindesk writes. While the round was led by Multicoin Capital, the startup got $500,000 from Binance Labs; other companies, Coinbase Ventures, Sixth Horizon, Accomplice and Terminal, also participated.The post Private-key management startup receives funding from Multicoin, Binance, Coinbase appeared first on The Block.
It’s been a little over a year since EOS shook the crypto market with its $4 billion ICO, and today, people are still learning how to buy EOS cryptocurrency. Despite its critics, the platform is still popular among many cryptocurrency adopters. Buying EOS tokens and storing them is similar to most other digital coins. Once you have a wallet and an account on a crypto exchange, you’re pretty much good to go - although not all exchanges list it. Here’s how to buy EOS cryptocurrency instantly and which exchanges are best for trading it. What is EOS? EOS claims to be “the most powerful infrastructure” for dApps. The network is similar to Ethereum in that it allows other blockchain-based projectsThe post How to buy EOS cryptocurrency appeared first on Coin Rivet.
Cryptocurrency asset manager Bitwise and Swiss fintech company Amun AG have launched a new exchange-traded product (ETP) on Switzerland’s top stock exchange SIX, and it promises to offer diversified liquid exposure to the nascent digital market. The post Bitwise, Amun launch a new crypto ETP on Swiss stock exchange appeared first on The Block.
The next project we'll be taking a dive into for Knowing the developers, EOS, is the fifth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap.The post Knowing the developers: an analysis of EOSIO appeared first on The Block.
Galaxy Digital has sold its shares in EOS developer Block.One for a staggering $71.2 million in what CEO Mike Novogratz described as an attempt to “rebalance our portfolio”. After the firm experienced losses of $272 million in 2018, Galaxy Digital accepted an EOS tender offer back in April, staking $32 million. Just over a month later, the crypto merchant bank has realised a 123% return on its initial investment following bullish price action. Want to set the record straight. Galaxy is still a shareholder in @block_one_ , We are a large holder of $EOS tokens, and we strongly believe in the leadership of @BrendanBlumer and @bytemaster7 Very excited for their June announcement. Took profit to rebalance our portfolio. — Michael The post Galaxy Digital ditches EOS as part of portfolio rebalance appeared first on Coin Rivet.
Staking startup InfStones has received $2 million in funding, CoinDesk writes. Investors like Danhua VC and Plug and Play Ventures participated in the seed round.The post InfStones raises $2 million seed round of funding appeared first on The Block.
Reddit user u/soundsoviel recently shared an emotional story about his two-and-a-half year journey to become a crypto millionaire, only to lose it all and become “poor” again. In a Reddit post, Sondsoviel said he was writing while “sitting in a bar in the slums of East Africa, enjoying my $0.60 beer in the shadows”. Sondsoviel told the community that whilst working for a bank in Europe, “a colleague told me about Ethereum” near the end of 2016. He then decided to “invest blindly what I had left from my savings” into the upcoming decentralised project. The first 12 months of the investment went very well as the price of the Ethereum token went from around $10 to nearly $500 by The post One man’s journey from crypto millionaire to ‘poor’ again appeared first on Coin Rivet.
Coinbase announced in a blog post on Friday that its Coinbase Pro product will begin accepting deposits for EOS, Augur, and Maker on Tuesday, April 18.The post Coinbase Pro to list EOS, Augur, and Maker appeared first on The Block.
Latest EOS price commentary The price of EOS has been trading sideways over the last 24 hours and is currently sitting at $5.27. This follows a massive upwards spike earlier in the week that lifted prices by more than 200%. Following this rally, the price of EOS and other prominent cryptocurrencies are now moving in a positive direction, with a few minor corrections. EOS volume has increased considerably over the past few days by around 100% and is now currently sitting just above $3 billion. If this trend continues, we may be officially over the longest bear market in the history of cryptocurrency. Current live EOS pricing information and interactive charts are available on our site 24 hours a day. The post Latest EOS price and analysis (EOS to USD) appeared first on Coin Rivet.
There's no question that exchange hacks continue to plague the nascent digital currency market, and over the weekend the amount of funds pilfered from such venues surpassed a total of $1.3 billion, according to The Block’s research.The post With Bithumb hack, total stolen from crypto exchanges tops $1.3 billion — here are the 10 biggest hacks ever appeared first on The Block.
Cosmos Hub launched just last month, and its popularity is growing. The solution offering blockchain interoperability has been available for less than a week, and four in five of the validator slots have been picked up, Diar writes.The post Proof-of-Stake projects see a rise in interest as Cosmos Hub launches appeared first on The Block.
Decentralised liquidity network Bancor has announced a new non-custodial wallet for users to instantly convert between Ethereum and EOS-based tokens without the need for order books or counterparties. Bancor’s new wallet will focus on user experience for trading cross-chain tokens. In the press release, the team said that the “user experience of the Bancor Wallet resembles that of Coinbase and other popular custodial wallets”. Bancor's new Unified Wallet is officially LIVE. For the first time ever, users can perform one-click conversions between @Ethereum & $EOS tokens without giving up possession of their #crypto. https://t.co/7nBGDN9IRE pic.twitter.com/L7YdYMGQaC — Bancor (@Bancor) March 11, 2019 Bancor users originally had to go through a multi-step process when converting between Ethereum and EOS tokens. The new The post Bancor’s new wallet enables ‘one-click’ conversions between Ethereum and EOS tokens appeared first on Coin Rivet.
Ripple's Xpring today announced it is partnering with blockchain gaming platform startup Forte by providing $100 million for investment in blockchain gaming developers.The post Ripple provides $100 million in funding for blockchain gaming developers appeared first on The Block.
QuadrigaCX's "hot" wallets for bitcoin and ether have been nearly emptied, with the funds now held by court-appointed monitor EY.
Researchers have identified a group of bitcoin addresses that likely belonged to the cold wallets of failed exchange QuadrigaCX.
Bitcoin crosses over $11,000, reaching its highest level in about 15 months. This after the cryptocurrency started off the year in the low-to-mid $3,000 range. Yahoo Finance's Seana Smith and Jared Blikre discuss.
The bitcoin roller coaster continues -- with the digital currency hovering around $5,000. Yahoo Finance's Seana Smith & Jared Blikre discuss on "The Ticker."


text:
Wal-Mart begins offering $4 drug program in Detroit Lakes
On Tuesday, the Detroit Lakes Wal-Mart SuperCenter joined 3,810 other Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores across the country in offering the company's low-cost generic prescription program.
Following a similar move by Target the previous week, Wal-Mart's 64 Minnesota stores began offering many generic, prescription drugs in a 30-day supply for just $4.
Though Wal-Mart, Inc., launched the program in Florida in September, with intentions to spread outside the state in January 2007, Wal-Mart President and CEO Lee Scott said Monday that customer demand led it to accelerate the rollout of the program.
"When we made our initial announcement in Florida back in September, we never imagined that in addition to our 3,800 pharmacies, thousands of others would join us in bringing more affordable medicines to our nation's seniors, working families and the uninsured," Scott said in a press release. "We are proud to have introduced competition to an area where it has been too scarce for too long. And, we hope others will continue to join us in making prescription medicines more affordable and accessible for all Americans."
With the announcement, Wal-Mart has expanded the program to include 331 generic prescriptions available for up to a 30-day supply at commonly prescribed dosages. The list is made up of as many as 143 compounds in 26 therapeutic categories.
According to www.rxlist.com, the list also includes 14 of the top 20 prescribed medications in the United States.
At least one area pharmacy owner, however, says the list of qualifying generic drugs isn't as comprehensive as it sounds.
Nathan Seip, owner of Seip Drug -- which operates pharmacies in Frazee, New York Mills and Henning as well as inside Central Market in Detroit Lakes -- said he feels Wal-Mart's $4 drug plan is "kind of smoke and mirrors."
"It's not commonly used drugs on their list," he said in a telephone interview, adding that many of the drugs on Wal-Mart's list are older drugs that are no longer commonly prescribed.
So in effect, the $4 price would only apply to "a small part of their business." Or at least, he elaborated, "I know it's a small part of our business."
However, he added, Seip Drug does have a policy of matching the price of any competing pharmacy in the towns where they currently operate a store, including Detroit Lakes.
Seip also noted that in today's market, "most prescription pricing is set by the insurance company."
"Close to 90 percent of our prescriptions dispensed are by insurance (pricing), so the insurance company is setting the price anyway," he continued. "Pricing isn't the prime determinant of where you get your prescriptions -- it's service."
But of course, insurance pricing (which usually involves a co-pay policy where those insured will pay a set price for certain drugs, with the insurance company to pay the rest) only applies to those who currently have health insurance.
Julie Idelkope, senior manager of public affairs for Wal-Mart in Minnesota, said Monday that the Wal-Mart $4 price applies whether the customer is insured or not.
"It doesn't make a difference (whether the individual is insured)," she said in a telephone interview. "This is one solution for our more than 46 million uninsured Americans."
Idelkope also noted that the list of 331 generic drugs on Wal-Mart's $4 list "represents more than 1 in 4 of the current prescriptions we dispense at stores across the country." This accounts for roughly 25 percent of total prescription drug sales.
The program has had some impact. Target announced earlier this month that it would begin offering some generic drugs at the same rate as Wal-Mart in all of its 1,287 pharmacies across the U.S.
Costco Wholesale Corp. has said it will match Wal-Mart's prices on generic drugs in markets where it does business.
Aside from Target and CostCo, however, many of Wal-Mart's other major competitors in the pharmaceutical business appear to share Seip's skepticism.
Both CVS Corp. and Walgreen Co., two of the nation's largest drugstore chains, have said they already price generic drugs at levels competitive with Wal-Mart, and do not see a reason to respond. Though declining to be interviewed, a corporate spokesperson for Thrifty White Drug -- which operates a store in Detroit Lakes' Washington Square Mall -- said Tuesday that his company agrees with this position.
A pharmacist with Kmart Pharmacy in Detroit Lakes (who asked that he not be identified by name) said his company has had a policy of offering a three-month supply of generic drugs for $15 since last May.
For a complete list of the 331 drugs covered by Wal-Mart's $4 price program, visit the company's online pharmacy at www.walmart.com/pharmacy.


text:
said Samsung, believe that people will have a thumbs up, as the strength of the big brands of Electronic Science and technology industry, what is the way to win the Samsung brand, must have their own out of the ordinary marketing skills, Xiaobian now to your secret.
if not 10 years before the accident, a game master Li Xiaofeng may just be at home in Henan, Ruzhou famous in the local area, with most of his childhood friends, parents follow the path planning to find a job is not so busy playing games, leisure, and then married, fuel.
2002, when Li Xiaofeng was telling his family alone in WCG (WCG) Xi’an qualifiers, the course of his life began to change, until the 2005 WCG World Championship took him to fame, the electronic sports circle from more than a new idol – Emperor SKY.
2012 in October 26th, 2012WCG Chinese District finals and the world finals qualifying game, when the host report contestant SKY name, the venue sounded thunderous cheers, together with to join the Olympic champion Feng, popular actor Xinyi Zhang the pop idol and the ratio appears to be cast into the shade.
if not as fans may not understand this frenzy. The main sponsor of WCG Samsung, it hopes to build WCG into the field of E-sports games, those in the eyes of others "deviant" game master who, when they have the opportunity to become a mainstream hobby and national honor together, will undoubtedly stimulate these young people’s adrenaline.
why sponsor WCG
however, compared with the WCG Conference itself in the game fans group frenzy, brand sponsors attitude is somewhat ambiguous, especially the PC industry in recent years, the overall decline in profits under the background of the decline of hardware. In contrast, only Samsung’s attitude has always been a firm, as the main sponsor sponsor for 12 years, every year still invested heavily in the campaign, will the event from 2000 to Chinese participants but hundreds of people to attract tens of thousands of players in the global more than and 60 countries and regions to participate in the gaming event.
"wise" may find it difficult to understand: after the rise of the mobile Internet, mobile phone is the future, "smart people" to play the mobile marketing, why Samsung also spend a lot of money to support the PC game the sunset industry sponsored by WCG
"according to the center for the development of Chinese electronic sports data, in 2010, it has 65 million China E-sports enthusiasts, the figure now recommended


text:
The Mazda Mazdaspeed3 is one of our favorite sporty compact cars of all time and one of the most lively and fun-to-drive hot hatches to land on American soil. Winning three Car and Driver 10 Best awards and three Ward’s 10 Best Engines awards for its turbocharged 2.3-liter four-cylinder, the previous-generation car delighted a new generation of Mazda enthusiasts, despite its torque-steer-prone FWD layout. Now with a new generation of Mazda3 for 2014, the ‘Speed model has vanished, but only temporarily.
Alas, good things come to those who wait, and we don't mind waiting because Mazda has a tendency to really hit home runs, especially with the upcoming 2016 Mazda MX-5 Miata.
A new report from Japanese publication Holiday Auto claims insider information that a new Mazdaspeed3 is indeed in development, set for a release date as a 2016 model. Contrary to earlier reports claiming Mazda may go high-performance diesel, the report states that a new direct-injection and turbocharged high-output 2.5-liter Skyactiv-G gasoline engine will be found underhood, outputting in excess of 295 horsepower and possibly as many as 320 horsepower. And in even bigger news, power will be sent to all four wheels with a new AWD system, an exciting proposition for true sports car enthusiasts.
That would move the Mazdaspeed3 up-market a bit. The most recent model, with its 263-horsepower, 2.3-liter I4 and FWD, competed with the Ford Focus ST and VW GTI. The power bump and AWD handling will allow the new car to go toe-to-toe with the redesigned Subaru WRX STI for ultimate sport compact car supremacy. With the new Mazda3’s extremely lightweight, well-sorted chassis as a starting point, this could be the most exciting car to come from the house of Zoom-Zoom since the RX-7.
Expect Mazda’s latest STI killer in dealerships late next year, most likely as a 2016 model. Start saving those pennies now, as pricing is sure to rise over what Mazda was charging for the previous-generation car. A ballpark figure of just under $30,000 seems to be the target price.


text:
Pre-market futures are once again in the red this morning, following Asian markets tumbling overnight. The trade issue on either side of the Pacific Ocean — especially with regard to the tech sector — continues to wallow in something close to turmoil at this hour, as the trade war between the U.S. and China shows no signs of ending soon.
A spokesperson from China’s Commerce Ministry said that trade talks between the top two economies in the world may resume, but only after the U.S. addresses its “wrong actions.” Contrast this with the happy talk we were hearing just a few short weeks ago, when a trade agreement was “close.” Now it doesn’t even look like the G-20 summit — the next time Presidents Trump and Xi are scheduled to see each other — will produce the progress market participants had been looking for.
Initial Jobless Claims were once again solid, however: 211K new claims last week dropped by 1000 by the previous week’s unrevised total. Continuing Claims ticked up only slightly, and remain near levels from a half-century ago. The narrative of an historically robust U.S. labor market also sees no end in sight. Our next non-farm payroll report is not due until two weeks from tomorrow.
Later today, we’ll get New Home Sales data for April, along with a fresh read on the Purchasing Managers Index for May.
A fresh earnings report from Best Buy BBY brought more good news, as the big-box retailer outperformed earnings estimates massively: $1.02 per share versus expectations of 88 cents, and 82 cents per share in the year-ago quarter. Revenues were in-line with expectations at $9.14 billion, and higher than the $9.11 billion a year ago. Shares are trading up another 1.3% in the early market, and are up more than 30% year to date.
MedTech major Medtronic MDT also outperformed expectations notably: $1.54 versus $1.46 per share on its bottom line, while sales reached $8.15 billion in the quarter, slightly ahead of estimates and the year-ago total. Shares are trading up 2.7% in pre-market trading.
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report
Medtronic PLC (MDT): Free Stock Analysis Report
Best Buy Co., Inc. (BBY): Free Stock Analysis Report
To read this article on Zacks.com click here.
Zacks Investment Research
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.


text:
The pledge by 250 organisations included numerous world's biggest packaging producers, leading consumer brands, retailers and recyclers, as well as governments and NGOs.
Gwen Holland, the Campus waste co-ordinator, said: "Bangor University fully supports the vision for a circular economy for plastics, and is a very proud signatory of the New Plastic Economy Global Commitment". We can not recycle and clean our way out of this crisis ― we must move upstream to the source of the flow.
The signatories, which also include the governments of the UK, France and Scotland, pledge to eliminate problematic or unnecessary plastic packaging and move from single-use to reuseable packaging instead.
Organisations including Nestle; The Coca-Cola Company; PepsiCo; Pernod Ricard; Unilever; Danone and Mars, Incorporated, have signed the pledge, and the commitment has also been endorsed by the World Economic Forum, The Consumer Goods Forum and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). Targets will be reviewed every 18 months and will become increasingly ambitious over the coming years. All businesses that have signed up to the Commitment will publish annual progress data. The AQUA brand also pledged to recover more plastic than it uses in Indonesia, including through interception of marine littering.
Maryland stunningly reverses, fires football coach amid backlash
The University of Maryland is parting ways with their head football coach according to a statement on the university's website. Maryland students are planning to hold a Justice for Jordan Rally at 3:30 p.m.
Ex-Hurricane Oscar set to bring strong gusty winds to Kilkenny
Hurricane-force winds extend outward to 35 miles from the center, while tropical storm-force winds extend out to 275 miles. Met Eireann is forecasting "potentially strong gales" this weekend as Hurricane Oscar make its way towards Ireland.
Turkey targets east of Syria after securing Idlib
Two US military officials confirmed that the Turkish military had shelled SDF positions in northern Syria in recent days. Turkish forces responded with immediate counter fire that "liquidated 10 terrorists", the defense ministry said .
100% of plastic packaging to be reusable or recyclable by 2023.
The core aim of the commitment - its "vision" - is a circular economy for plastic in which it never becomes waste. We agree, it is essential that businesses step up as leaders in this space and drive change.
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation started its research on plastic pollution four years ago.
In order to effectively incentivise a sufficient number of Indonesia's estimated 28 million people living in poverty, Plastic Bank uses a blockchain solution linked to a mobile app that reliably rewards individual plastic collectors for the amount of plastic they bring into collection centres using digital tokens instead of cash.
The Washington-based environmental group Oceana, for its part, said the commitments are "vague promises" and called on companies to stop using plastics.
'Most efforts until now have been focused on cleaning up plastic pollution. "This commitment is about eliminating pollution at its source", Rob Opsomer, who leads the foundation's New Plastics Economy initiative, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.


text:
By Ozman Omar
Dozens of people gathered at 862 Richmond Street West in Toronto to attend an Indigenous themed video games and comic book event Thursday night.
The event is part of Planet IndigenUS, a 10 day celebration of contemporary Indigenous culture.
Hosted by Pinnguaq, AH Comics and York University the objective of the event is to recognize Aboriginal contributions in the gaming and the comic world as well as introduce people to Aboriginal culture through these mediums.
“My company Pinnguaq, produces a lot of content rooted in Inuit culture and so the idea came about where we can throw some kind of celebration that celebrates Indigenous games as a whole and game makers,” said Ryan Oliver, founder of Pinnguaq.
In addition to showcasing Aboriginal culture and the works innovative game makers from that community Oliver would like to draw attention to the actual games and have people to playing and enjoying the games.
“It’s as much about celebrating indigenous culture as bringing awareness to the games that have Indigenous links, that may otherwise be overlooked,” Oliver said.
One of these games is ‘Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime’, a 1 to 2 player game where the goal is to rescue kidnapped bunnies by defeating evil robots.
Game developer Jamie Tucker, is originally from Munsee Delaware Nation, Ontario and is the co-founder of Asteroid Base, a Toronto-based indie game making studio.
“We introduced the game by having some game jams in Toronto, where like 500 people come together, make games together and that’s how we started,” said Tucker.
When ‘Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime’ was launched at a game jam in January 2012, that’s when it slowly began to draw fan interest.
“At first it was like a small hobby project, then it got more steam and people became more interested in it, and then it became like a bigger and bigger thing. Now we are closing to releasing it and it will be coming to Xbox One and Steam. It’s something we can build our company around,” Tucker added.
Until just a few years ago it wasn’t easy for game makers to break into the industry unless they work for a major publisher, in recent years however, more independent and amateur developers started making gains in the industry.
“As of the late 2000s it became easier for amateur hobbyists like us to get a foot hold in the industry by releasing these games and publishing it ourselves,” said Tucker.
“That’s one of the things we were able to do when Xbox One and PlayStation4 came out. Before that those platforms were completely locked off unless you were a major publisher. But now you can self-publish and are able to see your game in the store next Call of Duty and Assassins Creed, huge games and we have just as much shelf space.”
Tucker says he hopes this event will serve as a motivation for game makers. “The greatest validation you can get when you make a video game is to watch someone play it.”
Oliver, who isn’t Aboriginal but spent ten years working and living in Nunavut said he wanted to create something that connects him back to the Inuit community.
“Living in Nunavut for as long as I did and my kids growing up there, that’s where it started to create something that my kids can connect to, because at the time our house was ‘videogame central’ and now as they’re growing up I felt that we need to have something that connects back to the culture,” Oliver said.


text:
(CNBC) -- The S&P 500 reached another record high on Monday ahead of a busy week of earnings reports from technology’s heaviest hitters.
The broad equity benchmark rose 0.2% to a fresh record close of 4,422.30, extending its winning streak to five days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 82.76 points, or 0.2%, to an all-time high of 35,144.31, also rising for a fifth straight day. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite closed slightly higher at 14,840.71, hitting a new high.
One of the busiest weeks of earnings reports is on deck, with Tesla kicking it off after the closing bell. Last week, CEO Elon Musk said the automaker would likely start accepting bitcoin for vehicle purchases again. Shares of the electric vehicle maker rose 2.2% Monday.
Advertisement - story continues below


text:
One of the most exciting moments of any National Football League game is when the team comes barreling through the tunnel and out onto the field to thunderous applause. Hope and optimism for the coming game reigns supreme in the hearts of fans. Although there are no hot dogs and overly priced beers present, that excitement is exactly what Comcast (CMCSA)’s NBCUniversal must be feeling at this very moment.
On Wednesday morning, NBCU’s forthcoming streaming service Peacock launched for Xfinity customers ahead of its official wide release in the coming weeks. Though it joins a stable of well-resourced and established competition as a latecomer to the streaming wars, there are reasons to believe that Peacock can stick around in the direct-to-consumer battles to come.
“The streaming world is obviously a very crowded space, but NBCU’s Peacock has the advantage of being an already established brand and launching with a very strong content library that already has brand recognition, positioning them for success from the outset,” Tal Chalozin, co-founder and CTO of Innovid, which serves 1 in 3 of all video ad impressions in the US, told Observer.
Audiences are drawn to quality content first and foremost and NBCU—which encompasses NBC, CNBC, Telemundo, Universal Pictures, and more—has a strong track record of enticing entertainment. NBC and CBS are consistently battling for the top ratings spot among broadcast networks while Universal has arguably been Disney’s biggest rival at the box office over the last five years. That the bulk of this content will be available for free, especially for existing Comcast customers, is a major bonus.
Peacock will be a free premium ad-supported streaming service with subscription tiers offering more than 600 movies and 400 series, as well as live and on-demand content across news, sports, late night and reality. It will include exclusive originals, pre-existing legacy programming, blockbuster films and streaming channels. It will be made available via Peacock Free and Peacock Premium packages, the latter of which only costs $4.99 for its ad-supported model. That’s on par with Apple TV+ ($4.99)—which has a significantly smaller library—and better than Disney+ ($6.99).
Peacock was meant to launch in conjunction with the 2020 Olympics, a major selling point for both advertisers and fans. Unfortunately for Comcast, the coronavirus pandemic has postponed the Olympics until 2021, taking a bite out of Peacock’s early attractions. However, the service has locked in long-term ad partners with 18-month deals and doesn’t appear to be feeling the financial fallout as significantly as other TV platforms.
At launch, Peacock will house the exclusive streaming rights to beloved series such as Cheers, Frasier, Downton Abbey and Everybody Loves Raymond. In October, Parks and Recreation will join the roster and in January, crown jewel The Office will officially be made available as well. Throw in a host of exciting original programming and you can see the recipe for success.
Peacock won’t be a Netflix (NFLX) killer, but it also isn’t trying to be. Disney and WarnerMedia are both investing billions of dollars into Disney (DIS)+ and HBO Max, respectively, as the conglomerates pivot to a direct-to-consumer focus. While NBCU is intent on carving out a niche in the D2C sector, it isn’t restructuring its entire economic model around it. They are positioning themselves for a slow and steady build-up so that when NBCU’s current rights deals (in which HBO gets first dibs on NBCU’s movie rights) expire in 2023, they can reassess. If Peacock is steadily growing, they can double down on their investment. If not, then the streaming effort will not have toppled the entire company.
“The current climate is very favorable for streaming platforms given that we’re seeing an increase in linear and traditional bundle drops,” Chalozin said. “During the stay-home mandate, one of the strongest data trends that Innovid has seen is the growth of ‘broadcast and cable’ content vs. other video content such as social video or long tail video. As of last week, broadcast publishers had the highest volume growth in CTV ad impressions representing a 6% increase. Peacock is positioned amazingly well to capitalize on this trend.”


text:
WESLEY CHAPEL, Fla. (WFLA) – An armed robbery suspect was airlifted to a hospital after deputies say the suspect was shot by a customer during a robbery attempt in Florida.
Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco said that around 6:30 a.m. on Thursday, a customer was getting his morning cup of coffee at the Marathon gas station in Wesley Chapel.
The customer was at the counter with the clerk when Christopher Lilly, 31, entered the store wearing a mask and pointed a gun at the clerk and customer and demanded money. Lilly made the pair go into a cooler.
“They made a decision, ‘We’re going to fight’,” said Nocco about the customer and clerk.
The customer had his gun pointed at Lilly as the customer and the clerk walked out of the cooler. However, Lilly pointed his gun at the pair.
Lilly and the pair wrestled and Lilly wound up on the ground, the gun was no longer in his hand. Lilly reached for his gun and the customer shot him in the thigh to prevent him from grabbing the gun.
“This is two citizens who were in fear for their lives,” said Nocco, who added that the pair made the conscious decision, “I’d rather fight for my life than be a victim.”
A PCSO deputy arrived at the store and subdued Lilly at the front door, with the help of citizens.
PCSO spokesperson Kevin Doll said that the customer who shot Lilly removed the bullets from the handgun that Lilly was using when he tried to rob the store. Doll said that the customer who shot Lilly knows Lilly. The customer also shops at the convenience store every day and has been a customer at the store for 15 years. The customer’s identity will be released later on Thursday. Doll said that detectives are interviewing the customer and witnesses.


text:
Apple's iPad now available in Staples brick-and-mortar storesVenerable office supply chain Staples has reportedly begun selling Apple's iPad in its real-world outlets just four months after the retailer kicked off online sales of the tablet.
Staples is said to offer only Apple's latest models — the iPad Air and Retina display-equipped iPad mini — in its stores, rather than the entire iPad lineup, though the older versions remain available for purchase online. The change was first reported by CNET.
Bringing the iPad in-store marks another milestone in Framingham, Mass.-based Staples's current alliance with Apple, which began last spring when the company started carrying smaller Apple products like the Apple TV and AirPort wireless networking lineup.
The relationship expanded in December with online iPad sales, and it was speculated at the time that Staples would be allowed to carry the tablets in stores if certain performance targets were met. Wednesday's launch suggests that those targets, which are thought to have included weekly online sales referral quotas for each brick-and-mortar store, were reached.
One item that remains unclear is exactly how the iPad will be marketed in Staples outlets. The tablets are featured on dedicated Apple-designed kiosks in most third-party iPad retailers, and in some cases small "store-within-a-store" arrangements are struck when broader ranges of Apple products are on offer.
On Topic: iPad
- iPad's dominance continues to fade in shrinking tablet market, latest IDC data shows
- How to choose between a new iPod touch and an iPad mini 3
- Rumor: Apple to launch 'end-of-life' iPad mini model and 'iPad Pro' in 2015, forego 'iPad Air 3'
- Led by enterprise sales, global tablet use predicted to approach 800M by 2018
- Rumor: Apple 'cautious' in placing orders for late 2015 launch of 12.9" 'iPad Pro'


text:
Air Canada has signed a partnership deal with American Express for a new loyalty program that the airline is preparing to launch next year.
The 10-year agreement includes new co-branded payment cards, participation in the American Express membership rewards program, and expanded commercial co-operation between the two companies.
The deal will allow American Express membership rewards customers in Canada and the U.S. to transfer their points into the new Air Canada program once it has rolled out.
American Express Aeroplan cardmembers will also become members of Air Canada’s new loyalty program.
Air Canada reacquired the Aeroplan loyalty program from Aimia Inc. earlier this year after spinning off the points program in 2005 as part of the airline’s restructuring.
The airline has already signed agreements with TD Bank, CIBC and Visa that will see them stay on with the loyalty program until at least 2030.
The Canadian Press


text:
It’s too bad that political democracy so overshadows the “voting” that takes place all the time in the marketplace. By deciding who gets their business, consumers help the environment, scold celebrities, scorn France, stick it to big box retailers, and now E-Loan has allowed them to weigh in on offshore outsourcing: Since starting operations [in India] in February, the company has immunized itself against much of the criticism of outsourcing by offering borrowers a choice between having their loans processed in the United States or — if they want their money faster — in India. “We thought, let’s do it, let’s make it open, try to explain it, and also offer an opt-out for that group of people who under no circumstances would be comfortable with it for whatever reason, whether it be patriotism or racism,” said chief executive Larsen. So far, about 85 percent of E-Loan’s home equity customers have opted for India, at a cost savings to the company of about 60 percent, and the firm is considering an expansion of the Indian operation into auto loans and mortgages, Larsen said. No U.S. workers have been laid off, he said, because the home equity business has grown fast enough to accommodate both sets of employees. (Via Alex Tabarrok)
Ted Balaker is an award-winning filmmaker, journalist, and founding partner of Korchula Productions, a film and new media production company devoted to making important ideas entertaining.