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SEOUL (Reuters) – In an upscale neighborhood of Seoul two years ago, a white Tesla Model X crashed into a wall in the parking lot. The fiery incident killed a prominent lawyer – a close friend of the South Korean president.
Prosecutors charged the driver with manslaughter. Blame Tesla.
Choi Wan Jung, who made a living by driving drunk people home in their own cars, says the Model X spun out of control on its own and the brakes failed in the December 2020 accident.
A criminal trial about to begin in South Korea hinges on questions about the safety of Tesla cars, as the electric vehicle maker faces a slew of lawsuits and mounting scrutiny from regulators.
Choi, 61, is now unable to find work as a freelance driver, or what is known in Korea as a “substitute driver”.
He says he suffers from flashbacks and depression before an experience that pits his credibility against the world’s most valuable automaker.
“When I wake up, I feel so abandoned, floating alone in the middle of the ocean,” said Choi, who underwent surgery after shattering a torn intestine.
Tesla did not respond to written requests for comment about the accident and the Chue case. The lawyer for the family of Yoon Hong-gyun, who owned the car and died in the accident, declined to comment.
Choi’s case has caught the attention of some safety advocates in South Korea who want to change a provision in the free trade agreement with the United States that exempts Tesla from domestic standards.
For example, Tesla is not required to follow South Korean regulations that require at least one front seat and a rear seat door for mechanical security because the US-South Korea Free Trade Agreement exempts automakers with sales of fewer than 50,000 vehicles from domestic safety rules.
Registration data showed that Tesla sold 17,828 vehicles in South Korea in 2021.
Park Keun Oh, an official from the Korea-US FTA division of the South Korean Ministry of Commerce, said the exemption clause requires Tesla to abide by US safety rules, which do not require a mechanical backup latch. These latches allow the doors to open even if the vehicle has no electrical power.
Park declined to comment further. The US Trade Representative’s office did not respond to requests for comment on the trade deal or regulations.
Prosecutors say Choi slammed the accelerator pedal to the floor when he entered the garage of an apartment building in Seoul, reaching 95 kilometers per hour (60 mph) before crashing. He denies this, saying that the car’s side mirrors began to fold in and out without orders before the car accelerated on its own.
“It felt like a tornado swept through the car,” said Choi, who said he had been driving for more than 20 years and had experience driving a Tesla.
At a preliminary hearing, the judge said the automaker provided prosecutors with data from the Model X that the car transmitted in the moments before the crash. The defense team requested to see the data and is waiting for the court to issue it.
Choi and his lawyer seek to prove that the car’s electrical systems failed and that its design slowed the firefighters’ attempts to rescue Yoon.
The Tesla battery caught fire after the collision. Smoke and flames filled the car, according to firefighters and in video taken by firefighters and seen by Reuters.
Choi escaped through a broken window on his side. Firefighters were delayed in pulling Yoon out of the back seat, because the Model X’s electronic doors did not open from the outside, on Dec. 31, 2020, according to a fire department report seen by Reuters. The report did not say how long the rescue operation was delayed.
Yoon, 60, was pronounced dead after firefighters removed him from the vehicle and performed CPR. The cause of death has not been announced.
Judge Park Won-gyu said he plans to contact Tesla engineers to testify and that the safety of Tesla cars will be examined at the trial. Manslaughter is punishable by up to five years in prison.
An alarming sight
An investigation by the fire station that responded found that the battery failure slowed emergency response by disabling seat controls, preventing firefighters from repositioning the front seats so they could reach Yoon, according to the fire department’s report.
The power outage made it “impossible to secure space for the (rescue) operation,” the report said.
A representative for the fire station declined to comment.
The report says the exterior door handles on the Model X, which are electronic, did not open from the outside because the battery burned out. She also says that the firefighters were unable to pull Yoon out of the car because they were unable to move the front seats after the battery died.
Video of the rescue shows firefighters trying, but failing, to open the wing-style doors of the X. Eventually, they broke through the windshield and pulled Yoon out of the car about 25 minutes after the emergency call arrived, according to footage and a firefighter’s report.
Tesla is the only automaker not to provide data to the Korea Transportation Safety Authority (TS) from on-board diagnostic systems for safety checks in South Korea, according to the agency and Park Sang-hyuk, a lawmaker from the opposition Democratic Party of Korea. Spurred on by Choi’s collapse, regulators launched a campaign to pressure Tesla to change its door handles and work with regulators.
TS noted that Tesla is not legally required to provide such data, but all other foreign and domestic automakers do.
Park and TS said Tesla is working with the agency to allow Korean owners access to their vehicles’ diagnostic data starting in October 2023.
Referring to cases in which Tesla’s doors will not open after a collision, Park said, the provisions of the FTA.
A South Korean consumer group, Citizens United for Consumer Sovereignty, said in September that Tesla had not fixed what the group calls “door defects.” The group says it has collected information on about 1,870 complaints about Tesla doors over the past four years. Data provided to Reuters by another South Korean lawmaker, the TS, confirmed the figure.
The consumer group said it had asked police to investigate Tesla over its failure to improve driver and passenger safety after the fatal crash in Seoul, but police told them in May there was not enough evidence to proceed, according to their report, seen by Reuters.
In a June 29 letter to the consumer group, seen by Reuters, police said that although Tesla’s door latches may violate local safety standards, that consideration was overridden by the terms of the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement.
The police letter states that Tesla’s doors “may violate (local) regulations, but (Tesla) has no obligations to comply with domestic auto safety standards in accordance with the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement.”
In South Korean courts, drivers in cases where the cause of a crash is disputed face the burden of proving a defect in the vehicle, say three legal and auto-safety experts, and automakers are never sued over safety issues.
Unless you’ve been through this, you’ll never know how it feels, said Ahn Ho-joon, another “replacement driver” in South Korea, who had a Tesla accident in May that was almost identical to Choi’s.
Tesla did not respond to requests for comment.
Ahn, one of the few who attended all of Choi’s pre-trial hearings, says the Tesla he drove also accelerated on its own and crashed into two vehicles in the underground garage, but there were no serious injuries. Police say the accident was his fault because there were no problems with the car, but they don’t charge him because the wreckage was minor.
Ahn said he kept his job as an independent substitute driver, but refused to drive Teslas.
Choi, unable to work and close to money, has moved into a 6.6-square-meter (71 sq ft) room that he rents for 350,000 won ($243) a month. Funded by government housing subsidies, it includes a shared bathroom and kitchen and all the rice he can eat. Despite these difficulties, Choi is taking the long view of Tesla.
“Obviously there is a process of perfecting products through trial and error,” he said. “I am set to be a part of that process.”
Reporting by Jo Min Park. Additional reporting by Hyunjoo-jin. Editing by Kevin Krolicki and Jerry Doyle
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
#Tesla #safety #experiment #center #South #Korea #fiery #fatal #crash


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With recent news from LG and Check Point, It's like all your favourite horror movies have come true.
Check Point's security researchers uncovered a vulnerability that exposed millions of users of LG SmartThinQ smart home devices to the risk of unauthorised remote control of their home appliances.
It's undoubtedly concerning given the skyrocketing rise of smart applicances – in 2016 80 million smart home devices were shipped around the world, a 65 percent increase from the year before.
Deemed ‘HomeHack', the vulnerabilities in the SmartThinQ mobile app and cloud application enabled the Check Point team to remotely login, take over the user's legitimate account and gain control of the vacuum cleaner and its integral video camera.
Once in control of a specific user's LG account, any LG device or appliance associated with that account could be controlled by the attacker – including the robot vacuum cleaner, refrigerators, ovens, dishwashers, washing machines and dryers, and air conditioners.
Furthermore, the HomeHack vulnerability equipped attackers with the ability to spy on users' home activities via the Hom-Bot robot vacuum cleaner video camera that sends live video to the associated LG SmartThinQ app as part of its HomeGuard Security feature.
“As more and more smart devices are being used in the home, hackers will shift their focus from targeting individual devices, to hacking the apps that control networks of devices. This provides cyber criminals with even more opportunities to exploit software flaws, cause disruption in users' homes and access their sensitive data,” says Oded Vanunu, head of products vulnerability research at Check Point.
“Users need to be aware of the security and privacy risks when using their IoT devices and it's essential that IoT manufactures focus on protecting smart devices against attacks by implementing robust security during the design of software and devices.
Check Point disclosed the vulnerability to LG on July 31 2017, following responsible disclosure guidelines and LG responded by fixing the reported issues in the SmartThinQ application at the end of September.
Vanunu says fortunately LG responsibly provided a quality fix to stop possible exploitation of the issues.
“In August, LG Electronics teamed with Check Point Software Technologies to run an advanced rooting process designed to detect security issues and immediately began updating patch programs,” says Koonseok Lee, manager of the smart development team within smart solution BD at LG Electronics.
“Effective September 29th the security system has been running the updated 1.9.20 version smoothly and issue-free. LG Electronics plans to continue strengthening its software security systems as well as work with cyber-security solution providers like Check Point to provide safer and more convenient appliances.”
In terms of protecting devices, Check Point and LG recommend:
- Update LG SmartThinQ app to the latest version (V1.9.23)
- Update smart home physical devices with the latest version

domain: news


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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Apple CEO Tim Cook kicked off the company's annual conference for software developers on Monday. He was expected to show off new iPhone software and updated Mac computers and provide more details on future releases of Mac software.
In recent years, Apple Inc. has used its Worldwide Developers Conference as an opportunity to announce new software for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. Such an announcement has been confirmed by banners that appeared at the Moscone conference center in San Francisco on Friday, reading "iOS 6." The conference runs through Friday.
Here's what's coming out of the show on Monday. All times are PDT.
The new operating system for Apple's Mac computers promises better integration with social networks.
Apple says the upcoming Mac OS X 10.8 "Mountain Lion" operating system has built-in features to facilitate sharing on Twitter and Flickr. For instance, you'll get notifications directly from Twitter when you get a direct message or a mention on Twitter.
There's also a "Power Nap" feature that keeps your Mac up to date even while it's in power-saving "sleep" mode. It will get your emails, back up your files and download software updates automatically.
Mountain Lion will be available next month and will cost $19.99 — $10 cheaper than what the current system, Lion, costs.
Those buying the MacBook models announced Monday will get the upgrade for free when it's available. Those models will ship with the Lion version initially.
The new Mountain Lion system narrows the gap between the PC and phone software packages, making Mac personal computers work more like iPhones.
There's little surprise. Apple already demonstrated most of the features of Mountain Lion in February and said it will go on sale late this summer. Developers are already able to download a version of the software.
Among the features:
— A new Messages app, copied from Apple's mobile operating system, will replace iChat.
— Mountain Lion will be integrated with iCloud, the new Internet storage service designed for the mobile devices.
— The software will bring dictation to Mac computers, essentially allowing you to type as you talk.
Apple announces a next-generation MacBook Pro model that is less than an inch thick while closed — about as thin as the MacBook Air. It will have a sharper display, akin to what the iPhone and the iPad now have.
Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide marketing, calls it "the most amazing computer we have ever made."
The "next-generation" model will have a 15.4-inch diagonal display. It will have processors from Intel Corp. and Nvidia Corp. and promises up to 7 hours of battery life.
The other models announced earlier Monday are largely updates to current models with more memory and better processors. The older models won't sport the sharper "Retina Display" feature of Apple's newer devices.
The "next-generation" model will be 0.71 inch thick, compared with 0.95 inches for the updated models. The weight of the new model is 4.46 pounds.
The new model will start at $2,199 and will start shipping Monday.
Schiller appears on stage to discuss changes to the company's lineup of MacBook laptop computers.
He begins with an update to the ultra-thin MacBook Air and says the devices will have new Intel Corp. processors that sport up to 60 percent faster graphics and up to 512 gigabytes of flash storage memory. MacBook Airs do not have hard drives.
Prices for the version with an 11-inch diagonal screen will range from $999 to $1,099.
The MacBook Pro, which do have hard drives and are thicker, will also get the new Intel chip. Prices for the 13-inch model will be $1,199 to $1,499, while a 15-inch model will be $1,799 or $2,199, depending on the amount of storage.
The MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models will start shipping Monday.
A video shown on stage shows an app that helps blind people explore the world. After the video ends, Cook thanks the developer community for building the variety of apps for Apple devices.
Cook boasts of more than 650,000 apps in its mobile store, including 225,000 optimized for the iPad tablet computer. The number of apps made by third parties, which extend the functionality of mobile devices, is one area where Apple has an advantage over Android, BlackBerry and other systems.
The conference opens with greetings from Siri, a virtual assistant that interprets voice commands and talks back to the user. A few minutes later, Cook walks on stage to standing ovation and announces, "We have a great week planned for you and some really cool stuff to show."


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With its M&A train rolling, Intuit looks to prove the big company can be a good home for small firms
Intuit is officially on a buying spree. The company best known for its approachable tax and accounting software has acquired 11 technology startups over the last year, an Oracle-like rate that far exceeds anything we’ve previously seen from the traditionally conservative organization. What’s more, it shows no signs of slowing down amid a newly declared effort – through acquisition and organic development – to power the technology underpinnings of the world's small businesses.
So how does a 31-year-old incumbent absorb and -- more importantly -- maximize the value of nearly a dozen fast-moving, early stage companies? I caught up with Intuit Chief Corporate Strategy and Development Officer, Andrew Westergren, and a few of the recently acquired startup founders to get a sense of how things are going behind closed doors.
In short, despite the potential hurdles and the natural skepticism of many external observers, things are going better than anyone expected.
Taking a step back, the new direction for Intuit began last summer when the company sold of two its largest prior acquisitions, Intuit Financial Services and Intuit Health, and set out to reinvent what its brand means to small business owners. On the backs of its marquee Quickbooks and Turbotax franchises, Westergren and CEO Brad Smith set out a simple but ambitious mission: "To be the operating system behind small business success and to do the nations' taxes in the US and Canada."
The latest crop of acquisitions – including Elastic Intelligence, Fifo, GoodApril, LevelUp Analytics, Full Slate, Prestwick Services, Docstoc, CustomerLink, Lettuce, Invitco and, mostly recently, Check – have been focused on technology and product, first, and talent second, according to Westergren. Sure, Intuit is interested in injecting fresh, innovation-mined DNA into its walls, but the desire to quickly integrate core services essential to small businesses is more than just good marketing. It’s mission critical. Put more bluntly, this isn’t Yahoo and these deals aren’t Marissa Mayer’s shiny new toys of the week.
Take for example, Los Angeles-based order management platform Lettuce, which the corporate giant snapped up six weeks ago for approximately $30 million. It would be easy to assume that Lettuce, the product, would be sunsetted once inside Intuit and its team redeployed to build similar functionality into Quickbooks. Quite the opposite, according to the startup’s founder and CEO Raad Mobrem. Lettuce’s existing platform is being treated within Intuit as a future hub through which Intuit customers will manage inventory, finances, and a variety of other functions. In that sense, a number of Intuit's existing products are being retrofitted so that they play nicely with the far more nascent platform.
“This may sound like BS, but it’s actually going great – better than I could have ever expected,” Mobrem tells me. “Everyone here is nice and collaborative and interested in our ideas and how Lettuce can make the rest of Intuit’s products better. I was initially worried about the culture issues of joining a big company, but I’ve actually been the one pushing us to integrate and adopt a lot of their culture and systems – even while Andrew and Brad were happy to let us ease in more slowly.”
Docstock founder and CEO Jason Nazar, who I bumped into a few weeks ago at the Code conference in May, offered similar praise based on his experience inside Intuit. After six years of being everything from his company's quarterback to head cheerleader to water boy, Nazar was his usual smiling self, seeming genuinely ecstatic to have access to Intuit’s resources. The financial windfall for the recently married entrepreneur surely didn’t hurt matters.
It’s not all rosy, Mobrem admits. His biggest frustration is the sheer difficulty of gathering all the necessary information, which is often distributed across the organization, required to make a decision.
“At Lettuce, I knew everything, I had all the data. So I was able to make relatively informed decisions fairly quickly,” he says. “Here, first I need to figure out who has the information, then I need to go get it. Everyone’s been really helpful and accommodating, but it’s been an adjustment."
Not that this should be at all surprising, given the size of Intuit’s organization and the number of products, departments, and overall bureaucracy that make up such a behemoth. It's a common complaint from those leaving the startup world for the cozy confines of big company life.
Mobrem’s and Nazar’s experiences may be representative of their fellow recently acquired startup founders, but in truth, no two deals are the same. Westergren admits as much, saying that Intuit has been careful to customize each transaction, beginning with the promises made during negotiations and carrying on through the integration strategy.
“We try to plan integrations out in a way that is well structured and thoughtful when it comes to the experience of incoming employees,” he says. “We ask ourselves, what elements of Intuit values and benefits upside are important to share, and where can we minimize friction arising out of big company processes? We’ve tried to create a pull, wherever possible, that makes incoming employees want to integrate because they want to unlock all the value we can offer. It’s a process that in many cases has moved faster than we planned." Judging by Mobrem’ s comments, it would seem like this approach is genuinely working.
Intuit’s stock is up more than 60 percent over the last year, suggesting that Wall Street at least approves of the M&A campaign or, if nothing else, sees Intuit as a more valuable company as a result of the new assets. No less importantly, Intuit has also delivered healthy performance within its existing business units, thereby driving the stock performance.
Going forward, Westergren expects Intuit to maintain similar levels of acquisitiveness. There is no playbook, however, when it comes to deal size or structure, he says. The company simply plans to be opportunistic when it identifies opportunities to broaden its impact on small business owners. Just don’t expect it to get into a turf war with other large acquirers within the space (GoDaddy, for example, has been similarly active within the SMB services space). Check, the largest of Intuit’s deals this year, only clocked in at $360 million. The company isn’t opposed to larger acquisitions, according to Westergren, but will only do so in the rare cases where it thinks the long term impact will more than justify both the expense and the increased integration complexity that often accompanies it.
"When we reach out to companies, we have typically already thought through deals, learned a lot about the business, and know the management team well. We may even have been partnering with them first for 6 months or so,” Westergren says. "When we make a proposal, there’s typically not multiple other companies bidding, which allows us to acquire at attractive valuations while still making for a positive outcome for all involved. In the rare cases where we’ve gotten involved in an auction process – something we avoided with all our deals this year – prices have been quite high.”
From all the available evidence, Intuit seems like a relatively good place for small companies to land. It’s arguably the market leader in small business services, meaning that any startup targeting that audience stands to dramatically increase its reach and, obviously, access to resources, thereby accelerating the realization of its vision. At the end of the day, it’s often this vision, not the financial rewards, that drive entrepreneurs.
“The number one thing I cared about when I was considering this deal was getting my product in front of as many small businesses as possible,” Mobrem says. “From that perspective, I couldn’t ask for more."
[image adapted from thinkstock]


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Hultgren, Ex-Im Bank chief promote state's trade growth
Fred Hochberg, chairman and president of the Export-Import Bank of the United States, visited District 14 on Wednesday, accepting an invitation by U.S. Rep. Randy Hultgren (R-IL) to trumpet the difference the bank is making in supporting manufacturers and businesses in the state.
“The Export-Import Bank is about growing jobs in Illinois, keeping jobs in Illinois and continuing to make products in Illinois," Hultgren said. "Our local businesses rely on the bank to begin exporting relationships with companies overseas, ensure their exports reach their customers and lessen overall risk. I’m pleased Ex-Im Bank President Hochberg joined us today to showcase the great work going on right here in Illinois as a result of our businesses’ new relationships with companies overseas. The bank largely acts like an insurance policy — a protective backstop for our businesses to be used only in the rarest of cases.”
In the past, Hultgren has supported reforms to the bank through H.B. 597, a bill that reauthorizes this key financing tool for manufacturers and suppliers in the state for five years and improves transparency and accountability to taxpayers.
The bank, since 2007, has generated nearly $6 million in export sales from 301 exporters, including 205 small businesses.
Hultgren and Hochberg also took a tour of Mathews Company in Crystal Lake, a company that manufactures agricultural equipment and uses the bank to support millions of dollars in exports.


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Lincoln Wallen has been appointed Chief Technology Officer at Improbable, a UK tech unicorn that builds virtual worlds for video games and industrial applications such as city planning.
Wallen brings a wealth of experience driving disruption in gaming and digital media to the $2 billion-valued Improbable, which pulled in a massive $502 million funding round led by Japanese telecoms giant SoftBank in 2017, the biggest ever early stage investment in a venture-backed European company.
“I’ve seen how distributed compute and the cloud can disrupt entire market sectors, and create new platforms and business models,” Wallen said in a statement. “Improbable has the potential to power this type of change in the games industry.
“I’m excited by the chance to shape the incredibly talented engineering team at Improbable into a world-class technology organisation, and to help accelerate this transformation of both market and consumer experience.”
Wallen was previously CEO of DWA Nova, a software-as-a-service company spun out of DreamWorks Animation Studios, where he had served as CTO until 2017.
He has also worked as CTO of mobile and online at Electronic Arts and holds a PhD in Artificial Intelligence from Edinburgh University.
Wallen takes over the role of CTO from Improbable cofounder Rob Whitehead, who moves to the position of Chief Product Officer to concentrate on developing the company’s core product, SpatialOS, the subject of a recent spat with Unity, Improbable’s largest partner platform.
In January, Unity blocked SpatialOS from its game development system after accusing Improbable of using the engine for cloud gaming services without authorisation, but later backed down and changed its terms of service to make the platform open to any third-party software.
Improbable CEO and cofounder Herman Narula said the appointment of Wallen would add the experience and insight that the company needs to structure its growing team and help Whitehead focus on SpecialOS.
“This appointment effectively fills two critical roles,” he said. “Not only are we getting a hugely accomplished CTO, but my cofounder Rob Whitehead, whose knowledge of and passion for SpatialOS is unmatched, will be able to focus on our product in a new role as Chief Product Officer.
“With a product as highly technical as SpatialOS, this is a critical role, and Rob is uniquely qualified to lead the product organisation while Lincoln takes our engineering capability to the next level.”


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BANGKOK, July 16 (TNA) – The Food and Drug Administration approved the use of antigen test kits from four suppliers for general people to use to check by themselves if they are infected with COVID-19.
Dr Paisarn Dunkum, secretary-general of FDA, said that his organization registered four products for COVID-19 antigen tests and their producers and importers were likely to distribute the products right away.
They would be available at hospitals, governmental organizations and drug stores where there were pharmacists. Medical workers at such places could advise buyers how to properly use and dispose of test kits, Dr Paisarn said.
People should not buy such test kits from online suppliers or other sources because they might otherwise receive substandard products which could give false results, he said.
The FDA secretary-general said people could find the list of the approved products at https://www.fda.moph.go.th/sites/Medical/SitePages/test_kit_covid19.aspx. (TNA)


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Nancy Lazkani Ranks in Top 10 Women-Owned Businesses
We are proud to be recognized in The San Fernando Valley Business Journal’s Top Women-Owned Businesses for the 4th year in a row. Holding steady from last year, we were ranked 10th of all women-owned businesses and 1st among advertising agencies on the list. Nancy Lazkani’s inspiring story of how she started Icon Media Direct was also featured in this issue of the San Fernando Valley Business Journal. See the spotlight below.
Nancy Lazkani, founder and CEO of Icon Media Direct, was honored on Thursday, March 24, 2016 with the ‘Entrepreneur’ Award at Cynopsis Media’s Top Women in Digital Awards show held at the Yale Club in New York, NY. The event is designed to recognize the most influential women in digital marketing and advertising, whose relentless
Icon Media Direct received three awards in this year’s annual Communicator Awards for their OxiClean Kid’s Talking Campaign. The print campaign was awarded a Silver Award of Distinction in the Magazine Ad category, a Silver Award of Distinction in the Advertising Campaign category, and a Gold Award of Excellence in the Design category. The campaign


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Stores operated across the street from each other for almost 12 years
By ZEINAB NAJM
DEARBORN — Kroger, 23000 Michigan Ave., will close for good May 18 due to financial reasons, Kroger Co. of Michigan Corporate Affairs Manager Rachel Hurst said.
All 84 employees from the location will be offered jobs at other Kroger stores in the area.
The Kroger across the street in the Western Mall, at 23303 Michigan Ave., will remain open.
“All employees will be offered employment at other area stores to continue to remain part of the Kroger family of stores,” Hurst said. “Additionally, we operate a Kroger store across the street and are looking forward to serving our customers there.”
The Kroger on the north side of Michigan Avenue was a former Farmer Jack. Kroger purchased the building in June 2007, when Farmer Jack went out of business, and opened a store the next month.
Part of the $97 million investment includes adding two new stores in Warren and Sterling Heights, remodeling 11 stores and adding three new fuel centers.
The Sterling Heights location will be in place of a vacant Kmart, and the Warren store will be a Kroger Marketplace.
Also, Kroger plans to add its online ordering pickup service, Kroger Pickup, to 20 Michigan stories in the near future.
(Zeinab Najm can be reached at [email protected])


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Thanks for sharing and detailed production breakdown
i thought there wouldnt be anything better than akeytsu for creating easy animations. im happy if i am proven wrong.
Keith, I just wanted to stop by and say: Thank you.
The New Nintendo 3DS pushed up handheld hardware sales by 50%, but it still trails behind the previous handheld machines Nintendo released. Combined, all of Nintendo’s 3DS has sold 15 million units in the US alone.
The New 3DS, 3DS XL, 3DS, and the 2DS combined have sold 15 million units in the United States to this day. Thanks to the New 3DS, 3DS sales have been snowballing this year. Nintendo said that the 3DS line will be the eighth Nintendo system to reach 15 million sales in the US.
Even with this success, the 3DS is still following behind the sales of previous handheld Nintendo hardware. The DS sold 29.9 million units in over 10 years, making it the best selling out of all Nintendo platforms. The Game Boy Advance moved 41.6 million units over 7 years and the original Nintendo Game Boy had 44 million units sold in 5 years.
While crossing 15 million units is certainly a significant milestone, we are equally excited about the new momentum we’ve created in 2015 thanks to new hardware and an unrivaled library of software. With more great games on the way and a hardware system for every type of gamer, 2015 is shaping up to be one of the stronger years yet for Nintendo 3DS in the United States.
Scott Moffitt, Executive VP of Sales and Marketing, Nintendo of America


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BMO Harris Bank announced the introduction of Mobile Cash, a new technology that allows consumers to withdraw money from an ATM using their smartphone. With the launch, BMO Harris now has the largest network of card-less enabled ATMs in the country.
“Smartphones are quickly becoming the singular device that people use to help manage their life,” said Connie Stefankiewicz, Head of North American Channel Strategy and Solutions, BMO Financial Group. “BMO Harris is continuing to invest significantly in technology that is designed to address consumers’ evolving preferences.
“Expectations are increasing among consumers in terms of the digital tools and services industries are offering. With personal finances, we know our customers want the ability to take care of multiple financial needs from their smartphone,” added Ms. Stefankiewicz.
The QR-based mobile technology allows customers to withdraw cash safely without having to remove their debit card from their wallets, greatly speeding up the time a customer spends at an ATM. Additionally, customer card information is not stored on the phone, enhancing security. Customers can easily locate any of the 750 Mobile Cash ATMs using their BMO Harris Bank Mobile Banking App. An additional 150 ATMs will feature the service June 2015.
A report issued today by BMO Harris Bank revealed that the use of digital personal finance tools and services is having a positive effect on the financial standing of Americans.
The report, conducted by Pollara, revealed:
• Nearly nine in ten (87 percent) agree that they know exactly what is going on with their finances at all times
• The vast majority (82 percent) say they are managing their finances more effectively as a result of using digital personal finance tools
• Three quarters (78 percent) agree they make better purchase decisions when on the go, while 77 percent have better control over their spending.
• Bills are paid on time more often by 75 percent of consumers, and 70 percent say they are overdrawn on their account less often.
For more information on BMO Harris Mobile Cash, click here.


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We’re pleased to welcome a guest post from Isabelle Weitz and our partners Fractal.
The several-month-lockdown has caused the economy to suffer the worst contraction in 41 years due (the economy dropped by 20.4% in April) due to a lack of consumer confidence in spending.
The situation is likely to worsen in the long term, with the economy expected to slump by 11.5% in 2020, a number higher than in neighbouring countries Germany, France or Italy. The potential deficit faced by the UK Government in 2020 is over £370 billion, the highest since the Second World War. Furthermore, the unemployment rate is expected to rise to 12%, with 3.5 million people out of work.
The Government has worked hard to support businesses suffering the consequences. One scheme – the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) which allowed companies to furlough their employees for the time being. As of the 26th July, approximately 9.5 million jobs from over one million different employers were furloughed. The Government has already spent an estimated £31.7 billion on the CJRS, with this figure expected to rise by the time the scheme ends in October. (You can read more about it on our blog here).
Other schemes put in place include the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme for Small-and-Medium-Enterprises (SMEs) (you can read more about it here over at our blog), the Income tax and VAT deferral initiative for businesses and for those who are self-employed, and the Coronavirus Self-employment Income Support Scheme. Plus, the Future Fund and the Coronavirus Bounce Back Loan Scheme (CBBLS) are aimed at supporting innovative SMEs and those in need of funding quickly.
Unfortunately, this is still not enough. These initiatives are providing support to many individuals, but the Government struggles to realise that not all businesses are the same and therefore will not all qualify for the several schemes put in place. As a consequence, there is an estimate of three million businesses and individuals falling through the gaps.
We were glad to see that initiatives such as Excluded UK exist. The non-profit NGO is set up to give a voice to those excluded from Government support. Whilst raising awareness and funds, and providing support and assistance, they are also active on the political lobbying front.
Sonali Joshi, founder of Excluded UK, told us that ultimately the initiative is calling for fairness and parity. Chancellor Rishi Sunak recently announced that he is drawing a line under the existing schemes, yet Excluded UK are continuing to fight for these issues to be addressed.
As an addition to the collective platform they set up, they are also lobbying from within. They formed an all party parliamentary group by the name of Excluded UK APG, calling for the Chancellor to commit to a meeting with Excluded UK, to discuss the current exclusions and potential solutions. They are also advocating against the narrative used by the Chancellor that people excluded from support are somehow related to fraud.
In a letter to the Chancellor, 97 MPs have asked the Treasury to look again at how these exclusions can be addressed and helped.
Those who cannot qualify include short term contractors, the newly self-employed, people who just switched jobs, directors of limited companies and/or freelancers. Moreover, the industries most affected by exclusions are the creative and media industry with 33%, and the construction industry with 12%. Both have a high number of sole traders and limited company owners, as well as freelancers.
However Joshi tells us that ultimately, “the people affected come from every walk of life and the professions and industries are totally across the board” and that the consequences of their exclusion affect employees, families and the economy equally.
We know how important it is to help SMEs and sole traders. They generate 50% of the total revenue of UK businesses. It is estimated that they have already lost £69 billion during the pandemic because of the halt on trading. Moreover, McKinsey & Company has found out that 80% of SMEs have seen their revenue decline and that they struggle with loan defaults, employee retainment and having to postpone growth projects. There are fears that one out of five SMEs will be out of business by August 2020.
This is why we have to do everything in our power to support our SMEs.
At Fractal, we have partnered up with untied, the UKs personal tax app, to create SMART (SMEs Manage Accounts Receivables and Tax), to help sole traders with their payments and taxes. Through this initiative, we are hoping to save 50,000 businesses a year, decrease the average outstanding debt to SMEs by 29% and save the economy £1 billion per year. The tool will help sole traders manage their cash flow and tax payments. Sole traders can use it to easily invoice customers, incentivise early payments through discounts and issue penalties for late payments and also anticipate tax payments. You can find the press release here.


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Sept 18, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Tess Agro, a fish exporter has made a 117 million rupee cash call to finance a European marketing arm and a domestic project. . The Tess Agro said it wants to sell 60 million ordinary shares at 1.50 rupees to shareholders at the rate of one for every three existing ones.
Another 30 million non-voting shares will be sold at the rate of one for every six existing shares for 90 cents a share.
The firm said the money will be used to fund a marketing arm in Belgium and a project to build facilities in Sri Lanka’s Muthurajawela area.


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Tesla drivers found a very unique-that seems to be quite dangerous method to test the popular Full Self-Driving feature.
(Photo : Photo by NICOLAS ASFOURI/AFP via Getty Images)
A vendor demonstrates the use of the touch screen inside a Tesla car on display at a shopping mall in Beijing on April 14, 2021. (Photo by NICOLAS ASFOURI / AFP)
This is specifically asking their kids to stand in front of their electric cars, acting as road obstacles. For the past few years, the Tesla FSD received various advanced enhancements.
These feature upgrades allow it to evade obstacles, such as trees, pedestrians, and other objects that can affect FSD’s navigation.
Although this is the case, some individuals still want to ensure that the Tesla Full Self-Driving feature works properly before using it on actual roads.
But is using kids as road obstacles too much? Here’s what a dad explained.
Tesla Drivers Test FSD Using Kids as Road Obstacles?
According to CNN Business‘ latest report, a Tesla owner named Carmine Cupani confirmed that he asked his young son to act as a road obstacle so he could test the FSD feature.
(Photo : Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
A Model S sits on the showroom floor at a Tesla dealership on March 30, 2018 in Chicago, Illinois. Tesla has announced it is recalling 123,000 of its Model S sedans due to a problem with power steering bolts.
He even posted a video to show that his kid is crossing the street while the Full Self-Driving feature is activated on his Tesla.
“Some people look at it and say, ‘Oh this crazy dad, what is he doing?’ Well, I do a lot of stuff like that, but I’m going to make sure my kid doesn’t get hit,” said Cupani.
Although this is a very dangerous test, the Tesla FSD showed its efficiency. Before the father turned on the advanced autonomous feature, he first accelerated the EV, reaching around 35 mph.
After that, he activated the Full Self-Driving mode. Thanks to the advanced features of FSD, it made a smooth brake, leading to a full stop before closing in on the kid in front.
Tesla FSD Update Slows Down
Electrek reported that the giant automaker had slowed down the Tesla FSD 10.69 update rollout. Because of this, only around 1,000 electric vehicles were able to receive the new version on Aug. 20.
Elon Musk explained that the rollout adjustment needs to be conducted because of many major code changes. If you want to learn more details about the FSD 10.69 update rollout, you can visit this link.
Previously, the Tesla FSD price was reduced in China for loyal customers.
On the other hand, a sleeping Tesla driver was caught using his autopilot mode.
For more news updates about Tesla FSD and other related EV topics, always keep your tabs open here at Tech Zone Daily.
This article is owned by Tech Zone Daily
Written by: Griffin Davis
ⓒ 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.


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“Visual Interactive Media is excited to take part in this landmark business event for the first time,” – mentioned Mr. Mohammad El Omari, Director of Strategy & Business Development of VIM, – “We are looking forward to presenting our most up-to-date media solutions, as well as innovative branding and marketing tools at the exhibition,” – he further commented.
VIM exhibition stand will be open during all four days of the Festival at Sheraton Hotel. The content and design of the presentation have been developed in a way to highlight the company’s new brand identity and showcase the latest interactive media solutions, in particular, interactive surface displays, gesture controlled media, multi-touch and 3D holographic displays.
It’s notable that the services of a new division, VIM Invent, will also be presented. The guests and participants of the exhibition will have the opportunity to learn more about the most up-and-coming immersive media technology to hit the mainstream market – Augmented Reality.
“The best way to understand how AR works is to experience it by yourself,” explained Mr. Hany Dweik, Managing Partner of VIM, and further added: “At our specially equipped stand, we are going to engage the visitors into a real-time interaction with Augmented Reality, thus giving them an opportunity to create their personal AR experience and bringing to the spotlight major features and benefits of this technology.”
“Being one of the leading immersive media specialists in the Middle East, we are striving to contribute to the technological development and progress. Participating in the event, aimed at introducing the state of art-media services in Qatar and GCC, closely interrelates with our vision and strategy,” comments Mr. Mohammad El Boutary, Managing Partner of Snap Shots.
Visual Interactive Media S.A.R.L.
Contact via Email
Click here to read the full story: Visual Interactive Media and Snap Shots to Participate in Aljazeera Film Festival Production Exhibition


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Little Caesars Is Delivering Pizzas for the First Time in 60 Years of Operation
After six decades, the world's third-largest pizza chain will now offer delivery right to your doorstep.
That's right: Little Caesars, the 60-year-old chain most famous for quick and easy pick-up, will no longer just be a pick-up pizza place. Known for its inexpensive pizza pies—namely its Detroit-style DEEP!DEEP! pan pizza and garlic-loaded Crazy Bread—the chain has teamed up with delivery service DoorDash to help take your order directly to your home. What's more? The price is still right.
"We've seen such expensive and complex pricings throughout the pizza industry, and we think it's crazy," said David Scrivano, the president and CEO of Little Caesars. "Some chains require a minimum purchase to get their deals, or the discount pricing is only available on carry-out orders. We're excited to bring much needed affordability to delivered pizza. … Now you can get an amazing value whether you walk in our door or we deliver to yours."
So, just how cheap is the delivery fee? A spokesperson from Little Caesars told the Wall Street Journal that delivery will cost $2.99 in addition to a 10 percent service fee, which won't exceed $3.00. Keep in mind, though, that one of the most popular orders at the pizza chain is its most basic pizza—which goes for just $5.00. If you go that route, you're looking at total bill of $8.49.
So, why did the famously "hot-n-ready" pizza chain decide to add a delivery option now? Well, inspiration likely spurred in response to the ever-increasing demand for online delivery, with services like Grubhub, Uber Eats, and Postmates also dominating the scene. Starting today, almost all of Little Caesars' storefronts in the U.S. and Canada will be offering delivery—so feel free to skip the car ride. And if you're really a pizza fan, don't miss these 50 Mouthwatering Facts About Pizza.


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The company's S-1 lays the groundwork for what is widely expected to be one of the largest initial public offerings of the year, second only to Uber's IPO in May. It's also...Technologyread more
Fraud investigator Harry Markopolos' accusations extended beyond GE's management to actuaries, auditors and analysts who he claims overlooked billions in liabilities.Marketsread more
Trump's tweet comes a day after Apple put out a press release describing the money it spends on U.S.-based suppliers and vendors.Technologyread more
CNBC combed through Wall Street research to see which stocks are still a buy after their earnings reports.Marketsread more
President Donald Trump held a call on Wednesday with the CEOs of three major U.S. banks, according to people with knowledge of the situation.Marketsread more
Despite aggressive strides, Waymo needs one thing before their self-driving cars become a seriously useful transportation system: people. We talked to the ones closest to it.Technologyread more
Scientists say the smoke plumes, filled with megatons of tiny, harmful particles, could travel to other areas of the world and cause serious respiratory problems for people.Weather & Natural Disastersread more
Some Weight Watchers loyalists applaud Kurbo by WW. But nutritionists worry Kurbo promotes an unhealthy relationship with food during an especially impressionable time.Health and Scienceread more
Benefits from what President Trump called "the biggest reform of all time" to the tax code have dwindled to a faint breeze just 20 months after its enactment, writes John...Politicsread more
Epstein, 66, was found in his cell in Manhattan federal lockup Saturday morning and transferred to a nearby hospital, where he was subsequently pronounced dead.Politicsread more
Air travelers faced delays at U.S. airports on Friday afternoon after a computer issue snarled processing of international arrivals.Airlinesread more
Speculation that China could use its dominance in rare earth minerals as a weapon in the trade war intensified after a Chinese official warned that products made from the materials should not be used against China's development.
The comment, reported by CCTV, was taken as a veiled threat aimed at the U.S. and its technology companies that are dependent on the materials. Last week, Chinese President Xi Jinping visited rare earth mining and processing facilities, adding to speculation that China could make the minerals more expensive or unavailable if the trade war continues to expand.
"You suggested that rare earths could become one of China's countermeasures against the U.S.'s unwarranted suppression...What can I tell you is that if anyone were to use products that are made with the rare earths that we export to curb the development of China, then the people of [south Jiangxi province where rare earths are mined] as well as all the rest of the Chinese people would be unhappy," said the Chinese official, in an interview. The speaker was described as a "relevant official" from the National Development and Reform Commission.
Rare earth imports are a relatively small part of the $420 billion U.S. goods deficit with China, but their worth far outstrips their dollar value. The materials are critical in the creation of such things as iPhones, electric vehicles and advanced precision weapons.
The Chinese tabloid Global Times also reported Tuesday that China is "seriously considering" limiting rare earth exports to the United States. "Based on what I know, China is seriously considering restricting rare earth exports to the U.S. China may also take other countermeasures in the future," Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief, wrote on his Twitter account. The editor's account is followed by traders.
"This is still not official. The U.S. only imported about 4,000 tons of rare earths, worth about $175 million. The problem is most of the rare earths we import are embedded already in the technology. If we buy a computer, they are already in it. That makes it harder for China to cut us off," said Marc Chandler, global market strategist at Bannockburn Global Forex.
Chandler said the official's comment was not an official threat from the Chinese government. "The reason the market latches on to this is they think China will retaliate, they just don't know how," said Chandler. "Once they think it through they will realize this will not be today or tomorrow. In order for China to do it comes at a big cost to them. It makes it too severe."
The trade war has become increasingly focused on technology, with U.S. action barring American companies from selling components to China's Huawei and the U.S. protesting China's goal of becoming dominant in key high-tech industries.
In the U.S., the minerals are used in oil refineries, and U.S. imports from China are less than 4% of China's exports of the metals. U.S. companies, however, use the materials in many products produced outside the United States.
"With the rare earths headline, I think investors are realizing that this is more than just about a trade war," said Michael Katz, partner at Seven Points Capital.
There are about 110 million metric tons of rare earth oxide, with the deposits located in China, Brazil, Russia, the U.S., India and Australia.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch strategists, in a note, point out that the U.S. Department of Defense has termed China's domination of the rare earth market as potentially dangerous, given the offshoring of manufacturing and vulnerabilities in America's manufacturing and defense industrial base.
China produced about 78% of rare earths in 2018, and owns about 40% of global resources. Bank of America strategists noted the dominance of China is due to the fact that its government classified them as a strategic resource and has emphasized exploration and extraction of the raw materials for about 100 years.
The analysts said China made the materials available at a low cost in the 1990s, hurting competitors and limiting expansion of rival producers. There are 17 rare earth elements, which are not actually rare but refining them from ore is costly and results in pollution.
— With reporting by CNBC's Eunice Yoon and Fred Imbert.


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Apple is known for its production of iPhones and MacBook devices and its strict privacy enforcement rules. As such, the Cupertino giant doesn’t tolerate its rules being violated by any sources. As such, in a world where digital privacy is becoming a much-debated topic, Apple has introduced a new set of privacy rules that carry some grave consequences for their violation.
The new iOS 14’s privacy rules will be in effect from next year. According to the regulations, apps running on the iOS platform will have to ask for users’ permission before collecting additional information. The information collected for tracking and advertisements needs an exclusive license from the users. And the apps which do not follow the new rules will be banned from the App Store. And trust me, you can ask Epic Games about how serious Apple takes its banning process.
“This is not a change we want to make, but unfortunately, Apple’s updates to iOS14 have forced this decision. We know this may severely impact publishers’ ability to monetize through Audience Network on iOS 14. Despite our best efforts, we may render Audience Network so ineffective on iOS 14 that it may not make sense to offer it on iOS 14 in the future. While it’s difficult to quantify the impact to publishers and developers at this point with so many unknowns, in testing, we’ve seen more than a 50% drop in Audience Network publisher revenue when personalization was removed from mobile ad install campaigns. In reality, the impact to Audience Network on iOS 14 may be much more, so we are working on short-and long-term strategies to support publishers through these changes.”
The new rule is hurting individual companies like Facebook, which rely on users’ data to improve their business. However, Apple has been previously criticized for delaying its anti-tracking measures for iOS 14. But now, Apple has brought forth its new regulations to prove that it is all about privacy.
When an App on iOS 14 wants to access user’s IDFA (Identifier for Advertisers) to track their usage behavior and collect data across the Internet for ad targeting. It will have to ask the user for their consent. Apple is strict in enforcing its App Store policies, and app developers have to comply with its rules, else face the threat of being banned or even sued.
“There will be policy enforcement. Any form or mechanism of tracking a user for advertising or providing information to data brokers will have to ask for permissions. Failure to do so is a violation of App Store policy… and are grounds for having an app removed.”


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Felix Capital raises $600 million
The British venture capital firm Felix Capital is entering a new phase after raising 600 million dollars (€561 million). This figure has doubled the fund's total capital to 1.2 billion dollars (€1.12 billion). Since its inception in 2015, the firm has targeted strategic investments in the digital field. These include investments in renowned companies such as the e-commerce platform Farfetch, the delivery services Deliveroo and Frichti or the electric scooter company Dott.
"Felix Capital was established with the vision that the rapid transformation of consumers’ behavior represented a massive opportunity and needed focus," said Frederic Court, founder and managing partner of the fund. "Since then, we have built a portfolio in line with that strategy, backing emerging and culturally relevant consumer brands as well as related enabling technologies that support them. We are proud of the growing community of founders who have trusted us," added the entrepreneur.
According to the company, these new funds will be used to support between 20 and 25 companies over the next two years. These investments, which will continue to be made in the initial phase of the projects, will be carried out in Europe and "selectively" in North America.
In parallel, the London-based company has brought two new experienced investors on board: Maria Auersperg de Lera, who will helm the business in Spain, and Sophie Luck; as well as three advisors, CEO of Depop Maria Raga; Musa Tariq, who has extensive marketing experience in brands such as Apple, Nike, Ford and Airbnb; and Branko Milutinović, founder and CEO of gaming company Nordeus.
The fund has backed a handful of businesses in the fashion sector. From Parisian Violette Serrat’s makeup and cosmetics firm, Violette_FR, to fashion brand Anine Bing, to e-commerce platform Farfetch and jewelry company Mejuri. In addition, Felix Capital has also backed the streetwear media platform Highsnobiety, and Business of Fashion, which is dedicated to delivering fashion industry news.
In other industries, Felix Capital has financed a total of 50 companies, including actress Gwyneth Paltrow’s wellness company, Goop; indoor bicycle company Peloton and the vacation booking platform Perfect Stay. Among its latest investments, the firm has participated in the recent financing rounds of three French technology companies: the cryptocurrency security specialist Ledger, the marketplace platform Mirakl and the fantasy soccer game Sorare. In Spain, the firm has already invested in the travel management company TravelPerk.
Copyright © 2023 FashionNetwork.com All rights reserved.


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If you are one of the millions of commuters who have to spend hours in traffic each weekday, you will probably appreciate Dubai’s new taxi scheme. This city in the United Arab Emirates is now testing out what they hope will be the world’s first drone taxi service.
The drones in this case look more like little helicopters than traditional drones. The current model is designed to seat two people and can fly for up to 30 minutes at a time. They also fly without remote control guidance, which is another deviation from typical drones.
The authorities in Dubai are also taking safety quite seriously. Each drone is equipped with multiple safety features in case something goes wrong in these pilot-less aircrafts. Along with back-up rotors and batteries, the large drones also come equipped with parachutes should the passengers need to make an emergency escape.
Using the drone-taxis promises to be pretty easy, too. If someone needs a ride, they could order up one of the flying taxis on their smartphone by using an app, similar to the procedures used for other ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft. You would then go meet the drone, called a volocopter, at a pick-up station called a “voloport.” The volocopter would then come autonomously pick you up and take you where you want to go.
During the test flight, which took place yesterday, the volocopter reached a height of about 600 feet and spent about five minutes flying over the sandy beaches of Dubai. The occasion was deemed momentous enough for the Crown Prince of the United Arab Emirates to make an appearance.
Don’t expect to be able to take a ride on an unmanned drone-taxi anytime soon, though. The developers of the project don’t expect the service to be available to the public for about five more years. There are a few adaptations that still need to be made, and they need to make sure the drones are fully capable of maneuvering around unexpected obstacles.
The German firm behind the current drone model, also called Volocopter, is not the only company trying to create the perfect flying taxi. Uber, the ride-hailing business, and Airbus, an aircraft manufacturer, are also developing their own unmanned drone-taxis, as are several other companies. With this many powerful players in the game, Dubai may not be the only city with its own flying taxis. Such a service could do much to ease congestion in many of the world’s busiest cities.


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You may start receiving fewer scam and spam calls starting April 5 if you’re a T-Mobile customer.
T-Mobile is making it harder for spammers, scammers and other malevolents from getting customers to raise their phones to their ears.
The company is rolling out a behind-the-scenes update called Scam ID that will automatically block calls it deems to be malicious, based on “an advanced global database of tens of thousands of known scammer numbers.”
The database is kept [Read More…]
T-Mobile has been hosting a low-key promotion for users who are willing to port their number from another carrier. Interested parties need to use a code that can be employed to get 20% off on as many as 12 lines It’s an interesting promotion, but T-Mobile hasn’t heavily advertised it. That’s probably because getting the […]
The LG G6 got unveiled at MWC 2017 and if you’ve taken a liking to the device and couldn’t wait to get your hands on it, then we have some good news for you. The flagship is scheduled to officially launch at T-Mobile on April 7, but as it turns out some customers who have […]
Better late than never, we always say.
The HTC One M9 on T-Mobile has started to receive its Nougat update, landing over three months after the unlocked model. No matter the timing, owners of the carrier version of the One M9 will be happy to see a large update land two years after the phone was released.
The update to Nougat comes in at a hefty 1.06GB, so be ready to download it over Wi-Fi and [Read More…]
T-Mobile is the first U.S. carrier to officially announce its plans for the LG G6, and they’re in line with expectations.
T-Mobile is first out of the gate for announcing the pricing and release date of the LG G6, which will be April 7, as we reported.
The company is rolling out the proverbial red carpet for the new flagship, pricing it at $ 650 outright, or 24 payments of $ 26 after $ 26 down — [Read More…]
Our friends at Thrifter are back again, this time with a way to save you 50% on a Samsung Gear VR!
If you haven’t already picked up a Samsung Gear VR, today is the day to grab one. Right now you can save 50% on the purchase at T-Mobile, dropping the price down to just $ 49.97. This discount is on the latest version of the VR headset which offers both a Micro-USB and USB-C connection type. This is [Read More…]
The LG G6 was unveiled at MWC 2017 and immediately after – on March 2 – the company made it available for pre-order for customers in South Korea. But how about the rest of the world, you might wonder? When are LG fans in the US going to be able to grab the device. Well […]
Most major carriers in the US offer an Unlimited plan option. But “unlimited” in carrier language actually spells limited with carrier implementing thresholds, which when being reached translate into de-prioritization of your device. In case you are not aware, Verizon’s Unlimited plan caps out at 22GB just like AT&T’s, while Sprint’s is a bit more […]
In the latest of a series of dramatic “Uncarrier” moves, T-Mobile announced today that it would be offering to add a line to new or current plan with at least two lines. This offer technically only applies to Simple Choice and T-Mobile One plans, but let’s be honest – if you have a plan older […]
T-Mobile is doing it again. Another ridiculous sale on flagship phones has just gone live at T-Mobile.com. Hey, I’m not complaining because its consumers that are saving money but I sometimes wonder how the nation’s third-place carrier is actually making money. Well, today we’re getting a look at T-Mobile’s latest deal. If you’re in the […]


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Malaysian police have seized 12 tonnes of cocaine worth US$575 million in the largest drug haul ever at the North Butterworth Container Terminal.
Indonesia Port Corporations (IPC) and Sabah Ports Authority signed Sister Port MoU to encourage cooperation in various fields, including logistics, port industry, and education.
Malaysia’s economy is expected to grow at 4.6 percent in 2019.
The Bunker Island Development, near Tanjung Bin, is set to have the capacity to store about 1.2 million cubic metres of various oil and gas products.
PTP is first port in Southeast Asia to welcome world’s largest container vessel and hit back to back record for highest utilization.
Northport, a member of MMC Group, recently became the first Malaysian port to be awarded the ISO 45001:2018 standard.
Over 90 percent of the global trade is carried across ocean. However, the maritime industry is also prone to rampant corruption.


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Online retailers saw a 25% year-on-year growth in gross merchandise value (GMV) during the festive month this year, according to a report by market research company Redseer Strategy Consultants.
While e-taliers sold goods worth ₹76,000 crore during the festive month, it was lower than Redseer's pre-sale estimate of ₹83,000 crore.
E-commerce platforms held their festive sale during the one-month period between September 22 and October 23 this year. E-marketplaces usually hold up to four sales leading to the festival of Diwali. The first of these sales is usually the largest and usually accounts for more than 50-60% of the festive month.
"Democratisation of categories continued this year as well, with lower order value items growing faster than mobiles and electronics. While mobiles and electronics continue to dominate category share, home and kitchen, groceries and beauty, personal care items were the fastest growing categories. Grocery grew almost twice as much as the last year festival salel," says Sanjay Kothari, associate partner, Redseer Strategy Consultants.
Fashion led the growth especially in the Tier-2 market, led by unbranded fashion with one in every five orders having a Kurti or Saree in the basket.
Around 115 -125 million shoppers placed orders across platforms in the festive month. The average spend per online shopper remained flat with an increase in contribution of fashion and other long-tail categories, the report says.
Festive period sales has largely become a Tier 2 phenomenon with 64% of shoppers coming from Tier 2-plus cities, according to Redseer. Customers outside this demographic generally have a more democratic spending pattern through the year.
Meanwhile, Walmart-owned Flipkart saw more than 60% of its customers coming from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. "Flipkart had a great quarter, with strong customer response to our Big Billion Days event, which moved forward into Q3 this year from Q4 last year," John David Rainey, executive vice president and chief financial officer at Walmart, said in an analyst call.
"E-commerce sales on a constant currency basis were exceptionally strong, up 46% in the quarter. The earlier timing of Flipkart's Big Billion Days event was also a benefit to sales results," Rainey said, adding that the e-commerce platform had over 1 billion visits during the eight-day event.
Walmart saw a 13.3% jump in international sales in the quarter ended September, led by e-commerce major Flipkart's Big Billion Days sale event. The world's largest retailer's international revenue rose to $26.8 billion in constant-currency terms, aided by Flipkart and its Mexican subsidiary Walmex, Fortune India reported on Wednesday.


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This brand of electronics allows customers to “test” a new TV for 100 days
Premium TV and electronics maker Hisense is borrowing from the mattress industry as part of a new promotion, allowing customers to test a brand new TV for up to 100 days without obligation.
Most online mattress brands currently have deals that allow customers to try out a new bed for a few months (with free returns if needed), and now Hisense is launching a ‘No Regrets’ offer which marks the first ‘offering’. Buy and Try ”from the brand.
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Buy: Hisense 75-inch 4K ULED TV $ 994.99
As part of the deal, customers have 100 days to purchase and try out a U800GR, U8G, U7G, or U6G ULED TV from an authorized Hisense retailer, such as Amazon. Hisense’s much-publicized L9G TriChroma laser TV is also part of the promotion. If customers don’t like their new big screen TV within the 100 day period, they can return it for a full refund (note: Hisense says the refund will be treated as a Visa gift card or PayPal transfer).
Long-time Hisense brand ambassador Joel McHale appears in ads for the new campaign, and the actor says it was a no-brainer to join the “No Regrets” promotion. “If I can test drive a car, sleep on a mattress for a month, and secretly wear underwear for weeks before bringing them back to the store, why can’t people watch their favorite movies and shows featuring the yours on a new Hisense ULED TV for 100 days? He said, in a statement. “If for some crazy reason you don’t like Hisense, you can return it for a full refund. We all have purchases that we regret, but Hisense will not be one of them.
According to a survey commissioned by Hisense, 80% of consumers want to be able to try out a TV at home before committing to a purchase. After all, customers say, it’s hard to judge things like picture quality and screen size when buying a TV online. This is where the brand hopes its new “No Regrets” offering will resonate with potential buyers.
The latest Hisense TVs all feature 4K ULED picture quality as well as “Quantum Dot” technology, which helps deliver richer, more vibrant colors compared to a regular LCD TV (Hisense says its quantum dots can create over a billion shades, leading to more lifelike, lifelike images).
Other features include cinema-quality Dolby Vision and Dolby Audio, an “automatic low latency mode” to mitigate any screen lag and stuttering, and real-time picture optimization, which uses AI to automatically adjust the picture and sound according to what you are watching.
All of the latest Hisense TVs are smart TVs, with smart home capabilities using Google Assistant and Alexa.
Buy: Hisense 50-inch 4K ULED TV $ 499.99
The Hisense “No Regrets” offer is only available until October 31, so you’ll want to take advantage of the promotion while it’s still live. Better yet: Hisense has downsized a number of its 2021 TVs, with 50-inch units starting at just $ 499 on Amazon.
Get a Hisense TV now and you can try it out for 100 days. If you don’t like it, Hisense will refund you after you send it back. Best Buy and Amazon are both among the company’s approved retailers for the promotion. Just make sure to register your purchase with Hisense within 14 days of the purchase date, to qualify for the offer.
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NO TATS Many Japanese spas and baths forbid tattoos
Posted on 10/27/2015 | About Japan
A survey conducted by the Japan National Tourism Agency has revealed that more than half of Japanese hotels with hot springs and communal spas do not permit use by guests with tattoos.
Of the almost 600 hotels polled about 56 percent do not allow people with tattoos to enter public bathing areas. Tattoos are still synonymous with Japanese Yakusa mafia gangs. About 13 percent of hotels said they permit tattooed visitors only if tattoos are covered, while 31 percent allow tattooed guests access to all facilities.
Other public facilities such as fitness centres and public swimming baths also have strict rules banning visible body art. Japan has attracted a rising number of complaints from foreign travellers turned away from spas and hot springs due to tattoos.


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27 septembre 2023
NUMA Group (NUMA), the leading European digital hotel operator and technology provider in the short-term rental sector, has raised US$59 million in fresh capital in another funding round. The investor round was led by Verlinvest, the private equity firm of the family that owns brewing giant Anheuser-Busch. Other backers include existing investors Headline and Cherry Ventures, as well as VC funds DN Capital and Soravia. A Taylor Wessing team led by Berlin-based partner and VC expert Dr Norman Röchert advised the start-up on all legal issues surrounding the funding round.Founded in Berlin in 2019, the company is less affected by the current pressures in the hotel industry thanks to its digitalised business model. Through the extensive use of technology, NUMA customers stay comfortably in design hotels across Europe, without any hotel staff at all. The company is thus growing against the trend, as the hotel industry is currently suffering severely from a lack of staff and rising operating costs while demand is falling at the same time.


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The decision to cut £100 off the cost of the iPhone on Wednesday has boosted sales, with O2 and Carphone Warehouse stores around the country selling out of the device.
O2 stores in Newcastle, Birmingham and London say that they sold out of the iPhone on the day of the price cuts.
And an employee in Carphone Warehouse’s flagship store on London’s Oxford Street said sales had doubled from 30 per day to 60, while another Carphone staffer commented: ‘We usually sell one or two a day, but yesterday we sold about 20 – it was like launch day again.’
O2 stores are expecting more of the devices to be delivered over the weekend.
Although the price reduction took some analysts by surprise, it has been seen as a necessary move to boost sales, of what many believe was an overpriced device, before the 3G version of the iPhone is released later this year.
Ben Wood of CCS Insight said: ‘The lack of iPhone subsidies has been one of the primary barriers to its adoption.
‘In European markets where the iPhone is available, most potential buyers will have regularly upgraded their mobile phone to high-tier models and rarely paid for the hardware.’
The temporary price adjustment is subsidised by O2 and is not expected to be copied by Apple stores, where the device is still on sale at the original price of £269.
On Wednesday the 8GB version of the Apple device was reduced from £269 to £169 until 1 June. The 16GB version is not included in the offer, and remains on sale for £329.


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Billionaire tycoon who co-founded discount store Aldi with his brother dies aged 94
- Karl Albrecht and his brother Theo lived in poverty in their youth
- They went to fight in the war and came home to ruined city of Essen, Germany
- The brothers slowly built up business after selling milk and bread cheaply
- The chain now has 10,000 stores worldwide and makes £29billion a year
- Albrecht, whose fortune is estimated at £15billion, was buried in Essen
Karl Albrecht, co-founder of the Aldi supermarket empire and one of the world's richest men, has died aged 94
Karl Albrecht, co-founder of the Aldi grocery store empire and one of the world's richest people, has died at the age of 94.
He was buried on Monday in a family plot in a small ceremony in the western German city of Essen, where he lived.
Albrecht and his brother Theo built up the business from nothing after returning home from the war and selling bread and milk cheaply from the family's small shop.
Aldi spokeswoman Kirsten Gess said in a statement: 'He created a corporate culture of mutual respect, he trusted his employees and their talents, and he gave them a chance to use them. Our sympathies are with his family.'
Albrecht and his brother, who died in 2010, shunned publicity throughout their lives, and when Forbes featured them in 1992 as two of the world's richest men, it had to use silhouettes to illustrate the article because no pictures of them had been published for years.
Albrecht was ranked No. 24 on this year's Forbes list of the world's richest people with an estimated net worth of £15 billion.
Both brothers worked in their parents' grocery store as they were growing up.
After both serving as German soldiers in the Second World War, the brothers took over the business and began a rapid expansion. By early 1960 they were operating some 300 stores.
After splitting the company into two, the brothers in 1962 rebranded the group Aldi — a contraction of 'Albrecht Discount' — with Karl Albrecht leading Aldi South, and Theo Albrecht taking Aldi North.
They still worked together, using their combined bargaining power to negotiate lower purchasing prices.
Their motto was 'concentrating on the basics: a limited selection of goods for daily needs' and their formula sold well.
He once said: 'What you want to achieve is that the customer believes there is nowhere cheaper to shop.'
Today the group has around 10,000 stores in 17 countries in Europe, North America and Australia, and a family trust established by Theo Albrecht in 1979 bought the U.S. specialty grocery chain Trader Joe's. It made £29billion in 2013.
Karl Albrecht is survived by a son, Karl Junior, and a daughter, Beate. His wife of 67 years, Mia, died in 2013.
The chain has taken the world by storm and now has 10,000 stores around the globe with 500 in the UK
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Online shoppers are using new technology more than ever to reduce the money spent on their Christmas shoppingba.
According to a study by ParcelHero, consumers are also using apps to ensure their transactions are secure.
Founder of ParcelHero, Roger Sumner-Rivers explained some of the consumer trends highlighted by the report.
“Consumers have recognised the fact that buyers have more rights when ordering online, and are also using the latest digital technologies to ensure they keep a close reign on their budget, and make their purchases as secure as possible,” he said.
The study found that 40 per cent of UK consumers plan to set a strict budget for their Christmas shopping this year, with 59 per cent revealing that they will use a prepaid card to reduce the risk of overspending. One in 10 consumers also plan to use digital wallets for some of their purchases, with NFC payments considered by one in three.
While the UK is somewhat behind the US, where Apple Pay has already launched, retailers are still monitoring the rise of mobile payments, with EE’s Cash on Tapp App an early adopter of this technology.
Apps are forming a crucial part of the Christmas shop this year, with consumers using services such as Money Dashboard, Money Lover and Spending Tracker to keep an eye on their outgoings over the festive period.
Mr Sumner-Rivers also said that the option of returning a gift if it arrives late when bought online is an attractive proposition for consumers. However, he did stress that this has to be “within reasonable time,” so anyone yet to do their online Christmas shopping has probably left it too late.


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Luggage startup Away has a lot on its plate. After raising $100 million in funding earlier this year, the company announced that it plans to open 50 new stores in the next three years, and grow its international business 10 times in the same time period. It’s also looking to expand beyond bags, and into apparel and CPG products. On top of that, the company was the subject of an investigation by The Verge into what some employees deemed to be a toxic work culture, fostered by CEO and co-founder Steph Korey.
So it doesn’t come as a complete surprise that the company named a new CEO this week. On Monday, Away announced that Stuart Haselden, currently Lululemon’s COO will replace Korey as CEO come January. (Away declined to make Haselden available for an interview, as he’s still at Lululemon).
Lululemon is far past the startup stage — the company did $3.3 billion in sales during its last fiscal year, while Away did $150 million in sales in 2018. But, Haselden has experience navigating some of the key challenges Away will face — namely, evolving a company’s brand identity as it expands beyond its core product, and developing a comprehensive plan for international expansion.
“For digitally-native vertical brands, many of them are at this really critical inflection point where they’ve got to figure out how to execute at a much greater scale,” said Steve Dennis, CEO of retail consultancy firm SageBerry.
Haselden first joined Lululemon in 2015 as the company’s chief financial officer. At the time, Lululemon had 302 stores. But all except three of those stores were located United States, Australia and Canada. When he took over as chief operating officer in 2018, Haselden set in motion a plan to expand Lululemon’s international business into Asia and Europe. Earlier this year, the company set a goal to quadruple its international business by 2023.
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Lululemon’s been able to rapidly increase international sales simply by opening more stores — the company expects to open 30 stores outside of North America this year. During its second quarter earnings in September. Lululemon reported that its revenue in Europe grew 35% year-over-year, while sales in Asia-Pacific grew 22%.
But Haselden has also tried to grow international sales by creating a more localized e-commerce experience in each of the markets it wants to capture more sales in. Within the past year, Lululemon has relaunched its China, Japan, South Korea Germany and France websites, to feature local models as well as the most popular products in that country on the home page. Lululemon’s been hosting more events to raise brand awareness in some of its newer markets. Next year, it will bring Sweatlife Festival — a multi-day fitness event that the company first started hosting in London — to Paris.
“The’ve been able to localize all across the globe and especially become more of a community hub — to get the customers to understand the sort of lifestyle they’re trying to promote,” said Jessica Ramirez, retail research analyst at Jane Hali & Associates.
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Away does not yet have the scale to open dozens of stores in new stores, or even create local websites for each of its markets. But, as a four-year-old company that still has relatively little market penetration, creating a consistent brand identity across new markets will be critical to its expansion. And that’s the experience Haselden has.
Events have also been a critical component to Lululemon’s strategy to draw more foot traffic to existing stores — a strategy that was in place before Haselden joined the company, but something that he may bring to Away as the company seeks to open more stores. Each Lululemon store gets a quarterly events budget, according to a former community manager. At Lululemon, area community managers help develop a community-building and events strategy for a stores in a specific region.
“He [Haselden] was very thorough about interacting with everyone,” said the former community manager, who met with Haselden once when he visited one of the stores she worked with in 2017. “We had a men’s designer in our store the week before, and he knew that they had been in to visit, and asked how that went, and how that interaction was like. It wasn’t like he was somebody that was completely disconnected with what was going on.”
Haselden oversaw Lululemon’s initiative to re-position itself as a brand for both men and women. At the end of last year, about 70% of Lululemon’s sales came from women’s clothing, but Lululemon hopes to double the size of its men’s business by 2023. To do so, the company has focused on adding more men’s sections to its existing stores. While the company experimented with opening men’s only stores, earlier this year it found that about 40% of its men’s products are bought by women, and so including men’s and women’s sections in the same stores make it easier for both customers to discover products in the other department.
Away is also undergoing a similar reinvention, as it looks to position itself to customers as more than just a luggage brand. Earlier this year, the company hired both a head of apparel, as well as a head of CPG. However, Away’s ability to successfully expand into those categories depends not just upon its marketing efforts, but also on its ability to build out full apparel and CPG teams who are skilled in sourcing and product development.
“When you start to get into apparel, you are talking about a much higher SKU intensity [than luggage],” Dennis said. “You’ve got to generally deal with more sizes, you’ve got different fit and quality issues…generally speaking its more complicated to get the product right.”
But first on Haselden’s agenda will likely be figuring out how to reposition Away as a good place to work to potential employees, in light of the Verge’s article, which painted Korey as a micromanager who enabled a toxic work environment. One former employee told the Verge that they felt that the mission Away sold to its employees — that they were building an inclusive brand to make travel easier — “was just a smokescreen to get employees to work harder and longer.”
“It’s hard enough to be successful in retail today, let alone if you don’t get the culture right,” said Dennis.


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Update [April 01, 2019]: The links to the OnePlus forums with the info about the arrival of HydrogenOS 9.0 beta have been pulled, yet no one has said why. Of course, we still expect the software to be released to the duo soon. Original article continues below.
It’s only a few days ago that OnePlus started recruiting closed beta testers of OxygenOS 9.0 based on Android 9 Pie on OnePlus 3 and 3T. While this was some good news for global users of the duo, those in China have something even better to smile about.
According to developing reports, it is emerging that the Chinese variants of OnePlus 3 and 3T are receiving the official beta version of Android 9 Pie. Unlike the global variants that come with OxygenOS on top of stock Android, those in China have HydrogenOS running the show.
This is the first public beta update for the duo following weeks of internal testing in China, with the stable release expected to roll out in the coming weeks.
As for the global users, we still wait for the official release of OxygenOS Open Beta based on Android Pie for the 3 and 3T. As already noted, it’s only a few days ago that OnePlus started recruiting closed beta testers, so it shouldn’t be long before the open beta arrives.
The update to Android 9 Pie makes OnePlus 3 and 3T the only non-Google devices to receive at least three major Android OS upgrades during their lifetime.


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The world of 3D printing is exciting. With more affordable machines, creative entrepreneurs, innovative startups, and new materials, the industry is rapidly evolving.
Since the invention of the 3D printer in 1983 by Chuck Hull of 3D Systems, companies have popped up all over the globe, attempting to make the most innovative machine. Here are 10 reasons why 3D printing matters—maybe you’ll decide the equipment is a worthy investment, or maybe you’ll just be convinced this futuristic technology will one day have a place in your business or home.
1. 3D printing is a key industry to watch in 2014
Enthusiasm is high, and so is the market for 3D printing in both consumer and enterprise space. According to Gartner research, printers under $100,000 were expected to grow almost 50 percent in 2013, and will increase 75 percent this year. Right now, enterprises are using the printers to prototype objects, but we’ll see an increasing amount used to make product designs this year.
2. 3D printers are empowering “makers”
Chris Anderson, former editor-in-chief of Wired, wrote in his book, Makers, that a new industrial revolution is underway because of open source design and 3D printing. Many entrepreneurs are using micro-manufacturing to create smaller batches of customized products. And with crowdfunding sites, they don’t have to rely on venture capitalists to fund these endeavors.
3. Customization is the next step in 3D printing technology
Soon enough the question won’t be how we will print things, but what we will print. Customization is the next buzzword in the industry, according to Pete Basiliere, lead Gartner analyst for 3D printing. Replacement parts, toys, and random designs and schemiatics found on the internet can all be customized to fit consumer needs. Because the machines can print one piece at a time, this can be done relatively easily. Shapeways, for instance, is a website where customers can connect with designers and order customized products such as jewelry and home decor.
4. There are several types of 3D printing technologies
Fused deposition modeling: MakerBot is one of the best examples of this technology. These printers melt a plastic filament and deposit the plastic in layers until it fills up the model. There are two types of plastic, both of which MakerBot uses: ABS, which is sturdy and made from oil-based resources, and PLA, which is biodegradable and made from plant-based resources.
Stereolithography: These machines use a laser to cure a resin and build the prototype one layer at a time. Rapid prototyping, another form, doesn’t use supports to hold up the part so that it can be built faster, but in basic stereolithography, the supports must be manually removed from the part.
Selective laser sintering: Lasers are used to sinter powdered metal, binding the powder together to create a solid structure. After each layer is sintered together, the structure drops and the next layer is built on top of it.
5. People are making all kinds of things with 3D printers
Check out Makerbot’s Thingiverse—the things people create with 3D printers are extraordinarily creative. It’s a community for makers where they can upload digital designs or photos of objects they have made with 3D printers. The website has more than 100,000 models and that number is growing every day. From Storm Trooper pen cups to household planters to customizable necklaces, the options of objects people can make are seemingly endless.
6. Ethical dilemmas of 3D printing will be a growing conversation
Get ready for it—the next great debate will be about the political, ethical, and religious questions 3D printing technologies raise. This is particularly important for bioprinting, which is already accelerating at an alarming rate. Scientists at Cornell University successfully printed a human ear last year, and scientists in Scotland are developing a way to print embryonic stem cells.
Another issue is weapons. In 2012,a man 3D-printed a gun and shared the blueprints on his website (they garnered 100,000 downloads in the two days before the U.S. State Department took them down). He successfully fired it last year, landing himself onWired’s list of deadliest people on the planet.
7. Lower prices will drive consumer adoption
As smaller companies make their own 3D printers or crowdfund them, the prices are going to continue to drop. Already, Makerbot’s smallest printer—which will begin shipping this spring— is available for $1,375. That still seems pricy for a lot of us, but it’s quite affordable for the technology.
“Of course you’re always going to have a people particularly invested in the technology who will have the means to spend the money [on their own printer],” Basiliere said. “But as prices come down some more and consumers start to buy them, that number of dedicated consumers will continue to grow.”
The prices for larger machines used in manufacturing enterprises are not lowering as quickly, he added, but they will improve in performance and enhancements to more rapidly and efficiently produce parts.
8. HP is going to get in the game at some point
The 3D printing leaders are making themselves known, but there’s an elephant in the room: when will HP join the ranks and produce this technology for the mass market? The traditional printing giant has a five-foot-tall 3D printing prototype in the basement of its Palo Alto research lab, and the company said they plan to release a product this year.
“3D printing is in its infancy,” CEO Meg Whitman said at a tech conference in Bangkok last October. “It’s a big opportunity and we are all over it. We will have something by the middle of next year.”
9. 3D printing is going to completely revolutionize manufacturing as we know it
Open source electronics allow companies to iterate designs and experiment with schematics and product parts. Eventually, they won’t need to design every piece in-house and they won’t need to ship every part because local or regional makers can design and/or print the parts themselves. Big supply chains will be a thing of the past.
Most companies aren’t grasping this technology yet because it’s going to change the industry so dramatically. According to Basiliere, the key to long-term growth in the manufacturing industry is the number of materials 3D printers can use, which is small but growing quickly as well.
10. 3D printing is going to cause disruption in many industries
We know 3D printing will upheave mass manufacturers, but what else will the technology affect?
Well, just about everything. Educators can print tools or designs in schools. Artists will have a new medium to work with. Healthcare providers can quickly create what they need in-house. Parents will be able to replace toys or broken household items in a matter of hours.


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Amazon India has announced the beginning of its Machine Learning Summer School, an integrated learning programme designed to prepare students for careers in the technology industry.
Engineering students in their pre-final and final year of their Bachelors, Masters, or Ph.D. courses are eligible to apply. The three-day ML Summer School curriculum will cover the principles of machine learning and connect them to practical commercial applications. Students will learn how to use Deep Learning and Probabilistic Graphical Models to solve challenges particular to the e-commerce industry, such as demand forecasting, catalog quality, product recommendations, search ranking, and online advertising.
“With the pace of breakthroughs in ML, we are proactively helping students learn about the newest trends in the field of ML and apply them to address real-world problems,” said Rajeev Rastogi, VP of India Machine Learning at Amazon. Our goal is to train students for careers in science, which will help bridge the gap between the growing demand for machine learning roles in businesses and the talent pool with applied machine learning skills.”
Amazon India will use an online evaluation to shortlist students from partner universities. Candidates will have access to virtual tutorials and the Amazon Research Days (ARD) conference, where they will learn about technology trends from leading machine learning experts from across the world.
Amazon India has partnered with IIT Bombay, IIT Madras, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Delhi, IIT Kanpur, IISc, IIT BHU, IIIT Hyderabad, IIIT Bangalore, Indraprastha Institute of Technology in Delhi, BITS, IIT Hyderabad, ISM Dhanbad, IIT Roorkee, IIT Guwahati, NIT Tiruchirappalli, NIT Surathkal, NIT Warangal, Anna University
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