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IMIA is an international organization where mapmakers, publishers, geospatial technology companies, location-based services, content producers, and distributors come together to both connect and to conduct business in the spatial information and map related industry. It is a global organization and welcomes members from every corner of the globe. The Association is made up of three regions: IMIA EAME (Europe, Africa and Middle East), IMIA Americas (North America, South America, Canada, and Mexico) and IMIA Asia Pacific (Australia, New Zealand and Asia Pacific).
The IMIA Report reports the current issues of the worldwide mapping industry giving members information on new products, member news, plus items of interest to those in the industry. We encourage all our members to send to IMIA Headquarters their new product information and press releases for distribution. Advertising is available.
Happy 30th Birthday Carto Graphics!
Carto Graphics was founded 30 years ago, initially making topographic maps for the Australian Army. The company is still going strong, still making quality maps and retailing maps, travel guides, world globes, GPS, and other mapping products.
After a series of spam attacks and other obscene edits, Google has temporarily taken its crowdsourced map editing tool Map Maker offline. The online tool has, for years, allowed those in countries without detailed maps to be able to add various details and points of interest to Google Maps, like new roads or parks, for example.
But in more recent months, the tool has been instead used by some to upload inappropriate content to Google Maps – like the recent prank which added an image of the Android mascot urinating on the Apple logo, for instance.
Another prank saw a user adding a business called “Edwards Snow Den” located right in the White House by exploiting a loophole that allowed you to change a business listing’s address after its creation.
Now Google is shutting down access to the system entirely starting on Tuesday May 12, according to a new message that pops up if you try to make an edit on Google Maps using Map Maker. The message links to a more lengthy explanation in the Google Map Maker forum, where Product Manager Pavithra Kanakarajan confirms that the decision to shut the project down for the time being is directly related to the “escalated attacks to spam Google Maps over the past few months.”
She says that this most recent attack (referring to the image of the Android urinating), was “particularly troubling and unfortunate,” and that Google has now suspended auto-approval and user moderation across the globe. This will remain the case until Google figures out ways to add “more intelligent mechanisms to prevent such incidents,” Kanakarajan adds.
Currently, all edits are going through a manual review process, but obviously, that’s not a scalable solution for a platform as large as Google Maps. With Map Maker, users in over 200 countries worldwide have been able to add and update map information for Google Maps’ and Google Earth’s millions of users.
Kanakarajan’s post, which was first spotted by the blog SEO Roundtable, notes that Google has already made several changes to try to address the spam problem, but the company realized that a larger fix is going to take more than just a few days. To be fair to users, Google decided to close down Map Maker while the changes are in the works.
“As you can imagine, turning automated and user moderation off has the direct implication of very large backlogs of edits requiring manual review. This in turn means your edits will take a long time to get published.
Given the current state of the system, we have come to the conclusion that it is not fair to any of our users to let them continue to spend time editing. Every edit you make is essentially going to a backlog that is growing very fast. We believe that it is more fair to only say that if we do not have the capacity to review edits at roughly the rate they come in, we have to take a pause.”
The shutdown beginning on May 12 is meant to be temporary, however, and will continue until Google has an improved moderation system in place. But neither the forum posting nor the pop-up message presented to Map Maker users gives any indication of how long a process that may be. Implementing a more robust spam detection system for the platform is no small effort, though Google is well-versed in this technology thanks to its other products like Search and Gmail, for example, which require the company to be able to filter good content from the bad.
That said, Map Maker will require a unique solution. After all, one of the problems that led to Map Maker’s recent hacks is that the system relied too heavily on the power of the community to vet the changes and edits.
And for whatever reason, many in the community decided to allow the obscene edits to pass review – maybe they made a mistake, maybe thought it was funny, or maybe they were in on the prank themselves. It would have been difficult for Google’s system to catch these earlier hacks because some of the users had a good history of edits before approving the changes that allowed the obscene images to go live.
We’ve asked Google for more details regarding how long it thinks the system will be offline, and will update if the company responds.
Earthquake Early Warning App “QuakeAlert” to Be Tested by USGS,
CalTech and Other University Researchers
The scenario in the upcoming fictional movie “San Andreas” depicts a doomsday seismic event that is all too possible on the West Coast of the US. It raises questions about how well prepared people are for a large earthquake. With new technology developed in partnership the USGS, Early Warning Labs can alert users BEFORE shaking strikes their specific location. In some scenarios, such as the one depicted in the new movie, warnings can be up to 60 seconds! With an early warning, people could take cover, trains could stop and oil rigs can be shut down.
The first app developed of its kind, QuakeAlert will alert users with a countdown to when shaking will strike their exact location and telling the user how severe the intensity is expected in their location. The app simultaneously delivers important safety instructions to the user on how to respond if indoors, outside or in a moving vehicle. QuakeAlert will be provided to users free of charge.
Developed by Early Warning Labs, of Santa Monica, CA, an official partner of the USGS, the QuakeAlert app utilizes state-of-the-art USGS seismic sensor network data, ESRI GIS backend and the Microsoft Azure cloud to deliver the earliest and most accurate earthquake early warnings soon to be available in the USA.
The app is currently in private beta testing with university researchers at CalTech and USGS scientists, and will be available to the public for free once the USGS receives full funding of their Early Warning program and approves the technology ready for the public.
“We couldn’t be more thrilled to offer solutions including QuakeAlert free to the public in the hopes that it will help protect lives during the next big seismic event in the USA.” Joshua Bashioum, Founder, Early Warning Labs
About Early Warning Labs Early Warning Labs (EWL) is an Earthquake Early Warning technology developer and integrator located in Santa Monica, CA. EWL is an official Research & Development Partner with the USGS and is collaborating with university partners including Caltech, Berkeley and Univ. of Washington. EWL is also partnered with industry leading GIS & mapping provider ESRI, Inc.
EWL will retail turn-key Earthquake Early Warning solutions including alerting and automated response systems to individual consumers, government entities, and commercial users.
NEW YORK (PIX11) – Have you ever wondered what your NYC street looked like in the 1920s, 1930s or even the 1800s? Curious?
OldNYC is a new website launched just last week. It provides a snapshot into New York City’s history, block by block often right down to the address, street and intersection at times. Dan Vanderkam, a software engineer and Matt Knutzen, Map Curator at the New York Public library, are two of the main brains behind this massive undertaking.
Knutzen had already started to clean up the special indexing for thousands of photos at the library. His only guide were original typewritten notes on the back. Many were filed away by street and cross streets. Visitors to the site can take a trip back in time through all five boroughs at a time it was nothing but rural farmland.
“A lot of the photos were taken in the 1930s during the depression, which shows different social conditions,” said Vanderkam.
The images, more than 35,000 of them, were pulled from the Library’s Milstein Division. We found PIX11 studios, the Daily News building, or at least where it stands now. In 1869 it was only homes and hills. Some time later our streets were lined with above ground trolleys.
And where this project all began- The New York Public Library? A reservoir once in the exact same location and a crystal palace where Bryant park now sits. There are even more projects in store for the NYPL.
Hema Maps have moved their corporate headquarters to a new location, beginning an exciting era for the company and explorers everywhere.
After 15 years within Brisbane Technology Park, Hema has officially relocated to Garden City Office Park, a short distance from its previous Eight Mile Plains office in Brisbane’s south. The move to more modern premises (which you can view online as a 360? panorama) carries on Hema’s evolution, unlocking potential for digital product development as the company looks towards the future of adventure navigation.
“We’ve been transforming our business from the inside out, so it was time to break camp, leave behind our purpose-built publishing warehouse, and move to our new high-tech explorer hub,” said Rob Boegheim, Hema Managing Director.
The building reflects Hema’s culture inside and out, with open plan office space looking out on tall trees through countless windows on both floors. This new explorer hub will be used to create more advanced navigation products, and to use new data capture techniques for more immersive and detailed Hema maps than ever before.
Hema’s new office hours are from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and as products are not kept on site, Hema’s corporate headquarters does not act as a shopfront for Hema Maps products. To learn more about our product range, make purchases and get online technical support for a Hema Navigator or Hema mobile app, go to www.hemamaps.com.au.
Hema’s relocation has now cleared the road ahead, allowing a company that’s been evolving since it was founded in 1983 to take the next step towards an even more prosperous and innovative future. “Moving is always a cleansing process, leaving behind all the stuff you no longer need for the journey ahead,” said Rob. “So here at Hema’s global explorer headquarters, we will continue to design and build the world’s best 4WD map and navigation products, and as always we’ll be out there mapping the road less travelled.”
MapQuest Seeking a Second Life
Once a game-changer, company now looking to reinvent itself
May 26, 2015 | 2:40 pm
DENVER – In the far corner of a typical-looking tech office, past the pingpong table and medicine balls, past the whiteboard covered with aspirational Post-it notes, there’s an old walk-in storage closet filled with reminders of a different era. In there, the old red MapQuest logo is everywhere: on giveaway knickknacks, on little tech gadgets, tokens from a time when MapQuest had nearly 100 percent of the online mapping market. MapQuest is even included in a dusty coffee-table book titled “America’s Best Brands,” along with Coca-Cola and Crest. The book was published in 2005. “The question we still get asked a lot,” said Brian McMahon, MapQuest’s top executive, is: “Does MapQuest still exist?”
It does – but in much smaller form. MapQuest is the rare American company that changed the world and then gradually became uncool, almost forgotten, in less than a generation. They are part of tech world lore – companies such as MySpace, which exists as a music network, and AOL, which became AOL, bought MapQuest for $1.1 billion in 1999 and then was acquired itself by Verizon this month for only about four times that amount.
Most Americans long ago stopped using MapQuest’s services, those turn-by-turn directions often printed out from the home desktop and scattered around the passenger seat of a car. In recent years, eclipsed by Google Maps and other swifter and better-funded competitors, MapQuest has sought a second life. “There are very few companies that can come back from that zombie-status,” said Jan Dawson, chief analyst at Jackdaw, a technology research firm.
The question is whether a tech company, leveraging a familiar name, can return from that brink. In MapQuest’s case, that means reminding people that it still exists, revamping its image and ultimately rebuilding its technology from the ground up. The journey is long. For every 20 smartphone users who have Google Maps, one has MapQuest’s mobile app.
A few companies have made it back from near-dead status. Apple is the classic example. AOL, after a disastrous merger with Time Warner and consumers’ shift to broadband, found a second act growing sideways into the less revolutionary territory of ad technology.
In a series of interviews at MapQuest headquarters, MapQuest’s designers and product managers said the company hit a low two years ago. Its maps were bad – simplistic grids outclassed by vivid and detailed landscapes produced by Google Maps and other competitors.
More troubling, using MapQuest was a headache. On Google Maps, one could type in “W-H-O …” and a series of grocery stores would pop up in the search field. In MapQuest, one had to type in, “Whole Foods, Denver, CO.”
“There had been a lack of innovation,” said McMahon, who took over in late 2012 as MapQuest’s top executive after more than a decade with AOL. During that time, he rose through the ranks, managing business development for, among other things, the company’s mail and instant messaging services.
More recently, MapQuest briefly debated changing its name, starting over with a new identity. But it decided not to, with good reason: Even now, some 40 million people – almost all of them in North America – use MapQuest at least once a month. And unlike Google Maps or Apple Maps, whose apps come preinstalled on Android or iOS smartphones, MapQuest had users who were actively seeking it out, searching for it in an app store or typing in the URL. Some analysts say those people are less valuable Internet users – slow adapters who are set in their ways – but McMahon said it’s “tough to give up” on them.
Though MapQuest still has the second-highest share of the domestic market in online mapping, about 25 percent, it’s a minnow when it comes to resources. Google dispatches cars across the world to map it; MapQuest’s mapping detail is limited beyond North America.
Nokia’s competing Here mapping system has 6,000 employees; MapQuest has 100. MapQuest began in 1967 as the cartographic services division of R.R. Donnelley & Sons, a commercial printing company, and it produced road maps for gas stations. The division became more computer-oriented and was spun off in the early-1990s as an independent company, backed by some venture capitalists, under the name of the GeoSystems Global Corp. In 1996, it launched MapQuest.com.
Even in the darkest times, MapQuest made money. It kept a bare-bones staff, sold technology and welcomed in-your-face ads. On its site now, one need only click a sponsored button to find any nearby Holiday Inn, Best Western or Comfort Inn. MapQuest also found ways, partnering with businesses, to burrow into less-noticed parts of the Internet. Want to find the closest Papa John’s? Plug your Zip code into the pizza company’s website and a MapQuest map will pop up.
MapQuest does not disclose its earnings, but McMahon said the company is profitable, with “multiple lucrative revenue streams.” The challenge, for MapQuest, is taking that business model and using it to fund an operation that now fancies itself a quasi startup.
The goal of the rebranding is relatively modest: providing good, usable maps. Google Maps may try to be a platform that pulls together your whole life – syncing with your calendar and pulling flight times and restaurant reservations from your email. But MapQuest offers online mapping for people who don’t want to be tracked, who don’t mind having to ask when they want a little extra information. Click on a restaurant, MapQuest will show you a Yelp review. Click on a hotel, you’ll find content from Priceline.
It’s unclear if this is enough to win people back. “Fifteen years ago, if you said I’m going to get directions, you’d say, ‘Let me MapQuest the directions,'” said Bill Dollins, a geospatial consultant who has done advanced mapping for the federal government. “And nobody says that now. It’s seen as something old.” Since then, some of the planet’s largest tech companies – Apple, Amazon, Nokia, Microsoft – have also turned into mapmakers, in part looking for a way to gather better geolocation information from users. Uber recently placed a $3 billion bid for Nokia’s mapping division, seeking in-house technology for its ride-hailing service. According to tech experts, digital mapping has a future in everything from driverless cars to drone deliveries.
Unlike Nokia and Google, MapQuest doesn’t own the little bits of core data that create a digital map; it buys that information from a Dutch company, TomTom. MapQuest is competing with Google and Nokia only on the next step: What is done with that data and how it’s stitched together into something people can use.
Those at MapQuest are unsure about the impact of the Verizon purchase and say it isn’t changing their business model, although, conceivably, Verizon could create a higher profile for MapQuest’s app.
In an earnings call last November, Tim Armstrong, AOL’s chief executive, called MapQuest a “very strategic asset.” “I think it’s one of those assets that people probably don’t pay that close attention to overall,” Armstrong said, “but we do internally.” He added, “And you’ve seen us roll out probably more new products in the last year on MapQuest than the prior 10 years on MapQuest.”
Brad Maglinger, MapQuest’s chief marketing officer, compared the reboot that began two years ago to razing a house rather than remodeling. Many tech workers were hired.
The company also began a low-budget tour of America – the MapQuest Listening Tour, product Vice President Nate Abbott called it. A handful of MapQuest employees met with users in cities from Washington to Los Angeles, watching how they used the app and the website. Other employees walked the streets of downtown Denver, ducking into coffee shops and offering a $5 gift card to everyone who’d sit down and share their user experiences.
Those conversations, though unscientific, helped give the company a set of common-sense ways to improve the experience, MapQuest officials said. One woman, for instance, said she worried about driving the wrong way down a one-way street, and MapQuest realized there was a better way to mark such roads. When the mobile app was introduced in late 2013, one-way streets were more easily identifiable, marked like the vanes of a bird feather.
“It’s a quick, small change,” Abbott said. Of course, it’s also noteworthy what MapQuest is not doing. Its maps have no 3D views of buildings, no put-you-there images of streets. In its digital cities, buildings are traced in outline but aren’t marked “Starbucks” or “White House.”
The mobile app is now vector-based (which keeps images crisp when re-sized) and has received good reviews from tech outlets. But its Web page, viewed on laptops or desktops, hasn’t been updated and looks much as it did six years ago. During a recent demo at the MapQuest office, SuAnne Hall, the company’s design director, groaned lightly as she used her MacBook to chart directions for driving from Denver to Los Angeles – 16 hours and 33 minutes. She noted one of the features she likes: One can easily locate the coffee shops or hotels along the way. But the widgets – or user interfaces – are clunky, she said, and the map is grainy.
MapQuest’s tech team has been working for more than a year on a new Web version. It will be ready in the next few months. “This map,” Hall said, “still needs a lot of love.”
Waypoint Ventures – New IMIA Asia Pacific Member
Waypoint Ventures is a start-up by co-founders Russell Bolden and Jesse Little of Sydney, Australia. They have developed a web-app that enables anyone to create a toposcope for any location on earth. You define a ‘home’ location either by searching an address or placing a pin on Google Maps. It’s then the same process for defining POI’s. The result is a personalized azimuthal equi-distant map projection that they then make by laser engraving the image in a range of materials including timber and stainless steel.
While people in the cartographic and GIS space might geek-out on this idea, Russell and Jesse’s intention is to make toposcopes or MapWheels as they have branded them, accessible to everyone. “Traditionally toposcopes are found at look-outs to help the visitor identify key landscape features and POI’s. We want MapWheels to be very personal and sentimental pieces of home decor that everyone should consider having” Russell said. “We encourage people to include locations that are special to them such as places they’ve travelled, where friends and loved ones live and where major life events have taken place such as where you ran your first half-marathon.” At less than $70 (USD) they are also priced at a level accessible to everyone.
They’ve made the user experience quite engaging by allowing personalization beyond choosing the locations. The user gets to choose from a range decorative features such as a border pattern, a font and what material it’s to be made from. You can also include a personal message which is great if you want to gift a MapWheel.
To date they have been pursuing the direct-to-consumer market, however they see tremendous opportunity for business and government, in particular in tourism. As an example they recently installed 3 MapWheels at a visitor information centre in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. They are simply glued down in the middle of 3 tables located just out-side the entrance to the centre. The idea is that as people sit down to plan their day with a coffee and a handful of brochures, they can easily see the direction and distance to important attractions in the area. There’s a photo of these MapWheels in the gallery page of their website.
Russell & Jesse have another new product in the pipeline. “Again it’s a form of traditional directional signage screaming out for some modern cartographic love to make them accessible to all. ” Russell said.
New Autonomous Flying Drones Don’t Require GPS to Navigate
Press Trust of India, 27 May 2015
Scientists have developed a new drone navigation system that allows these aerial vehicles to navigate without relying on a GPS signal or trained personnel.
With the goal of achieving autonomous flight of drones, Jose Martinez Carranza from the National Institute of Astrophysics, Optics and Electronics (INAOE) in Mexico, developed a vision and learning system to control and navigate them.
Martinez structured an innovative method to estimate the position and orientation of the vehicle, allowing it to recognise its environment, hence to replace the Global Positioning System (GPS) for low-cost sensors such as accelerometers, gyroscopes and camcorders.
The main idea was to avoid the use of GPS and use video cameras on board the vehicle for visual information and applying an algorithm to locate and orient the drone during its flight to use such information, researchers said.
To do this, a function that allows to draw a specific route on a map using aerial view was also adapted. Similar to Google Maps, it indicates autonomous navigation to a particular destination.
Researchers wanted to investigate different methods to perform autonomous flight of a drone on the outside environment where several challenges as wind currents occur and in areas where there is no GPS signal and have limited computational processing capabilities.
“At the stage of repeating, the pilot just makes the drone take off, but once in the air, autonomous flight algorithms kick into action and, by processing visual information captured by the camera, the vehicle recognises where in the environment it is positioned,” said Martinez.
Once it has recognised its location, visual information estimates vehicle position, which is sent to the control algorithms, responsible for moving the drone, so that it navigates to each of the points made in the route recorded during the stage teaching.
Software for ground control station was also developed, where the visual transmission from the drone is received in real time. This allows the inspection chamber in-charge to take photos or videos needed to detect fractures or flaws in structures.
History Prof Mapping a New View of the Medieval World
Maps do more than show us the way and identify major landmarks – rivers, towns, roads, and hills. For centuries, they also offered a perspective on how societies viewed themselves in comparison to the rest of the world.
Karen Pinto, assistant professor of history at Boise State University, is researching a book project titled “TheMediterranean in the Islamic Cartographic Imagination,” which looks at maps from the medieval and early-modern Muslim world. Her research is funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
In an age before GPS and detailed images of Earth captured by astronauts in the International Space Station, maps and charts focused less on mathematical scale than a subjective perception of superior might and privilege. In the case of pre-Renaissance Islamic maps, the many visual inaccuracies caused scholars to largely ignore the maps for centuries in favor of more geographically precise European cartography.
Instead of an hour of geography in the morning and an hour of English in the afternoon, for example, students will now study the European Union as a …
IMIA Asia Pacific Region Conference 15 – 17 November 2015
This year the IMIA Asia Pacific conference has been planned prior to the Brisbane International GIS Day 2015 on 18 November to allow delegates to attend both events. We look forward to your participation and encourage you to attend and show your support for the IMIA Asia Pacific Region and for ‘International Map Year 2015 – 2016.’
Like many cartographers, I am always fascinated with maps. I could be staring at any floating globe or spending quality time with my atlases. Maps has been one of the best graphical tools to convey knowledge. Knowledge is Power. Hence, Map is Power too!
Through my personal globe and many atlases, I came to know the vastness and complexities of the world. Maps simplify the complexity of world into chunks of knowledge relevant for the audience. For example, atlases have many thematic maps which shows the interrelationships of nature and mankind. A thematic map reduces multiple relationships to a simpler one where you and I can understand the world. Since the dawn of mankind, maps has served to further progress of humanity. From finding food to 3D modelling of disasters, maps have informed us what to do. Hence, Map is Power!
Like what other blog contributors mentioned, most of the map history is dictated by the professional surveyors and cartographers. Vast majority of the populace lives by and accept the standards and shapes determined by map-makers. Hence, the power of maps and the knowledge conveyed to the world is predetermined. With the advent of technologies and global geographical volunteers, the centre of power has shifted away from the map-makers. Today, non-cartographers(or surveyors / GISers) are the forefront in providing the new geographical information and most importantly, new maps.
I captured a lot of free geographic information for many years but there wasn’t a platform for me to make it publicly available. Then, I stumbled upon the OpenStreetMap and it was Power in action. As I am from Malaysia, freely available datasets (we take granted this in developed world) is very hard to be obtained. OpenStreetMap provided me and other geographic volunteers to break down the mammoth dataset barrier in front of us. Before Google Maps showed all the bus stops locations of my home state, I filled up the bus stops and route paths on Open Street Maps. Other users also chipped in by updating the attributes. It is clear example how new technologies are bringing power of maps to a bigger audience. Maps impact people and people impact maps.
With the advent open source datasets and open source technologies, maps are empowering more people than ever. Civil society and individuals are creating maps more than ever in history of mankind and interpreting the world in their unique ways. Barriers are coming down and map mashups are everywhere. Geographical analysis is advancing further and giving new insights to businesses and governments. We know exactly where to put our store or next school. We can visualize predictions using time-lapse features of various GIS software. Don’t you feel map is so empowering? Map is Power.
In conclusion, in our current lifetime, we have seen how maps have empowered us. More importantly, we, both the consumers and producers, have been empowered to shape the maps. Maps will continue to evolve (from drawings on ground to virtual reality) but always to stick to its main purpose. Conveying knowledge in a simplified manner and giving us the power to act. Map is Power!
IMIA Americas Conference Guest Speakers
September 27 – 29, 2015
Washington, D.C. USA
Center for Advanced Transportation Technology Laboratory
University of Maryland
Kari J. Craun
National Geospatial Technical Operations Center (NGTOC)
U.S. Geological Survey
Marketing Manager, Geospatial
Humanitarian Information Unit
Office of the Geographer and Global Issues
Bureau of Intelligence / Research (INR/GGI/HIU) / U.S. Department of State
Location Tech Working Group with the Eclipse Foundation
Michael E. Senn
Content Management at National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA)
Senior Editor, Cartography
More Speakers to be Announced…
Conference Registration / Schedule of Events / Hotel Reservations / Map Award Program / Student Map Award Program / Special VIP Tours at:


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The brand is banking on its awd off-road cred to set its new Solterra EV apart from Tesla and other rivals as it tiptoes into electric vehicles.
Subaru's output fell 20 percent to 207,000 in the quarter, while deliveries plummeted 35 percent to 173,000 in the same period.
The 2023 Toyota bZ4X will have a lower sticker price than the 2023 Subaru Solterra, but Subaru still has almost all of its $7,500 federal tax credits for customers to use.
Does it make sense these days to invest in a new generation of small, gasoline-powered, modestly priced sports cars? Absolutely, say Toyota and Subaru.

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This article was originally published in Maclean's Magazine on November 20, 2006
YouTube Faces Legal Troubles
Anybody who's ever bought a used car only to discover a few extra nicks, dents and mechanical hiccups after the fact knows what buyer's remorse is all about. So spare a moment's pity for Sergey Brin and Larry Page, the boy geniuses who head Google. Last month, they shelled out US$1.65 billion for YouTube, and their purchase is already running a little rough.
Last week, Comedy Central, a unit of entertainment giant Viacom, sent YouTube a demand to remove from the site copyrighted clips of shows like The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Colbert Report and South Park, depriving YouTube of some of its most popular content. By week's end, some of those clips had been restored and the two companies were working on a deal to provide limited access to Comedy Central shows, but the legal wrangling may just be starting.
The Comedy Central spat came about a week after authorities in Japan notified the company it was in massive violation of national copyright laws, forcing YouTube to pull about 30,000 unauthorized Japanese video clips. In Britain, the English Premier League is taking steps to try to keep unauthorized videos of its matches off the site, a move that could seriously dampen YouTube's appeal among millions of soccer fanatics around the world.
So far, all those disputes have been confined to stern letters and veiled threats. One company, however, did step forward to sue YouTube last week - not an entertainment juggernaut, but rather little-known Ohio manufacturer of tube- and pipe-making gear, Universal Tube & Rollform Equipment Corp. (UTube for short), which claims that its website (www.utube.com) has been plagued by misdirected traffic and its costs have skyrocketed as a result.
But YouTube's problems may go much deeper than potential court challenges. Last week, Nielsen//NetRatings released its most recent monthly report, showing that traffic to YouTube's site plunged by 19 per cent between August and September - and that was before the company was hit with the latest barrage of demands to pull down copyrighted material. According to Neilsen, about 27.6 million people visited the site in September.
That number will come as quite a shock to many who, in the wake of the Google acquisition, heard that YouTube routinely attracts close to 50 million users a month. Whether it's because of waning novelty, increased competition from similar sites, or a slow erosion of high-quality clips, it's now clear that YouTube is falling far short of its peak popularity. And a sustained campaign to purge copyrighted material from its servers threatens to make things worse. For a company that is already believed to be losing more than US$1 million a month (Google refuses to release financial data on YouTube), profitability seems a distant dream.
Ironically, analysts say, it may have been the Google takeover that sealed YouTube's fate. It was one thing to tolerate the existence of a plucky, money-losing start-up, but once it was subsumed into the massive and powerful Google empire, all of YouTube's enemies decided to start playing hardball.
It's not like there weren't warnings. Shortly before Google bought the site, Josh Bernoff, an analyst with Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass., said YouTube could be in deep trouble. He likened the site to Napster, the company that shot to prominence by allowing users to illegally swap music files, but was ultimately swamped by lawsuits and a plague of upstart competitors. And in September, Mark Cuban, the Internet entrepreneur and billionaire investor, told an audience of professional financiers that only a "moron" would buy the company, given its myriad legal liabilities. He said he expects the company to be "sued into oblivion."
That hasn't happened yet. But it's looking more and more like Google's much-hyped coup might've been YouTube's coup de grâce.
See also INTERNET.
Maclean's November 20, 2006


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Results for Don Ross
The alarming state of South Africa's paved and gravel road maintenance backlogs has been revealed...
12 Jul 2019
As part of its initiative to enable students across Africa to study with high-touch interactive support, the University of Cape Town's Faculty of Commerce, in partnership with GetSmarter, launched a suite of online postgraduate diplomas late last month at a press conference held on campus at UCT.
5 Sep 2014
From the beginning of 2013, the University of Cape Town (UCT) will be offering its renowned Postgraduate Diploma in Management (Marketing) in a blended learning format, in keeping with global education trends.
1 Aug 2013
The University of Cape Town (UCT) has launched a three-year, pan-African study on how to foster youth entrepreneurship in order to tackle the scourge of youth unemployment on the continent.
4 Feb 2013
I was invited to a talk on neuroeconomics. Yes, really. And it blew my mind. Here's why: presented by Prof Don Ross* of UCT, the talk unpacked the brain's reward system, what motivates people to act, and - most importantly for me as a copywriter and communicator - how to entrench a short brand message in the reader's mind.
Tiffany Markman 12 Jun 2012
A special duty — over and above import duties on clothing and textiles — might be imposed if a rescue package proposed by the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac), and intended to help ailing sectors, is implemented.
Mathabo le Roux 19 Feb 2009


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Are ‘Breastaurants’ a Thing Now?
Anyone who wants to toss around the term "breastaurant" better think twice -- it could cost you.
Food establishments like Hooters or Twin Peaks aren't allowed to drop the cliche name, just for the sake of being silly anymore.
According to the SFGate the Austin burger and bar chain, Bikinis Bar and Grill wants the rights to the kitchy term. They want it so bad, that they have officially filed a trademark for the term with the US Patent and Trademark office that they can be the only company in the country that will be able to describe themselves as a “breastaurant”.
“We’re really excited about receiving this federal trademark,” founder and CEO Doug Guller said in a statement. “Our team has worked hard over the last seven years to offer a unique experience to our fans.”


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Alex gets a new toy for the workshop.
Gigabyte's sub-£400 X570 board offers similar features to more expensive models.
John Romero's unofficial fifth episode to The Ultimate Doom shows the veteran designer can still rip and tear with the best of them.
Appeal bows out again.
New IP and a reboot on the cards.
Quiet on specifications, though.
Developed ports now cancelled.
Troubles not yet over for Bushnell's baby.
Phil Harrison, ex-Sony CEO, has been confirmed as the President of Infogrames. Phil will try to lead the company back to profit.
July 11 2019 | 15:40
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South Korean scientists have made an electric car that folds itself in half to save space when parking.
With just one click on a smartphone, the prototype Armadillo-T electric car has a shell - similar to the animal - that will retract back on itself.
The two-seater is designed to free up space in crowded cities and can travel 62 miles with just 10 minutes charge at speeds of up to 37 mph.
If you're running short on space in a car park, the rear of the vehicle quickly folds over its front and reduces the size of the vehicle to just 65 inches.
And instead of rear-view mirrors, the car has tiny digital cameras linked up to a flat-screen that show the back and sides of the car.
After exiting the vehicle, the driver can use a Windows-based computer system to communicate with it on a smartphone, enabling self-parking.
However, motorists shouldn't rush to buy one just yet as the Armadillo-T is not road legal as it does not meet basic road-safety criteria.
Professor Suh In-soo, of Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, said: "They can be parked in every corner of the street and buildings, be it apartments, shopping malls or supermarkets."
A popular video below showing the prototype in action has achieved nearly 800,000 YouTube hits.


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Reddit, the company that advertises itself as the front page of the internet, has announced the integration of Ethereum NFTs into its platform. The platform auctioned four NFTs on OpenSea where in each one of them, the Reddit logo was showcased in a customised manner. Only these four NFTs can be used as avatars on the platform.
Each of the NFT by Reddit was auctioned for $4,00,000 (approx Rs 30,243,801). Owners of the NFT can set these as their profile picture on the platform while those who do not own them have to settle for jpeg files to use as profile pictures. With only four NFTs available for purchase, it seems like Reddit is still exploring the idea of what to do exactly with non-fungible tokens.
Reddit, in the future, could also allow users to use any type of NFT they own as a profile picture by connecting the service to other NFT marketplaces. A bunch of other social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram are already convinced with the idea of NFT’s being added to their platforms.
The CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg recently confirmed that Instagram is soon going to add NFTs to the photo-sharing social media platform. Instagram seems to be following the footsteps of Twitter, which already started to add NFT related features to the microblogging platform, such as setting NFT’s as your profile pictures.
Zuckerberg spoke about Instagram’s NFT plans while speaking at the South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas. He said that, ”over the next several months, the ability to bring some of your NFTs in, hopefully over time be able to mint things within that environment”.


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The Series A round included investments by Dot Capital, Rhodium Capital, UTA, KDC Media Fund (a joint venture of Keshet and Dick Clark Productions), Big Block Media, and noted tech entrepreneur Ron Zuckerman. It brings total funds raised by the two-year-old company to $6 million. Just last week, UTA signed a partnership with Daquan — which curates and reposts hilarious memes from Twitter and elsewhere across the web for its 11 million followers including Demi Lovato and Drake — to pursue opportunities in TV, music, and merch.
In addition to its meme mastery, IMGN has also collaborated with top brands including Netflix, Burger King, and MTV on sponsored content.
Subscribe for daily Tubefilter Top Stories
IMGN will allocate new funds to expand its editorial team (Daquan is reportedly the brainchild of an anonymous 20-year-old in Canada), create original content (to complement the repurposed memes that have catapulted its brands to viral renown), expand to additional social platforms, increase brand partnerships, and double down on an in-house social data platform called Viral Lab, which furnishes channel management and tracks growth.
“From day one, our goal has been to master the programming of entertainment content that drives the cultural conversation on social,” IMGN Media CEO Barak Shragai said in a statement. “IMGN is building a suite of content brands to feed the voracious demand for social content around relevant topics that matter to a variety of audiences.”


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President Donald Trump again criticised the Federal Reserve for raising interest rates, calling it a "mistake" hours after the worst US stock market sell-off since February.
"The Fed has gone crazy," he told reporters on Wednesday as he arrived in Pennsylvania for a campaign rally. "So you can say that well that's a lot of safety actually, and it is a lot of safety, and it gives you a lot of margins, but I think the Fed has gone crazy."
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement following the close of markets that the US economy is "incredibly strong" despite the selloff, which analysts attributed in part to trade tensions with China.
"It's a correction that we've been waiting for for a long time," Trump said. He frequently celebrates publicly when the stock market reaches new highs, pointing to the gains as affirmation for his economic policies.
Trump was briefed on the market turmoil earlier in the day, a White House official said. He has repeatedly criticised the central bank for raising interest rates this year, decisions aimed at preventing the economy from overheating.
"The fundamentals and future of the US economy remain incredibly strong," Sanders said in a statement. "President Trump's economic policies are the reasons for these historic successes and they have created a solid base for continued growth."
US stocks tumbled Wednesday the most since February as fresh concern about the impact of the trade war with China roiled technology and industrial shares. The broad selloff took the S&P 500 to the lowest in three months, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged as much as 836 points and the Nasdaq 100 Index tumbled more than 4 per cent for its worst day in seven years.
The sell-off came a day after the International Monetary Fund said the world economy is plateauing and cut its growth forecast for the first time in more than two years, blaming escalating trade tensions and stresses in emerging markets.
Trump has slapped tariffs on $US250 billion in Chinese goods this year, and Beijing has retaliated with levies of $US110 billion of American products. The IMF projections don't take into account Trump's threat to expand the tariffs to effectively all of the more than $US500 billion in goods the U.S. bought from China last year.
During an event earlier Wednesday amid the selloff, Trump and his top economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, said they believed the US economy was strong. "It is doing well," Trump said.


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Samsung Galaxy Smart Shoes News – While the global tech arena is waiting for Samsung Galaxy S10 launch this year on February, the 20th, at Samsung’s Unpacked events in London and San Francisco, there are rumours that something has something special for the tech-savvy conscious people as well.
There are rumours that Samsung will introduce a new folding phone, the Samsung Galaxy X, paired with the next version of Samsung Galaxy Watch.
However, the most exciting announcement might come in the shape of a pair of smart shoes! 😳😍
Called the Samsung Galaxy Smart Shoes, the sneakers come embedded with a wide range of ultra-intelligent sensors designed to track running stats such as impact force, cadence, vertical oscillation, as well as the usual things like distance and speed.
Smart fashion garments and apparel are nothing new to Samsung as in 2018 the South Korean company designed a special smart suit for the Dutch team, especially for the Winter Olympic games.
This time, the rumour of the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Smart Shoes was confirmed by the patents filed by Samsung in August 2018 and granted in December 2018, not for one but two models of Samsung Galaxy Smart Shoes, namely, model A and model B.
According to the submitted paperwork for Samsung Galaxy Smart Shoes, the A model is made of Flyknit-style fabric, similar to Nike’s latest runners. However, the A model is ‘smarten-up’ by a wide array of sensors located in a special tab that can be removed. Slightly different, the B version of the Smart Shoes has a hidden compartment of sensors, located on the heel.
Either way, it seems that Samsung has decided to give the wear access to the smart sensors so either the main CPU or data can be moved to a new pair of Samsung Galaxy Smart Shoes when the current ones are no longer usable.
It is also rumoured that the models are different given their chosen markets. The A Model has a more minimalist look, aiming to be used as running shoe look, while the B Model is targeted as more fashionable consumers.
Only time will tell if the rumours are true, by Samsung launching the smart shoes this coming 20th of February in San Francisco and London, or even the following week in beautiful Barcelona, at Europe’s number one mobile tech show, the MWC.


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We're now at the stage of the PlayStation 4 life-cycle where people are starting to get excited about the prospect of the PlayStation 5. Word is that whatever it might be won't ready until 2020 - but that hasn't stopped people finding out some of the goings on behind the scenes. Where apparently, Sony's Advanced Technology Group is working with AMD Ryzen technology.
Which one assumes would have to be for the PlayStation 5. The report over at Digital Foundry
notes that a programmer on Sony's end is actively working with AMD on Ryzen architecture, so when you factor in that no Sony product currently utilises the tech the link all but forms on its own.
Still, at this stage this is speculation as we could be talking about hardware unrelated to the PlayStation brand and simply something game related.


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Friday January 20, 2012 3:24 pm
LFW and NYFW Agree on Dates
Dates for London and New York Fashion Weeks have changed in order to avoid a schedule conflict. NYFW will now take place from September 6 until September 13 this year while London will immediately follow from September 14 to September 18.
Moving LFW one week earlier than normal will help to avoid a clash with Milan Fashion Week which kicks off on September 19. "Both committees remain committed to finding a long term solution that would see a confirmed Fashion Season where brands and designer businesses in all four fashion capitals (New York, London, Milan and Paris), can plan for the long term and when exceptional circumstances arise there is dialogue and empathy to find a solution that works for all," said a statement from the British Fashion Council.
Steven Kolb of the Council of Fashion Designers of America added, "We've been back and forth on this. People are anxious and need to know the dates. There's no value for the cities to compete. In the spirit of working together, London and New York are in agreement that we will go in the earlier period, but with the hope that the four cities will come out of this confusion and work together to plan future show weeks. We need to begin to look at the fashion season not as individual fashion weeks, but very much as a global business."
- Related Tags:
- british fashion council, cfda, council of fashion designers of america, fashion week, london fashion week, milan fashion week, new york fashion week, steven kolb
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IPO share price could be based on cash flow
BUSINESS| Dec. 31, 2015, 6:56 a.m.
By John Churu, Gaborone, Botswana
The Botswana Telecommunications Corporations Limited (BTCL) share price during its recently launched Initial Public Offering (IPO) will be based on its cash flow rather than the value of its assets, according to local financial analyst Garry Juma.
BTCL made a historic listing at the Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE), this according to the last communiqué from government. However, the corporation’s asset value is unknown, especially because it has separated with BoFiNet from the mother company BTC. Following the privatisation process, Botswana Fibre Network (BoFiNet), now led by Mabua Mabua acquired over P1.4 billion in assets from the BTC, an equivalent of over 50 percent of BTC’s asset value. BoFiNet, wholly owned by government, was established to manage the national telecommunications backbone and be the whole telecommunication provider.
In an interview with the media, financial analyst at Motswedi Securities, Garry Juma, indicated that as brokers when they value securities of a company they look at a number of factors including its assets, cash flow, management as well as profitability of the company.
“We look at a number of things before determining the IPO, and key amongst the list is profitability. We also assess the company’s cash flow, whether it is steady enough to finance the activities of a company. Even the company’s ability to borrow is key to potential investors.”
Investors want the company to provide regular cash flow and distributions to shareholders. “Without this, they will sell the stock and the price will fall. Three weeks ago, minister responsible for Communications, Tshenolo Mabeo could not tag a value on the BTCL shares. With BTC’s decreased asset value, the company is faced with a key decision to make as the date of the IPO draws nearer’ whether to base the share price on its asset value or cash flow.
Internationally, cash flow was also the ‘number’ that investment bankers for international ICT companies such as Twitter and Facebook used widely to sell their shares to the public. Figures show that by the financial year ending 31 March 2012, BTC assets were valued at over P2.3 billion. However, most of these assets have since been moved to BoFiNet, among them the Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) designed to use the national fibre networks (EASSY and WACS).
Before the privatisation process, BTC’s cash flow has been favourable with its revenues for the year ending March 2012 growing significantly to P1.1 billion while profit for the period was pegged at P234 million. The company’s Chief Executive Office, Paul Taylor, said in one of the previous press briefings that he was convinced that “post privatisation, BTCL has the potential to be as profitable.”
“Investors usually accept prices that are lower than a company’s owners would anticipate. Consequently, stock prices after an IPO can rise, and indicate that the company could have raised more money. But too high an offer price, and possibly flawed investor expectations, can result in a precipitous stock price fall,” another analyst said.
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The shutdown was prompted by rail system bottlenecks in British Columbia caused by wildfires.
Read More Articles by Robert Dalheim
Robert Dalheim is an editor at the Woodworking Network. Along with publishing online news articles, he writes feature stories for the FDMC print publication. He can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.org.
Pressure-treated wood manufacturer Culpeper Wood Preservers has acquired Maryland-based Eden Wood Preserving and Coastal Wood Industries.
The Mars Dune Alpha is a speculative 1,700-square-foot 3D-printed habitat that will simulate living on Mars.
Thanks to a $400,000 state grant, furniture manufacturer Gat Creek will build a turn lane that will help ease traffic into its West Virginia plant.
Despite big sales, Ethan Allen's supply chain issues remain severe.
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Sierra Pacific has acquired Oregon-based Seneca Sawmill, bringing together two of the Pacific Northwest's largest forest product businesses.
Canadian lumber giant Interfor will invest $8 million to restart the former Georgia Pacific sawmill near DeQuincy, Louisiana.


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Driven by strong sales in the domestic market and good show by JLR, Tata Motors on Tuesday reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 1,988.73 crore for the quarter ended June 30.
The automaker had reported a loss of Rs 328.78 crore in the same period last fiscal.
The company said its consolidated net sales stood at Rs 26,876.08 crore during the quarter against Rs 16,365.57 crore in the year-ago period.
In the domestic market, passenger vehicles, including Fiat and Jaguar and Land Rover, sales grew by 56 per cent to 77,858 units.
It was driven by Indigo Manza, Indica Vista and Nano, the company said, adding its market share in passenger vehicles for the period stood at 13.3 per cent compared to 11.2 per cent in the same period last fiscal.
Domestic commercial vehicles sales during the first quarter grew 38.7 per cent to 100,186 units, with medium and heavy commercial vehicles segment increasing by 62.4 per cent year-on-year, the company said.
During the quarter, Jaguar Land Rover business continued to show strong profitability, with increase in volumes coupled with significantly favourable currency movement in Q1 FY 2010-11, reporting a profit before tax of 233.82 million pounds (Rs 1,590.25 crore), the company said in a statement.
Wholesale volumes for JLR in the quarter were 57,153 units compared to 35,947 units in the year-ago period, it said, adding retail sales too improved favourably in the quarter, on the back of good response for Land Rover products and the newly launched XJ.
There was a strong recovery across all the regions, with China standing out registering a growth of 104 per cent, it said.
Tata Daewoo Commercial Vehicles Company Ltd registered a 20.9 per cent growth in sales in the quarter, the statement said, adding Tata Motors Finance Limited, the company’s captive financing subsidiary, reported a net profit of Rs 23.52 crore.


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Infor, Catalyst ink strategic tie-up
Dubai, July 5, 2011
Infor, a leading provider of business application software, has signed a strategic partnership with global systems integrator, Catalyst Business Solutions.
The agreement will support Catalyst to market, implement, train and provide professional services for Infor’s ERP LN, ERP Visual, Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) and Performance Management (PM) solutions across the Middle East and Africa.
With extensive experience in the Middle East, Africa and Indian Ocean, Catalyst will focus on small and medium sized organisations, which make up a large proportion of the market in those territories, a statement said.
Catalyst will leverage its regional sales force from nine different offices in MEA to sell Infor solutions, and help build a local ecosystem for deployment, training and support.
“We have observed Infor over quite a long period and for a number of reasons we want to accelerate formalising our relationship,” said Jean-Baptiste Blanc, vice-president, sales at Catalyst Business Solutions.
“We’ve witnessed Infor’s increasing scale and the impressive investments in its development of pertinent solutions for what we consider is a rather neglected market segment in EMEA. We’ve also seen the new management team’s impact over the last six months.”
“In addition to its recently launched portfolio of truly innovative solutions, we were impressed with Infor’s new channel partner network programme, which provides extensive support in the form of local resources, marketing and training. We welcome the opportunity to support Infor in its growth ambitions for the Middle East and Africa regions and look forward to a long term and fruitful partnership,” he added.
Jean-Philippe Pommel, Infor’s vice president of channels, EMEA, said: “As an established systems integrator with enterprise applications experience, we welcome Catalyst to our growing network of channel partners.”
“We look forward to working shoulder to shoulder with Catalyst to help educate companies in the Middle East and Africa regions about the immense value Infor solutions can bring to their operations,” he added. – TradeArabia News Service
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Retail giant Walmart has announced a $20 billion share buyback program and has lifted its annual forecast, with demand for grocery products holding up even as inflation drove product prices higher.
The company also raised its full-year net sales expectations and announced a new $20 billion share buyback plan, pushing its shares up 7% in premarket trading.
The retailer also benefited from offering discounts on clothing and electronics, which attracted more customers to its stores.
The average volume of transactions at the company’s stores in the U.S. grew by 2.1% in Q3, compared to 1% in the previous quarter. Meanwhile, the company’s expenditure went up by 6% due to inflation.
Overall revenue for the quarter rose by 8.7% to $152.81 billion, which was higher than analysts’ estimates of $147.75 billion, Refinitiv IBES data shows.
“Walmart U.S. continued to gain market share in grocery, helped by unit growth in our food business,” said Walmart CEO Doug McMillon in a statement.
“We significantly improved our inventory position in the third quarter, and we’ll continue to make progress as we end the year,” he added.
Looking ahead, the company expects its same-store sales in the U.S. to rise by 3%, slightly below its previous estimate of 3.4%, with consumers cutting back on their holiday shopping budgets. Meanwhile, net sales are expected to increase by 5.5%, higher than the company’s previous forecast of 4.5%.
The company expects its earnings per share to decline by 3% to 5%, lower than analysts’ estimate of 4.5%.
The company’s stock was up 7% following its announcement.


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Samsung is back with its Free The TV challenge. The first edition of the challenge was held last year when WeDraw bagged top honors. Samsung has had a great year with its mobile devices garnering a fair share of attention. The TV as a developer platform has also seen interest in platforms from Apple and Google and with its latest SDK and contest, Samsung definitely wants to woo the developers.
The 2011 edition of Free The TV coincides with the latest release of version 2.5 of Samsung’s SDK. The SDK promises a new category of applications called “Converged Apps” that will allow developers to write applications that would work seamless across multiple screens and devices--TV, phones, tablets and computers. This fragmentation is a current concern with a lot of developers and with this SDK, Samsung plans to address it.
Samsung is encouraging developers to explore the possibility to writing Converged Apps in the following categories:
- Controller Apps: They enable a second device to control an app on the TV.
- Companion Apps: They enable a second device to augment what is being shown on the TV.
- Interactive Apps: They enable the user to use a second device as a secondary display.
The challenge is open through November 29. The judging period is in December and winners will be announced at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) scheduled in January 2012. The The contest offers serious prize money totaling $225K with the top three winners taking home $100K, $75K and $50K, in addition to TVs and Galaxy Tablets.
The Free The TV contest page has details on how to register yourself for the contest. Keep in mind that you will need to download the latest SDK 2.5 from Samsung and develop your application using that. MOVL, the company behind last year's winner, is also providing its MOVL Connect platform to developers free of charge during this contest. The platform provides tools and cloud-based infrastructure to build applications that work on multiple devices.
So stop being a couch potato and enter the ring to free the TV.


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Spencer Retail shares rallied 7% after it announces plans to reduce debt
The stock of the retail company rallied after the company said, in an exchange filing, that its subsidiary Nature's Basket is anticipated to decrease its debt by approximately ₹100 crore through a combination of loan restructuring and loan repayment in the coming period.
Shares of Spencer Retail were up by 7.18% to ₹79.10 apiece on Tuesday’s trading session. Spencer stock opened at ₹74.60 on November 28, against previous close at ₹73.80 per share. At 10:30 am, the stock for Spencer's Retail was trading at ₹77.40.
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It's no secret the price of a gadget typically goes down right after a new model comes out.* The real question is just how much?
Gadget trade-in service Gazelle has mapped that out for the last two models of Apple's iPhone and has projected trade-in values for the iPhone 5 following Apple's expected announcement of new models early next month:
The gist: the price Gazelle pays for iPhones declines day by day until the device launches, when there's a big drop.
The prices, of course, are only for Gazelle, which is one of several gadget buyback programs that has moving prices for electronics it buys back. iPhones are far and away the company's most traded-in item. Last week, the company said it's made around a million offers for used iPhones in just the month of August, and has been receiving nearly 30 percent more iPhone 5 trade-in offers than iPhone 4S owners were making around this same time last year.
"This will probably be the biggest iPhone not just for us, but also for Apple," said Anthony Scarsella, Gazelle's chief gadget officer.
To capitalize on that, the company on Monday extended its usual 30-day trade-in policy to 50 days, something it hopes will spur resistant buyers to trade-in their old gadgets even if they can't get a new phone immediately after launch. That's especially relevant given that ship times for new devices quickly ramped up to three to four weeks for new buyers following last year's iPhone 5 launch. It took about two months for Apple to, which later turned into days.
Apple's expected to debut its new iPhone, along with a less expensive plastic-backed model on September 10.
* Except for Apple's second-generation Apple TV, which sells for a premium because it's easily able to be jailbroken.


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Fidelity Digital Asset Services president Tom Jessop explains why its new crypto offering for institutional clients is focused on custody and trade execution, why it’s decided not to launch its own exchange, and what kinds of trading capabilities from traditional financial services they plan to build out in the space. He also describes Fidelity’s journey to this point — how it started mining Bitcoin in 2015, had employees buy what must now be some of the world’s most expensive bagels in the company cafeteria, and enabled Bitcoin donations in its donor advised funds. He also answers whether or not they plan to create a digital asset offering for retail customers, how custodying digital assets is different from custodying traditional assets and how he came to Fidelity after experience at Goldman Sachs and Chain.
Thank you to our sponsors!
Fidelity Digital Assets: https://www.fidelitydigitalassets.com/overview
Fidelity’s journey in crypto: https://medium.com/@FidelityDigitalAssets/fidelity-digital-assets-the-journey-from-idea-to-market-3ab3bf4b38d5
Custody of digital assets: https://medium.com/@FidelityDigitalAssets/custody-in-the-age-of-digital-assets-95799f347016
Endowments investing in crypto: https://www.theinformation.com/articles/harvard-stanford-mit-endowments-invest-in-crypto-funds


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Voice social community Clubhouse stated on Sunday it’ll broaden its Android app worldwide in every week, days after launching a beta version of its service on Google-owned mobile operating system for customers within the U.S.
The startup — backed by A16z, Tiger World and DST World and valued at about $4 billion — stated it’ll roll out the Android app to Japan, Brazil, and Russia on Tuesday; Nigeria and India three days later, and remainder of the world by Friday afternoon.
Clubhouse initially launched as an iPhone-only app final 12 months. The app shortly gained recognition final 12 months, attracting a number of high-profile celebrities, politicians, traders and entrepreneurs.
The startup started growing the Android app early this year and began to test the beta version externally this month. In a city corridor earlier this month, the startup stated availability on Android has been probably the most requested product function.
Clubhouse’s international rollout on Android comes at a time when scores of expertise agency together with Facebook, Twitter, Discord, Spotify, Reddit and Microsoft’s LinkedIn, have both launched their comparable choices — or introduced plans to take action.
Twitter’s clone of Clubhouse, known as Areas, has emerged as one of many largest opponents.
In the meantime, Clubhouse has struggled to take care of its development tempo in latest months — primarily based on obtain determine estimates by a number of cell perception companies. The Android app may doubtlessly assist the startup courtroom extra customers.
The startup continues to take care of an invite system for onboarding new customers, saying that that is a part of its effort to “preserve the expansion measured.”
The Android app of Clubhouse at the moment lacks quite a few options. On the time of launch final week, customers couldn’t comply with a subject, create or handle a membership, hyperlink their social profiles, make funds, or change their profile title of consumer title. The startup stated it’s working to deliver iOS options to the Android app.


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Media Monitors: The Ujamaa Investment Club Relies on News Events to Sharpen Their Understanding of the Financial Markets
Conwell, Vikki, Black Enterprise
In November 1992, Food Lion, the grocery store chain, became the subject of a national media investigation regarding unsanitary practices and labor law violations. An ABC News report accused the company of selling outdated food, cheese gnawed by rats, and spoiled meat washed in bleach to kill the odor.
In the days prior to and following the television broadcast, the price of Food Lion's stock plummeted--the company lost $1.5 billion in market capitalization in five days of trading. For the month of November, the company reported that its sales fell 9.5% and its stock price dropped 20%.
As Food Lion was being hammered by all of the negative media attention, members of the Durham, North Carolina-based Ujamaa Investment Club watched with interest. The 13-member club, which had just established itself in February 1992 with contributions of $50 per month, had made its first investments in companies that included McDonald's, AFLAC, and Food Lion. But by keeping abreast of the situation, Ujamaa was able to unload the stock before its plummeting value could negatively impact the club's portfolio. Within 18 months, Food Lion sales dropped $4.6 billion, costing the company an estimated $233 million in profits.
"When you're investing, you're not supposed to let short-term changes in the market cause you to react," says Bertha Jones, the club's financial partner and co-founder who works as director of client services at North Carolina Central University. "But in this particular case, it was more than just a fluctuation--it was widespread."
Watching as media events greatly affected the performance of a stock helped the club develop sound stock analysis, evaluation and tracking practices, and strict operating procedures and policies. Each partner was assigned stocks to research, track, and report on monthly, while a rotating committee was charged with providing quarterly portfolio reviews and annual audits.
The club established a philosophy of investing in growth companies with a proven track record. …


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The first thing ever bought or sold online, according to British journalist Mike Power, was marijuana. The sale was arranged in either 1971 or 1972 between computer science students at Stanford and MIT using Arpanet, the precursor to the Internet. Today, thanks to the Web, cryptography, crypto-currencies like Bitcoin and international next-day delivery services, people around the world are buying substances far less tested than marijuana with a great deal more ease. Reason Science Correspondent Ronald Bailey reviews Power's Drugs Unlimited: The Web Revolution That's Changing How the World Gets High for the Wall Street Journal.
So far, it's been silence from The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, and others.
That's a huge concern as forecasters expect the U.S. unemployment rate in the months to come to surpass that seen during the depths of the Great Depression.
Social distancing and lockdowns appear to be working to slow the coronavirus pandemic.
"You cannot just decide you want to sell groceries," said Barbara Ferrer, the director of L.A. County Public Health.
The agency concludes that the possible benefits outweigh the risks.


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Jennifer Lopez’s beauty can’t even be tarnished in the water.
The 51-year-old stunner shared a gorgeous pic of herself submerged in liquid to her Instagram account on Tuesday afternoon. In the post, JLo announced the launch of her brand new beauty line, which will debut on January 1.
Jennifer didn’t wear much in the snapshot, but she did show off her bronzed and glowing skin. She appeared to be wearing a black one-piece bathing suit in the snap. The straps fit tightly over her toned shoulders and gave fans a small peek at her lean arms under the water.
She posed with her body angled away from the camera and her arms resting in front of her midsection. Her head was turned to look over her shoulder with a smoldering stare, and her lips parted as the soft sunlight illuminated her skin.
Behind Jennifer, more water was visible. The golden tint of the sun reflected off of the scene to create a stunning ripple effect that set off the entire photo.
Her long brown hair was pushed back behind her head in a soaking wet style. The locks clung together and fell down her back while also sticking to the side of her neck and shoulder.
Jennifer talked about glow in the caption, and also offered her fans a big hint about how they could get their hands on her new beauty products nearly a month earlier than anyone else.
JLo’s over 133 million followers didn’t waste any time sharing their adoration for the post by clicking the like button more than 459,000 times within the first hour after it went live on the platform. Her admirers flooded the comments section to leave over 2,900 messages during that time as well.
“You are one of a kind in this universe,” one follower declared.
“Can’t wait! this is so exciting,” another stated.
“So beautiful mama,” a third user wrote, adding a line of black heart emoji for emphasis.
“I know what I am going to buy myself for Christmas this year. I’ve been good,” a fourth person quipped.
Jennifer has become known for her age-defying good looks, which could work in her favor when it comes to selling her own products.
Of course, the actress also takes great care of herself. As previously reported by The Inquisitr, she recently hit the gym to flaunt her chiseled curves while proudly showing off her voting sticker on Election Day.


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Amazon France has published a listing for a new version of The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt for Switch.
The listing can be found here, and appears to be for a standard edition of The Witcher 3 without the additional DLC present in The Complete Edition, judging from the lack of that subtitle on the cover. It goes on to state that this standard version of the game will be released on November 5th 2021.
— Nintend'Alerts (@nintendalerts) October 18, 2021
We will be sure to report back with more details should they become available.
What do you think? Let us know in the comments.


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VOLKSWAGEN AG’s US sales rose 6.3 percent last month, less than rivals’ but better than analysts expected, in a sign of how consumers are reacting to the automaker’s cheating on diesel emissions tests. VW, which boosted incentives to above the industry average, didn’t give results for its diesels, including the 2-liter models that were pulled from lots.
Sales rose 0.6 percent for its namesake brand and 16 percent for the Audi luxury unit, the company said on Thursday. Four analysts in a Bloomberg survey had split evenly on whether the combined total would rise or fall, with an average estimate of a 0.8-percent gain, the lowest for any major automaker. For the Volkswagen brand alone, the average of three estimates was for a 6.- percent slide.
“We would like to thank dealers and customers for the support of the Volkswagen brand,” said Mark McNabb, COO for Volkswagen of America. “Volkswagen will continue to work diligently to regain trust and confidence in our brand.”
The company’s marketing promotions per vehicle jumped $479, or 17 percent, to $3,381, according to an analysis by Autodata Corp., which said the industry average rose 5.7 percent to $3,144.
The Volkswagen brand, down 2.5 percent through September, has been lagging, while America’s love of pickups and SUVs, fueled by available credit, affordable fuel and the latest technology, helped push auto sales to the highest level in more than a decade. Audi, with a 13-percent increase through nine months, has been benefiting from a surge in demand for luxury vehicles.
Volkswagen brand deliveries in September increased to 26,141, led by a 51-percent surge for its Golf models. Audi sales rose to 17,340, the brand’s best September in the US. The compact A3 was the line’s only model that is sometimes equipped with the 2-liter diesel engine implicated by the cheating. A3 sales rose 16 percent.
Combined sales for the two brands were 43,481, up from 40,913 a year earlier.
Analysts said Volkswagen, like other automakers, may have been helped last month by the Labor Day weekend, a traditional car-shopping holiday, falling in September this year after occurring in August the previous year.
The US industry may show a 13-percent jump in September car and light-truck deliveries, for an annualized rate, adjusted for seasonal trends, of 17.7 million, the average of 12 analyst estimates in the Bloomberg survey.
Volkswagen is the subject of numerous government investigations and lawsuits since the US Environmental Protection Agency said on September 18 that the largest European automaker admitted using a so-called defeat device that turned off emissions controls when vehicles weren’t being put through official tests. The revelation undermined VW’s diesels, which were one of its few strengths, along with a critically acclaimed line of Golf cars. Martin Winterkorn stepped down from his role as chief executive officer of the automaker, but remains CEO of its largest shareholder.
Alan Brown, who runs the nation’s largest Volkswagen store, said earlier this week that customers at his Hendrick VW haven’t stopped asking about the cars. Even with 22 percent of his 237-vehicle inventory now quarantined, his team last weekend sold six new vehicles and handled questions from customers who like the diesels, wanted to know when they’d be available and wondered what kind of discounts they’d soon carry.
“People are smelling a little blood in the water,” said Brown, general manager of the store in Frisco, Texas, near Dallas. “The hope is the factory decides to give a little back to the community in the form of incentives. I think they will, and I think we come out of this stronger.”
VW’s US sales have dropped for two straight years, hurt by an aging lineup that lacks a mid-size SUV. To try to more than double US sales and meet a 800,000-vehicle sales goal by 2018, the automaker has relied on leasing to ensure a stream of repeat customers when their contracts end in 2017—about the same time the fruits of its product-line reformation would hit dealers.
Leases, some as cheap as $39 or $49 a month, have accounted for about 40 percent of the company’s deliveries—more than Porsche and about double the rate of most mainstream brands.
Volkswagen had been getting some help from interest in diesel vehicles, which have gained sales in the US for eight straight years. Though Baum & Associates figures show Americans buy more than three times as many hybrids and electric models as diesels, hybrid sales have been slowing and actually slipped last year as gasoline prices fell.
Shoppers predisposed toward diesels are more likely to delay a purchase, if possible, than to choose an electric vehicle or a hybrid instead, Jeff Schuster, senior vice president at LMC Automotive in Troy, Michigan, said in an interview.
“Those buyers share an interest in increased fuel economy, but that’s where it stops,” he said. “Those diesel buyers are going to be left hanging for a little bit.”
Brown, who heads VW’s national dealer council, said that while the scandal has slowed consumer demand for now, it hasn’t diminished the interest in diesels.
“The brand is working on incentives and how we’re going to face these headwinds in next few days,” Brown said. “VW has the funds to do it and do it right.”


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Hosting key consumer, tech and national media, the Popcorn team headed to THORPE PARK Resort last week for the exclusive VIP preview launch event for GameFX. [Read more…]
We’ve been popping with excitement to announce our latest win.
A destination that’s been on our wish list for many years, THORPE PARK Resort has appointed Popcorn PR as its retained consumer PR agency following a highly competitive pitch. [Read more…]


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Victory Motorcycles TT Zero Entry details have surfaced!
Snapshot: Victory is dead serious for making it big at the TT Zero this year!!!
Just yesterday we showed how Victory is planning to participate at the Pikes Peak Hill Climb with a thoroughly souped up Indian Scout engine and infact we have been talking about for some time now about how Victory has shown serious intent of racing their entry at the IOMTT Zero electric race with their recently acquired electric bike firm, Brammo's race bike. However, it is such a beautifully ironic thing that an American motorcycle manufacturer and that too an essentially cruiser based portfolio one, has decided to participate in the world toughest race with an electric racing bike entry, but yes, we admire Victory for breaking up a few moulds.
It has been well talked about already that the Victory's entry for TT Zero will be based on the Brammo Empulse RR and it is being said that Brammo has done extensive work on the bike for this year's TT. Some of the improvements that are being talked about are the addition of a new motor to the bike supplied by its partner Parker, and is being claimed that they had optimized power delivery and efficiency by placing new windings in the Brammo motor. All this translates to a drop on horsepower from the Brammo-spec machines original 173hp to 150hp, however, the peak torque remains at an incredible 220Nm. This means that Victory has gone for reduction in power to get a substantial rise in the systems overall efficiency, thus providing the best possible design for the Empulse RR to achieve the fastest possible lap around the 37.73 mile TT circuit.
Alongwith the change in the systems power output and rise in its efficiency, the next big addition to the Empulse RR is in its battery capacity which has been extended by 20% as per reports, but, it could mean an increase in the weight of the race bike as well. To be designed specifically to deal with the stress the iconic TT circuit can throw to a bike, it being a street circuit afterall.
Needless to say, all the go fast modifications sing a rhyme to the Aerodynamics god and the Victory has done some rework on the Empulse RR to make it go faster than before. A new carbon fiber tail unit has been incorporated in the design and is both lighter and more aerodynamic than its predecessor. The same goes for the front as it is more slippery than the present one, however, all the aerodynamic upgrades done to the race bike are yet to be disclosed by Brammo.
This year's TT Zero promises to be a thrilling event with such dedication from Victory as they gun for a podium finish, however, going against the big boys of the segment, the Team Mugen will be a tough ask for the American company.
We think you'd like...


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The WhatsApp digital payment system is fully operational in India, as previously announced. The beta process, which started in 2018, was completed with the approval given by the competent authorities. The process was extended for about 1 year due to concerns about data storage and sharing.
There are more than 400 million WhatsApp users in India. This makes the Asian country the most important market for the communication service. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg recorded a video to announce this development, showing the importance of India for WhatsApp.
Zuckerberg stated that WhatsApp users can now transfer money to friends and family members as if they were sending a message. Facebook CEO pointed out that digital payment methods that minimize physical shopping during the pandemic have also gained importance.
Watch | Mark Zuckerberg says, “Now you can send money to your friends and family through #WhatsApp as easily as sending a message."
— The Indian Express (@IndianExpress) November 6, 2020
WhatsApp’s payment system will take advantage of India’s national payment infrastructure. Thus, compatibility between different digital payment solutions in the country and WhatsApp’s service will be achieved.
Facebook is working with five banks in India for the WhatsApp digital payment system. These banks are listed as follows: ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, State Bank of India and Jio Payments Bank.


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LONDON, 24 Aug 2017:
Nearly half of businesses operating in Britain’s food supply chain say EU workers are thinking about leaving because of uncertainty around Brexit, an industry survey showed today.
Food processing makes up the biggest chunk of British manufacturing and relies heavily on immigrants, although much of debate so far around Britain’s departure from the EU has focused on sectors like car production and aerospace.
Around 47% of companies in Britain’s food supply chain – which includes farms, food processors, supermarkets and restaurants – said their EU workers were considering their future as a direct result of the June 2016 Brexit vote, according to the survey compiled by several trade bodies.
Nearly a third of respondents to the survey, conducted between March and May, said some EU staff had already departed.
While Britain’s economy has slowed sharply this year, evidence that the Brexit vote made an impact on the labour market is less clear.
Still, official data last week showed the number of EU-born people working in Britain rose just 1.6% year-on-year in the second quarter, the weakest increase in seven years.
“An abrupt reduction in the number of EU workers eligible to work in the UK after Brexit would result in significant disruption for the entire food supply chain,” said Andrew Opie, director of food and sustainability at the British Retail Consortium.
He added that this would have consequences for the availability and price of food in Britain.
Around a fifth of the two million EU nationals working in Britain are employed in the food and drink supply chain.
About 36% of companies in the survey said their businesses would be unviable without access to EU workers.
Prime minister Theresa May has said the government will guarantee the rights of EU citizens already in resident in Britain, but the details of a future immigration system are still unclear.
“We must stress the urgency for more detailed information about a new system before 2019, if it is to be implemented once the two-year Article 50 period ends,” the report said.
The future of the border between the British province of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland was another worry cited by respondents in the survey.
Britain wants no border posts or immigration checks between Ireland and the British province of Northern Ireland after Brexit, but critics have said this goal may be unworkable.
The report said some companies could move to the Republic of Ireland if Brexit disrupts the Common Travel Area that currently exists with Northern Ireland.
The survey, based on 627 companies, was compiled by the Food and Drink Federation.
Members of the Association of Labour Providers, British Beer and Pub Association, British Hospitality Association, British Retail Consortium, Food and Drink Federation, Fresh Produce Consortium, and the National Farmers Union, took part.


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Get into Expo 2020 celebratory mode with this cool offering. Over the next few weeks, the Expo ice cream truck is heading all across the UAE with a mission to hand out free treats.
The van is expected to travel across all seven emirates and give away more than 40,000 ice-creams. The official twitter handle of Expo 2020 not only announced the move but called it the team’s way of connecting with people.
Stay tuned for more Expo 2020 updates right here.


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SEE MORE NEWS
Indonesia announces “big bang” opening up including logistics, e-commerce sectors
Bangladesh’s garment trade hit hard by concerns over Dhaka airport security
Lithium battery issue reignited after US safety regulators issue alerts
Get used to “new normal” of cargo growth warns IATA
Kwang-Soo Lee joins the TIACA board
Cue public address system
Receive up-to-date news bysigning up to our weekly digest.


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This is Change Log — my semi-weekly observations and links on the intersection of tech, commerce, health, culture and markets
It’s Chinese New Year so what better way to celebrate than a star-studded celebration with 540 dancing robots and 29 drones (below)?... Premium automaker Jaguar and the British government are teaming to build an Internet of Things “living laboratory” along a 41-mile stretch of road that will allow autonomous and connected cars to test and self-report data in real time…
Genetic Design: Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) allows parents to choose the gender and eye color of their children and it is already popular around the world. Read at Popular Mechanics here.
Internet of Things: The NFL put computer chips in the shoulder pads of every player, multiple beacons in every stadium and then connected everything to the Internet to analyze the data. Read at Forbes here.
Biometrics: Future Samsung smart watches may be able to authenticate users by taking a picture of their vein structure. This is taking biometrics skin deep. Read at Digital Trends here.
Artificial Intelligence: New chips running advanced deep learning algorithms could bring facial recognition without an Internet connection to smartphones. Read at The Verge here.
Biotechnology: A San Francisco start-up is producing meat that might be better for us yet it doesn’t damage the climate, require pesticides, antibiotics or even land. Read at Fast Company here.


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When first phablets were released no one had any doubts that such big screens would take user experience to a whole new level. And then Asus moved a step further and launched the PadFone – a smartphone that docks into a tablet, which however launch in the US. It will change in the near future, though. The company has just unveiled the next-generation combo, the PadFone X. This time round the device will be available in the US exclusively from AT&T. The exact release date and pricing is yet to be announced.
Asus PadFone X 4G LTE AT&T Smartphone
Asus did not provide many details about the PadFone X, but by the looks of it, the device will be very similar to its predecessor. A photo accompanying the press release shows a handsome smartphone dressed all in black with silver highlights and AT&T logo on the back. Capacitive buttons are nowhere to be seen making us believe that Asus might be using software keys instead. The phone has a rear-facing camera, but the size of the sensor remains unknown. As for the tablet, all we can say with 100% certainly it that it is black and has buttons on the left side.
This is how much we were able to deduce from the image. To be honest, Asus did not give us much more information. The company revealed that the phone has a 5-inch Full HD display with dual front speakers and runs Android 4.4 KitKat. The tablet comes with a 9-inch Full HD screen and has its own battery. According to Asus, both the smartphone and the tablet are thin and lightweight. The device supports 4G LTE connectivity with Voice over LTE.
more info: Asus Press Room