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1. SmileDirectClub says it's shutting down
SmileDirectClub announced over the weekend that it was shutting down, several months after the telehealth orthodontics provider filed for bankruptcy protection. The company, which provided clear aligners remotely without in-person visits to an orthodontist, called the decision "incredibly difficult." It marketed its teeth aligners, which sold for $1,850, as a faster and cheaper alternative to braces offered at orthodontists' offices. Its treatments took four to six months, with online check-ins with dentists. The company was founded in 2014 and was valued at $8.9 billion in its 2019 initial public offering, but it became weighed down by debt. BBC News, The New York Times
2. Cigna drops effort to buy health insurance rival Humana
Health insurance giant Cigna has dropped its effort to buy rival Humana after shareholders balked and negotiations hit an impasse over the price, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday, citing people familiar with the matter. Cigna instead announced it would buy back $10 billion worth of stock. "We believe Cigna's shares are significantly undervalued, and repurchases represent a value-enhancing deployment of capital as we work to support high-quality care, improved affordability and better health outcomes," Cigna Chairman and Chief Executive Officer David Cordani said in a statement. A merger would have created a company valued at more than $140 billion. Reuters, The Wall Street Journal
3. Macy's receives $5.8 billion buyout offer
An investor group that includes real-estate investing firm Arkhouse Management and global asset manager Brigade Capital Management made a $5.8 billion offer to buy Macy's. The proposal to take the department store chain private comes as it struggles to compete with online rivals. The investor group submitted a proposal on Dec. 1 seeking to buy Macy's stock that the firms don't already own for $21 a share, a 32% premium over its value on the day of the offer. Macy's is down from a high of $70 a share in 2015. The company operates about 500 stores under its namesake brand. It also owns more than 30 higher-end Bloomingdale's department stores and some discount and smaller-format shops. The Wall Street Journal
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4. Stock futures little changed ahead of inflation data, Fed meeting
U.S. stock futures edged lower early Monday at the start of a week that will include the Federal Reserve's final policy meeting of the year. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average were unchanged at 7 a.m. ET. S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures were down 0.1% and 0.2%, respectively. The Fed is expected to leave interest rates unchanged in the 5.25% to 5.5% range as signs of cooling inflation raise hopes the central bank could start lowering rates by March. Investors will be watching the November consumer price index, due out on Tuesday, for further clues on the Fed's next moves. CNBC
5. China deflation accelerates
China's consumer price index fell in November for the second straight month, in the latest sign of trouble for the world's second-largest economy. Consumer prices fell 0.5% in November on an annual basis, steeper than the 0.2% drop in October, China's National Bureau of Statistics reported Saturday. Beijing has been fighting weak prices for most of 2023 as a real-estate crisis and sagging consumer confidence drag down the economy. But the latest deflation numbers prompted calls for urgent measures to boost demand and prevent prices from plunging further. Inflation slowed in China early this year, then turned negative in July. CNN, The Guardian
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Win a World of Warcraft beta account
It's all thanks to the new collaboration between NVIDIA and Blizzard. Find out more inside.
by | September 13, 2004
If youre among one of the diehard Warcraft fans whove been desperately trying to join the World of Warcraft beta test program, NVIDIA and Blizzard have a special promotion. World of Warcraft fans should take note of a new upcoming opportunity to join the ranks of beta testers currently enjoying the game, thanks to a co-marketing campaign between Blizzard and NVIDIA. To help kick off their new collaboration, both companies will be randomly distribute 1,000 World of Warcraft closed beta accounts to gamers eagerly looking forward to enjoying the game before it hits store shelves. Registration will only be held for a week so make haste and visit www.nzone.com before their all gone.

domain: news


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It wasn’t that long ago that a study concluded that in-ear headphones were a hazard to your ears’ health. Now, Apple is responding to that claim.
The iPod maker has introduced a software update for their wildly popular portable music players that allows for a maximum volume setting. No more worries about blowing out your ears.
Such a safeguard might go a long way toward alleviating a health concern that has resulted in widespread alarm, including a class action lawsuit in California. A study by the National Institute of Health is ongoing.
The update is available as a free download on Apple’s website.


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The Byte - Chrome OS update, SSD’s bleak outlook, tablet race results, Android 5.0 Jelly Bean
Amazon's Kindle Fire is catching up to Apple's iPad.
While Apple still dominates the tablet game, Amazon has rocketed to second place. Amazon shipped nearly 4 million Kindle fires in Q4 2011, which is enough to grab 14 percent of the tablet market. Apple is still number one with 57 percent.
Google hopes to fixed dropped Wi-Fi on its Chromebooks.
Google is making changes to its Chrome OS to reduce the number of times that Chromebooks drop their connections to Wi-Fi networks. Google believes the problem is caused in areas with heavy Wi-Fi traffic or a lot of electrical noise.
Researchers think that SSDs have a bleak outlook.
Researchers think that solid state drives have a bleak outlook. As the circuitry shrinks performance drops dramatically and issues such as read and write latency and data errors increase. The performance gap with hard disks also becomes narrower.
Android 5.0 Jelly Bean might be on the horizon.
Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich hasn't been around long and now according to a report from DigiTimes Android 5.0 codenamed Jelly Bean will be out in the 2nd quarter of this year. It's possible that Jelly Bean could port Chrome OS to mobile devices.


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- Ongoing questions around CBRS priority access license (PAL) terms suggest that licenses won’t likely be available until a year from now.
- Without priority access, CBRS will still roll out; many use cases don’t require it. However, the sooner PAL terms are decided on and licenses auctioned, the better it will be for driving the industry forward.
Combining insatiable spectrum demands, an interest in targeting enterprises with wireless technology (from vendors and services providers), and imminent commercialization, there was little doubt that CBRS would be a hot topic at the GSMA’s inaugural Mobile World Congress Americas event. Continue reading “CBRS: How Much Does Priority Access Matter?”


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Hope everyone is doing well. Welcome to the next round of the Sunan Weekly Roundup!
What we are working on:
This week we released an awesome article titled, What Brands Need to Know About Ramadan.
Ramadan is one of the most important months in the Islamic calendar, and observing fasts during this month is one of the five pillars of faith for Muslims. Fasts require healthy Muslims to abstain from eating, drinking, smoking, and all vices.
Ramadan also happens to be the period where buying behaviour in Muslim customers increases. Consumer spending actually increases by more than 53% as people shop for food, clothes, shoes, jewelry, and electronics.
Charities also experience a major boost as people tend to donate more during Ramadan than they do throughout the rest of the year. The crazy thing is, even Facebook realizes this and has a few interest categories that one can tap into when running ads!
Between just these four categories, you are talking about an audience size of nearly 129.6M people.
With more than 1.6 billion Muslims celebrating Ramadan across the globe, this is what brands need to know in order to maximize their advertising impact during the month! Building upon what we talked about in the last roundup, definitely checkout the third tip, it’s a game changer.
My biggest takeaway this week: Quarantine Your Fear, Not Your Impact
The past few weeks have been crazy for everyone around the world. According to a recent analysis by Google, global Coronavirus cases have peaked to +629K cases with +115K of those here in the United States alone (as of 2:51PM EST).
Millions of businesses across the world have been impacted. World markets have literally been brought to their knees. In a period of just 15 days this month, the Dow Jones dropped by a crazy 26.8%.
Governments, health experts, and the media all around the world are asking people to practice social distancing and quarantine themselves from the public.
Reading these last few sentences can be really depressing. We are living in scary times. But we have a choice. We can let the chaos around us shape our mindset or we can take control and make our impact. In times like these, we need to quarantine our fear, not our impact.
This week, a dear mentor of mine did just that. He told me, Sajjad, we can sit here and get depressed by what we are seeing on TV or we can do something about it. Lets create an online screening tool that we can deploy that can screen patients and let them know their risk level. This way, we won’t have low risk patients choking the healthcare system around the world. We can proactively identify the critical and high risk patients and get them screened and into hospitals. And we did just that. When this application went live last week, we had literally 4-5 online screenings that were happening every minute! CRAZY!
Another major strain that is taking place especially in the United States is a shortage of face masks. Just in Maryland alone, there are 36 hospitals and medical clinics that are in an urgent need of facemasks. The crazy thing here is they are not that difficult to produce!
To help with this, this week Sunan Designs partnered with a local small business, Loose Ends Co., in creating these facemasks and getting them to the centers that need it most!
We all have a choice, we can let our surroundings shape our mindset, or we can take charge and make our impact around the world.
You have a unique skill-set that makes you special. Whether you are an IT professional, a mental health professional, a construction firm, or even a physician, you can make your impact.
Everything happens for a reason. Maybe this is our time to raise our ambition and make a bigger impact in this world.
Time to level up!
– Sajjad Husain, Founder & CEO


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A Facebook Inc shareholder has sued the social networking company's Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg and others over its troubled IPO, potentially reviving legal claims that a different court dismissed in February
The lawsuit by Gaye Jones alleges that the company's directors and officers knew that Facebook did not disclose weaker revenue trends as more users accessed the website through mobile devices. The complaint alleges that information had been selectively shared with the company's IPO underwriters and key investors.
Unlike similar lawsuits that were dismissed last month partly because the shareholders did not own the stock when the alleged misconduct took place prior to Facebook's May IPO, Jones has owned Facebook stock since February 2012.
The lawsuit seeks to force the directors and other defendants to disgorge the money they made from selling stock through the IPO which they allegedly knew was overpriced.
"The defendants were unjustly enriched because they realized enormous profits and financial benefits from the IPO, despite knowing that reduced revenue and earnings forecasts for the company had not been publicly disclosed to investors," said the complaint.
Facebook said in a statement that "we believe this lawsuit is without merit and will defend ourselves vigorously."
Shares in Facebook's highly anticipated IPO fell from the initial price of $38 to about $25 within a month. The stock closed on Monday at $27.72 on Nasdaq, down 6 cents.
Soon after the IPO, which was also marked by technical glitches on the Nasdaq exchange, more than 50 investor lawsuits were filed. A proposed class action is being heard in federal court in Manhattan.
Jones' lawsuit is a derivative case, meaning the investor seeks to step into the shoes of the company and any money recovered from Zuckerberg and others through a settlement or judgment would be paid to Facebook, not shareholders.
Four previous and very similar derivative cases were dismissed last month by U.S. District Court Judge Robert Sweet in Manhattan.
In addition to noting that shareholders did not own stock prior to the IPO, Sweet said that although plaintiffs had claimed that Facebook hid facts from investors, the company had "repeatedly made express and extensive" warnings about the increased use of mobile applications.
The lawsuit was filed in the Court of Chancery in Delaware, where Facebook is incorporated, and also named as defendants the IPO underwriters - units of JPMorgan Chase & Co, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
JPMorgan, Goldman and Morgan Stanley declined to comment.
The case is Gaye Jones v Mark Zuckerberg et al, Delaware Court of Chancery, No. 8375.
© Thomson Reuters 2013


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The AirPods Max headphones may have only been announced this week, but Apple’s been working on them since the first-gen AirPods shipped back in 2016.
This interesting tidbit comes from a (now deleted) tweet from Dinesh Dave, currently a product designer at Facebook, but previously a Senior Interactive Designer at Apple. While no-one expects hit products to be created overnight, it gives a sense of how far out Apple’s working in its product roadmap.
In a tweet Wednesday, Dave posted a picture of the AirPods Max. He noted that this was the last (previously unreleased) product he worked on at Apple covered by an NDA (non-disclosure agreement.) These standard issue forms effectively stop him from talking about products being worked on. Since the tweet was deleted, it may be safe to say that talking about them after they’ve been released is also questionable terrain.
AirPods Max design started 4+ years ago! pic.twitter.com/W8rHTZIbVx
— Ryan Jones (@rjonesy) December 9, 2020
Four years in the making
Another Twitter user asked Dave how long ago he signed the NDA. He replied that it was around four years ago. That would have dated it to the end of 2016. (And who knows how early in the process he was told about the plans?)
The original AirPods were released on December 13, 2016. At the time, they looked radically different to other earbuds to the point that they were subject of plenty of online mockery. No-one’s laughing four years on. They’re all too busy either buying AirPods or, if they’re a business rival, copying them. The AirPods are one of the Apple’s top-selling products.
Four years isn’t a crazy amount of time when you consider ideation, design, prototyping, engineering and the various stages of manufacturing. Nonetheless, it does make you appreciate just how long it takes a product like this to get to market. Simply put, Apple plans things years in advance. Great products don’t just get thrown together as a last-minute holiday boost to the company’s product portfolio.
Which makes me wonder: What NDAs are Apple employees signing now for tantalizing products that will ship in Q4 2024?


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If you’ve been procrastinating on buying those USB-C adapters for your new Touch Bar MacBook Pro it’s time to get motivated because Apple’s discounts are about to end. The discounts are available through March 31st, which means you need to buy yours today or Friday before the prices go up.
Terry Blanchard, who led the engineering and QA teams for Apple Mail since 2011, is moving on. He’s not going far though. Terry will still manage an email team, but it’s for the Spark email app owned by Readdle. Andrew Orr tells us what this could mean for the future of Apple Mail.
A new report claims Apple is taking away the Home button on the iPhone 8 and moving the Touch ID fingerprint scanner to the back of the device. That’s something we’re already seeing on some Android phones, but that’s not the path Apple will take despite what we’re hearing from this new report.
That didn’t take long: Apple has already released iOS 10.3.2 and watchOS 3.2.2 developer betas. The developer-only updates rolled out only a day after iOS 10.3 and watchOS 3.2 were released to the public.
Good news, developers, you can finally respond to user comments on Apple’s App Store. The promised feature rolled out quietly on Monday while the company was pushing out operating system updates for pretty much everything they make.
Now that Samsung has collected all those Note 7 explode-a-phones, what to do with them? How about put them back out on the market as refurbished. That’s exactly what Samsung is doing thanks to pressure in part from the environmental activist group Greenpeace.
Apple was busy, busy, busy on Monday rolling out operating system updates for the Mac, iPhone and iPad, Apple TV, and also the Apple Watch. watchOS 3.2 is a welcome update because it adds Theater Mode and SiriKit to everyone’s favorite smartwatch.
Apple updated its suite of iWork apps across iOS, macOS and iCloud web apps. The feature that stands out the most is the ability to add password protection to your documents using Touch ID. Andrew Orr takes us through the features.
Apple’s slew of updates on Monday also included Apple TV Remote 1.1, which finally adds iPad support to the Apple TV remote control app. Previously, the app was limited to the iPhone and iPod touch.
Apple released macOS 10.12.4 Monday, an update that adds a couple of new features and some other minor improvements. The biggest new feature is Night Shift, technology that shifts your Mac’s display towards the red at the end of your day. The update also adds cricket scores for Indian Premier League and the International Cricket Council to Siri. Apple also added a slew of enterprise-specific features.
Along with iOS 10.3, Apple released tvOS 10.2 on Monday. The update for the fourth generation Apple TV added support for renting an iTunes movie on one device and watching it on another.
Apple shipped iOS 10.3 Monday, a significant update to the company’s mobile operating system. Major features include the ability to find your AirPods under Find My iPhone; new Siri integration with third party apps; new CarPlay features, including daily curated playlists from Apple Music; and perhaps most importantly, the official rollout of Apple File System.
If you’re a registered Apple Developer Program member and want to go to this year’s Worldwide Developer Conference in San Jose, today is the day to toss your name into the ticket lottery. Apple is opening the ticket lottery at 10 AM pacific time, and it’s the only way to get a conference ticket.
Steve Wozniak spoke at the Startup World Cup Finale Friday, where he talked about Apple’s early days, his own even earlier days, startup value, and some of the lessons he’s learned along the way. At the end of his keynote, he was presented with a miniature version of the Startup World Cup itself, which he accepted saying, “This one’s for Apple.”
If you love robots, there are a bunch of robotics competitions happening across the United States right now. Jeff Butts has all of the details about this steamworks-themed event pitting high school students against the clock and their opponents.
Unicode 10 will be launched in June and it will include a bunch of new, awesome emojis. There are 69 new emojis in total, and some or all of them may eventually make their way into iOS 11. Someone made mockups on Emojipedia in Apple’s style, let’s check them out.
Trying to extort money out of Apple by threatening to wipe out iCloud accounts and reset iPhones is a business model the Turkish Crime Family hacker team will likely learn is flawed at best, but there it is a great reminder to change your online passwords regularly. The list of iCloud logins the group has looks to be at least two years old, so if you haven’t changed your password more recently than that, it’s time right now.
As expected, Apple’s online store is back up and running, and you can buy the new (PRODUCT)RED iPhone 7 and 9.7-inch iPad today. That doesn’t, however, mean you can get one in your hands today—unless you’re looking for the red iPhone and can get to your local Apple retail store.
Apple’s online store was replaced with a note saying “We’ve got something special in store for you” Friday morning, which is no surprise since today is they day the (PRODUCT)RED iPhone 7 and new 9.7-inch iPad go on sale. The online store will reopen at 8:01 AM pacific time.
Apple is reportedly negotiating with studios to offer iTunes rentals for movies while they’re still in theaters. Movies would be available for rent within a couple weeks of opening in theaters for about US$30, and that sounds like a pretty good deal.


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SHELTON, Conn. — When digital events took off during the pandemic, there were few guardrails when it came to reporting metrics. The industry came up with an immediate solution — for virtual events to earn UFI Approved Event status.
A year later, that effort has grown into a larger initiative, Reporting Standards for Digital Events (RSDE), which is being led by BPA Worldwide, the global assurance provider. This standardized set of 17 data tables and glossary terms was created by a working group made up of representatives from 15 organizations across the events industry, representing trade show organizers, exhibitors, data analysts and digital platforms.
With RSDE, digital event providers now have standardized metrics and organizers of virtual events can clearly understand how they performed. All of RSDE components can be downloaded from its website that can be found here.
“With the move over to digital events, people were excited that they were going to have all this data, and have a much better picture of what was happening within their events,” David Richardson, Principal at data analytics company Cogknition, said. “When they received the reports from the event platforms, not only did they lack confidence they understood what was happening at their event, but they weren’t really sure they understood what the report was trying to say. With RSDE, they get a much better understanding of what they are seeing.”
BPA will begin certifying digital event platforms (DEPs) to the RSDE standards immediately. Event data provided by verified DEPs will be “pre-audited” by BPA for inclusion in applications for “UFI Approved Event” status or for inclusion in any organizers’ event marketing materials and BPA Brand Reports. RSDE has collaborated with VSef (Virtual Standard Export Format), a data standard for digital events in Europe developed by Explori in collaboration with event organizers; platforms certified to RSDE will, by default, be certified to be compliant with VSef.
Related. UFI Updates Rules to Include Digital and Hybrid Events
“With RSDE, event organizers, exhibitors, digital event platforms and data analysts now have the tools to bring more trust and transparency into the digital event marketplace,” Glenn Hansen, BPA’s President and CEO, said.
Reach David Richardson at firstname.lastname@example.org and Glenn Hanson at (203) 447-2801 or email@example.com


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Macquarie raises Alinta bid
Australia's Macquarie Bank yesterday fired a new salvo in its bidding war with rival investment bank Babcock and Brown for Alinta Ltd, confirming it has lodged a fresh A$7.6 billion (US$6.2 billion) offer for the energy company. Macquarie said its new bid, which matches the worth of Babcock and Brown's offer for Alinta, offers three options for shareholders in the Perth-based company, including an all-cash option, an all-share option or a combination of both. "Alinta shareholders will have absolute choice as to selection of which option they prefer," Macquarie said in a statement.
Hong Kong hits record high
Hong Kong share prices closed up 0.27 percent for another record close yesterday, led by gains in China-related firms, although share prices pulled back after breaking the 21,000 points level, dealers said. The market came off the day's highs as property shares saw some profit-taking in late trade after an early advance driven by expectations of strong bids at a government land auction today. The benchmark Hang Seng Index ended up at a new closing high of 20,896.64.
Thai junta to sue YouTube
Thailand's army-backed government plans to sue Internet video-sharing site YouTube over clips it deemed insulting to King Bhumibol Adulyadej, an official said yesterday. "We are considering taking legal action against the Web site," said Vissanu Meeyo, a government spokesman. Thailand plans to sue YouTube, owned by Google, over charges of lese majeste -- insulting the monarchy, a serious crime that carries up to 15 years in prison, the spokesman said. The government has continued to block YouTube since the first clip showing the king next to a photograph of feet, considered deeply offensive, appeared last month.
New Qantas bid mulled
Macquarie Bank Ltd and TPG Inc said they may resubmit an A$11.1 billion (US$9.1 billion) bid for Qantas Airways Ltd to keep the world's biggest airline takeover alive. The bidders might again offer A$5.45 a share in cash, Sydney-based Macquarie Bank said in a statement yesterday. The original bid lapsed after they failed to get the required 50 percent of acceptances until several hours after the deadline passed on Friday. Shares in Qantas, Australia's biggest airline, were suspended from trading today after closing at A$5.38 on Friday.
Dell in Suse Linux tie-up
Dell Inc has agreed to work with Microsoft Corp and Novell Inc under an alliance the rival software makers formed last year to make it easier for the Windows operating system and the increasingly popular Linux system to work together, the companies said on Sunday. Under the partnership announced in November, Microsoft said it would offer corporate customers a chance to license its Windows operating system as part of a package that includes maintenance and support for Novell's Suse Linux platform. On Sunday, Microsoft and Novell said Dell has agreed to buy Suse Linux Enterprise Server certificates from Microsoft and that the computer maker will set up a services and marketing program aimed at getting users of open-source platforms to switch to the new Suse Linux offering.


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"People think manufacturing is over and done with in the United States, that all of the jobs have been 'offshored,' " said William Pfundt, president and CEO of General Machine Products Co. in Bensalem.
Pfundt is a third-generation owner of General Machine Products, which manufactures tools for the telecommunications, power utility and cable television industries.
Those steps could help the industry, Tyler and Pfundt
said, but they are far from the only answers.
At General Machine Products
, growth has been slow over the past few years, Pfundt
said, because the company was hit hard in the early days of the economic downturn in 2008.
While it didn't lay off employees, it did offer early retirement plans to some workers.
It now has 85 workers in the U.S.
To grow, the company has looked overseas - not for workers, but for sales, Pfundt
sells products in China and other countries, which has helped increase business, he
concerned about the nation's tax structure, where owners of small companies like his
pay taxes on the company's profits through their personal income tax filings.
"We're profitable here, but when we started hearing that 'everybody's got to pay their share,' and the top tax bracket needs to be raised ...
I don't hear anybody making a distinction between an individual's paycheck and their profits from the business," he
"That means there's less retained earnings for the corporation.
That's money we would reinvest in capital equipment, or to hire more people."
and Tyler also said the cost of manufacturing in the U.S. needs to be addressed.
"It is expensive to manufacture in this country," Pfundt
"The general rule of thumb is it's about 20 percent more expensive, for many reasons: tax structure, energy costs, insurance.
All of those factors need to be looked at holistically in order to make the environment more conducive to manufacturers to stay here and to grow here and thrive here.
Which we are, but it's a battle.
All of those factors are concerns of people who run manufacturing businesses."
is happy to see manufacturing on the national stage.
"I'm glad to have the opportunity to talk about it," he


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In today’s digital world, getting a decision maker on the phone is exceptionally difficult – specifically for Enterprise Accounts. Today, SINC is showcasing just a few of the sponsors for the upcoming WEST IT Leaders Forum. This two-day interactive, networking event will bring together 60+ CIOs, CISOs and other senior IT Leaders from across the Southwest and Pacific Northwest Regions.
Return on Investment - traditionally is the standard measure of success for B2B marketing. Whether it's social media ads, SEO, sports sponsorships or events, every marketing dollar spent is adding to an inbound sales funnel or creating brand awareness on some level.


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At its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco this week, Apple suggested that it was more than willing to compete toe-to-toe against Google, Amazon, and Microsoft in the artificial intelligence (A.I.) arena. As those rivals build increasingly sophisticated bots that can respond to users’ natural-language commands, Apple has opened its own digital assistant, Siri, to third-party developers. If things pan out as the company expects, Siri will rapidly add more functionality, essentially becoming a butler for a growing collection of tasks. And that’s just the first of what will surely be many A.I.-related initiatives on Apple’s part. But how can Apple reconcile its need for personal data—the fuel of an effective A.I. platform—with its rigorous user privacy stance? During WWDC, Apple executives talked about something called “differential privacy.” As explained by Craig Federighi, the company’s senior vice president of software engineering, this approach uses “hashing, sub-sampling, and noise injection” to give researchers “crowd-sourced learning while keeping the data of individual users completely private.” In other words, Apple is analyzing users’ data in aggregate, while denying its own scientists the ability to discern the patterns and information of any one individual. It’s a noble approach, but one that’s been thwarted in the past by clever tech pros—as Wired pointed out
soon after Federighi’s speech, Netflix once attempted to use similar techniques in its own research, only to see a group of outsiders discover individual identities by correlating data-sets. Apple also claims that some of its early uses of A.I., such as facial recognition, will take place on users’ devices, with no need to upload images or information to Apple’s servers. This differs from Google and Facebook, which need users to upload content to their respective datacenters in order to perform next-generation tasks such as photo tagging or auto-recommending email replies. In the view of Apple executives, the presence of user data on a company’s servers potentially creates a privacy issue, especially if that information is hacked or subpoenaed. That’s not to say that Apple’s rivals are cavalier when it comes to personal data. According to MIT Technology Review, Google and Microsoft use a variety of techniques to disguise personal information folded into their A.I. platforms, including homomorphic encryption
, which will produce encrypted results from encrypted data.
The Coming Thing in A.I.
If you’re a developer or a tech pro who works with A.I. in some capacity, privacy will likely become a point of recurring debate over the next several years. That discussion will center on a few key points:
- How much personal data does an A.I. platform actually need?
- What data should an A.I. platform access?
- Can A.I. functionality take place on a device, or does data need to go to the cloud?
- What steps can be taken to ensure data used by A.I. is secure?
The answer to these (and other questions) will help determine whether a particular A.I. effort is a success or a scandal-riddled failure. While Apple put a stake in the ground with its differential privacy initiative, expect the debate over A.I. and privacy to continue for quite some time to come.


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Crypto Coins News - Ratings - Reviews
Abra is planning to finally launch global support for its remittance and currency exchange app in February, as announced on Tuesday at the North American Bitcoin Conference in Miami by CEO Bill Barhydt. This would provide an easy way for people to trade their local currencies for bitcoin and vice versa.
Digital cash peer-to-peer network Abra allows users to send or receive money instantly, privately, and securely without the need for a bank account. Founded in 2014, the California-based company launched the Abra app in beta for both iOS and Android the following year, and received $14 million funding.
Delivering on Big Promises Made Long Ago
In early 2016, Abra finally began a test phase in the Philippines, using the Philippine Peso. That June, the company made its app available for users in the US allowing remittances between the US and the Philippines. Currently, the app only supports USD and PHP currencies with no bitcoin option available.
On Tuesday, Abra announced that it will finally launch worldwide, stating that:
Anyone with a smartphone in any country can send or receive funds in most major currencies and can cash in or out of their Abra wallet, even without a bank account.
Abra’s Global Launch
Barhydt explained in Miami that Abra users will be able to send, receive, and store bitcoin inside the Abra app, in addition to 50 fiat currencies. The company admits that even though bitcoin is a large part of its business, “it’s been hidden in the background up until now.” However, that is changing with the upcoming launch.
Further, the Abra app itself is a fully-working non-custodial digital currency wallet, meaning that Abra has no access to the user’s private key even if the users hold US Dollars in their wallet. Barhydt wrote in the announcement:
Once we launch, any Abra user can use Bitcoin via any third party Bitcoin Wallet to add and remove funds from their Abra App regardless of which currency they’re holding in their Abra Wallet.
Abra Teller Network Launch
Adding to the announcement was the global expansion of the Abra Teller network or “Human ATMs.” This network, which Abra has successfully tested in the Philippines, allows people worldwide to use Abra and become a currency exchanger using bitcoin. Barhydt revealed the convention that there are already “a few thousand” Abra human tellers in the Philippines.
Tellers can make money while helping their community send and receive money,” Barhydt claims, adding that:
If you’re an existing Bitcoin trader you can now use that Bitcoin to become an Abra Teller and process deposits/withdrawals for people who don’t know what Bitcoin is.
For example, a consumer holding US Dollars can meet a Teller, and process a withdrawal to receive Argentine Pesos. Neither party even knows that a dual-currency-trade transaction took place.
Abra estimates $30-$40 million per week is now traded in person in “fiat vs Bitcoin” in over 75 countries. “This is a huge step forward in realizing our vision of anyone being able to send money easily to anyone else in the world, instantly, privately, and securely,” Barhydt noted.
Abra charges no transfer fees to users. However, individual Abra tellers set their own fees and exchange rates so city rates may be lower than rural rates due to higher competition. Their rates can be found by opening the app and look at nearby tellers to see their fee details.
What do you think of Abra’s products? Let us know in the comments section below.
Images courtesy of Envision Global Finance, the World Bank, Abra
Bitcoin.com is the most unique online destination in the bitcoin universe. Buying bitcoin? Do it here. Want to speak your mind to other bitcoin users? Our forum is always open and censorship-free. Like to gamble? We even have a casino.


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Neeyamo opens second office at Madurai, plans to set up 20 RDCs19th November 2021
The existing centre at Elcot region of Madurai has 1,000 seats, and the company is looking to ramp up its headcount in the region by 1,200 in the year ahead.
Chennai-based Neeyamo, a provider of technology-driven global payroll and HR solutions, has set up a second office at Madurai in Tamil Nadu with a capacity of 1,600 seats as part of its expansion plan. The existing centre at Elcot region of Madurai has 1,000 seats, and the company is looking to ramp up its headcount in the region by 1,200 in the year ahead.
The company is also looking to establish remote development centres (RDCs) in 20 cities across India.
Neeyamo has around 3,000 employees covering 190 plus countries and serves over 350 customers worldwide. The team based out of Madurai primarily works on developing of payroll, time & absence and comprises technology specialists, implementation experts, compliance experts and customer support executives to support their global clients.
Neeyamo increased its employee count from 1,500 to 3,000 during the pandemic time, 80% of which is in smaller cities including Madurai, Thanjavur, Nagpur, Belgaum, and Aurangabad.
Rangarajan Seshadri, CEO of Neeyamo, said: “We are creating world-class products from Madurai, which is proof of the talent pool available in the region.”


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First Datsuns Will be Based on the Lada Kalina, Blah...
We all know that Datsun is set to make a comeback and many of you likely started salivating over the possibility of seeing the resurrection of the compact, lightweight sports cars of yesteryear. Well, we’ll go ahead and curb your enthusiasm by telling you that Renault-Nissan wasn’t lying when it said Datsun would come back only as a low-cost competitor for second-tier markets, like India and Indonesia.
This is confirmed by a report that the first Datsun to roll on four wheels since the 1980s will be based on the ultra-low-fun and now-discontinued Lada Kalina. Per the reports, the Kalina’s interior and exterior will be changed to accommodate Datsun, but the mechanics will remain the same. This means it will feature a line of four-bangers that’ll pump out an unexciting 81 to 91 horsepower.
At one point, however, the Lada Kalina was the base for the concept car dubbed the Super 1600, which used forced induction to create somewhere between 200 and 300 horsepower, and 120 horsepower without the boost, so there is still some hope. But the chances of Datsun seeing anything like this are slim to none and slim is on its way out the door…
We expect to see the first Datsun putt-putt its way off of the production line in 2014.


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January 13, 2018
Map courtesy of ChargeHub.com showing the public use charging stations. Smaller towns or cities have as many or more than the tri-city area with one available. (ChargeHub.com/Courtesy)
Stories this photo appears in:
Electric vehicles are becoming more popular all the time, with a federal tax credit of around $7,500 for buying one, and several states offering additional credits and perks.


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DEWA broadens air conditioning campaign
Dubai utility calls for commercial sector to set units to 24 degrees.
Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) has extended its annual “Set your AC to 24 degrees celsius” campaign to raise awareness among commercial consumers about the importance of rationalising consumption to preserve power and water.
The campaign encourages consumers to adopt environmentally-friendly lifestyles at their homes and workplaces by setting their air conditioning to 24°C.
The move would help reduce power consumption and carbon dioxide emissions as well as enable consumers to achieve financial savings, especially as air conditioning consumes a large percentage of energy in commercial properties.
“DEWA’s awareness campaigns have achieved remarkable results,” said H.E. Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD & CEO of DEWA.
“Between 2009 and 2013, we managed to reduce electricity consumption to about 1,012 GW/h of electricity, and 4.9bn gallons of water, eliminating the release of 466,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions. This helped save about AED 622mn.”
Khawla Al Mehairi, VP, marketing & corporate communications at DEWA, said: “We aim to instil a culture of rational consumption of resources among all members of society and achieve actual savings in consumption rates to support the sustainable development of Dubai.
“The Set your AC to 24°C campaign has been extended to the commercial sector after the success of last year’s campaign, which was just focused on to the residential sector.”


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We are investigating Pluralsight, Inc. (PS) (“Pluralsight” or the “Company”) for potential violations of the federal securities laws.
On July 31, 2019, post-market, Pluralsight announced disappointing financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2019, and that its billings growth rate had sharply deteriorated from over 40% to just 23% year-over-year. Pluralsight blamed its declining growth in billings on sales execution challenges and other issues with its salesforce. Pluralsight also disclosed the resignation of its Chief Revenue Officer. Following these disclosures, Pluralsight’s stock price fell $12.13 per share, or 39.52%, to close at $18.56 on August 1, 2019.


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Contactless charging. The first thought that comes to your mind questions if this is another fancy term for wireless charging. We have seen enough of that haven’t we? Nothing revolutionary at this point. However, we are talking about an entirely different game here. What if we told you that you could charge your device from a distance away without any wires or charging pads?
The Silicon Valley start-up Pi says they have found a way to charge phones and tablets by simply placing the devices near its cone-like charger. This product claims to bid goodbye to serpentine wires and charging pads with its innovative plunge into the world of contactless charging and we must say, it is pretty sweet!
Pi chargers are about the size of a small table vase and operate on standard charging technology used in Apple or Android smartphones designed to be powered up wirelessly. The compact nature of the device also boosts the convenience and usage factor.
The Pi charger emanates magnetic fields, which the company says can efficiently charge a phone or tablet up to a foot away from the device. The Pi charger also works at any angle, implying that your phone can be above, below, or to any side of the device, and not directly touching it like other wireless charging mats. The charger will mete out up to 10W per device.
“Magnetic fields are the best way to send meaningful energy to phones, tablets, and other portable electronics,” said Pi co-founder Lixin Shi in a press release. “The hard part was figuring out how to make magnetic charging more flexible, multi-device, and extend its useful range. It took us over a year to complete the mathematical proof that makes it all possible.”
The primary concern about the functionality of the device is the safety standards associated with energy being emanated into the air and its possible exposure to residents. The company responded to this concern and clarified that the product meets FCC regulatory standards and operates at power levels low enough to be safe.
“While long range microwave, ultrasound, or laser based technologies have been proposed for wireless charging, none of these technologies have proven safe at power levels needed to charge modern smartphones. Pi’s breakthrough is in finally bringing to market a truly wireless charging technology that is safe and follows existing regulatory standards, while also being affordable, compact and powerful.”
With another revolutionary product entering the market, let us await a future of innovation and ease! Click here for more details.
Explore TechQuila for more news on the evolving world of technology!


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Chase Manhattan Corp. on Tuesday named Marc J. Shapiro as vice chairman for finance and risk management.
Mr. Shapiro, 50, had been chairman and chief executive officer of Chase's Texas Commerce Bank subsidiary.
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You may have seen the new sign for MJ’s Garage Door Service go up recently at 19648 Morgan County R.7 (East Eighth Avenue) in Fort Morgan, but this business is far from brand new.
Manuel Jesus Valdez, also known as MJ, has been working in the garage door industry for more than 26 years. He installs and services garage doors for both businesses and homes.
In 2014, Valdez ventured out to start his own business in the industry in which he had gained plenty of experience while working for others.
Then, after working on his own out of his home for a few years, he invested in a piece of property, cleaned it up, and built his shop.
Valdez officially opened that shop in east Fort Morgan last summer, and his new sign went up just a couple of months ago.
While he started his business with only himself and his personal pick-up truck, Valdez since has been able to add two new pick-ups, as well as some employees.
He currently employs his two nephews at MJ’s Garage Door Service, along with another employee, William Alvarado.
Valdez also has his wife, Olga, and daughter, Iriz, taking care of the paperwork side of the business.
Having always lived in Fort Morgan, Valdez said he couldn’t imagine having a business anywhere else.
“The people here are friendly,” he said. “It’s a quiet town. You know a lot of people.”
Valdez said he stays busy, with plenty of garage door work coming his shop’s way.
He said his business is built on repeat customers and word of mouth. He has traveled around Colorado for jobs, even venturing out to surrounding states when those calls come in.
Those who are in need of garage door service or who want to find out more about MJ’s Garage Door Service can contact the business at 970-380-8465 or 970-867-2599 or visit the shop at 19648 MCR R.7 (East Eighth Avenue) in Fort Morgan.


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News about recalls has frequently been headlines lately, but what about recalls in the past? With the Takata air bag debacle tragically taking now eight lives, mostly in Honda vehicles, what kind of context can be given to the current crisis? Here's a rundown on three other fatal recalls in the past.
1. Ford Pinto and Mercury Bobcat (1978)
One of the highest selling subcompacts of the 70s, the Ford Pinto's popularity quickly became infamy. Its poorly placed gas tank could rupture during rear-end collisions, causing it to explode. The actual recall took place in 1978, and targeted the Pinto's sister car the Mercury Bobcat as well. But the most scandalous aspect to the story was the fact Ford knew of the problem but after crunching numbers, decided it was more feasible to pay settlements for injuries and deaths than redesign the gas tank. Ford became the first auto company to be indicted and prosecuted on criminal homicide charges, as they recalled 1.5 million Pintos and 30,000 Bobcats, but the damage was already done. An estimated 500 lives were lost to the faulty design.
2. Toyota Corolla (2010)
While no one has lost a life yet in a Toyota vehicle in the Takata scandal, they had their own recall problems not too long ago. A gas pedal defect caused the 2010 Corolla to become stuck during full-throttle acceleration. Unable to stop the vehicle in this state, 31 drivers lost their lives in accidents. The company recalled 9 million cars in total.
3. Ford (1981)
While not a normal recall, the NHTSA still classifies this massive Ford failure as a recall of sorts. In 1981, 21 million Ford vehicles, including Mercury and Lincoln cars, were recalled due to a transmission slippage issue—even when appearing in park they could fall into reverse. Despite the chaos that cars unexpectedly rolling backwards created, a recall didn't come till 1981, with the affected vehicles stretching back to 1970. Ford was still able to avoid paying for repairs by instead sending warning labels to automatic transmission owners. The Center for Auto Safety reported that as of 1980 there had been “6,000 accidents, 1,710 injuries, and 98 fatalities…directly attributable to transmission slippage.”
Are Recalls Getting Worse?
Unfortunately more vehicles than ever have been recalled this year than any previous year. With so many recall letters going out, make sure to be diligent and check the NHTSA website if you're in doubt whether your vehicle is at risk.


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theatrical distribution revived for third time this year
For the last few weeks there’s been a consistent narrative throughout much of the Hollywood trade press: Finally, the box office has returned to normal!
We’ve seen that in the wake of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, which was the first movie of the Pandemic Era to pass $200m domestically.
We’ve seen that in the wake of Venom: Let There Be Carnage scoring, with $90m, the biggest opening weekend of the Pandemic Era.
We’ve now seen that in the wake of No Time To Die opening to a completely respectable (especially in the Pandemic Era) $65m weekend, which is almost exactly what tracking had projected.
While I certainly understand that a return to the horse-race nature of box-office reporting is good for the trade press, and that the exhibition industry is happy that the numbers on these high-profile releases are up, I can’t shake the notion that we’re yearning for a “normal” that may no longer be attainable.
This isn’t unique to the movie industry. Between Covid variants, unvaccinated holdouts and the behaviors that have become entrenched during closures and shutdowns, we never get back to pre-pandemic normal on a number of fronts.
If that includes the movie industry (and it does), then everyone involved will need to redefine what “normal” stands for and looks like.
We already see that in how, over the last year or so, 45-day theatrical windows are now standard and agreed to by most major exhibition chains where not that long ago they were so short as to be unthinkable.
counting on things going well has never been a great strategy…
Now studios will be threading the needle between continuing to support the theater industry and meeting audience expectations for very quick home release. There may indeed be more demand for moviegoing than there has been, but the positive forecast of that analyst makes two big presumptions:
- That the “studios continue to play ball”, and
- “…a film slate that is more likely to hold…”
Not to sound like a broken record, but if there’s anything that should be assumed, it’s that things are going to be more uncertain and unreliable. If it’s not major weather events that are more severe because of climate change, it’s supply chain problems that could impact the all-important concessions portion of the business.
More than that, the continued health of the exhibition business depends on selling more expensive tickets for variations on the same three dozen franchises to a smaller number of people. 2019 ticket sales were near their 25 year low even as prices were over twice what they were in 1995. So this isn’t a growing market, just one that is hoping it doesn’t lose any more ground.
And, despite the assertion that there is massive pent-up audience demand to actually go to the theater, it’s hard to imagine more ground won’t be lost overtime.
Warner Bros. may not stick with their 2021 strategy of releasing all movies day-and-date to theaters and HBO Max. And other studios may make alterations to their streaming release strategies. But given Universal’s decision to bring Halloween Kills to Peacock at the same time it’s in theaters and other moves by other companies, it’s clear something fundamental has shifted and we now live in a world where decisions will be made on a case-by-case basis.
As such, we’re all going to have to come to terms with the reality that reality, as it used to be understood, needs to be put out to pasture.


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Hank gets a new house at Miller Park
Aldi pulled all their grapes from their Milwaukee area stores after a shopper found what appeared to be a black widow spider in a fruit container.
As word came Thursday that the Malaysian government had filed a preliminary report about missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370, Sarah Bajc implored that the nation's officials share it with passengers' relatives.
Bajc is the partner of American passen...


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Daily Record Staff//May 26, 2021
//May 26, 2021
Dockshare, a Maryland-based startup, announced Wednesday the launch of its new online platform that connects boaters with private dock owners to rent their docks for hours, days, weeks or longer.
The platform provides a way for boaters to access more dockage options and an extra income source for dock owners.
Private dock owners can promote their under-utilized docks to boaters through professional profiles. Dock owners can list a dock on their mobile phone or desktop computer for free without any upfront costs. They share information about the dock, such as photos, description, amenities, availability, pricing and specs on the profile. Pricing is determined and finalized by the private dock owner.
Dockshare conducted national qualitative market research among dock and boat owners and learned that there was a void in docking options within the market. Additionally, through industry research, the team learned that boat sales skyrocketed last year during the pandemic. The recreational boating market is a $20 billion market and growing in the U.S. with more than 87 million adults identifying as recreational boaters. Technology research stated that the number of US consumers using on-demand services’ platforms is expected to reach around 93 million by 2022.-


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It’s official: The next installment in the Call of Duty series will be from Treyarch’s Black Ops franchise. Call of Duty: Black Ops IV hits shelves on October 12 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One, with Activision promising more details about the game in a community reveal event on May 17.
Also noteworthy: This is the first time in a long, long time Activision has released a Call Of Duty game in early October instead of November. Speculation is to get ahead of Rockstar releasing Red Dead Redemption 2 on October 26:
Here’s the Call Of Duty: Black Ops 4 teaser released this morning.
In related news, Amazon is currently selling Call Of Duty: WWII for $39.99 right now. Pretty solid time to pick it up…
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The BroBible team writes about gear that we think you want. Occasionally, we write about items that are a part of one of our affiliate partnerships and we will get a percentage of the revenue from sales.


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Two Capcom franchises crossoverr for a free PC game.
Whoever said love is the strongest emotion apparently never met any of these folks...
Who wins when street fighters invade the world of 20XX? Meet the surprising new crossover coming to PCs very soon…
Get the best gaming deals, reviews, product advice, competitions, unmissable gaming news and more!


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SAN JOSE – Here’s something you may not have noticed about Apple’s WWDC keynote: everything Apple announced will be free—here’s the complete list of new products and features Apple announced during the WWDC 2018 keynote.
SAN JOSE – With the addition of Do Not Disturb, greater Notifications controls, and Screen Time, Apple is giving users the ability to better manage their mobile time. Parents can also use Screen Time to give their kids time allowances.
Apple’s 2017 MacBook Pros and iMacs use the Intel “Kaby Lake” CPUs. But “Coffee Lake” is coming and “Cannon Lake” after that. John sorts it all out.
It must still be voted on in the House of Representatives, however, and signed into law by President Trump, meaning it’s not likely to go further.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is backing the the Secure Data Act, proposed legislation the EFF says would stop government-mandated backdoors.
When iOS 11.4 ships it’ll include a security feature that disables the Lightning port if the iPhone hasn’t been unlocked for seven days, and that won’t likely sit well with law enforcement agencies.
Terms, benefits, and other pertinent details are still being worked out between Goldman Sachs and Apple.
We’re still in the early stages of voice assistant technology so we can’t declare a winner yet, regardless of which you prefer. Based on what we’re seeing, however, Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant are putting Apple’s Siri in a serious catch up position.
Dissipating (and unfounded) fears of slow iPhone X sales and a record March quarter combined with news that Warren Buffett bought 75 million more shares of Apple to push the stock to a record closing high.
It’s the largest share buyback program in corporate history, and is in addition to Apple’s existing $210 billion stock buyback programs.
During Apple’s 2018 Q2 Earnings Report, Apple CEO Tim Cook said, “we believe privacy is a fundamental human right.” That’s a strong and inspiring stand.
iOS, on iPhone, does a good job of collecting and organizing your health data, but there’s no provision for editing errors in a sensible way.
WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum is leaving Facebook over concerns about how the social network giant wants to weaken the messaging app’s encryption and use personal data.
Amazon’s new Echo Dot Kids Edition is available for pre-order now and includes kid-friendly content, age appropriate responses, and parental controls. It’s like Amazon wants Alexa to be your kid’s best friend.
The Google Play Music streaming service is shutting down this year and all subscribers will be forced into YouTube Remix, which may not support uploading your own music. That sounds like good news for Apple Music.
Amazon already wants to leave packages in your home when you aren’t there using Amazon Key, and now the company is expanding that to your car.
While acknowledging the two companies offer complementary services (music streaming and music identification), the EC identified two areas of concern anyway, but neither stand up to reason.
Amazon is reportedly working on a home robot code-named Vesta to ship in 2019, which means it’s time for Apple to step up its own robot efforts.
Greenpeace criticized Apple’s new iPhone recycling robot Daisy saying the company should instead design iPhones that can stay in use longer—a request that seems odd considering the company supports iOS 11 on the five year old iPhone 5s.
Amazon has over 100 million Prime subscribers, which means now we know how big a competitor the company really is in the streaming video and music market.


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The Nintendo Switch is a fantastic local multiplayer console, and Nintendo has positioned it as a good platform for party games. It's not too surprising, then, that Jackbox Games has revealed that two of its party game compilations, Jackbox Party Pack 1 and 2, are coming to Switch.
The studio announced the ports on its Facebook page, but it provided little more information. Jackbox Games hasn't stated when the packs will be released or how much they'll cost, although they're currently $25 each on Steam.
Jackbox Party Pack 1 includes You Don't Know Jack, Fibbage XL, Drawful, Word Spud, and Lie Swatter; the second pack features Fibbage 2, Earwax, Bidiots, Quiplash, and Bomb Corp. Personally, I'm particularly fond of Fibbage and Drawful, but Quiplash is great if you like to stream games and can get a big audience to play along.
The studio actually launched Jackbox Party Pack 3 on Switch earlier this year. It is also currently working on a fourth pack for release this fall, although it hasn't announced platforms for it yet. You can read more about the games coming in Jackbox Party Pack 4 here.


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SUNDAY NEWSPAPER SHARE TIPS: Safestore, Wolf Minerals, Debenhams and Sirius Minerals
Every week we round-up the Sunday newspaper share tips. This week Safestore, Wolf Minerals, Debenhams and Sirius Minerals.
Mail on Sunday
In today's consumer society, there is a constant tension between the amount of stuff people own and the space they have to keep it in. Some resort to garages or lock-ups. Some leave surplus bits and pieces at their parents’ home.
But growing numbers are turning to self-storage as an efficient, secure and relatively cost-effective way to overcome their lack of room.
Safestore is well placed to benefit from this trend. The shares are 286.25p and should deliver growth and dividend income over the next few years.
Wolf Minerals is a stock with sentimental value. The group is about to open the first new mine in the UK for more than 30 years, producing tungsten, an exceptionally hard-wearing metal used in a wide range of industrial equipment.
Building a mine is complex, difficult and expensive and Wolf has been through some difficult times over the past few years.
Last week, however, it moved a decisive step closer to production, with the final trials of its processing plant just outside Plymouth.
Shares in the UK’s second-largest department store owner Debenhams have gained more than 20 per cent this year as sales shown signs of stabilising and shoppers tentatively start spending, but Questor is still dubious about the long-term returns on offer.
The group’s like-for-like sales edged up by 0.9 per cent in the 41 weeks to June, but there was no improvement over the last 15 weeks compared with the same period last year as spring sales ate into profits.
The shares have risen from a very low base this year and Questor wouldn’t buy into this recovery.
On Tuesday, there will be a decision on whether to allow Britain’s biggest new mine in generations. Sirius Minerals wants to dig a mile-deep shaft under the North York Moors to tap a huge seam of polyhalite, a type of fertiliser.
The board of the local national park authority will meet to decide its fate. Sirius has already asked for its shares to be suspended that day. With good reason: either way, the stock will go haywire.
A positive ruling will send Sirius soaring. A rejection and the stock will surely tank.
If you have a few extra bob and fancy a wild ride, this is your chance. But do it tomorrow – and don’t be the farm.
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The bustling and fast-paced mobile game industry around the world seems to have started to be felt by various big game companies. Among them are Sony Interactive Entertainment and PlayStation, the company will soon announce a new project about PlayStation Mobile.Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO, Jim Ryan , has confirmed that PS has plans for mobile game players. Not only that, Ryan also informed that the announcement of this project will be announced sooner than players think. Which means that soon, PS will announce the project about the PlayStation Mobile.In one of the Q&A sessions with Axios , Ryan also said that PS will indeed announce a mobile project in the near future. Ryan has not explained what kind of project he is referring to, but there are many strong rumors saying that PlayStation is planning to expand to the mobile platform.
Another rumor says that PlayStation could create a new game cloud containing various PlayStation games. With this, it is possible for many mobile game players to play PlayStation games, and all of them are connected to one network.Doing so is not easy, as we know that console and mobile are two different things. It’s risky to do something like this rumor, but it seems PlayStation understands that and is confident in their decision.


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If there’s one thing Apple likes doing, it is playing the long game. That has been the company’s entire history, putting out superior hardware and software products into a sea of global mediocrity, and waiting for people to figure it out for themselves.
This has worked spectacularly in the smartphone and tablet era, with Apple’s iOS devices vastly more desirable than similar devices from Android, Microsoft and others.
It has even worked in the computing arena, where Apple has long commanded both the desirability factor and, as with the iOS arena, the profit factor, too.
After all, it’s one thing to have a huge market share but only razor thin profitability, it’s another thing entirely to have a smaller yet immensely profitable market share that dovetails with the world’s richest selection of apps and accessories.
One example of this is how luxury watch maker TAG wants to make its own smartwatch in the wake of the Apple Watch, but can only deliver a rich smartwatch experience on the Android platform.
The the issue is that TAG owners are much more likely to own an iPhone than an Android, as I’ve seen reported online.
So, despite the last three or four years of endless hype over Android marketshare from the absurd sensationalists as clickbait farms such as ‘Business Insider’, the bludgeoning Blodgets of the world with Henry Blodget permanently banned (according to the US SEC) from involvement in the securities industry, we finally see an example of Apple’s long game at work - even though this means Apple still has a never ending job of continuing to do a great job ahead of it.
This can be clearly seen in Kantar’s stats, which show iOS ‘growing its market share in all surveyed countries except for Japan where performance in 2013 had been boosted by the addition of NTT DoCoMo as a carrier partner.’
Carolina Milansi, Kantar’s Chief of Research said: “While remaining the dominant global OS, Android’s market share dropped in most European markets and in the US where the decline was the first since September 2013.
"A decline in Android market share does not necessarily translate into bad news for all the ecosystem’s players. The choice of brands and devices within the ecosystem empowers consumers to drive different fortunes for the players in it.”
Kantar’s statement adds that: ‘In the three months ending November, Samsung particularly felt the pressure and saw its market share decline across Europe and in the US. By contrast Motorola’s share grew thanks to the refresh of the Moto X and Moto G offering good value for the money.’
Also, despite everything written above, it still pays to dig into the stats, as Kantar has done.
It notes that in Europe, which Kantar defines as the big five markets of Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Spain, ‘Android remained the dominant OS with a market share of 69.9%, although this is 3.2 percentage points lower than the same period in 2013.’
However, according to Dominic Sunnebo, Kantar’s Strategic Insight Director, “Great Britain saw the strongest share decline for Android at 6.7 percentage points.”
He notes that ‘Apple’s market share gain, triggered by the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus launch, continued into November when it reached 42.5% of British sales for a growth of 12.2 percentage points year-on-year mainly at the expense of Android’, and stated that: “The longer the new iPhone models are on the market the more their appeal will extend beyond Apple’s loyal customers. For now customer switching from Android to iOS remains stable at 18%”.
So, what about the US? Here, Apple ‘reached 47.4% of sales, 4.3 percentage points higher than the same period in 2013.’
Milanesi popped back up to add that: “The iPhone 6 was the best selling phone in the three months through November 2014, capturing 19% of smartphone sales.”
Top US phone carriers ‘Verizon and AT&T made up 57% of iOS sales while Verizon and T-Mobile were the top two carriers for Android accounting for 33.7% of all Android smartphones sold.’
Next comes ‘urban China’, where Kantar reports that ‘Android retained its leading position with a market share of 80.4%.’
Yet another Kantar director of strategic insight, this one being Tamsim Timpson stated that: “The wide variety of products offered by local manufacturers continues to push Android’s share.
“Xiaomi remains the biggest contributor to Android’s success as it averaged 30.2% of sales in the three months ending in November, an astonishing 18 percentage point rise over 2013”.
But Apple didn’t go away empty handed, instead seeing ‘a small increase of 1.1 percentage points’ in sales, which Kantar says ‘brought Apple’s share of the smartphone market in urban China to 18.1%.’
Apple’s main phone carrier partner here is China Mobile, China’s largest carrier, with sales via China Mobile ‘accounting for 63% of Apple’s overall sales.’
Kantar then concludes by noting that ‘Smartphone penetration reached 58% in the US and 65% across Europe’s big five economies.’
Milanesi gets to have the penultimate final word by stating that: “While die-hard featurephone owners state they are not planning to buy a smartphone in the next 12 months, they might not have a choice as vendors continue to transition their portfolio away from featurephones to smartphones.”
Kantar concludes by noting that: ’47% of featurephones owners looking to change their current device in the next six months in the US and 35% across Europe top five are not planning to upgrade to a smartphone.’


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Multi-channel YouTube users will know that the service allows them to receive email notifications of any new uploads from channel owners.
Alerts can, of course, be turned off by notification settings. Now, Google he said that it will stop email notifications for new video uploads from August 13th.
The changes will only affect email notifications, as the company says new upload notifications will continue to be displayed via Android and iOS mobile apps and Web alerts for those who have selected them.
The reason why the company changes the old system is that users open less than 0,1% of email notifications.
In addition, Google states that other important email communications related to user accounts, mandatory service announcements, and more will not be affected.
Regarding the effects on engagement due to the lack of these alerts, the company states that it found no effect on consumption or "tracking time" during its experiment, adding that more people interact with push alerts for mobiles and their Subscriptions feed ”.
While the change is small, it will actually help users reduce the volume of emails especially if they are subscribed to multiple channels. YouTube adds that reduced emails will help users identify and pay attention to important emails.


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A recent study suggests dining out could be linked to a higher risk of contracting COVID-19, but Chattanooga restaurant owners and industry representatives say the research is flawed and unfairly targets struggling businesses.
The report is an example of "the bullseye they have put on the back of small restaurants," said Wes Agee, co-owner of Charlie's Quick Stop Barbecue and Bakery on Main Street.
"We might see 1,000 to 1,500 people in a fantastic week, but WalMart sees that many in an hour or two every day," he said. "The big-box places, none of those guys are being picked on."
Findings from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Vanderbilt University Medical Center study show adults with COVID-19 were more than twice as likely to report dining in a restaurant in the 14 days before getting sick compared to adults without COVID-19.
"We think this could be due to people sitting in close proximity to one another in restaurants and not being able to wear masks while eating," said Dr. Wesley Self, associate professor of emergency medicine and senior author of the study.
The July study, which had a sample size of 314 people in 11 states including Tennessee, acknowledged the importance of measures such as social distancing, choosing carryout over dine-in, and wearing masks when not eating or drinking.
In response to the study, the National Restaurant Association released a statement pointing out that researchers did not distinguish between indoor and outdoor dining, and pointing out that the CDC acknowledged in the report that factors other than dining out could have been the source of exposure.
"There is no clear evidence that the virus was actually contracted at a restaurant versus any other community locations," the association wrote in its statement. "It is irresponsible to blame the spread of COVID-19 on a single industry."
Mia Littlejohn is co-owner of Proof, a bar, restaurant and culinary incubator that helps launch and guide restaurateurs. Proof has moved from offering only to-go orders in April to adding outdoor dining in May and expanding its patio and adding indoor, socially distanced seating in June.
At every step, the restaurant has exceeded requirements in terms of masks, health checks and other measures to keep diners and employees safe, Littlejohn said.
"We're at about 50% of indoor capacity, and we expanded and doubled the size of our patio," she said. "Everyone who comes in, we get their temperature check."
Having a lot of room to work has been a key factor in keeping people apart, Littlejohn added.
"Luckily we have a lot of space, so it has not been too tricky for us to provide people with space," she said.
Restaurant owners are extremely focused on operating safely because their livelihoods depend on it, Littlejohn said.
Chattanooga restaurant owners
"Right now, a lot of the conversations among restaurant owners are how will we be able to survive if there's another shutdown, and what steps we can take now to set ourselves up for better to-go experiences and better and safer indoor experiences," she said.
Jake Raulston, owner of Naked River Brewing on Chattanooga's Southside, said he also has a lot of space to work with, and that makes it easier to observe social distancing guidelines.
"We're a little bit out of the norm because we have such a large, spread-out area," he said. "The large outdoor patio and the huge spacing on the inside really keeps everyone separated."
Rob Mortensen, the CEO of trade group Hospitality Tennessee, said the study results are flawed on multiple levels, including using a small sample size and a sample of people inherently inclined to be out and about - and therefore at more risk of contracting COVID-19.
"People who are out at restaurants, especially those who were out early on, were the ones who said, 'I don't care, we're going to go live our lives,' and those folks are more likely to do a lot of things," Mortensen said. "How do you know you got it at a restaurant? You could have gotten it shopping at Target or at a clothing store or from your 19-year-old son coming home from college."
Restaurateurs, particularly small business owners, are "kind of getting beat up right now," Mortensen said.
Raulston said the industry is more focused than most on keeping people safe.
"My friends that own restaurants are taking the highest precautions," he said. "You can pick any business and say, 'Yeah, people going out are more likely to get it.'"
Contact Mary Fortune at email@example.com or 423-757-6653. Follow her on Twitter at @maryfortune.


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Finally, it’s that time of the month, when Pakistan’s economic managers can have their feel good moment, while the politicians brag and boast of their performance. And why shouldn’t they?
The latest external account numbers released by the central bank confirm the notion that Pakistan’s balance-of-payment position is in safe waters -- $99 million to be precise, for the first nine months of current fiscal year; which by the way is also the best nine-month performance since FY05.
Even month-on-month changes are confidence boosters. SBP data show that trade balance in March dropped about 11 percent over February, whereas remittances also jumped 25 percent month-on-month.
A closer look at the trade balance isn’t really disappointing either. Although, the SBP hasn’t released its detailed trade numbers as yet, that released by the FBS does provide a clue.
Share of textile exports dipped to 52 percent of total overseas sales in the quarter ending March, down from an average 57 percent in the first two quarters. That – despite the fact that textile exports in the third quarter grew 15 percent over the average overseas sales in the first two quarters -- shows that perhaps diversification is slowly taking place.
Within the textile segment too, there have been some positive developments. According to FBS data, nine-month sales saw a decline in the quantity sold of the low end items, whereas that of value added items saw decent increases. (See table)
On aggregate basis, however, both low end and value added textile items saw substantial increases – thanks to soaring commodity prices in international markets. But just as rising commodity prices also helped fatten the food export bill, it also increased the cost of overseas purchases.
With global oil prices eyeing the pre-crisis levels, the cost of oil imports rose 11 percent in the first nine months, offsetting the 5 percent decline in the quantity of oil purchased during the period. The double-hit combo of higher quantity and higher prices also stoked the food import bill during the period.
So while higher rising commodity prices may be boon for the exports, it’s equally a bane for the country’s imports – especially considering that Pakistan’s imports are largely inelastic. Oil imports make up nearly one-third of the total import bill, one that is expected to increase as summer approaches and the need to burn more fuel for power generation takes its toll.
As long as remittances are increasing, one might feel cushioned from the raging oil bull. But just imagine if the remittance inflows stop, or taper off. Already, certain official quarters are expressing their fears that remittances might fast become Pakistan’s Dutch Disease. If these fears materialise, then the country better up the ante on diversification of exports as well as of markets.


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Virginia Cannabis Business Licensing- What’s Happening Now
Virginia Adult-Use Cannabis Rules Update
Virginia legalized medical marijuana in 2018 and became the 16th state to legalize adult-use marijuana in April 2021. Currently, there is a limit of five medical cannabis pharmaceutical processor licenses, designated for each of the state’s health service areas. Each medical cannabis license holder is allowed a single, vertically-integrated facility to include growing, processing, and dispensing. These licenses also include up to five standalone dispensary-only satellite locations. The five medical cannabis licenses were issued in 2018 and no more have been made available by the state.
The recreational marijuana program allows for cannabis possession of up to one ounce and consumption for individuals 21 years and older. It also sealed records for multiple misdemeanor cannabis crimes, and legalized personal cultivation of up to four plants at home. The Virginia Cannabis Control Authority is responsible for regulating the adult-use program through state-licensed businesses.
Virginia lawmakers recently pushed for an earlier start to recreational marijuana sales, instead of waiting until January 2024. This would allow current medical operators to sell adult-use marijuana at their dispensaries.
The future of the program’s start date is still uncertain since legislators have not yet finalized how adult-use licensing would work, what products would be allowed for sale, and whether social equity would factor into licensing or revenue outcomes.
Types of Adult-Use Licenses in Virginia
- Marijuana Cultivation License – Limited to 450.
- Marijuana Manufacturing License – Limited to 60.
- Marijuana Testing Facility License
- Marijuana Wholesaler License – Limited to 25.
- Marijuana Retail License – Limited to 400.
- July 2023: Regulations must be promulgated, the committee could finalize regulations sooner which could speed up the process.
- July 2023-December 2023: Applications for social equity applicants open.
- TBD: Applications open for general applicants.
- January 1, 2024: The earliest recreational cannabis sales may begin.


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Libraries across the county are set to celebrate National Library Day on Saturday.
To mark the occasion, venues throughout Rutland are running a number of offers to encourage borrowers through the doors.
Libraries will be open in Ketton, Ryhall and Uppingham from 9am to midday on Saturday, and in Oakham from 9am to 4pm.
Everyone who visits and borrows three items or more will be eligible for a free cotton bag, as well as a free CD or DVD or Nintendo Wii game available for loan.
There will also be an amnesty in place on Saturday for borrowers to bring back overdue books without having to pay any fines.
Rutland County Council leader Roger Begy said: “There is no better time to get down to your local library than to celebrate National Library Day.
“If you have not visited for a while, this is the ideal opportunity to rediscover your local library.”


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SEOUL—LG Electronics Inc.'s announced a plan to raise $947.3 million via a rights offering, sending shares of the South Korean consumer electronics firm down 14%.
LG said the move will allow the company to secure funds to invest in key businesses including smartphones, and it also plans to hire more workers.
The company plans to issue 19 million new common shares at 55,900 won, or almost $50 each, representing a 9% discount to their Thursday closing price of 61,600 won.
LG's shares had their biggest one-day drop in more than three years Thursday, as investors were concerned about share dilution. The new shares will begin trading Jan. 9.
The fund-raising plan by LG, the world's third-largest handset maker by shipments behind Nokia Corp. and Samsung Electronics Co., comes as the company struggles to turn itself around amid slowing demand for consumer electronics. LG has fallen behind global rivals such as Samsung and Apple Inc. AAPL -0.68 % in the smartphone industry, despite pouring large amounts of resources into its loss-making handset unit over the past year to regain competitiveness.
LG's handset unit has remained in the red for the past six quarters and has been a major drag on the company's earnings. The South Korean company swung to a net loss of 413.9 won billion for the three months ended Sept. 30, from a net profit of 7.6 billion won a year earlier. Its handset shipments in the third quarter fell 15% to 21.1 million from 24.8 million in the second quarter, while the unit's operating-loss margin widened to 5.2% from 1.7%.
The company's television business, which is faring relatively better than Japanese rivals, is also facing stiff competition amid falling prices of flat-screen TVs. Rival Sony Corp. SNE -1.46 % , which competes with LG in the TV market, said Wednesday it expects a loss of more than $1 billion in the fiscal year ending in March as its TV business struggles.
LG's handset and TV business account for about 60% of the company's revenue.
Earlier this week, ratings firm Fitch downgraded its outlook on LG's credit ratings to negative from stable, citing the company's weak operating results.
Fitch also said the company's operational competitiveness is unlikely to recover significantly in the short term.
However, it Fitch expects LG to slowly improve its profitability and financial profile from 2012.


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This is an update to add a ticker in the 25th paragraph. The original column ran Thursday, Sept. 21.
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Hewlett-Packard Co. investors who have been trying to figure out whether the fallout from its cloak-and-dagger antics will hurt the company's business can stop wondering.
It already has.
And now that e-mails have surfaced that reportedly show H-P Chief Executive Mark Hurd approved the controversial methods of H-P's investigators, the growing scandal will continue to be a major distraction for company management.
If H-P's rivals were standing still, or the markets it sells into weren't changing, that might not be a big concern.
But two of H-P's
And while H-P executives and directors were indulging their newfound obsession with spying on reporters and each other, rivals like EMC Corp.
During the past nine months, while outgoing H-P Chairwoman Patricia Dunn was reportedly convincing Hurd to approve the most ridiculous aspects of the company's internal probe, executives at EMC were acquiring software companies to boost sales and profit growth.
The best examples of how Massachusetts-based EMC has been well ahead of H-P in planning for the future are in the markets for two types of software, one that helps corporations automate and integrate their business processes and another called virtualization software.
“'While H-P has been largely asleep, EMC has transformed itself into an enterprise-solutions company.'”
At EMC, meanwhile, the strategy of focusing on software and services has already begun to bear fruit.
"While H-P has been largely asleep, EMC has transformed itself into an enterprise-solutions company," said Murray Beach, managing director of Boston Corporate Finance, an investment bank and research firm that has represented at least one start-up acquired by EMC.
If you don't think selling enterprise software is key to H-P's future, ask yourself why CEO Hurd just agreed to plunk down $4.5 billion for Mercury Interactive, which makes so-called business-process-management software. It was the company's largest acquisition since the 2002 deal for Compaq Computer that first fractured H-P's board.
Likewise, if you don't think EMC represents a growing threat to H-P, read on.
Away from the spotlight
As H-P shares have climbed more than 20% this year, most investor attention has been focused on two positive developments: Hurd's ability to boost profit by cutting jobs and streamlining operations and H-P's success in taking market share from Dell Inc.
Indeed, given all the distractions we now know he faced, Hurd deserves tremendous credit for what he's done for H-P shareholders this fiscal year.
For the nine months ended July 31, H-P's net income more than doubled, even though sales rose just 5.2%. Its operating profit margin widened 180 basis points, to 6.9% of sales from 5.1%.
Operating profit increased 15% in H-P's PC business, even though it was cutting prices, and more than doubled in the company's storage and servers business, as Hurd has fired more than 10,000 workers.
What's gotten far less attention, though, is how sales growth in the company's server and services units -- both of which carry operating margins that are double that of the PC business -- has largely dried up.
For those same nine months, revenue from H-P's services business -- which manages the information-technology systems of large corporations -- was flat from the same period a year earlier, while sales of servers and storage gear rose just 3.2%.
Together, those businesses contribute 35% of H-P's total revenue. When Hurd is done cutting the fat, it's hard to see where H-P's profit growth will come from when about one-third of the cylinders that power its engine are stuck in neutral, especially when PC sales are growing 8.7% and printing and imaging equipment just 6.2%.
One of the things depressing server sales growth -- apart from the fierce price competition among H-P, IBM, Dell, Microsoft Corp.
That trend, being driven largely by EMC through its acquisition of a company called VM Ware, allows corporate IT managers to create new servers virtually, with software, rather than having to go out and buy new machines.
These virtual servers now make up between 5% and 15% of the server market, depending on who's counting, up from zero just a few years ago. What's more, their share of the market is expected to approach 50%, according to Ben Horowitz, the chief executive of OpsWare.
EMC, the No. 1 storage vendor, is also using virtualization software in its storage systems, blurring the line between that type of hardware and servers.
In fact, it's not hard to foresee a time when the management of both the processing and storing of information on a corporate network will be done by an integrated piece of software, like the kind sold by OpsWare OPSW.
This integration won't stop with software that manages data. The same trend is seen in corporate applications that use the data to accomplish business goals such as improving product support, speeding customer service or boosting sales to existing customers.
It's why EMC and IBM have been shopping for firms that make software for business-process management, and why H-P plunked down all that money for Mercury Interactive to finally get in the game.
The problem for Hurd is that at the exact time he should be focused on integrating Mercury into H-P, he's scheduling news conferences to explain his role in the spy scandal. Last week H-P filed a note to alert securities regulators that it is extending its tender offer for Mercury shares, which it originally said it hoped to do by the end of July.
H-P said in its quarterly filing that it hopes to close the deal in the fourth quarter -- as long as Mercury files its long-awaited annual report for 2005, which has been delayed because of accounting problems caused by backdated stock options.
A tender offer requires all sorts of legal work to process. With some members of H-P's general counsel's office, as well as outside legal counsel Larry Sonsini, being investigated by the state of California, the Department of Justice, and, now, a congressional committee, what are the odds that the Mercury files are getting top priority at H-P right now?
As the spying controversy intensifies, what other strategic priorities will be put on the back burner?
The press conference Friday "has nothing to do with H-P's strategy or operations," Hurd said in a statement Thursday.
My point exactly.


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It’s been a year and a half since Google announced App Maker, its online tool for quickly building and deploying business apps on the web. The company has mostly remained quiet about App Maker ever since and kept it in a private preview mode, but today,
The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you can subscribe here. 1. Apple Card launches today for all US customers,
Y Combinator, the genesis for many of the companies that have shaped Silicon Valley including Airbnb, PagerDuty and Stripe, has minted another 200 some graduates.
Apple continues to make use of Shazam, the music recognition app it acquired for $400 million in 2018. Earlier this month, Apple publicly launched its Music for Artists dashboard which included insights powered by Shazam data. Today,
IBM makes the Power Series chips, and as part of that has open sourced some of the underlying technologies to encourage wider use of these chips. The open source pieces have been part of the OpenPower Foundation. Today, the company announced it was moving the foundation under The Linux Foundation,
This edition features Amanda Bradford - Founder/CEO of The League. Amanda talks about modern dating, its limitations, why 'The League' will win, and her candid perspective on other dating startups...
For a few years now, GitHub has been running a program that gives students around the world free access to GitHub Pro and various free and discounted services from other partners as part of its GitHub Education program. In total, over 1.5 million students have now signed up for the program,
Microsoft today launched the first beta builds of its new, Chromium-based Edge browser for Windows and Mac. The new beta channel, which will see a new update roughly every six weeks, will join the existing dev and canary channels, which will continue to see daily and weekly updates, respectively.
If you’re planning to fly into Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport at some point in the future, you might be pleasantly surprised by the transit options. The city struck a deal with Elon Musk today to move forward with its plan to build a high-speed rail between O’Hare and downtown Chicago.
Influential announced today that it has raised $12 million in Series B funding. The funding came from existing investors Capital Zed, ECA Ventures, Paradigm Talent Agency, ROAR and Tech Coast Angels, as well as from Hollywood agency WME . Just a couple weeks ago,
TechCrunch’s Disrupt SF (Sept. 5-7) will be one for the record books, with twice the attendees and twice the programming sessions compared to past Disrupts, which means we can tackle emerging,
I've seen them firing many times, but I've to confess that I've never seen one of these missiles systems getting loaded. It seems as easy as inserting a cartridge in a Nintendo Entertainment system.Read more...
Sadly, smartphones can be a bit fragile. Luckily Logitech has invented the Protection+ case for durability that still manages to be stylish.Read more: http://www.itproportal.com/2014/07/17/iphone-5s-galaxy-s5-logitech-protection-case-saves-your-smartphone-from-18m-drops/
Following fresh complaints from 20 of its competitors, Google could face a fine of four billion euros from the European Commission if it fails to provide a proposal to correct the issue.Read more: http://www.itproportal.com/2014/09/24/google-could-face-record-breaking-eu-fine-over-competition-rules/
And the Oscar goes to: Peeps.This year's Academy Award-nominated films were chock-full of intense dramas and twisted comedies, like Boyhood and Birdman. While these instant classics were satisfying in their own right, they also lacked a certain marshmallowy goodness only Peeps can provide.See also:
美国的乔治华盛顿大学今天向媒体公布消息, 苹果 CEO Tim Cook 将于今年 5 月 17 日, 在毕业典礼上获得公共服务的荣誉博士学位, 并且发表演讲. 大学表示, 此前大学生们提名了 Tim Cook, 最终大学将他选为演讲人. 大学还表示,
In its battle with Netflix and Amazon for streaming video marketshare, Hulu today announced its first-ever licensing agreement with Turner Broadcasting, which sees the streaming video service gaining exclusive subscription rights to several shows’ past seasons from Cartoon Network, Adult Swim,
Y Combinator-incubated Taplytics is announcing that it has raised $2.4 million in seed funding.The startup launched last year as an A/B testing service for mobile apps, and since then it’s added features around mobile analytics and push notifications.


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JEFFERSON COUNTY, Colo. – A group of Girl Scouts is trying to change the law in unincorporated Jefferson County to cut down on single-use plastic shopping bags.
The girls came up with the idea to reduce plastic bag consumption as a way to earn their Silver Award for the Girl Scouts.
“It’s been a problem that’s been going on in our environment for far too long,” 14-year-old Ella McIntyre said.
Target in Glendale estimates its customers go through about 20,000 plastic shopping bags a day.
“It’s just a normal part of our lives we don’t even think about it until we look at it and say oh my gosh, this is happening,” Girl Scout Amanda Bontempo said.
Because of the pollution from plastic bags, cities such as Boulder and Avon already have ordinances that require customers to pay a fee for using plastic bags.
Tuesday morning, Girl Scout Troop 2458 made a presentation about its idea in front of the Jefferson County commissioners. It suggested implementing a 10 cent fee per plastic bag.
“My first thought was … this isn’t possible for four teenage girls to go into a courthouse and say we want to get rid of plastic bags. They’ve been here for hundreds of years,” McIntyre said.
County leaders have asked the girls for more information about their initiative and will consider it in the coming weeks.
Under the proposal, consumers could avoid the bag fee by using paper bags or bringing their own reusable bags.
“We have like a million reusable bags from random stuff so we just threw a bunch of them in the back of our mom’s car and now whenever we’re like, oh let’s go to Target, let’s go get some groceries really quick, we bring them with us and it’s just a simple thing,” Girl Scout Mia Jordan said.
The girls say they understand if Jefferson County doesn’t adopt their idea. They say they will be happy if they inspire at least one person to ditch plastic bags for good.
“We’re just four teenage girls trying to make something happen,” Girl Scout Gianna Akins said.AlertMe


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With Apple in His Head, New CEO Tosses Out Old Pricing Models and Formats at Department Store
By DANA MATTIOLI - The Wall Street Journal
Shortly after taking the top job at J.C. Penney Co. last fall, Chief Executive Ron Johnson signed up for the company's email alerts. He was shocked by what landed in his inbox.
The former Apple Inc. retail executive was deluged by sales announcements, sometimes two a day. He and his team counted 590 separate sales last year. They didn't bring in shoppers—Mr. Johnson's team found the average customer purchased only four times a year—but they did crush prices. Alarmingly, he learned nearly three-quarters of Penney's products sold at discounts of 50% or more.
"I thought to myself, 'This is desperation,'" Mr. Johnson said.
Now three months into his job, the new chief executive is hoping to turn things around with a far-reaching but risky overhaul of the department store format in an effort to lure consumers back to a chain that's often criticized as dowdy.