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Trump's remarks came a day before the Fed was set to announce its next decision on interest rates.Politicsread more
In a tweet, Trump said that he and Xi "had a very good telephone conversation," and that "our respective teams will begin talks prior to our meeting."Politicsread more
China is reducing support for its electric carmakers a move experts and industry insiders warn could lead to consolidation and waning investor appetite. But some of the...Technologyread more
Is your CEO on the list? Glassdoor has the results.Power Playersread more
Joseph Gaspar, the chief financial officer at Elbit Systems, said M&A among firms in the sector began to pick up pace in the 1980s and looks set to continue.Paris Air Showread more
Stocks in Asia rose in Wednesday afternoon trade following positive developments overnight on the U.S.-China trade front.Asia Marketsread more
Signs of companies moving out of Hong Kong have emerged, members of the business community told CNBC following massive protests in the city. But one analyst said Hong Kong's...China Politicsread more
Sen. Josh Hawley, a well-known tech critic, is introducing legislation that would remove the immunity big technology companies receive for user-posted content under Section...Technologyread more
In its new "Future Skills" report, LinkedIn has identified what it calls the 10 "rising skills" of the future and the jobs associated with them.Get Aheadread more
Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters on Tuesday requested that Facebook pause its development of Libra, an upcoming cryptocurrency that the company plans to release in 2020.Technologyread more
Has your CEO won over enough workers in Germany to make the cut? Glassdoor reveals.Power Playersread more
Blockchain technology has the potential to revolutionize financial transactions but companies will have to overcome several challenges in order to experience any benefits, according to industry experts.
Blockchain was developed alongside the digital cryptocurrency bitcoin. It works like a huge, decentralized ledger which records every transaction and stores this information on a global network to prevent tampering. Bitcoin, itself, is a virtual currency that allows users to exchange online credits for goods and services.
Several organisations have looked into alternative applications for the blockchain, away from the digital currency. For instance, Nasdaq is trialling a system to allow investors to securely vote in shareholders meetings, while Bank of America has filed several blockchain related patents.
Some of the possible benefits of adopting blockchain include simplifying business processes and creating trusted, safe records of business agreements and transactions, according to Vijay Michalik, research analyst for consultancy firm Frost & Sullivan.
In the longer term, blockchain may even replace law contracts and written agreements with computer code.
"This would challenge trusted third party business models like eBay, Amazon and Uber by creating a way for buyers and sellers to interact safely without the costs of a platform," he told CNBC via email.
"Early forms of these decentralized autonomous businesses are already emerging."
However, businesses may need to be cautious, as Michalik highlighted several issues with adopting blockchain technology.
"The challenges of legacy infrastructure will be the main obstacle. This is coupled with the challenges of technical understanding – the practicality of implementing decentralized cryptosystems falls outside of the traditional IT development skill-set," he said.
"Companies from Consensys and Microsoft to IBM are beginning to release some of the tools needed, but conceptual understanding of its potential is a separate hurdle. "
Market researcher TABB Group has also identified several challenges facing different sectors of the market, which it describes as "insurmountable," in a report published earlier this month.
"While some issues are significant to particular market slices, they may be non-issues for others, and things that may appear easy from the outside, may actually be very challenging," said Larry Tabb, CEO of TABB Group in a press release.
"For example, streamlining the allocations process may appear simple from a brokerage or custodian perspective, but problematic for investors; conversely, clearing and netting is a non-issue for investors while challenging for banks and brokers."
Correction: CNBC has corrected the spelling of the name of the CEO of TABB Group.
Follow CNBC International on and Facebook.


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The government’s plan to sell its stake in General Motors Co. throughout the next 12 to 15 months comes with a few surprises.
The buyback came earlier than expected, Jefferies analyst Peter Nesvold said, and the structure of the deal took a different form than he was predicting. But most importantly, GM purchasing 200 million shares of the government’s stake at $27.50 a share represents a lower price than he was anticipating.
“While an eventual sell-down was not a surprise, the timing, price, and structure were,” he says in a note to client. “We were expecting something at least $30.”

domain: news


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Novatel Wireless has unveiled a product line in the mobile Wi-Fi market that it plans to make available in the first half of 2009.
The battery powered My-Fi router connects to the Internet via a 3G (third generation) mobile telephone network and creates a mobile cloud of Wi-Fi, or wireless, connectivity within a 40-foot radius.
It allows any Wi-Fi-enabled product to become an Internet device, and it can host multiple devices at once.
“It creates an intelligent mobile hotspot,” says senior vice president of worldwide sales and marketing Rob Hadley. “If I have my My-Fi on, you and I can jump on it and share a connection. It’s not much bigger than a credit card, less than a quarter inch thick and very portable.”
Novatel has not set a price, but Hadley says it will likely be under $200, plus the cost of a wireless 3G plan, which starts at $59 a month.
My-Fi, set up as a portable server, creates a secure connection with a computer at work and syncs to Microsoft Outlook without the need for a laptop.
“It can be updating my Web Outlook e-mail, and when I get on the airplane where I don’t have 3G service, I’m still able to read it,” Hadley said.
It’s similar to a cellular-based modem by Cradlepoint, which also creates a Wi-Fi hotspot via cell connection. My-Fi differs in that it can host multiple users and support enterprise software.
The first product release will come with a removable memory card. The next generation will likely offer wireless storage.
However, operators that bundle it with other products might subsidize the retail cost.
“Initially we will focus on an operator partner channel, but My-Fi is applicable to retail as well,” Hadley said. “We can envision where a retailer wants to bundle My-Fi with other Wi-Fi-enabled devices.
Hadley does not expect the recession to have a huge impact on sales because he says the product improves worker productivity and provides a better user experience for consumers.
“This (cellular) market is measured in the billions. Wireless wide area networking or mobile broadband is a small percentage of our overall subscriber base,” he said. “There are many more mobile handset subscribers today than mobile broadband. And as rate plans drop for mobile data and we have more applications and content to use, that market could explode.”
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Ready For Takeoff:
ViaSat, a Carlsbad satellite communications company, recently picked French rocket company Arianespace to launch ViaSat-1, its broadband satellite into geosynchronous orbit over North America.
Built by Space Systems/Loral in Palo Alto, ViaSat-1 will provide broadband media services to consumers and businesses.
The Ariane 5 will launch from Guiana Space Center in French Guiana in the first half of 2011.
“Winning this contract from ViaSat confirms our ability to deliver top-quality launch services,” said Arianespace Chairman and CEO Jean-Yves Le Gall.
ViaSat CEO Mark Dankberg said the company is comfortable with the French company’s launch services.
“We are seeing a lot of anticipation in the marketplace for ViaSat-1, which is designed to deliver more capacity and a lower cost per bit than any satellite before,” he said.
Arianespace is backed by 23 shareholders and the European Space Agency. Its rockets are Ariane 5, Soyuz and Vega.
Arianespace had launched at least 263 payloads, including more than half of all the commercial satellites now in service. It has a backlog of 25 Ariane 5 and 10 Soyuz launches, equal to more than three years of business.
Please send your technology news and announcements to Ned Randolph at firstname.lastname@example.org.


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The company said this first-quarter drop to 295 million units was driven largely by a 27% year-on-year decline in shipments to China, with the country's overall share of the global market falling from 26% to 22%.
Shipments of 5G smartphones increased their share from 1% in the first quarter of 2019 to 8% in 1Q2020.
Chinese firms Xiaomi and realme achieved growth of 7% and 157% year-on-year, the only two companies to show positive figures. Apple remained largely unaffected, with shipments falling only 5% for the quarter.
Counterpoint associate director Tarun Pathak said: “From the consumer standpoint, unless replacing a broken phone, smartphones are mostly a discretionary purchase. Consumers, in these uncertain times, are likely to withhold making many significant discretionary purchases.
"This means the replacement cycles are likely to become longer. Lockdowns in most parts of the world will be lifted in a staggered way, which will mean it could take time before retail activity completely resumes.
"Even after the lockdown ends, there will likely be changes in consumer spending patterns. Online channels are likely to be preferred and there will likely be shifts in the price band distribution with some consumers opting for a cheaper device, which could lead to a decrease in overall average selling prices.
"OEMs will have to embrace a more omnichannel strategy. Retailers will also have to find ways to reach their consumers digitally. This could increase the adoption of O2O (online to offline) channels and hyper-local delivery services in smartphones.
"However, users staying at home are engaging on their smartphone more than ever. This provides opportunities for services like mobile gaming and OTT services. This will likely lead to operators being able to upsell to larger data packages with higher ARPUs.”
The pandemic has also affected the rollout of 5G in some countries. Counterpoint research analyst Varun Mishra said: “COVID-19 has disrupted the implementation plans of 5G in some countries, with auctions being postponed in markets like Spain and India.
"However, led by Huawei, the growth of 5G in China remains as expected. As the situation returns to normal, the 5G sales will be further driven by OEMs including Samsung, OPPO, vivo, Xiaomi and realme launching devices in the sub-US$300 price band.
"This is likely to be complemented by SoC players launching cheaper 5G-capable chipsets. The share of 5G smartphones increased to 8% in Q1 2020, compared to 1% in Q4 2019. 5G is likely to help the rate of recovery during the second half of 2020.”


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“A lot of people in academia are not very good at software engineering,” says Kenny Daniel, co-founder and chief technology officer of cloud computing startup Algorithmia. “I always had more of the software engineering bent.”
That, in a nutshell, is some of what makes six-year-old, Seattle-based Algorithmia uniquely focused in a world over-run with machine learning offerings.
Amazon, Microsoft, Google, IBM, Salesforce, and other large companies have for some time been offering cut-and-paste machine learning in their cloud services. Why would you want to stray to a small, young company?
No reason, unless that startup had a particular knack for hands-on support of machine learning.
That’s the premise of Daniel’s firm, founded with Diego Oppenheimer, a graduate of Carnegie Mellon and a veteran of Microsoft. The two became best friends in undergrad at CMU, and when Oppenheimer went to industry, Daniel went to pursue a PhD in machine learning at USC. While researching ML, Daniel realized he wanted to build things more than he wanted to just theorize.
“I had the idea for Algorithmia in grad school,” Daniel recalled in an interview with ZDNet. “I saw the struggle of getting the work out into the real world; my colleagues and I were developing state-of-the-art [machine learning] models, but not really getting them adopted in the real world the way we wanted.”
He dropped out of USC and hooked up with Oppenheimer to found the company. Oppenheimer had seen from the industry side that even for large companies such as Microsoft, there was a struggle to get enough talent to get things deployed and in production.
The duo initially set out to create an App Store for machine learning, a marketplace in which people could buy and sell ML models, or programs. They got seed funding from venture firm Madrona Ventures, and took up residence in Seattle’s Pike Place. “There’s a tremendous amount of ML talent out here, and the rents are not as crazy” as Silicon Valley, he explained.
Their intent was to match up consumers of machine learning, companies that wanted the models, with developers. But Daniel noticed something was breaking down. The majority of customers using the service were consuming machine learning from their own teams. There was little transaction volume because companies were just trying to get stuff to work.
“We said, okay, there’s something else going on here: people don’t have a great way of turning their models into scalable, production-ready APIs that are highly available and resilient,” he recalled having realized.
“A lot of these companies would have data scientists building models in Jupyter on their laptop, and not really having a good way to hook them up to a million iOS apps that are trying to recognize images, or a back-end data pipeline that’s trying to process terabytes of data a day.”
There was, in other words, “a gap there in software engineering.” And so the business shifted from a focus on a marketplace to a focus on providing the infrastructure to make customers’ machine learning models scale up.
The company had to solve a lot of the multi-tenant challenges that were fundamental limitations, long before those techniques became mainstream with the big cloud platforms.
Also: How do we know AI is ready to be in the wild? Maybe a critic is needed
“We were running functions before AWS Lambda,” says Daniel, referring to Amazon’s server-less offering.
Problems such as, “How do you manage GPUs, because GPUs were not built for this kind of thing, they were built to make games run fast, not for multi-tenant users to run jobs on them.”
Daniel and Oppenheimer started meeting with big financial and insurance firms, to discuss solving their deployment problems. Training a machine learning model might be fine on AWS. But when it came time to make predictions with the trained model, to put it into production for a high volume of requests, companies were running into issues.
The companies wanted their own instances of their machine learning models in virtual private clouds, on AWS or Azure, with the ability to have dedicated customer support, metrics, management and monitoring.
That lead to the creation of an Algorithmia Enterprise service in 2016. That was made possible by fresh capital, an infusion of $10.5 million from Gradient Ventures, Google’s AI investment operation, followed by a $25 million round last summer. In total. Algorithmia has received $37.9 million in funding.
Today, the company has seven-figure deals with large institutions, most of it for running private deployments. You could get something like what Algorithmia offers by using Amazon’s SageMaker, for example. But SageMaker is all about using only Amazon’s resources. The appeal with Algorithmia is that the deployments will run in multiple cloud facilities, wherever a customer needs machine learning to live.
“A number of these institutions need to have parity across wherever their data is,” said Daniel. “You may have data on premise, or maybe you did acquisitions, and things are across multiple clouds; being able to have parity across those is one of the reasons people choose Algorithmia.”
Amazon and other cloud giants each tout their offerings as end-to-end services, said Daniel. But that runs counter to reality, which is that there is a soup composed of many technologies that need to be brought together to make ML work.
“In the history of software, there hasn’t been a clear end-to-end, be-all winner,” Daniel observed. “That’s why GitHub, and GitLab, and Bitbucket and all these continue to exist, and there are different CI [continuous integration] systems, and Jenkins, and different deployment systems and different container systems.”
“It takes a fair amount of expertise to wire all these things together.”
There is some independent support for what Daniel claims. Gartner analyst Arun Chandrasekaran puts Algorithmia in a basket that he calls “ModelOps.” The application “life cycle” of artificial intelligence programs,
Chandrasekaran told ZDNet, is different from that of traditional applications, “due to the sheer complexity and dynamism of the environment.”
“Most organizations underestimate how long it will take to move AI and ML projects into production.”
Also: Recipe for selling software in a pandemic: Be essential, add some machine learning, and focus, focus, focus
Chandrasekaran predicts the market for ModelOps will expand as more and more companies try to deploy AI and run up against the practical hurdles.
While there is the risk that cloud operators will subsume some of what Algorithmia offers, said Chandrasekaran, the need to deploy outside a single cloud supports the role of independent ModelOps vendors such as Algorithmia.
“AI deployments tend to be hybrid, both from the perspective of spanning multiple environments (on-premises, cloud) as well as the different AI techniques that customers may use,” he told ZDNet.
Aside from cloud vendors, Algorithmia competitors include Datarobot, H20.ai, RapidMiner, Hydrosphere, Modelop and Seldon.
Some companies may go 100% AWS, conceded Daniel. And some customers may be fine with generic abilities of cloud vendors. For example, Amazon has made a lot of progress with text translation technology as a service, he noted.
But industry-specific, or vertical market machine learning, is something of a different story. One customer of Algorithmia, a large financial firm, needed to deploy an application for fraud detection. “It sounds crazy, but we had to figure out all this stuff of, how do we know this data over here is used to train this model? It’s important because its an issue of their [the client’s] liability.”
The immediate priority for Algorithmia is a new product version called Teams that lets companies organize an invite-only, hosted gathering of those working on a particular model. It can stretch across multiple “federated” instances of a model, said Daniel. The pricing is by compute usage, so it’s a pay-as-you-go option, versus the annual billing of the Enterprise version.
Also: AI startup Abacus goes live with commercial deep learning service, takes $13M Series A financing
To Daniel, the gulf that he observed in academia between pure research and software engineering is the thing that has always shot down AI in past. The so-called “AI winter” periods over the decades were in large part a result of the practical obstacles, he believes.
“Those were periods when there was hype for AI and ML, and companies invested a lot of money,” he said. “If companies are not getting the pay-off, if there’s a lack of progress, we could be looking at another hype cycle.”
By contrast, if more companies can be successful in deployment, it may lead to a flourishing of the kind of marketplace that he and Oppenheimer originally envisioned.
“It’s like the Unix philosophy, these small things combining, that’s the way that I see it,” he said. “Ultimately, this will just enable all sorts of things, completely new scenarios, and that’s incredibly valuable, things that we can make available in a free market of machine learning.”


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TRC Names Johnstone Supply 2013 Big Man on PlanetPosted Dec 9, 2013
Thermostat Recycling Corporation (TRC) announced that Johnstone Supply has been named the 2013 Big Man On Planet (BMOP), an annual award given by TRC in partnership with Heating Air-conditioning and Refrigeration Distributors International (HARDI). The BMOP award is presented to the HARDI member who collected the most mercury thermostats through TRC’s program during the competition, May 15th – October 31st.
“HARDI is thrilled with the total results of the Big Man on the Planet Competition. This program shows HARDI distributors’ continued commitment to helping the communities that they serve and providing value to their customers. We value our relationship with TRC for running the BMOP program and its continued partnership with HARDI members throughout the year,” said Talbot Gee, HARDI Executive Vice President & C.O.O.
This year HARDI members with more than 600 locations nationwide competed in BMOP, compared to 233 locations in 2012. Johnstone Supply won by recovering 11,179 thermostats and keeping 107 lbs of mercury out of the waste stream during the competition. They were recognized and presented a trophy by TRC at HARDI’s annual conference today in Phoenix, AZ.
“We are very excited to win this award. It shows our members’ level of commitment to doing the right thing for the environment and providing solutions for the customers we serve,” said Jeff Schultz, Johnstone Product Manager.
“The BMOP Award is a great opportunity for HARDI members to be recognized for their work to protect the environment, and Johnstone Supply has done an outstanding job of that,” said Mark Tibbetts, TRC Executive Director. “Johnstone Supply was truly in it to win it this year and their efforts to champion the TRC program have contributed significantly to the program’s growth and success.”
About Johnstone Supply
Johnstone Supply is the leading cooperative wholesale distributor in the HVACR industry, with well over $1.5 billion in annual sales and more than 375 independently owned store locations across America. Johnstone Supply offers superior customer service, technical advice and training seminars, an annual print catalog featuring over 30,000 HVACR parts, supplies and equipment, and a valuable website resource with a searchable online catalog featuring more than 60,000 products ordered directly from local stores. Johnstone is proud to be an official partner and active contributor to Operation Homefront, a national non-profit providing emergency financial and other assistance to the families of military members and wounded warriors. (www.JohnstoneSupply.com)
Heating, Air-conditioning and Refrigeration Distributors International (HARDI) represents more than 460 wholesale companies, more than 300 manufacturing associates and nearly 125 manufacturer representatives. HARDI members represent an estimated 85 percent of the dollar value of the HVACR products sold through distribution. (www.hardinet.org)


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Bad news for all the people saving up $1,500 for Google Glass, if any such people even existed: Starting next week, you won’t be able to buy them anymore.
No doubt realizing that its face computers have hardly been a fan favorite, Google is majorly shaking up its plans for Google Glass, the Wall Street Journal reported this afternoon. Google also announced the changes on Glass’ Google + page.
Among the changes comes the news that as of Jan. 19—so next Monday—Google will no longer be selling Glass to individual people through its Explorer program. The devices will still be available to businesses, who, as Mashable pointed out, might actually have clear-cut uses for them.
The WSJ also said that Google Glass, once managed by the Google X research labs, will be moved to an independent unit led by Ivy Ross. Tony Fadell, the CEO of Nest—which Google acquired last year for $3.2 billion—will reportedly oversee Ms. Ross and her team.
Here’s an excerpt from the post on Glass’ Google + page announcing the upcoming changes:
Explorers, we asked you to be pioneers, and you took what we started and went further than we ever could have dreamed: from the large hadron collider at CERN, to the hospital operating table; the grass of your backyard to the courts of Wimbledon; in fire stations, recording studios, kitchens, mountain tops and more.
Glass was in its infancy, and you took those very first steps and taught us how to walk. Well, we still have some work to do, but now we’re ready to put on our big kid shoes and learn how to run.
Since we first met, interest in wearables has exploded and today it’s one of the most exciting areas in technology. Glass at Work has been growing and we’re seeing incredible developments with Glass in the workplace. As we look to the road ahead, we realize that we’ve outgrown the lab and so we’re officially “graduating” from Google[x] to be our own team here at Google. We’re thrilled to be moving even more from concept to reality.
As part of this transition, we’re closing the Explorer Program so we can focus on what’s coming next. January 19 will be the last day to get the Glass Explorer Edition. In the meantime, we’re continuing to build for the future, and you’ll start to see future versions of Glass when they’re ready. (For now, no peeking.)
For those of you still desperate to become Glassholes (have you considered any other life goals, by any chance?), there is some slightly promising news: “Google plans to release a new version of Glass in 2015,” the WSJ says, “but it hasn’t been more specific about timing.”
And hey, maybe the time will finally be ripe for Lenovo to unveil an adorable Google Glass look-a-like.


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The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published a scathing report on home insurers’ pricing practices – highlighting serious concerns about whether consumers are being fairly treated.
As a preliminary step to a broader insurance investigation, the government watchdog has reviewed the approaches to pricing and storage of customer data of 18 home insurance firms, representing around 40% of the UK home insurance market.
The FCA reported three key areas presenting ‘the most potential for significant harm and poor outcomes for consumers.’ These were:
- Problems caused by ‘differential’ or ‘dual’ pricing – the practice of charging customers with the same or very similar risk characteristics different prices for the same product. One example of this is charging new customers different rates to existing ones. The FCA’s research found some groups of consumers pay significantly higher prices than other groups with similar risks and costs.
- Firms failing to have appropriate and effective strategies, governance, control and oversight of their pricing practices and activities, such that they are unable to reliably assess and evidence whether they are treating their customers fairly.
- The risk of discriminating against consumers through using rating factors in pricing based (directly or indirectly) on data (including third party data) relating to or derived from protected characteristics.
Who is worst off from home insurance pricing?
Price data analysed as part of the study revealed ‘widespread evidence’ of differential pricing within home insurance, meaning customers who’d stayed with their insurer for many years paid significantly higher margins (the price you pay above what it actually costs to cover you), on average, than newer customers.
According to the report, groups likely to be disadvantaged included over-65s, people paying monthly rather than annually, auto-renewing customers, those who’d made previous claims and those who had buildings-only insurance.
Meanwhile, customers likely to benefit from differential pricing were those who shopped around regularly. Private renters with children, customers with low credit scores, unemployed renters and those with contents-only insurance were often part of this group.
The longer customers have been with their insurer, the higher the margin, on average. The chart below shows the average margin (proportion of their premium above cost) paid compared with the number of times the policyholders had renewed with their insurer.
How much loyalty can cost you
- Find out more: loyal customers pay 38% more to stay with their insurer
Vulnerable customers pay more
In May, industry trade bodies the Association of British Insurers (ABI) and the British Insurance Brokers’ Association (BIBA) jointly released a statement that insurance companies would review their pricing models to ensure longstanding customers weren’t being disproportionately penalised for their loyalty.
In particular, they’ve pledged to take measures to ensure that ‘vulnerable’ customers – such as those less capable at managing their finances and shopping for deals – would be protected.
In their report, the FCA raise concerns about how well co-ordinated insurers’ efforts have been to track of how their pricing strategies affect customers over the long term. They also express doubt on how well-equipped insurers are to determine which of their customers might be paying excessively more than they should be, with some firms reporting that they don’t keep information on their customers (besides their age) that would allow them to identify who might be vulnerable.
Additionally, in many cases, records of older policies are reportedly stored on separate ‘legacy’ computer systems than those for more recent customers, making it challenging (or in some cases, impossible) for insurers to make systematic comparisons of newer and older policies and pricing.
The FCA states a further concern over some companies using data (for example census data) to directly or indirectly factor policyholders’ race or ethnicity into their pricing models. This could potentially place them in a legal grey area under the Equality Act 2010. Under this legislation, insurers are prohibited from taking into account several ‘protected characteristics’ – such as race or religion – in setting their prices.
- Find out more: the best and worst home insurers
The industry’s response
The ABI has commented: ‘While many customers benefit from competitive motor and home insurance markets with lower premiums, we agree that the market is not working as well as it should for some long-standing customers. Insurers were the first sector in the economy to launch an industry-wide initiative to tackle excessive price differences between new and existing customers earlier this year, and the FCA has welcomed this. This is an important issue and insurers will work with the FCA to address issues raised in the report to ensure that the market works as well as possible for all consumers.’
The industry body is set to publish its own report on differential pricing and vulnerable customers in around two years time. The FCA is carrying out a market study of general insurance more broadly, with a final report expected in December 2019.
In May, Which? investigated the premiums being paid by longstanding and new home insurance customers and found that policyholders with a new combined home insurance policy paid, on average, £75 less per year than those with older policies.
Gareth Shaw, Which? money expert, said: ‘This review is long overdue. For years, loyal policyholders have been exploited by insurance providers, punished by excessive premiums, and have had to battle with unclear pricing that makes it difficult for people to understand whether or not they’re getting a fair deal.
‘Customers who prefer to stay with one provider are at risk of being hit with vastly overpriced premiums when little has changed in the service they receive. It’s right that the regulator tackles this sector to ensure customers aren’t punished for their loyalty and that pricing is clear and transparent across the industry.’
- Find out more: home insurance explained
How to avoid being caught in the loyalty trap
Most of us know that staying put with one insurer will cost us money, but will tolerate paying a little extra to avoid the hassle switching to a new policy.
Getting the best deal doesn’t always need to mean going elsewhere. Follow our tips to keep paying a fair price.
- Check how much your premium has increased. Review your cover annually. It’s a simple matter of checking your renewal letter to see last year’s premium against the current offer. When we surveyed 526 Which? members in May, on average, they’d said they’d need to see a hike of £50 or more to make them look elsewhere. But bear in mind that even relatively small increases, if incurred each year, will mount up.
- Check what other insurers offer. Ten minutes on a comparison site should give you a good impression of what your insurer’s rivals will offer for your business. If you want to haggle with your insurer, this is vital information to have.
- Find out your ‘new customer’ price. Many insurers will allow customers to cancel their policies and buy new ones instead of renewing. Doing this will net you the ‘new business’ discounts used to lure customers from rival insurers, and Which? members tell us they’ve saved hundreds doing this. If you don’t like what you see on your renewal letter, see if you can run an online quote as a new customer – or simply call and ask what you’d get as a new customer. Even if you can’t get this information, or aren’t allowed to cancel and re-purchase, enquiring about it can motivate your insurer to make you a fairer offer for your continued business.
To find out more, read our guide on how to renew your home insurance policy.


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Samsung Snaps Up Joyent, the Best-Kept Secret in Cloud Computing
Joyent, an unsung hero of the cloud hosting market, has just found a new home.
Google and Docker Recharge the Container Revolution
Bryan Cantrill says that cloud computing is on the cusp of revolution.
New Foundation Will Oversee Popular Coding Tool Node.js
Microsoft, the Linux Foundation, and other tech heavy weights are establishing a new, independent foundation for the popular software development platform Node.js.
Future of Popular Coding Tool in Doubt After It Splits in Two
Node.js, a popular and influential tool for building and running modern internet services, has split in two.
Why Oracle’s Copyright Victory Over Google Is Bad News for Everyone
Oracle won a big legal victory over Google on Friday, when a federal appeals overturned a ruling in their epic battle over the Java programming...
Why Turning Your Customers Into ‘Mini-VCs’ Isn’t a Great Idea
TextDrive wasn’t just a place where you could host a website. It was an experiment in venture funding, a means of bootstrapping a much larger...
Cloud Computing Says Goodbye to One of Its Pioneers
The cloud computing game just got a little less interesting. The irrepressible Jason Hoffman has stepped down as the chief technical officer at Joyent, the...
Nuke Know-How Hits the Cloud Data Center
Joyent, best known for offering its own Amazon-like “cloud” services but also selling stuff that helps companies running cloudy architectures in their own data centers,...
Amazon Rival Brings Nuke Know-How to the Data Center
Joyent is best known for offering its own Amazon-like "cloud" services, but it also sells stuff that help companies running cloudy architectures in their own...
Google’s Chrome Browser Sprouts Programming Kit of the Future
Among Silicon Valley developers, The Next Big Thing is Node. Node is short for Node.js, a new-age programming platform based on an engine at the...


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Good show from Fujitsu. With more advance palm recognition technology, higher security can be ensured in important spots. I also like the supercomputer but there is no comparison figures so we hardly know how this rank among the top performers!
A water proof smartphone is a good product. So you can use your iPhone and iPad in shower, on the beach, and in the pool. There was a company selling a liquid solution that can render any smartphone water proof.
As we unveil EE Times’ 2015 Silicon 60 list, journalist & Silicon 60 researcher Peter Clarke hosts a conversation on startups in the electronics industry. Panelists Dan Armbrust (investment firm Silicon Catalyst), Andrew Kau (venture capital firm Walden International), and Stan Boland (successful serial entrepreneur, former CEO of Neul, Icera) join in the live debate.


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Tassal Tasmanian Salmon, an Australian salmon farming company, backed away from plans to dump treated wastewater from salmon pens into...
After successful pilot program, GE and Sealed Air's Diversey entered into alliance
GE and Sealed Air’s Diversey business announced an alliance to deliver water and energy management services to Diversey’s cleaning and sanitation customers around the world.
The announcement comes after a successful pilot of the alliance over the past year. Under the terms of the agreement, Sealed Air’s Diversey team will sell and service GE’s water treatment chemicals, water and process equipment, membrane and cartridge filtration products, analytical instruments and energy management solutions.
“The Diversey alliance will bring our leading water portfolio and services to an expanded customer base,” GE Power & Water President and CEO Heiner Markhoff said. “As a leader in the commercial cleaning and sanitation business, particularly in food and beverage processing plants, Diversey is well positioned to connect their customers to our products and services, which will help these customers implement environmentally and cost-efficient water and process technology solutions.”
The announcement reinforces GE’s commitment to improve water reuse, a key commitment of ecomagination, a business strategy to create new value for customers, investors and society by solving energy, efficiency and water challenges.
GE’s water-related portfolio includes the following products qualified under GE’s Ecomagination: ABMet, advanced membrane, desalination, E-Cell electrodeionization system, electrodialysis reversal (EDR), GenGard cooling water solution and ZeeWeed membrane technology.
Diversey is a business unit of Sealed Air Corp. The combination of Diversey and Sealed Air creates a new global leader in food safety and security, facility hygiene and product protection. The alliance with GE also will expand Sealed Air’s operational efficiency offerings, particularly in food and beverage processing plants.


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The Swedish company brings its petite N2 to Las Vegas.
Swedish company Neonode showed its N2 phone at CES. The tiny handset, which launched at the 3GSM show last February, would certainly be in the running for the title of smallest (and perhaps cutest) cell phone around. Like a certain device from
Features include Bluetooth, USB compatibility, messaging, a 2-megapixel camera, a miniSD card slot, and an MP3 player. The N2 is a quadband GSM world phone, and though you can get it unlocked, Neonode says it is in talks with U.S. carriers. Stay tuned for more availability news.


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Indian Hotels Company Ltd (IHCL), which operates Taj Hotels, is looking to expand its portfolio in Africa. The company is scouting sites and is in discussion for establishments in Zambia, Kenya and Malawi, among others. This information was provided by Michael Pownall, GM, Taj Cape Town, on the sidelines of Indaba 2013. According to Pownall, IHCL is on the lookout for management contracts, and will start with the acquisition of a 15-year-old property in Zambia to be launched soon.
Speaking about the Taj Cape Town property, Pownall stated that 2012 was a good year for the hotel. “The year we launched, 2010, was a difficult one. However, it was developed in time for the World Cup which helped bookings for the period tremendously. Unfortunately, several other establishments came up to serve the period as well, leading to an oversupply once the World Cup was over. 2011 was hence difficult. Fortunately, 2012 has picked up and we recorded a 40 per cent growth,” he revealed.
The overall occupancy in 2012 was 61 per cent, which was an increase from the 20 per cent seen in year one and 40 per cent in year two of the property’s existence. Taj Cape Town has also recorded an approximate revenue growth of 60 per cent. He further added that the Q1 of 2013, which is a peak season for South Africa, has been a good season for occupancy and revenue as well.
“Taj was not a well known brand when we started off in 2010. However, the Indian luxury brand has been well received and picked up rapidly. The India market is critical and increasing but in small numbers. UK, USA and Germany are still our strongest source markets, while domestic bookings dominate occupancy. India will probably become the third or fourth largest source market for us by 2014 as Indian footfall to South Africa is increasing and the property is similar to the Taj Mahal Palace in Mumbai – caters to business, leisure and group travel effectively,” concluded Pownall.
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Kendall Jenner’s 818 Tequila has been steadily growing since she launched it in 2021 and she recently promoted the brand using her modeling skills.
As with any brand, new developments, changes, and products are required to keep a business growing, and Kendall has a new bottle coming in September.
In a statement, Kendall revealed the launch of Eight Reserve by 818, described as “an ultra-premium Anejo Reserve.”
The new reserve was developed in Jalisco, Mexico, where her distillery is, and is a blend of one-year-old Anejo and additional aged Anejos, which could be aged up to eight years.
The blend “creates a level of complexity, softness and depth rarely experienced in Tequila.” The new blend is meant to “be enjoyed neat while celebrating life’s special moments.”
The launch is a special moment indeed for the brand, as the promotional photos show the bottles in the shape of the curvy number eight and Kendall showing off her curves as well.
Kendall shared a snap of herself holding the Eight Reserve by 818 above her head as she posed with her hip out, possibly imitating the way dancing looks.
She appears to be slightly pressed up against a clear pane and the image is blurred, producing an effect similar to a steamy window.
She wrote, “I’m so excited to introduce Eight Reserve by 818. Our new Añejo Reserve lands September 19. Learn more and pre-order now at eightreserve.com.”
Though 818 Tequila is an award-winning brand now, Kendall has received backlash in regards to the Jalisco community where her distillery operates.
Right after she launched 818, Kendall was accused of taking advantage of Mexican culture and profiting off of the hard work of the native farmers.
However, she revealed on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon that part of her mission is to benefit the Jalisco community and give back.
Kendall said that part of the company’s goals was to be aware and environmentally friendly.
She continued, “At our distillery, which I was just at the other day, we found a way to take the agave waste — the agave fibers and the water waste — and build this sustainable brick that we are actually donating back to the community of Jalisco.”
818 Tequila is also partnered with 1% For the Planet, so 1% of the profits go to “planet-saving initiatives.”
The Kardashians Season 1 is now streaming on Hulu. Season 2 premieres on September 22, 2022.


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On Thursday, about $1 billion worth of sales had been generated in online sales, up 22% from the previous Thanksgiving, reports USA TODAY.» Read More
The Internet is changing behavior across all levels, says Stephen Sadove, National Retail Federation chairman, providing his take on what's disrupting the retail space.
Stacey Widlitz, CNBC retail analyst says that a slew of U.S. retailers have guided down - especially the mid-to-lower end - and that the sector is suffering from a lack of talent.
These two brewers should continue to serve up profits, says CNBC's Jim Cramer.
A handful of Twitter users have noticed a new setting for "payment and shipping" within the company's Android app.
Liz Dunn, Macquarie Capital senior retail analyst, breaks down the earnings of Ralph Lauren and compares them to competitive retailers Michael Kors and Macy's.
AOL reported better-than-expected quarterly revenue, helped by a 60 percent jump in advertising revenue in its third-party platform.
Groupon Inc slashed its full-year profit outlook on Tuesday, citing the need to spend abundantly on marketing.
Time Warner beat quarterly profit estimates, but the news failed to prevent its shares from tumbling more than 10 percent.
U.S. giant Walgreen announced a near-£6 billion ($10.1 billion) deal to buy the remaining stake in U.K. drugstore chain Alliance Boots.
The Walt Disney Co. reported earnings of $1.28 per share on revenue of $12.47 billion.
Time Warner shares fell more than 12 percent in after-market trading on the announcement.
Gannett has joined a long line of media companies to spin off a slow-growth business. Should investors take a fly on the underdog?
Amazon now offers 'Get It Today' to Prime members. It allows them to order as many same-day delivery items as they want for $5.99.
Chrysler and Nissan said they are reviewing a report that rates their vehicles among the three "most hackable" cars on the market.
Gold-colored Bugatti's cruise along London's streets. "The season" during which rich Arab boy racers come to flaunt their cars is upon us.
British shop prices fell at their fastest rate since December 2006 driven by "fierce" retail competition, the BRC said.
As Toyota hits a speed bump in high-growth emerging markets, does the world's largest automaker have what it takes to hold on to its crown?
Dana Telsey, CEO & Chief Research Officer at Telsey Advisory Group, says Tuesday's better-than-expected earnings doesn't mean that Coach has emerged from its transition period.
Running short on time? You're in luck at these McDonald's locations.
Every family has its secrets and the margarita recipe at Joe T. Garcia's has been guarded for almost 80 years, and even Tim Love will never find out what it is.


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As part of the announcement of Microsoft's
next generation gaming console the Xbox One, the company highlighted the new
consoles ability to transform the way TV is viewed and the devices ability to
tightly integrate all of a user's entertainment, gaming and TV experiences.
becomes more intelligent," noted Don Mattrick, president of interactive
entertainment at Microsoft during the lavishly produced announcement. "All
entertainment comes alive in one place."
the event, the company showcased some details about a significantly redesigned
Xbox architecture and operating system; major upgrades to its voice and gesture
control and a much more powerful cloud based Xbox Live offering for accessing a
wide variety of entertainment and content.
company also announced a major alliance with the NFL for exclusive content and
features for Xbox One that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said would allow fans
"to experience the games in a way that they never had before."
addition, Nancy Tellem, who was hired last year at president of the company's
Entertainment and Digital Media division, announced that they were working with
343 Industries and Steven Spielberg to create a TV series based on the popular
a video, Spielberg noted that gaming had opened up new ways of telling stories
and said that "the Halo universe is an amazing opportunity where tech and
mythmaking meet to produce something really exciting."
emphasis on improving the living room experience and TV comes at a time when
console gaming industry is facing increased competition from smart phones and
tablets. In recent years that has prompted Microsoft to place more emphasis on
the consoles use for accessing entertainment and video from their consoles.
part of that effort, the new box will allow users to easy switch between live
TV and games, web browsing, Skype phone calls and other activities.
also features much improved gesture and voice control and for the first time
will have a Blu Ray disc player.
announced that the console will be available later this year but provided no
details on an exact launch date, pricing or some key tech features, such as the
processor that the box will use.
The NFL agreement will include rights, sponsorship and technology partnerships.
Microsoft gets rights to create exclusive interactive experiences for such products as Xbox One and its tablet Surface.
These will include a new fantasy football offering that will allow fans to view players and live competition side by side on a single TV screen and a personalized NFL destination.
At the same time, the agreement gives NFL teams, coaches and players access to a variety of Microsoft technologies, including Surface tablets for communications, photo viewing and play calling.
"From the use of instant replay to the yellow first-down line that has become an important element of the at-home television viewing experience, the NFL is committed to leveraging technolog to improve our game for coaches, players and fans," said Goodell in a statement. "We're thrilled to be teaming with a true innovator like Microsoft to shape the future of the NFL game experience, both on-field and in the living room."
In terms of sponsorships "Surface by Microsoft" branding will also appear on NFL sidelines and the Xbox remains "The Official Game Console of the NFL." It will also become "The Official Interactive Video Entertainment Console."
In addition, Microsoft is "The Official Sideline Technology Sponsor of the NFL."
details are expected to be unveiled during the upcoming E3 gaming show.
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The Blues are yet to release their new kit for the 2023/24 season as final details are decided.
Final versions of Chelsea’s new home kit for the 2023/24 season have emerged online with one key detail yet to be decided. As the new campaign draws nearer, new player photoshoots are prepared for the summer and the pre-season tour of America starts to come up on the horizon, there is pressure to make an announcement and big reveal soon.
There have been many leaked images and versions of the kit for the new season over the past months but a final design now appears to be chosen as physical models are now being created and shown off. The kit isn’t ready to be advertised or made public just yet, though.
Without a new first-team sponsor there is no definitive design of the kit with the new logo on the front. Current sponsors, Three, have chosen not to extend their £40m ($49.6m) per season deal with the club, leaving a big decision yet to be made.
With the main company logo set to appear in the middle of the shirt, it is a big call still unannounced. Allianz is believed to be amongst the favorites but as of yet, nothing official has been said.
However, plans for the kit are now in the final stages and fresh images have emerged of the kit with Footy headlines posting a picture of the Nike jersey online. With white underarms, a white sleeve outline, and a white strip inside the collar and on the back of the neck, first glances pay homage to kits of the late 90s.
On further inspection, there are some key differences between the golden club badge and the Nike logo included, moving away from the standard color scheme and design of past kits. Usually, the guided look is saved for celebratory seasons, be it anniversaries or for winning a trophy.
Other online images have the kit with the Three logos included, showing more detail on how it would look in person. There are also videos of the kit being held up which show intricate texturing and patterns on the chest and back of the kit. It is not quite as wild as the 2021/22 kit with zig-zags, checkered spots, and swirls but it does give a funky, modern vibe to the top.
What now waits to be seen is when a new main sponsor announcement is made, who that is, how quickly the brand logo is fitted onto the shirts, and then how fans think that the design looks afterward.


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Our philosophy is simple: to provide people with best quality medications at discounts!
Gov. Gavin Newsom of California announced on Monday that he would withdraw nearly 400 of the states National Guard troops stationed at the border. This announcement follows a similar withdrawal of troops from Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico. Though the wealthy tend to be healthier and fill fewer prescriptions over all, theyre likelier to purchase medications for some serious diseases. Thailand on Monday freed a Bahraini athlete, Hakeem Al Araibi, who has refugee status in Australia, after Bahrain abandoned its bid to seek his extradition. Researchers from Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, say hundreds of studies may have involved data from people who received transplants from executed prisoners. Buy amoxil twins. Toy industry expert Jim Silver, CEO of TTPM talks about Mattel's new Barbies which will come in petite, amoxil tall and curvy and how they will impact falling barbie sales. Bobbi Rebell reports. Amoxil drug buy online.


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We hope our customers enjoy the upcoming version as well as the free calls to France
Sheffield, United Kingdom (PRWEB) July 01, 2013
Cheap international call provider, Localphone will soon be offering a French language option to benefit its French speaking customers. This is the third of many languages that will be added to the site, in order to help support its fast growing international audience (Localphone already offers a Spanish and English option).
Users who have their Internet browser set to French will see a pop up message asking whether they would like to view the French version of the website. They will be able to create an account, add credit and send SMS text messages in French. Users who don’t automatically see this message can click the language link in the footer or change it in their account settings.
Localphone.com hopes that the future update will encourage new customers to use the service, as well as making the website more accessible to its existing customers. To celebrate the upcoming version of the website Localphone is offering customers free calls to France landlines until 12pm (Noon) GMT on 5th of July. This offer is available to all customers old and new, whether they are calling from France or any other country in the world. Customers can talk for as long as they want, to as many numbers as they want and Localphone will not charge them.
Those who are not yet Localphone customers can still enjoy free calls to France. They simply need to sign up and create an account, add contacts and start calling. International calls can be made from an existing mobile phone, landline or computer.
CEO and founder of Localphone, Paul Cusack, commented, “We are delighted to be adding French to our website. We hope our customers enjoy the upcoming version as well as the free calls to France.”
Localphone is a leading provider of cheap international calls and was recently awarded Highly Commended for Best Consumer VoIP at the ITSPA 2013 Awards. Founded in Sheffield, United Kingdom in 2007 it has quickly grown to become one of the largest providers of cheap international calls and offers call rates that are up to 88% cheaper than the competition.
If you would like more information about this topic, or to schedule an interview, please call the press room at +44(0) 114 3190538 or email press(at)Localphone(dot)com.


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It may be a turn of the tide for shoppers who shy away from public toilets.
As more centres across the country compete for the best facilities, one in western Sydney has taken out Australia’s 2019 Best Bathroom Competition.
Westpoint Blacktown’s recently upgraded and quite dazzling dunnies are likely to see customers visit the loo in waves.
The luxe spaces feature hidden hand dryers, cascading greenery, and a parents’ room packed with play features.
For mothers who need to make a pit stop and feed their bubs, there are individual pods with interactive toys to keep older siblings entertained.
Andrew Lawson from Total Facilities, which runs the annual contest, said the centre’s bathrooms ticked all the boxes in terms of design, innovation, aesthetics and functionality.
He said the centre had taken standard facilities for shoppers to another exciting level with its warm, inviting and colourful setting.
“The family room was a standout aesthetically because when you go to different shopping centres and airports you are generally greeted with white walls and placid features — that alone can change the overall feel,” Mr Lawson said.
“In terms of functionality, there is also a dedicated space for people who need carers.”
Fitted with many mirrors, the spruced up toilets also have motion sensor taps, a mix of timber and terrazzo style pieces, downlights, and some mosaic murals designed to reflect images of the area’s history.
Not only does Westpoint win bragging rights, its refreshed restrooms will be on show and praised at the Total Facilities annual exhibition, being held in Darling Harbour next week.
The bustling multi-storey centre along Blacktown’s Patrick St is owned by Queensland Investment Corporation, which worked with i2C Architects on the latest design.
National interior design manager Magdalena Uscinowicz said the company wanted to give customers “something more”.
“As a result, the design team were able to push design boundaries and set benchmarks in the industry by proving the human experience can be enhanced in any space,” she said.
The 2019 runner up was Brisbane Entertainment Centre, nominated for its bright Pink Ladies loos which were opened by adored American singer, Pink, in 2009 after her sell out shows.


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Exclusive Artist Merch Drops for Spotify’s Capsule Collection
Peso Pluma, Daft Punk, Tyler, The Creator, ROSALÍA, and Tems will offer more than just their music to fans in the coming weeks.
Spotify, is venturing into the world of artist merchandise by collaborating with top-performing artists to create exclusive capsule collections.
They recently launched their first collection with Mexican artist Peso Pluma, featuring hoodies, T-shirts, jerseys, and bandanas inspired by Pluma’s recent works, celebrating Día de los Muertos.
The collection is available on Spotify’s webstore, with prices ranging from $20 USD to $120 USD. (APPX KSH 3 028 to KSH 18 168)
Following this, Spotify will release a new collection dedicated to Daft Punk, honoring the 10th anniversary of their acclaimed album, Random Access Memories this week, today, Tuesday.
This collection will include hoodies, T-shirts, and a crystal logo clock.
Spotify’s upcoming plans include creating collections for artists such as Tyler, the Creator, Tems, and Rosalía.


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This report is written by David Ristau - The Oxen Group. You can follow David on Seeking Alpha here and visit him on Phil's Stock World here.
Hello all. It is great to be back. Monday is always the toughest day for my style of trading because the market is starting fresh, and the trends and paths do not mean as much. That is why on Mondays it is sometimes better to look towards a week long play that we think has the potential to make an extended move in the upwards direction. With earnings still roaring along, we have a lot of good catalyst for week long moves, so let us get into it.
Long Play of the Week: JC Penney Co. (NYSE:JCP)
Analysis: Over the past few months, I have time and again looked at the retailers to make some great plays, and it has worked for us. Well if something isn’t broken, then don’t fix it. I am looking at JC Penney (JCP) this week for my long play of the week. JCP is the only company to report on Friday morning, but it should have a very solid week moving into those reports. The company is expected to report earnings at 0.24 EPS, but I will show you why a slew of news this week and past reports from JCP make me believe the company can have a great week and possibly exceed those earnings.
To begin, JCP is going to be benefitting from a large group of other retailers that are reporting this week. Before JCP reports, Kohl’s (NYSE:KSS), Macy’s (NYSE:M), Urban Outfitters (NASDAQ:URBN), and Nordstrom’s (NYSE:JWN) are all going to be reporting on Wednesday and Thursday. These companies will not only be able to attract attention to JCP, but they all should be in a position to report strong earnings. February and March were very good months of retail with most companies beating same store sales as a whole. Even a disappointing April from the retail sector, as a whole, did not seem to affect department stores too greatly, who saw increases anywhere from 1-8%. February and March showed that a strong holiday season was moving into the spring, and even with a slow down in April, I am pretty excited about the Q1 for the department stores. Department stores saw an average rise in April of 5.3%.
Often people talk about with retail a problem of market share, but the way investors work is that good news from competition and similar companies tends to drive up the price of another company not down. If KSS and M have fantastic earnings, JCP is going to decline? Absolutely not. While perhaps Friday won’t be as solid as expected if KSS and M stole their market share, it is doubtful that KSS and M’s positive earnings took all the JCP revenue and dispersed among themselves. It rather shows a trend in department stores’ ability to rebound.
Last week, JCP upped its Q1 earnings outlook after April same-store sales were released. The company estimates it will earn around 0.25 EPS, which is already better than estimates. The company said it saw its revenue, in Q1, rise 1.3% over last year in just same-store sales and revenue estimates were right in line with expectations. Further, JCP looks set to be a player over the next five years as it has lost some market share to speciality stores, a rising Kohls, and the economic hardships. The company is expecting a $5 billion increase in revenues over the next five years. I like a company that is looking to the future.
Finally, Goldman Sachs agrees with me. The company got an upgrade from GS back in April and was put on GS’ conviction buy list - a very special list of stocks that GS is pumping. The stock has decreased in price ever since, but it does not change the fact that GS sees something here too.
Goldman Sachs’ analyst Adrienne Shapira commented, "While March (sales in stores open at least one year) trends underperformed peers, momentum is building, with traffic posting a second month of gains — a sharp reversal from the second half of 2009’s declines. Today’s consumer spending recovery is lifting all department store boats; as such, we expect J.C. Penney, 2009’s laggard, to see a healthy snap back in 2010."
Technically, JCP is in a great position to run, as well. The stock has beaten and blundered throughout April and into early May, dropping almost 15% in the past month. The stock got a healthy boost today, but if it can keep this momentum going its gains could be astounding. The stock was below its lower bollinger band to start the day, heavily oversold, and RSI showed it at a very low strength level. That downward momentum is not sustainable and now is a great time to buy.
Get involved with JCP. We are looking for 4-6% on our entry price, which if we get we will sell then. If we have not reached it by Friday morning, then we will sell on Friday morning right at market open to get the bounce from earnings. Good luck!
Entry: We are looking to get involved at 29.10 - 29.20.
Exit: We are looking to gain 4-6% though Friday morning.


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With new games and features releasing over the summer months, users will be able to create and customize thousands of items, care for, feed and play with their pets, participate in daily activities and mini-games and share and trade with friends.
The new mobile-friendly platform offers a conveniently accessible play experience via a web browser on a smartphone or tablet.
Neopets will be represented by the Carlin West Agency under the JumpStart brand
Subscribe and receive the latest news from the industry.
Join 62,000+ members. Yes, it’s completely free.


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Leading designer and manufacturer of world-class cymbals SABIAN has announced its popular drumming app is now available for Android devices from the Google Play Store. Designed to educate and inspire drummers to play, the app features exclusive premium artist content − such as educational segments from Dom Famularo and Todd Sucherman. The app also allows drummers to play loops in six music genres while swapping between SABIAN cymbal models in real time, a great way to test-drive cymbals and sounds.
Other exclusive content includes backstage interviews with SABIAN artists and behind-the-scenes glimpses into photo and video shoots. The app will also allow users to view all SABIAN cymbal models by category or series, as well as artist profiles.
Available now from the Google Play Store. Also available for iPhone from the Apple App Store.
The latest in:
• product reviews
• artist interviews
• industry news


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By Frank Lewis
On Aug. 5, singer Cole Swindell will be delivering a unique live performance on “CMA Music Festival: Country’s Night to Rock”, a special filmed during this year’s sold out 2014 CMA Fest in Nashville, Tennessee in June. But you can see him before his TV performance, at the Pike County Fair on Wednesday, July 30. Swindell will be the week’s main attraction.
“Those who need tickets can call me and come up here to the extension office and pick them up,” Debbie Martin, who is in charge of advance sale tickets, said. “I’m usually here about three hours a day (9 a.m. to noon). Tickets are $10 apiece.”
The original plan was to sell only 300 tickets, but that has changed.
“We had to print out more,” Martin said. “We have such a high demand for them, we’re probably going to sell an extra 100. We’re getting a lot of people from Jackson, Adams and Scioto County. So those tickets are going pretty fast. People are usually buying six to 10 at a time.”
The Pike County Fairgrounds are located just off U.S. 23 in Piketon. Their phone number is 740-289-4689 and the fair runs July 25 through Aug. 2.
Goble said the Pike County Fair is great fun for the entire family.
Frank Lewis can be reached at 740-353-3101, Ext. 1928, or on Twitter @FrankLewispdt.


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With COVID-19 cases rising again across the nation, especially among racial and ethnic minority and American Indian and Alaska Native communities, this year’s family holiday gatherings are going to look a lot different than usual. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) urges all Americans to stay home and celebrate with the people you live with.
To spread awareness, the HHS Office of Minority Health (OMH) is promoting a very important and simple task for communities across the country #HolidayAskWearAMask. By wearing a mask, watching your distance, and washing your hands frequently, together, we can make the holidays safer for everyone.
Communities can also help lower the risk of spreading COVID-19 during the holidays through personal prevention practices recommended by the CDC. This includes wearing a mask, staying at least 6 feet apart, staying home when sick, handwashing, disinfecting frequently touched surfaces, and postponing travel.
If you are thinking about hosting a gathering, please consider the three levels of risks:
- Lower risk activities:
- Having a small dinner with people you live with, having a virtual dinner, shopping online, etc.
- Moderate risk activities:
- Having a small outdoor dinner with family and friends in your community, attending a small outdoor sports event with safety precautions in place, etc.
- Higher risk activities:
- Attending large gatherings with people outside of your household, in-person shopping, attending crowded events, traveling, etc.
Travel may increase your chance of getting and spreading COVID-19. Postponing travel and staying home is the best way to protect yourself and others this year.
Remember, we all have a role to play in preventing the spread of COVID-19. Follow the 3 Ws to protect yourself and those around you. Wash your hands. Wear a face mask. Watch your distance.
For more information, see the CDC's Considerations for Holiday Celebrations and Small Gatherings to help you and your loved ones stay safe during the COVID-19 pandemic. And don’t forget as a #HolidayAskWearAMask!


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Kambi lands sportsbook deal for Moldovan National Lottery
Bulgaria-based gambling operator National Lottery JSC has selected Kambi to support the launch of a new online and retail sportsbook service with the Moldovan National Lottery.
Sports betting is currently prohibited in Moldova, but the country passed new laws in 2016 to regulate the activity under a monopoly framework. National Lottery JSC recently landed the contract after a successful tender process.
National Lottery JSC agreed to run both its national lottery product and a brand new online and retail sportsbook for the Moldovan National Lottery, as part of a public-private partnership that will run for 15 years.
Kambi already provides its sportsbook and managed services to the National Lottery JSC’s 7777.bg brand in Bulgaria and will now extend this service into the Moldovan market.
National Lottery JSC and Kambi plan to roll out the online sportsbook within the next few months, with the retail service to follow shortly after.
“When replacing our previous sports betting supplier with Kambi, we did so with the goal of becoming a market leader in Bulgaria, a position we’ve achieved well ahead of time,” National Lottery JSC managing partner Milen Ganev said.
“This triumph, coupled with Kambi’s scalable technology, gives us the freedom to expand into new markets, beginning with Moldova and the Moldovan National Lottery monopoly later this year. We therefore decided to extend our contract with Kambi, enabling us to enter the next chapter of our exciting growth story with confidence.”
Kambi CEO Kristian Nylén added: “For the 7777.bg brand to be among the market leaders in Bulgaria within 18 months of partnership is testament to the quality of the Kambi sportsbook, as well as the National Lottery’s marketing expertise.
“I’m delighted we’ve agreed to take the partnership to Moldova, where I’m confident players will enjoy our exciting sports betting experiences in both the online and retail environments.”
The new deal between Kambi and National Lottery JSC replaces the initial partnership that the two parties agreed in July 2017.
Image: Aurelian Sandulescu


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LOS ANGELES (CBS.MW) -- Siebel Systems' push into the market for small-business software met with cautious reaction Wednesday from Wall Street analysts.
On Tuesday, the San Mateo, Calif.-based company SEBL, which sells software to automate functions like sales and customer service, outlined its plans to target smaller companies that have yearly revenue of $500 million or less.
Siebel said it hired 70 salespeople dedicated to the effort and would offer its products to smaller customers through a variety of methods.
The company hopes to reignite its growth by capitalizing on sales to the segment, which it believes is vastly underserved. Smaller companies' budgets are often more limited and they have less technical staff than their larger brethren.
But while analysts agreed the market could offer opportunities for new sales, they said Siebel likely faces challenges in executing on its strategy.
"We think this announcement is a good first start, but the devil is always in the details in terms of execution and this time should be no different," Merrill Lynch analyst Jason Maynard said. He maintained a "neutral" rating on the stock.
Siebel plans to essentially offer customers the ability to purchase its products through almost any distribution channel or product delivery method, which Maynard said could potentially create a "very complex and hard to manage distribution strategy."
"It is really hard to find fault with that approach as it does put the customer's best interest at heart," he said. "However, we are somewhat worried that being so flexible will actually create execution challenges."
Siebel's bid to win over smaller customers comes as it struggles to fend off competition from large players like Germany's SAP AG
At Goldman Sachs, analyst Rick Sherlund said the step is an important one overall for the company, "but not a unique strategy and [it's] not obvious how distinguished the company may be in the segment of the market."
Deals in the segment tend to be smaller and the revenue is often shared with distribution partners, Sherlund noted. Offsetting that, however, sales cycles could be shorter and partners could help make selling into the segment more productive, he said.
"Overall, a positive directional step, but we are not counting these chickens before the eggs are hatched," Sherlund added.
He rates Siebel's stock "in-line."
Garban Institutional Equities analyst Richard Williams was less forgiving, slashing his rating on the stock to an outright "sell" from a previous "neutral" after Siebel unveiled the strategic move.
He also lowered his target price on the stock to $7 from $10 previously.
"This is not the first time Siebel has made a claim to the [small-to-medium business] space via partnership development," Williams said. "It failed to make substantial efforts to develop these partnerships last time and will be challenged with a skeptical reseller community."
"We see this as a 'bet-the-company' approach based on a strategy that failed to work last time," the Garban analyst asserted.
Siebel seems to be using the same approach with the small and medium-size business segment that it adopted with the high end of the market, "one that has failed with increasing frequency as customers migrate towards" software that's distributed via the Internet, Williams said.
The company's stock fell in Wednesday's session to lose 25 cents, or nearly 2.5 percent, to $10.01.


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SOURCE Galleries HQ
SEATTLE, Oct. 29, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Galleries HQ, which helps visual artists and galleries showcase their creations to the world, today launched a new Kickstarter campaign to extend its platform to iPhone.
Currently for iPad, Galleries HQ is an emerging mobile platform optimized for artists to promote their work. The Kickstarter campaign will help expand Galleries HQ's reach to millions of potential iPhone users globally.
"Mobile devices are a great way to reach an increasing number of people interested in art," said Wayne Bishop, an art enthusiast and traveler who co-founded the project with his wife Karen three years ago. "The rate of people acquiring devices has now outpaced PCs, and desktop purchases are on the decline. As a result, we want to promote artists through tools consumers use the most."
Many artists, the Bishops said, have stories to tell, but have no tools to reach groups beyond Facebook and a personal website. Galleries HQ is working to rethink how the arts community can benefit from the power and ubiquity of devices like iPhone. This includes discovering new artists, finding upcoming exhibits, and in the future, managing transactions like artwork and ticket sales.
To meet its Kickstarter fundraising goal, Galleries HQ has organized its campaign to match potential sponsors with artists. Any individual, business or organization can become a sponsor. With its iPad app launched in 2012, Galleries HQ currently promotes works from more than 80 artists in a dozen countries.
To view an image of the iPhone app, go here: www.gallerieshq.com/s/kickstarter_theme.png
About Galleries HQ:
Seattle-based entrepreneur Wayne Bishop created Galleries HQ because the application of innovative technology is lacking in the arts. He and wife Karen Bishop founded Galleries HQ in 2010 to promote fine art worldwide through mobile technology. Being avid art enthusiasts and technologists, the Bishops began thinking how they could use these technologies to promote the arts. To date, this husband-and-wife team has self-funded these efforts. Now they need help from others to continue to bring their service to a larger audience of artists and art lovers.
Read more news from Galleries HQ.
©2012 PR Newswire. All Rights Reserved.


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Maine, which in 2021 became one of the first U.S. states to pass extended producer responsibility legislation
for packaging, has started writing detailed EPR regulations to move toward its goal of boosting recycling
and changing how it manages its packaging waste.
The state's Department of Environmental Protection held a hearing
Dec. 8 to discuss potential exemptions to the new EPR regulations, specifically for federally regulated products like medicines.
One of the chief authors of the legislation, state Sen. Nicole Grohoski, D-Ellsworth, argued against including more exemptions in the regulatory process, saying that the EPR bill already included specific exemptions.
The policy is designed to provide relief for taxpayers and municipalities, she said.
"I can also say as the primary sponsor of this legislation, with confidence, that the bill was drafted with the explicit intention of including all packaging material that is managed by Maine's municipalities, except for material that we explicitly exempted ourselves from small producers or that are ones that are managed through our other successful programs," Grohoski said.
"I do not support exempting federally regulated product packaging in the EPR program," she said. "I believe it would be more appropriate to acknowledge any packaging related design limitations … through change or reduction in fees through the fee structure."
Grohoski said granting many exemptions would run counter to the goals of producer responsibility, and she said exemptions could also create administrative complications.
She also urged DEP officials to not let exemptions delay implementation of the law.
The Natural Resources Council of Maine also urged the DEP to craft a fair program.
"We urge the department to consider defining criteria to be used in determining whether an exemption is appropriate under an EPR law as part of the routine technical rulemaking process," Sarah Nichols, the council's sustainable Maine director.
But other speakers said that some states that have passed EPR laws have exempted packaging for medical products and packaging regulated under federal laws governing insecticides and serums.
"The regulation of human drugs, devices, biologics and products, that should receive an exemption," said Ginny Sessions Siller, director of government affairs at the Animal Health Institute in Washington. "In order to treat animal medicines in an analogous manner, exemption should include products for animals regulated under the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic act, the Virus Serums Toxin Act, and the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act."
A lobbyist for the packaging trade group Ameripen told state officials that clarity is needed on what perishable food could mean on the exemption list.
"But materials that may contaminate the stream [for recycled content], should not be recycled and put into a stream that might come in contact with food," said Ameripen lobbyist Andrew Hackman. "I think that's a consideration that's going to have to be balanced because those materials, say pesticides, could not go into recycled content stream."
Other exemptions were questioned.
Thomas Pizzuto, the founder of DecomRX Corp., which designs systems to recycle pharmaceutical containers using information on the bottles, said the high density polyethylene containers used for drug packaging should be recycled and reused.
"EPA recently developed guidelines regarding empty pharmaceutical containers and determine that any residue is nominal and is not considered hazardous," Pizzuto said. "Recycling HDPE has benefits. Studies have shown it is more cost effective to produce from recycled HDPE than it is to manufacture virgin HDPE plastic. One kilogram of HDPE requires 1.75 kilograms of oil to manufacture."
The DEP will submit its draft EPR rules to the state's Board of Environmental Protection, a seven-member body appointed by the governor and confirmed by the legislature, by the end of the year.


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Statement by Yoshimitsu Kobayashi, Chairman of Keizai Doyukai
On"Shunto" Spring Wage Negotiations 2017
March 15, 2017
Chairman, Keizai Doyukai
- Most Japanese companies have settled the labor-management wage negotiations today for Shunto 2017. We welcome the pay scale hike led by major companies for four consecutive years despite the drastically changing business management environment with a return to protectionism in Western countries, an unclear course of the US-Japan trade negotiations, uncertainties in currency movement, and unstable East Asian developments, just to name a few. We hope Shunto 2017 will drive the favorable trend to be disseminated to the local economies, small and medium-sized enterprises, non-manufacturing industries, and others.
- Corporate executives must stand firm to continue addressing the best use of diverse human powers and "Work Style Reform" that drives productivity innovation for higher corporate competitiveness and Japan's sustainable economic growth. Meanwhile, in order to stimulate consumer spending for economic boost, we believe there is a pressing need for the government to eliminate the public concerns for the future through the establishment of the sustainable tax/social security system.


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Report: T-Mobile to Offer Upgraded Samsung Vibrant 4G
Pictures of what look to be leaked press promotional materials of a new Samsung Android-based smartphone have been circulating the web this morning. If they’re...
Samsung Ships One Million Galaxy S Phones in 45 Days
Samsung’s bet on Android seems to have paid off big for the company. Samsung has shipped more than one million Galaxy S phones in the...
Review: Samsung Vibrant
Looks like an iPhone, smells like an iPhone, tastes like an iPhone. But brother, this ain't no iPhone.
Bloatware Creeps Into Android Phones
Android-based smartphones are falling victim to something that has plagued PC users for years: bloatware. Android phones are being pre-loaded with trial software and apps...
First Look: Samsung Vibrant Rips Off iPhone 3G Design
Updated at 12.30 EST to change the release date of the phone Samsung’s latest phone, the Vibrant, has the body of an iPhone and the...


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The death of Pear OS
The developer of Pear OS has posted on Google+ that the Mac-like Linux distribution has been sold to another company and can no longer be downloaded.
Pear OS is no longer available for download.
Its future is now in hands of a company who wants to remain anonymous for the moment. The concept has pleased them it and now wants to continue and improve the system for their own products. I can not give a name but it is a very large company well known ...More at Google+Hat Tip: Softpedia
I did a review of Pear OS 8 a while back for Desktop Linux Reviews. If you're a fan of Apple's products then you would have loved Pear OS since it was as close as we'll ever get to seeing a Linux distribution released by Apple.
The issue of who is behind the death of Pear OS is quite intriguing. The developer mentions that it was bought by another company but doesn't say who nor does he give specific reasons on why they purchased it.
When I did my review of Pear OS 8, I wondered if Apple would ever go after the developer for trademark violations since it closely resembles some of Apple's products. Apple is not known for being tolerant if they think their intellectual property rights have been violated.
Was Apple involved in any way with the death of Pear OS? The conspiracy-minded among us probably think that might be a real possibility, particularly if Apple acted behind the scenes via a shell company. Apple has been known to do just that in years past when it wanted to negotiate for something without having its real identity known.
But I doubt this very much since Pear OS didn't seem to have anything Apple would actually need. If Apple was going to deal with Pear OS it most likely would have gone through its lawyers instead of acting through clever subterfuge by posing as another company.
So the question remains: Who killed Pear OS? For now we simply don't know, it remains a mystery. But hopefully the company responsible will soon step out of the shadows and make its intentions known. Is Pear OS really dead forever or will it be reborn in a new form? We'll just have to wait and see.
What's your take on the death of Pear OS? Do you know who killed it? Share your thoughts in the comments below. It will be very interesting to see if readers have any viable theories about who is behind this shocking termination of a very unique Linux distribution.
Linux beats Windows and OS X in UK security tests
TechRepublic is reporting that tests by the UK government demonstrate that Linux is tops when it comes to security.
It never ceases to amaze me the amount of reports and claims of Windows superior security, when real-world results point to quite the opposite. And now, thanks to the UK government, there is official proof that Linux (specifically Ubuntu 12.04) is the best choice in a world where security should be priority number one.
The results of this test couldn't have come at a more poignant time. With Windows XP about to be put to rest, there will be a seemingly endless needs for businesses around the globe to replace those aging desktops. With all of the choices available to them, there is now one that stands well above the rest. That choice is Linux.More at TechRepublic
Kudos to the UK government for running these tests and confirming the value of Linux when it comes to security issues. Hopefully companies and individuals still using the ancient Windows XP will migrate to Linux instead of a newer version of Windows or OS X.
Linux has so much going for it now that it's hard to believe that anybody would choose another operating system if security matters to them.
QupZilla browser review
DistroWatch has an interesting review of the QupZilla browser.
For me, using QupZilla has been a bit like discovering Firefox 1.0, back when Firefox was focused on being light and fast and was ideal for people who just wanted to browse the web without plug-ins or niche features. QupZilla feels like that, fast, flexible and focused -- good at doing one thing. It has been a breath of fresh air and has made my web browsing a more enjoyable experience. Not many people seem to be talking about this web browser and I believe it deserves more attention than it gets.More at DistroWatch
QupZilla looks like a great little browser, and I'm sure the extensions issue will eventually be solved. Check it out if you're looking for an alternative to the better known browsers that are available.
I was surprised to note that Opera is no longer releasing updates for FreeBSD and Linux. That seems quite out of character and can't help but drive users to other browsers.
What's your take on all this? Tell me in the comments below.


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NEW YORK (AP) — Worries about the fate of Research In Motion Ltd. weighed on shares in premarket trading Wednesday, a day after the BlackBerry maker warned of another quarterly loss and said it was hiring bankers to help it decide what to do with the company.
The stock was down $1.15, or 10 percent, at $10.08 in U.S. trading before the open. The shares haven’t been that low in regular trading since 2003, when RIM launched its first smartphones. Shares are down 23 percent this year and have lost nearly 75 percent of their value over the past 12 months.
Late Tuesday, the Canadian company said it was losing money for the second consecutive quarter and will lay off a “significant” number of employees. RIM’s sales are sliding as BlackBerrys fall out of fashion, yielding to iPhones and Android phones.
RIM has hired bankers to help it weigh its options, which include partnering with other companies, licensing software and overhauling its business.
The Waterloo, Ontario company‘s troubles are well known, but Scott Sutherland, an analyst at Wedbush Morgan, said the update pointed to RIM’s business deteriorating faster than he expected. He cut his price target on the shares by $2 to $9.50.
And some analysts think RIM may not have an easy time finding a solution to its problems through a sale of the company, an option CEO Thorsten Heins did not rule out after RIM’s last earnings report in March.
In a research note entitled “Sliding into the Abyss,” analyst Stuart Jeffrey of Nomura Securities said other technology companies seem to have shown little interest in buying RIM. Financially motivated buyers, like private equity firms, might show interest once the stock drops below $6, he said. Even with collapsing phone sales, RIM makes money from delivering email to BlackBerry phones that are in use.R Soft Web Hosting


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We’ll have no shouting here…
Despite life returning to a semblance of normality around these parts over recent months, the sighting of 2020-registered cars remain something of a novelty. Of course cars have been registered – some having even been sold – but in a country where new car sales had already been in state of contraction before the pandemic swept all before it, the current situation facing the Irish retail sales trade must be sobering indeed.
One of the more superficial downsides to this is that sightings of new models, while normally a relatively frequent prospect, have been sporadic at best. Amongst the more recent arrivals to these shores is Opel’s current generation Corsa (none of your Vauxhalls in these parts), but to be honest, and in contrast to the (closely-related) Peugeot 208 which preceded it to market, it has been a comparatively rare sight.
During my twice-daily dog walking duties I Continue reading “2020 Vision.”


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The compact ventilation system for PPE kits will help frontline healthcare workers
Mumbai’s Nihaal Singh Adarsh has invented Cov-Tech, a compact ventilation system for PPE kits. A second-year student of KJ Somaiya College of Engineering explained the experiential difference Cov-Tech makes to the Corona Warrior wearing the PPE and said, “Cov-Tech ventilation system is like you are sitting under the fan even while you are inside the PPE suit. It takes the surrounding air, filters it and pushes it into the PPE suit. Normally, due to lack of ventilation, it is hot and humid within the PPE suit; our solution offers a way out of this uncomfortable experience, by creating a steady air flow inside.”
The design of the ventilation system ensures a complete air seal from the PPE kit. It provides a breeze of fresh air to the user in a gap of just 100 seconds.
Adarsh participated in a design challenge for COVID-related equipment, organised by Technological Business Incubator, Research Innovation Incubation Design Laboratory. The design challenge led Adarsh to work on the prototype. With guidance from Dr Ulhas Kharul of National Chemical Laboratory, Pune, Adarsh was able to develop the first model in 20 days.
Dr Ulhas runs a start-up that researches a membrane to filter air, to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Adarsh got the idea about what type of filter he should use, to achieve an optimum balance between filtration efficiency and airflow quality.
Adarsh got support from Somaiya Vidyavihar University’s RIIDL (Research Innovation Incubation Design Laboratory), supported by the National Science & Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB), under the Department of Science & Technology, Government of India.
After more than six months of hard work, the initial prototype emerged. It was neck-mounted, sucking in air through U-shaped air inlets, and had pillow-like structures which could be worn around the neck.
Nihaal gave it to Dr Vinayak Mane of Pune for testing. “We wanted this prototype to be tested by some unbiased doctors and hence approached Dr Vinayak Mane. He pointed out that wearing it around the neck will be a big discomfort for doctors and healthcare workers, due to the constant sound and vibration the device emitted. So, we discarded the prototype and started working on further designs.”
This aspiration for perfection led to the development of around 20 developmental prototypes and 11 ergonomic prototypes till the final product emerged. For this, he got help from Gaurang Shetty, Chief Innovation Catalyst at RIIDL and CEO, Dassault Systems, Pune. The state-of-the-art prototyping facility at Dassault Systems helped Nihaal develop prototypes effectively and at ease.
The product can be worn around the waist, just like a belt. It can be attached with the conventional PPE kits. This design serves two purposes It keeps the health workers well-ventilated while preventing bodily discomfort and keeps them safe from various fungal infections.
Since the ventilator is worn close to the body, high-quality components have been used and safety protection measures have also been taken care of, informs Adarsh. “When I told my mom that I am going to file a patent for this product, she was very happy. Being a General Physician, my mother uses it whenever she goes out for work.” The system comes with a lithium-ion battery which lasts for six to eight hours.
The Cov-Tech Ventilation System became a reality, thanks to a Rs 10,00,000- grant for prototype development and product innovation, which Adarsh received from NIDHI’s PRomoting and Accelerating Young and ASpiring technology entrepreneurs (PRAYAS), of the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India.
The budding entrepreneur had created a start-up called Watt Technovations, under the umbrella of which the ventilation system was developed. Besides the PRAYAS grant, the startup also received the support of Rs 5,00,000, from New Venture Investment Programme, conducted jointly by RIIDL and KJ Somaiya Institute of Management.
Ritwik Marathe, a second-year student of Design Engineering and his batchmate Sayli Bhavasar also helped Adarsh in this project.
The final product is being used in Sai Sneh hospital, Pune and Lotus multi-speciality hospital, Pune. The company plans to scale up its production in May / June 2021. The product costs Rs 5,499 per piece and is way cheaper than the competitive products which cost around one lakh rupees apiece. The team is trying to further reduce the price.
The first batch of the product is already out, with around 30-40 units which will be delivered as trial units to doctors/NGOs across the country. The next batch of around 100 units is also under production.


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Blackberry to provide transaction services platform
Waterloo-- BlackBerry Limited has a three-year agreement with EnStream LP, a mobile payments joint venture owned by Canadian wireless carriers Bell, Rogers, and TELUS, to provide a secure platform that supports transaction services between leading banks and consumers. Under the agreement, EnStream will leverage BlackBerry’s infrastructure to enable financial institutions, including Royal Bank of Canada, TD Bank Group, CIBC, and Desjardins, and mobile operators to securely provision sensitive payment card credentials into any smartphone capable of NFC (near field communication).
Today the mobile payments space is primed for growth. The total value of transactions using mobile technology is expected to grow from $35 billion in 2012 to $173 billion in 2017, at a compound annual growth rate of 31 per cent. This projection includes merchandise purchases, ticketing, and bill payments, while it excludes person-to-person payments and airtime top-ups.
Through supporting mobile payments BlackBerry intends to provide unique services that help enterprise customers deploy secure mobile solutions that help promote productivity among their workforce and drive new revenue streams. Working with EnStream is part of BlackBerry’s strategy to extend its core enterprise mobility technologies in new and emerging industries.
In order to provide the platform for EnStream, BlackBerry needed to protect the sensitive data associated with financial transactions and meet the stringent requirements of the payment industry. This included complying with regulations and earning PCI, Visa and MasterCard certification.
“Canada is a leading global region in the adoption of technology and mobile payments, making it a key market for MasterCard innovation,” says Nicolas Dinh, vice-president of emerging payments, MasterCard. “Safe and secure digital transactions are the backbone of our network and mobile payment ecosystem, and BlackBerry’s involvement in the payment chain will help build trust in Canada and abroad.”


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PRNewswire -- EarthLink, Inc. (NASDAQ:ELNK) , one of the nation's leading Internet service providers, today filed at the Federal Communications Commission a Petition to Condition or Deny the proposed merger of Comcast Corporation and NBC Universal. (See http://www.earthlink.net/go/merger for EarthLink's Petition.)
EarthLink believes the transaction would result in Comcast engaging in a range of anti-competitive actions that will reduce consumer choice, restrict content diversity, and interfere with Internet competition. To remedy these harms, EarthLink proposed the FCC adopt a condition requiring Comcast to offer wholesale standalone broadband access to independent Internet service providers. EarthLink's successful and long-standing wholesale relationship with Time Warner Cable demonstrates that merger conditions implementing competitive broadband access can enhance consumer choice and create commercial benefits for all parties.
"The access condition that EarthLink proposes today for the Comcast-NBCU merger will be a win for consumers and a win for online competition," said EarthLink Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Rolla Huff. "The condition essentially enables Comcast customers to 'break the bundle' and purchase only the services they need or want. We look forward to working with the FCC and the U.S. Department of Justice to ensure the transaction results in greater consumer choice and competition."
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