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PHARAON project bets on parallel processors to reduce energy consumption
April 11, 2012 // Julien Happich
Thales and its partners have been granted 3.7 million euros to pursue the PHARAON project (Parallel and Heterogeneous Architecture for Real-time ApplicatiONs).
Funded by the European Commission under the FP7 framework programme, it focuses on the use of parallel architectures to increase the performance of embedded electronic systems while significantly reducing the amount of electricity they use.
Electronic systems are an integral part of our lives today. According to a recent study by the International Energy Agency (IEA), we use between 20 and 30 different electronic systems every day, from smartphones to the embedded systems in our cars and GPS, tablet computers and other devices. The IEA estimates that the combined electricity consumption of these systems amounted to 800 TWh in 2011 and expects this figure to double by 2030. Reducing the amount of electricity they use has therefore become a priority, not only to increase their time between charges, but also to limit their environmental impact.
This constant quest for energy efficiency calls for new and innovative technologies. One of the avenues that the European Commission is particularly keen to investigate is multicore processors (as opposed to conventional single-core processors), which is the subject of the PHARAON project.
Multicore systems offer a number of specific advantages:
- They can perform multiple tasks at the same time, so cores with a lower clock rate can be used.
- As activity levels are reduced, cores run at lower speeds.
- Each core can be specialised for a different type of application.
- The system is thus able to adapt to the user's specific requirements, and less energy is wasted as a result.
But systems based on parallel architectures, i.e. with multiple cores, are complex, which in turn means they take longer and cost more money to design and develop. To make this technology more accessible and less expensive, the European Commission has launched the PHARAON project.All news
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California's exporters enjoyed a big month in June, posting impressive gains compared to the same month a year earlier, according to an analysis by Beacon Economics of foreign trade data released Thursday by the U.S. Commerce Department.
The gains came in spite of the fact that the value of the U.S. dollar rose in comparison to other world currencies, making U.S. goods more expensive overseas, the report said. The strong showing also came even as many customers of U.S. goods were in the throes of weak economic recoveries.
“With the health of most foreign markets in doubt, June's numbers continue to demonstrate the resilience of California's export industries, especially in our high-tech manufacturing sector,” said Jock O’Connell, Beacon Economics' international trade advisor.
The value of goods shipped abroad by California businesses in June was $15.18 billion, up 9.7% over the $13.83 billion in June 2011. By comparison, overall U.S. merchandise exports were up by 8.0% over the same period.

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Volvo may delay restyled models for the sake of economyApril 26, 2020
Volvo will be forced to revise its development strategy, postponing indefinitely restyling current models and creating new products.
Coronavirus has led to serious problems with automakers. Automakers had to shut down enterprises to prevent the spread of infection; in particular, dealerships were closed. In addition, huge financial losses forced automakers to change plans for the future.
According to Automotive News Europe, on Saturday, April 25, Volvo may postpone restyled cars to save money. According to the head of the Swedish brand, Hokan Samuelsson, now the company can reduce its own costs in two ways.
The Swedish brand will be forced to make a decision regarding the postponement of the planned updates and revisions of research and development projects, which currently number a couple of thousand.
At the same time, only those projects that the company’s management considers secondary will be postponed. But even in such unstable times, the automaker will continue to develop the direction of electric cars, autopilots and innovative technologies.
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InStyle magazine in the UK has shut its doors to its print product, taking the brand to digital only, according to reports from The Guardian.
The UK edition of the fashion rag celebrate its 15th anniversary this year, with its circulation dropping by almost 18 per cent in the first six months of 2016 to 121,000 copies per month.
While Time Inc revealed it was closing the magazine, it would not comment on how many staff would be shown the door as it is still in consultations with staff.
B&T contacted Pacific Magazine, the operator of the InStyle Australia edition, for comment on whether this affects the Australian product.
UPDATE: General Manager, Fashion, Health and Beauty, Jackie Frank told B&T, “Pacific is absolutely committed to owning the fashion and beauty category.
“With 44 per cent market share in the fashion category, InStyle Australia is a key part of that strategy and our ongoing dominance.
“InStyle is performing incredibly well across all platforms. Under the new editorship of Emily Taylor, the brand has recently undergone a stunning redesign which has been embraced by readers and advertisers alike.
“In print, the October issue of InStyle Australia, starring Jennifer Lopez on the cover, far exceeded our expectations and recorded the brand’s highest sale of the past two years. InStyle Australia’s online and social audience continues to be highly engaged, with the brand’s total consumer touch points now reaching 1.3million.
“These results are a testament to the incredible work and dedication of the entire InStyle Australia team, who will continue to take the brand from strength to strength.”
Time Inc described its move to digital only a “bold shift”, per The Guardian reports.
“What we have achieved with InStyle over the last few years has been hugely rewarding and the team has, rightly, won numerous awards and nominations for their work across print and digital,” said editor Charlotte Moore.
“But the fashion world is changing dramatically, the way our audience interacts with it is changing and we have to change to meet that challenge. With a focus on delivering the InStyle experience across all digital platforms, we can really give our audience 24-hour access to all the fashion and beauty looks, trends and brands they clearly have such a huge appetite for.”
According to ComScore data, InStyle’s total monthly traffic is more than 10 million uniques, with reports suggesting that the publishers intend to take that figures and double it throughout 2017, with a little help from its US counterpart in the content department.
Per The Guardian, Time Inc’s UK managing director for fashion and beauty Justine Southall added, “This new focus for InStyle means we can propel it to a leading position in the UK digital fashion space.
“InStyle’s authority combined with this significantly boosted content offering will make it a compelling destination for consumers and a very attractive proposition for our advertising partners.”
The Australian edition of InStyle reported a monthly circulation figure of 45,390 in the six months to June 2016, per AMAA results, which was a drop of 3.8 per cent year-on-year.
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Exploiting embedded vision at EMVA meeting
Greg Blackman reports on the discussion around embedded vision at the European Machine Vision Association’s business conference in Copenhagen, Denmark in mid-May
The new wave of embedded processing boards is likely to benefit everyone in the machine vision industry, was the opinion of leaders at the European Machine Vision Association’s business conference, but traditional industrial inspection will not be early adopters.
A panel of machine vision experts at the conference in Copenhagen discussed the topic of embedded vision and how it could impact the industrial vision sector. The event took place from 16 to 18 May; the EMVA alongside Messe Stuttgart will also hold an embedded vision conference in Stuttgart later in the year, from 24 to 25 October.
Embedded vision in its current form applies generally to compute boards connected to off-the-shelf sensors to create imaging sub-systems.
‘The thing that embedded vision is really bringing is an economic shift for what is feasible and at what price,’ commented Arwyn Roberts, CTO of UK machine builder Surface Inspection.
‘Embedded vision is just a new paradigm of architecture for machine vision or computer vision technologies,’ he said. ‘The application is the same for us; just, for us, the selection of components is changing. We might architect our machines in different ways using the best available technology at the best available prices.’
He went on to say that traditional machine vision companies are not going to be early adopters of this technology. ‘We are conservative, we need to be,’ he said. ‘My customers expect to be able to get service on a machine they bought 15 years ago.’
Most of the work on embedded vision is from outside traditional machine vision, from areas like autonomous driving, which is a much larger market than factory automation. The machine vision industry stands to gain from all this development work, as it has with technology like image sensors that has seen huge investment from mobile phone manufacturers.
The question therefore is how does the machine vision sector exploit these new embedded computing platforms?
The other concern raised during the discussion was whether large firms like Intel or Amazon would take market share in industrial imaging. It was stated that machine vision is too small a market for these companies to target directly, but an audience member, who had attended the Intel partner event in April in Dublin, said that Intel named Internet of Things as an area it expects to grow by around 10 per cent over the next three years, and that 10 per cent of Intel is a $20 billion gain.
‘The message was: we [Intel] want to grow by $20 billion; you, partners, can grow by $60 billion,’ it was reported during the discussion. ‘I don’t know how to judge it,’ he said. ‘I don’t know how much [is] bullshit, but maybe we should be aware of the bullshit.’
Intel’s interest in Internet of Things is in providing edge computing platforms, the sort of devices a vision sensor could be connected to.
Mark Williamson, director of corporate marketing at Stemmer Imaging, remarked that Intel had taken a licence on GenICam, the generic interface for cameras standard. Stemmer Imaging sells Intel’s RealSense 3D camera, along with Framos, for which Stemmer has written a GenICam driver. ‘Intel were very interested [in the driver],’ Williamson said. ‘They [Intel] wanted to partner with us [Stemmer]; they’ve now licenced GenICam – what’s going to happen?’
While keeping in mind the impressive sales figures that Intel commands, the general consensus is that the smaller machine vision market will largely benefit from embedded components. ‘In the traditional machine vision market, there are benefits if the pricing is right and the volumes and the drivers and the software,’ Williamson commented. ‘It’s a win-win.’
Colin Pearce, CEO of Active Silicon, added that, while there will be more applications of vision technology, embedded vision can also be disruptive, potentially for frame grabber and cabling manufacturers. Half of Active Silicon’s revenue is from frame grabbers, the other half from embedded systems. One of its customers, Pearce said, has changed its traditional plate glass inspection machine from racks of line scan cameras with Camera Link interfaces to a system of intelligent cameras connected via Ethernet. He said that a lot of Active Silicon’s investment is now on the embedded system side of the business.
‘High-end [systems] will survive,’ commented Dr Olaf Munkelt, managing director of MVTec Software. ‘There are many high-end applications that will need frame grabbers. The change is that, what was considered high-end 10 years ago can be engineered with embedded vision in two or three years.’
Embedded vision also opens up new applications outside of traditional machine vision, which Dr Andreas Franz, CEO of Framos, said it’s worth looking at. Framos launched a range of embedded sensor modules and processing board adapters at the 2018 Vision show in Stuttgart.
Returning to the question of how machine vision can exploit embedded processing technologies, Roberts of Surface Inspection noted that machine vision has benefited in the past from Moore’s law. ‘We need to choose the technologies to standardise for the applications that work in this industry,’ he said. ‘They won’t all survive. Certain things like USB 3 or Arm or Nvidia GPUs, they are presenting enough longevity and enough added-value to be worth migrating into our standard toolkits.’
Stemmer Imaging has written a GenICam driver for Intel's RealSense 3D camera
Williamson added: ‘You’ve got all these different boards coming out; one of the big challenges is device drivers and software to get these cameras to work. They have to be very specific to each board which means there’s a lot of development work needed. Maybe one day we’ll have GenICam for embedded vision which means they will be plug-and-play. But, I think we’re quite a way before it’s a plug-and-play environment.’
There was a presentation during the business conference about processors for intelligent vision devices from Dr Ren Wu, the founder of NovuMind, which makes computer chips designed to run artificial intelligence algorithms.
The firm has been working with NCS in Singapore to deploy its chip inside NCS security cameras for smart image processing onboard the camera. For these sorts of edge computing applications, power consumption is important; NovuMind’s NovuTensor chip can provide 15 tera-ops per second of computation while consuming only 5W of power. Wu said its next chip, set for release in Q1 of 2020, would consumer 3W of power while running 37 tera-ops per second of computation, and would cost $50. He said this chip would be able to process 45.8fps at HD resolution with AI inference; this is compared to an Nvidia TX2 board costing $399 that he said would run at 1.41fps at HD resolution.
The business conference also had presentations ranging from robotics, multispectral imaging and new illumination methods, to the vision systems deployed in slaughterhouses and the machine vision market in China.
Dr Johannes Meyer, a PhD graduate from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, was presented with the EMVA’s Young Professional Award for his work on light field methods for inspecting transparent objects.
The next EMVA business conference will take place from 25 to 27 June 2020 in Sofia, Bulgaria.


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Will Google and Google AdWords Dominate the Mobile Ad Market with Nexus One?
Taking the tech-world by storm today was the recent flurry of excitement over the highly anticipated Google Phone – Nexus One. No one knows when it will be released or the precise specifications, but techies are anxiously predicting that this will be THE phone to challenge Apple’s iPhone.
Why would Google, who has been partnering with multiple wireless providers creating phones with their Android platform for quite some time, decide to develop and market a phone that would be in DIRECT competition with its partners? This girl’s guess: AD CONTROL. Google recently acquired mobile advertising agent AdMob, a company that specializes in delivery of mobile ads to smartphones. Obviously the next logical step in Google’s attempt for total information domination (kidding) would be to control how people search on their wireless devices as well.
The Nexus One is rumored to be unlocked and ready for use on any network, with a price tag reported to range anywhere between $99 and $600. However, insisting that Nexus One users agree to be shown Google Mobile Ads could possibly subsidize an elevated sales price for this highly anticipated gadget. If this phone turns out to be the iPhone killer that Google hopes it will be, Google will have that much more control over what we see when we search and how we see it. The mobile market is quickly evolving and how PPC advertising and PPC Management will play into this is still being determined.
Speaking purely from experience, since I purchased the Motorola DROID in November, I very rarely use my laptop or PC anymore. I am able to do what I need to do, when I need to do it all from my handy dandy smart phone and it is liberating. Nexus One, a phone that is made BY Google, FOR Google users sounds like Heaven. Too bad I just bought the DROID.


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During COVID-19, pulling out a smartphone and scanning a QR code to enter a venue has been a necessary activity for millions of Australians. Soon, it could become a common way to pay.
Supermarket giants Coles and Woolworths, along with Commonwealth Bank and National Australia Bank, are supporting a new QR payments platform developed by eftpos.
The retailers like camera payments because they will be able to integrate rewards schemes with the payment, in contrast to the status quo, where Flybuys or other rewards cards or vouchers are presented separately to the payment card. This will allow them to improve the marketing of offers to customers.
For the banks, paying with a QR code will allow them to bring payments into their banking apps, driving customer usage and engagement.
This will help to wrest power back from Apple, whose Apple Pay wallet has been surging in popularity to make ‘tap and go’ payments, but at a cost to the banks – because Apple has forced them to give up some of their interchange fee revenue. Unlike Apple, there will be no charge to banks that issue cards for using the new eftpos service, which is known as eQR.
Adding payment and rewards functionality directly into retailing, banking or fintech apps will let companies hold on to the customer after they have checked out with goods, rather than sending them out to the Apple or Google wallets to finish a transaction, or have customers fish around in a physical wallet for a card and type a long number into an internet shopping site.
Coles general manager of financial services Paul Askew said eQR would “improve the customer experience when making a payment in our stores and linking this to other functions such as loyalty”.
Paul Monnington, managing director of Woolworths Wpay, its payment processing platform, also said QR codes would allow it to combine payments and rewards in one transaction. “Now is the perfect time to introduce QR, and we look forward to building the next generation of seamless payment experiences with eftpos in the months ahead,” he added.
CBA and NAB will start to offer eQR to their merchant customers by enabling their payment terminals to serve up a QR code. At a self-service supermarket kiosk, codes could be provided on the screen displaying the shopping items, doing away with the need to provide so many payment terminals.
Other banks and retailers, including in the fast food industry, are expected to jump on board. Eftpos is also partnering with three fintechs: Merchant Warrior, an online payment gateway; Azupay, which is developing software for the ‘new payments platform’; and Beem It, a consumer app with 1.5 million users that eftpos bought in 2020.
Beem It has been developing the QR technology and its CEO Mark Britt said it would use eQR to work with fintechs and merchants to enhance digital commerce. Beem It was initially created by Commonwealth Bank to develop alternative payment technology.
CBA has been protesting against Apple for restricting bank apps from accessing ‘tap and go’ payments unless fees are paid to Apple, an issue now under investigation from the ACCC. QR code payments will become an alternative way to enable the CBA app to make payments if it cannot access the iPhone near-field communication (NFC) chip.
CBA general manager of merchant solutions, Karen Last, said business customers have become increasingly familiar using QR codes during the pandemic the bank will support the roll-out of eQR.
“We’re looking forward to working together to bring this capability to our merchants in the future,” she said.
eQR is agnostic to the payment rail, and eftpos says it will work with credit cards, and debit cards, that run on the Visa and Mastercard networks.
However, in contrast to payments using Apple Pay that default to the international networks, when a dual network card is linked to eQR, the default network will be eftpos.
This could help some merchants reduce payment costs by providing ‘least cost routing’, which the Reserve Bank and government want banks to implement.
The involvement of Azupay points to QR photos also being used to facilitate payments directly between bank accounts using the NPP, the real-time payment system.
This could see payments happen without the involvement of the international card schemes. It could also see rewards programs created for account-to-account payments, in competition with frequent flyer rewards that drive credit card usage.
QR codes have been used by Afterpay to allow payments in-store and is ubiquitous in China, where super apps like Alipay process payments via a smartphone scan.
“We expect eQR will quickly become the QR equivalent of eftpos tap and pay on debit cards,” said eftpos CEO Stephen Benton. “COVID has changed customer behaviour and Australians are now ready for the enhanced payment experience offered by eQR.”
The new eftpos platform comes just one month after the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission approved the merger of eftpos, the NPP and BPay. The banks argued the merger was necessary to help them more effectively co-ordinate investment and develop better payments products and services to compete with Apple, Google, Mastercard and Visa.
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In a statement, Lululemon CEO Calvin McDonald said the company looks forward to working with Mirror to “accelerate the growth of personalized in-home fitness.”
While taking classes like cardio workouts, yoga and boxing, customers can see key metrics like their heartbeats-per-minute (or BPM) and calories burned. The device, which is controlled by an app on your phone, comes with fitness bands, a stand and a Bluetooth heart-rate monitor.
In a conversation shortly before at-home fitness company Peloton went public last fall, Mirror founder and CEO Brynn Putnam told CNN Business her company is taking a “different approach than the competition.”
Putnam explained that she’s building a product that can flex as trends change. Mirror wants to be “the third screen in your life,” she said at the time. In other words, it’s more about the ability to connect with consumers in their homes with ease than it is about the particular application.
Putnam, a former dancer for the New York City Ballet, in 2010 opened a boutique fitness studio inside of a church in Manhattan. Called Refine Method, the studio’s workouts focused on full-body, high-intensity interval training. It was space that Putnam could afford, but she had to install custom-built equipment that could be removed weekly for Sunday morning services and rebuilt again shortly after.
Putnam came up with the idea for Mirror after she struggled to fit workout classes into her schedule as a pregnant entrepreneur. Simultaneously, she noticed how much customers at Refine Method loved working out alongside mirrors. She sought to blend the two concepts.
Putnam told CNN Business last fall that the startup expected to expand into other aspects of life, including health, fashion and beauty. “Fitness is just one of the many content experiences in the home,” she said at the time.
Lululemon said Mirror will operate as a standalone firm, with Putnam as CEO and reporting into McDonald once the transaction is complete.


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Binance and its CEO are planning to file a sail to push apart the Commodity Futures Trading Price lawsuit against it, in step with a brand new court docket submitting. In the meantime, Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN)'s chief took to Washington, D.C. final week to talk about to lawmakers and the "proof-of-person" project Worldcoin has launched its token.
Binance and CZ belief sail to push apart CFTC criticism
Binance and its CEO Changpeng "CZ" Zhao are having a peer to file a sail to push apart the Commodity Futures Trading Price (CFTC) swimsuit against the exchange.
Coinbase CEO: Lawmakers acting with newfound ‘urgency’ around crypto law
Worldcoin launches token to distinguish folk from bots


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Apple released a 2.0.2 update to the iPhone and iPod Touch firmware tonight. The update is available through iTunes and provides “bug fixes". Apple generally provides very few specific about each firmware update. There are no obvious new features in the latest firmware.
Apple last released a firmware update (2.0.1) just over two weeks ago.


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Office Depot eyeing Nashua
Office Depot, the world’s No. 2 office supply store, is renovating the inside of the former Kids R Us location in Nashua to make way for a new store.
Nashua Planning Director Roger Houston said Office Depot has applied for a sign permit and has already received a building permit to renovate the interior of the 20,000-square-foot building at 270 Daniel Webster Highway.
Office Depot spokesman Brian Levine said he would not confirm a store-opening date or any other information, citing “competitive reasons for this particular market.”
South Nashua is already home to two office supply retailers — Staples, the No. 1 office supplier, and Office Max.


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Transport and logistics specialists Frode Laursen make satisfactory progress in the spring
Frode Laursen came through the summer with optimism, despite a difficult spring.
Thanks to the efforts of its employees and a flexible structure, Frode Laursen has kept it’s strong position despite the corona crisis.
“Naturally, we have felt the effects of the situation – especially on our international business.
But we managed to control and to a large extent adjust our costs quickly,” says director in Frode Laursen, Thomas Corneliussen.
“We also benefited from a strong financial base, which means we are well-prepared for what will undoubtedly be a difficult period ahead,” he adds.
The financial statements for 2019 will show that Frode Laursen is back on track, with earnings equivalent to previous years after a dip in 2018. According to Thomas Corneliussen, this is all thanks to a successful effort to boost productivity throughout the business.
Given the importance of always learning from a crisis, Frode Laursen is focusing even more on
“Corona has meant that some projects that were in the pipeline have been brought forward. There is no doubt that we will be a much more digitalised business one year from now, thanks to the situation and the experience gained over the last few months,” states Thomas Corneliussen.
Focus on development
Frode Laursen’s financial strength means that the management have prioritised both development and the possibility for making new acquisitions.
“We are always looking for well-run businesses in the Nordic Region. We are equally interested in freight-forwarders and hauliers, because what’s important to us is that the business is well-run and fits into our Nordic setup with competitive, high quality services. And we are particularly
interested in businesses with a good customer base,” explains Thomas Corneliussen, and empha-sises that businesses interested in talking to Frode Laursen are most welcome to do so:
“Over the years, we have made many acquisitions, and been in negotiations with many other companies. We are convinced that this has only been possible thanks to our reputation for treating all approaches confidentially, and with deep respect for the needs of the seller.


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The latest survey by Kasikorn Research Center has indicated a rise in spending among Bangkok people during the Songkran festival due mainly to political stability and a drop in petrol prices.
The indication resulted from the center’s behavioral survey of 524 Bangkokians during March 20-27, which found that the number of Bangkok residents choosing to remain in the capital city during the Songkran holiday dropped to 54 percent from 59 percent year-on-year. The percentage of those planning to spend the long holiday upcountry remains at 27 percent.
According to the respondents, the peaceful political atmosphere and cheaper oil prices do influence their urge to travel. In terms of spending, the survey found that most holiday makers would pay their money for food and drinks, shopping, trips, accommodation, religious activities and entertainment. Top destinations for Bangkok vacationers are Chiang Mai, Chonburi, Petchaburi, Phuket, Prachuap Khiri Khan, and Ayutthaya. Their celebratory activities are expected to generate over 22 billion baht in circulation.
The center suggested that tourism and service operators make use of the upward spending trend by launching promotion and marketing campaigns that suit the needs of consumers.


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You see the signs everywhere: "We accept EBT." Fast-food restaurants do. Clothing retailers do. Auto repair shops, liquor stores and even sushi joints are joining the club. "EBT" stands for the federal government's electronic benefits transfer card, which is intended to provide poor people with food stamps and cash...
The cash also goes for lottery tickets which they seem to buy by the bucket.
From New York to New Mexico and across the dependent plains, welfare recipients are getting sauced on the public dime. Drunk, besotted, bombed. But while politicians pay lip service to cutting government waste, fraud and abuse, they're doing very little in practice to stop the EBT party excesses. Where's the compassion for taxpayers?
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The Ann Arbor Coffee Roasting Co. began its soft opening on Tuesday, Oct. 19 at 324 State St. The new coffee shop fills the space formerly occupied by Espresso Royale, a longtime coffee favorite that closed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The shop, co-founded by Manthri Srinath, Amy McEwen Goller and her son Spencer Goller were all former employees of Espresso Royale. Ann Arbor Coffee Roasting Co. is the second to take over a former Espresso Royale location with former employees of the coffeeshop — M-36 Coffee Roasters opened in the former South University Ave. location in August.
McEwen Goller and her husband, Marcus Goller, were the original founders of Espresso Royale, which opened on State St. in 1989.
“I think the most interesting thing about (the shop) is the fact that Manthri and Spencer and I are doing it together,” McEwen Goller said. “It’s just really sweet to have a project with Manthri again, and it’s incredibly nostalgic for me to have the store open again and to make it what we always wanted it to be, just a clean, beautiful, friendly, high quality place.”
According to Goller, Ann Arbor Coffee Roasting Co. has another location in Brighton, Mich., where they are currently roasting their coffee until the roaster for the Ann Arbor location is built. They expect the roaster to be completed by the first quarter of next year. They also make their chai at the Brighton location, while all of the food and pastries are baked in-house at the Ann Arbor location.
Goller explained that the Loring Smart Roast roaster the cafe will use is very sustainable and will be showcased to customers once it is assembled.
“The roaster) uses a lot of the newer technology in coffee roasting and recycles hot air so it’s also very eco friendly. It uses less energy,” Goller said. “So we’re planning on having the roaster be really a showpiece and something that’s upfront for everyone to get to see.”
Srinath described the coffee shop as “retro” in its sourcing and supply chain and said they cater to a wide array of dietary restrictions.
“That’s a fairly basic menu, with focus on a lot of plant milk,” Srinath said. “We do have really good baked goods, a lot of vegan and gluten-free options. Other than that, the actual core concept is pretty simple. We don’t do a lot of super sweet stuff but the things that we do, when I say retro, they kind of go back to a time in the coffee industry when the whole product line was much simpler.”
The building the shop is located in is considered a historic landmark by Ann Arbor’s Historic District Commission. The commission approved the roasting company’s renovation plans in July 2021, which, according to McEwen Goller, include some structural changes but “maintains the integrity of the historic building.”
“One of the other structural differences is some of the seating has been sacrificed to make way for the roaster,” Goller said.
While the Ann Arbor Coffee Roasting Co. initially planned to open their cafe in September, Goller said the October opening was caused by construction delays. Srinath said they are taking a flexible approach to opening during the pandemic.
“The business model is going to be flexible,” Srinath said. “If we cannot use the space or decide we don’t want to, we will have take out options or provide curbside service, or anything along those lines that the current climate demands at any given time. It’s very as you go at this point, it’s really pretty much impossible to prognosticate.”
Both McEwen Goller and Srinath said they had no difficulty hiring workers, even with the ongoing labor shortage caused by the pandemic. Srinath emphasized that their wages were “competitive.” According to the coffee shop’s Instagram page, it hired in new employees at $16 per hour.
LSA freshman Makena Crimaldi went to the shop soon after it opened and said she wished there was more seating available, but that she really enjoyed her coffee and pastries.
“It was really good — I got a cappuccino today and then I got a blueberry muffin this morning and both are fantastic,” Crimaldi said. “I love the location. I’m in West Quad (Residence Hall), so it’s a perfect place for me to come to study. For me back at home, I love to find cute coffee shops. This is perfect for me to come work whenever.”
LSA freshman Daniella Ludmir also visited the shop and said she was very happy with her experience at the store.
“I love it here,” Ludmir said. “I also love macadamia milk and it’s the only coffee shop that I’ve been to in Ann Arbor that has macadamia milk. It’s my second time here in three days and I discovered it three days ago.”
McEwen Goller emphasized how happy she was to be back in Ann Arbor. She said since moving to Ann Arbor in 1989, she had opened six stores in the city and several more across the country with her husband.
”We love it here … it’s absolutely wonderful to be back in the community again and to bring something really special,” McEwen said. “Also, both of my children have gone to U-M and my nephew’s gone to U-M. I’ve been picking kids up from the Hill for nine years now. It’s kind of fun to also revisit Ann Arbor as a mom of a college student.”
Daily Staff Reporter Jared Dougall can be reached at email@example.com.


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Worldwide server revenue tumbled 15.5 percent in the third quarter to $10.7 billion, industry tracker Gartner said on Monday, with four of the top five vendors posting double-digit declines from a year ago.
Still, Gartner noted that signs of stabilization are appearing in the market, as improvement was seen from the previous quarter.
Sales of servers and other technology hardware have been severely impacted by the economic slowdown, as business customers have drastically dialed back on spending.
Third quarter server unit shipments fell 17.1 percent to 1.9 million.
But Gartner analyst Jeffrey Hewitt noted the July-September period saw solid unit and revenue increases from the second quarter.
That suggests that the market as a whole is showing signs of stabilization as we move toward the end of 2009, he said in a release.
IBM maintained the top spot in Gartner server rankings, gaining more than a point of market share to 31.7 percent. IBM saw server revenue fall 12.3 percent.
Server revenue at Hewlett-Packard Co, the No. 2 vendor, fell 15.1 percent, but its market share edged up slightly to 30.2 percent.
The biggest market share gain among the top 5 came from No. 3 Dell Inc, where revenue fell a mere 5.1 percent. The company's market share rose to 13.4 percent.
Server sales at No. 4 Sun Microsystems Inc continued to sink, falling 32 percent in the third quarter. Sun's $7 billion acquisition by Oracle Corp is still being examined by European Union regulators.
All of the top tier vendors saw sequential revenue growth in the third quarter except for Sun.
(Reporting by Gabriel Madway; editing by Gunna Dickson)


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Ever the Solid Internet Stock, LinkedIn Delivers on Expectations
Linkedin’s second-quarter earnings were just about in line with what analysts expected, with an extra helping of revenue.
The professional networking company had revenue of $228.2 million, above First Call expectations of $216.3 million. Its non-GAAP earnings per share were $0.16, exactly the same as analysts expected.
Revenue was up 89 percent since last year.
During the second quarter, LinkedIn’s good news included a home page redesign and the launch of its first iPad app, while its bad news included losing its syndication partnership with Twitter and having millions of user passwords compromised.
LinkedIn said it now has more than 175 million members. It saw year-on-year growth across all of its three revenue streams, which are hiring solutions, marketing solutions and premium subscriptions.
Shares of LinkedIn are up 3.95 percent to $97.20 in after-hours trading.


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It looks like electric motorcycles are going to be the next big thing in the two-wheeler world. Harley-Davidson was arguably the first major bike-maker to test the waters in electric motorcycle segment with the LiveWire prototype in 2014. Indian Motorcycle has also announced its intention to build a high-end electric. The new entrant in the club seems to be Austrian bike-maker KTM.
UK-based publication MCN has spotted a KTM 390 Duke's old version fitted with an electric motor in Austria. In place of trellis frame, the model has been spotted with a massive aluminium battery box. Apart from the engine compartment, the rest of the parts remain the same of the 390 Duke in the spy shots, including gearlever. A vertically stacked radiator on the right side of the engine indicate that the motor is liquid cooled.
KTM is not entirely new in the electric motorcycle segment. The E-Ride series of supermoto bikes of KTM is powered by electric engines. The range includes Freeride E-XC, E-SX and E-SM, all powered by a liquid-cooled synchronous electric motor with an output of 22hp and 42Nm of torque from a 260-volt battery pack.
The electric Duke, on the other hand, will be serious on increased output since the Duke range is known as powerful street fighters. Having said that, an electric Duke is currently in its early stages of development.
It was reported that Polaris Industries, the parent company of Indian Motorcycle, is planning to launch an electric bike. The proposed model is expected to cover 190-225km on a single charge even if driven aggressively. The e-bike from Indian will lock horn against Harley-Davidson LiveWire.
Harley-Davidson had showcased first prototype of its first electric vehicle in 2014. The prototype was powered by an oil-cooled, longitudinally-mounted three-phase induction electric motor that develops 74hp and 71Nm of torque.
Indian Motorcycle and Harley-Davidson electric motorcycles are expected to debut by the end of this decade. Though there is no clarity on the KTM electric bike's arrival, it is also expected during the same time.


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So yes, bitcoins are a very much safe investment in India. The already secure nature of Bitcoins, thanks to the cryptographically powered blockchain, makes them a safe asset class. Plus, the strong comeback in Bitcoin prices, despite the Covid scare, is another aspect to note when evaluating it as a safe and favorable investment option. Sep 14, · It is perfectly safe to invest in Bitcoin in India. In fact, an investment in Bitcoin is actually safer than many other investments. Here are some of the reasons that an investment in Bitcoin is one of the safest investments that you can make today. Dec 15, · For financial investors, Bitcoin is bitcoin a safe investment India is an interesting currency because it is completely free from fundamental influences. The texts on this page are not an investment recommendation. Bitcoin: Bearish pattern. No mutual funds or bonds.
Is bitcoin investment safe in indiaIs it Safe to Invest in Bitcoin in India? - InvestoTrend
You can look for various digital currency exchanges to buy bitcoin. You can purchase Bitcoins with a credit card. They also offer tutorials on digital currencies. In India, you can purchase Bitcoin from Zebpay exchange.
Zebpay has Android and iPhone app which lets you link your bank account for quick transfers. You can buy Bitcoins by making a payment to Zebpay's bank account. You can also withdraw the money to your bank account, and track data on Bitcoin valuation in the country. Unocoin, another India-based exchange, lets you trade Bitcoins.
They can help you buy, sell, store, use and accept bitcoin. The company claims it has over 1,50, customers. With Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government going the whole hog to make India a less cash economy, digital cryptocurrency has caught the attention of many Indians. Post demonetisation, leading Bitcoin exchanges in India witnessed a rise in user base by up to per cent.
Sandeep Goenka, CEO of Zebpay, one of the largest bitcoin exchanges in the country had said, "Indians are enquiring about bitcoins as an alternative and safe investment option. They are downloading Zebpay as they want to experiment with digital currencies. To be able to store Bitcoins, you'll need a wallet which can be in your computer or smartphone.
You can back up the wallet at another location so that you don't lose data if your hard drive crashes. Depending on your requirement, you can choose a wallet. How much returns can you get if you invest in Bitcoins? The decentralized virtual currency that took the world by storm has witnessed a per cent rise in value in just one year. Its value hit an all-time high when Japan passed a law to accept bitcoin as a legal payment method.
Despite RBI's reluctance to recognize the cyptocurrency, the interest in Bitcoins in India has not waned. After Prime Minister Narendra Modi's demonetisation move, Ahmedabad-based bitcoin trading start-up Zebpay witnessed a 25 per cent surge in revenue. Unocoin, another bitcoin trading firm which had received funds from Blume Ventures, saw a threefold rise in its user base to 1,20, following demonetisation. Value of Bitcoins may not come down as there are limited number of Bitcoins and everyday more and more people are showing interest in investing in the cryptocurrency.
Experts expect the price of Bitcoin to rise, rather than drop, in the coming years. This is especially apparent when cryptocurrencies have been in a three year bear market.
You probably know the story by now — Bitcoin is a decentralized currency powered by individuals rather than a centralized organization. You can send it to someone anywhere in the world and they can then use it. No one has to worry about the transaction getting blocked, high transfer fees, or other problems that arise with international transfer. It means that Bitcoin is much more valuable worldwide than any other form of currency. No aspect of Bitcoin is illegal in India. You can buy, sell, and mine Bitcoin in India with no legal repercussions.
Now, there were some issues with cryptocurrencies in India a few years ago, but those issues were resolved and cryptocurrency was made legal in India. Like most countries, India has an extremely complicated tax code that requires years of experience to untangle. With that in mind, you generally have to pay taxes when you realize earnings on any sale of cryptocurrency in India.
You are also allowed to deduct any realized losses on cryptocurrency, which is very nice. As mentioned earlier, the tax code in India is extremely complex. For that reason, we recommend consulting a tax professional to ensure that you do not get in any trouble with the Indian government and do not pay more taxes than necessary. The difference between investing and trading Bitcoin in India mostly comes down to your personality.
Are you a risk taker? Do you like excitement? Do you enjoy gambling? If you answered yes to those questions, then you might enjoy trading Bitcoin in India. On the other hand, if you dislike gambling, taking risks, and excitement, then you should avoid trading Bitcoin.


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The struggling discounter could sell all or part of itself to address debts amid transformation.
The retailer said a focus on core natural food shoppers drove higher sales in quarter, despite trips declining.
The retailer said Q1 comps were slightly below plan as weather issues reduced produce availability. Plus, search for a new CEO continues.
The retailer said service initiatives and improved stock conditions helped sales but slow inflation prevented expense leverage.
The retailer said new stores and rising prices contributed to increased sales and comps in the period, despite the Easter sales shift.
The retailer said it would open 1 new store, remodel 14 units and add six new fuel centers.
The proposed combination of Asda and Sainsbury's would have freed up $4 billion for Walmart.
Outgoing CEO Jim Donald highlights momentum in stores to fuel tech investments and debt reduction.
The 10-day strike cost Ahold Delhaize more than $200 million in sales and about $100 million in profits, but officials insist they're happy with the terms of the resolution.
Deals to sell prescriptions and inventory to CVS and Walgreens widens field of potential buyers, and could indicate end is near.
The grocery industry leadership awards program recognizes 45 emerging and established leaders in the retail bakery, deli, foodservice and dairy sectors.
WGB and BrandSpark collaborated for the third annual Most Trusted U.S. Food Retailers market study to identify the retailers that are capturing the highest affinity among shoppers from coast to coast.
Listen in to WGB’s flagship podcast, 10 Items or Less, featuring insights from retailers and industry professionals.
Exclusive industry info and insights straight to your inbox
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November 28, 2007
There is Channel 4’s 4oD service, BBC’s iPlayer, now we have plans for a new on-demand service for television.
The BBC is reporting how the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 are going to work together to provide a new on-demand service for viewers.
The BBC, ITV and Channel 4 are to launch a joint on-demand service, which will bring together hundreds of hours of television programmes in one place.
The service is set to go live in 2008 and will offer viewers access to current shows and archive material.
Read more and photo source.
November 27, 2007
I have mentioned the beta of Comic Life for Windows quite a few times now. So it’s nice to tell you that Plasq have now released the full and final release of Comic Life for Windows.
Comic Life is one of my favourite applications and certainly is one of the easiest ways of making comics for use for print and online.
A 1000 seat educational licence for Comic Life is only £511.77 which is quite good value if you ask me. A 25 seat licence is only £101.95.
I will probably get a licence for my institution for staff use at least and for student use if required.
November 25, 2007
The Guardian has reviewed the Sony VAIO UX1XN and found that though a wonderment of design, it is somewhat fiddly to use.
But delightful though this notebook is to look at and hold, it’s too flawed to be anything other than a novelty.
The review also mentions issues with the keyboard and the tablet input, which I both agree with.
… there’s the first disappointment – the keyboard. You wouldn’t want to do much more than tap out an email on it, as the size of the keys make it no good for touch-typing. Double-thumb input is feasible, but the tiny keys make it hard to be accurate.
The touchscreen is a nightmare. Fiddly to calibrate, it failed to retain its settings and eventually refused even to acknowledge that it was in fact a touchscreen. So I resorted to the pointing device.
I still think it is useful and not as flawed as the review makes out, and the more I use it, the more uses I find for it.
November 22, 2007
Despite a lot of scepticism and negative coverage about Amazon’s new digital book reader, the device has sold out according to the BBC.
Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader has sold out despite scepticism about whether the device will prove popular. A notice on the Kindle pages on the Amazon web store said “heavy customer demand” for the device meant it would be out of stock until 3 December. Since its launch on 19 November the device has been widely examined but opinions about it are mixed.
Looks like people are interested in this digital book reader. Is this the device for e-books what the iPod was for digital music? We will have to wait and see.
November 22, 2007
BBC reports that T-Mobile to open up iPhone sales.
T-Mobile is to start allowing German customers to buy Apple’s iPhone without a contract to its network, as it moves to comply with a court injunction.
However this is in Germany only and the iPhone will be twice as expensive as the contract version.
Legislation in the UK allows for locked phones, but you could import iPhones from Germany and then avoid the two year contract making it available for testing and usability.
November 21, 2007
The BBC is reporting that nine out of ten internet connections are broadband connections.
Almost nine out of 10 UK net users are connecting via broadband services, official figures reveal.
Information gathered by National Statistics (ONS) for September show that 88.4% of Britons are choosing to use broadband rather than dial-up.
This means that delivering e-learning content does not need to rely on the assumption that learners are on dial-up.
With broadband often cheaper than dial-up now, if learners wish to access e-learning from home rather than in college (or in their local library) then more than likely they will be choosing broadband.
November 20, 2007
Big news yesterday was the launch of Amazon’s digital book reader.
BBC reports that:
Online retailer Amazon has unveiled an own-brand wireless electronic book reader called Kindle.
The paperback-sized device is on sale immediately in the US for $399 (£195). It can store up to 200 books in its onboard memory.
Kindle does not need a PC to be loaded with books, blogs or papers – instead content arrives via wireless.
Amazon said 90,000 books, including bestsellers priced at $9.99, were available for Kindle at launch.
I wonder if you could load such a device with institutional learning content?
November 19, 2007
BBC reports how YouTube is trying to stop online or cyber bullying.
The first online anti-bullying channel has been launched to encourage young people to denounce the intimidation.
YouTube has set up a site where youngsters can post their own videos and messages.
It follows growing concern about the increase in persecution by e-mail, mobile phone and on social networking sites, known as cyberbullying.
November 9, 2007
Well it would seem that we Britons like our SMS text messages. At the last count we were sending one billion of them weekly!
Britons are now sending more than one billion text messages per week according to the latest figures from the Mobile Data Association (MDA).
From the BBC.
Personally I am not a great fan of SMS in the main as I don’t like small phone keyboards, liked it when I could use it through my Mac OS X address book, but have generally either used the phone or e-mail.


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Entries in 'steam' (313)
Dota 2 has seen its community swell past 40m players worldwide this month, but perhaps even more impressive is the level of user engagement Valve's free-to-play MOBA has maintained throughout ...
The PC release of Resident Evil Revelations 2 does not support offline co-op play, and players aren't happy with Capcom's duplicity on the matter.
Steam has surpassed 125 million active users and is home to more than 4,500 games, Valve has announced.
A PC port for Bandai Namco's PS3 release Tales of Zestiria could be in the works, if a new Steam database listing is anything to go by.
A big new player will enter the virtual reality arena next week.
The launch of Total War: Attila has propelled the title to number one on this week's Steam top ten sellers chart.
Digital indie PC hit Spintires has been hauled out of its development limbo.
Kickstarter has received another PR blow with what appears to be the abandonment of another successfully funded game.
Paranautical Activity – the game that was banned from Steam when its creator threatened to kill Valve's Gabe Newell – has returned to the Steam store.
Valve appears to be automatically monitoring the blocking the content of some Steam chat.
Evolve is on top of the latest top ten selling products on Steam, finishing ahead of indie Early Access title Darkest Dungeon.
Valve has confirmed it will on hand at GDC 2015 next month to show off its updated lineup of Steam Machine consoles.
Valve has requested developers with games listed on Steam Greenlight to cease the practice of trading game keys for votes.
Looking to buy BioShock 2 on Steam, Xbox Live or PSN? Tough.
Valve has rolled out the Steam Inventory Service in beta, allowing game developers the option to create in-game items that can be traded and sold throughout the greater Steam Marketplace.
Early Access title Under the Ocean has been removed from Steam after its programmer abandoned the project, leaving just one developer struggling to complete the game.
Indie hit Sunless Sea will today graduate from Steam Early Access to become a full release.
‘Experimental’ platform game Grow Home is now available on Steam.
Ubisoft has removed the beta label from its free-to-play dungeon crawler The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot.
Grand Theft Auto V took the top spot for the second straight week, and Dying Light earned two top ten finishes on this week’s Steam best sellers chart.
Alpha-funded simulation title Prison Architect has sold more than 1m copies since its original public release in September 2012.
Bossa Studios has revealed plans to bring its Steam Early Access title I Am Bread to iOS.
Users of Valve’s modding storefront Steam Workshop have made a total of $57m between them since it went live in 2011.
Grand Theft Auto V has taken the top spot on the latest Steam weekly top sellers chart, following the game's first full week of pre-order availability.
The Early Access standalone edition of DayZ has reached a new milestone, surpassing the 3m sales mark as the past week drew to a close.


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Adele And Gotye Top Mid-Year Album and Single Sales. Yikes!
Undoubtedly helped by her ridiculous Grammy collection, the British songstress has a sold a stellar 3.69 million copies of 21 so far in 2012. Not too shabby. But c'mon people, that album came out in February of 2011! There's been some great music that's come out since and the fact that this record still has legs says something about the longevity and connection people have to this album. But seriously, half of the people who already own 21 must be A)storing multiple copies in case of the apocalypse or B) they've found some weird new use for a the album that we just haven't figured out yet.
According to Billboard, no album has been the top seller in the first half of any two years. At the rate it's going, 21 could be the best seller of 2012, making it the first album to top the year-end charts twice in the SoundScan era. Yes, you read correctly
The next biggest selling album is Lionel Richie's Tuskegee, which has moved 912,000 copies. Raise your hand if you knew Richie had an album out because we sure as hell didn't.
So what does this mean? On one hand, it's super awesome that people are starting to buy music again, at least singles, which are up six percent versus last year. Contrarily, with so many bands putting out great music on their own, it's time to discover music on our own, or else recycled hits (Adele) are going to keep paving the way on the album charts while crappy (and most likely) one-hit wonders are going to shatter records on the singles charts.


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The new Periscope app lets anyone be a live broadcaster to the world using a Twitter feed to stream live video.
When you watch television, your TV set might be watching back with new technology that can virtually see or hear what’s going on in your home.
We use our electronic devices for all sorts of things – from talking and looking up information to playing games. But the frequent use of such gadgets is actually making some people sick.
Retailers are hoping this year’s holiday spending spree will continue with Cyber Monday.


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Now that the real estate market in some locations has softened or severely slowed, and inventory is increasing, the question is “should I buy now or wait until prices decrease or just maybe crash like in 2008?
This will probably not occur as inventory is less than two months—in 2008 inventory was around 11 months. However, housing construction has slowed on the fear that companies don’t want to get stuck with inventory in the future. It’s a really tough question to give an exact answer to due to all the conflicting signs and events that are going on here in the United States and around the globe.
Most amazing is the increase in job creation (non-farm) of 372,000 jobs in June was reported last week with a 384,000 rate in May, showing businesses are still hiring and the economy is still very strong but high inflation still is not controlled. The uncertainty of the Ukraine situation as to what the final outcome might be is also a factor, but oil prices are finally coming down below $100 a barrel (I think there is oil company gouging).
There are contradicting signs, but my professional opinion is that we are just a speck above a recession as GDP (Gross Domestic Product) decreased anywhere from 1.4%- 1.6% in the first quarter of 2022 (down from a positive increase of 6.9% from the fourth quarter of 2021). But whether we will have a soft or a much more challenging harder landing will be determined as we move forward and see the numbers that come about over the next six months.
Could we go into a depression? I hope not! This could have a potentially huge effect on housing purchases and other commodities that make our economy 70% based on consumer spending. Housing is a huge integral segment of the U.S. economy and when a home isn’t purchased, there is a domino effect as everything else that is bought for that home tends to follow suit and people slow or stop spending on those items.
Another variable that could affect our economy and housing has been raising its ugly head as the new variants of the Covid-19 pandemic, the new BA.1-BA.5 all first detected in South Africa.
With all these variables in the mix, determining where housing will go is somewhat of a crapshoot. So far inflation has not been controlled, so everything is costing more and there is less disposable income.
But if you are going to potentially live in your home for at least 7-10 years, then purchasing will still be a better bet as opposed to renting, unless you are a fantastic stock picker and can earn more playing the investment game. Rents will be escalating as more look to rent, competing for the limited current inventory. Many will be waiting on the sidelines to save more money for a down payment and to see where the market will go before jumping back in to purchase.
This winter could present some opportunities to purchase depending on the weather and if we have a substantial amount of snow, some sellers may be more motivated to leave sooner for warmer climates. They just might be a bit more negotiable in selling their homes. Inventory is still tight in the Long Island area as well as many other locations (out West it has increased two- and three-fold over the last year, as buying, has slowed drastically, especially in overvalued areas).
Although more jobs than expected have been created, you have to look at your personal finances and situation to determine will your purchase be the best decision to make for you and your family’s future. Can you consider an apartment instead of a house? Will your job or income be there in the future to support your expenditures? Can you afford the total monthly payments plus have a little extra on the side for emergencies?
You can always refinance in the future, assuming rates will come down and it will make sense in the pocketbook. If the market slows excessively, then the banks will be forced to lower their rates. Consumers have less disposable income to spend at the moment, due to food and energy costs causing store inventories to increase so you will see sales occurring and wait until the pre-holiday sales begin, I know I can’t wait until that day comes.
Bottom line, you have to decide very carefully about home ownership, but as history has shown, it has been the number one way to build wealth in the U.S., grow roots in the community and gain life-long friendships and connections.


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Chinese telecommunications officially launched their 5G services on Friday. The nation’s big three state-owned wireless carriers—China Mobile, China Unicorn, and China Telecom—switched on their services at the same time. China Mobile currently stands as the world’s biggest mobile operator by subscriber numbers, while China Telecom is the world’s largest integrated telecom operator by the same metric. The three operators have projected a combined capital spending of $43 billion this year.
The trio is now offering data plans that start from $18 for 30GB of data per month. The cost remains in a similar price range to 4G connectivity, making the next-gen network accessible to the same consumer brackets.
With the three major carriers on board, China automatically becomes the country with the biggest 5G network worldwide. Authorities are planning the installation of over 50,000 5G base stations in key Chinese cities. Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou are among the few large cities that will receive access to full coverage first.
To tap into this growing demand in the Chinese markets, Huawei, Vivo, Xiaomi, and Samsung launched 5G-capable smartphones between $500 and $1000, with more products likely to follow in the fourth quarter of this year. The world’s largest telecom equipment maker, Huawei, expects around 480 million households worldwide to have access to fifth-generation (5G) broadband service by 2025. Despite the pressure from the US, in July Huawei said it had signed more than 60 commercial contracts to supply 5G networks worldwide, including at least 28 in Europe.
The opted-in 5G subscribers will enjoy access to faster videos and games, better performance for mobile videoconferencing and added VR capabilities on applications. More than 10 million individuals pre-registered to take the service in the country. The government expects that by next year over 110 million users will have switched to the new network, representing a 7% penetration rate, twice as high as the current penetration leader, South Korea.
South Korea launched its 5G network in April this year, and roughly 3% of the country’s internet users subscribe to it. According to GSMA, an industry lobby group, 1.2 billion people worldwide are set to have access to 5G networks by 2025—a third of them in China.


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Extension of due dates for payment of City of Anderson Business Licenses and Hospitality taxes: On March 23rd the Anderson City Council passed a resolution that will allow deferred payments of fees, without penalty, for businesses that have been adversely affected due to COVID-19.
RESOLUTION NO. 20-01
A RESOLUTION OF THE MAYOR
AND COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF
ANDERSON, SOUTH CAROLINA
EXTENDING THE DUE DATE
FOR PAYMENT OF BUSINESS
LICENSE AND HOSPITALITY TAXES
WHEREAS, payment of the City of Anderson Business License Tax is due on or before April 30, 2020, and
WHEREAS, Hospitality Taxes are due on the 20th of the month following the month of collection, and
WHEREAS, restrictions placed on many businesses due to COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a decrease in revenues, and
WHEREAS, it is the desire of the City Council to defer payments of taxes for those businesses that have been affected.
NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE MAYOR AND COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF ANDERSON THAT:
- Businesses that have been adversely affected due to COVID-19 pandemic may defer payment of their license fee until June 30, 2020, without penalty.
- A request for the deferment must be included on the application for the license which must be submitted by April 30, 2020. Penalties will be enforced if an application is not filed.
- Hospitality taxes collected during February must be paid by March 20, 2020. There will be no penalty charged for hospitality taxes collected beginning March 1, 2020, provided reports are filed timely and paid by June 30, 2020.
- This resolution shall take effect immediately upon its adoption by Mayor and Council of the City of Anderson.


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Cannabis events for April 20, like the 420 Hippie Hill event in 2017 in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, have been moved online because of COVID-19 restrictions. File Photo by Terry Schmitt/UPI | License Photo
DENVER, April 17 (UPI) -- COVID-19 concerns have snuffed out public celebrations of marijuana on Monday, an unofficial holiday for smoking cannabis, driving some activities online across the United States.
The significance of April 20, or 4:20 p.m., as a clandestine time to use marijuana is unclear, but became underground code language, according to author Shirley Halperin's book, Pot Culture: The A-Z Guide to Stoner Language and Life.
Since adult-use cannabis has been legalized across the country, more outdoor festivals and events on the date have sprung up. But this year, the pandemic has shut them down.
Denver's Mile High 420 Festival was cancelled after the shutdown of Civic Center Park, but local dispensaries and cannabis organizations are hosting activities online this weekend and Monday.
They range from stoned painting yoga and cannabis cooking classes to local comedians and old-time string music.
At the Coffee Joint, Denver's only public social consumption lounge, extensive holiday preparations featuring a "Roaring 20s" theme this weekend and Monday had to be rearranged for a virtual audience, co-owner Rita Tsalyuk said.
She said the coronavirus pandemic has made her reconsider the purpose of the business, and she now considers cannabis essential for people to cope with COVID-19-related stress.
"People are treating mental health issues with cannabis and alcohol, and that's fine, as long as they're doing it responsibly," Tsalyuk said. "Our brains can only absorb so much negative information."
During COVID-19 lockdown rules, cannabis businesses are considered essential services in many recreational and medical marijuana states such as Colorado, California, Illinois and Florida.
This year on Monday, cannabis users are encouraged to "Get on your porch ... in your backyard ... on your roof ... wherever," at 4:20 p.m. while maintaining social distancing, online group 4/20 Front Porch Smoke Out said.
Organizers in March cancelled San Francisco's historic "Hippie Hill" outdoor festival, which had been scheduled for Monday at Golden Gate Park and typically draws 15,000 participants.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed warned potential outdoor cannabis party-goers to stay away from San Francisco or risk being ticketed.
"To be clear: 4/20 will not be tolerated this year," Breed tweeted. "Do not come to San Francisco to celebrate. We will cite people. We will arrest people if necessary.
"Order food. Watch Netflix. Stay home and stay safe," she said.
In Illinois, where recreational cannabis was legalized in January, many dispensaries and event organizers were looking forward to the first April 20. But now they've pivoted to virtual.
Chicago-based Dispensary 33 will use the social media site Twitch for online events including "cooking with cannabis, blowing glass, bending neon, DJ sets, drag and performance art," the company's website said.
National marijuana legalization group NORML, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, encouraged cannabis users to stay inside and not throw parties.
"Historically people have gathered to celebrate and this year, Americans are facing challenges well beyond marijuana prohibition," said Jenn Michelle Pedini, NORML's development director.
"That includes being compliant with state and federal guidelines during this pandemic, so we're recommending that consumers not congregate in groups indoors or outdoors," they said.
The organization also recommended not sharing marijuana devices and considering changing how THC is consumed, Pedini said.
"Because COVID-19 is a respiratory illness, you might want to limit exposure to combustive smoke and try edibles and tinctures," they said.
The organization recommends ordering cannabis online and avoiding crowds at dispensaries to maintain social distancing.
NORML also warned against using black-market THC vape products, which have been linked to an outbreak of lung injury and "may be tainted with mold or adulterants."
"There are a number of options for supporters of marijuana reform to participate in concerts and virtual events throughout the day," Pedini said.


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Headlines claiming food inflation is at a 17-year high are wildly exaggerated, with exclusive data from The Grocer revealing prices are up just 3% on last year.
The Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph and Daily Express were among the nationals using figures from price comparison website mySupermarket.co.uk, which claimed soaring costs had led to an 11% year-on-year hike in the average price of a shopping basket.
However, our own data, compiled by market research house ESA since 2004, suggests price rises are not as excessive as press reports claim. In the four weeks to 8 April, the average cost of 150 grocery items across the big four and Waitrose increased by a significantly lower 3.09% compared with last year.
Unlike The Grocer data, mySupermarket.co.uk results did not include prices from Morrisons, whose aggressive price cuts have helped steady food inflation across the retailers over March, as the website extracts pricing information from online shopping websites. But this does not explain the considerable price discrepancy on both the average shopping basket and leading commodity-based products.
The website found a 500g pack of minced beef had increased by 64% over the year. Our data found the same product was only 6% pricier at Morrisons and 9% more at Asda, Sainsbury's and Tesco. Waitrose actually reduced its price by 15%.
Cost pressures on dairy and bakery goods led to a 62% average increase for butter, claimed mySupermarket.co.uk, with a French baguette 33% dearer than a year ago. But, these figures are 10 percentage points too steep, according to our data, with butter 52% higher and a French baguette 23% more.
Other discrepancies include the price of a 250g block of mild Cheddar, which rose 17% across the retailers according to our survey - not 26% as recorded by the website. This average was driven down by Sainsbury's, which is selling the cheese for 7% less than it did 12 months ago.
Sainsbury's prices for the 150 items went up the least - just 1.3% - compared with 2.8% at Morrisons, 3% at Tesco, 3.7% at Waitrose and 4.4% at Asda.
"We have a responsibility to deliver the best products at the most competitive prices," said a Sainsbury's spokeswoman. "The Grocer's latest price inflation figures show that we are finding real success in keeping prices as low as possible for our customers."
Tesco said it was disappointed with the press reaction, which came a week after The Grocer exclusively revealed that retailers had stabilised food inflation (Retailers put a lid on it, The Grocer, 12 April, p4).
"Despite scaremongering among some quarters of the press this week, it is good that people are recognising what an important role supermarkets and competition play in keeping a lid on inflation," said a Tesco spokesman. "Data will always be more accurate when it is collated from a broad basket of goods, especially when it is not weighted toward any particular product category," he added.


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Every damn week you see some news about Nintendo getting something taken down, be it a YouTube video or some website that pays homage to their great games, Nintendo will have it taken down, this time they went after Minecraft videos that had Nintendo characters in them, here is a quote from the source:
The Minecraft community is one of the most video-centric gaming groups online, with hundreds of thousands of players routinely streaming and sharing gameplay and mods through YouTube and Twitch without issue. Nintendo, on the other hand, is one of the most restrictive game publishers when it comes to video, with a history of taking videos of its games offline and threatening to shut down livestreamed tournaments. It has also had problems sharing ad revenue with video creators.
When those two sides effectively merged through the recently released “Super Mario Mash-Up Pack” for the Wii U version of Minecraft, problems were bound to arise. And arisen they have, with a number of YouTubers publicly complaining about Nintendo making copyright claims on their Minecraft videos.
The issue appears to stem from the game’s use of Super Mario 64 music, which is actually included as part of the Mash-Up Pack but still triggers a copyright match with the original Nintendo 64 game.
It seems like Nintendo keeps distancing it from its fans, its like they are trying to fuck the company up so bad, that nothing will be left from it, i can kind of understand why some companies don’t want to work with them


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But one type of retailer is predicted to thrive this Thanksgiving week: dollar stores.
According to data from location tracking company Foursquare, discount stores, such as dollar stores, are gaining in foot traffic this year as Black Friday approaches. While most retailers are expecting a slump in foot traffic, Foursquare predicts that the number of visits to dollar stores this year will exceed the last two years.
Typically, discount stores don't experience the Black Friday boost that retailers like Macy's and Walmart rely on to increase sales, according to Foursquare. Dollar stores and other similarly deeply-discounted retailers usually gain momentum later in the holiday season.
But this year, dollar stores are predicted to pull off a Black Friday win for two reasons.
First, this year customers are less interested in traditional Black Friday sales. Second, more and more Americans are interested in deep-discount retailers year-round, a phenomenon that has helped fuel the growth of dollar stores across the county.
Foursquare data predicts that overall Black Friday Foot traffic will be down about 3.5% compared to last year — a decrease, but one that isn't as severe as the year-over-year drop from 2014 to 2015.
Last year, Black Friday sales fell 12% to $10.2 billion compared to a year before, according to ShopperTrak. Looking at the entire four-day weekend, brick-and-mortar retail sales fell by 10.4%, to $20.4 billion last year.
Black Friday's decline doesn't mean that people don't care about deals. They do. In fact, discount shoppers account for two-thirds of all customers, according to a July study by the industry research firm NPD Group. But shoppers have become accustomed to finding deals all year long, not just on Black Friday.
That has led to a growing appreciation for dollar stores and other deep-discount retail chains. While department stores like Macy's, Nordstrom, and Kohl's have struggled to convince shoppers to buy items at full price, dollar stores are attracting shoppers with their consistently super-low prices.
"The last 10 years have seen dramatic growth within value retail, including the rapid growth in dollar stores and also the arrival and expansion of limited assortment/deep discount retailers," Jordan Rost, the vice president of consumer insights at Nielsen, told Business Insider. "These stores are eating into the share of wallet for traditional, mainstream supermarkets and mass merchandisers, leading to contractions in that channel."
The number of dollar stores in the US has grown by 45% in the last 10 years, reaching 28,048 locations in 2016, according to Nielsen data.
Dollar stores aren't just popular among lower-income bargain shoppers. Affluent millennials are shopping at the super-discount retailers more and more. The number of heads of households under 35 who earn more than $100,000 a year and shop at dollar stores rose 7.1% from 2012 to 2015.
The scope of what people are shopping for at dollar stores is also growing. From July 2015 to 2016, the number of customers who purchased meat or poultry from a dollar store in the previous three months more than doubled, from 3% to 7%.
BIQ Podcast: Black Friday is becoming a battle of values vs. values. Some stores open early with doorbuster deals; others are closing and advertising a commitment to family. Listen:


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At Takata, automakers and regulators attempt to unravel the facts behind the massive Takata airbag recall, one thing is clear: it is complicated. While the major players try to figure out where the fault lies and what the remedies should be, the average car owner is wondering what it means for them.
Alan’s Collision Center in NE Philadelphia is an auto body repair business since 1975. For 40 years, the I-CAR Gold trained technicians and professionals have installed preferred OEM parts that include airbags in vehicles after collision. As the Takata airbag recall continues to unfold, we will update you here and provide airbag recall FAQ for consumers.
Here is the first installment to help you sort out the important information.
Airbag Recall FAQ
Who is Takata?
Takata Corporation, headquartered in Japan, is an independent supplier of automotive safety components and systems for leading automakers in Europe, Asia and the Americas. With 46 plants in 17 countries, Takata manufactures motor vehicle seat belts, airbags, steering wheels and child safety restraints.
Why are Takata airbags being recalled?
Some of Takata manufactured airbags have a flaw that causes metal shards to erupt when deployed in a crash, causing serious injury and death. So far 139 injuries and eight deaths have been linked to the faulty airbags. In May, Takata announced a recall of certain types of driver and passenger airbag inflators.
What is causing the airbags to malfunction?
While investigations are still underway, the root problem appears to be with the airbag inflator. In a crash, it can ignite with explosive force causing the inflator housing to rupture and spray metal shrapnel into the passenger cabin.
Takata, automakers and independent investigators are having difficulty identifying a sole cause for the malfunctions. There appear to be multiple causes and contributing factors, including poor quality manufacturing, automobile design and long term exposure to heat and moisture. Further complicating the matter is the fact that the suspect inflator has 10 different configurations used in multiple model cars.
How long has this been a problem?
Takata first became aware of safety issues related to its airbag inflators in the first half of 2007. In November, 2008 it issued its first recall. Additional recalls followed as the problem was magnified.
Takata announced additional airbag faults in six auto makes in April, 2013. Then in October, 2014, it issued another major recall affecting more vehicles across several brands. In May of this year, Takata announced the inflator defect potentially affects 34 million airbags in the U.S., which is leading to more recalls. The Takata airbag recall could become the largest product recall in U.S. history.
Does this mean 34 million cars will be recalled?
No. Here is where the scope of the recall gets complex. Takata has recalled 34 million airbag inflators. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) calculated the total from 17.6 million driver-side inflators and 16.2 million passenger-side inflators. Some cars have been recalled for both. But until the NHTSA gets filings from the automakers, the actual number of cars affected is not known for certain.
How do I know if my car is affected by the airbag recall?
So far 11 automakers have been hit by the Takata airbag recall, including BMW, Chrysler, Daimler, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Subaru and Toyota. Most of the vehicles are in model years 2002-2008, but some have been added from 2014. Specific model years are being still being determined. Not every car in a listed model year is actually under recall. The best way to find out if your car is affected by the recall is to check the NHTSA website. There you will find a lookup tool to search all vehicle identification numbers (VINs) of known recalled vehicles.


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Verizon Communications Inc. is expanding the reach of its fiber optic FiOS TV service to small and midsized businesses.
That would include popular gathering places like sports bars.
Verizon (NYSE:VZ) says the new subscription-television service will be available to all types of small business venues, including medical office waiting rooms, banks, building lobbies, restaurants and taverns
In a statement, Verizon said FiOS TV for Business is immediately available in select areas of 13 states including parts of Maryland and Virginia where more than 1.2 million customers already subscribe to the residential version of the service.
FiOS is available in the counties of Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Howard, Montgomery and Prince George's in Maryland.
In Northern Virginia, FiOS TV will be available in Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, Prince William and Spotsylvania counties, along with Falls Church, Herndon, Reston, Manassas, Fredericksburg and other communities.
Verizon is negotiating a cable franchise with Washington, D.C.
The pricing for FiOS TV for Business begins at $49.99 per month in most areas for small business customers with a $409 rebate to those who sign up for both FiOS TV and FiOS Internet for Business.
Existing FiOS Internet for Business customers are eligible for a $170 online rebate when they order FiOS TV for Business with a one-year agreement.


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Do you know that you can now charge your smartphone in a minute? Don’t be surprised, everything seems to be possible with technology! Soon, you would stop complaining and lamenting about how quickly your battery drains out!
Just have it on record that It is a new dawn for smartphones users as a team of scientists/technologists have discovered a viable and workable solution for a long-lasting battery life.
The amazing Discovery…
The research was embarked upon by a team led by Chemistry Prof., Hongjie Dai, at Stanford University in California. Findings from the study showed that aluminium-ion batteries are more durable than lithium-ion batteries that are currently being used in smartphones. The latter lasts for about 1,000 cycles while the former continued charging after more than 7,500 cycles. This test was carried out in a laboratory and published in the journal Nature.
Use of Aluminium-ion battery in phones?
The use of aluminium-ion batteries in smartphones are yet to be commercially available. It will take quite some time before the battery hits the market. Jovago.com can tell you for free that smartphone users can’t wait to purchase this battery because it reduces their reliance on power bank and they can surf the web, play music and watch/download videos for longer periods.


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Nissan Motor earnings down, will close Barcelona plant
This includes costs associated with restructuring and impairments by 603.0 billion yen as Nissan focused on operational and efficiency improvements to transform the business. Free cash flow for the automotive business was a negative 641.0 billion yen.
Nissan maintains sufficient liquidity to steer through this challenging business environment. At year-end, cash and cash equivalents for the automotive business totaled 1.4946 trillion yen. Automotive net cash was 1.0646 trillion yen. In addition, the company continues to have access to approximately 1.3 trillion yen in unused committed credit facilities. In response to the coronavirus pandemic, Nissan raised an additional 712.6 billion in funding between April and May.
Nissan has decided to close its factory in Barcelona, resulting in the loss of about 2,800 jobs.
The closure was announced on Thursday by the automaker's CEO, Makoto Uchida.
Nissan made the decision to end its operation in Barcelona despite proposals made by the local authorities to keep the plant running, the Spanish government said in a statement.
The closure would cost Nissan as much as 1 billion euros ($1.10 billion), the government said, urging the automaker to look at other options.
The Barcelona factory builds pickups and vans. ■


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06-Nov-18, South China Morning Post
The South China Morning Post, founded in 1903, is now more widely read digitally than it is in print and its largest audience is Americans, rather than Hong Kong residents. The newspaper acquired by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba in 2016 is focused on providing the world a window into ever-growing China.
The growing importance of building a digital readership mirrors an ongoing trend in the newspaper industry globally where print circulations decline and the rise of less expensive online advertisements have cut into media company profits.
Gary Liu, CEO, says the paper is not currently profitable. Its ownership and management have decided to go into the red and invest over a period of time "to secure long-term sustainability and profitability". The only other option was to continue to cut costs.


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Is Matthew McConaughey already inspiring a fanny pack comeback?!
After wearing the questionable accessory at a sporting event over the weekend, Matt Lauer and Al Roker followed in McConaughey's fashion footsteps by sporting fanny packs on this morning's Today show.
"A controversial fashion accessory is the subject of a top story on Today.com," co-host Natalie Morales said on today's episode. "Matthew McConaughy, you know one of the most stylish men in Hollywood—does he have enough power though to bring back the fanny pack? McConaughey was spotted at a baseball game over the weekend wearing the bag and was called out by a reporter."
That's when Matt and Al stood up from behind their news desk to reveal their own fanny packs! Lauer sported his on the side while Roker had his front and center.
Lauer went on to say he'll "never, ever, ever" be caught wearing the accessory. LOL!
Watch the funny clip for yourself.
(E! and NBC are both part of the NBCUniversal family)


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According to recent research by Counterpoint, A￼pple is now the dominant smartphone player in China after notching record-high market share in the world’s second-largest economy, which bodes well for Apple shareholders.
Apple captured 23% of the Chinese smartphone market in the fourth quarter of 2021, up from 16% a year ago and its most ever… A shining fourth quarter in China brings Apple’s total market share in the country to 16% across all of 2021, up from 11% a year ago and just six percentage points behind Vivo, the leader by market share.
The update is good news ahead of Apple’s earnings because the stock price is typically highly reliant on iPhone sales, which are a key driver for the company’s profits.
Wall Street expects Apple to report $119 billion in revenue for the last quarter of 2021, up 7% from a year ago, with iPhone sales up 3% from 2020 to $67.6 billion.
Strong results from the tech giant later Thursday, in the form of estimate-beating sales, earnings, or particularly guidance, would be very welcome on Wall Street. Tech stocks have been in a rut all year, with the Nasdaq down 14.5% since the start of 2022. Apple stock has declined more than 12% over the same period.
MacDailyNews Take: As always, it’ll be very interesting to see how Wall Street reacts to the mountain of cash Apple lays before them later today.
MacDailyNews Note: Apple reports Q122 results later today, January 27th. We’ll have Apple’s results for you as soon as they are released, just check our homepage right around 1:30 p.m. PT / 4:30 p.m. ET. We will follow that with live notes from Apple’s’ conference call starting at 2:00 p.m. PT / 5:00 p.m. ET.
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