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A decline in LCD TV panel prices is expected to slow down next quarter as a result of better-than-expected TV demand during the year-end shopping season in the US, giving a much-needed injection to the gloomy LCD industry, market researcher International Data Corp (IDC) said yesterday.
IDC originally expected US consumers would remain cautious about electronics purchases given a weak US economic recovery and a high unemployment rate. However, demand has turned out better than forecast.
“Black Friday TV sales look quite good,” IDC analyst Annabelle Hsu (徐美雯) said on the sidelines of a forum in Taipei yesterday.
IDC did not provide detailed sales figures.
“This is good news to flat-panel makers ... Now we think the first-quarter will be a better quarter than I thought,” Hsu said.
IDC now predicts a soft landing, with the average unit price of LCD TV panels expected to fall at a slower rate of US$5 to US$10 per month compared with this quarter, Hsu said.
That would help alleviate the financial and operational pressure faced by Taiwanese LCD panel makers, especially as prices for LCD panels used in desktop monitors and notebook computers are forecast to rise slightly next quarter in IDC’s best-scenario analysis, Hsu said.
Taiwan’s two biggest LCD panel makers — Chimei Innolux Corp (奇美電子) and AU Optronics Corp (友達光電) — were severely hit by the recent downturn.
Chimei Innolux posted wider losses of NT$3.64 billion (US$120.6 million) last quarter, while AU Optronics reported a 97 percent decline in net profits to NT$227 million.
AU Optronics shares rose for a third straight session to NT$30.80 yesterday, while Chimei lost for a second consecutive session, dropping to NT$40.45.
Next quarter, revenues from global LCD TV panels are expected to grow 12.4 percent to US$19.15 billion from US$17.03 billion this quarter, Hsu said.
She did not include the recent pickup in TV demand when doing the forecast.
Increasing shipments of high-priced LED TV panels and 3D TV panels would also contribute to the growth of first-quarter revenues, Hsu said.
By shipments, global sales of LCD TVs would only inch up 1.8 percent sequentially next quarter to 155 million units, Hsu said.
Separately, Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd (中華映管), the nation’s third-biggest LCD panel maker, yesterday said revenues grew 2.6 percent to NT$5.75 billion last month from October’s NT$5.6 billion, joining bigger rival AU Optronics in ending straight losses over the past months.
Shipments of LCD TV and PC panels increased 1.1 percent to 1.84 million units last month from 1.82 million in the previous month, according to a company statement.
Meanwhile, HannStar Display Corp (瀚宇彩晶) said on Tuesday that revenues expanded 4.5 percent to NT$3.48 billion last month from NT$3.33 billion in October.
NOT ALL GOOD: Analysts warned that other data for last month might be less rosy due to the virus and analysts expect the PMI to contract again next month Chinese factory activity saw surprise growth last month as businesses went back to work following a lengthy shutdown, but analysts said that the economy faces a challenging recovery as external demand has been devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic, while the World Bank said that growth could screech to a halt. China is slowly returning to life after months of tough restrictions aimed at containing the virus, which put millions of people into virtual house arrest and brought economic activity to a near standstill. The strict measures saw a closely watched gauge of manufacturing plunge to its lowest level on record in February,
The output of the global smartphone industry this year is to contract by 7.8 percent on an annual basis as the COVID-19 pandemic ushers in a global recession, Taipei-based market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said in a report on Monday. The global production of smartphones is expected to fall to 1.29 billion units, as the pandemic dampens demand for consumer electronics, leading to a decline in shipments across Europe and North America, TrendForce said. With consumers delaying smartphone purchases and thereby lengthening the device replacement cycle, overall prices would suffer a setback that is expected to negatively affect the profitability of smartphone
ELECTRONICS Lite-On delays sale of unit Lite-On Technology Corp (光寶科技) yesterday said it would postpone the sale of its solid-state drives (SSD) business to Kioxia Holdings Corp, formerly known as Toshiba Memory Holdings Corp, due to disruptions amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Last year, the Taiwan-based electronics components supplier struck the deal with the Japanese firm, agreeing to sell the unit for US$165 million. Citing unfinished integration work due to the pandemic, Lite-On has deferred today’s closing date until further notice, adding that the delay would not have a negative effect on the unit’s operations. AUTO PARTS Hiroca approves dividend Automotive interior parts supplier Hiroca
ALL ABOUT STRATEGY: The company is optimistic, saying that its gross margin should increase year-on-year, but it is scaling back on its plans to expand capacity Quang Viet Enterprise Co (QVE, 廣越), which makes down jackets and garments for sportswear and outdoor brands including Adidas AG, yesterday said that revenue might drop 5 to 10 percent annually this year as some customers trimmed orders in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. That would mark its first revenue decline since 2016. Quang Viet posted record-high revenue of NT$16.26 billion (US$537.45 million) last year, up 22 percent from 2018. Down jackets made up 40 percent of it revenue last year. North Face Inc and Patagonia Inc are this year likely to reduce orders by 20 to 30 percent from a


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Town spurned on post office move; Playhouse Square merchants pleased
The U.S. Postal Service has overruled the town's opposition to relocating the Westport Post Office from its current location at 154 Post Road East to a new storefront in the Playhouse Square Shopping Center.
In a March 23 letter to First Selectman Gordon Joseloff, USPS real estate specialist Joseph Mulvey confirmed the postal agency's plan to move to a smaller site in the shopping center, which was announced by the Postal Service last month.
"The purchaser of the (154 Post Road East) property has plans for the property which do not include space for the Postal Service within the building," he wrote. The Playhouse Square property, he added, "offers on-site parking, something that is not available at the present location."
Mirroring his response to the initial announcement of the relocation, Joseloff expressed disappointment Thursday over the rejection of his appeal.
"The U.S. Postal Service has done a disservice to the town and its residents by selecting a buyer for the present building who is unwilling to accommodate a smaller postal retail operation in its plans," he said in a press release.
Postal Service officials, however, maintain that Playhouse Square is the best location for Westport's post office.
"We believe this is the best choice for the postal service and will be a vibrant addition to our continued presence in Westport," Postal Service Public Affairs Specialist Maureen Marion told the Westport News on Friday.
Several Playhouse Square merchants also expressed support for the post office's new location.
"I'm hoping it helps business," said Organic Market manager Richelle Luedee. "A lot of people who would never think of coming to the square will now come because of the post office."
Luedee added that she would prefer the post office to locate its entrance on the side of the building facing the Westport Country Playhouse to effectively manage parking turnover in the commercial complex.
"I think it's great," said Bodytalk women's clothing store manager Heidi Langan. "It'll bring in more people. Change is good."
Management at the Massage Envy Spa, one of the establishments that will share the northern end of the shopping center with the post office, also backed the move.
"I'm very happy," said the spa's owner, Kamal Ahuja. "With all the people who will see us going in and out of the post office, it will be a good advertisement for our business."
The Playhouse Square location was one of three alternate sites considered by the Postal Service after a for-sale sign went up in front of the main Post Road East branch about a year ago. The Postal Service also considered remaining in a smaller space in its existing building or moving to a site at 645 Post Road East, a shopping center that includes the Fresh Market grocery store.
After local mail sorting moved to a facility in Norwalk, the Postal Service determined that its current 10,000-square-foot building downtown is too large for its retail operations. The new Playhouse Square facility, which formerly housed the Derma Clinic European Day Spa, encompasses about 2,500 square feet.
The Postal Service's current location, meanwhile, will likely be sold to a new buyer within the next 30 days, according to Skip Lane of the Cushman and Wakefield commercial realty firm, which is brokering the deal. Once the sale is final, Lane said the buyer will probably seek retail and restaurant tenants to replace the post office.
The Postal Service has owned the 154 Post Road East building since 1935, according to Vision Appraisal records. The building has a current appraised value of approximately $3.2 million following the 2010 town revaluation.

domain: news


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With OnLive Go, the company is setting up deals with specific publishers, like Linden Lab, creator of Second Life virtual world, and Gaijin Entertainment, publisher of the War Thunder military simulation MMO. When you go to register for those games, you can opt to play instantly. Players can sometimes do this using features known as progressive downloads, which send a bit of the game to your computer so you can start it as the rest downloads in the background.
But with MMOs, it’s very difficult to do progressive downloads because you can start in any part of the world. The publisher doesn’t know which part of the game to send to you so you can start it instantly. With OnLive Go, that problem goes away and you can log in much faster. That should lead to improved conversion, or better likelihood that someone with stick with a game they’re trying out. War Thunder is normally a 6 gigabyte download. A lot of people won’t put up with that kind of download just to try a new game.
Linden Lab has also been trying to take Second Life to mobile devices. It can now do so with SL Go, a mobile viewer for Second Life. It extends Second Life to players with Android touchscreen tablets, older laptops, or OnLive’s TV platforms. OnLive will charge by the hour for people using SL Go. The price will be $3 per hour, and people can turn off the paid service as they wish. The more hours someone buys, the lower the cost. The service allows people to teleport quickly and see their creations in Second Life at very high speeds. Normally, Second Life won’t run at all on mobile connections, and that’s a problem as users migrate to mobile devices.
The services are available today, and more OnLive Go partners will materialize over time. A beta test has been running for a couple of months for both CloudLift and OnLive Go.
“OnLive is offering gamers something no other company has: the ability to access complex games instantly across multiple platforms. We’re excited to use OnLive’s service to help bring potential War Thunder customers into the game more quickly and to provide greater access to our current customers,” said Anton Yudintsev, CEO of Gaijin Entertainment, in a statement.
New approach to business
The pricing may seem high, but OnLive is now built to be a sound business, Jung said. And some costs have dropped. OnLive used to have 20 employees that had to help convert games so they could run on the OnLive service. That is now longer necessary, as OnLive works without the need to modify games. Lauder said that will allow the company to get games much closer to the time when they are released on other platforms.
Lauder also said, “We have taken an order of magnitude out of the costs. Early on, when the change in ownership happened, a lot of stories said that OnLive was crushed by its data center costs. That was inaccurate. The largest expense was for employees.”
OnLive now has a smaller payroll at 110 employees, well below its peak above 200. On top of that, the service that OnLive offers are now separated from the underlying architecture, Jung said. OnLive can improve its infrastructure and users will never even notice. OnLive is also hard at work on making its technology work on the infrastructure that other companies operate.
“We can make constant dynamic changes in the architecture unbeknownst to our users,” Jung said. “We can also host our service in someone else’s architecture. We have a whole R&D team working on next-generation support so we can move to other hosts.”
And that strategy also sits well with publishers, who often have their own infrastructure for online games. OnLive’s approach is thus more palatable because it is not as closed as it used to be.
“That is one thing that is different since I came on,” Jung said. “We need an architecture that is evolving and improving. The closer we get to a partner, the more flexibility we need on who operates the service and where it will be hosted. In the past, OnLive had a closed, proprietary approach. Our team is more open and adaptive and dynamic.”
Jung, who was co-founder and CEO of IGN and CEO of the video streaming service Vudu, has been on board in a quiet way since May 2013. But OnLive is announcing today that he is executive chairman and is basically running the company. Charlie Jablonski, who took over as CEO after Perlman left, has also left the company. Lauder is giving up his title of chairman and will remain lead investor of OnLive. Sanchez, former vice president of Playdom at Disney Interactive, joined about half a year ago.
Other new hires include Carrie Holder, vice president of business development and former director of partner management at Electronic Arts. Don Gordon became OnLive’s senior vice president of engineering about a year ago.
OnLive will face a lot of competition from the likes of G-Cluster, Playcast, and Sony’s PlayStation Now service, which will come via its Gaikai acquisition. OnLive said it will have a rolling release of more titles as it gets more deals with publishers done.
In summary, Sanchez said, “We are still the only company offering AAA content that you can stream over the Internet.”
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Despite a number of controversies over the past year, the Riverhead Costco store was issued a temporary certificate of occupancy in time to meet its announced June 26 opening date on Thursday.
And it was greeted by large crowds of shoppers.
“We are thrilled to be bringing Costco’s low warehouse prices to the residents of Riverhead,” warehouse manager Jon Jovel said in a press release. “They have been asking us to open here for a long time, and we already have made an impact on the local job market. We look forward to contributing to the community in many ways.”
Town officials had previously said the store would not be issued a CO, allowing it to open to the public, unless it met all of the conditions of a May 15 amended site plan approval issued by the town Planning Board.
The approval required the developer of the site, Brixmor Property Group, to replace a wooden fence around the property with a chain link fence with privacy slats, and to plant all of the trees buffering neighboring properties that had been previously called for in the earlier approval — and, lastly, to replace trees that have since died.
It also required them to spread out excess sand on the property over a 20-acre portion of the site, resulting in the grade of the land being raised by 3.5 feet over the prior Planning Board approval from the fall of 2012.
Residents in the Foxwood Village development to the north and the Millbrook Community development to the east had complained about the lack of screening between their homes and the shopping center after Brixmor, with Town Board and Planning Board approvals, clearcut the entire 41 acre site, even though the builders only planned to develop a portion of it.
According to Riverhead Supervisor Sean Walter, the store was issued a temporary CO and not a permanent one because the traffic light, which it shares with another shopping center across the street, had not been fully accepted by the Suffolk County Department of Public Works, and because the developer needed to sprinklers and hydroseed — a type of fast growing grass — on a 20-foot section of lawn around the parking lot.
Mr. Walter said both were being done, and he doesn’t anticipate the store will have any problems getting the permanent CO.
He said all the other requirements of the amended site plan approval have been met.
The Costco site is actually separately owned from the rest of the shopping center, which is called The Shops at Riverhead and is owned by Brixmor. However, another part of the amended site plan allowed the developers to build just the Costco store initially, since they didn’t have any tenants yet for the rest of the project.
Robert Hall, a Foxwood Village resident who has represented the homeowners there at planning meetings on the development for several years, was not happy that the town granted the CO.
“They said that unless they completed everything on the amended site plan, they wouldn’t get a CO,” he said. “I don’t believe they’ve completed everything.”
Although new spruce trees were planted along the border with the Foxwood and Millbrook communities, he said the builders never removed the arborvitae trees that were previously planted. He said he and many other residents agree the trees “look like junk.”
Caption: Neighbors have complained about these arborvitae shrubs. (Credit: Tim Gannon, file)


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As someone with allergies who's very prone to getting sick, I throw out a worrying amount of snotty tissues in any given month.
But while I'm used to dirty tissues piling up around my home, I still think they're gross - like any well-adjusted person would. A new company offering dirty tissues for premium prices obviously sees things differently.
Vaev Tissue, a new start up, is not your typical tissue company. Instead of soft, soothing tissues, Vaev offers their customers ones that are pre-used.
The Danish company based in Los Angeles claims that exposing yourself to their snotty tissues will make you sick, which they count as a feature and not a downside. Vaev claims you can build up your immune system by exposing yourself to the germy tissues.
Each tissue sold by Vaev has been treated with a "hydrolayer" of human sneeze collected from real sick people.
"We have a rotation of people who get sick for the production of this product," company founder Oliver Niessen told The Sun.
"The rotation guarantees that we always have at least one person sick/available to help make more. That is how the process works."
The company also suggests you can plan when to get sick using Vaev tissues, as if this will keep you from getting sick at less convenient times of the year.
In another stunning claim on their website, Vaev even says their tissues are "safer than needles or pills."
Here's how Niessen pitched the business to Time:
"I mean, we customize everything in our lives and we have everything the way we want it, so why not approach sickness that way as well?"
And no, despite what you might think (or hope), Niessen insists his business is not an elaborate joke. (Although Time dug up several sketchy details about Vaev, including the fact that Niessen seems to not have a phone number or online presence.)
Bear in mind, doctors interviewed about the stomach-turning trend say Vaev's claims are pure bunk. One, an infectious disease expert from Northeast Ohio Medical University, called Vaev "bizarre" and said it seems "like a total waste of money."
As another doctor explained to Time, there are hundreds of varieties of the common cold, so exposing yourself to one strain does almost nothing to protect you from getting sick.
Exposing yourself to a virus, even a mild one, is also dangerous because there's no telling how severely your body could react. And it's highly questionable if the germs on those tissues could even survive the trip to your home.
Those concerns haven't stopped the company's customers, as Time reports that Vaev has been sold out for weeks after filling over 1,000 orders.


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The chief executive of Delphi Automotive, the auto supplier that supplied the defective switch to General Motors which has been linked to at least 13 deaths, said yesterday that the automaker was responsible for approving the faulty part design.
Rodney O’Neal, testifying in front of Congress, said his company made “the switch that GM approved and wanted.”
“GM knowingly approved a final design that included less torque than the original target,” he said in prepared written testimony he was scheduled to make to members of a Senate subcommittee. “ In our view, that approval established the final specification.”
GM has linked 13 deaths and 54 crashes to the specific defect, in which the ignition switch can slip from the “run” to the “accessory” position, causing the engine to stall, air bags to not deploy, and a loss of power brakes and power steering.
O’Neal said Delphi has four production lines running to make ignition switches to replace the faulty parts that have been recalled by GM. He said Delphi has shipped more than 1 million switches.


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Coffee and Painkillers: Why Not to Worry
In the last week of September 2007, a brand-new research was released by the University of Washington College of Drug store on harmful communications in between high levels of caffeine and acetaminophen, the pain reliever chemical that’s the active component of Tylenol, Excedrin, and other OTC pain-relieving and cold remedy products. A handful of media electrical outlets wasted little time in sounding an alarm system. Consuming coffee as well as Tylenol at the same time “may trigger liver damage,” alerted an on-line Fox Newspaper article. U.S. Information and Globe Report had UWSP dean and also research coauthor Sid Nelson, PhD, suggesting use of aspirin or advil (found in brand like Advil and Motrin) “if you find on your own handling a Red Bull-vodka migraine” (their words, not his), and also the drug store institution duplicated this write-up on its Internet site. A Canadian college student newspaper even presumed regarding utilize the heading: “The hangover killer that is killing you.” Don’t allow these sensationalized headlines scare you. A closer take a look at the real study revealed that production of a toxic liver by-product occurred when researchers used a high levels of caffeine amount equivalent to 20 cups of coffee. If you come from this over-caffeinated group, you ought to chat with your physician about different OTC painkiller (as well as perhaps resolve your coffee habit while you go to it). For the remainder people, it’s safe to consume moderate amounts of high levels of caffeine while taking acetaminophen as guided. “There is no danger related to taking normal healing dosages of acetaminophen products and alcohol consumption coffee or various other caffeinated drinks,” stated Nelson in an e-mail interview. “People that take typical quantities of acetaminophen can drink coffee and also various other caffeine-containing items without problem.” [pagebreak] Nelson sought to make clear the research study’s findings after really feeling that his comments had been considerably misshaped in current information. Actually, he mentioned that with the exemption of a tiny team that have damaged liver operating, “the rest of the populace would much more securely take acetaminophen as well as high levels of caffeine, because it triggers less threat of belly blood loss” than ibuprofen or aspirin. As for products like Excedrin and also Midol that already integrate caffeine with acetaminophen in their formula, Nelson said, “In normal dosages, caffeine enhances the pain-relieving results of acetaminophen. As a matter of fact, these products are advantageous as well as rather safe when taken as routed.”.


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It seems like Huawei is brewing a method to be able to melt the USA govt’s stance towards the corporate after its most sensible govt expressed openness to proportion wisdom on 5th Technology (5G) era.
Huawei to proportion 5G era to US companies
In keeping with Ren Zhengfei, Huawei founder and leader govt officer
Ren Zhengfei, Huawei founder and leader govt officer, mentioned the Chinese language company used to be keen to permit American tech firms to have get right of entry to to its current 5G patents, together with core code and technical blueprints, and central manufacturing engineering wisdom.
This announcement used to be a part of Huawei’s daring try to disprove allegations of espionage, even developing a possible, sturdy rival within the 5G house.
These days, Huawei continues to steer the 5G shift because it already inked 50 industrial 5G contracts, and shipped over 150,000 bases stations in overseas markets.
Huawei is open to sharing our 5G applied sciences and methods with US firms, in order that they may be able to increase their very own 5G trade, Ren advised the New York Instances.
The authentic used to be hoping the proposal may result in “a balanced state of affairs between China, the USA, and Europe.”
Huawei has been at the scorching seat since the second one quarter of 2020 after US President Donald Trump thought to be the company as a danger to the country’s safety. The corporate used to be additionally integrated underneath the “entity checklist” the place industry offers with US-based teams have been being blocked.
Marshmallow Android is BT Ireland’s Head of Sales for Republic of Ireland domestic multi-site companies, indigenous MNCs and public sector accounts. He is responsible for the direction and control of all sales activity in the region. He has over 10 years management experience from high growth start-ups to more established businesses. He’s led teams in Ireland, India and China across various industries (ICT, On-Line Recruitment, Corporate Training and International Education). View more posts


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This is the moment scores of people at an illegal car cruise flee as large numbers of police crash the event. Drone footage captures 100 cars lining the sides of the road in Heartlands Parkway, the ...
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the site has everything for the beginner right right through to the seasoned drone professional!


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$3.8 million released in listeria outbreak
DENVER — A judge has released $3.8 million for settling 61 wrongful death and personal injury lawsuits stemming from contaminated cantaloupe processed by Jensen Farms near Granada.
Federal Judge Howard Tallman released the money, which Jensen Farms and Bio Food Safety Inc. had on deposit at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Denver as part of their bankruptcies. Bio Food audits farms for the safety of food products.
The amount is only a small portion of the millions of dollars sought in lawsuits for deaths and injuries from the cantaloupe listeria outbreak in 2011.
The outbreak was traced to a plant near Granada where the cantaloupe was processed.
The families who sued may try to collect more money from Frontera Produce, the distributor Jensen used, retail stores that sold the cantaloupes and Primus Labs, which subcontracted the audit to Bio Food.


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Will Google’s New Internet Protocol Give It An Unfair Advantage?
It is very likely for a person who is looking for junk hauling Orange County to use Google search engine for a fast and efficient result. Small businesses ensure that their marketing team is using SEO strategies so that the website will appear on the first pages of Google search results. Aside from an increase in traffic to the website, businesses are given a fair chance to compete with large organizations.
Meanwhile, congressional antitrust investigators are concerned that Google’s plans of using a new internet protocol may give it an unfair advantage. According to Wall Street Journal, investigators want to determine whether Google will be using data collected through the new internet protocol for commercial purposes.
The aim of the new standard called DNS over HTTPS is to improve online privacy and security by encrypting traffic. This will hamper a hacker’s ability to spoof different websites. Google is planning to test the new protocol through users of Chrome browser next month.
Privacy is major concern nowadays and consumers are concerned with how much data has been collected from them particularly with the Cambridge Analytica Scandal that is still haunting Facebook. The UK-based company was able to gather data from 87 million people without their permission.
However, Google will gain an unfair advantage because the new standard could change online competition. Companies may be cut off from most of user’s valuable DNS surfing data. According to a Google spokesperson, they have no plans to centralize or alter DNS providers to Google by default. It is highly inaccurate to claim that Google is trying to become the centralized encrypted DNS provider.
Antitrust investigations are being carried by leaders of the House Judiciary Committee on Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon to explore competition on the online market. They want to determine whether big tech companies are engaging in anti-competitive conduct, data misuse and privacy breaches.
If the junk is mostly composed of heavy and bulky items that are difficult to move, your best option is junk hauling Orange County that will haul your junk outside the property safely and efficiently. Never try to haul heavy junk on your own to avoid serious injuries.
Why An Internet Crash Is Cause For Concern
The management of transport is one of the popular uses of the internet in supplyRead More
Why Internet Access Is Absolutely Important
People are staying home and shopping through the internet. They have more time to readRead More


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Today I met the nursing team at the John Radcliffe Hospital, and announced £140m to help their work across the country http://t.co/Ztw8c99N
More on his visit to Oxford on our national news web site here
More top news
Thursday morning's weather for the east of the region
Thursday mornings weather for the west of the region
This month marks the 20th anniversary of eBay. The US-based online auction site has transformed buying & selling for millions of people.


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Conferences boost bookings for Gladstone hotels
HOTELS in Gladstone are winning this week with an influx of visitors on business.
Principals from schools around regional Queensland have packed out the city centre for their biennial conference, which began on Monday at the Gladstone Entertainment Convention Centre.
GECC's Garry Hansen said the conference's 250 attendees had booked more than 560 hotel room and apartment nights, and would be contributing more than $250,000 to the Gladstone economy.
The majority are housed at Gladstone City Central and the recently-opened Curtis Central Apartments.
"These types of events boost the town in a big way in terms of accommodation, then there's the flow-on in terms of restaurants and cafes," Central Apartment Group operations manager Greg Whitehead said.
Barry Stack, from Quest Gladstone Serviced Apartments, said Gladstone was becoming a more popular destination for conferences.
"We're about double up from last year," he said.
"Companies just like to get outside their own little environment."
Note: The third paragraph in this story has been edited. The original version indicated 250 conference attendees had booked 560 rooms. It should have been "room nights".


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Gamers, rejoice! Sony PlayStation unleashed its newest hand-held video game console, the PS Vita, in-store and online yesterday. It's a major upgrade from the PlayStation Portable, but it comes at a pretty steep price -- the device retails for $250, which includes wi-fi access, and another 3G version of the console will be offered by AT&T for $299, which will allow gamers to play with other Vita owners. But in the age of iPhones, many consumers and critics are questioning whether it's worth spending this much for a device that has so many overlapping features with a smartphone.
Games for the Vita can be bought in stores, which will then be preloaded on tiny memory cards, or they can be downloaded through a Vita-installed blank memory card. Vita owners can also buy or rent movies and TV shows through the PlayStation store, and select free apps will be available as part of today's PlayStation Store update. Some of the most popular apps, including Facebook, are not yet available, but as of now Netflix, LiveTweet and Flickr can all be enjoyed on the console.
Some gaming critics are skeptical of the PS Vita, citing evidence from the console's release in Japan late last year (the amount of units sold during the second week of its release dropped by 248,000). Vita sales in Japan are not the only indication of a potential decline for the demand of handheld gaming consoles. The predecessor to the Vita, PlayStation Portable, also saw a recent decline in sales and Nintendo's 3DS suffered in sales until a substantial price drop in the cost of the device.
Sony hopes that the multipurpose Vita, with its camera, web browser, and video player, among other features, will draw more attraction from those who would normally overlook a handheld gaming device.
Do you think that handheld gaming consoles are still relevant in the age of smartphones? Are you excited for the Vita? Tell us in the comments below or tweet @HuffPostTeen!


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The new technology demonstrates graphene’s potential to serve as a viable replacement. Graphene is made from carbon atoms alone and can be sustainably produced, whereas indium’s comparative scarcity makes it more expensive and unsustainable. Until now, graphene has had big expectations but hasn’t been able to have them fully realized. “Because of its importance and scarcity there have been many attempts to replace ITO, but no material has been found to have a comparable performance in an electronic or optical device until now,” said Professor Colin Humphreys of Queen Mary and Paragraf.
After continue Must read these:
In the journal Advanced Optical Materials, researchers from Paragraf and Queen Mary University of London presented a fresh study on the prospective replacement. The researchers succeeded in fabricating an Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) with a mono-layer graphene anode instead of the usual indium tin oxide (ITO) anode. Indium is a rare earth metal and one of the nine rarest elements in the Earth’s crust, making it a key raw material for the European Union. OLED technology is now used in many smartphones and television displays, but indium is also found in a wide range of other consumer gadgets.
“Our paper is the first paper in the world to demonstrate that graphene can replace ITO in an electronic/optical device. We have shown that a graphene-OLED has identical performance to an ITO-OLED. ITO-OLEDs are widely used as the touch screens on our mobile phones,” continued Humphreys.
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20. June 2017 ǀ Munich Ismaning
What makes a digital pioneer
Priority on transparency, the boss as driving force and going on the offense with customer orientation: companies have adopted digital strategies, but have yet to apply them consistently.
In this article:
- Which industries will be most impacted by disruption
- Who should make the decisions on digital strategy
- Why customer focus is the alpha and omega of digitization
- Why BMW digitized its product first
Ten to fifteen years ago, when Adrian Fischer spoke with people in the telecommunications and media sectors, talk was about one thing: digital transformation. “No other industry suffered as much from the effects of the Internet as publishing houses,” said Fischer, Managing Director of the executive consultancy firm Russell Reynolds Associates. Today’s media companies like Axel Springer cannot be compared with those from the pre-Internet era. Today, over 70 percent of first-quarter profits are attributable to digital businesses. Axel Springer saw nearly 600 million euros in profits in the last financial year, in which classified ad services such as real estate, job and travel websites grew by more than 16 percent. These are now just as much part of the portfolio as paid subscription services at BILD, Hamburger Abendblatt or WELT. The disruption has been turning industries on their heads.
1. Making products simple and transparent
According to Fischer, few of Germany’s pioneers in the digital transformation are consistent: “Companies define a strategic framework for digital transformation, but then only go as far as they need to stay in competition,” says Fischer, who specializes in the technology and digital sectors. There are only a few who are going for bold changes in their offers, business models or work processes.” But the current Russel Reynolds survey “Digital Pulse 2017”, with responses from over 1,500 decision-makers worldwide, shows that most industries can no longer afford to do this. Above all this applies to the health and financial services sectors, for whom the “danger” of falling victim to disruptive new business models has risen the most acutely – 16 percent in the health industry and 11 percent in the financial industry.
Fischer sees important developments for the health industry: “Complex illnesses will be more easily recognized in the future with the help of artificial intelligence and machine learning, unstructured images will be analyzed the way texts are.” Banks, too, will no longer be able to get around making their products simpler and more transparent. “Contract terms have to be understandable, and not hidden as footnotes deep inside the document,” says Fischer, who still doesn’t see the connection in many industries between transformation strategy and the “life” of the subject.
2. Let the boss do it
In most companies, the CEO is responsible for this. In 40 percent of the companies surveyed in Digital Pulse 2017, the decisions on digital vision and strategy are made top down from the executive office – in others, by the head of marketing (14 percent) or those in charge of the company’s digital business (10 percent).
But that doesn’t mean that all departments in a company share the same level of enthusiasm. Production, finance and HR, for example, apparently have little interest in stepping up as partner for digital initiatives in the company. In any case, less than 50 percent of those queried consider these departments to be partners in the company’s digitization. For production, it’s only 22 percent. “Digitization is clear in terms of strategy, but not established down the line, meaning that it hasn’t yet reached the company DNA”, Russel-Reynolds expert Fischer opines. Top-down decisions are now all the more important for implementing digitization. This is confirmed in the “Digital Maturity & Transformation Report 2017” from the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland. Here, companies which place special value on top-down decisions and innovations demonstrate a high level of digital maturity. Companies which place focus on IT and a bottom-up strategy are seen as digital stragglers. For this reason, 35 percent of CEOs in Germany are now leading the digital transformation of their companies, 11 percent more than in the previous year, according to a recent study by GfK and Yougov.
3. Learning customer orientation
Pioneers like the American companies Airbnb and Uber or myTaxi from Hamburg have shown how important it is in digitization to put customer advantages first. In direct comparison to the USA, Germans are simply lacking in “experience with user-centric approaches”, as a study by GfK and Yougov found. While only 14 percent of respondents in the USA recognized this as a challenge, in Germany it was 64 percent.
Researchers and entrepreneurs, however, are aware of the issue. Not least because of this, the University of St. Gallen assesses “customer experience” (in the context of process digitization) as the strongest of the nine dimensions comprising the maturity model, forming the “roof” of the graphically presented “maturity model” house.
Is there a customer experience on all channels, is customer communication personalized, and are marketing measures based on analyses of customer and interaction data? These are some of the questions that companies must answer in the test. Along with media companies, the ICT, insurance and tourism industries have been revealed as pioneers. Medicine and health care industries demonstrate the least maturity. And the Digital Pulse 2017 study also reveals that digital strategies are oriented primarily toward customers. Three of the six subjects viewed as most important for digital strategy, for example, involve the implementation of tools — “customer experience and engagement” (77 percent), collection of customer data (71 percent) and (further) development of customer analyses (64 percent).
4. First digitize the product, then start on the company
The challenge: A company’s employees must also wrangle with the transformation to a customer-oriented business. Top executive consultant Adrian Fischer suggests a mix of “valuing the tried and true” and “selected, or better said, pinpointed promotion of the new.” Even if a shortage of digital skills is the Number 1 impediment on the road to digitization, this doesn’t mean that entire workforces should be replaced overnight, but rather that existing employees need to be “brought along” on the journey. “BMW’s transformation didn’t start in the HR or finance departments,” says Fischer, “and yet the new 5 Series and 7 Series are now fitted with modern entertainment systems.” And the customer senses the digitization, even if it’s still over the horizon inside the company.
Innovation consultancy: Let our expert Timo Simon, Manager Sales and Business Development, in a first non-committal appointment advice you on innovation management. We convinced you to become digital-ready? Following the first telephone conversation, we would be happy to offer you a free workshop, in which we jointly identify your innovation potential and develop your strategy for the digital future. Arrange your non-binding personal consultation today.
Autor: Andreas Schmitz ǀ 20. June 2017 ǀ München Ismaning
About the Author
Journalist Corporate Media in Munich, many years of experience with publishing houses and agencies. Focus on storytelling and content marketing in the field of corporate media. Special affinity with technical and scientific subjects. Member of the founding editorial department of the management magazine CIO, former chief editor of the corporate portal SAP.info, development of various electronic magazines and online media


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The CCOF (California Certified Organic Farmers) Foundation and UNFI Foundation, along with other industry leaders Driscoll’s, Organic Valley, and Bradmer Foods, are supporting the education of new farmers, ranchers, and food processors by establishing the Future Organic Farmer Grant; a first-of-its-kind collaboration.
The fund will focus on three target areas: K-12 educational projects, individual grants for higher and vocational education, and disadvantaged communities. “Among the challenges to meeting the rising demand for organic products is the need for new organic farmers and entrepreneurs,” said Cathy Calfo, CCOF executive director/CEO. “More than 80% of Americans now purchase organic products, and demand continues to out-pace the supply.”
To address this challenge, the CCOF Foundation, UNFI Foundation, Driscoll’s, Organic Valley, and Bradmer Foods have pooled their resources to provide up to $50,000 in direct financial support for the education of future organic farmers and agricultural professionals. Grants will be awarded to students who aspire to lead careers in organic agriculture.
“The United States is facing an epidemic shortage of farmers and the average age of a farmer is hovering around 60,” said Melody Meyer, UNFI vice president, Policy and Industry Relations. “We are excited to join with other industry leaders to address this challenge.”
Guidelines and applications for the Future Organic Farmer Grant Fund will be available in April 2014. For more information about the application process or to contribute to the fund, contact [email protected].


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Ubisoft announced that the open beta for For Honor will commence shortly before the game's release later this month. For gamers interested in partaking in the beta, some details have been revealed, giving them a heads-up on how to participate and when it's going to take place.
According to a recent press notice that Ubisoft sent out, you can play the For Honor beta starting February 9th and running through February 12th. The weekend beta commences just ahead of the game's full release on February 14th. You can register for the beta over on the official website where you can choose your platform and your alliance.
The open beta will include the all new Elimination Mode, which will debut for the public in For Honor for the very first time. The mode is played across five rounds with no respawns. Teams of four are matched up against each other, making it a standard deathmatch but where you only have one life. The objective is to kill the opposing team via elimination. The first time to win three out of five rounds wins the game.
The Elimination Mode won't be the only gameplay option available in the open beta of For Honor. Ubisoft will also be including the Dominion Mode, Brawl, and Duel. In the Dominion Mode, you'll have to work with your team to take over checkpoints throughout the map and secure it from the opposition. You'll have minions at your disposal while also having to face off against the minions of your opposition. This mode can also be played between as few as two or as many as eight players. It's similar to the Domination game modes in other titles like Call of Duty or the Conquest modes in Battlefield. Whoever scores the most points before time runs out wins the round.
Brawl is a free-for-all mode and Duel is an interesting one-on-one mode where players will face off against another set of players in Bushido Blade-like duels across a number of rounds.
They also revealed that there will be nine available hero classes to play. They don't list them off, but they will include the already revealed classes and some of the newer ones that Ubisoft have been spotlighting since the closed beta.
For Honor seems to straddle the line between being a successor to games like Bushido Blade, while also mirroring mechanics from popular games like Koei Tecmo's Dynasty Warriors series. Players will be able to hack and slash down enemies using quick attacks and heavy attacks, but also modify their attacks for more skill-oriented combat by locking onto opponents and using directional strikes to down foes. The offensive attacks are as equal in availability as defensive abilities too. Players can block different attacks from different directions as well as use counter-attacks, parries and feints.
The game has centered a great deal of its focus on the multiplayer, but I'm also hoping that the single-player content is robust enough for people who may not be too inclined to play online against other people.
You can look for the For Honor beta to get underway starting next week on February 9th just ahead of the February 14th release date for PS4, PC and Xbox One.


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Web3 mobile gaming startup Matr1x has raised $10 million in its latest funding round towards development of its first Web3 title, doubling its total investments to $20 million in the process.
This first title, Matr1x Fire, is a mobile team shooter with NFT features, leveraging Matr1x’s experience in non-fungibles with two NFT collections already under its belt. Matr1x Kuku, a third collection, is also in development.
Bringing the heat
The Singapore-based Web3 maker’s latest funding round was led by Folius Ventures and SevenX Fund with further participants including ABCDE Capital, Find Satoshi Lab, Jambo and Initiate Capital.
It follows a September 2022 round that confirmed three titles in development - Matr1x Fire, Matr1x War and Matr1x Evolution - with Matr1x Fire in particular being accelerated by this new 2023 funding.
Characters in Matr1x Fire each have their own backstory explaining why they’ve joined the fight, be they a virtual idol turned self-aware, Bushido-spirited AI, or pigtail-wearing, bubblegum-blowing bandit. The Web3 game will feature a variety of game modes including Competitive, Deathmatch and Teammatch, with plenty of weapons and maps to choose from.
"BANG BANG BANG! We've hit a monumental $10M in our A-2 funding round, skyrocketing our total to $20M. A rousing welcome to our new allies," Matr1x tweeted. "To our esteemed veteran investors - Hana Financial Investments, HashKey Capital, Amber Group, SevenXVentures and 7upDAO - immense thanks! You've been the wind beneath our wings."
New Web3 games may not be as prevalent today as they were back in 2021 - a time when games like Axie Infinity were taking the world by storm - but there are still new players joining the space. This September, for example, Zynga, FunPlus and NetEase veterans received an $8 million investment towards a new NFT dinosaur game, Age of Dino. More recently, we spoke with Immutable’s VP of game design and game director Chris Clay about unlocking Web3's potential.


text: Welcome to MAXX’s new technology slot.. Every week our technology guru Jerrell will be covering the latest in technology news, updates and pitfalls. This week he talks about BlackBerry. Welcome to 2015! It’s a New Year and a new start but for some companies this year could be the end of an era. One specific example is, BlackBerry – which is currently in the consumer firing line and this years ‘hot topic’ company to vanish.


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Copper Mountain Resort recycles old ski patrol gear
Copper Mountain Resort will be recycling its old ski patrol uniforms. The resort’s employee store, GearUp, is doing so with the help of the outdoor clothing company Patagonia.
Copper said on its Copper Recruiter Twitter account on Tuesday that Patagonia will keep the uniforms out of landfills by recycling and repurposing the items.
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In after-hours trading, the stock reaches all-time high levels, reflecting solid growth the company is recording in its cloud-computing business.
Microsoft shares were poised to set all-time highs Friday after the latest evidence of the company’s success in rebuilding itself as a cloud-computing power.
The Redmond company on Thursday blew past analysts’ expectations for its quarterly earnings, posting an adjusted profit of 76 cents a share, well above Wall Street analysts’ expectations for 68 cents a share.
In after-hours trading late Thursday, Microsoft shares climbed nearly 6 percent, exceeding $60 a share and reaching above the all-time highs set during the dot-com boom in December 1999. If the stock ends Friday’s regular trading session at those levels, it would top Microsoft’s record closing price of $59.56, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.
With a stagnant personal-computer market hampering Microsoft’s traditional Windows and Office cash cows, the company has spent billions of dollars in recent years reshaping itself into a seller of on-demand software and computing power over the internet.
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Investors have cheered Microsoft’s progress in that aim, particularly compared to the struggles other business technology giants, including IBM and Oracle, have had in navigating similar transitions.
Microsoft’s “commercial cloud” — primarily business sales of Office 365 and the Azure network of on-demand computing power — was on pace in September to bring in $13 billion in revenue over the course of a full year, up 59 percent from a year earlier.
“This is their engine of growth,” said Dave Bartoletti, an analyst with technology researcher Forrester. “I don’t think we’re seeing any signs of weakness” in those businesses, he said.
Sales of Microsoft’s Azure, the cloud service the company is building to challenge Amazon.com’s market-leading Amazon Web Services unit, grew 116 percent from a year ago, Microsoft said.
Asked by a financial analyst to contrast Microsoft’s offerings with those of its nearby rival, Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella reiterated the company’s broad sales pitch without directly addressing Amazon.
He said large companies were increasingly turning to Microsoft services to help make their businesses more digital.
“It’s not just the Silicon Valley startups anymore,” Nadella said. “It is the core enterprise that is also becoming a digital company.”
Sales in Microsoft’s Intelligent Cloud segment, which includes server software and Azure, grew 8 percent from a year earlier, to $6.4 billion for the three months ended Sept. 30, the first quarter of Microsoft’s fiscal 2017.
Productivity and Business Processes, home to the Office franchise, posted a 6 percent rise in sales, to $6.7 billion driven by growing business sales of the Office 365 web-based productivity suite.
Those gains helped make up for another quarter in which Windows, formerly the engine of Microsoft’s growth, remained stuck in neutral. Revenue in Microsoft’s More Personal Computing segment fell 2 percent, to $9.3 billion.
Microsoft’s adjusted revenue was $22.3 billion, up 3 percent from a year earlier.
That figure includes about $1.9 billion in sales of the Windows 10 operating system that Microsoft officially defers to future years to comply with accounting rules.
The company recognizes Windows revenue over a multiyear period designed to line up with the lifetime of the computer the software is installed on.
Stripping out those deferred Windows sales, revenue during the quarter was $20.45 billion, little changed from a year earlier. Net income was $4.69 billion, down 4 percent.
On that basis, per share income was 60 cents a share, compared with 61 cents a share a year ago.
Microsoft shares had finished the regular session on Thursday at $57.25, down 0.5 percent. The quarterly report was released after the market closed regular trading.


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21 Seattle-area restaurants our critics are most excited to try after pandemic
Former Canlis chef opens at White Center, favorite Vietnamese restaurant will launch all-vegan menu, popular bar is planning a tiki extravaganza. … With over 70% of Seattle vacuum packed (good for us!) And Washington restaurants set to reopen at full capacity by June 30 (yes!), Seattle Times restaurant reviews Bethany Jean Clement and Tan Vinh, got rid of COVID- 19 spider webs and made this list of the most anticipated places. Some are coming soon; some have just started; some have new leaders or a new location. Wherever you decide to go, enjoy it as much as humanly possible (we are so lucky to be going out to the world again!) And tip big (after what restaurants have been through, they deserve it. more than ever !).
Brady williams‘restaurant to come
Former chef James Beard Award of famed high-end Canlis isn’t quite ready to give details on how he will fit into his new neighborhood just yet, but we do know the name: Tomo Restaurant (and address: 9811 16th Ave. SW; and his partner: a certain William True).
Union of Southern Lakes
The family behind Monsoon and Ba Bar will launch a vegan counter inside their Ba Bar restaurant near the Amazon campus later this summer. Expect banh mi tofu, kimchi fried rice with plant-based sausages, and vegetarian dishes inspired by the flavors of Southeast Asia.
Sun Hongnext effort
Somewhere in Seattle
By Tae, the tiny sushi and other restaurant on Chophouse Row, brought immense happiness before having to move earlier this year, but Chef Sun says he’s coming back, whether with club sandwiches, all-you-can-eat spaghetti. or whatever. I can not. Wait.
Tropical oasis Rumba has teased cocktail geeks all spring long with the promise of flaming tiki drinks served at an underwater-themed den tucked inside its main bar. This tiki nirvana will open on June 25.
Chef Eli Dahlin, who brought the (awesome) Caesar Salad Sandwich to Damn the Weather to Seattle, is now a co-owner of this natural wine bar where Bar Ferdinand once stood, which makes pizzas like the snail / the ramp / tarragon / Asiago and nettle / Taleggio / smoked lardo in the wood-fired oven.
Brothers Brian and Mark Canlis still rave about the seven-course feast their chef Aisha Ibrahim composed last winter during her week-long interview to be the executive chef of Seattle’s most famous gastronomic institution. . The unveiling of Ibrahim’s menu comes on July 1 when Canlis reopens. It’s the hottest ticket in town.
Under the guidance of the original owners’ grandson, Terrell Jackson, this Seattle classic has hiked a few places (including a spot in Rainier Valley) – now Juneteenth is bringing a grand reopening to Patricia K. building of the community house with live music, special guests and more.
Lupe Flores has bounced around different breweries to sell her Lebanese-Mexican fusion tacos during the pandemic. His much talked about fried tacos now have a fixed address: inside the artistic bar Jupiter from Thursday to Sunday.
It’s been one hell of a year for Chef Shota Nakajima, but it certainly landed on his feet, with the opening of this place for crispy-coated Japanese fried chicken called karaage that looks like a serious contender to be the ‘Top’. Chef ‘of this season!
Tea leaves tell the hospitality industry that quick, casual burgers are the way to go, but executive chef Gaurav Raj doubles down on fine dining. He cooks gourmet dishes inspired by New Delhi and adapted to Instagram.
This cute wine bar from the folks who run the much-loved Diller Room promises a mini overseas trip with marble counters, gilded mirrors, cheeses, cold cuts, and lots (and lots!) Of wine, all of them. imported from Italy – and the original tiled floors also happen to be the work of 1890 by Italian craftsmen.
Perhaps you’ve seen Chef Hampton Isom’s food truck with the same name, his motto, “Some of the best spoons are made in the kitchen,” emblazoned on the side – now the former professional basketball player and Alaska Airlines flight attendant has a brick and mortar space for her Cajun kitchen, along with a full bar as well. His nickname: The Boss.
Chef Preeti Agarwal started doing pop-ups after taking over Fremont’s French restaurant, Pomerol. She now devotes all the space, including the wood-burning oven, to her modern Indian cuisine.
The winery is opening a new restaurant focused on American cuisine in the former Wheelhouse bistro space on June 23. Of course, any excuse to sip his exceptional blend of Bordeaux style Chaleur Blanc.
Under new ownership, the former corner grocery store at 17th and Galer (known as Groucho at the time) is expected to reopen soon with two Canlis alumni preparing breakfast, lunch and pastries. Yay!
With Chef Jason Stratton of fame from Spinasse newly in charge, this Italian place has a serious pasta precedent – and there’s plenty of outdoor space to have fun in the summer.
Near Pike Place Market
After nearly 20 years in Belltown – and over three decades in downtown before that – this premier Seattle steakhouse now sits on the edge of the market, and we can’t wait to sit at the bar for some Manhattans and burgers. refined.
Pike Place Market
Open since 1981, Jackie Roberts’ Hidden Place has always been a favorite for its lovely outdoor patio – and now, promisingly, longtime local chef Dylan Giordan (Serafina, Cicchetti, Piatti) is in the kitchen.
From fried buns and pot stickers to boiled chunks stuffed with pork or seafood, this Nordic-style Chinese food-focused mall cafe is the latest to jump in the dumpling craze.
This Peruvian place from chef Tamara Murphy and her partner Linda Di Lello Morton from beloved Terra Plata has been slow to come – I hope people drink pisco there very soon.
This high-profile Los Angeles spot now has a branch in Totem Lake – with a ton of ramen choices now, how will it be?


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In its bid to promote stable financial system in the country, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has commenced a weeklong campaign in Kano geared towards ensuring protection of consumer rights and encourage trust and confidence in the nation’s banking industry.
Briefing reporters yesterday in Kano, the Head, Consumer Education Division (CED) of the Consumer Protection Department (CPD) of CBN, Khadijah Kasim, said all were set to sensitize consumers in Kano on their rights and privileges as well as the responsibilities of their respective banks to ensure that transactions are carried out without hitches.
“In line with the mandate of the CBN to promote a sound and stable financial system as enshrined in the CBN Act, the CPD, was saddled with the responsibility of regulating conduct of financial service providers so as to engender trust and confidence in the financial system. This would complement traditional prudential regulations in promoting a safe, sound and stable financial system in Nigeria,” Khadijah noted.
According to her, a study conducted by the CED revealed that lack of consumer sophistication amongst many was responsible for the leakages in financial services, adding that the sensitization programme was designed to address the anomaly.
The CPD, she noted, is saddled with the responsibility of enhancing consumer financial capability through consumer education, ensuring fair and responsible market and as well as enshrining business conduct through the development of consultation and feedback mechanism that will enable the market work properly for consumers.
She further stated that the establishment of CPD will also develop a base for grievance redress mechanism, “that will be fair transparent, accessible, timely and inexpensive,” pointing out that the CBN has put structures in place to ensure that consumers get maximum benefits for financial services which will enable people take charge of their financial well being as well as enhance economic development.
“We must increase awareness and understanding of financial resources and empower Nigerians with the requisite knowledge to make informed choices and take effective actions that will enhance their financial well-being.
“By so doing, we are able to empower them with the confidence to participate in the formal financial system. It is only when the vast majority of the Nigerian population is financially literate that they can come on board the formal financial system, thereby contributing to financial stability,” she noted.


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Without a deal, more than 300,000 staff members will be out of work on August 1. It will mark the delivery service’s first strike since 1997.
The conversation asked Jason Miller, a supply chain researcher at Michigan State University, to explain how likely this is to happen and what to expect if it does.
What are the reasons for this imminent strike?
Before the talks collapsed, the two sides had been negotiating extensively over a new five-year agreement that would cover about 340,000 unionized UPS workers.
The delivery company agreed to some of the Teamsters’ demands, pledging to:
- ending a two-tier pay system in which part-time workers earn an average of about $5 an hour less than full-time workers;
- Make Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the third Monday in January, a paid holiday;
- stop requiring UPS employees to work overtime on their days off;
- Adding fans and installing air conditioning in many trucks to improve cooling.
Remaining primary attention to sticking points part time workers. The Teamsters dispute UPS’ claim that part-time workers earn an average of $20 an hour. Instead, Teamsters president Sean O’Brien said they get paid “poverty wages. “
The Teamsters also want part-time workers to have early access to health insurance coverage, pension plans, and a clearer path to full-time employment. The union also seeks to resolve safety and health issues and “better pay for all workers,” as well as “stronger protection against administrative harassment.”
The impasse comes after two years in which UPS posted record profits. The company liquidated $12.9 billion and $11.5 billion, respectively, in 2021 and 2022. The company has nearly tripled its net income from the levels recorded in 2018 and 2019 of $4.8 billion and $4.4 billion.
The Teamsters argue that these record profits mean that UPS is able to pay higher wages.
What should consumers expect?
If unionized UPS workers went on strike, many American consumers would certainly fear delays in delivery of their online purchases. In my view, that’s a reasonable concern, given that UPS handles roughly 25% of all US package shipments.
The 1997 strike, which lasted 16 days, occurred when e-commerce was in its infancy. The Census Bureau only began tracking that segment of the economy in 1999, when online shopping accounted for about 0.6% of all retail sales. Today, consumers spend about 15% of their shopping dollars on e-commerce purchases.
If a strike occurs, UPS competitors including FexEx Ground and the United States Postal Service will likely be able to handle about 20% of UPS deliveries because the industry currently has some excess capacity.
This is because delivery workers are working fewer hours per week today compared to the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Demand for package delivery peaked in 2021, when millions of Americans were still social distancing.
If a prolonged strike occurs, UPS could lose up to 30% of its business, experts warn, as customers turn to competing services.
The risk of losing market share leads many industry experts to believe that if a strike does occur, it will not last long.
What about business?
Approximately 57.3% of packages delivered by UPS are shipped directly to consumers. The rest goes to retailers and other businesses.
Based on my years of researching transportation and supply chain disruptions, I think Americans should recognize that the impact of the UPS strike will extend far beyond delayed delivery of everything from pet food to tennis racquets they buy online.
A UPS strike could disrupt the wholesale availability of auto parts and medical supplies, to name a few. Consumers will also find it difficult to get clothes and shoes in stores, as retail locations are usually refurbished by package carriers.
The supply chain for manufacturing computer and electronics products is likely to be disrupted, too, according to my analysis of data from the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Transportation Statistics that track how different industries move products to their customers. Farmers and construction companies trying to source parts for heavy equipment will see delays in these shipments, potentially leading to work stoppages costing tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Thus, the strike will cause many companies to scramble to meet customer orders, which could force them to spend more money on higher-priced air freight.
Even a 10-day strike could cost the US economy an estimated $7.1 billion, according to Anderson Economics Group — a research firm — making it the costliest strike in US history. These costs stem from the 340,000 striking workers losing an estimated $1.1 billion in wages and UPS losing $816 million in profits. The balance of this estimate may result from disruptions to UPS customers.
What do you think will happen?
Unlike the threatened rail strikes in 2022, there is no system in place for the federal government to prevent a UPS strike. On that occasion, Congress had the option to intervene, but an agreement was reached before the government could intervene.
However, it seems likely that there will be calls for the White House to bring the two parties back to the negotiating table.
Given that both Teamsters and UPS have an incentive not to see the company lose customers to competing shipping operations, I think they may strike a deal soon enough to avoid a costly and devastating blow. In line with this, UPS announced on July 19, 2023, that it and the Teamsters would return to the negotiating table before the July 31 deadline.
Jason Miller is Associate Professor of Supply Chain Management, Michigan State University.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.


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More SA car makers to be investigated for price fixing
May 12, 2003
PRETORIA — A number of motor vehicle manufacturers have been told to
prepare themselves for a price-fixing investigation, the
Competition Commission said on Tuesday.
But as the competition commission takes the next step into
allegations of price-fixing by motor vehicle manufacturers,
industry sources fear the probe would have a negative impact on
already slow car sales.
The Competition Commission's compliance division manager, Zodwa
Ntuli, said "a number" of automobile manufacturers were told last
week that they would be investigated following allegations of
artificially maintaining high vehicle prices. She however refused
to elaborate who or how may would be targeted.
"We will eventually be investigating the entire industry," she
said, but noted the organisation worked on the premise of innocence
until proven guilt, and would therefore not say who was next in the
"Only once the investigation is complete will we announce the
findings," she said.
The Competition Commission said initial interviews and
information received over the past few weeks suggested that
price-fixing was almost standard practice among manufacturers and
importers of new motor vehicles, to maintain minimum prices.
Minimum resale price maintenance occurred when a manufacturer
imposed a minimum resale price on a dealer, thereby limiting or
even excluding a dealer's ability to offer discounts.
"If this practice truly exists, it really concerns us that a
practice so anti-competitive and detrimental to consumers can be a
norm in an industry, particularly in light of the fact that it is
not allowed in terms of the Competition Act," Competition
Commissioner advocate Menzi Simelane said earlier.
Accusations of price-fixing surfaced when Toyota was
investigated by the commission, found guilty and offered to pay an
administrative penalty of R12m after an individual lodged a
Ntuli said Toyota's investigation set the ball rolling and now
the whole industry would be investigated.
"There are also allegations of collusion between manufacturers
and dealers that need to be looked into," she said
But industry sources on Tuesday feared that the investigation
would have drastic knock-on affects.
"We are quite happy with the investigation but we ask that it be
fast-tracked to prevent any unnecessary instability creeping into
the already quiet market," they said.
They feared that the rumours that car prices would be reduced
once the commission's investigation had been completed could force
possible consumers to delay a purchase. This they said would have a
catastrophic affect on the automobile industry.
Preferring not to be named until the investigation had been
completed, the sources also said that if dealer's profit margins
were cut it would radically reduce the number of dealers able to
stay in business.
"This will hit small dealers in rural areas particularly badly,"
they said. –Sapa
Forget sexy: the car of the future is all about safety


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Melville-based Comtech Telecommunications announced today it has received a $1.7 million equipment order for modems and radio frequency products.
The order comes from a mobile network operator in Asia. Comtech officials declined to name the operator.
Under the terms of the deal, Comtech’s Tempe, Ariz.-based subsidiary, Comtech EF Data Corp., will supply the operator with the modems and RF products needed to upgrade and expand its satellite-based mobile network.
Comtech officials said installing the modems at new sites and upgrading at existing sites will add network optimization for the Asian network operator.
More breaking news
- Speculation swirls over Fed language on rate hike
- Once-troubled reverse mortgages poised for rebound
- LIREDC seeks state funding for 43 projects
- Hofstra awarded $2.5M STEM grant
- PM Pediatrics opens second Westchester site
- Q&A: Moke McGowan, LI Convention & Visitor’s Bureau
- Retailers brace as Congress debates online taxes
- LI gas prices fall 2.5 cents
- Apple iPhone 6 pre-order demand overwhelms supply
- NY tax receipts rise despite growing income gap


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Benefits Dead Sea Products
Israel’s beauty and skincare industry is emerging as a new and rather potent player in the global cosmetics arena. Indeed, from established premium brands such as Ahava to newcomers such as Butai to the cheeky, mass-market Yes To Carrots, Israeli companies are tapping their nation for the raw materials, scientific innovations and home-spun creativity required to expand worldwide.
The best-known – and perhaps most ambitious – member of the sector is Ahava, which celebrated its 20th anniversary last year and is now sold in 30 countries. Anchored around Dead Sea salts and minerals and still partially owned by its kibbutz founders, Ahava has recently gone bricks-and-mortar, opening branded boutiques in Singapore, London and Berlin, along with its six flagship shops in Israel.
“Ahava used to be something that tourists bought when they visited the Dead Sea, but now we want to become a true international cosmetics brand,” says chief executive Yacov Ellis, who also says that his company has grown at double-digit levels over the past five years.
“Consumers today want ‘green’ products and cosmetics that deliver true therapeutic results,” he says. “With the Dead Sea, the biggest natural spa in the world, Ahava is at the centre of these trends.”
Ahava is not the only Israeli company strategically positioned at the crossroads of technology and nature. Butai Cosmetics debuted four months ago with eight face and body products that combine organic ingredients with purified “delivery agents”. Shea butter, for instance, delivers the healing effects of vitamin E in Butai’s hand cream; green tea’s restorative properties enter the skin via absorbent lutein (a kale derivative) in the eye cream; and the tomato-based phyto-chemical lycopene activates the white lotus oil in Butai’s night cream. Buy Ahava Skin Care Products
Equally eco-conscious is the capsule collection of eight bath and body goods from Olia, a two-year-old premium olive oil brand. Ranging from shampoo to face scrubs, the products are based on 100 per cent organic, locally harvested olive oil and produced exclusively in Mitzpe Ramon, a southern Israeli community. “We launched our olive oils as a healthy part of people’s diets but realised we should not stop there,” says Olia founder Hilla Wenkert, who will launch a companion men’s line this spring. “Olive oil is naturally nourishing and moisturising, with high levels of antioxidants that help slow the skin’s ageing process.”
On a far larger scale is Yes To Carrots, which in three years has gone from a “cult” Tel Aviv brand to distribution in 20,000 stores in 17 countries – including Boots and Debenhams in the UK and Walgreens and Duane Reade in the US – and $50m in sales. Like other Israeli beauty product companies, Yes To Carrots is almost entirely organic, and combines locally grown fruits and vegetables with Dead Sea minerals. As with Butai, Yes To Carrots – which includes some three dozen products for the hair, face and body – has been developed to maximise the benefits of its natural ingredients. “Orange foods like carrots are rich in beta carotene, antidioxidants and free radicals,” says company founder Ido Leffler. “The Dead Sea minerals help them easily absorb into the skin, hair and body.”
Sabon and Laline are two Tel Aviv-based firms with rapidly growing global footprints. Thirty-five-year-old Sabon is the larger, with 80 shops throughout North America, Europe and Israel. Laline, meanwhile, expanded abroad in 2005 with four shops in the London area.
This may seem like an industry in its infancy compared to the dominant international players but the sector’s sheer determination is impressive considering Israel’s tiny size and modest population. Yet, says Kelly Kovack, a partner with Purpose Built, a New York-based branding consultancy specialising in cosmetics and skincare, “Israel is a hotbed for science and technology, which trickles down into all categories of goods.”
What’s more, Israel is “an incredibly mixed culture, with people originating from all over the world”, says Ronen Zohar, chief executive of Sabon, which will launch this year in Japan. “It’s a ready-made test market for the rest of the world.”


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Sony might have just
XDA Forums member iRimas has shared several images of a Sony smartphone with model number D6503, which is being called an upgraded version of Xperia Z1 smartphone. Not many details are available about the smartphone at this point as the XDA member iRimas is not able to get the prototype working.
If it is indeed Xperia Z1 refresh, it could be the rumoured Sony Sirius smartphone, which according to @evleaks will feature a 5.2-inch display and Qualcomm’s quad-core MSM8974AB SoC. Sirius is expected to be announced at Mobile World Congress 2014, which is scheduled for late-February.


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Having failed to acquire (or even reach a deal with) Yahoo, Microsoft has apparently set its sights on a new target. The software maker is rumored to be eying a $100 million acquisition of Powerset, a natural language-based search engine that is only usable on Wikipedia and Freebase.
Although there is no official confirmation, the move would make sense given Steve Ballmer’s recent comments that the most important thing for the foreseeable future is search. Sources say the deal is highly likely but hasn't actually been signed yet and could still be disrupted by further Microsoft-Yahoo negotiations.
One has to wonder, however, how much of a boost in the search market the acquisition will net them over time – we know Google has been a bit dismissive about semantic search and it didn’t do much for Ask Jeeves either. In any case it could at the very least help Microsoft distinguish itself in the search space, but with all the hundreds of millions they’ve already spent beefing up their search engine perhaps their problem isn't technological as much as it is a branding issue.


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SciQuest Announces Portfolio Savings Manager, Q1 Financial Results
On May 16, North Carolina-based SciQuest (Nasdaq: SQI), which offers automated spend management solutions for procurement practitioners, announced the release of Portfolio Savings Manager (“PSM”), a cloud-based, cross-functional tool that allows users from AP/Finance, Procurement, and elsewhere within the enterprise to monitor and track the performance of enterprise savings initiatives. PSM is meant to be configurable with SciQuest’s existing source-to-settle solution suite, and can allow stakeholders to view projects from “cradle-to-grave” to ensure that they are truly delivering value. This increased visibility, combined with the ability to look back upon historical spend and savings projects, can drive greater performance in the short and long-term. PSM will be available in July.
Late last month, SciQuest announced financial performance results from the first quarter of the fiscal year, which were roughly in line with its market projections from Q3. They were also better overall compared to the first quarter of 2015. Highlights from the announcement include:
- GAAP revenue of $26.9 million, up from $25.9 million in Q1 2015
- Income of $0.9 million, up from a loss of $0.5 million in Q1 2015
- Net income of $1.1 million, up from a loss of $03 million in Q1 201
Paladin Partners with Three Different Brands to Expand Global Reach
On May 11, Paladin Associates, a Georgia-based provider of strategic sourcing and procurement solutions, announced its partnership with three other sourcing and procurement solution providers, dubbed the “Global Sourcing Alliance,” that will expand the reach of Paladin and the three companies across the globe. This partnership includes Amsterdam-based Adjust, Munich-based source:net GmbH/Sourcing on Demand, and Hong Kong-based Tactica. Under the Global Sourcing Alliance, the four companies will each operate as their original company and brand and will continue to offer their sourcing and procurement solutions, but will leverage cross-sell opportunities within each other’s markets, particularly Asia, Europe, and the US. Some of the benefits of the partnership, particularly for Paladin customers, include greater access to category, market, spend, and supplier information; expanded access to local language capabilities and market knowledge; access to best practices provided by partner members; and many other benefits.
IQN Announces Rate, Time, and Expense Capabilities for Contingent Labor
On May 4, IQN, a Colorado-based provider of contingent workforce management (“CWM”) solutions, announced the release of its new Rate, Time, and Expense (“RTE”) program for use with all types of contingent labor. The program, optimized for Software-as-a-Service deployment, allows companies to automate non-employee travel and expense reporting according to local laws, regulations, and individual policies regarding shift work, overtime, insurance, and so on. All of these factors and more can be highly variable according to the contingent worker, contractor, company, location, and circumstance, and RTE allows companies to automate the reporting process and configure it given the rules and regulations set by them in advance. The program aims to be adaptable for future needs as laws, policies, and regulations change. RTE will deploy in the second half of 2016.
Coupa Integrates Sabre’s “GetThere” T&E Solution onto Platform
On May 9, Coupa, the California-based provider of spend management solutions for the cloud and Sabre Corporation (NASDAQ: SABR), a Texas-based provider of T&E management solutions, announced that they are partnering with each other to allow companies that use Sabre’s “GetThere” online booking tool to integrate it onto Coupa’s spend management solutions. As a result of the integration, business travelers will be able to book their travel through GetThere and rely on Coupa’s solutions to automatically generate T&E reports from their trip. Coupa and Sabre highlighted their cooperation at Coupa’s annual Inspire conference earlier this month in San Francisco, and they plan to make it available to select users in Q3 2016.
ExceleratedS2P Launches Coupa Integrator for SAP
On May 10, ExceleratedS2P, a London-based source-to-pay solution provider, announced the release of Coupa Integrator for SAP, a solution that, as its name implies, is meant to “seamlessly link” Coupa and SAP applications for enhanced integration. The solution comes pre-built and is meant to automatically integrate Coupa and SAP data, both “transactional and master,” in an affordable, accurate, and efficient manner. The announcement was timed for Coupa Inspire, which, as previously noted, took place in San Francisco earlier this month.
SAP Announces Q1 Financial Performance for Business Network Solutions
On May 5, BusinessTravelNews.com reported that SAP’s Business Network segment, which includes Ariba, Concur, and Fieldglass, experienced revenue growth of 21% compared to Q1 of 2015. In U.S. Dollars, this growth works out to $513.7 million. According to SAP’s Q1 financial statement, in the past year, more than 2.1 million connected companies have used the Ariba network to trade over $800 billion in commerce, while roughly 40 million users process T&E data and reports on Concur’s platform, and customers managed more than 2.3 million non-traditional employees across 130 countries with Fieldglass.


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If you took part in our Price Predictions Survey 2023, you might want to see how your forecasts are faring against precious metal prices this year to date.
Earlier this year, we asked our customers to predict the average prices of gold, silver and platinum during 2023, following a similar poll of industry analysts by precious metals body the LBMA. Those who responded to our survey expected to see higher average gold and silver prices this year than those forecast by precious metals experts, whilst you predicted a lower average platinum price than that predicted by analysts.
At the end of April – a third of the way through 2023 – the LBMA released the average prices to date, which we have compared to your predictions. Our customers forecast that the average gold price in US dollars would be $1,910.30 in 2023 overall, whilst on April 26 the average price to date stood at $1,911. Your prediction for silver was $24.75 – slightly higher than the actual average to date of $23.01 – and for platinum, our customers predicted an average of $1,037.86, whilst to date the actual average stands at $1,004.27.
Many of our customers took part in our survey, in which we offered the chance to win a Britannia 2023 1oz gold coin, a Britannia 2023 1oz silver coin and a Britannia 2023 1oz platinum coin to the customers who predict most accurately the average price of each respective precious metal this year. The average precious metals prices will be calculated after 31 December 2023 and the winners of our competition will be announced in early January 2024.


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Which Top-Ranked Sandwich Chains Are in El Paso?
While El Paso may best be known for its delicious Mexican food, sometimes you need a change of pace.
And when you are on the go, a sandwich can get the job done.
TastingTable is ranking 20 popular sandwich chains and you can find a lot of them right here in the Borderland:
To help with your next lunchtime decision, we've rounded up the nation's favorite sandwich chains and ranked them from worst to best.
Here are rankings, according to TastingTable. The ones you can find in El Paso are in bold:
19. Quiznos Subs
16. Jimmy John's
14. Which Which
13. Schlotzky's Deli
12. Penn Station East Coast Subs
11. Lenny's Grill & Subs
10. Capriotti's Sandwich Shop
8. Jersey Mike's
7. Firehouse Subs
6. Au Bon Pain
5. Potbelly Sandwich Shop
4. Jason's Deli
3. Mendocino Farms
2. Panera Bread
1. Pret A Manger
So El Paso is home to seven of the 20 sandwich chains, including the one in dead last -- Subway. TastingTable ranks Subway last in part because: "They have also been the subject of multiple scandals regarding their ingredients over the years."
Other chains, like Potbelly Sandwich Shop and Which Which permanently closed their El Paso locations.
But let's not dwell on that. Let's look at the positives.
You can find four of the top ten here in El Paso. Ranking the highest in that group is Jason's Deli, which actually started back in 1976 in -- you guessed it, Texas.
DID YOU KNOW: "the chain claims to be the first national restaurant to eliminate all trans fats from its menu."
Also cracking the top ten that you can find in El Paso are Firehouse Subs, Jersey Mike's and Capriotti's Sandwich Shop.
But if you want to try a sandwich from the top chain, according to TastingTable, the closest Pret A Manger is located in Los Angeles. And let's be real, if you're going to L.A. you shouldn't be eating at a national sandwich chain.


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Technology Vision 2019: ‘post-digital’ outlooks
- The 2019 Technology Vision report explored five trends which are becoming increasingly important in the ‘post-digital’ age.
- Each year groups across Accenture create different editions of the report focused on specific industries, geographies and platforms.
- From this page you can access these reports as they are published.
By technology platform
Technology Vision 2019 for retail
Accenture's 2019 Technology Vision research revealed the emergence of a retail world characterized by intensely customized and on-demand experiences.
Accenture Technology Vision for Insurance 2019
Insurance companies looking to differentiate themselves must be aware of five technology trends that will characterize the "post-digital" future.
Accenture Technology Vision for Energy 2019
Oil companies looking to differentiate themselves must be aware of five distinct technology trends that will characterize the "post-digital" future.
Banking Technology Vision 2019
Banking is entering a post-digital age where transformation priorities of the last few years are fast becoming table stakes.
Accenture Technology Vision 2019 Ireland Findings
Accenture's Technology Vision 2019 surveyed over 100 Irish business and IT executives to identify five distinct trends in digital transformation that are impacting business leaders today.


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Despite being pitched by BMW as a perfect urban commuter car, the i3 is becoming a sales hit in areas outside of major city centers, according to BMW North America CEO Ludwig Willisch.
"The strongholds in this country are parts of California, Texas and southern Florida."
Willisch adds that the Northeast's major urban centers, including New York, haven't warmed up to the i3. Willisch reasons that perhaps New Yorkers don't have the environment /sustainability "at the top of minds."
Willisch stated that 2 BMW dealerships in the U.S. now have standalone i showrooms. These showrooms were constructed due to high i sales. Those two dealerships are Crevier BMW in Santa Ana and Stevens Creek BMW in Santa Clara. Both in California.
Automotive News reports:
"The heaviest i3 allocations are being shifted to markets with the hottest demand. In the San Francisco area, dealers retail from 15 to 30 i3s a month, Willisch said.
BMW is approaching "a sustainable rate," of 12,000 i3s annually, he said. Last year, BMW sold 6,092 i3s.
Meanwhile, all dealers want more of the i8 plug-in hybrid sports car, he said. The i8 has a base price of $137,450, including shipping. BMW sold 555 i8s in the U.S. last year and probably will sell 1,000 this year, he said. But demand will continue to outstrip supply.
Willisch said, "I am collecting allocations from all around the world."
Source: Automotive News


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On April 19, Chinese MMA brand Kunlun Fight signed a cooperation agreement in Beijing with the Xijiu company from the Maotai Group. Maotai Xijiu becomes the official alcohol drinks for Kunlun Fight in 2017.
According to Sportsii.cn, the audience of Kunlun Fight is 95% male, 76% aged 20 to 39, 69% with a Bachelor’s degree, and 62% with a monthly salary above RMB 5,000, which shows the audience to be well-educated young to middle-aged males with a relatively high income.
Kunlun Fight is a domestic MMA event in China, and has promoted many kickboxing events across more than ten countries & regions and nearly 50 cities, according to online information.
Maotai is a famous Chinese spirit brand and also a sponsor of Guizhou Renhe football club. Xijiu, located 50 km away from the Maotai headquarter, became a subsidiary of Maotai in 1998.
Proofread by Sean O Diobhilin


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MSC Group's upcoming luxury cruise brand, Explora Journeys, will begin passenger sailings in May 2023.
The cruise line unveiled renderings of the suites aboard its first vessel, the Explora 1.
See inside the designer suites, which start at an average of $470 per night.
Explora Journeys, a new cruise line backed by one of the world's largest shipping companies, is about to be the latest contender to enter the luxury travel market.
And while its first vessel won't set sail until spring 2022, the renderings of its suites are already proving the new brand's commitment to the luxury segment.
Explora Journeys is MSC Group's latest venture into the cruise industry.
The shipping and logistics giant also oversees the eponymous MSC Cruises, a popular European cruise line looking to expand its US presence.
Source: MSC Cruises
But unlike MSC Cruises — which has 2022 itineraries sailing for as little as $40 per day according to data from Cruise Sheet — suites on this upcoming luxury cruise line will run travelers almost $500 per night.
Source: Cruise Sheet
MSC Group first unveiled Explora Journeys in June 2021 with plans to grow its fleet to six ships by 2028.
Its first vessel, the Explora I, won't set sail until May 2023 ...
... but the company has already unveiled details about the upcoming floating luxury hotel.
Like any cruise, the vessel will have a large selection of restaurants, bars, and lounges …
… four swimming pools, onboard entertainment, and "wellness facilities."
But it wouldn't be a true luxury cruise without plush staterooms: The Explora I will have 461 "Homes at Sea" — a collection of suites, penthouses, and residences — all with views of the ocean.
Of the over 460 "homes," 371 will be Explora's baseline Ocean Terrace and Ocean Grand Terrace Suites.
These suites, which start at 377 square-feet, may be significantly smaller than the 3,014 square-feet Owners Residences, but they still hold their own weight in luxury.
Explora Journeys designed the hotel rooms at sea with design firms NenMar and De Jorio Luxury and Yachts. The latter specializes in cruise and yacht designs.
Inside, there's a bedroom, a living room, a walk-in closet with a vanity, and a modern bathroom, all created with a neutral and contemporary look.
These suites also have terraces with daybeds and a dining set, giving guests a private space to lounge outdoors.
But if you'd rather lounge indoors, you can still enjoy views of the ocean through the floor-to-ceiling windows that separate the terrace from the living room.
To make the accommodations feel more like a "luxurious home," the rooms will also have heated floors in the bathroom, espresso machines…
… a mini bar restocked according to travelers' preferences, and binoculars to watch the passing wildlife while lounging on the terrace.
These luxuries are obviously more comparable to a luxury hotel room than the average cruise. And as a result, a vacation aboard the cruise won't be cheap.
On average, the two-person Ocean Terrace Suite will run travelers $470 per night and person, an over tenfold increase compared to MSC Cruises' cheapest itineraries.
Read the original article on Business Insider


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Thursday, September 10, 2015
Did Apple Balk By Overlooking Wireless Charging In The New iPhones? [Opinion]
Two spanking new iPhones were announced by Apple yesterday, and unless you live under a rock, you know that the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus will be released soon. According to the Cupertino company, "the only thing that's changed is everything."
Yet, many experts feel the new iPhones failed to wow anyone. Yes, they are faster, have a better camera and have the new multi-touch technology built in, but one feature that's left me scratching my head is wireless charging capability and its lack thereof.
Wireless charging has been available on Android for quite some time now. And it works great at the moment. Why is wireless charging such a big issue? In my opinion it is a vital feature needed for CarPlay. Read this post from a few days back.
Wireless CarPlay is baked into iOS 9 and when the technology becomes available commercially (car hardware needs to be available too), users will face a major issue. Their phones will lose battery power much rapidly while using CarPlay wirelessly. If Apple expects people to physically plug in their phones for charging, it defeats the 'wireless CarPlay' purpose.
Android phones with wireless charging capability using the Qi standard have remained sleek so it's not like it would affect the new iPhone's thin design. In fact, there is a third-party contraption you can purchase right now for under $20 to get wireless charging on your iPhone and it's no thicker than a piece of adhesive tape.
Is Apple holding back wireless charging capability for its next iPhone - the iPhone 7? The company has said all along that wireless CarPlay needs car hardware to be on par to work. Maybe it is still about a year away. Maybe this was all an 'intentional balk' if ever there was one. Remains to be seen.
Image source: Apple
By AppRadioWorld at 5:30 AM