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The U.S. ultrasound market hit a record $1.33 billion in 2006, according to a report from Klein Biomedical Consultants Inc. (KBC). The U.S. market accounts for about 30 percent of the global ultrasound market. The report also forecasts that by 2011 the market will reach $1.76 billion, growing at an expected annual rate of 5.8 percent.
Product revenues rose 5.3 percent last year, though upgrades saw a 23 percent drop in upgrades that reduced the overall market growth to 2.6 percent. The cardiology ultrasound market segment was particularly active, surpassing overall radiology ultrasound revenues for the first time in 2006.
"While cardiology ultrasound product revenues grew over 11 percent, the other three traditional markets — radiology, OB/GYN and vascular surgery — showed little, if any change," said Harvey Klein, PhD, KBC president. "Traditional markets accounted for 60 percent of total product sales growth in 2006 while emerging markets contributed the remaining 40 percent.
"The emerging markets grew twice as fast as the overall ultrasound market in product revenues. Such markets as emergency medicine and anesthesiology showed excellent growth. This resulted from strong demand for hand-carried ultrasound (HCU) systems, a market that grew 30 percent," he added.
Klein said that ultrasound leaders overall, including upgrades, were Philips Medical Systems followed by GE Healthcare, Siemens Medical Solutions and SonoSite. Considering product revenues by itself, GE was the market leader followed by Philips. The top selling echocardiography system in 2006 was the Philips' iE33.
The report’s market forecast expects that through 2011 traditional markets will grow slowly at a rate of less than three percent, while emerging markets will grow over 16 percent. Sales of PDA-type, hand-operated ultrasound systems could contribute almost one percent to the growth rate of the overall market.
Like 2006, Klein predicts the market leaders in product revenues in 2009 will be, in order: GE, Philips, Siemens and SonoSite.
"I believe there is cautious optimism about the future of the U.S. ultrasound market," said Klein. "The outlook depends on the growth of the emerging markets, the success of HCU systems and on how rapidly the replacement market develops from the introduction of new products and technology in the traditional market segments. Regardless, ultrasound will remain a critical part of the imaging modality mix."


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Lamar Price is out of a job -- as his family's vacation photographer.
A 44-year-old Boston native and father of two, Price has always tried to capture the special moments and everyday magic on each vacation. However, following a recent nine-day trip to the Walt Disney World Resort, his family unanimously voted that on future trips, someone else should handle the camera.
A perfect record
"Nine days!" Price's wife Beatrice told Uncle Walt's Insider. "Nine days we were at Walt Disney World! You know ...
It's a New Year, and now new technology is coming to the Walt Disney World Resort!
More gifts were bought online than in stores this Christmas, and internet retailer Amazon again led the pack. The Disney Company has taken note of this growing trend and is partnering with Amazon to offer a new retail experience for its guests. The companies announced today that, after a test run, Amazon will soon offer same-day delivery of online Disney Park purchases, fulfilled by their fleet ...
Disney Board divided: will Frozen, Star Wars or Guardians win?
Sources close to the upper administration of the Disney Company are reporting that over the past few years the Board of Directors has fractured, with gangs of directors forming to promote their favorite properties. "Right now they're fairly balanced, with Team Star Wars, Team Guardians, and Team Frozen all having success in pushing their franchises into the parks," one board member shared anonymously. "But we're all a little worried about what happens ...
The Hall of Presidents, Disney's tribute to all who have served as chief executive of the United States of America throughout history, reopened on Tuesday, December 19, at Disney's Magic Kingdom Park in Florida. The newly-refurbished attraction not only adds current President Donald Trump, it now features enhanced projection, sound, lights, and a new twist -- the elimination of one President each week.
History come to life
Building on Disneyland's animated tribute of Abraham Lincoln, Disney Imagineers created The Hall of Presidents in ...
It's the most wonderful time of the year -- but it's also the time when people tend to overindulge in our favorite holiday foods and drink! In order to combat this problem, Walt Disney World has announced that they will eliminate all Walt Disney World buses and replace them with sidewalks.
Obesity - a wide spread problem
There is a growing trend among park visitors, and it is not hard to spot where it is growing: the waistline. At a recent TED talk, ...

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Together with our partners, we continue our mission to help positively impact Filipinos through coconut farming interventions that create a more prosperous future for their families and end the vicious cycle of poverty.
With you, HOPE grows
Coconut farming communities in remote parts of the country face many challenges, including a shortage of supplies and outdated farming practices. Through your support, we are able to increase the income of smallholder farmers so that more Filipino communities can enjoy a bountiful future.
The Vita Coco Project
In 2014, HOPE partnered with Vita Coco, the world’s leading Coconut Water brand, to create the Vita Coco Project. For every pack sold, Php 5 is donated to support the communities from where they source their coconuts. The Vita Coco Project is able to support thousands of coconut farmers around the country through the following interventions:
Distributing high-quality coconut and intercrop-certified variety seedlings increases capacity, replaces senile trees, and populates unproductive land.
End-to-end training on coconut and intercrop production improves skills and increases productivity
Introducing high value or cash crops in between existing trees and livestock increases farmers’ income
Through CocoUber, a HOPE initiative that connects farmers directly to manufacturing partners, farmers have more access to demand and higher pricing due to less dependence on middlemen
In partnership with the Philippine Coconut Authority, HOPE teaches farmers microbreeding techniques to create hybrid offspring that produce more yield.
Stories from the Field
‘Road to a Million’ Update
HOPE, GCash, and Century Pacific Food Inc. have distributed 875,025 coconut seedlings to 6,899 smallholder farmers since they launched the ‘1 Million Coconut Trees’ project in August 2021.
Every Woman is a #HOPEHero
To celebrate this year’s Women’s Month, we’re highlighting remarkable women from various sectors who all use their unique strengths to enable change in their communities.
HOPE’s First Coconut Relief Drive
HOPE reached out to local government units in Surigao to organize a relief drive that will distribute coconut seedlings to farmers who were severely affected by Typhoon Odette.


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A WOMAN is facing charges before the court for stealing grocery items in a mall in Barangay 40-D, Quimpo Boulevard in Davao City last month.
Charged with theft is Hadzmina Aguilar. She was earlier arrested outside the supermarket of the Felcris Centrale in Quimpo Boulevard.
In a resolution, prosecutor Joseph Mamburam found a probable cause to charge the accused based on the complaint filed by the mall.
The incident happened around 11:15 a.m., Saturday, April 22, while the accused was looking around the supermarket.
Mall security guard Merigin Austria saw the accused took one Juicy Cologne worth P46.10, one Vicks Vaporub worth P80.70, and two sachets of Licealiz Soothing Coolness worth P11.10.
According to Austria, the accused placed the items she took from the display shelves in her bag. The accused then exited from the supermarket without proof that she paid the items.
Mamburam said it would appear that the accused might have committed the crime. He added that the accused is held liable to the charges filed against her.


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SAP’s Venture With China Telecom Helps Double Cloud SalesBloomberg News
SAP AG, the largest maker of business-management software, said first-quarter sales of cloud services in China more than doubled as a joint venture with the nation’s largest fixed-line carrier helped boost demand.
The joint venture called China Datacom Corp. that was established with a subsidiary of China Telecom Corp. in November is providing human resources support through the cloud for 15,000 of the carrier’s own users, Mark Gibbs, SAP’s president for the greater China region, said in an interview in Beijing today. The venture will start offering cloud services to other customers in the second half, he said.
SAP, based in Walldorf, Germany, has made China its ‘‘second home,’’ a strategy that’s paying off with strong double-digit software sales growth in the world’s most populous nation, co-Chief Executive Officer Bill McDermott said this month. The success contrasts with International Business Machines Corp.’s 20 percent drop in China sales and has been aided as last year’s revelation of secret surveillance carried out by the U.S. National Security Agency raises scrutiny of American technology.
“The Chinese have concerns about solutions hosted in foreign countries, especially the U.S.,” said Pat Walravens, a San Francisco-based analyst at JMP Securities LLC. “The whole NSA spying scandal is pushing the Chinese IT buyer away from U.S. solutions. The fact that SAP is German helps.”
SAP is the world’s third-biggest independent software company, trailing Microsoft Corp. and Oracle Corp. In the wake of the spying revelations by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, sales of SAP’s Hana database program have grown at the expense of U.S. database vendors Oracle and IBM, Walravens said.
SAP relies on its technical and business capability to win business in China, rather than any security concerns about its competitors, Gibbs said. Still, he acknowledged SAP faces fewer political headwinds in China than U.S. companies do at present.
“The fact that we are a German, European company has kept us in good stead,” Gibbs said. “Being a proudly German, proudly European company, I think this is resonating well with Chinese companies. The integration of the governments of the two countries is at a very strong point at the moment.”
SAP built trust with the Chinese government and companies by investing in the market for the long term and the 2011 announcement of a projected $2 billion investment in China by 2015 is going according to plan, Gibbs said. SAP has 4,300 staff in China and has relocated its global support headquarters to Beijing, he said.
The growth in China is a bright spot for SAP, which reported first-quarter sales and earnings on April 17 that missed analyst estimates, as a sales boost from the company’s shift to online programs was muted by a slowdown for older products. A strong euro is also eroding the repatriated value of overseas sales.
“China was a particular highlight, which obviously is very different than other big companies that have reported,” McDermott said on the April 17 conference call.
Gibbs declined to provide specific sales figures at the China Telecom cloud venture or for total software sales in the Asian nation. Sales of cloud services through the venture with China Telecom represent a “significant opportunity,” Gibbs said without supplying details.
SAP is also boosting sales of the Hana database system in China through a partnership last month with Huawei Technologies Co. As part of the agreement, the two companies jointly market their products with Huawei supplying its FusionCube storage system for SAP’s Hana system.
“We’ve tried to respect and collaborate with Chinese IT and software companies,” Gibbs said. “The climate for SAP in China, because of the investment, because of these co-engineering projects, because of our association with the ecosystem in China, I think slowly, slowly over time this is playing out and we are seen as a trusted international company.”
Gibbs was named president for the China region in October after serving as chief operating officer of SAP’s Asia Pacific region from May 2011. He was previously the company’s president for North Asia.
The appointment of Gibbs put greater focus on SAP’s China business by breaking the region out of the Asia Pacific Japan group, of which it was previously a part.
The change reflects “the importance SAP puts on the market,” said Michael Briest, an analyst at UBS AG. “Even the U.S. is run as part of the Americas, and Germany as part of a greater Central/Eastern Europe region, so this tells you something.”
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Media reports have French logistics company adding venerable U.S. 3PL in what would be the latest in a string of major acquisitions in the third party logistics market.
The German ocean carrier advanced its timetable on plans to launch a stock market flotation as a result of positive second quarter financial results.
The airfreight carrier of Saudi Arabia’s flag airline will begin dedicated weekly cargo flights to the New York City airport starting Sept. 4.
The new Terminal Information Portal System (TIPS) will provide information on container availability, export booking status and more.
The FedEx unit of the Air Line Pilots Association has approved a new tentative contract agreement, which must now be voted upon by the express carrier’s 4,000 eligible pilots.
HighJump, a provider of supply chain management solutions, has acquired Wesupply, a U.K.-based premier business-to-business supply chain solutions supplier.


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What would it take for a large private company to betray its founding purpose, its customers and its staff? Such is the question raised by Huawei, the world’s largest maker of telecoms equipment. US intelligence officials view it as a glove for the hand of China’s military, a national security threat to be placed under sanctions and driven out of international phone networks. It views itself as an entrepreneurial, research-driven tech company, built on admiration for global business standards, owned by its employees and dedicated to serving the needs of its customers.
Judging which of these wholly incompatible versions is the real Huawei — which means judging whether its equipment can be used to spy or threaten a national communications network — is beyond the reach of any layman. Telecoms equipment is critical and yet unseen. No decisive evidence of a spying backdoor built into past generations of Huawei equipment has ever come to light, but it is impossible to prove they do not or will not exist, which is part of the company’s problem.
What can be said with some confidence, though, is that Huawei’s version seems real to its more than 200,000 employees. If it is a sham, the sham is elaborate and deeply rooted. That highlights two costs of the current push to “decouple” supply chains from China. First, by forcing an innovative company such as Huawei to duplicate technology lost to sanctions, it turns a $23bn-a-year research budget away from developments that would benefit the world at large. Second, by cutting ties with the entrepreneurial Chinese private sector, the US is pushing such companies into the arms of a partner they have previously tried quite hard to avoid: the communist Chinese state.
Although Huawei’s founder Ren Zhengfei famously served in the People’s Liberation Army, the company’s history and structure is quite different to national champions such as CRRC, the state-controlled builder of high-speed trains. As the company tells it, Huawei got its start making cheap-and-cheerful telephone switches for rural Chinese exchanges in the 1980s, when almost nobody had a phone, and the main challenges were unreliable power supplies and rats eating the cabling. Huawei flopped in the Chinese mobile phone market in the 1990s — losing out to western suppliers such as Nokia — and almost went under several times.
None of this sounds like a company with state backing. Nor does the way Huawei ultimately took off. Without prospects in China, it went around the world in the 2000s selling 3G phone networks, succeeding because its products were good value and solved problems for telephone operators. In 2003, after the dotcom bust, Huawei almost sold itself to Motorola for $7.5bn, but the US side ultimately walked away.
More recently, the company has indeed become important to many levels of the party-state. When its chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou was arrested in Canada, Beijing was willing to damage diplomatic relations to get her back. Following sanctions, the state has stepped in with billions in subsidies, helping to prop up Huawei’s semiconductor arm. The question is whether Huawei has incurred obligations in return.
Huawei’s unusual employee ownership structure has been the subject of debate because it is indirect: staff hold shadow units issued by an entity that actually controls the shares. The legalities, though, are not that relevant. What matters is employees believe they own shares and both sides act as if they do. Every few years, Huawei employees go through an elaborate process to elect representatives, who choose the board — a system considerably more democratic than anything allowed in Chinese politics. Ren, the founder, has some veto powers and doubtless effective control, but limited influence over management is common at employee-owned companies around the world.
If Huawei is indeed the private company it claims to be, then consider what it would mean to spy on or sabotage its customers. Huawei tells employees they are owners. In a highly competitive market, it tells them to focus on the needs of the customer, and has achieved notable success by doing so. It tells everyone that cyber security is its highest priority and the accusations made by foreign intelligence services are false.
The state could compel Huawei to practice espionage, or patriots within the company might feel it their duty. But doing so would come with considerable risks. If it ever came to light it would betray every promise made to customers, and every value the company claims to believe in.
Does that mean it is safe to buy Huawei? Not really. Just as a bank cannot have a credit rating higher than the sovereign that implicitly stands behind it in a crisis, a company cannot be more trustworthy than the government it must answer to — and the Chinese Communist party is definitely not to be trusted.
Rather than viewing Huawei as a villain, however, it should be seen as a victim caught up in a political dispute beyond its control. China and the west may now be destined to fracture into separate technological spheres. The losers, regrettably, will be private companies on both sides of the divide that are trying their best to make the world work better. Follow national security advice on network safety — but do not demonise Huawei simply because it is Chinese.
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Ethical Business vs Consumer Frustration
19 November 2014 at 9:59 am
James Meldrum, co-founder of the first food Australian food business to be certified as a B Corp, Whole Kids, draws on new research and his own experiences to reflect on what corporations can really do to break through the consumer skepticism and frustration around ethical business.
For all the time, energy and resources that business have dedicated to building a brand with sustainability at its heart, most consumers are simply not believing all the messages.
What can business can do to break through the skepticism and consumer frustration?
The Accenture survey found that poor engagement from consumers with the business sector’s sustainability efforts may be partly explained by the focus of companies on relaying on abstract metrics and measurement tools. The report notes that “perhaps driven by concerns over ‘greenwash’, and informed by an internal focus on measurement and reporting, business has collectively decided that the way to engage consumers on sustainability is to present more facts and figures to appeal to rational decision-making”.
In a nutshell, this means companies are producing reams of data, graphs and analysis to ‘prove’ that they are making efforts to be more sustainable. Who hasn’t come across a company’s website and found a massive tome detailing their sustainability activities and results? However, while such reports may speak to reporting agencies and other corporate interest, they fail in communicating how these benefits relate to the lives of their customers and people in general.
While it is important for businesses to produce the ‘hard’ evidence and quantifiable data to support their sustainability claims, they also need to understand how to communicate these benefits on a more emotional level to consumers.
The report survey found evidence to reinforce this point: “companies are missing an opportunity to frame sustainability in terms of their positive impact on the health, wealth and livelihoods of their customers and the communities in which they operate”.
And it’s an opportunity that is leaving many consumers with unmet needs and frustrations. For companies that can close this gap, there are significant future benefits. Consumers are becoming more aware of the ethical and environmental performance of businesses and will rewards those brands are can clearly demonstrate (in a language that customers understand) how they are benefiting the planet and communities. Loyal customers are also more likely to refer a brand or product to their friends.
Think of those businesses that are connecting deeply with customers on an emotional level by effectively communicating their purpose, social and environmental commitments and, more importantly, evidence of their community and environmental impact: Patagonia, TOMS Shoes,Method and Wholefoods Market.
The Accenture report suggests companies pursue three imperatives to better engage companies:
Companies must promote a commitment to honesty and transparency
While this may seem obvious, one of the key problems here is the depth of commitment that companies are willing to make. I mentioned in a previous blog post that there are significant differences between operating a business with a deep commitment to a core purpose built on sustainability and positive social/environmental impact, and developing corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs and other marketing-driven activities that may not be truly embedded within an organisation’s structure and culture. Indeed, the Accenture report notes that “consumer perceptions will be formed not only on the messages you [as a business] promote, but on the way you define and articulate your purpose, and act upon it in the most transparent way possible”.
Companies must look to innovate to genuinely improve the lives of their customers
Many consumers are already engaged on environmental and social issues, and many are active in looking for information to assess how a company is performing in addressing these issues. It is important to recognise that consumers can engage a company on different issues and on different levels. What may be important for one group of consumers may be immaterial to another. For example, a food company may be scrutinised by one set of consumers on that company’s efforts to reduce childhood obesity, while another group of consumers may be more interested in that company’s performance on addressing ethical ingredient sourcing. The challenge for a business is to understand the breadth of social and environmental issues that their customers are concerned about in their daily lives, and what role (if any) that business can participate in delivering tangible improvements.
Companies must communicate more overtly throughout the consumer journey, to enhance their credibility as they move from ‘marketing’ to ‘mattering’
The report suggests the key action here is to move from communicating incremental efforts and outputs to clearly demonstrating a credible purpose and impact. Where communities are experiencing immediate and urgent social and environmental issues (for example, land degradation, air and water pollution, inequity in the provision of social services, and so forth), people are turning to businesses in their local markets to, in one sense, “prove their value” and why they matter to consumers. Companies need to show “how they make a meaningful difference to [people’s] quality of life”.
About the Author: James Meldrum is a co-founder of Whole Kids. Whole Kids is the first food Australian food business to be certified as a B Corp and one of the founding members of B Corporation Australia. The company aims to bring about long-term sustainable change in the way food is sourced, manufactured, distributed and ethically marketed to children (and families).


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"The cornering is a bit tricky at first, but the bikes make even the most tired tracks feel like new again."
"It's the online Club mode in which Driveclub really comes to life, and betters the competition with the shared team-based experience."
This applies to VR and Bikes as well, with Sony pulling sales of the game and its DLC in August this year too.
15 tracks come over from Driveclub VR.
But it will be a while until we're told what it is.
"Future is looking bright".
Driveclub developers made redundant.
Game director explains the technical side of the game.
New free stuff available to download starting today.
Adds Hardcore Handling mode, a new track and more.
Traction control, stability control and other assists are turned off.
Big update coming to the PS4 racer next month.
"Expect more tracks next year."
Private lobbies and more included in Update 1.24.
Surprise launch today.
A success, despite its issues.
New cars coming next week.


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Sony thinks that the next-gen PlayStation (PlayStation 5?) could reach the success the Japanese company expects by utilizing an incredibly fast SSD drive. (However, we have yet to see if the console can grow up to the PlayStation 4, as the good old PS4 is going to reach more than 100 million sold units this year…)
Do you remember the reveal of the „PlayStation 5?” (Until Sony officially names its console as such, using quotation marks is fair play!) Mark Cerny, who’s a talented game designer and console architect (he was the lead architect of both the PlayStation Vita and the PlayStation 4…), confirmed in April that the next-gen Sony machine is going to use the eight-core, 7nm AMD Zen 2 CPU, as well as a Navi-based GPU (with the Navi launching in the third quarter of 2019).
The surprise wasn’t there (nor was it at the confirmation of the 3D audio, or with the hardware-based ray-tracing support either), but where he presented to Wired, the first publication to write about the PlayStation next-gen reveal, how using an early version of their hyper-fast SSD has cut down Spider-Man’s loading times. The PlayStation 4 title from last September has gone from fifteen seconds to just half a second with its loading. Regarding this subject, a Sony spokesperson has said the following to the Official PlayStation Magazine, which WCCFTech quotes: „An ultra-high-speed SSD is the key to our next generation. Our vision is to make loading screens a thing of the past, enabling creators to build new and unique gameplay experiences.”
So, Sony already has a vision on how to approach the next console generation, which could easily become the last traditional console generation, seeing how the streaming platforms (such as the PlayStation Now or the Google Stadia) are spreading. The „PlayStation 5” will not launch by April 2020. meaning we have to wait a while until we can get a hold of Sony’s newest machine.


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In 2003, more PET bottles were collected and recycled in Europe than ever before, according to a recent report by the non-profit trade association Petcore.
The number of European PET bales offered to the recycling markets jumped from 449,000 tonnes in 2002, to 612,000 tonnes in 2003, representing a growth rate of 36%.
Trends in market outlets remain unchanged, with bottle-to-bottle recycling showing an increase from 8.1% in 2002, to 11.1% in 2003. Other RPET outlets: polyester fibre 70.4%, polyester sheet 7.5%, and strapping 7.6%.
Exceptionally high growth rates were seen in Spain, Portugal, Hungary, Slovakia, the Baltic states and in Ireland. But virtually all other countries in Europe showed growth as well.
Large increases were also seen in Germany and, for the first time in many years, the United Kingdom.
Germany and the UK, however, were also the countries contributing most to the increase of PET bottle export to China. Frank Koelewijn, Petcore’s Director General, said that the export of RPET rose from 33,000 tons in 2002 to 136,000 tons last year.
Relating to that fact, Koelewijn expressed his concern about exports which did not result in environmental benefits and caused the loss of recycling capability in Europe.


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Fenty Skin Just Launched a Serum, Cleanser & Moisturizer (But They’re Selling Out Fast)
But the day has finally arrived. The singer/songwriter just released the brand’s first three products including the Total Cleans'r Remove-It-All Cleanser, Fat Water Pore-Refining Serum and Hydra Vizor Invisible Moisturizer Broad Spectrum SPF 30. Not surprisingly, they’re already starting to sell out (yep, just a few hours after the launch).
The skincare brand teased the launch earlier this week in an Instagram post. “We made finding a new skincare routine easy with these 2-in-1 multitasking products in a simple 3 step routine—the FENTY SKIN STARTERS will brighten skin, snatch pores, and target dark spots—plus they’re clinically tested, clean, vegan, and earth-conscious.”
“Fenty Skin is everything I wish I had back then,” the 31-year-old said in a statement per InStyle. “I wanted it to feel approachable, easy, and to take the pressure off choosing a routine, so I created one for everyone.”
Keep reading for all of the details on the brand's first products (including the sold-out cleanser) below.
1. HYDRA VIZOR INVISIBLE MOISTURIZER BROAD SPECTRUM SPF 30 SUNSCREEN
This 2-in-1 sunscreen and moisturizer is lightweight, oil-free and practically invisible on every skin tone. According to the website, “it claps back” at dehydration, discoloration and, of course, dark spots.
2. FAT WATER PORE-REFINING TONER SERUM
The toner-serum combo targets pores, improves the look of dark spots, brightens, smooths and fights shine—all without stripping skin. Did we mention it’s refillable?
3. TOTAL CLEANS'R REMOVE-IT-ALL CLEANSER
Rihanna want’s you to say goodbye to traditional makeup wipes. This cleanser’s creamy lather removes dirt, oil, and all-day makeup without stripping or drying skin like other products.


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YARN and Mesos as one
Hadoop vendor MapR and data center automation startup Mesosphere have created an open source technology called Myriad, which is supposed to make it…
MapR is the latest Hadoop vendor to embrace Apache Spark, adding the entire Spark stack of technologies to its distribution. It’s a smart move by MapR, but just more validation that Spark might be the data-processing framework of the future.
Hadoop vendor is racking up customers and on Monday it announced a $30 million venture-capital investment that brings its total funding to $59 million since launching in 2011.
There has been a lot of data news already this week — some big, some interesting, and some both. Here’s a collection of the stuff you shouldn’t, or don’t want to, miss.
One big problem with big data is that most analytical queries are slow and non-interactive. That’s why MapR and the Apache Foundation are backing Drill, an open source version of Google’s Dremel, as a tool to address that problem
Nimbula and MapR say that combining the former company’s scalable private cloud infrastructure with the latter’s Hadoop distribution will enable companies to run and manage big data applications much more easily. The idea is that a cloud infrastructure will make Hadoop much more flexible and available.
Hadoop is on its way to becomig the de facto platform for the next-generation of data-based applications, but it’s not without some flaws. Ironically, one of Hadoop’s biggest shortcomings right now is also one of its biggest strengths going forward — the Hadoop Distributed File System.
Amazon Web Services already has a winner with its Elastic MapReduce Hadoop service, and now it’s turning up the heat by adding MapR’s Hadoop distribution as an option. Users can take advantage of MapR’s performance features while also having integration with AWS’s suite of cloud services.
MapR Technologies, the San Jose, Calif.-based startup that sells it own Hadoop distribution for analyzing large volumes of unstructured data, has raised a $20 million Series B round, which will helps its positioning as a worthy alternative in a space that Cloudera has dominated since 2009.
Yahoo will be spinning off a separate company focused on the development and commercialization of Apache Hadoop, called HortonWorks. The official announcement likely will come tomorrow or Wednesday to coincide with Yahoo’s annual Hadoop Summit, but rumors have been circulating for months.
Big data startup MapR is now an official corporate contributor to the Apache Hadoop project, a somewhat interesting turn of affairs given its corporate mission to lure users away from Apache’s Hadoop Distributed File System. However, other companies commercializing Hadoop shoud follow its lead.
San Jose, Calif.-based storage startup MapR, which provides a high-performance alternative for the Hadoop Distributed File System, will serve as the storage component for EMC’s forthcoming Greenplum HD Enterprise Edition Hadoop distribution. Cloudera announced an HDFS partnership of its own with compression expert RainStor.
Mapr, a stealth-mode start-up with about 30 employees is developing a version of Hadoop and plans to compete with the likes of Cloudera. The company is likely to launch later this year and has been funded by Lightspeed Venture Partners and NEA.


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1. 直到最近，Weill Cornell Medical College的科学家们至少在老鼠和猴子身上实现了这一点。这种人造视网膜，它的芯片可以将画面转换为电子信号，而它的微型投影机可以将电子信号转化为投影光线。
2. Without the cut, Hollande would have earned 255,600 euros a year ($274,522), second only to Obama. Now he makes $198,700. Famously, his personal hairdresser makes $132,000 a year.
3. In March, Ford completed its exit from the luxury car market by selling Volvo to China's Geely Automobile for $1.6 billion. Although the sale represents a sharp loss - the company paid $6 billion for the Swedish automaker eleven years ago - Ford posted an annual profit of $2.7 billion in 2009, its first profitable year since 2005. Assisted by the 'Cash for Clunkers' program (not to mention Toyota's accelerator woes), Ford recaptured its position as the nation's largest carmaker in February. Which is why Ford's CEO Alan Mulally can now look abroad, including big markets like India, where it recently introduced the compact Figo.
5. Domain name registrar GoDaddy, which is based in Scottsdale, Ariz., broke ground in May on its new Global Technology Center in Tempe. GoDaddy already employs 2, 600 people in the Greater Phoenix area and the new facility is expected to add 300 more. Other companies expanding in Arizona include Asurion, a leader in technology protection services. They opened a new technical support center in Phoenix and want to fill 500 jobs by the end of the year. Energy provider Direct Energy opened a new call center in Tempe this year and is looking to fill as many as 300 openings.
6. But whether another hit product can emerge to fend off questions about Apple’s life after Jobs, Mr Cook learnt long ago to be patient and trust his instincts, just as he did when he ignored the doubters to join the then-struggling company in 1998.


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Earlier this week, Samsung started rolling out the July 2022 security update to the Galaxy S21 series. However, the update was just limited to Germany. Now, the carrier-unlocked version of Galaxy S21 is getting the July 2022 security update in the US.
The carrier-unlocked variants of the Galaxy S21, Galaxy S21 Plus, and Galaxy S21 Ultra are getting the new OTA update with the firmware version G99xU1UES5CVF5. The update primarily brings the July 2022 security patch that fixes dozens of vulnerabilities of varying severity levels. It enhances user privacy and data security. The devices are also getting system stability improvements with the latest update.
According to a report from Sammobile, the July 2022 security update for the carrier-unlocked Galaxy S21 is rolling out on AT&T, Bluegrass Cellular, Comcast, Tracfone, Verizon, and Xfinity Mobile networks. It could soon start rolling out to carrier-locked variants in the US.
Proud Samsung Galaxy S21, Galaxy S21 Plus, and Galaxy S21 users in the US carrying the unlocked version may get the update at any moment. Alternatively, you can navigate to Settings > Software update to check if the update is already available on your phone.
Samsung has been impressive with its software support. According to the company’s update policy for the Galaxy S21 series, the devices will receive four Android OS updates. Since the Galaxy S21 series has already received Android 12, it is still eligible to receive three more Android OS updates.


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$504,225 Penalty for Illegal Transshipments to Iran
The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced March 6 that a California company has agreed to pay $504,225 to settle potential civil liability for apparent violations of the Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations. OFAC states that this company granted a distributor in the United Arab Emirates exclusive rights to distribute its products (goods for broadband wireless connectivity) to Iran and subsequently sold to that distributor and exported or shipped to the UAE goods that were reexported to Iran. The company also engaged in 13 exports of such goods to a distributor in Greece with knowledge or reason to know that those goods were intended specifically for supply, transshipment or reexportation, directly or indirectly, to Iran.
The base penalty for the apparent violations was $560,250. OFAC finds that the company demonstrated reckless disregard for U.S. sanction requirements, was on notice in February 2010 that the conduct at issue constituted a violation of U.S. law, engaged in a pattern of conduct over five years that resulted in several apparent violations, had no OFAC compliance program in place at the time of the apparent violations, and did not voluntarily disclose the apparent violations. On the other hand, the company has no prior sanctions history, cooperated with OFAC during its investigation, and took remedial action, and OFAC determined that the conduct at issue constitutes a non-egregious case.


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Exploding Kittens is the name of a new card game that has taken Kickstarter by storm, coming from famed comic The Oatmeal, who partnered up with Elan Lee and Shane Small to create what appears to be an insanely humorous game for players of all ages, although a NSFW version of the game is also available. The game reached its $10,000 funding goal in just 20 minutes after being listed, and it topped $2,500,000 in pledges with almost a full month to go. More →
It’s not uncommon for small-time acts to go on Kickstarter looking for funds to record an album, but what happens when established acts ask fans for recording cash? The two remaining members of TLC are giving it a shot and on Monday they unveiled a new Kickstarter project aimed at raising $100,000 to record one final album. More →
For some smartwatch buyers, the circular Moto 360 is the best-looking wearable device out there, and the Motorola gadget is definitely popular with buyers — at least when compared to other Android Wear devices. To make it even more appealing, SteelConnect has created some interesting accessories that are currently available for purchase on Kickstarter, including a hook that can turn the Moto 360 into a smart modern pocket watch, as seen in the image above. More →
Virtual reality is getting better and better, with companies such as Facebook, Samsung, Google and others growing more interested in offering such entertainment options to customers in the future. But one artist is already determined to push his limits and experiment virtual reality in a completely different way — and he’s looking for your help to make it possible.
Mark Farid wants to wear a VR headset for 28 days and experience life events as lived by another person. To make it possible, he needs to raise £150,000 (around $234,557) on Kickstarter in the coming month.
Back to the Future fans are surely familiar with Marty McFly’s special auto-lacing shoes from the future, and many of them may have been dreaming about wearing them one day. Interestingly, as we’re getting closer to 2015, the year when Marty arrives in the future, a company is getting ready to launch the first shoes with auto-lacing capabilities — and while the Powerlace P-One shoes look nothing like the sneakers in the movie, they certainly seem able to get the job done. More →
What if you could print your selfies immediately after taking them? That’s the kind of problem French startup Prynt has been trying to solve for almost a year, and the company has produced just the kind of Polaroid-like mobile printer that mobile photographers have been waiting for. Prynt has come up with a smartphone accessory that acts as a case and photo printer for the handset, and it will be available on Kickstarter for $99 at some point after CES 2015, according to TechCrunch. More →
You shouldn’t text and drive. You really, really shouldn’t. That said, if you’re the kind of person who just can’t help picking up your phone whenever you hear a little buzzing sound, you may want to check out Alfah Mobile, a new smartphone accessory that’s trying to raise $35,000 on Kickstarter. More →
We’ve seen a lot of iPhone 6 cases pop up on Kickstarter lately, but this one still looks like something special. The Rhinoshield Crash Guard is a new case that’s being pitched as a “slim profile bumper case that provides amazing drop protection for the iPhone 5/5S/5C, the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus. Protection that does NOT compromise on the original design.” The case’s Kickstarter fundraiser has already exceeded its original goal of £6,000 and has now raised more than £100,000. It has 17 days remaining, and has already racked up an impressive 3,844 backers.
Anonabox is a tiny Wi-Fi router that’s supposed to bring Tor-grade encryption to all online activity performed on a computer connecting to the Internet through the device. The gadget has already taken Kickstarter by storm, raising well over $500,000 in just a couple of days from more than 7,700 backers, thus significantly topping its original $7,500 goal. However, the device appears to be a huge hoax, as its creator is simply showing off a gadget on Kickstarter that’s identical to a regular Wi-Fi router that’s already sold on Alibaba for around $20, failing to explain the similarities in a professional manner. More →
Users looking to anonymize everything they do online in order to protect their privacy and/or hide from advertisers can always use the Tor browser, although their online experience might completely change once the switch to Tor is made. However, users who don’t want to change their Internet surfing habits while making them more private should check out Anonabox, a tiny WiFi router that directs all data through the Tor network, protecting everything you do online, not just your browsing activity. More →
Google’s Chromecast is an incredibly intuitive take on the set-top box, but it has its limitations. For example, it’s not much of a games console, but Concept96 hopes to change that with its very first casual game designed specifically for the Chromecast. In its Kickstarter campaign, Concept96 is asking for just £1000 (~$1600) to build Buzzb, a multiplayer quiz game that lifts videos and music from YouTube, Soundcloud and other online sources. More →
Many companies come up with interesting external battery pack concepts for iPhone and other smartphones before hitting crowd-funding sites such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo looking to raise enough money to turn them into commercial products. But even with all the different battery pack options to choose from, Power Pratical’s Pronto battery pack appears ready to offer you something quite special. More →


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Not Failsafe: Planning For Cloud Outages4:00 PM EST Fri. Nov. 16, 2012
Disaster recovery for cloud services gained attention following the outage at Amazon Web Services' data center in Virginia in October.
The Oct. 22 outage, which lasted most of the day, occurred when AWS' Northern Virginia data center complex went down. Earlier this year, a power outage cut services to customers in the same Northern Virginia data complex for about six hours. Other high-profile outages this year affected customers of Microsoft Windows Azure, GoDaddy and Google.
To prepare for cloud outages, solution providers recommend focusing on fundamentals -- ensuring geographic diversity of data centers, redundant contracts and remote backup whenever possible.
Kevin Chu, director of systems and infrastructure with digital marketing at technology company Digitaria, said the Amazon outages did not appreciably affect his company's clients because Digitaria had service contracts for them with Amazon in two service areas, as Amazon recommends.
He said geographic diversity of data centers is key for disaster recovery, something all solution providers should recommend to their clients, even if it adds costs.
Jeremy Pryzgode, CEO of Stratalux, a Platform-as-a-Service provider that builds and manages Amazon cloud solutions for customers, has contracts with Amazon in diverse regions.
He said he's also considered entering service availability contracts with two cloud providers for one client.
"In an ideal world, with two contracts you would switch to another provider, like Rackspace," he said. "But these kinds of switches are really expensive. You need to move your services into two different cloud providers which, depending on the APIs, may be more expensive."
Paul Clifford, president of Davenport Group, a solution provider and Dell partner, also recommends geographic diversity of backup with cloud providers. But he said it's up to the solution provider to make sure the backup plan works, even in the event of a failure of a cloud hosting provider.
Clifford recommends customizing a disaster recovery plan for every client. "Every customer is different," he said.
"We have too many examples of these [cloud hosting centers] going down," Clifford said. "Every CIO knows nobody is immune from systems going down.
"We have to build environments that ensure that no matter what happens I can rebuild it. If it's Dell or any other service provider, can they ensure I can come back and get the data, and then can they prove it to me," he added
PUBLISHED NOV. 19, 2012


text: Nickelodeon has just started running a new show called “Make it Pop” featuring three young female Asian boarding school friends. Their fashion and music come together in a new K-Pop band called XI-IQ. They, of course, are too cool for school. And the Korean pop form has now found a mainstream home on American television. How global is your reach for trends and content?


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Fayetteville tech startup TiFiber Inc. said Thursday it has chosen Fort Smith as the location of its pilot production facility and future company headquarters.
TiFiber, a subsidiary company of Fayetteville-based technology venture development firm VIC Technology Venture Development, was founded in 2010 and currently maintains its research lab at the Arkansas Research Technology Park.
“As VIC continues to grow its portfolio, we’re looking for people to be involved in funding expansion of these companies,” said Calvin Goforth, the CEO and founder of VIC Technology Venture Development. “Fort Smith has a good history in manufacturing and it’s a good place for transportational logistics. A combination of those two things were important, but the most important factor... [ MORE ]


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The European Association of Travel Agents and Tour Operators (ECTAA) will meet in the European Green Capital 2016, Ljubljana, Slovenia, on Wednesday, May 25, for its semi-annual meeting.
The event will bring together 70 CEOs and presidents of travel agents and travel agents’ associations to discuss industry and EU policy developments impacting on the travel trade.
This is the first time in its 55 years existence that ECTAA meets in Slovenia and is an opportunity for the 70-strong delegation to get to know the country, with sightseeing tours scheduled to the Old Town of Ljubljana and its castle, the Postojna cave, the Bled Alpine lake area and the medieval town of Piran.
Slovenia was chosen as the venue for ECTAA’s semi-annual meeting as part of the “Preferred Destination” agreement signed with the Slovenian Tourist Board in May 2015 to help raise awareness and promote Slovenia through the network of travel agents and tour operators across Europe.
“We are glad that the renowned European Travel Agents’ and Tour Operators’ Association selected our country for such an important meeting as it is General Assembly meeting”, said Director of the Slovenian Tourist Board, Maja Pak.
ECTAA regroups the national associations of travel agents and tour operators of 31 European countries as well as three neighbouring Mediterranean countries, and represents some 70.000 enterprises.
“We are also excited about the title of the Preferred Destination of the Year 2016, which contributes to the positioning of Slovenia as a visible European tourist destination also among tourism business professionals.”
On his part, ECTAA’s president, Lars Thykier, said that the association expects the agreement to serve as a bridgehead for expanding awareness of Slovenia among the travel agents community.
ECTAA pledges to help increase inbound tourism through participation in different promotion and marketing campaigns, targeting in particular specific source markets in Europe. Among other, ECTAA is promoting the upcoming 19th Slovenian Incoming Workshop 2016 scheduled from 9-11 June 2016 in Terme Čatež.
ECTAA’s semi-annual meeting will run until Saturday, May 28.


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Another year, another June and the time to countdown the weeks and days left until Goodwood begins.
Since 1993 each and every year the Goodwood Festival of Speed has become bigger and bigger with the world’s biggest manufacturers bringing cars ranging from their everyday cars to their one off rarest cars, some for a run up the famous Goodwood Hillclimb.
Taking place before the headline Festival of Speed event is the Moving Motor Show, which previews the latest models and concept cars from the world’s leading manufacturers. The Moving Motor Show gives members of the public the incredible opportunity to test drive new models on Goodwood’s legendary Hillclimb.
Peugeot will use this years Moving Motor Show, set to be the biggest yet, to host the global debut of a new 308 model and the European debut of the 500bhp 308 R Hybrid.
Sadly those two will not be able to drive by the public (we’ll still ask for a cheeky run in the 308 R Hybrid) however visitors will still be able to have an exciting drive up the legendary Hill Climb course in the 308 GT 205, 308 GT Line 1.2 and a special edition ‘Peugeot Sport’ 208 GTi.
The new 308 performance model will debut with a run up the Hillclimb during the Festival of Speed’s First Glance section as well as joining the drivable line-up of cars and some Peugeot racing heritage cars on static display.
If you’re a fan of racing heritage then you won’t be disappointed as Peugeot will have the Group B Rally champion 205 T16, the current rally championship 208 WRX and the 2008 DKR from the 2015 Dakar Rally.
If you’re a gamer, Peugeot also have you covered as the Gran Turismo Peugeot Vision GT Concept will be drivable, not in reality but on the video game Gran Turismo 6 which features Goodwood as a drivable circuit.
It’s 30 years since the 205 T16 won the World Rally Championship and it certainly seems Peugeot are celebrating in style with a very energetic and sporty weekend at Goodwood.
By James Fothergill


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OpenTV Inc. inked a five-year licensing and porting agreement with Scientific-Atlanta, the second-largest supplier of digital cable set-tops in the U.S. However, it's expected that this agreement initially will have more legs in the European cable sector.
Under the deal, S-A will port a range of OpenTV interactive television (iTV) middleware products, including Core 1.1, on the Explorer set-top platform. S-A has already completed a port on the Explorer 4200DVB, a box that supports PAL, DVB and EuroDOCSIS standards.
OpenTV also extended an application developers agreement with S-A for the software maker's ProSync iTV service.
The next step, of course, is to win deployments with cable operators.
"This licensing agreement will create new opportunities for both companies by making it easier for operators to quickly deploy a state-of-the-art iTV solution, comprised of hardware and software that has already been tested to reliably work together," said OpenTV Chairman & CEO Jim Chiddix, in a release.


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As fans anxiously anticipate 2022’s The Game Awards on December 8 and speculate what titles we can expect to be shown off, we now know at least one game that will make an appearance at the presentation. Several influencers are receiving shirts promoting this year’s The Game Awards, with the Tekken 8 logo plastered on the packaging and clothing. This suggests that Tekken 8 will have some short presence during this year’s presentation, possibly a new trailer or explicit details about the title.
A release date for Tekken has yet to be revealed, so that could be one of the new details announced during The Game Awards. It’s unknown how far along Tekken 8 is in production, with the only official word of the game stating it’s in active development. The previous title in the series, Tekken 7, was released on Arcades in 2015 before releasing on consoles and PC in 2017.
A new Tekken title has been long-rumored, with the first official tease for Tekken 8 unveiled during EVO 2022 with brief footage of Kazuya smiling. A trailer for Tekken 8 was then shared during Sony’s September State of Play presentation. The trailer featured an intense fight between Kazuya, the original protagonist turned antagonist of the franchise, and his son Jin Kazama. The footage used in the trailer was captured on the PlayStation 5, showing off the graphical fidelity of the console. Though Tekken has had a long history with PlayStation and Sony was the one that officially announced the game, Tekken 8 will also launch on the Xbox Series X/S and Steam.
Tekken 8 is a direct continuation of Tekken 7, the latter of which ended with Kazuya finally killing his father, Heihachi, and dropping his body into molten lava. Now Jin aims to end Kazuya’s evil reign and plans to finish him off and get rid of the devil gene once and for all.


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These days, downloading software applications for a smartphone is a breeze. But good luck trying to share that fun game or handy work-productivity tool with someone else. Sure, a handful of apps feature \'tell a friend\' buttons that let you alert others to an application you found useful, but if they want to check it out for themselves, they\'ll have to download it or look over your shoulder.
A handful of upgrades from some of the biggest names in mobile software is set to upend the way smartphone users get and share apps. Apple\'s new iPhone 3.0 software includes features that, if activated by Apple, may let users share software with one another, according to a person familiar with the technology. Eventually, iPhone users may even get a commission when they\'ve induced someone else to make a purchase, says Richard Doherty, director at consultant Envisioneering Group. Apple spokeswoman Jennifer Bowcock wouldn\'t discuss features that might be available in the future, saying only, \'We\'ve made no announcements at this time.\'
Separately, a group of software developers led by Google is also considering enabling user-to-user gifting and recommendations through its mobile applications store, Android Market, a person familiar with the plans tells BusinessWeek.com.
Will new features spur sales‾
By enlisting cell-phone users to play a role in distribution, these features could dramatically increase sales of apps, music, and movies for cell phones. As it is, revenue from mobile applications for consumers is expected to exceed $25 billion by 2014, as companies like Microsoft (MSFT) open stores, joining the ranks of existing online marketplaces including Research In Motion\'s (RIMM) BlackBerry App World, Apple\'s App Store, and the Android Market, according to consultant Juniper Research. Analysts estimate that sales of these applications added up to less than $1 billion last year.
User-to-user recommendations could make discovery of new apps and content easier. Most mobile app stores today offer top 10 lists of the most popular apps and let users post reviews. That aids navigating the more than 35,000 apps in the Apple App Store and nearly 5,000 in Google\'s Android Market. \'As every day passes, it gets harder to rise above all that noise. It\'s difficult to be found in the app store,\' says Michael Boland, a program director for consultant The Kelsey Group. Developers have long urged Apple and other services to include tailor-made buying recommendations, based in part on past purchases, that are now commonplace on e-commerce sites like Amazon.com (AMZN).
But user-to-user recommendations could be even more relevant, and it\'s been proven they drive up sales in the case of at least one wireless device, Microsoft\'s Zune digital music player. Zune lets users share content, such as songs, via Wi-Fi. \'The top two places people get recommendations for their music is FM radio and friends,\' says Brian Seitz, group marketing manager with Microsoft Zune. This fall, Microsoft plans to unveil a new recommendations engine that will use friends\' song lists to come up with better suggestions for purchases for each user.
Mobile P2P Sharing
These new viral features will also come in handy amid the proliferation of so-called peer-to-peer applications, which let people transfer content directly from one phone to the next. Peer-to-peer is nothing new in the fixed Internet world, where many people use services like BitTorrent to watch each other\'s movies.


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Rexene Corp. of Dallas has launched an investment program to expand and modernize its Odessa, Texas, olefins manufacturing facility. The expansion will move Rexene into the production of 220 million pounds of linear low density polyethylene a year while increasing its production of ethylene to 800 million pounds from 540 million pounds a year.
Rexene put the value of its investment in the expansion and modernization at $150 million to $175 million.
Rexene now produces 420 million pounds of conventional LDPE, 180 million pounds of isotactic polypropylene, flexible polyolefins, ethylene and other petrochemical products.
Rexene will use the DSM/Stamicarbon, ``Compact'' solution process in the new LLDPE plant. The facility will go into production by the end of 1998.
The move into LLDPE production is a significant step for Rexene, which has been a determined producer and advocate of conventional LDPE.
In an interview by telephone Dec. 19 from his office in Dallas, Andrew J. Smith, chief executive officer of Rexene, said the move will give his company new product lines and access to metallocene catalyst technology, while enlarging its Odessa complex to make it a ``world-scale'' facility.
Smith said he expects Rexene to develop new niche products using its LLDPE line that will fit in specific applications, rather than a broad line of products.
Previously a skeptic about metallocene catalyst technology, Smith conceded in the Dec. 19 interview that resins made with metallocene technologies may have an impact on PE markets in his lifetime.
``We have not licensed metallocene catalyst technology, but we have the best of both worlds,'' Smith said.
``We can watch the development of metallocenes, and we will test and look at applications for products [using that technology],'' he said.


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Samsung launches new fund for early-stage AI investments – TechCrunch
Samsung is diving deeper into synthetic intelligence after it introduced a brand new fund targeted on AI applied sciences and startups.
The Korean agency’s ‘Samsung NEXT Q Fund’ is focused at seed and Sequence A offers for startups which can be “fixing AI issues, in addition to these utilizing AI to resolve pc science issues.” Specifically, the announcement revealing the brand new fund talked about areas that embrace studying in simulation, scene understanding, drawback studying packages and human pc interplay.
The fund itself doesn’t have a devoted kitty, it as a substitute invests from Samsung’s $150 million U.S. Subsequent Fund, which was introduced final 12 months and is concentrated on early-stage firms in rising tech verticals.
The Q fund has already lower checks, although. To this point it has backed a lot of firms, one in every of which is Covariant.AI — a startup that teaches expertise to robots.
“For the previous ten years, we’ve watched software program eat the world. Now, it’s AI’s flip to eat software program. We’re launching Q Fund to assist the subsequent era of AI startups who look to scratch past the floor of what we all know right now,” mentioned Samsung NEXT Ventures’ Vincent Tang in an announcement.
Supply hyperlink – https://techcrunch.com/2018/06/13/samsung-next-q-fund/


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This free virtual summit will bring together the stakeholders needed to solve the puzzle of sustainable refrigeration in supermarkets – including food retailers, manufacturers, service contractors, engineers, consultants, government agencies, policymakers, utilities, energy, and environmental stakeholders.
Hear the latest regulatory and industry trends and learn from leading food retailers, industry experts, and policymakers.
Visit the summit website for the full agenda and to register.
Read the full story from AIP Publishing.
Conventional dishwashers often do not kill all the harmful microorganisms left on plates, bowls, and cutlery. They also require long cycle times that use large quantities of electricity, and the soap pumped in and out is released into water sources, polluting the environment.
Superheated steam dishwashers could provide a more effective, environmentally friendly solution. In a recent article published in Physics of Fluids, researchers from the Technical University of Dortmund and the Technical University of Munich simulated such a dishwasher, finding that it killed 99% of bacteria on a plate in just 25 seconds.
Read the full story at Smart Cities Dive.
As part of a broader effort to decrease food waste and mitigate residents’ food insecurity, Jersey City, New Jersey, announced Thursday it’s launching a citywide initiative focused on diverting food from local businesses that might otherwise get thrown out.
The city’s Department of Public Works, which manages composting, and the Department of Health and Human Services, which manages food and nutrition, is receiving technical assistance and grant support from the nonprofit Natural Resources Defense Council, and working with the consultancy Center for EcoTechnology to map the city’s network of organizations involved in food rescue.
The initiative entails assembling a better data picture of who is involved in food rescue, to eventually determine how resources could be redistributed, city officials explained. Efforts also aims to educate businesses on how to minimize waste and boost rescue, while decreasing costs related to refrigeration, water, storage and waste removal.
RECOUP, a UK organization committed to securing sustainable, circular, and practical solutions for plastic resources, has released a series of reports related to recyclability and design of plastic packaging. The series includes:
Read the full story at Waste Dive.
As fast food chains face lawsuits related to PFAS in packaging, and numerous states prepare to enact related packaging bans, restaurant franchisors should consider proactively changing their foodware offerings, attorneys recommended during an Aug. 10 webinar from legal services firm Lathrop GPM.
Franchisors must closely monitor upcoming changes to state regulations, which could dictate how they source or purchase items like cups, takeout containers and other food serviceware — and what kinds of products eventually end up in disposal sites, they said.
Ten states have passed laws banning intentionally-added PFAS in packaging, with New York’s law taking effect at the end of the year. With more such laws expected to pass in the next few years, experts suggested finding PFAS-free packaging alternatives, even if businesses are complying with current state and local regulations related to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances.
Read the full story from Griffith Foods.
Many commonly wasted products (and by-products) have significant second-life potential. It’s time for consumers and brands to put those products to work.
Read the full story at the Robb Report.
Restaurants are notorious for the amount of food waste they create. One ceramics designer is hoping to change that, though.
The London-based Carly Breame created a recent collection titled “Off the Menu,” which consists of ceramics made from a local restaurant’s food scraps. Fish bones, fruit peels and oyster shells all feature in the crockery, which is intended to be used as servingware in the same restaurant.
Beyond Plastics has created a practical guide to help restaurants reduce their plastic use and effectively communicate the resulting changes to their customers, the media, and the general public. The guide offers practical advice, tools, and resources, as well as case studies of two restaurants that have successfully reduced their plastic use.
Read the full story at QSR Magazine.
Recent bottlenecks and shortages have restaurants reevaluating their supply chains—and sustainability might just be part of the solution.
Read the full story at Food Manufacture.
A new range of Zero Waste Boxes has been launched allowing food manufacturers to recycle equipment such as hair nets and gloves that would be destined for landfill or incineration.


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Kumar boarded an Intercape bus on Friday night to get to the venue of India’s second ODI that was held yesterday. On Saturday morning, Kumar lodged a complaint over his stolen equipment to the bus company as well as to the Durban police.
He told MiD DAY yesterday that he is being helped by Cricket South Africa officials and is hopeful of getting back his equipment to resume his photography duties.
“I am getting a lot of support, but this is a very stressful time for me. I am merely sitting in the Durban media centre. I am in no mood to sit with the other photographers on the boundary.”
Here’s what Kumar’s stolen bag had: Canon camera Mark III, Canon camera 5D Mark II, Canon camera 50D, Canon lens 400mm 2.8, Canon lens 70x200mm 2.8, Canon lens 16x35 2.8, Canon flash 580EX II with battery pack, camera battery and chargers.
Birthday special: 14 Bollywood actors who made it big on TV
Photos: Vaani Kapoor, Poonam Pandey, Sana Khan at fashion event
Photos: Rishi Kapoor, wife Neetu, daughter Riddhima at book launch
Photos: Sunny Leone, Shraddha Kapoor, Shriya Saran at Mumbai airport
How Angelic! 10 stunning pics of birthday girl Angelique Kerber


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Cele Otnes says businesses create rituals that center on consumers to set themselves apart, but the push for a competitive edge can also backfire, leaving customers feeling put upon, trapped or embarrassed.
“Not all customers want to be entertained,” she said. “Some just want to escape and be left alone. So the bottom line here is that businesses really need to consider their target audience before creating rituals that are effectively forced on people.”
The study examined rituals that are embedded into sales and service practices, creating a virtually mandatory branding tool that seeks to deal businesses a unique drawing card but gives customers little chance to opt out.
Researchers analyzed how customers are swayed by the sights, sounds and other frills of those nearly inescapable business rituals, from at-the-table food preparation at Teppanyaki-style restaurants to eateries that serenade diners celebrating birthdays.
For some, the trappings make rituals memorable and provide an incentive to come back, according to findings Otnes presented last week during the European Association for Consumer Research Conference at Royal Holloway University of London.
Workers in costume, polished performances and glitzy accouterments were among ritual aesthetics that made customers feel special and cemented a positive impression of the business, surveys of more than 150 college-aged consumers found.
For others, though, rituals can leave a bad enough taste to chase away return business, according to the study, co-written by doctoral students Elizabeth Crosby, Mina Kwon and Sydney Chinchanachokchai.
Some consumers surveyed said that being forced to participate in rituals violated their sense of privacy and left them feeling hemmed in, embarrassed or even resentful, the study found.
“Those are really strong negatives,” said Otnes, a business administration professor who studies rituals ranging from weddings to at-home holiday celebrations. “While rituals can make some consumers embrace the business, there’s also a huge risk. People use words like ‘annoying’ or ‘irritating’ to describe the experience and some say it definitely makes them rethink whether they’ll come back.”
The potential hazards of rituals can go beyond the obvious examples such as singing, line dancing and chopping up meals in restaurants or elaborate ceremonies for new-car buyers and customers whose spending earns bonus awards in stores, she said.
Otnes cites a scene from the 2003 film “Love Actually,” in which a character played by Alan Rickman tries frantically and unsuccessfully to halt a scripted gift-wrapping ritual in a department store as he rushes to buy a gift for his girlfriend before his wife catches him.
She says the findings suggest that businesses need to carefully consider whether rituals are optional or embedded into the business model, making them a standard practice that customers have little chance to avoid.
“In truth, all rituals are optional, but customers may fear there’s a cost to them if they try to get out of embedded rituals,” Otnes said. “For example, opting out could be considered rude and jeopardize the service they receive.”
Optional rituals offer leeway to satisfy customers’ comfort zones, but could wither efforts to build a brand image that differentiates businesses from their competitors, she said.
“Which solution is best depends completely on the business,” Otnes said. “How much do you care about repeat business? Do you rely on a local market or are you in a tourist area where customers don’t necessarily come back regularly?”
Retailers and service providers also should seek feedback from customers to gauge response to the ritual, including reaction to nuances such as whether musical serenades are too noisy or if cooking at tables is too smoky.
“Businesses should not just be on autopilot when they’re creating rituals,” she said. “They really need to understand the difference between optional and embedded, and the potential consequences of forcing customers to sit through certain rituals.”
Jan Dennis | EurekAlert!
New study: How does Europe become a leading player for software and IT services?
03.04.2017 | Fraunhofer-Institut für System- und Innovationsforschung (ISI)
Reusable carbon nanotubes could be the water filter of the future, says RIT study
30.03.2017 | Rochester Institute of Technology
More and more automobile companies are focusing on body parts made of carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP). However, manufacturing and repair costs must be further reduced in order to make CFRP more economical in use. Together with the Volkswagen AG and five other partners in the project HolQueSt 3D, the Laser Zentrum Hannover e.V. (LZH) has developed laser processes for the automatic trimming, drilling and repair of three-dimensional components.
Automated manufacturing processes are the basis for ultimately establishing the series production of CFRP components. In the project HolQueSt 3D, the LZH has...
Reflecting the structure of composites found in nature and the ancient world, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have synthesized thin carbon nanotube (CNT) textiles that exhibit both high electrical conductivity and a level of toughness that is about fifty times higher than copper films, currently used in electronics.
"The structural robustness of thin metal films has significant importance for the reliable operation of smart skin and flexible electronics including...
The nearby, giant radio galaxy M87 hosts a supermassive black hole (BH) and is well-known for its bright jet dominating the spectrum over ten orders of magnitude in frequency. Due to its proximity, jet prominence, and the large black hole mass, M87 is the best laboratory for investigating the formation, acceleration, and collimation of relativistic jets. A research team led by Silke Britzen from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, Germany, has found strong indication for turbulent processes connecting the accretion disk and the jet of that galaxy providing insights into the longstanding problem of the origin of astrophysical jets.
Supermassive black holes form some of the most enigmatic phenomena in astrophysics. Their enormous energy output is supposed to be generated by the...
The probability to find a certain number of photons inside a laser pulse usually corresponds to a classical distribution of independent events, the so-called...
Microprocessors based on atomically thin materials hold the promise of the evolution of traditional processors as well as new applications in the field of flexible electronics. Now, a TU Wien research team led by Thomas Müller has made a breakthrough in this field as part of an ongoing research project.
Two-dimensional materials, or 2D materials for short, are extremely versatile, although – or often more precisely because – they are made up of just one or a...
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28.04.2017 | Medical Engineering
28.04.2017 | Earth Sciences
28.04.2017 | Life Sciences


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Anyone keen on Microsoft's new presentation app Sway can give the preview product a whirl today, while Australians and New Zealanders can try out an updated Sway app for iOS.
Showing results 1 to 20 of 4,033
This week in iOS saw reports of effective Activation Locks, IBM released the first iOS apps for the enterprise from the alliance with Apple, and Apple named its picks for best apps.
United Airlines will equip 23,000 of its cabin crew with Apple's phablet.
Apple has begun pushing iOS 8.1.2 update to iPhone and iPad users.
Loss of a smartphone is reported in 10 percent of all thefts and robberies in the US. Secure your iPhone with Apple's activation lock and apply a security setting to your device now.
Apple has always shied away from throwing a never-ending stream of tech specs at its potential customers, but its latest iPad Air 2 ad campaign is all about people using the iPad to get things done.
The week in iOS: Apple hit with $350 million suit over iPod, patent grant to protect dropped phones, and shifted selfie camera.
The iPhone 6 could be harder to find next year as Apple shifts production to favor the larger and more expensive iPhone 6 Plus.
Since switching up from an iPhone 5 to the iPhone 6 Plus, I've neglected my iPad. But finding it under a pile of cables the other day got me pondering as to how I could integrate it back into my workflow.
Over the past few years Apple has watched its smartphone market share decline in the face of pressure from big, cheap Android smartphones. But the iPhone 6 could change that as consumers flock to the 4G capability and larger display.
Here's a tour of some great iPhone and iPad accessories that would make awesome gifts over the Holidays. Discover cases, home automation devices, toys, health devices, portable power and storage, see in the dark, and much more!
There aren't as many sales as on Black Friday, but there are a few good specials if you are looking for an iPad mini, iMac, or MacBook.
News about iOS this week: Apple expected to sell lots of iPhones but not lots of iPads, and Dropbox reciprocates love from Microsoft.
It's been slow progress, but figures released by Apple show that iOS 8.0/8.1 usage has finally hit the 60 percent mark.
Sales on these devices don't always yield big discounts, but here's how to save a little on these popular holiday gifts.
iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus owners shelve their iPads for content consumption as growth in tablet shipments flatlines.
Unlike Apple itself, this retailer is offering discounts on all iPads and Macs, including at least $200 savings on the Mac Pro.
For the second straight year, the company will give out the cards instead of discounting its products. All iPads will come with a $50 card, and all iMac and MacBook purchases will include a $100 card.
With consumer iPad growth tapping out, Apple needs to do the unthinkable to push into line of business applications and vertical markets.
This week Apple confirmed Beats Music will be wrapped up in iOS, the company was fined for violating patents, and iOS 8.1.1 was released.
The best of ZDNet, delivered
- 1 Perfectly legal ways you can still get Windows 7 cheap (or even free)
- 2 How much does an iPhone 6 really cost? (Hint: It's way more than $199)
- 3 31 ways to improve your iPhone's battery life
- 4 Seven privacy settings you should change immediately in iOS 8
- 5 Review: Tile Bluetooth tag (verdict: Great)


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Apple set to Launch its new iPhones on 12th of September
As we all know that apple is from one of those companies which makes wait their fans all the year for its new product. But now this time the wait is not so big. Apple has started to sent out invities to gather round for special launch event at Steve Jobs Theater at the Apple Park campus in Cupertino, California on September 12.
Three iPhones Launch : Two Premium and One Affordable
All the rumors and leaks suggest that Apple will be launching three new iPhone Models at the 12th September launch event. there will be an iPhone X successor with a 5.8-inch OLED display which will be called as “iPhone X (2018)”, there will be a larger variant which may called as ‘iPhone X Plus’ with a 6.5-inch OLED panel and it is in rumor that there will be a third 6.1-inch LCD screen handset which will be the most affordable iphone in the new iPhone lineup and it will be called as iPhone 9. These all iPhones will come with edge to edge display having notch at the top.
Hardware and Software of New iPhone Lineup
The first thing is that these new smartphone will have bezel less display having a notch at the top. All these iphone will have Touch ID and it will support Apple Face ID. It is also expected that this time the company might offer fingerprint sensor too in these handset.
All three models will also includes the gesture based navigation that apple has introduced with iPhone X launch, it is also expected that among these three one handset may come with dual SIM support. every exact details and full specification and the actual launch will unveiled on 12th of September stay tined with us for more updates.


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June 15, 2015
More than 40,000 Sprinter 2500 and 3500 vans need new passenger-side frontal air bags because the existing ones have defective inflators.
August 5, 2013
Con-way Truckload has announced it is investing in three safety technology systems for all of the 525 new tractors it will take delivery of in 2013.
We offer e-newsletters that deliver targeted news and information for the entire fleet industry.
The expert, Steve Carlson from Xantrex, will answer your questions
The expert, Brian Fletcher from Eaton, will answer your questions
Gates Expands Heavy-Duty Belt Line
Peterbilt Expands Sleeper Heater Availability
OWL Detects Overhead Obstacles for Oversize Loads
Twist & Lock Speeds Up Wheel Cover Installation


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UPDATED: DreamWorks Animation shares are down nearly 3.5% in post market trading after the company reported that, with costs of a previously announced restructuring factored in, it recorded a bigger loss than the Street expected for Q2.
The studio had a net loss of $38.58 million, down from a $15.39 million loss in the same quarter last year, on revenues of $170.78 million, up nearly 40%. The top line was better than the $166.70 million that analysts predicted — largely reflecting the success of its late March release, Home. Yet the loss at 45 cents a share contrasts with projections for a 26 cent deficit.
The company says that the $20.9 million restructuring charge added 25 cents to its per share loss, while a tax adjustment added 7 cents, Without them, the loss would have just been 13 cents a share.
“Our second quarter financial results were solid, highlighted by the theatrical success of Home and the rapid expansion of our Television and New Media businesses,” CEO Jeff Katzenberg says. “The appetite for premium content across platforms continues to grow both domestically and internationally, and it’s clear DreamWorks Animation is well-positioned to capitalize on the growing demand.”
Investors are eager to see how DWA fares following this year’s restructuring which cut about 500 employees and reduced productions from three releases a year to two. The belt tightening pleased those who feared that, after a string of costly writedowns, DWA might not have enough cash. Others countered that it’s hard to make great content on the cheap.
Consumer Products was supposed to be one of the growth opportunities. But the unit’s revenues decreased from $18.5M in last year’s Q2 to $12.7M. What’s more, DWA execs said they no longer anticipate reaching their growth goals previously laid out to investors and expect CP revenues to be relatively flat going forward. Why? There was a confluence of things affecting it, they said, including being a bit too ambitious in their projections. Also, the merchandise and licensing revenue based on features was less than anticipated. In 2014, the CP segment benefited from How to Train Your Dragon 2.
While it’s on a learning curve, the company believes that CP may enjoy an uptick with the upcoming feature Trolls in the fall.
The last film the company released via 20th Century Fox was Home which ended up making $386M worldwide on a production budget of what was reported being $135M (not including prints and advertising costs). Home contributed $23.9M in revenue for the quarter. Results for video sales from the family film were also reported to be an estimate 0.1M home entertainment transactions worldwide. Animated properties tend to fare quite well in that home video ancillary market. Home has been a digital conversion home run for them, according to DWA.
The Penguins of Madagascar contributed $8.3M to the quarterly revenue, mostly from that lucrative home video market. The animated film “reached an estimated 3.5M units sold worldwide, net of actual and estimated future returns,” according to DWA. Meanwhile, How to Train Your Dragon 2 made up $17.9M in the quarter, mainly from the pay television market and the estimate on the home entertainment market was 8.6M units sold. Mr. Peabody and Sherman contributed $8.4M from international pay TV market and about 4M estimated home entertainment units sold.
DreamWorks Animation’s next big movie is the third installment in the company’s popular franchise Kung Fu Panda 3 which bows January 29 next year, followed later in the year by Trolls. Kung Fu Panda 3 will bow in China also on Jan. 29th. They have three Chinese partners in that country and whether they might do an IPO is still undetermined and would rely on their partners of when/if the right time is to do so.
The DWA Library brought in feature film revenue of $28.3M for the quarter so the margin will move around based on the titles (Penguins is a lower margin title).
Another bright spot for DWA was their television unit which increased a big 91.3% from last year to $72.5M in revenues with gross profit increasing to $22.6M (up $7M for the same period last year). Revenues more than doubled to $55M, driven by new content and brand integration. They warned, however, to expect the revenue to decline in the 3rd Quarter because of a number of issues in the international marketplace. The television unit’s Netflix deal ends in 2017 but DWA expects to continue providing content and will feed Netflix if so needed. Would they build their own direct-to-consumer family centric content business? Premature, DWA says.
DWA executives said they are currently focused on meeting obligations to Netflix and broadcasters throughout the world. They are developing a number of new shows and the licensing of the shows.
Katzenberg did not serve up many details of AwesomenessTV’s contributions to the upcoming Verizon wireless streaming service but said that later this summer we will start seeing some content via Verizon’s streaming video service Go 90.
Revenues from the company’s New Media segment increased from $15.6M to $19.1M from 2014. The increase, DWA said, was primarily due to revenue generated from new licensing deals as well as from those generated by Big Frame.
DWA posted an operating loss of $4.4M. And in the quarter, it said that it amended its $400M revolving credit facility to $450M and extended the term of that through Feb. 2020.
Contributing: David Lieberman
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Having Apple gear in on your dating photos gets you more matches
Having Apple products obvious within dating photos will bring you doing 76percent a lot more suits, according to tests performed using similar photos and users with various development visible …
Comparemymobile produced the same internet dating users on various applications, in several cities across the world, where best improvement is the technology (and logos) on screen. Entirely, they examined the outcomes in excess of 50,000 swipes.
It learned that an obvious iPhone, fruit Check out, or AirPods all had a confident influence. Compared, a Google, Sony, or Huawei telephone all have a negative affect the number of suits.
Here’s the effect of experiencing fruit system apparent in your matchmaking photo, in which the percentage could be the increase in suits using goods visible inside pic:
- iPhone: +76per cent
- Fruit Observe: +61per cent
- AirPods: +41per cent
The only positive impact viewed with any other make of smart device was actually Samsung, with a 19per cent build. All other brands tried got a bad effects:
- Yahoo: -10per cent
- Sony: -14per cent
- Huawei: -23per cent
- OnePlus: -30percent
- BlackBerry: -74per cent
The company also assessed which technology made the greatest difference in various urban centers. In New York, it was AirPods; in London, l . a ., and Vancouver, it actually was an iPhone 11; in bay area and Manchester, UK, it absolutely was an Apple observe.
The end result ended up being observed across the board, but women were most influenced by Apple products than guys, and also the impact is ultimate on those 35 and below. Rob Ballie from comparemymobile stated:
Within the competitive, and quite often bizarre world of online dating, our investigation found that even seemingly smallest products makes a large results, particularly in big places.
The research learned that more youthful singletons aged 35 and below are almost certainly going to be influenced by the telephone you may have compared to vehicle you push, with Apple merchandise giving those selecting love a definite advantage over others, maybe as a result of higher cost or ‘cool factor’ from the brand name.
On the bright side, picking unsuitable technology can have a detrimental impact on your own love life. By way of example, creating a BlackBerry is apparently a surefire way to remain in singles aisle, therefore if you’re looking for both a device and a new spouse, Apple might be the best pick.
FTC: We incorporate money generating automobile affiliate marketer website links. More.
Call for vigil by social media marketing http://hookupdate.net/sikh-dating/ people against artificial FB profiles
‘Accepting friend desires taking a look at mutual friends’ number maybe not safe’
‘Accepting friend needs evaluating common buddies’ checklist maybe not safe’
Noticing an increase for the wide range of social media fraudsters which write artificial Facebook pages to request revenue, the cyber mobile with the town authorities features required best vigil for social media customers to protected their unique profile by allowing privacy configurations. Accepting pal demands from dubious reports in Twitter is actually projected because most significant risk aspect now, which assists fraudsters take individual information, such as photographs and shared buddies’ checklist, to create artificial pages.
Cyber cellular officials exactly who probed a number of the previous such instances stated most of the complainants failed to also confirm the requests for account transfers personally. The majority of the complainants were well-educated professionals including doctors and teachers, they said.
“There had been additionally certain which concerned find out about the trickery after transferring funds towards original individuals’ reports using the currently retained banking information. Though a lot of them had gotten their funds right back, these types of people are also the subjects in the fraudulence,” mentioned a senior Civil police because of the cybercrime researching team. The guy in addition pointed out that the practice of acknowledging friend demands from unfamiliar people by casually analyzing mutual buddies’ checklist is ended for web safety.
a policeman attached to the Kerala authorities Cyberdome stated the exposure of provided private photographs in myspace content might be tied to utilizing confidentiality setup option as a primary security assess. “The smartest choice now’s make it possible for they limited to the membership owner as scammers take the lookout for optimum private photos to incorporate trustworthiness to fake profiles,” he described.
In certain of the current matters, it actually was learned that artificial profiles which were reported into the police for action were mostly created by fraudsters exactly who run from Rajasthan and Bihar. However, no-one had been detained regarding the such incidents. The sheer number of 1st info Report licensed has also been little as complainants wanted to conclude your whole procedures after stopping artificial users.
According to authorities utilizing the Kozhikode cyber authorities station, the tracking of bank accounts or cell phone numbers given by fraudsters ended up being demonstrating getting a painful chore for all grounds. Generally in most associated with current situation, scammers comprise found using bank account and telephone numbers obtained inside the term of poor producers in various north Indian says, they said.


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HID Global Wins ASIS 2011 Accolades Security's Best Award
New iCLASS SE Access Control Platform to be Recognized for Innovation at ASIS
HID Global, trusted leader in solutions for the delivery of secure identity, today announced that its new iCLASS SE family of products has been selected by the ASIS International organization as a winner of the 2011 ASIS Accolades -- Security's Best competition. Judges representing a cross-sector of end-users and technology experts evaluated more than 70 entries before selecting HID Global's next generation iCLASS SE platform as one of the most innovative new solutions for 2011.
"HID Global is very proud to have our groundbreaking iCLASS SE access control platform recognized by one of the most respected organizations in the security industry," said Tony Ball, senior vice president of Identity Access Management with HID Global. "This ASIS Accolades award is further validation of our industry leadership and innovation, which continues to drive the industry and redefine the delivery of secure identity."
HID Global's iCLASS SE platform marks an important milestone in how secure identity is delivered and managed by introducing technology-independent digital credentials that can be deployed for use on smart phones, microprocessor-based cards, contactless smart cards, USB tokens and related devices. The platform includes credentials and readers based on a combination of Secure Identity Object (SIO) technology on the credential side and the SIO Processor(TM) on the reader side that perform similar functions to traditional cards and readers, except they use a standards-based and flexible identity data model that provide a new level of security, portability and performance.


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- Newly released PERSEUS™ SDK powers Full HD video streaming over bandwidth constrained mobile networks
- Enables the best possible video across all networks to extend customer reach, reduce churn and lower operating costs
- Available for integration and as pre-integrated combinations through Tier-1 industry partners
London, March 10, 2016 – V-Nova Ltd., a leading provider of video compression solutions, announced today that it has released its innovative PERSEUS™ technology as a software development kit (SDK) for integration into 3rd party encoders and video players. The release allows operators, service providers, system integrators and online video platform providers to easily integrate and deploy PERSEUS™ technology on existing ecosystems for the delivery of full HD video over bandwidth constrained networks.
PERSEUS™ software is available in the form of an encoder plug-in (EPI) and a decoder plug-in (DPI) for integration and deployment within an operator’s existing ecosystem. PERSEUS plug-ins are supported on a number of different platforms including Intel x86-based encoders and iOS and Android consumer devices. They are also available in pre-integrated encoding/decoding combinations through industry partners to improve cost-effectiveness and drive rapid time-to-market for the deployment of PERSEUS™ OTT services.
“This product release is the result of the work we have done in the past year with customers and industry partners to address real-life customer projects. We have now packaged the software to make it more readily scalable and available for TV service providers and platform operators to deploy on any equipment or media player in their ecosystem,” said Guido Meardi, V-Nova CEO & Co-Founder.
PERSEUS™ plug-ins provides a number of key customer benefits, including:
- Extending customer reach: PERSEUS enables video for all. It dramatically expands the base of customers that can be reached with reliable OTT services and, in new markets, makes OTT video delivery viable at scale for the first time.
- Reducing customer churn: Services that have been constrained to SD can finally be switched to HD, while at the same time improving their resiliency in challenging conditions, including dense urban environments, rural areas and high-speed transport. PERSEUS reduces service buffering and enables product differentiation yielding increased overall customer satisfaction.
- Reducing operating costs: PERSEUS™ can deliver HD OTT video services with fewer profiles and at lower bitrates, enabling cost savings throughout the delivery chain: encoding density, storage and transmission (CDN).
PERSEUS™ is a video processing technology that addresses today’s video delivery challenges, closing the capacity gap for quality delivery to connected devices over existing networks. PERSEUS™ redraws the traditional quality-bitrate curve, enabling operators and service providers to provide high quality video (both linear and non-linear) within their bandwidth constraints: e.g. UHD at HD bitrates on large screen TVs, HD at SD bitrates on legacy STBs and mobile devices and even SD at audio rates on large untapped markets of deployed mobile devices.
“The time has come where consumers desire all pervasive mobile video. In mature markets, they want to see their movies and sports in HD and the latest connected devices indicate a further trend to 4K content. In emerging markets and rural areas, consumers want, finally, to receive video at stable SD-quality levels and above. PERSEUS™ makes all of this possible today over the existing infrastructure and ecosystem,” concluded Achtmann, V-Nova Executive Chairman & Co-Founder.
V-Nova PERSEUS has been shortlisted for a Videonet Connected TV Awards for the “Video Technology Hero” category. The awards recognize outstanding achievement in television services, technology and advertising. The “Video technology hero” category rewards solutions that are solving big problems or opening the door to the major opportunities in the television and video markets. The winners of the Videonet Connected TV Awards will be announced on March 16th.
V-Nova™ is a London-headquartered company providing advanced video and imaging processing hardware, software and embedded solutions. Its novel compression technology, PERSEUS® is based on principles underlying human vision.
V-Nova was founded in 2011 by an experienced team, including experts involved in the development of first generation codecs (e.g., MPEG/JPEG), as well as business leaders, technology finance veterans, product development and intellectual property experts. A strong global consortium comprising leading partners from multiple industries including media & broadcasting, telecommunications, hardware and consulting supports V-Nova.
V-Nova serves numerous sectors, including media & broadcasting, telecommunications, aerospace, defence, security, video conferencing, digital signage, medical imaging, telematics and video games.
For more information, contact:
One Sheldon Square
London W2 6TT, UK.
+44 (20) 7046 6270