text:
As reported previously, custom company SUP3R5 were selling custom PS2 inspired PS5 consoles with limited availability, with units set to be delivered in Spring.
However, due to staff allegedly receiving threats, the company has cancelled all orders. The news broke via a statement on their now-deleted Twitter account with a tweet stating that the “team began receiving credible threats to their safety”. As a consequence of these supposed threats, the company cancelled all of its orders, which had sold out in seconds even despite its price being higher than retail.
The desperate rush for the highly sought after console reportedly led to failed or incomplete orders and as such many unhappy customers in the US. As a result of this, the international launch of the custom device was delayed.
“We take these threats seriously, and as a result, we’re not proceeding forward. All orders are being cancelled with full refunds.” The company stated, although some customers have alleged that they have yet to receive their money.
“We intended this to be a fun way to celebrate a shared nostalgia. As it turns out, there are people out there who are willing to interfere with that. If we determine it’s safe to try again, we will. For now, please stay safe,” the statement said.
PlayStation 5 stock has been the central topic in the world of gaming for the last couple of months, with the system selling out almost immediately after restock.
SUP3R5 had offered the first definitive stock replenish of 2021 with its custom console, but for now, that has been on hold and those after the allusive console will have to wait for Sony to churn out some more.


text:
by Y Combinator4/12/2017
In today’s lecture, we’re joined by Stewart Butterfield, founder and CEO of Slack, and Adam D’Angelo, founder and CEO of Quora. Sam and Stewart will explore the process of getting an idea, followed by Adam on tracking metrics for your company.
Adam’s Lecture Slides
Online ClassStartup SchoolVideo
Office Hours with Ali Rowghani
June 14, 2017 by Y Combinator
Does co-founder matching work? It did for these three YC companies.
November 24, 2021 by Catheryn Li
Announcing YC Build Sprint and 20 Equity-Free Grants
August 13, 2020 by Eric Migicovsky
Y Combinator created a new model for funding early stage startups. Twice a year we invest a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200).
The startups move to Silicon

domain: news


text:
According to an analysis, Google+ had 25 million visitors since July 24, of which
3.6 million are Indian users
Google+ is a latecomer to social networking but its new site,
Google+, is growing much more rapidly than Facebook, Myspace and Twitter did in
their early days, technology experts said.
While Google+ may be the fastest-growing social network ever, it remains to be seen,
however, whether it can pose a serious threat to the social networking titan Facebook,
which has more than 750 million members.
Andrew Lipsman, vice president for industry analysis at tracking firm comScore,
said Google+, which was launched by the Internet search and advertising giant on
June 28, had 25 million unique visitors as of July 24.
During a panel discussion on Google+ hosted by Wedbush Securities, Lipsman said
it took other social networks much longer to reach 25 million users: 22 months for
Myspace, 33 months for Twitter and 37 months for Facebook.
"Obviously, this is a very strong growth trajectory," Lipsman said. He cautioned,
however, that Google "has a really large user base it can build off of" with its
one billion users worldwide. And it still has a "really long way to go to be competitive
with Facebook," Lipsman said.
"Google+ is the fastest by a long shot but it's important to realise that fastest
may not always be best," he said. "Sometimes, that slow build can lead to a strong
network effect that pays long-term dividends."
Most Google+ users - 6.4 million are in the United States, followed by India with
3.6 million, Canada with 1.1 million, Britain with 1.1 million and Germany with
over 920,000, according to comScore.
Lipsman said many Google+ users appear to also be users of Gmail and display a "very
strong early adopter profile." He said the ratio of men to women is about two to
one and that 60 per cent of Google+ users are between the ages of 18 and 34.
Steve Rubel, executive vice president for global strategy and insights a public
relations firm Edelman, said Facebook is not "vulnerable immediately" to Google.
"I don't see (Google+) taking significant share from Facebook in the next 18 months.
Google was compelled to try its hand at social networking because Facebook is restricting
the access of its search engine to Facebook content, "Rubel said.
One of the criticisms of Facebook is that updates are shared with all
of one's friends unless a user has gone through a relatively complicated process
to create separate Facebook Groups.
Courtesy: DNA India


text:
CryEngine coming to the NGP
Sony has announced that Crytek's impressive game engine will be available to NGP developers in a customised form for Sony's new handheld.
The notoriously demanding game engine will is the latest in a long line of game engines and middleware to be supported by the NGP including the Unreal Engine and Havok's physics engine.
The NGP is rumoured to be as much as four times as powerful as any handheld currently available according to Epic Games' Tim Sweeney.
Id Software'e technical director and DOOM creator John Carmack believes that, while the NGP and current-generation iPhone are comparable in hardware specs, the NGP will be able to produce superior gaming experiences to the iPhone due to it being handicapped by it's use of a slick operating system.
Thanks Develop Online.
- Final Fantasy Type-0 HD gets a new trailer
- Bungie deconstructs their latest Destiny patch, hints at what is coming next
- DayZ creator Dean Hall could join UK studio Improbable
- Shadow Of Mordor arrives on last-gen consoles
- David Braben apologises for ditching Elite: Dangerous's offline mode, outlines refund criteria
- Microsoft celebrates the 1st birthday of the Xbox One with free access to Sunset Overdrive
- Hacker group leaks account details for thousands of PSN, Origin, Windows Live and 2K Game Studios accounts
- RedLynx promises online multiplayer is coming to Trials Fusion early next year
- Valve reworks their Steam Early Access developer guidelines and rules


text:
Mike Hayes believes that we will be seeing hardcore titles for Kinect next year, saying its impossible to make a game for the hardcore in a year.
“My guess is when we’re at E3 next year, more of the features of Kinect will be in use by developers. I think you’ll find more clever and sophisticated applications then. It is a reasonably complicated piece of kit, therefore it’s going to take us longer to use all of those aspects in a game. We’re not going to be able to develop something [for the hardcore] in under a year, which is frankly what we’ve had.” – Mike Hayes
SEGA said they are not going to copy Wii games when it comes to making new Kinect games. The team making this ‘hardcore’ Kinect title? Members from SEGA Racing studio that still work at SEGA. When can we expect the title? Late 2011, early 2012. That is a long wait…
One response to “SEGA working on ‘hardcore’ Kinect games”
Only childish games are going to be profitable for Sega's business. Hardcore games for the Kinect, unfortunatelly, will probably sell as much units as 'Madworld' or 'The conduit' for wii.


text:
It has not been a great earnings season for the networking hardware equipment makers, especially those in the service provider segment. All through the food chain, from chips to routers, margins and sales are on a disappointing trajectory.
This has been happening for a while, and I predict it will get worse. The advent of Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) cannot be underestimated. It’s shaking up the way networking hardware and software are delivered, and changing the business models.
If you don’t believe this, take a look at some of the earnings signals from the past month:
- Juniper (JNPR) shares tanked on Q3 earnings, which the CEO called “disappointing.” Both revenue and profits came in below expectations. Long-term revenue has been in decline.
- Ciena (CIEN) shares recently hit a new one-year low. Analysts have been slicing price targets. This has mostly been driven by generally weak pricing on optical equipment.
- Shares of Cyan Inc. (CYNI) this week hit a new all-time low of $2.76. The company went public in 2013 at $11 per share.
- A warning from semiconductor company Microchip (MCHP), which sells into all sorts of end markets ranging from wireless networks to embedded systems, freaked out the semiconductor market. Shares have bounced a little, but the stock chart still looks sketchy.
What’s going on? Many networking hardware companies are having to make pricing concessions, and they are under pressure from the advent of the new white-box model, which puts networking software on commodity server hardware, which I’ve been writing about for a while.
The big vendors — especially router vendors Juniper and Cisco — are not reacting well. As sources tell us, Cisco (CSCO) is scrambling behind the scenes to get its SDN and NFV stories together — but the real problem is pricing, and what that does to the sales force. When you are selling into markets that are rapidly being commoditized, you have no pricing power.
MKM Partners Managing Director Michael Genovese says these fears have picked up in recent months, and it’s a top question that he gets from investor clients. What does SDN mean for the networking market?
Genovese observes that Juniper had a sub-par analyst day two weeks ago, which did not support the stock price. He says that management spent too much time talking about how the market still wants specialized routers with ASICs (Application Specific Integrated Circuits), and that white boxes were a ways away.
“I want to hear more about software,” says Genovese. “There’s a massive opportunity to sell software. They spent too much time talking about ASICs. ”
Genovese wrote about this in an investment note issued on, of all days, Halloween:
We would have liked to hear a thoughtful discussion of how the Routing and Switching markets will evolve over the next decade driven by the impact of the mega-trends of NFV/SDN. Instead, we heard the CTO dig in his heels and essentially say, “All the pundits in the market are confused and wrong, Routers will never lose any of their place in networks and merchant silicon cannot replace ASICs when it comes to high-level Routing functionality.”
That about sums it up. The big routing companies, including Alcatel, Cisco, and Juniper, are in denial. Their market is under assault, and they can’t get their plans together fast enough.


text:
Duluth port sorting out terminal details ahead of cruise ship visits
Two cruise visits are expected this summer and nine visits are scheduled during 2022.
Duluth should see its first round of cruise ship passengers in seven years as early as June.
Two cruise line companies have started selling and marketing for trips to stop in Duluth. German-based cruise line Hapag-Lloyd Cruises has sold out, with two stops scheduled this summer, and seven stops are scheduled for 2022 under Viking Cruises.
The last time a cruise ship stopped in Duluth was in 2013, Visit Duluth President Anna Tanski said.
"Usually, it's just one from a ship company, so for us to have Viking committed to this itinerary of seven stops is like nothing we've ever experienced," Tanski said.
Hapag-Lloyd's cruise ship, Hanseatic Inspiration, is scheduled to arrive in Duluth June 12 and June 22 carrying 385 guests. Both trips have sold out, with prices starting around $9,000.
In 2022, a Viking Cruises ship will stop in Duluth seven times between May and September. Prices start at nearly $7,000. The ship can carry 378 guests.
While tickets are for sale, Tanski said the Viking ship is currently being built, fitting a trend common in the cruise line industry.
"They sell and market before the logistics are worked out," Tanski said. "They sell first and then they start to figure it out. Viking has done this for decades."
Prior to marketing and selling the trips, cruise lines held preliminary meetings with local stakeholders before determining Duluth as a destination point. Visit Duluth was responsible for facilitating the exploration of Duluth as a destination.
"Viking has very, very loyal customers," Tanski said. "They know their demographics tend to be more affluent and people who are well-traveled who are seeking their next adventure or unique experience."
Viking estimates around 9,000 passengers will visit Duluth over the course of the summer in 2022.
"For us that's very significant (economically)," Tanski said. "But it's also the exposure, which you can't necessarily put a price tag on. Viking markets their products to their international base, so putting Duluth on that map, we could never have that kind of reach without their marketing force they have."
Duluth's tourism industry brings in more than $780 million annually in direct economic impact, according to the Duluth Area Chamber of Commerce. In 2018, the city collected nearly $12.2 million in tourism taxes.
With the Great Lakes emerging as a desirable place to visit, especially via cruising, Tanski said she's hopeful the city will continue seeing growth in cruising over the next few years. Currently, Visit Duluth is in active communication with other cruise lines considering Duluth stops in the next couple of years.
Passengers aboard the Hanseatic Inspiration will spend their time in Duluth this summer participating in a city tour, visiting the St. Louis County Heritage and Arts Center as well as Gooseberry Falls State Park and Split Rock Lighthouse, according to the cruise line's website.
Since Viking Cruises has yet to sort out many of the trip logistics, it has not been determined what passengers will do in Duluth.
Other factors also remain undetermined, such as where ships will load and unload passengers, Duluth Seaway Port Authority spokesperson Jayson Hron said. The undetermined terminal location will also need to process international visitors for clearance.
Visit Duluth, the city of Duluth, the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center and the Port Authority are working together with U.S. Customs and Border Protection to understand the requirements for a proposed passenger clearance facility.
Funding for the proposed facility was secured in 2018, with the city approving $25,000, the Duluth Economic Development Authority approving $50,000 and the Port Authority chipping in $10,000.
None of that money has been spent yet, as the Port Authority has not purchased any of the equipment and technology needed for the terminal, nor has a location been determined, though spaces within the DECC are being considered, Hron said. Both temporary and permanent facility options are being explored.
"The idea is that we are working to rightsize the facility for the market and take advantage of emerging technology over the next couple years," Hron said. "That's kind of where the discussions are right now."
In early 2019, two trips from the MV Victory II of the Victory Cruise Lines fleet expected to stop in Duluth that summer were canceled due to a change of ownership.
Ahead of those visits, Duluth was moving forward with plans to put a cruise ship terminal in place that would include the equipment needed for clearing international visitors, but after the only cruises scheduled to arrive that summer were canceled, port officials voided their order for equipment, explaining the terminal should be equipped with the most current technology when the need arrives.
A date has not yet been determined as to when the proposed facility can be expected to reach completion.
"Everyone involved in the process hopes to have the clearing question answered very soon," Hron said. "But no one wants to rush to a potential outcome that isn’t right for this market."
If the investment is made to develop the proposed terminal, Tanski said, Visit Duluth will be ready to make sure it stays as busy as possible.


text:
Vijayawada: Liquor prices in Andhra Pradesh were increased on Monday after an additional retail excise tax (ARET) was levied by the YSR Congress party government.
ARET is part of the YSR Congress party government’s new plan to enforce prohibition in a phased manner. The excise department in a statement said an additional retail tax of Rs 10 was imposed on every 60 ml to 90 ml of Indian-Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) whose price is up to Rs 120 per 180 ml up to a maximum of Rs 240 on a 2000 ml bottle. The same amount of tax will be applicable for foreign liquor (FL).
For the IMFL and FL whose price in between Rs 120 and Rs 150 per 180 ml, the ARET of Rs20 imposed on every 90 ml up to Rs 480 on a 2000 ml.
For above Rs150 per 180 ml IMFL and FL, the ARET of Rs30 has been levied on every 90 ml up to Rs720 per 2000ml
On beer, the government imposed an additional tax up to Rs 20 on a 330 ml bottle, Rs 30 on 500 or 650 ml, Rs2000 on 30, 000 ml and Rs3000 on 50,000 ml.
The number of wine shops in the state has been reduced from 4,380 to 3,500 and the department has taken over all the retail shops from private traders. Alcohol sale has been reduced by 15% by March in Andhra Pradesh.
As per the revised prices if a bottle costs Rs 112.5 after 25% increase, it will be charged Rs 120 as round off price.Starting Monday, the AP government will open the liquor shops from 11 am to 7 pm
It said the Government would be very strict about the sale of alcohol at maximum retail price and if any employee who violated the rules and sold alcohol at more than the MRP would be sacked immediately. Long queues were witnessed in front of liquor outlets on Monday as the shops were reopened after a gap of over 40 days.


text:
The tariff threat is now rearing its head again: There are currently two separate trade disputes between the US and EU which threaten to continue this tariff, potentially increase it up to 100%, and/or expand the tariff to include additional countries such as Italy or Austria.
These tariffs disproportionately affect small business in every region of the United States, including importers, distributors, retailers, restaurants, and consumers. The wine business is completely unrelated to the trade disputes concerning aircraft and digital services, and applying tariffs to imported wine will significantly hurt US businesses while having not much of an effect on EU producers who are simply able to sell their products to other markets. In the long term, the United States will lose its place as the preeminent market for global wine, resulting in losses of jobs and income to US-based businesses.
The Office of the USTR (United States Trade Representative) is currently accepting comments on both issues. The number of comments received is an indicator of the importance of the issue to US businesses.
We encourage everyone who works in the wine business, as well as their friends and customers, to help gather as many comments as possible within the next week on both comment pages.
Both comment periods are open now. For the last round of civil aircraft dispute comments, there were over 10,000 comments. As of today, there are less than 200 comments on each of these comment pages!
Comments should describe how tariffs will affect US business and whether they will accomplish the desired goals of the USTR (Hint: they won’t.)
Digital Service Tax
Comment period closes July 15th
Large Civil Aircraft Dispute
Comment period closes July 26th
Read more about this issue here:


text:
Retail News Breaks
Walgreens begins training program for workers with disabilities
May 14th, 2012
DEERFIELD, Ill. – Walgreen Co. has launched a national training initiative to help people with disabilities gain retail and customer service skills.
Called the Retail Employees with Disabilities Initiative (REDI), the in-store training program will work closely with community organizations and vocational rehabilitation agencies to train and develop candidates, Walgreens said Monday.
Plans call for REDI's first phase of REDI to begin in parts of Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Washington and Wisconsin and to reach all states by the end of 2013, according to Walgreens.
The drug chain said that once a local agency is identified, a four-week training program goes into effect, in up to five stores per district. The aim is to ready qualified candidates for jobs in stores as well as positions in any retail setting requiring similar skills. Duties include cash register operations, customer service, merchandising, store inventory, and maintaining store signage and displays.
Walgreens noted that an earlier initiative led to 10% of the workforce at its 20 distribution centers being made up of people with disabilities. The company said hopes to see the same level of success with REDI.
In 2010, the pharmacy chain piloted the REDI program in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, bringing together Walgreens store managers and job coaches funded by the Texas Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services to train candidates. After more than 200 trainees and 66% of REDI graduates were recommended for hire, the program grew to over 150 stores in Texas, New York and Connecticut. To date, about 400 externs have finished training, and more than 46% have been employed by Walgreens or other retailers, the company said.
"We are committed to helping customers live well, stay well and get well, and to do that you need team members who are dedicated to excellent customer service," Mark Wagner, president of operations and community management at Walgreens, said in a statement. "This program highlights ability and gives candidates the tools to be successful in any retail setting. This is a meaningful program for everyone touched by the initiative. Already, one enthusiastic REDI graduate now working for Walgreens in New York was named Customer Service Employee of the Month, just three months after being hired."
Walgreens added that it began designing its distribution centers and training for people with disabilities with the opening of its facility in Anderson, S.C., in 2007. That distribution center, followed by the opening of a similar facility in Windsor, Conn., in 2009, helps drive opportunity and productivity for the entire workforce, according to the company.
The drug chain reported that according to a 2012 Allsup disability study analysis based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data, the unemployment rate for people with disabilities is much higher than for those with no disabilities.
More Retail News Breaks >>


text:
Women’s feet are getting bigger – but many are too embarrassed to admit their shoe size. Consumer Editor EMMA McKINNEY reports on how high street stores are stepping up to the demands of bigger feet.
WHAT do Nicole Kidman and Kate Winslet have in common?
Well, apart from being Hollywood movie superstars, the pair both have super-size nine feet.
And they are not alone. Women’s feet are getting so big that Debenhams’ store in Birmingham’s Bullring shopping centre has seen its sales of size nine ladies’ shoes soar by 80 per cent in the last year.
The Birmingham store was among the highest out of all the chain’s shops across the UK to report record sales of larger women’s shoes, with London, Glasgow, Newcastle and Dublin enjoying a similar increase.
But it seems not all Brummies are proud of their larger feet, with 82 per cent of Debenhams’ size eight and size nine customers saying in a survey that they are ashamed of theirs. Indeed, they are so embarrassed that 67 per cent said they preferred to shop online for footwear, with 64 per cent adding they were too red-faced to tell a sales assistant their shoe size, while 36 per cent admitted they hated taking their shoes off in public.
And 47 per cent of Birmingham women blessed with bigger feet said they had lied to their partners and friends about their size.
In light of the research, Debenhams has now instructed its stores across the country to put more size eight and nine stock of women’s shoes out on the shop floor for ladies to help themselves, in a bid to save them embarrassment and continue the company’s sales fortunes.
Debenhams’ spokeswoman Carie Barkhuizen says: “We were really surprised to find women with larger feet are so embarrassed they are resorting to shopping online, especially as celebrities such as Geena Davis, Michelle Obama and Paris Hilton all have size nine shoes and are proudly stepping out in style.
“Also, buying shoes online can be tricky, which is why we want to make larger shoes more accessible to our customers. If demand continues, we will consider stocking sizes ten and 11 women’s shoes.
“It’s clear women’s feet are getting bigger and we want to meet that demand in footwear.”
Debenhams is not the only retailer cashing in on growing feet, with Clarks also selling up to size nine in women’s shoes and Barratts offering some styles in up to a 13.
Independent businesses in Birmingham are also following suit, including Digbeth-based wedding and vintage online shoe retailer www.rachelsimpsonshoes.co.uk
Proprietor Rachel Simpson, who launched the business three years ago, says: “As a trial I started selling a few of our styles in size nines over 18 months ago and it proved such a success I decided to offer all our styles up to size nine.
“Some of the high street retailers have been a bit slow on the uptake. They assume tall women want flat shoes, but that’s not the case. They want heels and glamour.
“Often women with large feet are limited to the choice they have. Just because a woman has larger feet, it doesn’t mean she’s lost any sense of style or taste.”
Medical experts believe eating high-density foods such as pizza and processed meals during puberty has stimulated people’s growth hormones and contributed to a growing human race.
And our bigger feet are in line with our taller and heavier bodies, according to the UK National Sizing Survey. It says the average female shoe size has increased over the past 20 years – from a four-anda- half in 1990 to a size six in 2011.
Michael Paynton, spokesman for the British Chiropody and Podiatry Association, says women’s feet are becoming broader, rather than longer, which is down to an increase in average body weight.
“I have been in practice 42 years and, in that time, foot sizes have changed dramatically,” he adds.
“At one time it would have been difficult for a woman to get a size six shoe. Now that is the norm. It’s part of the process of evolution.”
* Shoe Hotspots
* www.jdwilliams.co.uk - ladies’ shoe sizes 4-9
* www.bigshoeboutique.co.uk - ladies’ shoe sizes 8-11
* www.clarks.co.uk - ladies’ shoe sizes 3-9
* www.barratts.co.uk - ladies’ shoe sizes 3-13
* www.magnusshoes.com - ladies’ shoe sizes 8-12


text:
Our news archive search is now powered by Google. You can search the main site or the guest-viewable forums. To search the entire forums, log in and use the forum search engine.
Search the main OCAU site with Google:
Search OCAU Forums with Google:
View News : Last 7 Days, Last 14 Days, Last 30 Days.
View Monthly Archives.
Thanks to Dan and mpot this week!
|Friday Morning Reviews
Friday, 26-August-2016 02:57:36 (GMT +10) - by booj
MSI GeForce GTX 1060 Gaming X 6G on TweakTown.
ASUS GeForce GTX 1060 Turbo 6GB on PC Perspective.
Transcend JetDrive Go 300 on Legit Reviews.
Samsung EVO Plus 256GB MicroSD Memory Card on Legion Hardware.
Cooler Master MasterLiquid Maker 92 CPU cooler on Guru3D.
Cooler Master Masterfan Pro 120 on Funky Kit.
Phanteks Enthoo Mini XL DS on ocaholic.
Thermaltake Core P3 on ThinkComputers.
Raijintek Nestor on Modders-Inc.
SteelSeries Rival 700 Gaming Mouse on Benchmark Reviews.
Cooler Master Devastator II Keyboard and Mouse Combo on OCinside.
GAMDIAS Hermes RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on TweakTown.
Cooler Master MasterKeys Lite L Keyboard and Mouse Combo on Hardware Asylum.
Smartphones and Tablets:
Samsung Galaxy A9 Pro (SM-A910F) Phablet on TechARP.
Samsung Galaxy Note 7 on TweakTown.
HTC One X9 on Techspot.
Gigabyte Z170X-Ultra Gaming Motherboard on Hardware Secrets.
AVM FRITZ!Powerline 1240E WLAN Set on NikKTech.
YuXiang 668-A3 Drone on Funky Kit.
Shuttle XPC Cube SZ170R8 w/ i5-6600K on TechPowerUp.
TomTom Bandit 4K Waterproof WiFi GPS Action Camera on ModSynergy.
Thursday, 25-August-2016 00:26:59 (GMT +10) - by Agg
Anandtech have posted part two of their AMD Zen microarchitecture exploration. Hot Chips is an annual conference that allows semiconductor companies to present their latest and greatest ideas or forthcoming products in an academic-style environment, and is predominantly aimed as the professional semiconductor engineer. This year has a number of talks about power management, upcoming IBM CPUs, upcoming Intel CPUs, upcoming NVIDIA SoCs and the final talk of the final day is from AMD, discussing Zen in even more depth than the previous week.
They also have a die shot of NVIDIA's Pascal GP100. Over the next two days we’ll be covering the highlights of several presentations, but I wanted to start this year’s coverage off with some nerdy pictures. I am of course referring to die shots, as NVIDIA has released the first die shot of their behemoth 610mm2 GP100 die as part of a presentation on Pascal and NVLink 1.0. Die shots have been relatively rare in the GPU industry in recent years, particularly those for the highest-end GPUs with the most features.
Engadget meanwhile report on a new NVIDIA CPU made for autonomous cars. However, Parker is significantly less beefy than NVIDIA's other deep learning initiative, the DGX-1 for Elon Musk's OpenAI, which can hit 170 teraflops of performance. This platform still sounds more than capable of running high-end digital dashboards and keeping your future autonomous car shiny side up without a problem, regardless.
Not to be left out, Samsung apparently have a neural network deep in the brain of their Galaxy S7. One thing that caught our eye was a mention that the branch predictor uses a neural network to take a good guess at the twists and turns the software will take through its code. If your CPU can predict accurately which instructions an app is going to execute next, you can continue priming the processing pipeline with instructions rather than dumping the pipeline every time you hit a jump. "The neural net gives us very good prediction rates," said Brad Burgess, who is Samsung's chief CPU architect and is based at the South Korean giant's R&D center in Austin, Texas.
Chromebooks have outsold Macs in the USA for the first quarter ever. More Google Chromebooks are sold in the US than Apple Macs, according to the latest figures from analyst firm IDC. While few think of the company, famous more for its mobile and internet software, as a major creator of PC operating systems, the slimmed-down Chrome OS has powered almost 2m laptops sold to Americans in the first quarter of 2016, IDC told the Verge. By comparison, Apple sold 1.76m Macs in the same period.
Today marks the 25th Anniversary of Linux. The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit advancing professional open source management for mass collaboration, today announced the immediate release of its 2016 report “Linux Kernel Development - How Fast It is Going, Who is Doing It, What They are Doing, and Who is Sponsoring It”. The report comes just days before the 25th anniversary of the initial release of the Linux kernel by Linus Torvalds on August 25, 1991, and analyzes the work done by over 13,500 developers over more than a decade, as well as more recent trends.
|Wednesday Morning Reviews
Wednesday, 24-August-2016 09:39:24 (GMT +10) - by booj
EVGA GeForce GTX 1070 FTW GAMING ACX 3.0 on Bjorn3D.
MSI GeForce GTX 1060 Gaming X 3GB on Guru3D.
GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1070 G1 Gaming on TweakTown.
Silicon Power Jewel J30 64GB USB 3.1 Flash Drive on Madshrimps.
ASUSTOR AS6208T Eight-Bay SMB NAS on TweakTown.
Jonsbo UMX4 on ocaholic.
Thermaltake Core X5 ATX Cube on Funky Kit.
Thermaltake Core P3 on Funky Kit.
Arctic Accelero Hybrid III-140 AIO VGA Cooler on OC Inside.
Thermaltake Water 3.0 Riing RGB 240 Liquid Cooler on Neoseeker.
Cooler Master MasterLiquid Pro 240 Liquid CPU Cooler on ThinkComputers.
Cooler Master MasterKeys Lite L Combo RGB Keyboard/Mouse Set on APH Networks.
Cooler Master MasterKeys Lite on ThinkComputers.
Cooler Master Masterkeys Lite L Combo on TechnologyX.
Logitech G633 Artemis Spectrum RGB 7.1 Surround Gaming Headset on NikKTech.
Audeze SINE On-Ear Planar Magnetic Headphones on PC Perspective.
AMD Athlon X4 880K CPU on Vortez.
668-A3 Quadcopter Drone on ModSynergy.
MSI GE72VR Apache Pro (GTX 1060) Notebook on techPowerUp.
Moto G4 and Moto G4 Plus Smartphones on Hot Hardware.
Monday, 22-August-2016 17:01:10 (GMT +10) - by Agg
Here's some more projects and reviews from the forums:
Monday, 22-August-2016 11:24:26 (GMT +10) - by Agg
International proxy provider CloudFlare says Telstra and Optus are among the most expensive ISPs in the world. To demonstrate the pricing disparity, Cloudflare founder Matthew Prince said that if bandwidth in Europe and North America costs the company 10 units, in Australia and NZ, it costs 85 units. Telstra have responded, saying the claims are overstated.
Anandtech take a look at AMD's Zen architecture. In their own side event this week, AMD invited select members of the press and analysts to come and discuss the next layer of Zen details. In this piece, we’re discussing the microarchitecture announcements that were made, as well as a look to see how this compares to previous generations of AMD core designs.
DDR5 DRAM for PCs is on the way report PC World. Specifications for DDR5 memory will be released this year, and deployment of the DRAM will begin in 2020, according to a slide deck presented at the Intel Developer Forum this week. DDR5 DRAM will have many benefits: Users will be able to cram more memory into PCs, and applications will run faster. DDR5 memory will be denser than earlier DRAM, and also consume less power, which could extend battery life in laptops.
Also coming down the pipe is PC Express 4.0, according to TomsHardware. The next iteration of PCI Express will double the bandwidth per lane, but that shouldn't surprise anyone. During Intel Developers Forum, we sat down with Richard Solomon, Vice President of PCI-SIG, and found the hidden gem in the next specification; it provides at least a 4x increase in power delivery at the slot, which might eliminate the need for auxiliary power cables with some GPUs.
Microsoft have open-sourced PowerShell and made it available for Linux and Mac OS X. PowerShell is Microsoft's command-line shell and scripting language. As of today, August 18, Microsoft is making available alpha releases of PowerShell Core on Linux (Red Hat, Ubuntu and CentOS) and Mac OS X on GitHub as a binary release. More platforms will be available in the future, company officials said. Microsoft also will be releasing the source code for both the Windows and Linux versions of PowerShell today.
The Witcher 3 has added support for interesting screenshots. When NVIDIA launched its Pascal cards earlier this year, a number of cool technologies were announced at the same time. One of those technologies came in the form of Ansel, a screenshot tool on steroids. As of the latest patch for The Witcher 3, CD Projekt Red enabled support for Ansel, and some of the screenshots generated are truly exquisite.
NASA have released a huge research archive online. Care to learn more about 400-foot tsunamis on Mars? Now you can, after Nasa announced it is making all its publicly funded research available online for free. The space agency has set up a new public web portal called Pubspace, where the public can find Nasa-funded research articles on everything from the chances of life on one of Saturn’s moons to the effects of space station living on the hair follicles of astronauts.
MSI GeForce GTX 1060 6GT OC on Guru3D
EVGA GTX 1080 FTW vs. the Founder’s Edition & vs. the Fury X on BabelTech Reviews
ASUS ROG GeForce GTX 1070 STRIX Gaming on Guru3D
GeForce GTX 1080 SLI on Techspot
MSI GeForce GTX 1060 OC 6 GB on techPowerUp
Zotac GTX 1060 AMP! Edition on LanOC
AZIO MGK L80 RGB Mechanical Keyboard on APH Networks
AZIO MGK L80 (Kailh Blue) Mechanical Keyboard on APH Networks
Seasonic PRIME 750W Titanium Power Supply on PC Perspective
Gigabyte XP1200M 80Plus Platinum Modular Power Supply on Hardware Asylum
Cougar LX Series 600 W on techPowerUp
Gigabyte Z170X-Ultra Gaming on Modders-Inc
MSI X99A Gaming Pro Carbon (with Broadwell-E) on techPowerup
GIGABYTE Z170X-Designare Motherboard on TweakTown
Wise Pad W7 Windows 10 Phablet on TechARP
instax SHARE SP-2 Mobile Printer on Tech ARP
Kingston HyperX Savage 960GB SATA III SSD on BigBruin
Seagate SkyHawk 10TB NVR and DVR HDD on eTeknix
Crucial MX300 525GB SATAIII SSD on FunkyKit
SanDisk SSD PLUS vs. Kingston SSDNow V300 on Hardware Secrets
Amped Wireless REC22P Plug-In AC1200 WiFi Range Extender on ThinkComputers.org
Linksys LGS318P 18-Port Smart PoE+ Gigabit Switch on NikKTech
AMD A10-7870K APU with Near-Silent Thernal Solution on Neoseeker
Fujifilm X-T2 Mirrorless Camera Hands-On on Tech ARP
No Man's Sky (PlayStation 4) on TweakTown
G.Skill TridentZ DDR4-3200 32GB RAM Kit on TweakTown
Cooler Master MasterLiquid Pro 240 Watercooling Kit on LanOC
Cooler Master MasterPulse Over-Ear With Bass FX Headphones on eTeknix
Thanks to Dan and Andrew this week! Also, if you're looking for a(nother) timewaster this afternoon, Leigh sent word that there are over 4000 DOS games playable in your browser over at the Internet Archive. Enjoy!
Thursday, 18-August-2016 14:45:49 (GMT +10) - by Agg
A reminder: if you're in Melbourne and have an interest in storage, there's a Synology 2017 Event on the 11th of October. Highlights of the event: - Announcing brand-new collaboration tools and multimedia integration - The future of networking and storage - Synology's next big move for disaster recovery solutions - Face-to-face discussion with Synology experts - Chance to win a Synology NAS in the prize draw!
NBN Co have released their 2016 financial results and consider themselves on track and exceeding network targets. Issues over the NBN, its technology mix, speed and quality of broadband delivery and the negative politics of the massive project were momentarily cast aside today when chief executive Bill Morrow said, “During the year we doubled our Ready for Service footprint to 2.9 million premises, and at the same time, we doubled the amount of end users connected hitting a record high of 1.1 million”.
The Intel Developer Forum is underway, with HotHardware reporting on 7th Generation Core processors, a merged reality headset, a new Xeon Phi processor and new 100Gbps network modules. More interesting is the news that Intel are partnering with ARM, whereby Intel will manufacture ARM chips for smartphones. Now, Intel is deciding to wade back in to the ARM waters as an ARM licensee. The chip giant will not design and market its own ARM-based designs, but it will offer its mammoth custom foundry business to produce ARM processors for other companies. More info on PC Perspective.
NVIDIA meanwhile have unveiled their Pascal mobile GPU for gaming notebooks. NVIDIA flew a bunch of tech press and YouTubers out to London for the announcement of its Pascal-based GeForce graphics cards making their way into gaming notebooks. During the event, NVIDIA announced that the GeForce GTX 1080, GTX 1070 and GTX 1060 would be finding their way into various gaming notebooks in all different shapes and sizes. More coverage on TechARP, PC Perspective, TechSpot and HotHardware.
Today's timewaster is SPACEPLAN, thanks scon. It's another of those incremental clicky games like Cookie Clicker, Reactor Idle and Factory Idle - but it won't suck up your entire life, only a few hours. Hopefully. :) Discussion here.
|Wednesday Midday Reviews
Wednesday, 17-August-2016 11:17:42 (GMT +10) - by booj
ASUS ROG STRIX X99 Gaming on Vortez.
ASRock Fatal1ty H170 Performance/Hyper on Funky Kit.
Corsair Dominator Platinum 3200MHz DDR4 64GB on OCC.
Corsair Vengeance LED DDR4-3200 32GB RAM Kit on TweakTown.
Crucial MX300 750GB SSD on Guru3D.
Seagate IronWolf 10TB SATA III HDD on NikKTech.
WD My Passport Wireless Pro 3TB Portable HDD on TweakTown.
be quiet! Dark Base Pro 900 on Benchmark Reviews.
Riotoro CR1080 Tiny ATX Case on Legit Reviews.
Deepcool Genome on techPowerUp.
AZiO MGK L80 Red, Blue and RGB Keyboards on techPowerUp.
AZIO MGK L80 (Kailh Brown) Mechanical Keyboard on APH Networks.
AZIO MGK L80 Mechanical Keyboard Lineup on Modders-Inc.
Cooler Master MasterKeys Lite L Combo on Funky Kit.
Reolink RLC 410 1440p PoE IP Camera on TweakTown.
Thermaltake Toughpower SFX 450W PSU on LanOC Reviews.
Motorola Moto G4 Plus on Techspot.
Gainward GTX 1070 Phoenix GS on Vortez.
Corsair ML120 PRO LED Fans on ThinkComputers.
Monday, 15-August-2016 21:44:30 (GMT +10) - by Agg
Here's a quick snapshot of what people are up to in our Photography Gallery forum.
Monday, 15-August-2016 10:35:06 (GMT +10) - by Agg
The head of the ABS is standing by his department in the wake of the Census issues. "My view is that leaders stand up when there are issues," ABS chief statistician David Kalisch told the ABC. "They respond and they fix the issues, and there will be a time for the facts to come out and for accountabilities to be made." Mr Kalisch said he was aware the ABS had suffered significant harm to its reputation. There's more on the political back-story of the Census in this article. Discussion continues in this thread.
Meanwhile OCAU member Daemon has posted his early analysis of the Census failure. Initial analysis suggests that some of the infrastructure design for the Census data was quite positively woeful. There were only 11 servers to handle all of the Census processing. What’s more, the fact that the certificate has hard coded entries means that there’s no ability to spin up additional servers to process more traffic.
Anandtech report on some new enterprise SSDs from Seagate. With the Nytro XP7200 moving toward production, Seagate has brought out another SSD tech demo with eye-catching specifications. The unnamed SAS SSD packs 60TB of 3D TLC into a 3.5" drive. In order to connect over a thousand dies of Micron's 3D TLC NAND to a single SSD controller, Seagate has introduced ONFi bridge chips to multiplex the controller's NAND channels across far more dies than would otherwise be possible. The rest of the specs for the 60TB SSD look fairly mundane and make for a drive that's better suited to read-intensive workloads, but the capacity puts even the latest hard drives to shame.
Guru3D have a guide to overclocking Titan X from NVIDIA. Overclocking never comes without risk, but it sure as heck is interesting to see how far you can take a card. As such today an article dedicated on overclocking the Nvidia Titan X. You will notice that if you go for long lifespan that overclocking the old fashioned way will not disappoint. A good 1800~1850 MHz on the GPU (reference air cooler) is certainly something you can achieve reasonably easy. However with Nvidia's updated Dynamic Clock Adjustment technology (GPU Boost 3.0) things have changed a bit. Regardless of that you'll be able to tweak a lot more performance out of this complex 12 Billion transistor GPU, more than you think. Babeltech have been overclocking Titan X as well.
The first IBM PC was released 35 years ago this month, back in August 1981. "This is the computer for just about everyone who has ever wanted a personal system at the office, on the university campus or at home," said C. B. Rogers, then-IBM vice president, at the 5150's launch. "We believe its performance, reliability and ease of use make it the most advanced, affordable personal computer in the marketplace." Within two years of its release tens of thousands of homes and businesses were fitted with an IBM PC and rival companies such as Dell and HP started to developing the machines that would become the computers of today.
|Sunday Afternoon Reviews
Sunday, 14-August-2016 15:49:11 (GMT +10) - by booj
Zotac GTX 1080 AMP! Edition 8 GB on Techpowerup.
ASUS STRIX GAMING GTX 1070 OC on eTeknix.
Gigabyte RX 460 Windforce OC 2GB on LanOC Reviews.
AMD Radeon RX 460 on The Tech Report.
ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1080 AMP! Extreme on Guru3D.
ASUS Radeon RX 460 STRIX OC 4 GB on techPowerUp.
WD Gold 8TB Datacenter Drive (WD8002FRYZ) on Tech ARP.
QNAP TVS-682-I3-8G NAS Server on NikKTech.
WD Blue SSHD (WD10J31X) 1TB on Tech ARP.
Crucial MX300 750GB Solid State Drive on APH Networks.
Toshiba PX04SLB 4TB SAS1200 SSD on Hardware.info.
Reeven Coldwing 12 and 14 Fans on Modders-Inc.
Noctua NH-L9i Compact CPU Cooler on Funky Kit.
Cooler Master MasterLiquid Pro 240 on Modders-Inc.
Cooler Master MasterLiquid Pro 240 AIO Cooler on Hardware Asylum.
Cryorig A80 280mm Hybrid Air and AIO CPU Cooler on eTeknix.
Thermalright Le Grand Macho RT Air CPU Cooler on PC Perspective.
be quiet! Dark Rock TF on techPowerUp.
Razer Turret Living Room Gaming Mouse and Lapboard on Madshrimps.
Thermaltake Level 10 M Advanced RGB Mouse on Legit Reviews.
Razer Mechanical Keyboard Case (Apple iPad Pro) on Custom PC Review.
Corsair Vengeance LED 32GB DDR4 on Vortez.
JBL Charge 3 Bluetooth Speaker on Legit Reviews.
BlackVue DR650S-2CH Dashcam on Big Bruin.
Cooler Master MasterBox 5 Mid-Tower Case on PC Perspective.
Thermaltake Lumi Color 256C RGB Magnetic LED Strip Control Pack on Funky Kit.
All original content copyright James Rolfe.
All rights reserved. No reproduction allowed without written permission.
Interested in advertising on OCAU? Contact us for info.


text:
With the new location of the Sail America Village and an aggressive marketing plan in place, support for the South West International Boat Show (SWIBS) is strong and growing.
“I’ve received very positive feedback from many exhibitors who believe the Texas marketplace presents an outstanding opportunity for the sailing industry,” Mitch Perkins, sales director for Sail America, says. “It’s important for exhibitors to get their contracts in to secure a good location.”
Catalina, Hunter, and Dufour have already booked slips for the show and talks are currently underway with Beneteau, Lagoon, and Jeanneau with regards to their slip requirements.
Bob Bitchin, founder of Latitudes & Attitudes and Cruising Outpost magazines, and one of sailing’s most famous cruising sailors, is already planning a large booth in the Sail America Village and will be hosting the Cruising Outpost party on Saturday evening from 7:00 pm, a much talked-about gathering with free beer, pizza, live music and raffle. Guests must be inside the SWIBS when the show closes to attend the party!
Powerboat exhibitors and vendors are also confirming exhibit space, and every indication tells us the entire show will sell out.
GEICO, Caterpillar, and Landshark are among the major sponsors and with just under five months to go, Houston once again will be hosting the largest in-water boat show in the southwest.
For more information, visit southwestinternationalboatshow.com
Texas Ranks #1 in CNBC’s “Top 10 States for Business”
Lone Star State is obvious choice for South West International Boat Show, March 21–24, 2013
According to CNBC, the state of Texas ranks #1 for business, a compelling reason for the South West International Boat Show to choose that state for its 2013 event at South Shore Harbour Marina near Houston, Texas.
For these rankings, CNBC scored all 50 states on 51 measures of competitiveness developed with input from business groups, including the National Association of Manufacturers and the Council on Competitiveness. States received points based on their rankings in each metric, which were then separated into 10 broad categories. The categories were weighted based on how frequently they’re cited in state economic development marketing materials. That way, the study ranks the states based on the criteria they use to sell themselves.
Within those 10 broad categories—Texas ranked in the top 10 within the 50 states for Workforce, Economy, Infrastructure and Transportation, Technology and Innovation, Access to Capital, and Cost of Living, thereby garnering its number one slot overall.
The South West International Boat Show creates an opportunity for vendors and suppliers to get face-to-face with those who come from within a growing economy, a strong workforce, and a place with the infrastructure to do business. The people walking the show will have the background and experience to make purchasing decisions because they have capital, confidence in the marketplace, and the wherewithal to make business happen within an environment that has been, up to this point, dramatically under-served.
This is the third year for the state of Texas to be within the top 10 in these rankings, which indicates it’s more of a trend than a one-hit wonder. Let’s bring the sailing industry to Texas and watch it grow.


text:
A host of Berkeley makers and bakers are nourishing locals and protecting minds and bodies from the impacts of COVID-19.
Local childcare providers have risen to the challenge of looking after their charges during the pandemic. They have even found silver linings amid the heightened restrictions.
The stories of three Black enterprises demonstrate Berkeley’s economic diversity and ingenuity of its entrepreneurs, even amidst a pandemic.
Sponsored: Berkeley businesses are finding new ways to deliver value to the community – and society at large – in response to the COVID-19 pandemic
Sponsored: Some of Berkeley’s small businesses are devising new products, services to survive through the pandemic.
Sponsored: Alchemy is growing an innovative worker-owned café business that’s buzzing with community energy in the Lorin District.
[Sponsored] Berkeley-based All Power Labs makes machines that generate carbon-negative energy from agriculture waste materials.
[Sponsored] West Berkeley-based Urban Ore is a treasure trove of unique upcycled gifts with interesting backstories.
[Sponsored] ACCI, an artist-run co-op offering hand made objects by skilled local artisans, provides a great alternative to big box retail and online shopping for the holidays.
[Sponsored] At its large West Berkeley complex of buildings, Meyer Sound manufactures precision products that are used at venues large and small around the world.
[Sponsored] Gather is helping to expand the farm-to-table movement by weaving together fine dining, hyperlocal ingredients and a focus on social enterprise.
[Sponsored] West Berkeley-based Metro Lighting makes its products on site, often from salvaged items.


text:
Ben WoodsEurope Editor
Ben is a technology journalist with a specialism in mobile devices and a geeky love of mobile spectrum issues. Ben used to be a professional Ben is a technology journalist with a specialism in mobile devices and a geeky love of mobile spectrum issues. Ben used to be a professional online poker player. You can contact him via Twitter or on Google+.
Spotify has today announced an update for its Windows Phone app that brings a new darker look to the music streaming service.
Available to download now for Windows Phone 8 (or higher) users, there’s a darker overall theme, revamped typography and some smooth new rounded icons.
The company said it isn’t just aesthetics behind the dark look – it allows content to ‘pop’, “just like in a cinema when you dim the lights.”
Apart from the new look, Spotify has also added the ‘Your Music‘ and new ‘Browse’ features, first seen on other platforms in the second half of last year, to Windows Phone for the first time.
➤ Spotify paints it black with new look for Windows Phone [Spotify | Windows Phone]
Get the TNW newsletter
Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week.


text:
As in most countries, the logistics market in the Netherlands’ has slipped back. There are challenges such as the shortage of supply, a lack of land on which to build new stock, a shortage of electrical power, the nitrogen issue and a political environment that is difficult for new development, explained Niek Poppelaars, co-head logistics and industrial, Netherlands, Savills.
“Therefore what we see is new supply is not coming to the to the market and vacancy levels are really really low – around 2%,” he said.
“The core segment of the market, due to the relatively low yields, is still pretty slow. But the higher yielding value-add part of the market is pretty active,” Poppelaars said.
The search is on for rental reversion potential and there’s a shift of focus from large-scale new big box developments to more smaller ogistics and industrial assets, he said.


text:
December Calendar 2021 With Holidays
The Ford Idaho Center’s Horse Park and Sports Center will be converted into a wintery market with a light display courtesy of Silver Bells Lighting. In addition to music, food and drinks, each weekend . Toonist Drew Litton has released his 2021 sports calendar. Drew Litton’s 2021 12-month Sports Calendar is full of hilarious, classic cartoons. Always a perfect stocking stuffer for the holidays, the . For St. Lucie County, the most notable change next year for students and staff is the first day of school. This year, officials delayed the start of the year by two weeks to Aug. 24 because of the .
December 2021 calendar with holidays
- Printable December 2021 Calendar with Holidays – Free Printable .
- December 2021 calendar | free printable monthly calendars.
- December 2021 Calendar with Holidays United States.
December 2021 Calendar with Holidays Printable Template No.cd21m72
Discover it 5% cash-back calendar for which is perfect for holiday shopping. There’s still plenty of time to activate for Q4 2020, but Discover has now released its 2021 bonus categories . A midweek start to the school year as well as two full weeks and three weekends for winter break were some of the suggestions to come out of committee input. .
December 2021 Desktop Calendar with Holidays – Free Printable 2020
Hopefully 2021 will be a better year than 2020 – but to in France However there is one drawback to the French holiday calendar – all holidays are taken on the day they fall on that year Annual schedule features 15 festivals, beginning with the Dubai Shopping Festival on December 17, 2020 and concluding on January 30, 2021 with the Super Sale. .
Printable Calendar December 2021, Printable 2021 Calendar with
- December 2021 Calendar. View the free printable monthly December .
- December 2021 Desktop Calendar Monthly – Free Printable 2020 .
- December 2021 Calendar with Holidays Printable Template No.tr21m12 .


text:
Firefox has taken the number one spot in browser market share in Europe for the first time, according to a survey by traffic-statistics company StatCounter. The firm’s numbers show that Firefox had just over 38 percent of the European browser market in December, compared with a little less than 37 percent for Internet Explorer (s msft). But the real battle for Firefox is with Chrome, the Google (s goog) browser that continues to gain market share at a fairly rapid pace — most of the decline in IE’s share has come as a result of Chrome’s advances.
StatCounter said that its research shows Chrome almost tripling its market share in Europe from just over 5 percent last December to almost 15 percent last month. This could be a result of the European Commission’s pressure on Microsoft to offer Windows users a choice of browsers rather than just the default Internet Explorer, according to StatCounter CEO Aodhan Cullen. “We are probably seeing the impact of the agreement between European Commission competition authorities and Microsoft, to offer EU users a choice and menu of browsers,” said Cullen. The software giant started offering a menu of choices last March as part of a deal with the EU.
In the absence of such a mandate in North America, meanwhile, Firefox is still far behind Internet Explorer in market share — StatCounter figures show that the Microsoft browser has close to 49 percent of the market, while Firefox has just a little more than 26 percent, and Chrome has close to 13 percent. Apple’s Safari browser is in fourth place with a little over 10 percent market share.
When it comes to global market share, web-analytics firm NetApplications said Monday its statistics show Internet Explorer ended the year with 57 percent of the worldwide browser market, down from 67 percent in 2009. As with the StatCounter numbers, Chrome was the main beneficiary of IE’s decline; it climbed from just over 2.5 percent market share in 2009 to almost 10 percent, NetApplications said. Firefox, meanwhile, fell from 24.5 percent market share in January of last year to less than 23 percent in December.
Apart from the growing competitiveness of Google’s browser, the numbers from StatCounter and NetApplications show just how difficult it is to unseat a dominant browser such as Internet Explorer — particularly when that browser is the default in the world’s most popular operating system for consumer PCs.
Related GigaOM Pro content (sub req’d):
- Why Google Should Fear the Social Web
- Lessons From Twitter: How to Play Nice With Ecosystem Partners
- What We Can Learn From the Guardian’s Open Platform


text:
- Apple vs Samsung settled: our long international nightmare is over.
- A proposed US law has patent trolls jumping for joy.
- Amazon jumps into the healthcare business by buying online pharmacy PillPack.
- Foxcon's new Wisconsin plant breaks ground.
- Yet another Facebook security breach, but this time a bug bounty program catches the leak.
- Twitter's new Ad Transparency Center opens new avenues for journalists.
- The sky is falling in Fortnite.
- WPA3 could make Wi-Fi a lot more secure.
- California follows Europe down the data privacy road.
- Christina Warren knows all the Andromeda secrets, but she's not talking.
- AOL Instant Messenger is reborn!
- StumbleUpon is not. :(
Host: Leo Laporte
Download or subscribe to this show at
Bandwidth for This Week in Tech is provided by CacheFly.


text:
Ivanka Trump denoted her first raid into White House arrangement at a roundtable for female business pioneers on Monday, so far more retailers raced to drop her attire and extras lines from their stores.
Sitting close by Donald Trump and the Canadian head administrator, Justin Trudeau, Ivanka made just concise open comments at the highest point of the meeting, indicating the “one of a kind difficulties” confronted by ladies in the workforce.
White House censures Kellyanne Conway for advancing Ivanka Trump items
“I’m respected to be here and truly anticipating got notification from each of you,” Ivanka enlightened the gathering of regarding twelve business pioneers, “as we consider the exceptional difficulties that business visionaries, ladies in the workforce, female entrepreneurs are stood up to with every single day, and as we think [about] how we even the odds for this era and for the following.”
The appearance came against the scenery of a singing debate over the effect of Ivanka’s recently discovered noticeable quality in the White House on her business image.
On Monday, Burlington Stores joined different retailers in picking not to convey Ivanka’s attire on its site, as per a report in Business Insider. Also, throughout the end of the week, Sears Holdings, the parent organization of US retail locations Sears and Kmart, pulled 31 Trump-marked items from its site.
See picture on Twitter
See picture on Twitter
Ivanka Trump ✔ @IvankaTrump
An incredible exchange with two world pioneers about the significance of ladies taking a load off at the table! 🇺🇸🇨🇦
5:36 AM – 14 Feb 2017
14,599 Retweets 68,733 preferences
Despite the fact that Ivanka holds no formal part in the White House, she has as often as possible took an interest in authority occasions with the president while her significant other, Jared Kushner, is a senior counselor to the president.
She sat beside Trudeau at Monday’s roundtable, which built up another taskforce called the United States Canada Council for the Advancement of Women Business Leaders-Female Entrepreneurs. Donald Trump, who sat opposite his girl, said Ivanka “is especially required” in issues relating to ladies in the working environment.
Ivanka’s nearness to the organization has in any case gone under expanded examination as her image has fallen under the heaviness of her dad’s political profile.
Recently, Nordstrom turned into the principal real retailer to quit offering Ivanka’s stock, refering to a decrease in deals. Extravagance retail establishment Neiman Marcus soon stuck to this same pattern and dropped Ivanka’s gems line.
Offers of Ivanka’s items at Nordstrom had dropped over 70% in the weeks prior to the 8 November race, as per inner information revealed by the Wall Street Journal.
Taking after Nordstrom’s choice, Donald Trump and the White House squeeze secretary, Sean Spicer, freely reviled the retailer for what they named a political choice.
“My little girl Ivanka has been dealt with so unjustifiably by @Nordstrom,” Donald Trump tweeted on Wednesday.
Donald Trump’s feedback of Nordstrom raises moral concerns, congressperson says
Spicer in the interim called Nordstrom’s turn an “immediate assault” on the president’s strategies and Ivanka’s name.
Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s senior advisor, ostensibly lit the greatest fire by utilizing a broadcast meet on Fox News, taped from the White House, to advance Ivanka’s stock.
Conway’s direct was met with extensive kickback, provoking a letter from the House oversight board of trustees suggesting she be restrained if important.
The tidy up over Ivanka’s image has, from various perspectives, turned out to be an early microcosm of the approaching irreconcilable situation questions encompassing Donald Trump and his family’s domain as he administers from the Oval Office.
Ivanka said she would withdraw of nonattendance from her business when her dad was confirmed as president.
“I will take a formal time away from the Trump Organization and my eponymous attire and frill mark,” Ivanka composed on 11 January.
“I will never again be included with the administration or operations of either organization.”
Donald Trump’s feedback of Nordstrom raises moral concerns, representative says
In any case, as indicated by ProPublica, she was still recorded as running Trump organizations on in any event some dynamic alcohol licenses related with the family’s properties.
Richard Painter, a White House morals legal counselor under George W Bush, said by going about as a true government worker, Ivanka was risking blending official business with her business endeavors.
“In the event that she needs to sit in as a lady business pioneer, I figure she can,” Painter said.
“Be that as it may, she can’t get into stuff at the White House that influences her organizations … She better remain a pariah.”
Painter said the Trump organization’s assault on organizations that decided to no longer work with Ivanka, for example, Nordstrom, was the most concerning part of the adventure.
“What Kellyanne Conway did was shilling for the Ivanka Trump mark from the White House – she shouldn’t do it,” he said.
“In any case, much more regrettable is attempting to utilize the drive of the legislature, the force of the administration, to scare private markets for nonconformists who don’t work with an individual from the president’s family.”
“That is the place the assaults on Nordstrom were especially inexcusable.”


text:
2018 Jeep Wrangler 8-Speed Transmission Spied – Not Your Traditional Shifter
Modern Technology Behind a Traditional Façade?
The most anticipated 4x4 around the office (and judging by your questions the off-road world in general) is the next-generation Jeep Wrangler, due for 2018. We’ve seen spy shots of it cruising the streets of Detroit, found out it will offer a diesel and turbo 4-cylinder powertrain option, and learned it will be available in a truck configuration. The latest spy shot of the new Jeep suggests it will be packing the eight-speed ZF transmission with a electronic shift lever.
The new shifter spotted in the test mule Wrangler appears to be a gated shift selector, alleviating the gear selection concerns with the previous return-to-center shifter. The new eight-speed shifter also switches to a mechanical release button, giving a more traditional feel to latest iteration of this eight-speed transmission shifter. The new shifter still follows the same PRND pattern, with D having side-to-side actuation for manual gear selection.
While there has been no official word on if the new Jeep Wrangler JL will have this style shifter, it does show that the eight-speed ZF transmission will be in the next generation Wrangler. We’ve always been partial to the manual gearbox, but this could be great compromise that blends the new electronic shift technology with the feel of a traditional gated shifter.
We’ll keep you updated with more information on anything related to the new Jeep, and trust us, we are as excited as you are.
Source: SpiedBilde Photograpy
New Ford Ranger Tremor Could Make Chevy's Trail Boss Quiver
Maxed Out! 2024 Chevy Silverado Gets Diesel ZR2 + TurboMax 4-Cylinder
Hurricane Kills Million-Mile SUV, Toyota Replaces It For Free
Latest Ford F-150 Lightning Price Hike Hands Chevy Silverado EV a $20K Advantage
First Look: Lamborghini Revuelto Is the Hybrid Hypercar to Replace Aventador


text:
The Democratic National Convention was a historical occasion, with Hillary Clinton accepting the nomination for president of the United States of America, becoming the first woman to ever run on a major platform.
The week was all about politics, but there were some bold and beautiful styles out there, so let’s break down all of the fashion highlights.
I’m sincerely going to miss when she is out of office. She rallied the crowd and praised Hillary’s leadership and skills.
President Barack Obama told the people that he’s “with her,” and he did it oh-so-stylishly. Our President was charming and candid wearing a dapper suit with a subtle, metallic blue tie and crisp, white button-down shirt.
The pair matched that evening, wearing different shades of blue for night two of the convention.
Actress America Ferrera lent her support to Hillary in a beautiful Black Halo biased-cut black dress with white trimming on the hem. She added a pop of color with red heels and a bold red lip. It was a smart and glamorous look that gave just the right of sexy without going over the top, perfect for a celebrity supporter.
Singer Alicia Keys continued her no-makeup movement and arrived, sans makeup, with what’s becoming her signature hairstyle and a patterned scarf to accent her ensemble. She performed at the event, dedicating her piece to Mothers of the Movement.
Bill Clinton transitioned from former president style to a husband-in-chief vibe, rocking a stylish suit and waving to the crowd. To honor his wife’s nomination, he wore a deep-blue suit and tie, slightly mirroring the dress Michelle during her powerful speech.
The former president showed off his Shinola watch, which was made in the USA by former auto industry workers in Detroit, the perfect nod to American fashion.
Hillary, whose style advisor is the one and only Anna Wintour, editor in chief at Vogue Magazine, made history in an all-white pantsuit that she paired with kitten heels and a soft lip. However, her outfit held more significance than most know.
During the suffrage movement, which fought for decades to secure voting rights for women, many were encouraged to wear white during demonstrations and parades. It represented not only purity, but also the movement’s elevated sense of ideals for equality.
If When Hillary becomes the president of the United States, I can’t wait to see all the pantsuit boss style she will be serving!
Beauties, here’s to life, liberty, and the pursuit of making fashionable statements.
PHOTO CREDIT: Getty


text:
LV Auto Show Gala benefits Good Shepherd Pediatrics
An Alfa Romeo Giulia Ti Sport AWD, Porsche 911 convertible, Mercedes Benz S 560, Jaguar F-Type, Cadillac Red Horizon Sport XT6 and Maserati Gran Turismo were among the 10 shiny luxury brands lined up inside Stabler Arena, Lehigh University, Bethlehem.
The real star of the 2020 Lehigh Valley Auto Show press conference was Emily Pineda, 5, in her Trexo Plus.
Pineda, a daughter of Robert and Jennifer Pineda of Blue Bell, Montgomery County, demonstrated the Trexo Plus, assisted by Kandis Jones, Supervisor of Outpatient Pediatrics at Good Shepherd Pediatrics.
Good Shepherd Pediatrics, a division of Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Network, will receive $25,000 as beneficiary of the 2020 Lehigh Valley Auto Show Preview Gala, 6 - 10 p.m. March 18, Stabler Arena.
The 23rd annual Valley Auto Show, presented by the Greater Lehigh Valley Auto Dealers, is 10 a.m. - 9 p.m. March 19, 20 and 21, and 10 a.m.- 6 p.m. March 22, Lehigh University Goodman Campus, Saucon Valley.
Good Shepherd Pediatrics is the only rehab facility in Pennsylvania and one of a handful of “Centers of Excellence” in the United States to pioneer the Trexo Plus, a robotic walking device for children.
Robotic legs and computer controls in the high-tech walker allow a child to walk hands-free. The design encourages a child to walk farther as he or she gains strength.
“You do it in conjunction with a caregiver or the parents,” Jones explained to a reporter for The Press at the press conference. “Once it’s set up, it knows the gait pattern and walk phase and it stays the the same,” said Jones.
A home unit can cost $29,000. A clinic unit can cost $75.000. Good Shepherd has had one of the units since July 2019. The device fits most 3-6-year-olds in sizes for the small, medium and larger child.
Trexo Plus is aimed for children diagnosed with Cerebral palsy, pediatric stroke, spinal cord injury and gait disorders.
The 2020 auto show is a four-day event with more than 145,000-square-feet of displays of new cars, trucks, SUVs, crossovers, vans and motorcycles.
Chair of this year’s show is Tom Daub, president, Brown-Daub Dealerships.
Greater Lehigh Valley Auto Dealers Association president Sam Borrelli, president, Faulkner Chevrolet Cadillac, Bethlehem, presented opening remarks at the Feb. 18 press conference.
Tom Kwiatek, executive director, Greater Lehigh Valley Auto Dealers Association, highlighted the show: expanded auto show marketplace with more than 30 vendors; distracted driving simulator; Subaru Loves Pets, partnering with a local shelter to make dogs and puppies available for adoption; Mario Andretti’s 1994 Lola T9400 Indy Car that he drove on his “Arrivederci Tour” with Newman-Haas Racing and which was a retirement gift from Paul Newman and Carl Haas, will be on display; March 21 daytime display by the Allentown Corvette Club and March 22 daytime display by the Thunderbird Club, and an exhibition by automobile photographer Ed Solomon.
Also at the press conference were Gary Schmidt, Chair, board of trustees, and Interim President & CEO, Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Network, and Amanda Kleckner, Administrative Director of Pediatrics, Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Network.
“No other rehab provider in Pennsylvania provides this technology,” said Kleckner. “I’ve seen the bright smiles as the parents experience this [their children walking] and the tears of the parents.”
“Whether at the Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Hospital Pediatric Unit in Bethlehem or our many outpatient locations throughout the greater Lehigh Valley, the Greater Lehigh Valley Auto Dealers Association’s generous support allows Good Shepherd Pediatrics’ team of physicians, therapists and nurses to provide expert pediatric rehabilitation and specialized care to children recovering from traumatic injuries, illnesses, neurological disorders or chronic conditions,” said Schmidt.
March 19 and 20 are Community Days at the auto show. Participating nonprofits sell discounted advance tickets as a fundraiser for their organizations.
March 20 is Military and First Responder Appreciation Day. Admission is free with a valid ID. Accompanying family members, up to four, may attend at half price.
Volunteers, who are needed to staff this year’s show, have four-hour shifts and receive a free T-shirt. To volunteer, contact Tom Kwiatek: firstname.lastname@example.org; 610-758-9691
Tickets for the preview gala, which is open to the public and includes food, music and cocktails: glvada.org. Information, including directions to the show: glvada.org


text:
A Google Philanthropy Twist
26 May 2005 at 1:05 pm
Giant Internet search engine Google and its philanthropic Foundation appear set to join other corporates using a capitalist approach to ‘giving’ – philanthropy with a twist!
The Google Foundation is looking to fund for-profit businesses that also pursue worthy causes instead of giving the money directly to Not for Profit organisations.
Google, whose founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin are each worth about $US8 billion, says the foundation might back for-profit and Not for Profit social entrepreneurs.
Sheryl Sandberg, the vice president of Google’s global online sales and operations is reported in the US media as saying the company wants to do something that is innovative without giving up on traditional philanthropy.
One possibility is the creation of a Not for Profit version of Google that might be called Google.org.
Google’s philanthropy now includes the Google Grants program, which gives free advertising to hundreds of Not for Profits focused on poverty, human rights, environmental and other causes.
Google’s founders would be joining other entrepreneurs testing new approaches to philanthropy.
eBay founder Pierre Omidyar is reported as saying last year that his foundation would start investing in for-profit start-ups in addition to Not for Profits.
The Omidyar Network is reported to have directed $US5.6 million into for-profits, including United Villages of Cambridge which develops software and hardware bringing phone, e-mail and other electronic communication to poor villages in India, Cambodia and other foreign nations.


text:
Adding Another Card To Your Cloud Adoption Deck
For the most part we’ve all heard how the adoption or embracing of the Cloud will help enterprise users to save costs. Those CIOs, CTOs and IT officers who support the Cloud or have been pushing their top brass to accept Cloud adoption have almost always played the cost-savings card in their quest to get support. Use the Cloud and have an elastic Software as a Service that can be reduced as and when users require them. While this has not changed it has become a rather worn out card due to all the times its been played, spun around into something similar from a different angle but still mentioning the same cost-savings, until even the top brass knows what you’re going to pitch next. This may not be the case any longer as a recent study by TNS on behalf of CSC may let you add another card to your Cloud adoption playing deck.
The “CSC Cloud Usage Index” survey conducted by TNS covered 3,645 companies around the world and turned up a surprising number of insights into Cloud adoption. Key amongst these insights was the fact at least 33 percent of the respondents surveyed said that they adopted Cloud services to support easier access for multiple devices in their separate companies. Only 17 percent of users said that they made the move to the Cloud due to cost-savings related reasons. Focusing on companies in the United States 46 percent of small businesses cited access to multiple devices as being their main push in adopting the Cloud while just 10 percent of the same market said that they did so due to cost-saving reasons.
While this points to a better adoption of multiple types of devices in the workplace (asides from the usual business notebook) it does mean that those in charge of pushing Cloud acceptance can now play the card of multiple device access support. At this point of time it would do many of these people much good to familiarize themselves with the multiple consumer-level devices currently invading the workplace. Doing so may be the difference required in getting your Blackberry using CFO to see eye-to-eye with the Android smartphone using VP and your iPhone using CEO.
That being said, not many people actually use their smartphones to do their computing, much less access the Cloud, despite the existence of VPN apps for most of these platforms. The major device catalyst currently staking out its place in the workplace would have to be the touchscreen tablets along with Google powered Chromebooks. Since all of these devices are designed to work well on the Internet it is only natural that they fit will with Cloud computing. However, I personally feel that while it is all good to have a single Cloud solution that everyone can access, having a finger-friendly app designed for each platform would make it all that much sweeter. While this may not be that important to add when making your pitch using the multiple device access card, it is something to consider for future use if it resonates well with your CFO who may suddenly be looking at his or her Blackberry with new anticipation.
It is also important to note that while the cost-savings card is still a valid and very much relevant factor in pushing for Cloud adoption, the “CSC Cloud Usage Index” survey also revealed that most companies saw a much lower percentage in savings compared to those earlier estimated after Cloud adoption. Companies in the survey still got savings with 82 percent of respondents saying that they saw cost-savings after Cloud adoption but only 32 percent of companies in the United States saw savings of less than $20,000. This is not irrelevant by far but it is a bit weak to use as your trump card when making your Cloud adoption pitch.
By Muzaffar Ismail


text:
Three years ago at a major annual networking event in a coastal location to increase ticket sales, Sarah Meyers took the stage. At the time she was the Vice President of Client Relations for Sunny and Stormy, an advertising agency based in New York, with offices in fifteen major cities around the world.
While giving a talk on the future of corporate social responsibility, she famously said, “Gay is out, mental illness is in.”
The line hit industry Twitter, and drew criticism for its soundbite stance. But when Sarah says something, industry insiders listen. In her rapid ascension of a career thus far, she proved time after time that she was always Mostly Correct.
At the time of her presentation, gay pride flags flew atop close to 80% of corporate headquarters and social media profiles where the financial analysis had proved most consumers were at best in full support of such a display and at worst ambivalent. But because of the eventual wide application, the social bonus received for supporting the Cause had diminished to the point where it was news to be proactively against the Cause. Hobby stores, cake shops, etc.
Corporations were now looking for something new to support and to get there early enough to receive a Social Bonus. Sarah had done her homework.
One large coffee company, who remains under NDA with Sunny and Stormy, hired Sarah and her team to draft up a plan to promote mental health awareness.
Meyers built a pitch for the large coffee brand that spread the word on mental illness, creating a Mental Health Month and a specially-designed compostable cup with statistics about various mental illnesses. The large coffee company made a five-cent donation for every coffee ordered during this month to build what is now known as Greater Good, making sure access to mental health care was readily available to those who otherwise couldn’t afford it. Dozens of other major consumer companies jumped on board as part of the campaign, offering mental health sponsorship in exchange for impressions and brand association with a worthy cause. Millions upon millions of dollars were raised every year.
This charity fund mashed together with the ever-increasing popularity of crowdfunded healthcare meant someone with a little creativity and a big social circle could get pretty solid health coverage when needed if they were willing to beg.
The campaign won major awards for Sarah and her agency. She was eventually recruited away to work in-house as Chief Marketing Officer at a major consumer goods company not in competition with any of her past clients due to the enforced non-compete signed earlier in her career. The campaign drove notable growth for the large coffee company, improving stock performance that led to several marketing executives that green-lit the project being promoted, and if third party non-government-funded-but-supposedly-unbiased research is to be believed, saved an estimated 3,700 lives a year from suicide.
Many in the mental health medical community were critical of the campaign, especially the professionals working on less-fashionable mental illness, the ones not listed on cups, the ones that brands didn’t want to associate with. The minimal outrage was muted by the PR machine churning its own narrative. This was a successful campaign, even in its shortcomings, and no psychologist was going to get in the way of that.


text:
US unemployment claims hit 1.48 million last week
Continuing claims, or those receiving benefits for more than one week, fell by 767,000 to 19.52 million – the first time in two months the total fell below 20 million. These claims peaked at 24.9 million in early May, the Labor Department said.
That suggests layoffs are slowing as the economy stabilizes, but significant rehiring hasn't yet begun despite the 2.5 million jobs added in May.
Macy's said Thursday it's laying off 3,900 people corporate staffers, roughly 3 percent of its overall workforce, as the pandemic takes a financial toll on the iconic department store chain's sales and profits.
Macy's, which also owns Bloomingdale's and Bluemercury, said that the new job cuts would save $365 million this year and about $630 million per year on an annualized basis in the future.
Macy's has been rushing to reopen stores and implemented a range of cost-cutting measures after its sales nose-dived during the pandemic. The company said in February that it was eliminating about 2,000 corporate and support function positions, and that it would close about 125 of its least productive stores in the next three years.
Initial claims receive more attention in the press, but continuing claims smooth out sudden increases or dips provide a more accurate gauge of the labor market.
The number of first-time applications has declined from a peak of about 7 million in late March to about 1.5 million in the last few weeks.
However, that's significantly higher than pre-pandemic levels when the economy expanded and unemployment was at record lows.
The states with the largest number of initial claims for the week ending June 13 – the most recent figures available – were Oklahoma (+7,254), Texas (+5,047), New Jersey (+3,272), New York (+1,351) and Louisiana (+1,243).
For the week ended June 6, the states with the highest unemployment rates were Nevada (22.6 percent), Hawaii (18.3), New York (17.8), California (17.3), Michigan (16.9) Louisiana (16.2), Massachusetts (16.2) and Connecticut (15.8), the Labor Department said.
The unemployment rate is the percentage of unemployment workers in the total labor force.
Analysts at Jefferies Financial Group, a New York investment bank, said the coronavirus appears to be spreading in Arizona, Texas and Utah. As a result those states are experiencing an economic slowdown after earlier signs of a rebound.
The US economy slid into recession in February, a month before the coronavirus pandemic hit the economy, the National Bureau of Economic Research reported.
Retail spending increased sharply last month, but still remains far below pre-pandemic levels. Consumer spending represents about two-thirds of the US economy.
Congress is expected to debate the continuation of an extra $600 in weekly jobless benefits scheduled to expire at the end of July. The money, which is in addition to unemployment benefits provided by the states, was included in the $1.8 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (CARES) US President Donald Trump signed into law in March.
The Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think tank, said states offering enhanced unemployment benefits are recovering from the downturn more quickly, including fewer layoffs and a faster increase in rehiring.
In a research report, Brookings said the recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic differs sharply from the 2007-2009 recession caused by the collapse of the subprime mortgage market.
"In this (recession), economic activity collapsed and bottomed out in a few weeks, compared with months or years," Bookings said in a statement.
"The downturn was driven by service businesses such as restaurants and retailers rather than the typically more cyclical manufacturing and construction industries. Also, many more laid-off workers in this recession were expected to get their jobs back, at least initially."
But the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said continuing the additional $600 in unemployment benefits through January 2021 would slow hiring for remainder of this year and all of next.
The US Labor Department will release June's hiring data next week. Employment increased in May, but still remains about 20 percent below pre-pandemic levels in February.


text:
Ann Summers eyes clubbers
Ann Summers will attempt to move away from its reliance on the winter months by extending its swimwear and club-gear ranges.
As part of the plan, Ann Summers is due to reprise its partnership with Thomson-owned clubbing holiday firm 2wentys and use it to promote the revamped club-gear range. The activity is due to roll out next year.
Ann Summers ran its debut TV campaign and relaunched its website last week as part of a brand overhaul intended to dispel the negative image that some consumers have of the brand.
This article was first published on marketingmagazine.co.uk
- Senior Marketing Director - 9-12 month FTC Comedy Central £competitive, Camden, London (Greater)
- Creative Strategist- £65k - Well known FMCG Brands Gemini Search £65000 per annum, City of London
- Senior Insight Manager Ball & Hoolahan £55,000 + Car/Car Allowance, West Midlands
- Category Manager Ball & Hoolahan £60,000 per annum, London (Greater)
- Email Marketing Manager Ball & Hoolahan £35,000 per annum, London (Central), London (Greater)
Agency: Wieden & Kennedy New York
- Macmillan defends hijacking ice bucket challenge
- Comparethemarket.com first UK brand to run Facebook Premium Video ads
- Guinness Africa launches 'made of black' campaign with Kanye West ad
- Twitter launches learning hub for agencies
- Game Of Thrones actress stars in online Karen Millen campaign
- Uncle Ben's launches YouTube cooking show


text:
“Grand Theft Auto 5” will launch for the PC Jan. 27, and a recent Facebook post confirmed Auckland, New Zealand-based software developer and technical artist Hayssam Keilany is working on an ICEnhancer mod for “GTA 5.”
“We gotta see what the PC will offer, It might not require much editing in terms of shaders and stuff but mostly artistic changes to fit everyone's taste,” Keilany said in a post on Wednesday. “Expect to see dark, unsaturated, shiny cars preset and oversaturated, matte cars presets, etc.”
Keilany has created mods for 2008’s “Grand Theft Auto IV.”
“It's how things work, everyone have their own tastes,” he added. “V is already pretty, soon we can make it prettier for our own vision. That's the magic of modding, make the game your own.”
A current-gen version of “Grand Theft Auto 5” launched for the eighth-generation Xbox One and PlayStation 4 in November, but players were altering the action-adventure game with modded Xbox 360 devices and PlayStation 3 consoles since the game’s initial release in November 2013.
It will be interesting to see how Keilany’s ICEnhancer mod will improve the game, since New York City-based developer Rockstar has significantly improved the game’s graphics in the PS4 and Xbox One versions.
“GTA 5” is an open-world action game developed by Scotland-based Rockstar North and published by NYC-based Rockstar Games. “GTA V,” which received highly favorable reviews, was the 15th installment in the “GTA” series and the first game since 2008’s “GTA IV.” Following its release, the game received the Game of the Year award at the 2013 Golden Joystick Awards. Only three days following its release, IGN listed “GTA V” as second on its list of “Top 25 Xbox 360 Games.”


text:
HOUSTON, Feb. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- CORE Communications, a privately owned sales and marketing firm headquartered in Texas, announced that their excellent performance on behalf of an office supplies client during the final quarter of 2015 has garnered them national recognition.
Led by Managing Partner Ryan Caugherty, the team at CORE Communications won the "Campaign Cup," a national sales award given to the top-performing office among those eligible working on the same campaign, for their outstanding sales performance and quality.
"We are thrilled to win this award as it recognizes our ability to exceed the client's expectations," said Caugherty. "Our team is committed to excellence and we are already planning to win this honor again next quarter."
CORE Communications works with the client to acquire and retain customers using a personalized sales approach. Named one of Houston's Best and Brightest Companies for three consecutive years, the firm is poised for growth into new markets. CORE Communications also believes in developing and training leaders as well as in supporting the local community.
Like CORE Communications on Facebook.
About CORE Communications
Headquartered in Texas, CORE Communications is a premier sales company that provides outsourced sales and marketing solutions for clients seeking to acquire new customers and increase their market share. For more information, call 281-741-4954 or go to http://www.core-communicationsinc.com/.
SOURCE CORE Communications


text:
A book of psalms from 1640, believed to be the first book printed in the United States, sold for a record $14.2 million after being put up for auction by a Boston church that Samuel Adams attended and where Benjamin Franklin was baptized.
The Bay Psalm Book, which was auctioned Tuesday at Sotheby's in New York City, set an auction record for a printed book, according to The Associated Press.
Boston's Old South Church, established in 1669, voted to sell one of two copies of the book that it owns to increase its grants and ministries. Only 11 copies of the Bay Psalm Book survive in varying degrees of completeness.
"This is enormous for us," said the Rev. Nancy Taylor, senior minister of the church. "It is life-changing for the ministries we can do."
The book was published in Cambridge, Mass., by the Puritan leaders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony just 20 years after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth.
It was supposed to be a faithful translation into English of the original Hebrew psalms — puritans believed selected paraphrases would compromise their salvation. The 1,700 copies were printed on a press shipped from London.
A yellowed title page, adorned with decorative flourishes, reads: "The Whole Booke of Psalmes, Faithfully Translated into English Metre." At the bottom, it says: "Imprinted 1640."
The book was bought over the phone by American businessman and philanthropist David Rubenstein, who plans to lend it to libraries around the country. The sale price included the buyer's premium.
In April, Taylor called the book "spectacular" and said it is "arguably one of the most important books in this nation's history."
Historians believe an almanac may have come off the press before the Bay Psalm Book. But the chief of rare books and special collections at the Library of Congress, Mark Dimunation, has said the almanac was more of a pamphlet or a broadsheet than a book. No copy of the almanac exists today. Dimunation noted that in the Americas, in general, books were printed in what is now Mexico as early as 1539.
"American poetry, American spirituality and the printed page all kind of combine and find themselves located in a single volume," Dimunation said of the Bay Psalm Book.
The church originally owned five copies of the 6-inch-by-5-inch book. One is now at the Library of Congress, one is at Yale University and one is at Brown University.
The last time a copy came on the auction block, in 1947, it sold for a record auction price of $151,000, surpassing auction prices for the Gutenberg Bible, Shakespeare's First Folio and "Birds of America."
This copy of the Bay Psalm Book had a pre-sale estimate of $15 million to $30 million. A copy of John James Audubon's "Birds of America" was the previous record-holder, selling for $11.5 million at Sotheby's in 2010.
The auction record for any book goes to the Leonardo da Vinci Codex Hammer, a personal notebook of scientific writings and diagrams. It sold for $30.8 million at Christie's auction house in 1994.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.


text:
Just a few days ago, LG announced its G2 was headed to the U.S. later this month, with a release expected on Verizon and AT&T on September 12 and September 13, respectively. If you happen to be a T-Mobile customer though, the news meant nothing to you seeing how LG didn’t announce when it would be headed to your carrier of choice, but that all changes today as the T-Mobile has just announced when you can expect the LG G2 to be available.
T-Mobile is announcing they expect the LG G2 to go on sale starting September 18 through their online store and will be available at their retail stores starting on September 25 for $99.99 down with 24 equal monthly device payments of $21. If you want the LG G2 on T-Mobile as soon as possible, the carrier is currently accepting pre-orders at the rate mentioned a moment ago, or if you would rather own the LG G2, you can pay its full retail price of $629.99.
T-Mobile may not be launching their LG G2 as early as Verizon and AT&T, but considering they’ll be making it available just six days later through its online store, this doesn’t seem like such a huge delay. We just hope you can contain yourself when your friends show off their LG G2 they purchased from AT&T and Verizon while you wait for yours to be available.


text:
A new report released by Textlocal, one of the UK’s leading SMS platforms, reveals today that mobile gambling is set to revolutionise the industry as operators increasingly embrace the SMS platform to help drive activity and integration. The report also highlights how an estimated 4m people already use their smartphone to gamble and that that figure is growing by more than 10% year on year.
The scale of the opportunity is highlighted by Ofcom figures that estimate there are now more than 80m mobile phones in circulation in the UK for the first time. The report highlights how 90% of text messages are read within 3 minutes of receiving them and how on average consumers look at their smartphones 150 times a day, with the majority keeping them to hand for more than 16 hours a day.
Already more than 30% of people claim to use their smartphone to gamble, however the popularity of the SMS platform is growing rapidly as it’s proven to help companies engage with customers, deliver real time updates as well as offer the latest odds and availability. The platform, developed by Textlocal, is also fully integrated with Optimove and Playtech, two of the industry’s leading CRM providers and can play a pivotal role in two factor authentication.
The growth in smartphone usage and technological advancements have radically transformed the way British consumers behave and how businesses engage with them. Online gambling accounts for just one third (32%) of total gamblers (excluding national lottery players) and the industry has already encouraged 40% of online gamblers onto mobile, suggesting that there is massive scope for smartphone growth.
Jason Palgrave-Jones, Managing Director of Textlocal, comments: “The smartphone has fundamentally changed the gambling landscape in the UK and increasingly represents the future of the industry. The access that mobile provides, coupled with its ability to integrate with CRM technologies, allows gambling companies to deliver a mobile gambling service that is second to none. 토토사이트 With continued technical developments, coupled with increased mobile usage, we expect gambling organisations to increasingly adopt a mobile strategy in the future.”
As a further benefit, SMS is proven to enable ongoing customer engagement through the pushing of promotions and updating of accounts in real time. The research suggests that in 2018, nearly 3.5m gambling adults in the UK will opt to receive at least one message per month from their gambling providers, an important opportunity for gambling and gaming companies looking to develop relationships and retain customers.
Textlocal was founded in 2005 and employs 38 people in Chester and a further 26 in Malvern. Since 2005 over 165,000 users have used the system, sending more than a billion SMS messages. IMI Mobile group bought Textlocal in 2014 to complement its current suite of IMI products, including IMIchat, IMIconnect, IMIsocial, IMIdigital, IMIcampaign, IMIbot.ai. The company has more than 1,000 5star Trustpilot reviews and direct connections with all the main mobile networks, to ensure messages are delivered immediately. The business has been recognised by achieving the following awards.