China Air Pollution

Beijing- China’s Council has set new rules to curb air pollution one of the many environmental hazards that are plaguing the country. The council has promised to preserve the resources vowing “tough measures for tough tasks”

In a meeting   the State Council adopted 10 new measures demonstrating to not only resolve but also promote ecological progress as a task of vital significance for the people’s welfare and the country’s economic future.

These include speeding up the installation of pollution control equipment on coal fuelled refineries, restraining the growth of high energy consuming industries such as steel, cement, aluminium and glass, to control air borne particles that are smaller than 2.5 microns which are deemed a risk to health and to reduce pollution emissions per unit of GDP by at least 30 percent in heavy polluting industries by the end of 2017.

Back in 2007, statistics done by the World Bank found that in China around 750,000 people lost their lives every year because of pollution. A study done by the Lancet, a British medical journal, titled “2010’s Global Burden of Disease Study”, found that around 1.2 million people died prematurely in china due to air pollution.

Dissatisfied Population:

There has been growing dissatisfaction among people with air, water and soil pollution, a key trigger of rising social discontent in China. People are waiting to see what shape these efforts to reform will take.

In February, six heavy polluting industries; thermal power, iron and steel, petro chemicals, cement, non-ferrous metals and chemicals, in 47 cities were asked to gradually comply with special international emission limits on air borne pollutants from the start of March

Coal fuelled power plants is a major source of air pollution all over China. The tiny particulate matter from the vehicle emissions known as PM2.5 garnered a lot of interest in the media when PM2.5, which can enter deep into the lungs, went beyond 700 micrograms per cubic meter. The World Health Organisation considers 25 micrograms a safe level.

A Deutsche Bank report on air pollution released last in China called for certain policy changes to reduce the urban PM2.5 to a level of 30 by 2030.It said China should find ways to realize an eco-friendly  and sustainable growth by increasing investment in cleaner energies- gas, nuclear, hydroelectric wind & solar and in subways and railways.

The new measures call for greater co-operation among cities and provinces. The local governments should shoulder the responsibilities and also prepare emergency response plans for heavy pollution, including traffic restrictions and limits on local industries. In addition heavy fines will be laid for polluters and stringent requirements for environmental impact statements. The government will also reinforce its efforts in collecting pollutant discharge and will offer more credit support to projects that will reduce air pollution. It also promised to help China‘s troubled solar industry during its “production and operating difficulties” despite problems with overcapacity and ongoing trade disputes with the US and Europe.

China’s biggest environmental issues are linked to its fast but comprehensive economic expansion. These issues need extensive efforts from all the sectors mainly from the local governments. Their active participation is crucial for implementing the policies and supervising enterprises.

Solar Impulse

A fully Solar powered airplane landed in Washington on Sunday after a flight from St. Louis heading towards the end of its journey across the United States in an attempt to promote clean energy technologies.

The ‘Solar Impulse’ started is journey on 15^th June and flew for more than 14 hours with a commitment to take an important step in achieving a world of clean technology. Solar impulse   landed at the Dulles International Airport near Washington a little later than midnight. The last spell of the trip is to begin in July and the Solar impulse is to fly to New York from Washington. With the completion of this journey, this aircraft will be one of its kind to complete a day and night journey across the US. One of its kind being the first solar-powered aircraft.

Solar Impulse has a wingspan almost equal to a jumbo jet and weighs like a small car. By 2015, they are determined to build an advanced solar aircraft which would be capable to fly around the world, though it has already achieved a landmark of flying intercontinental from Spain to Morocco in June last year.

The Ambitious Project

This 10 year project began in 2003 with a budget of $112 million. Engineers from Swiss escalator maker Schindler and research aid from Belgian chemicals group Solvay have been involved actively in this ambitious project. Though Solar Impulse may not be the first solar airplane ever designed, but it is certainly the most ambitious one. None of its predecessors has ever managed to fly through the night that too with a pilot on board.

Swiss pilot Bertrand Piccard said in the statement, “It proves the reliability and potential of clean technologies, and this is crucial in pushing our message forward.” Piccard founded the Solar Impulse project with fellow pilot Andre Borschberg.

Construction and Working:

The upper part of the solar airplane’s wings is covered by solar panels. These are solar generators, meaning that they convert sunrays directly into electricity. The panels together are constituted of a total of 12’000 solar cells which, in turn, are all grouped into “strings” of 300 cells. At the extremities of each string, just like in a battery, there is the positive (+) and negative (-) pole. Each string has what’s called a Maximum Power Point Tracker (MPPT) which is responsible for extracting the maximum amount of power from the panels at any given solar intensity. The energy is then either stored in the batteries (there are 4 total) or immediately converted into mechanical energy, triggering the propellers to move. There are 4 motors on the Solar impulse.

The plane’s first leg of the journey from San Francisco to Phoenix was completed in early May and later that month it flew from Phoenix to Dallas. In June, the Solar Impulse flew from Dallas to St. Louis and made a trip to Washington in almost 30 hours of flying over two days.

Lululemon Yoga Pants

Canadian sportswear retailer Lululemon Athletica – CEO, Christine Day is stepping down after the recent problems with a line of yoga pants that were inconsiderately see through.

The Vancouver based apparel company was founded by entrepreneur Chip Wilson in 1998 has customers for its pricey yoga and running gear who involve themselves in the company‘s free yoga classes and other events. But the company suffered a setback in March and had to apparently recall 17 percent of its popular Luon black yoga pants after reports that the pants were too revealing. It was an image hit which also hindered the first quarter earnings.

Day took over as the CEO in January 2008 after a long run at Starbucks, where she held a post at their Asia Pacific group. In a statement, Day said that her leaving was a personal decision and ‘It is the right time to bring in a new CEO’. She also said ‘Plans have been laid for the next five years and a vision set for the next ten’. The company said Day would step down from her role after a successor is named.

Lululemon stock was down about 17 percent to $68.95 after hours trading following Day’s announcement resulting in a loss of over $500 million for Chip Wilson.  Sam poser equity analyst at Sterne Agee and Leach ,downgraded Lululemon to neutral from buy and cut its 12 month price target to $75 from $90.Lululemon is trading at a very high multiple  with the stock trading at 37 times current earnings  compared to the S & P 500 Retailing Index which trades 25 times earnings.

Lululemon also plans to delist its stock from the Toronto Stock Exchange on June 24^th because the low trading volume there didn’t vindicate the administrative expenses related to its listing and its stock on the NASDAQ exchange. Shares will continue to trade on NASDAQ.

Day had guided the company through a period of explosive growth and this surprise exit is seen as a blow to the company by analysts. Of late even without the see through mishap of the yoga pants recall, Lululemon was facing competition from companies like Gap’s Athleta brand. Even some of Lululemon’s loyal shoppers have accused Day of spoiling their favourite brand. Now that Day has decided to step down Lululemon finds itself in a dilemma as it searches for a new CEO. The new CEO’S focus will be on product quality issues and finding a strategy to improve and increase product offerings. The recent developments may weigh on the stock in the near term, though it’s a wait and watch situation.

Marissa-Mayer

That Yahoo Inc.’s CEO Marissa Mayer manages to stay in news again for the once-largest search engine and email services giant was again highlighted with news of the company announcing probable deletion of inactive user accounts. This policy was influenced by the need to give ‘loyal’ Yahoo email service users the opportunity to have names that they desire and not fall-back on using digits. Most times users will need to use digits from either their birth year or birth-date or auto-generated names as the ones they desired might already have been signed-up.

But the sad part in Yahoo Inc.’s case is that there is ‘unaccountable’ number of inactive accounts. Being one of the first email service providers, Yahoo Inc. had several first-generation users who signed-up for Yahoo user accounts. However, as other more sophisticated and intuitive services began to appear on the scene with Gmail, there was a tremendous fall in the number of active Yahoo users. Over time the accounts have remained unused, whereas new members desiring to use the same name had to be satisfied with adding random digits to set up an account.

Yahoo Inc.’s new CEO has attempted to alter this inherent fault-line. Most other service providers do not as a rule reuse inactive or dead user accounts. Google Inc, has already announced that it will not use deactivated user account names for security reasons. So have most of the other social networking firms as well.

Yahoo Inc. desperate to increase numbers

Marissa Mayer was drawn from the folds of Google Inc. where she had worked for several years especially in the segment of making emails more intuitive and bringing it to the format, which we currently enjoy, to turn around Yahoo Inc.’s failing revenues.

Yahoo Inc .has suffered a bad reputation on financial success. While Google Inc. stormed ahead on the business and technology innovation fronts, Yahoo Inc, despite its first-mover and technology-first status failed to forge long-term plans. The company has faltered at many a milestone and continued to fall, even as it spent enormously to acquire several innovative product companies.

With Marissa Meyers at the helm, Yahoo Inc. has begun to command considerably attention in the past few months.

Acquiring Tumblr

Apparently a phased acquisition aimed at restricting of the company, Mayers has now invested in acquiring a social blogging site known as Tumblr that has the 20s –something’ engaged for hours-on-end. So successful has Tumblr been that, the young founder of the blogging-site has now been appointed as full-incharge of the site, despite being paid over $1.1billion. In Ms.Mayer’s view, “Growth in the consumer tech industry always starts with traffic,” therefore, the attempt introduce younger user-base while at the same time shedding some of the ‘older’ non-active user base.

However, there have been no announcements on the number of accounts that will now be recycled. According to D.J.Anderson, a spokesperson for Yahoo Inc. the number of such accounts could be substantial!

Being beautiful does not make life easier

Attractiveness makes people’s lives easier or at least some people think so. In fact, that opinion is widely sympathized. What is more, there is no denying that the opinion is true as a number of studies show that attractive people are perceived as more sociable, happier and even more successful than unattractive people.  Carl Senior and Michael J.R. Butler, who generally are engaged in research on  attractiveness and its consequences, once noted: “When someone is viewed as attractive, they are often assumed to have a number of positive social traits and greater intelligence.”

But the question remains: “Where does attractiveness make people’s life easier?” The answer is rather not surprising! In many aspects of life, from having an impact on one’s social life especially finding a life partner and friends, on marks got at school to job-related issues. As we want to focus only on the professional level, please let me cite a research conducted by Sweat and colleagues. The findings of research, during which they surveyed around 500 undergraduates students, show that physical attractiveness was viewed as important while having a job interview, getting a job, retaining the job and even being promoted – so at all career-related levels! The results of the Sweat’s survey do not differ much from other studies conducted by different university centers and researchers. What it is interesting is that attractiveness can also contribute to job security, according to the several surveys.

Simply, physical attractiveness can contribute to success in most aspects of life, including professional one.

Sexiness

However, being attractive and being sexy are two different things and we should remember about that. While being perceived attractive is socially and professionally desirable, being sexy might be a reason of a more probably failure and even downfall. Therefore many try to find out where the distinction between being attractive and being sexy is.

One may think that attractiveness and sexiness is the same thing. Another may consider being sexy with overpowering strength, confidence and awareness of attractiveness. But sexiness also might be simply related to a way of dressing and make-up, not to mention other details. Or should we view sexiness as the mixture of all above?

No matter how you describe sexiness, being perceived sexy can make a person’s life more difficult in comparison to being perceived attractive. Even though the aforementioned statement might be regarded as a contradiction, the latest cases where employees have claimed that they were fired for being too sexy support the hypothesis.

Usually in those cases, namely, where a person is fired for being too sexy, the issue of dressing sexy comes out. A study, which was conducted by professor Peter Glick, shows that  dressing sexy might be the beginning of problems and can have a negative affects at workplace in particular on the higher positions. According to the findings of the survey, managers who dress sexy, or in a seductive way, are considered less intelligent and less skilled. In addition, women, who choose to wear sexy clothes, are perceived as ones that want to use their appearance and sexuality to advance professionally at the same time. Commenting on the results, Professor Peter Glick underlined: “Although various media directed toward women… encourage women to emphasize their sex appeal, our results suggest that women in high-status occupations may have to resist this siren call to obtain the respect of their co-workers.”

Below you will have a chance to learn several histories of women who were fired for being too sexy…

Debrahlee Lorenzana

The whole story starts with Debrahlee Lorenzana or at least her scandalous case is thought to be the first one regarding being fired for being too hot. A former employee of the Citibank unit in Midtown claimed that she was fired for being shamefully too sexy. According to her, two managers regularly gave an opinion on her look, stating that she was too hot. The woman mulishly underlined that she used to put on “normal business clothing” when compared to her co-workers at the office who were not been subjects of any harassment.

Her attempts of being less sexy, including wearing no make-up, fell through. Not agreeing to play a victim any longer, Debrahlee Lorenzana decided to take some legal steps against her  former employer. In the lawsuit, she stated that her superiors firmly noted that “as a result of the shape of her figure, such clothes were purportedly ‘too distracting’ for her male colleagues and supervisors to bear.”

The terms of the amicable settlement were not made public, however, the case did not go Debrahlee Lorenzana’s way as a Citibank spokesperson highlighted that the company did not pay her anything after all.

The case of Debrahlee Lorenzana, which has  generated undeniably interest, shows that someone might be fired for being too sexy. What is interesting is that the case also shows that there are no typical sexual-harassment lawsuits! Undeniably, Debrahlee Lorenzana has given other people courage to say their stories!

Laura Odes

It may come as no surprise that another New Yorker, Laura Odes, made an allegation that she lost her position for being too sexy as well. Furthermore, Laura Odes, who worked as a production assistant at Native Intimates owned by the Orthodox Jewish partners, underlined that she was sacked for being too hot not because of her professional performance, similar to Debrahlee Lorenzana.

According to her, bosses made inappropriate marks on her looks, including recommending tapping down her breasts. She firmly highlighted: “When I was first told that I was too hot and that my breasts were too large, I was shocked. I thought that I was dressed appropriately every day for my job as a production assistant.” As she tried to adjust to her employers’ demands, she used different kind of clothes, yet nothing was appropriate for them. She even decided to wear a bathrobe as it was recommended by them, yet she felt uncomfortable and her co-workers made fun of her. Breaking silence, she added:  “I felt ridiculous and extremely embarrassed, others in the office were laughing and asking why I was wearing it and I told them what I was told.”

Thus it pushed her to take action; she filed a federal complaint and filed a lawsuit alleging gender and religious discrimination.

Amit Kajla

But the fact is that one might be sacked also from the government-run firm as well. Amit Kajla is an example that the appearance can have a negative impact on work for public authorities as she was fired for being too sexy for her position, namely, prison officer.

At the workplace, she faced many improper suggestions and behaviors, from being told that “Miss, you look sexy” and being called “a stupid girl” to being chided for wearing heavy make-up.

She filed a lawsuit and she won.

Mellisa Nelson

The story of dental assistant Melissa Nelson is also very similar to the aforementioned ones as she lost her just because she was too sexy. And she decided to file a complaint. Yet she faced another failure as the lawsuit did not end successfully. What is interesting is the fact that the dental assistant was fired after 10 years of service as her employer found her alluring.

Finding her alluring, the boss felt need to protect his marriage, thereby firing Melissa Nelson.

Interestingly, the Iowa Supreme Court found the dentist not guilty as he acted on the right side of the laws when he decided to terminate the “co-operation”. The court underlined that Melissa Nelson  did not loss her job because of her gender, but because she posed a threat to the marriage of her boss despite the fact that the two had never been intimate. Melissa Nelson found the ruling unjust, stating: “I think it is completely wrong. I think it is sending a message that men can do whatever they want in the work force.”

Being too sexy, too bad

Being attractive helps in many aspects of life, but being too sexy might be the beginning of problems. It is not easy to fight with all stereotypes revolving around the gender. Being too sexy makes a person’s professional life hard.

Yet there is certainly a difference between being too sexy and trying to be sexy. As for the first case, a person cannot do too much with it as it is simply perceived that way not because of her/ his clothing. As for the second case, trying to be too sexy makes a person look less professional.

All the above examples show that you can be fired for being too hot!

iphone 5 IOS 7

At WWDC 2013, Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook did what this technology giant has always been famous for- setting the industry standards – from presentation to the slew of software updates and revamps, new service products for their top of the line desktop and mobile operating systems.

The new features include a complete overhaul of the operating system with the latest iOS 7, and host of intuitive products such as MapApps to the brand new iTunes Radio.

In more ways than one, WWDC 2013, proved to be a display of strength for Apple Inc.’s top-brass as there was no new iPhone or iPad announced. The only major highlight was iOS 7 and iRadio.

Tim Cook was also pleased to announce the successful completion of five years of their app store that now has over 900, 000 apps, 575 million store accounts accounting for 50 billion downloads and an annual payment of $10 billion to the developers.

Tim Cook debuts iOS 7

In his keynote address, Tim Cook presented the brand new iOS 7. Later a live demo showcased the aesthetically designed iOS that is positively wonderful. Slew of multitasking features geared for app utility, such as accessing an app in the background of a push notification.

However, most Apple fans were disappointed that Tim Cook and team chose to only redesign the OS and not look beyond it considering that 2013 is well-into post-PC era.

Craig Federighi on OS X Mavericks

Senior Vice President of Software Engineering at Apple Inc, Craig Federighi, presented the new OS X Mavericks, the latest version of desktop operating system. Key features include advanced organizational features and most interestingly all Finder Windows can now be tabbed. A ‘Tag’ feature has also been included to help in better organization of files.

However, OS X Mavericks will be available only by autumn, this year.

Safari, Apple Inc.’s own browser is also tweaked to consume less energy, beating its competitors’: Google Inc.’s Chrome browser, as well as Mozilla Foundation’s Firefox browser.

In the WWDC keynote, the Maps App too was showcased. The app will include several features such as street maps, turn-by-turn instructions as well as point-of-interest searches. Interestingly, Yelp reviews are available for information. Besides, with OTA integration users can now send info to iCal as well as iOS devices and interact with Notification and Maps.

iTune Radios

In the long run-up to the WWDC 2013, there was much anticipation about Apple Inc. introducing a radio service. And Apple Inc. did not fail to deliver on user needs with their iTunes Radio. The service is currently in the free-to-use app category and will earn revenues through ads on mobile devices- iPhones, iPads as well as Apple TV.

Recent IDC reports demonstrate Samsung Electronics stranglehold on smartphone and tablet market space at 33-percent, while Apple Inc. struggles at 18-percent. Investors’ expectations are high that Apple Inc. will introduce innovative products that would ensure the company returned to its earlier profit-making ways.

NSA

It is now the turn of the three internet technology giants – Microsoft Corp., Google Inc., Facebook Inc. to go on the offensive against the relentless criticism that they have been facing for being willing partners in providing personal information to the National Security Agency.

All of the three companies have issued open letters to the United States Department of Justice, seeking to establish that they have only ’obliged’ to the role of revealing data they possess within the limits of law and have not provided unlimited access to their databases.

Credibility in question

All the three companies – Microsoft Corp., Google Inc. , Facebook Inc. as well as Twitter have drawn a lot of flak from their users and have hit the nadir on public confidence. Most users are skeptical of the fact, that service providers such as these companies cannot be trusted any more as they will be in-support of government policies on security and anti-terrorism and will not be able to protect personal privacy of their users.

According news from one of the original parties that investigated National Security Agency’s PRISM program, the arrangement was very similar to the popular cloud-based service provider ‘DropBox’ system. The National Security Agency would copy from the servers of technology companies those of the legally requested files. Most of the technology companies involved viz, Microsoft Corp. ,Google Inc. and Facebook Inc. are now seeking refuge on this technicality and are claiming that they are not ‘directly or indirectly’ involved providing personal data bytes.

Google Inc. issues open legal letter

One of the earliest letters addressed to the United States Justice Department, showcasing their role in the PRISM program by National Security Agency was presented by Google Inc.’s Chief Legal Officer David Drummond thus: “Assertions in the press that our compliance with these requests gives the U.S. government unfettered access to our users’ data are simply untrue.”

This letter by the search engine giants’ legal head was immediately followed by an email by Microsoft Corp. Their statement underlined that, “Permitting greater transparency on the aggregate volume and scope of national security requests.”

The final letter of open appeal to the United states Justice Department came from Facebook Inc.’s general counsel Ted Ullyot: “We urge the United States government to help make that possible by allowing companies to include information about the size and scope of national security requests we receive, and look forward to publishing a report that includes that information.”

Along with these open appeals, Google Inc.’s spokeperson has also disclosed that, Google Inc. has always used a secure File Transfer Protocol and has not allowed the government agency to personally pull any files from their servers. The company has also admitted that they have also provided some of the files personally to the department.

All the involved technology companies are seeking permission from the government to place on public domain the requests placed by the agency. This is probably the only public action the companies can attempt to vindicate themselves from the strict protocol and rules under which they have to operate when National Security Agency is involved.

Waze App

Though, there remains no ambiguity about Google Inc’s acquisition of the navigation tool- Waze App, which is owned by Noam Bardin, the CEO and developer of the navigation app, it may unsuspectingly put Google Inc into some legal trouble.

Trade analysts, analysing the entire saga of Waze App acquisition, have this to stay: Google as a strong player in the search-engine segment, by acquiring Waze navigation tool to further beef its own navigation tool, Google Maps may unwittingly violate a provision of Clayton Act. According to experts, Clayton Act in the context of mergers strongly outlines that, “the effect of such mergers … may be substantially to lessen competition, or to tend to create a monopoly.” Antitrust cannot at all times prevent monopolization believe many laws effective both in the US and the European Union.

In fact, analysts believe that Google Inc. would monopolize the online navigation segment due Google acquisition of Waze App was largely founded on Waze App CEO’s comments at the recently held AllThingsD conference: “We feel that we’re the only reasonable competition to [Google] in this market of creating maps that are really geared for mobile, for real-time, for consumers — for the new world that we’re moving into.”

Google Maps is big on Desktops, Waze App on mobiles

Though, there is huge community that is quick to object considering that Google Maps is largely confined to desktop based search, while Waze App was built for the mobile platform.

However, internet and company law pundits point out that Google already holds 92% of the online ad segment and has made substantial forays into mobile advertising real estate as well through it various tiny ads.

Examples of monopoly from public carrier networks like AT&Tand T-Mobile merger too can be considered when evaluating Google acquisition of Waze App. Legal analysts argue that the merger may draw the attention of The Department of Justice as Google Inc’s online advertising is one of the largest in the industry as is the case with online mapping as well.

Waze App data-collection technique

Additionally, analysts believe that the user-based navigation data that drives the Waze App is suspect. Primary cause of worry is, if the user community were to subside or if there was a fall in the number of data instances coming-in, say in reference to accidents or traffic-jams, the app would typically fail to deliver on the promised services. The entire functionality of the App would be suspect, believe analysts. Essentially, Waze App support free baseline navigation and this has helped the app community grow over the past half-decade to 45 million users. The immense number of users have helped the App gain value and a fair-commodity for acquisition by established companies. Waze App’s Noam Bian has said that initial talks with FaceBook had failed before his company seriously studied integrating with Google Inc.

If Google acquisition of Waze App is successful then there is a possibility that it could raise the alarm among anti-trust lobbyists again!

Edward_Snowden

As news of the US government premier security agency National Security Agency (NSA) broke, public criticism and resentment against Obama Administration has become more vocal across platforms. Public outrage against the privacy intrusion by Obama Administration has compelled the President, Barack Obama, to defend the surveillance program that was leaked by a government contractor, turned whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Snowden had apparently leaked the government directive to technology companies seeking quarterly updates of user database.

’PRISM’ is the acronym for a government program that allows NSA ‘warrantless’ opportunity for surveillance of citizens to gain intelligence on ‘terrorist-activities.’  The program has given the agency free run to seek records of private citizens’ activities across media: internet, social networking sites, and phone calls from – carriers and service providers.

Whistleblower Edward Snowden puts Obama on the defensive

In his interview to reporters from Guardian, Edward Snowden underlined that, NSA infrastructure is allowed to “intercept emails, passwords, phone records, credit cards … I do not want to live in a world where everything I do and say is recorded.”

Prior to President Obama’s reiteration of the same intelligence techniques he had scathing ridiculed during his Presidential campaign in 2008, a White  House spokesperson had stated that, the current program was updated from pa 2004 cyber operations policy by Obama Administration and takes into consideration considerable evolution of cyber threats. She reiterated that all procedures adopted by the surveillance program were in consistence with the US Constitution.

However well Obama Administration is able to defend itself and establish that their processes are entirely dictated for ‘security’ and not as a privacy intrusion tool, it has laid threadbare the National Security Agency’s ‘infrastructure’ that allows it operate without warrant.

Tech Giants struggle to establish credibility

Despite various attempts by the White House and Obama Administration at damage control, the technology giants at Silicon Valley are in deep trouble. Though their individual privacy policies do state that under Government Orders, information about users will be provided, the large-scale proportions by which it has been infringed upon has caught many by surprise.

Though, top-ranking technology companies – FaceBook, Google, Verizon and Microsoft – are in denial of providing direct access to their data servers. Neither, do the technology companies deny that third-parties could be using data they hold online was mined for information.

Google’s CEO Larry Page, has reiterated that his company provides data of only those requests that it has individually reviewed and is not a party to privacy intrusion.

Typically, Google, Verizon and Apple, announce on a regular basis the government requests placed for data. However, none of these reports have included the type of requests made by NSA, in continuation of the agency’s policy that such requests cannot be placed on public domain.

PRISM-gate has indeed opened the gates to further criticism of Obama Administration and the conniving role of technology companies. Users are critical of the disclosure methods adopted by these technology companies and public carriers in disposing of personal data either directly to government security agencies or to third parties.

World without car accidents is possible

in the days of Robert Houdin.”

David Copperfield

About 150 years ago, no one did imagine cars. These days no one imagines lives without them. But with omnipresent cars, we have to face the growing number of accidents. Truth be told, accident statistics are inexorable. And if you think that fatal accidents are caused only by drunk or drugged drivers, you are simply mistaken.

The fact is that we are more afraid of a plane crush than a car accident. Yet taking into consideration data, we should keep in mind that we have a better chance to die in a car accident, no doubt about that. Even though many of us are also convinced about their luck, some individuals, however, have religious symbols such as rosaries or statues of different gods in their cars. This means nothing else that they believe that God, whatever one they believe in, can help them avoid an accident. Not going in the sociological and religious details, the fear of accident accompanies almost most of us and this is something completely natural.

Now, imagine yourself living in a world without car accidents. Probably you think that it is something unimaginable or even unrealistic. Nothing further from the truth, just look at examples from the past when people did not imagine cars, planes, computers, etc. Humankind, however, desires development which also brings the better quality of life. Therefore we should not be surprised that many companies as well as individuals have dedicated their work to developing technology and methods which will eliminate car accidents. The world without accidents is nothing unrealistic, it is simply within reach. It is for the asking as so many institutions and companies have been working hard to make a dream come true.

Talking cars – Jennifer Healey

Talking cars probably ring the bell, hmm? But try to forget about this cartoon showing crazily colorful cars which can talk. The idea of talking cars, which in its basics assumes that it will prevent us from taking part in car accidents, is not a new one. It has been developed by many companies and research institutions.

Indeed, this dream is within reach as Jennifer Healey, who is a scientist at Intel Corporation Research Labs, notes that we are in possession of  proper technology to achieve it. She believes in talking cars which will be able to share the important data with each other, thereby bringing the road safety. It is important to note what she once stated: “You can’t really sense the world around you. You’re in this extended body. You’re tasked with navigating it down roadways in and amongst other metal giants at superhuman speeds. And all you have to guide you are your two eyes.”

Therefore Jennifer Healey calls attention to the fact that with advanced patterns and developed algorithms, we can predict situations that might just happen. Yet the most important is the willingness to share data, without this readiness, all estimations will be incomplete and  technology will not work.

Talking cars indeed might be a revolutionary change, taking into account that people and their senses are imperfect also while sitting in a “glass bubble.”

The idea of talking cars is not new at all and what is even more interesting is the fact that in some parts of the world this technology is being tested.

All these tests confirm that the idea is not taken only from the science-fiction movies, that it has strong theoretical and practical foundations. Undeniably, one of big supporters of the idea of talking cars and at the same time an opponent of science-fiction connotations is Mike Shulman, technical leader for Ford Active Safety Research and Innovation, who once underlined: “Mostly, the cars will be sending messages to each other and people won’t even know about it except on the rare occasions when they need a warning or help understanding what’s going on around their vehicle.”

No doubt that talking cars are within reach as we should just look at the possibility of broader usage of Wi-Fi which would add  a new quality to jam accident-prevention technology, thereby strengthening the road safety.

Is anyone at wheel?

Self-driving cars seemed also unrealistic. But these days we can say that they are reality which materialized from science- fiction movies from the 60s and 70s of twentieth century. And what is more, they do not just exist as models standing in the garages but they appear on roads.

Undeniably, tech companies are much interested in developing self-driving cars as they would also decrease significantly the risks of accidents. But the idea of self-driving cars includes the idea of the talking cars itself, yet excludes the need of a human at wheel.

The most known self-driving car is one produced by Google Inc., but it does not mean that other carmakers are not investing in this “science-fiction” project, just to mention BMW or Audi. But self-driving cars will not only increase the road safety, but they will also enable disabled individuals to enjoy what they have lost – “the joy of driving”.

Before the era of self-driving cars starts, we should however be willing to share data which is so important to creating talking cars. Without question, self-driving cars will be a continuation of  the idea of intelligent and talking cars as well as a natural expansion of current driver aids such as lane-keeping systems, auto-parking feature, GPS. We have technology, but we still have to enhance software which will be responsible for processing all data to steer a car.

It seems that Google Inc. is on the right path or even close to perfection (if perfection even exists) as back in late 2012, the company informed that its self-driving vehicles logged around 300,000 miles without a single accident. This result is enviable.

As it has been already mentioned, not only Google Inc. can take pride in its project of a self-driving car. Also BMW AG has shared news about its BMW i3 with the wider public. According to the German carmaker, its new jim dandy was able to drive itself in stop-go traffic.  With all these advances, we might say with all certainty that in a few years we will witness emergence of self-driving cars. But with this emergence, also we will witness changes in many other dimensions starting with car designs, institution of car ownership and ending with urban planning – nothing to sneeze at.

Inevitable changes on the road

Since its beginning, the auto industry has been the lifeblood of innovation and economic growth. With new innovations springing up like a mushroom, it is inevitable that the auto industry will see a quality change as a new tech revolution is knocking at door. When it comes to a revolution in the auto industry, we all think about intelligent and self-driving cars. These might have looked unrealistic 30 years ago, but new technology can indeed help us avoiding car accidents, thereby saving potentially thousands of live each year.

The implementation of all new innovations aimed at creating talking and self-driving cars will, without a doubt, reshape not only the auto industry but the everyday life aspects, including transportation infrastructure, the way how carmakers compete, designs of the future cities.

We should be prepared for these revolutionary changes as we will witness them not in a distant future. It is not science fiction any more as it is becoming a reality.

Apple Inc. to launch iRadio

Apple Inc. has begun a new program in continuation to its earlier programs to offer latest models to loyal users. Most analysts believe it is also a step to counter the Samsung Electronics Co.’s deluge of latest smartphones and devices.

Interestingly, the giant is expected to begin its new offer: trade older versions of iPhones in exchange for newer models; as it thinks that it might help it win bigger market share. Brightstar Corp., which has already performed such services for many of the national carriers such as AT & T as well as T-Mobile, is going to come to the iPhone maker’s rescue. However, there is no official announcement of such an exchange offer and it is only industry experts who are privy to such future offers. It is expected that the new iPhones will debut at $49 without a contract with any wireless carrier and also the storage size of the individual devices.

Some analysts also add greater significance to the likely exchange offer in view of the recent US trade panel ruling that older CDMA network iPhones are found to infringe on certain ‘standard-issue patents’ and cannot be sold within the country. However, this ruling is yet to come into effect and will have to wait for the President Obama’s final review.

But there are concerns over Apple’s future in the US markets. The fact is that Samsung Electronics Co. is getting stronger and stronger as it has grabbed nearly a smartphone market share of 31 percent  in the first quarter this year, according to reports from Gartner.  Considering the ruling by the US trade panel did stop sales of Apple Inc.’s most popular segment: iPhone 4, iPhone 3Gs, it would mean a loss of nearly $3.4 billion, according to estimates conducted by Piper Jaffray. Interestingly, iPhone 5 is expected to sell to a much larger US market and earn approximately $14.9 billion.

Apple Inc. mulls launch of iRadio

Unaffected by developments in the US market space, technology analysts believe that Apple Inc. will finally launch its ad-running radio service. Called iRadio by industry experts, this service will be modelled along Pandora’s model and Spotify.

Though Apple Inc. has been serious discussions with many premium music publishers and distributors, it has been unable to strike a deal as they are expecting higher revenues on every record.  It appears that Apple Inc. will have to reach a decision soon because Google Inc. has already rushed ahead and launched its own Spotified-music offering called ‘Google Play Music All Access,’ matching Spotify’s price of $9.99 per month. Pandora, on the other hand, has already introduced a cap on the number of hours – restricting to 40 hours of unpaid much. Beyond this, a subscription of modest $3.99 is charged, matching Spotify on the price and capping on the number of hours users can listen in a month.

Following the quick-changes in online music scenario, with Google Inc.’s debut and Apple’s likely chances of making an entry and a rise in its own subscription rates, Pandora’s shares were found to fall by 17 percent in the first week of June 2013.

Furthermore, Apple’s ‘iRadio’ is expected to earn profits largely from its ‘iAD’ or Ad-based selling of music. Mobile ads by Apple Inc. are already raking in high revenue for the technology company.

NSA's headquarters

It came as a shocker to many US citizens when news bytes surfaced early on the 6^th of June that the respected National Security Agency had unbridled powers to access private calls, emails, online chat content, documents and other data.

It is believed that  the National Security Agency has engaged in a broad-spectrum of surveillance programs that allowed the creation a ‘database’ on foreigners’ activities and communications within the country and overseas. Analysts are strongly convinced that the agency had direct access to user- database of leading phone carriers in the country as well as technology giants’ social networking sites.

The involved technology firms , including Microsoft Corp., Facebook Inc., Skype, Google Inc., YouTube or Apple Inc., and the public cellular phone carriers such as Verizon or AT&T have strongly negated information that they provided the premier security agency with ‘direct access’.

Called the PRISM high-security surveillance program, former associates of National Security Agency do concur that the program has been in effect following the warrantless, blanket – surveillance orders issued under President Bush’s, post the terrorist attacks  of September/11.

Though all of the technology companies are in strong denial of the existence of such laws that allowed unsupervised access to individual companies’ user base, those within the organization and its associates are of the strong belief National Security Agency does have access to said records user database. Facebook’s Chief Security Officer underlined: “When Facebook is asked for data or information about specific individuals, we carefully scrutinise any such request for compliance with all applicable laws, and provide information only to the extent required by law.” The official spokesman for Google Inc. too offered similar arguments and denied providing the government with a ‘back door’ entry to their systems.

However, Microsoft Corp. stepped out of line, underlining that it was following court orders that the company had to provide customer data.

There was one statement issued by one of the senior most intelligence officials in the US that PRISM did not target US citizens located natively. He clarified that it was a routine process to collate ‘valuable intelligence’ that helped the National Security Agency to protect is the nation from several types of threats.

Fresh protests against privacy intrusion likely

Citizen forums and civil liberty organizations are expected to protest against the increase in citizen surveillance, considering that President Obama in his 2008 campaign strongly opposed it.

Former Vice President Al Gore ridiculed the program as ‘secret blanket surveillance,’ and is the lone politician to protest. Almost every senior politician has stood up for the ‘surveillance’ activities of the premier security agency.

Post the expose, most with the knowledge of the National Security Agencies operational techniques believe that the PRISM program has had a long run of nearly seven years (sic!). What is interesting, but not surprising at all, most analysts within the security–related network believe that the procedure was begun during the President George W Bush’s regime and President Barack Obama continued with the program in due considerations of ‘national security threats’.

Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd

The report of the parliament’s intelligence and security committee was surely not a thing that was expected by the UK government which will certainly have to excuse its oversights regarding the Huawei-BT deal.  Moreover, the report clearly underlined that there were many procedural mistakes while granting the access to British communications network to the Chinese company, including not providing ministers with necessary information about the plans. The committee also highlighted that the UK authorities did not waive the obligation to probe the apparatuses employed in British networks by Huawei Technologies Co., thereby significantly increasing a threat to the national security.

A string of allegations

Undeniably, the report, which was issued by the intelligence and security committee, is saturated with allegations. Members of the respected body included many questions regarding the links between Huawei Technologies Co. and the state of China, including the military forces. The main concern included in the report revolved around the officials’ negligence as proper ministers were not provided with information on use of Huawei’s apparatuses and the contract signed by the Chinese company and BT Group Plc. Interestingly, many countries, including Australia,  had had a feeling of general apprehension when it came to the issue of relation between Huawei Technologies Co. and the state of China. Therefore it boils down to a question of the level of the national security.

The findings of the report indicated that the officials did demonstrate no responsibility through their actions as the UK government received required information about the deal in 2006 (sic!). The respected committee firmly underlined in its report: “Such a sensitive decision, with potentially damaging ramifications, should have been put in the hands of ministers,” adding: “The failure … to consult ministers seems to indicate a complacency which was extraordinary given the seriousness of the issue.”

As the Huawei-BT case indicated that the country might be facing security threats, the committed underlined the need for updating the procedures. The reason of security threats is trivial and revolves around a lack of precision in the procedures regarding responsibility and powers of the authorities. Therefore these issues should be resolved so that no contract would pose a threat to the UK national security.

Furthermore, the committee noted that the Huawei-BT deal might pose a threat to the UK national security, taking into account that the Asian dragon had been suspected of backing hacking attacks for a long time. Therefore it is not surprising at all, the ostensible links between Huawei Technologies Co. and the state of China have raised numerous questions over the real purposes of the company’s contracts with many companies, including the British one.

It may come as no surprise that the committee also underlined that telecommunications systems had been always in the sphere of interest of other countries. The issue is that the UK government, however, has not done anything to minimize the risk.

Strong assertions about good intentions

Predictably, Huawei Technologies Co., which is the world’s second biggest telecom gear producer, has given strong assertions that it does not receive any financial support from the Chinese authorities and that there are no links between the company and the China’s government. Certainly, all statements made by the committee might have an impact on the company’s contracts with BT Group Plc itself, not to mention other firms as well. Thus the company’s officials assured that the firm has been fully dedicated to the cyber security.

Without a doubt, all allegations included in the report might also have a further negative impact on the UK-China trading relation, taking into account the risk of trade war between the Asian dragon and the European Union strengthened. Therefore the Chancellor George Osborne‘s declaration that the UK wanted to continue with blossoming trading relations between both countries was also widely expected by analysts.

US net worth improved in Q1

It seems that after all US households are getting stronger as newest findings indicated that they got out of the financial crisis woods. As total net worth of US households for the first quarter pleasantly surprised, we should remember that this positive trend was driven by a stronger real estate segment and improving stock market as well. Yet analysts note that many low and middle class households do not feel any improvement at all, facing increasing problems.

Surprising data on household wealth

On the 6^th of June, the Federal Reserve issued its data on the total value of US households in the first quarter, indicating that the country recorded a new record. According to the figures, net worth of US households stood at $70.3 trillion in the first quarter and it was an advancement of 4.5 percent, concurrently significantly exceeding approximately $68 trillion accumulated in 2007.

To understand the significance of the achievement, we should remind ourselves that US household total wealth slumped drastically to approximately $48.9 trillion in the first three months of 2009 from around $68 trillion recorded at the end of 2007. Thus the recent improvement has been welcomed with a sigh of relief.

The findings released by the Federal Reserve indicated that the advancement in net worth was driven by gains in assets and decreases in financial obligations as well. Commenting on the figures, analysts underline that there was a visible trend of declining debt as US households remained in fact more careful when it came to dispensing their money. However, this, on the other hand, disappointingly hindered the economic advancement.

While the US saw total net worth of households jump in the given period, there are other positive trends that added to brighter picture of the US economy. In fact. Americans are more optimistic about the economy and they notice upward trends as well.

Still not too colorful

Along with this bright picture of US household wealth and more optimistic Americans, there is also a picture of people who were included in the category of lower-income and people who dropped from the category of house owners into the category of renters, thereby changing the image of the American society. US men in the street cannot allow themselves to purchase shares, not to mention real estate. Another problem, which is faced by averages Jones, is the high unemployment rate which stands at approximately 7.5 percent.

Interestingly, according to the estimates of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, average household wealth, which includes the value of assets such as real estate, stocks, hedge funds, etc. minus liabilities, stood at slightly over $539,000 at the end of 2012. What is more important is the fact the institution stressed in the report: “Most families have recovered much less than the average amount.”

Analysts are strongly convinced that declines in debt would continue to hinder country’s economic growth, indicating that the US is likely to experience a schizophrenic situation of having more wealth accommodated while witnessing harsh economic conditions at the same time.

Indeed, the US economy does not give unequivocal signs about its condition. The fact is that lower and middle class households have been struggling and and it seems that they have not witnessed any improvement since the financial apocalypse emerged.

BlackBerry returns to roots with physical keyboard

Since the beginning, RIM has been intuitive of function features that its users would expect on their much-loved smartphone BlackBerry. True to form, despite the slew of disappointments in the past few years, the BlackBerry maker has persisted in introducing changes to the latest model of smartphone the Q10. This model is the second in the series to run on the latest version of the proprietary operating system called Q10 and has brought along a physical keyboard for use.

Much loved BBM Qwerty-keyboard

RIM has from the first model included hugely ergonomic Qwerty-keyset on its smartphone sets. Given that BlackBerry had huge adoption by enterprises for its proprietary data security and in-messaging between BlackBerry owners, keyboard was a necessary feature it stuck to despite competitor models switching to touch-based screens.

Recognizing that many users are simply more comfortable with the tactile appeal, swiftness and the accuracy of pushbuttons, RIM has included the physical keyboard in its latest model. Speaking on the reasons for adopting the physical model, Frank Boulben, chief marketing officer at RIM, commented: “We’re convinced there is a significant segment of the market who prefers to have a physical keyboard, We want to continue to serve that segment.”

Additionally, to remain relevant to its touch-based user segment, RIM has smartly included the touch-based features as well. Essentially the Q10 is a hybrid model that incorporates the physical keyboard as well as a 3.1 inch touchscreen.

Loads of features

BlackBerry has ensured that most of the other features appeal to the entire cross-section of consumers and has included several of the popular social media network apps- Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Foursquare as well as YouTube. A noteworthy feature of this new model is the BlackBerry Hub – nothing to sneeze at. This is of great importance in the user experience, given that most of the home buttons are no longer available and only swipes would help in navigation. Furthermore, the Blackberry Hub would operate as a central location where all of the apps from emails, chats, phone calls can all operate without having to be closed out to access the next.

Pew study on smartphone user demographic

What’s more, the findings presented by the respected Pew Research Center indicated that nearly 56 percent of American adults had smartphones which was not shocking at all. Of these there are two distinct groups of smartphone users – with staggering 81 percent of young adults aged 20 to 34 years owning smartphones. Besides, a significant percentage of Americans in 40-50 age groups were found to own a smartphone. The report also found that there was even a intriguing split between the numbers of US users who used iPhones and Android smartphones. Interestingly, the report also found that BlackBerry had lost much of its previous clout and had only 4 percent of cellphone-owning US adults used BlackBerry devices.

Taking cognizance of the reports and similar industry studies, the BlackBerry maker appears to be righting the wrong and including features that appeal to its user base. The BlackBerry 10 Operating System is expected to turn the company to better results and touting a keyboard it is a question of time before BlackBerry is back in the reckoning.

Samsung Galaxy S4 Active expected to be a hit

For Samsung Galaxy S series phone users there is a surprise. Slated to be a rugged model -Samsung Galaxy S4 Active, smartphone technology analysts predict that it will compete against the recently launched Sony Xperia Z which has been hyped for its water-resistant features.

Sony Corp., the maker of the Sony Xperia Z and Sony Xperia ZR, in January 2013 launched these two top-of-the-line smartphones with never-before features on Android OS and persisted with their typical larger screen display size. Comparatively, Samsung Galaxy S4 Active does not have as big screen display as its Sony’s rivals.  Yet Samsung Galaxy S4 Active glories in the Galaxy Samsung S series function feature already familiar to the earlier model. A highlight on the Galaxy Active S4 is the incorporation of ‘gloved’-hand touch screen operations.

Tech Specs

Not surprisingly, the Galaxy S4 Active will run on widely-known Jelly Bean ( Android 4.2.2 version),  but the new electronic gadget will also include the entire spectrum of advanced features, just to mention TouchWiz interface- popular for its Air View, Air Gesture, Smart Scroll, Smart Pause, besides eminent S-Health and reputable S-Translator.

Without question, the Samsung Galaxy S4 Active will catch the eye with the display screen technology and its unique water-resistant factor. However, Samsung Electronics Co. has not included the Super AMOLED panel screen on the Samsung Active S4 model and substituted it with a TFT LCD model that is better for underwater image capturing. Additionally, the camera too is downgraded to 8 MP from the 13MP that was the hallmark of the earlier model. The model will also include internal memory of 16GB which can be increased to 64GB with a microSD.

Besides, it measures a tad thicker at places – 9.1mm in comparison to 7.9mm on the Samsung Galaxy S4, weighs 20gms more than Samsung Galaxy S4 at 151gms. What is interesting is the fact that the same processor 1.9 GHz quad-processor, which is used by Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphones,  is also employed in this water-proof and dust-proof model. Additionally, it has the same batter capacity like the earlier model but the battery may not be removable in this case given the underwater use.

Caught Analysts Interest

A fact that is of great interest to industry analysts is the comparative performance of the aqua-models that have debuted in the last few months – besides Sony models which were launched in January 2013, Nokia also introduced a rugged model and in June Samsung much hyped Galaxy S4 Active. The Galaxy S4 model has already become very popular and Sony Xperia Z is already making interesting in-roads in the US market.  The Galaxy Active S4 is expected to run a close second to Sony Xperia Z in the US where it will debut this summer. It is worth mentioning that analysts believe that it would be tough for Sony Corp. to find a high-end carrier for Sony Xperia Z model and is likely to struggle in comparison to Samsung Galaxy S4 Active.

Samsung Electronics Co.  is expected to launch its water-proof Galaxy S4 Active model in three colors- grey, orange and blue, but has not divulged the price tag yet.

The end of era of onshore wind farms in the UK

A new guidance is indeed a revolutionary move of the UK government as the authorities aim to bolster onshore wind energy projects. But the new guidance, which will give local communities of England a voice and power to block these onshore initiatives, might lead to the end of onshore wind farm era. Even though the government will try to sweeten the possibility of a window with view of wind turbines with money, residents might be not in favor of wind farms as these facilities often roil outstanding landscapes and disrupt peaceful lives.

Bringing positive revolution?

On the 6^th of June, the UK government is to officially announce new planning guidance which will certainly bring revolutionary changes in the segment of wind farms. It may come as no surprise that analysts cannot agree whether these changes will have positive or negative effects on this segment of renewable energy sector.

According to the new planning guidance which is to be announced on the 6^th of June, residents will have a significant voice when it comes to deciding whether to give the green light to an onshore wind farm project or not. Therefore analysts note that it is a momentous change in onshore wind energy policy of the UK government. To encourage local communities to be more positive about these renewable energy facilities, the British authorities have decided to increase compensations to communities which would host wind farms. Undeniably, a five-fold increase in the community benefit payments might be a tidbit for many communities. However, some analysts underline that this increase might also lead to the situation when many projects become uneconomic, thereby leading to a decline in construction of onshore wind farms.

According to RenewableUK’s estimates, communities will received staggering £150 million over the next two decades from projects which have not entered the construction phase yet. A payment, which would stand at average £100,000 per year from a midsize onshore facility, might be used in different ways starting with reimbursing eco-friendly programs and ending with backing other local developments.

Commenting on the new guidance, Edward Davey, who serves as Energy Secretary, underlined: “It is important that onshore wind is developed in a way that is truly sustainable – economically, environmentally and socially – and today’s announcement will ensure that communities see the windfall from hosting developments near to them, not just the wind farm”. But the fact is that this revolutionary guidance will give local communities a better negotiating position while in talks with councils.

The end of wind farm era

However, there are also those analysts who speak against the new guidance as they believe that locals will lead to the end of wind farm era in the UK. They argue that high payments are not the most efficient way of luring local communities and encouraging them to be more positive about hosting wind farms and their wind turbines. Moreover, they are convinced that these higher payments will make projects uneconomic. Thus many projects might not even be initiated, leading to the end of wind farm era.

The fact is that the UK government has already noticed an alarming trend in the wind farm segment as licenses for these facilities in England have slumped significantly, adding to signs that the end of onshore wind farms is slowly knocking at the door.

Tesco Plc disappoints with its sales for Q1

There are gloomy days behind retail giant Tesco Plc and there are dismal days ahead of it as the company saw its sales slump around 1 percent on a like-for-like basis in the quarter ended May 25. But not only UK sales made Tesco dizzy as it had to face facts that its world expansion was undeniably challenged as well. With the ongoing £1 billion turnaround plan, Tesco Plc has to get a grip on itself if it wants to see changes.

Tesco’s unsatisfactory quarter

Words of Tesco CEO Philip Clarke that the retail giant is “on track” might sound either funny or like a spell. Yet the reality is far from his words as Tesco Plc recorded a 1 percent slump in its UK sales on a like-for-like basis in the quarter ended May 25.

Certainly, the infamous horsemeat scandal had an immense impact on the results recorded in the United Kingdom. But the fact is that the company suffered the slump also because of disappointing non-food trade as there was weak demand for these products. But sales are in general weak as the retail giant has been reducing its involvement in electronic devices, etc.

However, Tesco Plc might be satisfied with its results recorded in Scotland where it saw its sales climb around 0.5 percent, the fastest growth pace in approximately 3 years.

But the fact is that the retail giant should be also concerned about its worldwide expansion which is significantly challenged. According to the figures released by Tesco Plc, the company saw its sales in China dive around 5 percent in the three-month period ended May. But this drop is not as much alarming as a slump of approximately 15.5 percent which was recorded in Turkey. As for the whole Asia, sales decreased approximately 3.8 percent due to weak demand in China and work-related constraints implemented by the South Korean government.

Not surprisingly at all, Tesco Plc witnessed a 5.5 drop in its European markets as they were still struggling with harsh economic conditions. Furthermore, the results were indeed depressing as the company’s two overseas markets saw growth in the three-month period ended May.

Turnaround plan or a big joke?

All aforementioned figures questioned the efficiency of the £1 billion turnaround plan which was implemented in April 2012. Yet Philip Clarke, chief executive officer at Tesco Plc, continues to underline that the strategy has started bearing fruits. He has highlighted that the slumps were normal outcomes of the introduction of the turnaround plan as the company had started to focus more on “higher margin products”, including clothes.

However, investors seem not to be very faithful believers in the Tesco’s turnaround plan. The fact is that Tesco Plc brings poor and disappointing results, compared to its rivals. The figures for May were unrelenting as Tesco saw its total sales increased modest 0.5 percent while Sainsbury’s climbed 5.3 percent and Waitrose jumped as much as 11 percent.

Thus Tesco Plc has a tough task ahead of itself – it just has to bring good news.

IBM Corp. to stabilize its cloud portfolio with acquisition of SoftLayer

Technology industry analysts believe that the ‘cloud computing’ market is finally on the growth curve. The two deals announced by two technology giants on the 4^th of June prove that they are right.

Salesforce.com Inc. has informed that it will spend $2.5 billion to acquire a high-value cloud computing service provider called ExactTarget Inc. Meanwhile, IBM Corp. too announced that it would snap SoftLayer Technologies Inc. to stabilize its cloud computing portfolio. Though IBM Corp. has not divulged the price it paid to acquire SoftLayer Technologies, analysts place a $2 billion price tag.

Why the sudden Cloud Computing craze?

The past six years have seen phenomenal growth in the service vertical called as cloud computing. It typically involves the use of centralized resources accessed remotely for a pre-paid subscription to the service provider. It may come as no surprise that though many organizations are familiar with the concept of virtualized hosting, cloud computing takes the next step as services can be delivered to subscribers on various platforms, inter alia famous and widely known SaaS. This provides most businesses, small or medium or large, increased computing capabilities without the hassle of maintain such infrastructure themselves. Currently, most organizations choose a hybrid model that allows them to retain certain of the ‘sensitive’ data on-site and allowing general-purpose data on the cloud.

Though there are grave concerns about data security on cloud computing, advanced tools and software platforms do bridge this necessity.

Amazon Web Services define Cloud computing market power

In the past five years, Amazon Web Services business has grown by leaps and bounds to become an industry leader in ecommerce and other cloud-based services, harnessing latest advances in cloud computing technologies.

Analysts identify that the increased use of smart devices, including tablets and smartphones, which access multiple data formats typically from their browsers, has led to increased migration to secure cloud services.

Technology giants pre-view cloud computing growth

Therefore IBM’s acquisition of SoftLayer Technologies Inc. is seen as the tech giant’s attempt to remain relevant in the era of cloud computing. Though it already provides public cloud services with its SmartCloud, it is found to be restricted to its large Fortune -500 companies. The smaller and nibbler consumer accounts would be accessible only with lighter and agile cloud computing services like that offered by SoftLayer Technologies Inc.

SoftLayer Technologies already caters to a discerning client-base such as game builders, companies that work on database as a service like SlideShare, SendGrind, Cloudant and more.

The report, which has been recently issued by Gartner, indicates that the cloud computing market is expected to climb by 18.5 percent in the ongoing year. Some analysts believe that the cloud computing market is poised for higher growth of more than $130 billion as well.

As IBM Corp. begins its journey in double roles as a Fortune-500 company services provider as well as new-age dedicated web hosting and related services provider with SoftLayer Technologies expertise, it needs to be seen if it surpasses Amazon market power.

Story of patent wars between two giants continues

It is nothing new that Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. have been at war with each other for infringing technology patents held by the respective companies, so simply the story, which is full of twists in the plot, continues. Considering that Samsung Electronics Co. provides the processors used in Apple’s products, the patent wars are long-drawn and involve a lot of subtle contesting.

Among the several patent-suits pending before courts in more than 10 countries, a ruling on patent No. 7,706348 by the US International Trade Commission on June 4^th has gone in favor of Samsung Electronics Co. While this is a ‘limited exclusion order,’ it does prohibit the sale of CDMA technology based Apple products: iPhone 4, iPhone 3GX, iPhone 3, iPad 3G as well as iPad 2 3G as they infringe patents owned by the South Korean electronics giant.

While the US International Trade Commission is getting more determined to settle patent disputes by contending companies as it wields great decision powers such as banning imports and more, the ‘limited exclusion order’ will be placed before President Barack Obama with the rider that a decision is reached within 60 days. The last known objection to an ITC-ban was in the 1980s and it is therefore a wait-and-watch situation for Apple Inc.

Increasingly, Apple Inc. has a limited number of choices these days.  Some underlined that its only chance is to appeal to the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the highest patent court in the country.

The wars between Apple and Samsung began in 2010 when Apple Inc. attempted to be a stickler for patent enforcement especially against small minnows. In patent battles being fought on North American, European and Australian continents, a key judgment came at San Jose, the US, in mid-2012. Apple Inc.won a staggering $1 billion verdict but recently nearly half of the patents are under retrial which is undeniably not in line with the company’s hopes.

The latest judgment relates to technology involved in coding of information that is used with a CDMA cell phone network. Apple Inc. is believed to have used a set of ‘standards-based’ patents in the iPhone 4 and the rest of the banned Apple’s devices. As per the ruling, if it was to go through following President  Barack Obama’s assent, it would mean that US users would no longer have a choice of choosing a AT&T service plan that included a free iPhone 4.

Currently, the US market has a strong demand for last years’ Apple Inc. product range and there is great demand for unlocked iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPad 2 series and others.  While the ruling does not affect the latest product range such as the iPhone 5, analysts believe that the higher cost on non-At&T carriers could prove a low-market growth for these products.

Interestingly, only one of the four patents that Samsung Electronics Co. filed against Apple Inc. has been upheld by US ITC.  Of the remaining three, two were declared null by the US ITC. While The US ITC did find the fourth to be valid, it also found that there was no certain degree of infringement. The US ITC also wanted further proof by Samsung Electronics Co. on an ‘established domestic industry.’

In fact, independent of this particular case, a keen observation by President Barack Obama has been that most patent suits in the country and globally are increasingly becoming ‘troll’-like in nature and patent laws definitely need  a relook.

China's anti-dumping probe on EU wine launched in reprisal for solar panels

It was widely expected that China would strike back. And the Asian dragon did as it launched anti-dumping probe on EU wine which is simply a counterattack as the world’s second economy cannot resign itself to the European Union’s step to impose tariffs on Chinese solar panels.

Painful counterattack

Not out of the blue, on the 5^th of June, the Chinese’ Government informed that it decided to start an anti-dumping investigation into EU wine. According to the official words, the Chinese wine industry asked for the probe. It was highlighted in a released statement: “The Commerce Ministry has already received an application from the domestic wine industry, which accuses wines imported from Europe of entering China’s market by use of unfair trade tactics such as dumping and subsidies.”

It may come as no surprise that the China’s Commerce Ministry strongly ensured that the anti-dumping probe on EU wine would be conducted on the right side of the law. In addition, it was underlined that the country witnessed a stronger flow of wine imports from the European Union itself.

According to data,  the Asian dragon recorded staggering 430 million liters of imported wine in 2012. The detailed findings indicated that approximately 60 percent of wine imports came from the European Union.  But it seems that the anti-dumping probe on EU wine will be the most felt by France as the country exported staggering 170 million liters to China in 2012.

Moreover, the fact is that probe on the EU wine will undeniably cast a shadow over trading relation between China and the European Union. It is worth underlining that China and the European Union have brish trading ties.

Chinese solar panels as apple of discord

No question that the Chinese anti-dumping probe on EU wine is the counterattack. Interestingly, the simple reason for launching the investigation was the implementation of tariffs on Chinese solar panels which became the apple of discord between two big trading partners.

Just on the 4^th of June, Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht informed that the EU had decided to impose the initial duty of 11.8 percent on Chinese solar panels, underlining at the same time that the price of this product should be almost 90 percent (sic!) higher than the present price tag.  If China does not change the course, the country will saw tariffs jump to staggering 67.9 percent.

The move is indeed painful for Chinese manufacturers as their solar panel exports to the EU in 2011 amounted to around $27 billion.

Taking into account the decision of the European Union, analysts are not surprised at all by the launch of the Chinese probe on EU wine. This is common practice in the world of politics and trade – “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.”

But as it was underlined by the Chinese authorities, they did everything to end the dispute through further negotiations. After the launch of the Chinese investigation, analysts believe that the new round of talks will start.

UK construction sector grows in May

Apparently, the UK construction sector is slowly rising like a phoenix from the ashes as the newest findings showed that the segment finally recorded modest growth in May. Without a doubt, good news was brought as house building activity significantly strengthened.

Ray of light in construction sector

The Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply and Markit issued their survey, showing that the UK construction sector advanced first time in seven months. The detailed findings indicated the UK construction PMI climbed to 50.8 in May, compared to the April’s final reading of 49.4. Thus analysts underline that it seems that the sector has finally witnessed good days after gloomy and depressing months.

According to data, house building improved significantly as the sub-indexed climbed to 54.4 in May, compared to 51.2 recorded in April. Furthermore, the UK saw the house building sector advancing in the month at the fastest rate in more than two years.

As for new orders in the UK construction sector, they witnessed modest improvement in May. However, the released report indicated that the civil engineering and commercial property construction experienced a continual slump in the month of May. It is worth underlining that the rates of contraction slightly abated though.

Government’s sweeteners

The findings of the survey, which was released by the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply and Markit, might indicate that the confidence in the sector would strengthen in the near future. Analysts note that construction companies will be carefully watching the UK economy as well as housing market, waiting for clear evidence of the visible advancement.

The UK government focuses on driving improvement in the sector by introducing different sweeteners, including the initiative known as Help to Buy aimed at backing people who want to purchase their first home.

Interpreting the findings, David Noble, chief executive officer at CIPS, noted: “The Government’s attempts to boost house building have given months of lackluster growth a shot in the arm, but the continued decline in civil engineering can be largely attributed to the lack of public sector projects, which show no sign of increasing.”

Unquestionably, the construction sector is important for the UK economy but it has been disappointing for several months. As for the first quarter of 2013, the country saw construction activity dive around 2.5 percent, while the economy advanced modestly by 0.3 percent.

The latest results for the May have arguably improved moods of many, showing that the country is slowly standing on its feet. Therefore it is not surprising at all that construction companies are sanguine about the future as everything indicates that the UK economy is gradually getting out of the woods.

ARM disappointed as Samsung chose to use Intel chips in Galaxy Tab 3

ARM Holdings, the mobile processor manufacturer, saw a sudden slide in share prices, following the announcement by its largest user, Samsung Electronics Co. that it would now use chips made by Intel Corp. for its latest Samsung Galaxy Tab 3.

At ARM’s processor division, Noel Hurley, the vice president of marketing and strategy, was quick to move into damage-control mode as he responded to queries on ARM’s future , underlining: “Our analysis shows that we’re more than a generation ahead. We’ve maintained out leadership in this place.” Certainly, ARM Holdings will take a good look at strategies aimed at overcoming the sudden rise sales of its most nearest – Intel Corp.’s – mobile processors.

Why Intel Corp. wants to a piece of mobile processors

Intel Corp. is synonymous with the manufacturer of chips for PCs. Since it began in back in the late 1960′s; the company has pioneered the semiconductor industry with its x86 microprocessor series. This US-based chipmaker has dominated this market space for several decades now. Intel Corp. established its supremacy through market-capturing processors incorporating bleeding-edge chip design technology that increased processing capacities, even as the physical size of chips continued to shrink.

However, in the last half-decade, Intel Corp. has had to face the brunt of drying-up PC sales, given the disruptive growth of mobile and tablet form factors, reiterated by recent IDC reports.

ARM Holdings trailblazing technologies set new benchmarks in mobile processor segment

Even as Intel Corp. Has been building powerful chips for PCs, ARM Holdings Plc(Advanced RISC Machines), UK-based chip maker, has been at the forefront of mobile processor technologies. Since it began back in 1990, at Cambridge, ARM Holdings’ continued innovation has resulted in the company not only reducing the size and dimension of mobile processors but lowering the power consumed by processors, forever changing the processor industry. Cutting-edge processor architecture technology has so far allowed ARM Holdings to remain ahead in the competitive mobile processor industry. Interestingly, Apple Inc. is one of the partners at ARM Holdings and uses ARM’s processor on all of its high-end mobile computing devices- iPad, iPhone and the rest.

Meanwhile, at ARM Holdings there is change of guard with long-serving Chief Executive Warren East making way for a new company’s steersman, Simon Segars, later summer 2013. It has also announced its latest line of products as well- a new processor that will meet the processing needs of medium-priced smartphones. High-end Cortex A15, Cortex A-12 processor is known to save a further 40 percent on the power it consumes. The processor will be available by 2015 and is expected to be running on staggering 500 million devices.

Intel Corp. in the meanwhile continues its Silvermont 22-nanometer FinFET chips.

UK retailers welcomed an increase in cosnumer spending for May

Latest reports by the British Retail Consortium as well as an independent data compilation by the financial services company, KPMG, from most of Britain’s leading retailers, brought happy news.

Unexpected higher spending by retail consumers in the month of May has left a comforting after-feel in the UK retail industry. On a month-on-month basis, the two independent reports underlined that there was 3.4 percent increase in sales. Interestingly, customers were found to be spending 1.8 percent more in retail stores in comparison to what they spent in 2012 as of the month of May. This was despite the difficult weather and persistent economic challenges.

The increase is especially important because of the poor and disappointing sales in April.

Describing the increase in spending despite the tough economic conditions, the Director-General of the British Retail Consortium, Helen Dickinson, said that retailers had intuitively read the real-time conditions and had accordingly adopted their offers. Most of the leading retailers had offered wide-ranging short-period discounts, offers that led consumers to shop-floors. However, price-sensitivity remains and given the quick-turn in economic weather, it will be a tough line to walk for most retailers.

Furthermore, this was especially true for high-value products, according to the  findings of the two surveys. The most successful retail segments were: furniture, flooring and online sales. The online shopping segment showed a substantial jump of 11 percent in comparison to May 2012.

In addition, David McCorquodale, the UK Head of Retail at KPMG, also underlines that online sales have been the major source of revenue for many of the retailers the institution surveyed. It also brings to the forefront the increasing popularity of digital sales structures, according to him. In its survey, the company found that many of the consumers were more than happy to avail the offers by high-street retailers from the comforts and anonymity of online shopping carts.

Weather impacts sales

The effects of poor weather greatly impacted food sales. It was found that in the early weeks, barbecue meat, ice creams and salads were fasting moving and clocked substantial sales. However, as the weather grew worse, food sales too felt the impact and sales were restricted to pizzas and some ready meals.

Similarly clothing and apparel segments too were found to bear the brunt of weather changes. Swimwear was found to see steady sales in the early weeks and great clearance sales for knitwear too were noticeable. It may come as no surprise that in the electronics and gadgets segment, the most popular selling items were tablet computers.

UK retailers read consumers right in May

KPMG in its capacity as a financial service provider is also focused on consumer trends and the impact of local and global markets. Undeniably, this combined insight into retail selling allowed David McCorquodale to pinpoint that: “While sales didn’t soar through the roof, this is still a very creditable performance from UK retailers. Promoting the right product at the right price made the difference in May. To some extent retailers had their bacon saved by online sales, underlining the growing importance of the digital channel.”

The New York Hilton to shut down its room service

Don’t imagine yourself  lying in bed and having breakfast at the New York Hilton as room service will not be available starting from the summer 2013. It is a revolutionary move for the New York City’s largest hotel, yet the economy is stronger than the habits of faithful customers who will have to walk around themselves with a taste.

Don’t count on room service at New York Hilton

As Christopher Nassetta, chief executive officer at Hilton Worldwide Inc., believes that everything indicates that room service is an anachronism as it is not profitable any more, we should not be surprised that the company has decided to shut down its room service at the New York Hilton, which happens to be the city’s biggest hotel with approximately 2000 rooms.  If you want to have breakfast in bed at the New York Hilton, you have to rush as room service is to be closed in August, so there are still few months left.

The decision to terminate room service is aimed at reducing growing labor costs, which are inevitable when it comes to this kind of the royal treatment. However, guests at the New York Hilton will not be left without any choice as they will be able to use a simple cafeteria, yet this will not have the magic of room service at all.

Interestingly, the launch of the new cafeteria was announced back in October 2012, but who predicted that this would mean the shutdown of legendary room service at the New York Hilton on famous Sixth Avenue?

Is this the end of room service era?

It may come as no surprise that analysts underline that the shutdown of room service at the New York Hilton might be the beginning of  a new trend. As room service has become not profitable at all, more and more hotels are considering going the same way of eliminating the boat anchor. This would mean the end of room service and the beginning of new era in the hotel industry. It seems that legendary room service is simply looking at its slow death which will take place, however, in the distant future.

What is interesting is that Hilton Worldwide Inc. has underlined that it does not plan to shut down room service at all of its hotels.  But we should come to grips with the fact that room service is simply unprofitable for many hotels, thus labor unions will have their hands full while they will be facing the next shutdowns.

But the fact is that Hilton Worldwide Inc. is not the progenitor of the shutdown initiative as much earlier well-known Grand Hyatt in New York decided to trim down its room-service hours as the company faced some difficulties revolving around room service in general.

Yet as room service gives guests the feeling of luxury, some hotels will continue with their lavish room-service treatment.