Wondering how to connect an Xbox 360 controller to a PC? It's easy to do. All you need is the proper adapter, the right drivers, and the controller.
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Baidu, China’s dominant search service and a leader in artificial intelligence research, is further diversifying into the smart voice space as its smart living group is poised to raise an independent round on a 20 billion yuan ($2.94 billion) post-money valuation.
The fundraising move signals a potential spinoff of the smart living group down the road. The unit is best known for its voice assistant DuerOS, the search giant’s Alexa equivalent, which was active on 200 million devices including both Baidu’s own branded speaker and a variety of third-party gadgets as of early 2019.
Baidu shipped around 15 million units of its Xiaodu speakers in 2019, making it the second-largest player in China following Alibaba and ahead of Xiaomi, according to market research firm IDC.
Investors including Citic Private Equity Funds Management (CPE), state conglomerate Citic’s asset management firm, as well as Baidu’s venture arm Baidu Capital and IDG Capital, have entered definitive agreements to invest an undisclosed amount into the smart living group’s Series A round.
China has in recent years seen increasing cooperation between its internet firms and industrial incumbents from sectors spanning real estate, healthcare, education to finance, which are eager to embrace digital solutions.
The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2020, according to Baidu. Upon completion of the deal, Baidu will be the majority shareholder with super-voting rights in the smart living group and continue to consolidate the unit’s financial results.
The competition in voice intelligence is a race to secure partnerships with hardware makers, which could in turn contribute consumer usage and data. Besides selling speakers, Baidu has a leg up in putting its voice assistant in connected cars, thanks to its ecosystem of automakers using its open-source autonomous driving platform Apollo. Alibaba, needless to say, can leverage its dominance in retail to market its smart voice system and speakers. Xiaomi, on the other hand, commands an portolio of Internet of Things allies that may benefit from gaining voice capabilities.
Baidu’s endeavor in AI is marked by the lineup of famed scientists it has attracted (and lost) in recent years, including Andrew Ng and Lu Qi. The company vowed to stake its future on AI early on, though its nascent AI-related businesses have yet to deliver significant revenue. The 20-year-old firm continues to rely on search to drive ad revenue as it faces growing competition from advertisers’ new darling, TikTok parent ByteDance.
The range of fast NBN plans on offer has changed drastically in recent months, and there are now three tiers available to households: NBN1000, NBN250 and NBN100.
NBN1000
Is the fastest consumer NBN speed tier, and the small but growing number of ISPs who offer it typically advise a typical evening speed of 250Mbps – though we’ve seen speed test results that place the figure much higher at 900Mbps. If you want blisteringly-fast broadband, this is our pick.
NBN250
The second-fastest tier is NBN250, and it strikes a nice balance between super-speedy broadband and affordability. Again, there’s a small number of providers who offer this speed, and most report an average download speed of 215Mbps during the evening hours – though the actual speed does vary among the ISPs, so be sure to read the fine print. Jump to our NBN250 plan choice.
NBN100
The NBN100 tier is the most affordable option from the fastest NBN category, and you can expect a typical evening speed of around 82Mbps. While the tiers mentioned above are leaps and bounds ahead in terms of speed, they are also limited in their availability – only fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) and hybrid fibre coaxial (HFC) connections can sign-up in most cases. Here’s our recommendation for NBN100.
NBN100 is available from most connection types, and is often the fastest option available for the millions of Australians using fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) technology. You can read more about each connection type here.
The sheer number of options, providers and contracts can be understandably baffling, but we’ve sifted through all the detail of the fastest NBN plans on offer to bring you our top picks.
If you live in a busy home and want a fast NBN connection, we’d recommend an NBN250 plan. This option from Tangerine is our overall choice because it’s relatively affordable, and it promises to deliver a typical evening speed of 205Mbps – a significant jump over NBN100 plans. You’ll get a AU$10 discount each month for your first six months with Tangerine, bringing your bill down to AU$109.90 a month for the first half-year. After that, it will revert to the usual AU$119.90 a month. This plan will set you up with unlimited data, and there’s no lock-in contract, so you’re free to leave anytime. You can choose to bring your own modem, or alternatively pick up one pre-configured from the telco for a one-off payment of AU$129.90. Note that this plan is only available on FTTP and HFC connections, so check your address on the website.
Total minimum cost is AU$109.90View Deal
Before rushing to sign up to a high-speed NBN1000 plan, there are a couple of caveats you should be aware of. This tier is only available on two types of NBN connection – FTTP and HFC. And while all FTTP connections can sign up for 1000Mbps, that speed will only work with a select subset of HFC installations – estimated to be roughly 7% of the total.
Aussie Broadband | NBN1000 | Unlimited data | No lock-in contract | AU$149 per month
Aussie Broadband was the first in the market to offer NBN1000 to residential addresses, but that didn’t stop the telco from offering an incredibly competitive plan. For download speeds of up to 1Gbps and upload speeds approaching 50Mbps, you’ll pay just AU$149 a month. Aussie has rightly cautioned potential customers that it’s yet to determine definitive numbers on peak evening speeds, though it’s put forward 215Mbps as its baseline, so you’ll at the very least get that.
Total minimum cost is AU$149View Deal
As is becoming popular, you’ll get a bit of a discount on your first few months – six months specifically. But even once the price jumps up an extra AU$15 per month, it’s still one of the best value NBN100 plans on the market right now thanks to its unlimited data, solid evening speeds (83Mbps), and no lock-in contract. With this offer, you can either BYO modem or spend AU$129.90 upfront to get one from Tangerine direct.
Total minimum cost is AU$74.90View Deal
Telstra has just launched an NBN250 speed tier, and it’s much faster than anything available from the telco before. Instead of being an entirely separate plan, it comes as an optional AU$30 'add-on' to Telstra’s current NBN100 offering, which makes it AU$140 each month. If you sign-up before November 2, you’ll get AU$10 off your plan fees each month for the first 12 months, so your bill will be cut down to AU$130 a month over the first year. As this is a new service, Telstra has estimated that users will get a typical evening speed of 215Mbps. Sign-up online to get your AU$99 connection fee waived, and if you stick with the telco for 24 months, you won’t have to pay for the Telstra Smart Modem either (usually AU$216). Other perks include a free three-month subscription to Binge. Please note however that Telstra’s NBN250 plan is only available to those with a FTTP or HFC connection.
Total minimum cost over 24 months is AU$3,240View Deal
TPG | NBN100 | Unlimited data | 18-month contract | AU$89.99 per month
TPG is a popular telco among Aussies because it offers solid, reliable speeds at an affordable price. It has also consistently performed well in the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) speed test report, and delivers speeds of up to 80.1Mbps during the peak evening period. If you sign up for this NBN100 plan on an 18-month contract, TPG will waive the AU$99 setup fee, though a AU$10 delivery fee applies, as well as a AU$20 home phone deposit. You can also get this same plan on a no lock-in contract, though it’s an additional AU$130 upfront with all fees included. Note that you could face a contract payout fee of up to AU$350 if you decide to leave early.
Total minimum cost over 18 months is AU$1,649.82View Deal
Workforces are getting more global, and people who work day in, day out for organizations don’t always sit day in, day out in a single office, in a single country, to get a job done. Today, one of the startups building HR to help companies provision services for and manage those global workers better is announcing a funding round to capitalise on a surge in business that it has seen in the last year — spurred in no small part by the global health pandemic, the impact it’s had on travel and the way it has focused the minds of companies to get their cloud services and workforce management in order.
Papaya Global, an Israeli startup that provides cloud-based payroll, as well as hiring, onboarding and compliance services for organizations that employ full-time, part-time, or contractors outside of their home country, has raised $40 million in a Series B round of funding led by Scale Venture Partners. Workday Ventures — the corporate investment arm of the HR company — Access Industries (via its Israeli vehicle Claltech), and previous investors Insight Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, New Era Ventures, Group 11, and Dynamic Loop also participated
The money comes less than a year after its Series A of $45 million, following the company growing 300% year-over-year annually since 2016. It’s now raised $95 million and is not disclosing valuation. But Eynat Guez, the CEO who co-founded the company in that year with Ruben Drong and Ofer Herman, said in an interview that it’s 5x the valuation it had in its round last year.
Its customers include fast-growing startups (precisely the kind of customer that not only has global workforces, but is expanding its employee base quickly) like OneTrust, nCino and Hopin, as well as major corporates like Toyota, Microsoft, Wix, and General Dynamics.
Guez said Papaya Global was partly born out of the frustrations she herself had with HR solutions — she’s worked in the field for years. Different countries have different employment regulations, varied banking rules, completely different norms in terms of how people get paid, and so on. While there have been some really modern tools built for local workforces — Rippling, Gusto, Zenefits now going head to head with incumbents like ADP — they weren’t built to address these issues.
Other HR people who have dealt with international workers would understand her pain, those who control the purse strings might have been less aware of the fragmentation. All that changed in the last eight months (and for the foreseeable future), a period when companies have had to reassess everything about how they work to make sure that they can get through the current period without collapsing.
“The major impact of Covid-19 for us has been changing attitudes,” said Guez. “People usually think that payroll works by itself, but it’s one of the more complex parts of the organization, covering major areas like labor, accounting, tax. Eight months ago, a lot of clients thought, it just happens. But now they realize they didn’t have control of the data, some don’t even have a handle on who is being paid.”
As people moved into and out of jobs, and out of offices into working from home, as the pandemic kicked off, some operations fell apart as a result, she said. “Payroll continuity is like IT continuity, and so all of a sudden when Covid started its march, we had prospects calling us saying they didn’t have data on, for example, their Italian employees, and the office they were using wasn’t answering the phone.”
Guez herself is walking the walk on the remote working front. Papaya Global itself has offices around the world, and Guez herself is normally based in Tel Aviv. But our interview was conducted with her in the Maldives. She said she and her family decided to decamp elsewhere before Israel went into a second lockdown, which was very tough to handle in a small flat with small children. Working anywhere, as we have found out, can work.
The company is not the only one that has identified and is building to help organizations handle global workforces. In fact, just when you think the unemployment, furlough and layoff crunch is affecting an inordinate number of people and the job market is in a slump, a rush of them, along with other HR companies, have all been announcing significant funding rounds this year on the back of surges in business.
Others that have raised money during the pandemic include Deel, which like Papaya Global is also addressing the complexities of running global workforces; Turing, which helps with sourcing and then managing international teams; Factorial with its platform targeting specifically SMBs; Lattice focused on the bigger challenges of people management; and Rippling, the second act from Zenefits’ Parker Conrad.
“Papaya Global’s accelerating growth is a testament to their top-notch executive leadership as well as their ability to streamline international payroll management, a first for many enterprises that have learned to live with highly manual payroll processes,” said Rory O’Driscoll, a partner at Scale Venture Partners, in a statement. “The complexity and cost of managing multi-region workforces cannot be understated. Eynat and her team are uniquely serving their customers’ needs, bringing an advanced SaaS platform into a market long-starved for more effective software solutions.”
For more than 20 years, Salesforce has been selling cloud business software, but it has also used the same platform to build ways to track other elements besides sales, marketing and service information including Work.com, the platform it created earlier this year to help companies develop and organize a safe way to begin returning to work during the pandemic.
Today, the company announced it was putting that same platform to work to help distribute and track a vaccine whenever it becomes available along with related materials like syringes that will be needed to administer it. The plan is to use Salesforce tools to solve logistical problems around distributing the vaccine, as well as data to understand where it could be needed most and the efficacy of the drug, according to Bill Patterson, EVP and general manager for CRM applications at Salesforce.
“The next wave of the virus phasing, if you will, will be [when] a vaccine is on the horizon, and we begin planning the logistics. Can we plan the orchestration? Can we measure the inventory? Can we track the outcomes of the vaccine once it reaches the public’s hands,” Patterson asked.
Salesforce has put together a new product called Work.com for Vaccines to put its platform to work to help answer these questions, which Patterson says ultimately involves logistics and data, two areas that are strengths for Salesforce.
The platform includes the core Work.com command center along with additional components for inventory management, appointment management, clinical administration, outcome monitoring and public outreach.
While this all sounds good, what Salesforce lacks of course is expertise in drug distribution or public health administration, but the company believes that by creating a flexible platform with open data that government entities can share that data with other software products outside of the Salesforce family.
“That’s why it’s important to use an open data platform that allows for aggregate data to be quickly summarized and abstracted for public use,” he said. He points to the fact that some states are using Tableau, the company that Salesforce bought last year for a tidy $15.7 billion, to track other types of COVID data.
“Many states today are running all their COVID testing and positive case reporting through the Tableau platform. We want to do the same kind of exchange of data with things like inventory management [for a vaccine],” he said.
While this sounds like a public service kind of activity, Salesforce intends to sell this product to governments to manage vaccines. Patterson says that to run a system like this at what they envision will be enormous scale, it will be a service that governments have to pay for to access.
This isn’t the first time that Salesforce has created a product that falls somewhat outside of the standard kind of business realm, but which takes advantage of the Salesforce platform. Last year it developed a tool to help companies measure how sustainable they are being. While the end goal is positive, just like Work.com for Vaccines and the broader Work.com platform, it is a tool that they charge for to help companies implement and measure these kinds of initiatives.
The tool set is available starting today. Pricing will vary depending on the requirements and components of each government entity.
The real question here is should this kind of distribution platform be created by a private company like Salesforce for profit, or perhaps would be better suited to an open source project, where a community of developers could create the software and distribute it for free.
Business travel SaaS startup, TravelPerk, has launched an open API-based platform — letting its customers and partners build custom integration and apps.
The initial APIs covers HR and expense management use-cases but more are set to be added as usage and demand grows.
“Applications we’ve seen being built on the platform already include HR functionality (think BambooHR), expense management systems, company payment cards, financial reporting, and ERP,” says co-founder and CEO Avi Meir, discussing the launch.
Longer term he says the hope is the platform generates “a huge range” of additional functionality for customers to draw on.
“Many of our customers are tech companies full of developers, so we’re confident that if we give them the tools it will be boundless what they can create,” he adds. “In fact, we’re working with one customer already who is using our API to build a custom approvals process because they need a more complex system than the standard offering.”
TravelPerk has been running a private beta over the last few months with 20+ partners and customers but is now flipping the switch to open it to all users.
“We are providing a fully fledged toolkit for developers, from the most curated developer hub and API documentation, to a sandbox environment to test their solutions for quality assurance,” adds Ross McNairn, TravelPerk’s chief product officer, in a statement.
“We do not see TravelPerk as a silo tool, but rather one that needs to coexist with hundreds of other SaaS tools. Our ultimate goal is for partners and developers to consider TravelPerk as the platform to build and grow with us. Easy to understand, easy to build, and easy to grow.”
Business downtime resulting from the coronavirus pandemic slashing global travel has given TravelPerk a window of opportunity to focus on product dev.
“It’s no surprise that the [business travel] market isn’t yet back to normal but we know that if we keep investing in creating the products businesses need to travel confidently we’ll emerge from this stronger,” says Meir, who notes that it’s been seeing signs of a recovery in some of its markets — with domestic segment usage in Germany and the US having returned to “pre-pandemic levels”.
Returning to the API, Meir says customer demand was a factor in the decision to augment its business travel SaaS with a free and fully open API platform: “Part of the reason we’ve brought this in was the huge demand for this kind of product from many of our customers, particularly SMEs. On the back of that demand, we’re expecting to see tens or hundreds of applications and customer integrations built in the coming months.”
The other driver is cultural, per Meir — who says the startup has a “philosophy of being open, collaborative and innovative” which he claims sets it apart from the “current, closed systems” offered by legacy travel industry players.
“Creating this marketplace means we can provide customers with a wide choice of expert-created functionality, rather than forcing a single proprietary solution on them,” he adds.
Recently, the Galaxy Note20 series was launched to great acclaim worldwide. The Galaxy Note20 series is a productivity powerhouse that works like a computer and lets you game like a pro. At the August release, the Galaxy Note20 Ultra and Galaxy Note20 were launched with the Galaxy Buds Live. These devices caught the attention of YouTube marketer, professional geek and gaming guru Grant Hinds. Instantly a fan of the Galaxy Note20 this video games and tech contributor on South African TV shows such as Top Billing, Expresso and Tech Report revealed what he liked best. At the local, Unpacked launch Grant emphasized how excited he was about the potential of the device for work and play.
Today, we need devices that are as flexible as we are. With what I do, I am excited to have the opportunity work, play and connect, however, I want. I can take my productivity to the next level with the Galaxy Note20 series - anytime from anywhere. I was impressed by the processing speed of the device, which gives me the ability to upload, download and even stream content with lightning speed. And because of the powerful battery and quick power-up capability, I can confidently make all-day video calls and use the pro-grade tools that enable me to create incredible cinematic videos.
The Wireless DeX is uber-useful. I can not only share my phone content to my TV or PC screen, but I can run independent content on both TV and phone, and I can even use my Galaxy Note20 handset as the control touchpad, or get Bixby to manage this through voice control. The S Pen, which is extremely fluid and reactive to your touch, feels like an actual pen. Also, with the new Samsung Notes Live Sync I can save all my notes straight to the cloud and access them from a phone, tablet, or PC. When it's time to turn notes from a meeting into a PowerPoint presentation, I can access documents from my phone on a laptop.
The Galaxy Note20 series immerses you in your favourite entertainment. The larger screen sizes and minimalised punch hole gives me the freedom to play. The Galaxy Note20 has a screen size of 6.7 inches while the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra has a 6.9-inch display. Both bring the game to life in a big way. I’m also excited that 5G will empower not only the gaming aspect of play but as new services become mainstream in 2021, the Galaxy Note20 will only grow in its value to you. Importantly, as a very passionate gamer, the features that stand out for me are game booster mode. You’ll be able to game with high-quality graphics on the go with a 120hz refresh rate. This means you can react faster with limited latency. It’s a massive advantage for gamers. You can even pair your device with a Bluetooth game controller for an even better cloud gaming experience.
There is no doubt that Grant Hinds finds the Galaxy Note20 to be a win. At the launch, he couldn’t contain his excitement as he described the possibilities the device offers. This is a feeling many will soon experience.
* The images shown are for illustration purposes only, and may differ from the actual product. Product specifications may vary by country, region, model, and carrier.
Homegrown smartphone maker, Lava is gearing up to launch as many as five smartphones in the coming months. Lava recently announced Z66 phone that was priced at Rs 7,777 and in the last few months, the company has announced a couple of budget-friendly devices like Lava Z61 Pro.
According to a report from TheMobileIndian, Lava will launch five new smartphones in India priced at around Rs 10,000. All the new phones will be unveiled in the month of November, according to the report. Further, it also says that among the five smartphones, four of them will be priced under Rs 10,000 and one of the Lava phones will be priced above the Rs 10,000.
The report also confirms that these five smartphones from Lava will be completed designed in India. Back in July, the company had announced Lava announces ‘Design in India’ contest where it invited students and professionals from various streams to design its next smartphone. The contest also included a cash price of Rs 50,000, Rs 25,000, and Rs 15,000, respectively, and also a chance to work with the company.
As of now, we do not have any specs or even the names of the five Lava smartphones. However, we expect the company to start teasing the launch sometime in October. Lava also was looking to move its R&D centre outside of China back in May this year.
On similar lines, Micromax is also said to re-enter the Indian market very soon. Micromax is said to be working on three phones in total priced between Rs 7,000 and Rs 15,000. The three budget-friendly handsets are expected to come with MediaTek chipsets. The devices will be powered by MediaTek Helio G35 and Helio G25 SoC as per the previous reports.
With this move, Lava will take on the likes of Realme, Xiaomi, Poco, Infinix, and even Micromax in the coming months.
OnePlus 8T is set to launch on October 14 and ever since the company revealed the official launch date, we are flooded with continuous leaks around the upcoming smartphone.
While the company did announce that the OnePlus 8T will not be accompanied with the Pro variant this year and also announced that the phone will run on Android 11 out of the box, a new leak suggests that the phone may come with 12 GB of RAM.
The Geekbench listing shows that the phone is running on Android 11 which is in line with the announcement made by the brand. Additionally, the benchmark scores suggest that the phone will be powered by a Snapdragon 865 chipset and is labelled as OnePlus KB2000.
Interestingly, yet another Geekbench listing that was spotted sometime back pertaining to an upcoming OnePlus device had “OnePlus KB2001” as the model number and had 8GB of RAM. This suggests that the phone may be available in two different variants based on memory and storage.
OnePlus’ CEO had exclusively confirmed to TechRadar that the phone will come with a 6.5-inch display and will sport 120 Hz refresh rate. The display is expected to be a SAMOLED panel and may sport Full HD+ resolution.
In terms of processing power, the phone is expected to come with a Snapdragon 865 processor coupled with 8GB / 16GB of RAM and probably two different variants in terms of storage as well - 128 GB and 256 GB.
In terms of optics, it is said to come with a quad-camera setup with the primary 48-megapixel sensor along with a 16-megapixel ultrawide snapper, a 5-megapixel sensor for macro shots, and a 2-megapixel sensor for monochrome images. On the front, it may come with a 16-megapixel selfie snapper.
The phone is said to be powered by a 4500 mAh battery pack and, as confirmed by OnePlus, it will sport a 65W fast charging solution.
Via: GizmoChina
In what began as a kind of funny, savvy marketing stunt that has since gained traction, a nearly three-year-old, Santa Monica-based startup that sells water from the Austrian Alps under the brand Liquid Death, has raised $23 million in Series B funding. Backers in the round include an unnamed family office; Convivialité Ventures, which is Pernod Ricard Group’s venture arm; the musician known as Fat Mike; and earlier backer Velvet Sea Ventures.
The company, originally incubated with the help of the L.A.-based startup studio Science, has now raised a little more than $34 million altogether.
We talked with Mike Cessario, the West Coast agency exec-turned-water entrepreneur, not long after he launched the company to the public, and he argued at the time that canned water could give sugary energy drinks like Rockstar, Monster and Red Bull a run for their money if were also named like a heavy metal act.
Indeed, our favorite part of the product has long been its promise to “murder your thirst.” (It’s water, after all, so other differentiators are hard to come by.)
Clearly, plenty of other people are amused enough by the company’s inventive marketing that its products are selling, including at Whole Foods. It put the cans on its shelves back in February, around the same time that Velvet Sea led the company’s $9 million Series A round.
Liquid Death also sells at more than 1,000 7-Eleven stores in California, and it sells, as it always has, directly to customers, who can select either mountain water or sparkling water, and buy a T-shirt or hoodie from a growing merch store on their way out of its online store.
A 12-pack of tallboys costs $16. A “Hydrate or Die” T-shirt can be had for $26.
A new leak, buried deep within the iOS 14 code release, seems to strongly suggest that Apple is about to drop the EarPods from the box of the new iPhone.
Spotted in the new developer release of iOS 14.2 beta, this rumor is built on a tweak being reported by Macrumors in the source code, which has removed the word 'supplied'.
Previously the section talking about reducing one's exposure to radio frequency (RF) energy reportedly said the following:
"To reduce exposure to RF energy, use a hands-free option, such as the built-in speakerphone, the supplied headphones, or other similar accessories."
However, according to the claim, the new text reads:
"To reduce exposure to RF energy, use a hands-free option, such as the built-in speakerphone, the headphones, or other similar accessories."
This lines up with predictions from analyst Ming Chi-Kuo that the new iPhone 12 range won't come with a power adaptor or EarPods in the box, as Apple seeks to reduce the amount of accessories it supplies with its high-volume devices.
At the Apple Watch 6 launch event, Tim Cook made it plain that Apple is working to reduce the impact the company is having on the environment, and that included dropping the charging block from the box of the new Watch.
This makes sense, given that there are large numbers of these low-power USB connectors in drawers of tech buyers all over the world, and Apple will still be offering a USB Lightning cable in the iPhone 12 box (in fact, word is that it could be a more robust braided option, to stop so many of them failing over time and creating more waste).
The question of whether the loss of the EarPods is 'fair' is an interesting one though - while true wireless earbuds have been growing rapidly in popularity, straw polls of commuters by TechRadar have shown that the wired, in-box headphones are still often used.
The iPhone 7 was the first device to come with the new Lightning-enabled EarPods, after the brand 'courageously' dropped the headphone jack from its phones - this meant all those 3.5mm-headphone connector headphones were rendered obsolete overnight.
If the iPhone does replace the Lightning connector with USB-C in the near future, as is often predicted, then all the currently-bundled EarPods would become useless, which would make for a good reason to reduce the amount of these unnecessarily in circulation.
Chi-Kuo has previously expressed a belief that Apple will be dropping the EarPods from the box of new iPhones to help drive sales of AirPods, although it's equally possible that Apple believes that there are enough of the Lightning-connected EarPods out there that putting more into the world would be creating huge amounts of duplication and thus waste.
When the iPhone 12 launches, currently expected to be October 13, it will be interesting to see if Apple even mentions losing the EarPods from the box if it does so.
And if it is raised on stage, whether there will be any stats on the amount of EarPods on the world too and the amount of waste it would reduce by stopping supply of these at purchase.
Either way, Apple removing accessories from the box (and presumably not dropping the price of the new iPhone) will lead to ire from some quarters, especially if there's no special discount to buy new headphones, charging blocks or upgrade to AirPods Pro for an enhanced experience.
American Express has announced a brace of new co-branded credit cards in partnership with Amazon Business to target small businesses in the UK.
The company is launching the Business American Express Card and the Amazon Business Prime American Express card, both of which allow businesses to either earn rewards points or adjust their payment terms on eligible purchases.
The Amazon Business American Express Card offers 1.5% Amazon Rewards points on the first £120,000 in purchases at Amazon.co.uk, Amazon Business UK and Whole Foods Market UK each calendar year, 1% thereafter or 60 Day extended payment terms on such purchases. All other purchases attract 0.05% points.
The Amazon Business Prime American Express Card is available to Amazon Business Prime members and has the £50 fee waived fro the first year. This one delivers 2% Amazon Rewards points on the same terms, but also offers the benefit of 90 day extended payment terms if businesses wish to make use of the breathing space that gives them. The cards come with representative APR of 32.6%.
American Express thinks the cards will offer greater flexibility for small businesses suffering cashflow problems from the economic slowdown caused by coronavirus.
According to research from American Express and YouGov, 23% of businesses are delaying bigger purchases due to insufficient funds. Meanwhile, 38% of those questioned report they’re only buying essentials to keep their businesses running.
“We have been serving small businesses for over 60 years, and are passionate about helping our small business customers effectively run and grow their businesses, especially during this challenging period," said Colin O’Flaherty, General Manager of UK Global Commercial Services at American Express.
"With many UK SMEs facing financial hardships, we want to make it easier for businesses to manage their finances and continue accessing the goods and products they need with more options to pay. We know that a vast number of the UK’s businesses rely on Amazon’s wide-ranging products and services and are excited to launch this powerful and flexible new payment tool that will allow small businesses to select how to pay, purchase by purchase.”
The launch of the two cards is similar to the Stateside collaboration between American Express and Amazon, which has produced a long-running and highly popular co-branded card programme.
“Working with American Express to launch the small business credit card was a natural decision for Amazon, given our shared long-standing commitment to helping small businesses flourish globally," noted Dave Brittain, Director of Amazon Business UK.
"We’re incredibly proud to launch this card programme as it offers small business owners and entrepreneurs the best of both companies: the convenience and value they have come to know and love from Amazon, underpinned by the world-class service, benefits, access and security of American Express. These benefits have never been more important at a time when businesses are navigating the challenges and uncertainty which Covid-19 has presented.”
Korean electronics major LG Electronics is set to release its much talked of rollable TV next month, according to media reports in South Korea.
LG, which recently made global headlines with the launch of LG Wing the smartphone with swivel screen, has opened a website dedicated to its 'Signature OLED RX' TV.
LG’s rollable TV, with a 65-inch screen that rises from a box and can be rolled up inside, was first unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in the United States last year. The advantage of an OLED display is that it can be bent or rolled freely because it does not have a backlight.
As per media reports, after holding an event for its customers in Seoul, LG is expected to launch the rollable TV in the market in late October.
Signature OLED RX TV has been reportedly priced at over 100 million won ($85,400).
Quite simply, the TV can, like a cloth or film screen, roll into its base.
LG's new TV has three viewing options - full view, line view (where only a part of the screen is showing), and zero view to keep the TV nicely hidden.
LG's OLED RX TV, like the rest of LG's 2019 OLED range, is based on the company's 2nd-gen Alpha 9 intelligent processor the enables LG's ThinQ AI to offer new display algorithms and Amazon's Alexa and Google's Assistant.
The TV also features HDMI 2.1, high frame rate (HFR) support, enhanced audio return channel (eARC), variable refresh rate (VRR) and automatic low latency mode (ALLM). LG's flagship OLED also feature Dolby Atmos for immersive entertainment.
LG OLED TV uses, what it calls, self-lit technology. "Over 100 million self-lit sub-pixels come together to deliver the next level of TV," the company says. It gives the deepest blacks, richest colors, and most realistic picture quality.
Talking of self-lit technology, LG's South Korean rival, Samsung Electronics, is planning to launch a micro LED TV that also uses self-illuminated technology.
"It uses micrometer-sized ultra-small LEDs to remove backlight and color filters. LEDs themselves become a light source for the screen. Compared to current displays, the micro LED TV excels in terms of brightness, contrast ratio, color reproducibility, and black color expression. It also has an improved viewing angle," a report in BusinessKorea said.
Samsung had unveiled 75-inch, 88-inch, 93-inch and 110-inch micro LED TV models at the CES that happened this year.
This micro TV may hit the markets in December.
Neuron Mobility, a Singapore-based e-scooter rental startup, announced today that it has added $12 million to its Series A. Led by Square Peg, an Australian venture capital firm and GSR Ventures, this increases the round’s new total to $30.5 million. The company, which operates in Australia and New Zealand in addition to Southeast Asian markets, first announced its Series A in December 2019.
Part of Neuron Mobility’s growth plans hinges on the increased adoption of electric scooters and bikes during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many people are using their cars less frequently because they are working remotely or there are movement restrictions where they live. When they do go out, electric bikes and scooters offer an alternative to public transportation and ride-hailing services for short trips.
Neuron Mobility’s chief executive Zachary Wang said the company raised a Series A+ instead of moving onto a Series B because more cities are “opening up to the possibility of micromobility, particularly rental e-scooters as they present an individual transport option that takes pressure off public transport and allows people to continue social distancing.”
“We’ve been experiencing tremendous growth in ANZ and the pandemic has made us fast track our plans,” he added.
Though Neuron Mobility currently does not operate in other Southeast Asian countries besides Singapore, Wang said it is “constantly evaluating opportunities across APAC.”
The new funding will be used to speed up Neuron Mobility’s expansion plans in Australia and New Zealand, where it claims to be the leading electric scooter rental operator. The company is currently present in nine locations, including Auckland, New Zealand, and Australian cities Adelaide, Brisbane, Darwin, Canberra and Townsville. Neuron Mobility plans to expand into five new cities over the next two months and part of that involves hiring 400 more people in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. In addition to the Asia-Pacific, Neuron Mobility will also launch in Slough, it’s first location in the United Kingdom, by the end of this year.
Neuron Mobility’s research found that before the COVID-19 lockdowns in Australia, one in five of its users had never used an e-scooter before. But now Australian and New Zealand users have increased their average e-scooter trip distances by 23% to 2.6 kilometers, with the average duration of rides rising by 10% to more than 14 minutes. Neuron Mobility’s pricing is meant to be affordable depending on different markets. For example, in Brisbane, users pay one Australian dollar (about 68 U.S. cents) to begin a trip and then 38 Australian cents for each minute of the ride. Its e-scooters can go up to speeds of about 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) per hour.
Other “micromobility” companies, including Ofo, Reddy Go, Obike and Lime, have also offered rental services in Australia and New Zealand, but ran into trouble. Bike-sharing startups Ofo, Reddy Go and Obike withdrew from Australia in part because city councils were frustrated by bikes were being abandoned on sidewalks and in parks. Lime still operates in Australian cities, but in June, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission found that the company failed to disclose safety issues with its Generation 2 scooters (in response, Lime said it would implement new compliance procedures and upgrade to its new Generation 3 scooter).
Wang said Neuron Mobility avoids those issues by strategically planning which cities it will launch in, instead of focusing on rapid expansion, partnering with city councils and “continually shifting and adapting to meet their needs.” Several of Neuron Mobility’s features, including geofencing to control where and how fast e-scooters can be ridden, and a “Helmet Lock” to make helmets available for all scooters, were developed after discussions with city councils. Neuron Mobility’s scooters, designed by the company specifically for renting, also use swappable batteries to decrease pollution.
After launching in Singapore, Neuron Mobility decided to focus on Australia and New Zealand because “both countries have cities that are highly suitable for micromobility in terms of infrastructure and regulations,” Wang said. City councils have also “been keen to push the boundaries of what can be done with technology to make programs better and safer and that really suits our way of thinking.”
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