Germans have always looked down on America’s fondness for artificially chilled air as wasteful, unnatural and wimpy. Rather than install climate control in buildings and subways, schools and offices will simply close if it gets too hot. Now, the increasing frequency of triple-digit highs have forced a national reckoning. From a report: Germany’s Trade Association for Air Conditioning said that last…
Tag: retail
Apple’s Seattle Workforce Will Quintuple By 2024
Apple is planning on bringing 2,000 jobs to Seattle by 2024 — twice the number it initially planned. Engadget reports: The new roles would focus on software and hardware and effectively multiply Apple’s existing workforce by five. Currently, there are roughly 500 Apple employees in Seattle, focused mainly in its retail stores and machine learning hub. The expansion would also give…
Facebook Announces Libra Cryptocurrency
Facebook has finally revealed the details of its cryptocurrency Libra. From a blog post: Today we’re sharing plans for Calibra, a newly formed Facebook subsidiary whose goal is to provide financial services that will let people access and participate in the Libra network. The first product Calibra will introduce is a digital wallet for Libra, a new global currency powered by…
Retail Stores Use Bluetooth Beacons To Track Customers
In an opinion piece for The New York Times, writer Michael Kwet sheds some lights on the secret bluetooth surveillance devices retailers use to track your every move and better serve ads to you. Anonymous reader shares an excerpt from the report: Imagine you are shopping in your favorite grocery store. As you approach the dairy aisle, you are sent a…
Microsoft and Oracle Link Up Their Clouds
Microsoft and Oracle announced a new alliance today that will see the two companies directly connect their clouds over a direct network connection so that their users can then move workloads and data seamlessly between the two. This alliance goes a bit beyond just basic direct connectivity and also includes identity interoperability. TechCrunch reports: This kind of alliance is relatively unusual…
Shifting Strategy, Microsoft Closed All Its Specialty Stores and Kiosks in the US
Microsoft is on the cusp of finally opening its flagship retail store in the UK next month, but all of the smaller Microsoft Specialty Stores have evidently been shuttered with many reportedly closing this past weekend. From a report: As of June 2019, Microsoft has just over 80 full-fledged Microsoft Stores in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, and Australia, but…
Amazon Interested In Buying Boost From T-Mobile and Sprint, Says Report
Amazon is reportedly interested in buying prepaid cellphone wireless service Boost Mobile from U.S. carriers T-Mobile and Sprint. “Amazon is considering buying Boost mainly for an attached wholesale deal that would allow the buyer to use T-Mobile’s wireless network for at least six years,” reports Reuters, citing two sources familiar with the matter. “Amazon would also be interested in any wireless…
AMD Unveils the 12-Core Ryzen 9 3900X, at Half the Price of Intel’s Competing Core i9 9920X Chipset
AMD CEO Lisa Su today unveiled news about its chips and graphics processors that will increase pressure on competitors Intel and Nvidia, both in terms of pricing and performance. From a report: All new third-generation Ryzen CPUs, the first with 7-nanometer desktop chips, will go on sale on July 7. The showstopper of Suâ(TM)s keynote was the announcement of AMD’s 12-core,…
Apple Tweaks Its Troubled MacBook Keyboard Design Yet Again, Expands Repair Program
Apple is announcing an update to its keyboard repair program today. All MacBooks with the so-called “butterfly mechanism” (that’s pretty much all modern MacBooks) will now be fully eligible for Apple’s Keyboard Service Program. From a report: The expansion means that a few newer models that weren’t previously covered will be able to get repairs. Unfortunately, Apple is not extending how…
Bitcoin ‘Roars Back’, Surges 50% in 30 Days
A week ago bitcoin was trading at $6,000. Today Forbes reports bitcoin “which has been swinging wildly throughout this week, has suddenly rallied back to over $8,000 per bitcoin, somewhat putting to rest investor and trader fears the recent bitcoin bull run may have already ended”:
The bitcoin price has risen around 50% over the last 30 days, pulling many other major…