China suicide puts spotlight on secretive Apple culture
by reliable-web-hostings.com
The case puts the spotlight on Apple, whose public face as maker of the wildly successful iPhone contrasts with its reputation for a highly secretive corporate culture.
But according to a report in the influential Nanfang Daily, Sun, a 25-year-old product manager, became frantic after discovering that one of 16 prototypes of Apple’s fourth-generation N90 iPhone had gone missing. The iPhone is Apple’s hottest-selling device and the latest version is a well-kept secret.
Sun vented his growing frustration in text messages to his girlfriend and a former classmate, and tried to find the missing device, the Nanfang Daily said. But company officials from Foxconn’s security division apparently got suspicious and raided his home.
The Yunnan native jumped from his 12th floor apartment the day after, according to the report.
The incident, which triggered an investigation from local police and within Foxconn itself, sparked a Web firestorm in China and has provoked criticism of Apple’s intensely guarded culture.
The company has previously threatened lawsuits against media and bloggers that try to publish information about its upcoming products, often arguing they obtained the information from employees who violated confidentiality agreements.
Stealth Starbucks: Seattle-based coffee giant opening neighborhood shops in disguise
How’s this a good idea? You will still be selling the exact same things that caused customers go somewhere else in the first place.
A Seattle outlet of the 16,000-store coffee behemoth is being rebranded without visible Starbucks identifiers, as 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea.
Two other stores in Starbucks’ native Seattle will follow suit, each getting its own name to make it sound more like a neighborhood hangout, less like Big Coffee, a Starbucks official told The Seattle Times on Thursday.
“The Goliath is coming at me under a new name,” said Dan Ollis, owner of Victrola Coffee Roasters, a coffee shop on 15th Avenue in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, about a block-and-a-half from the made-over Starbucks set to open next week.
Package tracking via Twitter
Not only can consumers use Twitter to track their favourite taco truck, file civic complaints and apply for jobs, but they can now track their packages as well thanks to a new application from North Carolina-based Signal Engine.
Users with packages to track begin by following PackageTrack on Twitter (@packagetrack), causing the free application to follow them in return. They can then direct message PackageTrack with the nickname of a package they’d like to track along with its tracking number, separated by a colon—”Red Dress: 23345631243,” for example. PackageTrack then notifies them by Twitter each time the package’s status changes, including a Google Map illustrating its route.
Launched earlier this year, PackageTrack currently tracks only UPS, USPS and FedEx packages, but it says it will be adding more carriers soon.
Stores offering discounts based on location
Banana Republic, Wal-Mart and Home Depot are among the retailers that are localizing their sale prices to appeal to the demographics of a store’s location.
It’s a deliberate move to tailor prices to fit local demand and inventory — right down to the individual store level, according to the Wall Street Journal.
For companies like San Francisco-based Gap, it’s helped to improve merchandise margins at its stores, including Banana Republic and Old Navy.
This strategy helps boost profits whenever items selling well in one region offset the need for deeper discounts somewhere else. Analysts say how much, when and where to slash prices can make a big difference to the bottom line.
“What works in Topeka, Kans., doesn’t work in San Francisco,” said John Long of consultancy Kurt Salmon Associates. “You can’t take the peanut butter approach that every store has the same customers and the same competitive issues. Things like pricing become a lever that retailers absolutely have to use.”
15 Top Office and Home-Based Jobs for Seniors
by www.reliable-web-hostings.com
Anyone looking for work knows the job market is tough and likely to stay that way for a long time. To help retirement-age job seekers, RetirementJobs.com has put together what it says is a carefully developed list of attractive positions outside the home and for those seeking at-home jobs.
Here are the 15 best job opportunities for older people, plus the amounts of training or education required, names of leading senior-friendly employers, and pay ranges.
- Nursing
- Healthcare technician
- Healthcare administration (nonmedical)
- Tutor, teaching assistant and aide
- Contract and temporary professional
- Merchandise and grocery retailing
- Specialty retail sales
- Accounting and finance and tax preparers
- Banking and lending
- Driver (car, van, light truck, bus)
- Customer service and call center
- Medical services
- Virtual assistant and concierge services
- Personal care assistance
- Writers and editors
10 States With Housing Jobs on the Way
by www.reliable-web-hostings.com
That is how much the Obama Administration has distributed to 25 states under a new program designed to jumpstart the stalled construction of rental housing developments around the country. The government hopes the program, part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, will create thousands of jobs for contractors, engineers, architects and general construction workers, and provide affordable housing options for middle-income families.
Under the program, the 25 states that receive federal assistance will distribute that money among the developers in exchange for their unsold tax credits. That funding should help restart construction on their sites.
But don’t hold your breath in hopes of getting work – or a roof above your head – right away. The money’s journey into the right hands will take time, and most states are unlikely to see construction begin within the next six to nine months, McIlwain says. After that, these projects will take another two years on average to be completed. (That may actually be a good thing, he says, as rental prices are falling now in most parts of the country.)
Here’s a glimpse at how 10 states are planning to use the Recovery Act funds they have received so far.
Identify your intellectual property
Just as you thought (before reading this article) that cyberspace was the wild, new frontier, there are plenty of others operating under that same misunderstanding. What’s your intellectual property–specifically, your copyrights and trademarks–and can you protect them?
First, are you using other companies’ trademarks? Imagine going on a major promo blitz and getting a nasty lawyer’s letter from Walla Walla, Wash., saying “Cease and desist–we were here first.” You could end up having to redo all your marketing efforts, doubling your marketing costs. Ouch!
Second, have you protected what you have? For a mere $45, you can properly copyright your website by submitting it to the U.S. Copyright Office. That’s a necessary prerequisite to filing a copyright lawsuit. But when you do that, you could be entitled to statutory damages of anywhere from $1,000 to $10,000 from anyone who ignores your cease-and-desist letter.
