BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion (RIM) held its third annual BlackBerry Developer Conference (DevCon) in San Francisco this week, and BlackBerry enthusiasts of all kinds, including developers, analysts, media and other mobile-industry-watchers, showed up in droves to see what RIM has in store for the coming months and years.
CIO.com was lucky enough to get a sit-down with RIM's BlackBerry App World Senior Product Manager Alex Kinsella, and the App World staffer shared a number of interesting details, including information on the next version of the company's mobile app store, BlackBerry App World v2.1, the new BlackBerry platform development features and services he's most excited about--and why you should be too--as well as what the company is doing to ensure mobile malware doesn't find its way into App World and onto unsuspecting users' devices.
The New BlackBerry Payment and Analytics Services
On Monday, RIM unveiled a variety of new and improved developer tools and services, including the new BlackBerry Payments Service, which offers developers more ways to sell their applications and reach more potential customers. The service also relieves many of the financial headaches associated with selling mobile applications, because it manages all the technical and financials of payment so developers don't have to waste time managing relationships or business terms with payment providers and coding for integration into each of those providers' unique products.
For example, developers who use the BlackBerry Payment Service can offer "in-app payment services" to let customers purchase applications they like after free-trial periods expire or unlock additional application content, like new levels or functionality in games or advanced application features, without ever leaving the app.
Kinsella is particularly excited about the new Payment Service. Creating engaging BlackBerry applications is the best way for developers to build their customer bases, but that's really just the first step, according to Kinsella.
"That's the foot in the door," he says. The BlackBerry Payment Service is really about maintaining customers' attention, according to Kinsella.
The BlackBerry Payment Service will help developers keep their customers engaged by offering new content within their apps, which helps to ensure those apps are "fresh." And that's a good thing for developers, who are ultimately trying to profit from their apps, and BlackBerry users, who want quality mobile applications with evolving functionality.
Kinsella also says he's excited about RIM's new, free BlackBerry Analytics Service, which it announced at DevCon along with Webtrends, a Web metrics firm, to give commercial BlackBerry developers greater insight into who's using their applications, when, how and for what specific purposes.
BlackBerry Analytics Services will help to better educate developers on how their apps are being used, and it should improve their ability to target new types of customers and geographic areas, since they'll be able to see the people and locations in which their apps are used most frequently, among other metrics, Kinsella says.
source: www.networkworld.com
Nokia, losing large shares to domestic brands!
The domestic companies like G'five, Micromax, and the Spice have consolidated their position in Indian mobile phone market with low priced and feature-rich handsets gains market shares of 33.2 percent, according to the IDC research.
According to the Indian Telecom Survey, Nokia's revenue slipped 15 percent to Rs 14,100 crore (down from Rs 16,567 crore in 2008-09, and this downfall was mainly due to the increasing presence of domestic brands. The survey further adds, because of the rapid move to touch screen smart phones and cloud computing Nokia is losing its shares. Nokia is well positioned for cloud computing with Ovi, but lost momentum when Apple introduced the touch screen paradigm to mobile phones. Several new players successfully launched their own devices at significantly lower Average Selling Values(ASVs) in the price sensitive India market. Such handsets found ready acceptance amongst first time buyers, especially from small towns and villages, IDC India Associate Vice President-Research Anirban Banerjee said.
During the last six months, the top five mobile handset vendors in India were the Finnish handset maker Nokia with a market share of 36.3 percent, Samsung with market share of 8.2 percent, Chinese brand G'five with a market share of 7.3 percent in terms of unit shipped. Apart from these mobile handset makers, India also gave a tough competition to the foreign brands in terms of price, handset model and services through Micomax and Spice.
The India mobile market saw a unique trend of multi-SIM phones capturing 38.5 percent of the market. This could be attributed to several new service providers responding with highly competitive tariff plans to a price sensitive mobile telephony user market,IDC India Lead Telecoms Analyst Nuveen Mishra said.
This represents a manifold increase from five new vendors, representing 0.9 percent combined share of units shipped in the January-March 2008 quarter.
source: www.siliconindia.com
According to the Indian Telecom Survey, Nokia's revenue slipped 15 percent to Rs 14,100 crore (down from Rs 16,567 crore in 2008-09, and this downfall was mainly due to the increasing presence of domestic brands. The survey further adds, because of the rapid move to touch screen smart phones and cloud computing Nokia is losing its shares. Nokia is well positioned for cloud computing with Ovi, but lost momentum when Apple introduced the touch screen paradigm to mobile phones. Several new players successfully launched their own devices at significantly lower Average Selling Values(ASVs) in the price sensitive India market. Such handsets found ready acceptance amongst first time buyers, especially from small towns and villages, IDC India Associate Vice President-Research Anirban Banerjee said.
During the last six months, the top five mobile handset vendors in India were the Finnish handset maker Nokia with a market share of 36.3 percent, Samsung with market share of 8.2 percent, Chinese brand G'five with a market share of 7.3 percent in terms of unit shipped. Apart from these mobile handset makers, India also gave a tough competition to the foreign brands in terms of price, handset model and services through Micomax and Spice.
The India mobile market saw a unique trend of multi-SIM phones capturing 38.5 percent of the market. This could be attributed to several new service providers responding with highly competitive tariff plans to a price sensitive mobile telephony user market,IDC India Lead Telecoms Analyst Nuveen Mishra said.
This represents a manifold increase from five new vendors, representing 0.9 percent combined share of units shipped in the January-March 2008 quarter.
source: www.siliconindia.com
Armed men in Addlestone travel agency raid
Surrey Police said the two men entered Co-operative Travel on Station Road at 1600 BST on Saturday.
They threatened a member of staff with what they claimed was a firearm wrapped in a cloth before pulling her into a back room and demanding money.
The men left on foot with thousands of pounds of sterling and foreign currency. Nobody was seriously injured during the incident.
Detectives said the suspects were black men in their mid to late 20s. One was clean shaven with short curly hair.
The second man had a goatee-style beard and was wearing a red and white checked shirt and navy blue hat.
source: www.bbc.co.uk
Scoop SEO Launches Social Media Marketing Services
The new services – found at http://www.scoopseo.com/social-media-marketing helps the customer website to achieve a community of high-conversion target clients for their businesses, eventually earning the reputation for being the Go-Person for the business service or product offered. This enhances repeat business and better buying referrals from the community.
For fixed monthly cost, anyone signing up for SMM services get access to SMM professionals, with proven success in Social Media Marketing at Scoop SEO.
Sydney Ifergan, the founder of ScoopSEO remarked, “Building websites is just the beginning; however, getting buying visitors to the site is all the work about. You do not want to have a website that no one is looking at, that which does not give you any business. Your website is more than just a visiting card. We have put together a team of SEO, SMO, and SMM pros to help boost your business profile, attracting visitors who really buy. We are glad to offer our customers the services they have been asking for from us.”
They have beta tested their strategies with results proven for increased buying traffic.
About Scoop SEO
Scoop SEO is an online marketing company that provides absolute SEO, SMO and SMM services.
Their services are not limited to website design, e-commerce site development, website design analysis for search engine friendliness, content planning, competitive analysis, and link building.
They advertise your site applying social media marketing strategies, newsletters, subscriptions, list building, lead generation and more.
source: www.pr.com
SANpulse launches SAN migration software
By Dave Simpson
According to survey results from Bloor Research, enterprise storage migration and data center consolidation projects have a success rate of only 16%, where “success” is defined as being on time and on budget.
That’s the problem that SANpulse hopes to solve with the introduction of its first licensed software product. Dubbed SANatomy, the software enables IT organizations to assess a SAN environment during the planning phase of a data/storage/SAN migration project.
Prior to the introduction of SANatomy, SANpulse was primarily a professional services organization focused on storage migration services for large enterprises. SANatomy is based on technology that SANpulse has been using for those services since 2005.
The reason for the low success rate of storage migration projects is that IT organizations don’t fully understand their SAN environments or the risks associated with guesswork in a migration project, which can lead to financial loss in the tens of millions of dollars, according to Marie-Pierre Belanger, SANpulse’s vice president of product management.
The financial loss comes from the need to maintain two sets of storage environments and to pay multiple vendors during the delay that occurs from a stalled migration project.
Storage migration initiatives typically involve switching array vendors or refreshing arrays from the same vendor, and major driving forces behind migration projects include data center consolidation, technology refreshes, virtualization, cloud computing, compliance and “green” initiatives, according to Belanger.
SANatomy provides a SAN assets discovery engine that generates detailed, migration-related information about a SAN infrastructure, including disk arrays, switches, servers and HBAs. The information is delivered as reports that can be housed in a SANpulse cloud or in an internal private cloud.
“The primary goals are to reduce the risks associated with data migration and to provide faster implementation,” says Belanger.
SANatomy provides an alternative to internally-developed software and vendor-specific tools from third parties or the equipment manufacturers.
“We overlap a little with SRM tools from a discovery perspective,” says Belanger, “but we’re focused on migration, not monitoring and performance management. Our primary competition is home-grown tools.”
After using SANatomy in the information-gathering stage of a migration project, IT organizations can perform the actual migration themselves or contract with SANpulse or other third-party data migration services providers for the design, implementation and execution phases of the migration process. And after the migration project is completed, IT organizations can use SANatomy on an ongoing basis for decision making in the storage lifecycle management process.
Pricing for the agent-less SANatomy software is based on the number of servers, rather than capacity. Prices start at $22,000 per year for 50 to 250 servers, and range up to $200,000 for more than 5,000 servers. After the first year, the software is available on a subscription basis, with per-month subscriptions ranging from $1,000 for 50 to 250 servers up to $10,000 for more than 5,000 servers.
source: www.infostor.com
According to survey results from Bloor Research, enterprise storage migration and data center consolidation projects have a success rate of only 16%, where “success” is defined as being on time and on budget.
That’s the problem that SANpulse hopes to solve with the introduction of its first licensed software product. Dubbed SANatomy, the software enables IT organizations to assess a SAN environment during the planning phase of a data/storage/SAN migration project.
Prior to the introduction of SANatomy, SANpulse was primarily a professional services organization focused on storage migration services for large enterprises. SANatomy is based on technology that SANpulse has been using for those services since 2005.
The reason for the low success rate of storage migration projects is that IT organizations don’t fully understand their SAN environments or the risks associated with guesswork in a migration project, which can lead to financial loss in the tens of millions of dollars, according to Marie-Pierre Belanger, SANpulse’s vice president of product management.
The financial loss comes from the need to maintain two sets of storage environments and to pay multiple vendors during the delay that occurs from a stalled migration project.
Storage migration initiatives typically involve switching array vendors or refreshing arrays from the same vendor, and major driving forces behind migration projects include data center consolidation, technology refreshes, virtualization, cloud computing, compliance and “green” initiatives, according to Belanger.
SANatomy provides a SAN assets discovery engine that generates detailed, migration-related information about a SAN infrastructure, including disk arrays, switches, servers and HBAs. The information is delivered as reports that can be housed in a SANpulse cloud or in an internal private cloud.
“The primary goals are to reduce the risks associated with data migration and to provide faster implementation,” says Belanger.
SANatomy provides an alternative to internally-developed software and vendor-specific tools from third parties or the equipment manufacturers.
“We overlap a little with SRM tools from a discovery perspective,” says Belanger, “but we’re focused on migration, not monitoring and performance management. Our primary competition is home-grown tools.”
After using SANatomy in the information-gathering stage of a migration project, IT organizations can perform the actual migration themselves or contract with SANpulse or other third-party data migration services providers for the design, implementation and execution phases of the migration process. And after the migration project is completed, IT organizations can use SANatomy on an ongoing basis for decision making in the storage lifecycle management process.
Pricing for the agent-less SANatomy software is based on the number of servers, rather than capacity. Prices start at $22,000 per year for 50 to 250 servers, and range up to $200,000 for more than 5,000 servers. After the first year, the software is available on a subscription basis, with per-month subscriptions ranging from $1,000 for 50 to 250 servers up to $10,000 for more than 5,000 servers.
source: www.infostor.com
Brazil dazzles global finance
The expression “riche comme un Argentin” was popular in Paris a century ago, when Argentina was one of the world’s 10 wealthiest countries. Today the phrase could be reworked to “rich as a Brazilian”, given last week’s share offering by Petrobras – the world’s biggest ever. At $67bn, the state-controlled oil company raised a sum roughly equivalent to the annual economic output of a reasonably sized country such as Iraq. And, as President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva crowed (if not entirely accurately), it all took place in São Paulo.
This projection of financial might comes just a week before the presidential election. That is handy but not decisive for Dilma Rousseff, given that the former Petrobras chairwoman and Mr Lula da Silva’s anointed successor is expected to romp home anyway. Globally, though, Petrobras’ offering is more than just a big deal. It is a marker of Brazil’s growing international financial presence.
Giant companies such as Odebrecht have long been active abroad, but mostly in Latin America. Globally, lusophone corporate imperialism is better known via the likes of Vale and JBS, the world’s largest meat producing group. Brazilian banks, such as Itaú-Unibanco, the world’s eighth biggest by market capitalisation, have followed such clients abroad. All are known dealmakers, and globally active issuers of equity and debt.
Petrobras’ offering, however, has introduced a whole new investor audience. Hitherto, most knew Brazil for its bonds – especially in Japan, where retail investors bought some $8bn of sovereign debt this year. China prefers direct investment. Either way, Brazil needs this international reach to fund a current account deficit running at about $50bn a year. Investors seem happy to stump up. During the credit crunch, Brazil was one of few emerging countries to enjoy continued net inflows.
The globalisation of Brazilian finance will be felt increasingly in international centres. New York is a traditional regional hub, but London (the same flying time from São Paulo) is gaining ground, in part thanks to its timezone which allows South-to-South trades to be executed the same working day. It is no accident that BNDES, Brazil’s development bank, with a balance sheet larger than the World Bank’s and aspirations to become Brazil’s sovereign wealth fund manager, chose London as its main foreign office.
As hedge funds threaten to decamp from London to less taxed climes, the City need not panic. The Brazilians are coming instead.
source: www.ft.com/cms
This projection of financial might comes just a week before the presidential election. That is handy but not decisive for Dilma Rousseff, given that the former Petrobras chairwoman and Mr Lula da Silva’s anointed successor is expected to romp home anyway. Globally, though, Petrobras’ offering is more than just a big deal. It is a marker of Brazil’s growing international financial presence.
Giant companies such as Odebrecht have long been active abroad, but mostly in Latin America. Globally, lusophone corporate imperialism is better known via the likes of Vale and JBS, the world’s largest meat producing group. Brazilian banks, such as Itaú-Unibanco, the world’s eighth biggest by market capitalisation, have followed such clients abroad. All are known dealmakers, and globally active issuers of equity and debt.
Petrobras’ offering, however, has introduced a whole new investor audience. Hitherto, most knew Brazil for its bonds – especially in Japan, where retail investors bought some $8bn of sovereign debt this year. China prefers direct investment. Either way, Brazil needs this international reach to fund a current account deficit running at about $50bn a year. Investors seem happy to stump up. During the credit crunch, Brazil was one of few emerging countries to enjoy continued net inflows.
The globalisation of Brazilian finance will be felt increasingly in international centres. New York is a traditional regional hub, but London (the same flying time from São Paulo) is gaining ground, in part thanks to its timezone which allows South-to-South trades to be executed the same working day. It is no accident that BNDES, Brazil’s development bank, with a balance sheet larger than the World Bank’s and aspirations to become Brazil’s sovereign wealth fund manager, chose London as its main foreign office.
As hedge funds threaten to decamp from London to less taxed climes, the City need not panic. The Brazilians are coming instead.
source: www.ft.com/cms
Travel advice: best credit cards abroad
Reader's question
Infuriated by the way banks charge for using credit or debit cards abroad, I got a Nationwide Zero card, which doesn’t impose a fee. But I gather that this is about to change. Are there other cards that offer the no-fee deal? Or any other methods of payment that would be more cost-effective?
David Evans
Related Articles
*
More advice from the experts
*
Finding the best-value accommodation
*
Travel advice: no-fly cruises
*
Travel advice: How to get compensation from a tour operator
*
Travel advice: the true cost of car hire
*
Travel advice: how to cut costs on a villa stay
Sophie Butler replies
You’re right that every time you use a card abroad to pay restaurant and hotel bills, or for shopping, your card provider – whether a bank or building society – will take a tidy cut by way of a charge.
These charges vary according to the bank or building society you belong to, but the typical amount is 2.75 per cent of the transaction. This means, for example, that you’d pay €11 on a hotel bill of €400. But it’s not quite that simple. Because the exchange rate changes daily, you’re unlikely to know the exact amount taken by your bank until it appears on your statement. Infuriating.
As you point out, until now Nationwide has taken a refreshingly different approach to that of its competitors, charging no fees on either credit or debit card transactions. However, you’re also correct when you say the building society’s policy is set to change. The alteration comes on November 1, when the society introduces a two per cent commission on debit-card transactions. The reasoning is that relatively few customers benefited from the no-fee policy so instead, says Nationwide’s Steve Blore, the company will be offering free multi-trip travel insurance in Europe, which it thinks will benefit more people.
But it’s not all bad news for Nationwide cardholders as its credit card continues to be charge-free – though only when it’s used within Visa’s European region.
Visit www.nationwide.co.uk for precisely which countries fall within these limits.
The Post Office, meanwhile, offers a credit card with no handling fees wherever you travel, available either in branch or online at www.postoffice.co.uk/creditcard or by calling 0800 169 2000.
So are these credit cards worth having? Well, they could be if you travel a lot and are heavily reliant on a credit card. It’s worth noting that paying for goods and services by credit card can be marginally cheaper than using a debit card, which sometimes incurs an additional “point of sale” fee of around £1 per use. But of course, to make it cost-effective you need to pay off your balance monthly, otherwise you will incur interest charges.
If you’d rather pay for items with cash, the best way of doing so is to use a debit card in a local ATM. Once again, there is a transaction fee (the exact amount depends on your bank) but you won’t be hit with the withdrawal fee of typically 2.5 per cent – or £2.50 minimum – that you’d pay for using a credit card. Note, too, that if you use a credit card to withdraw cash rather than a debit card, you probably won’t benefit from an interest-free period. The clock starts ticking as soon as you withdraw the money.
However, to avoid the withdrawal fee by using a debit card, you do have to use a certain kind of ATM. Look out for one belonging to a bank which is a member of the Global Alliance (Bank of America in the United States, BNP Paribas in France, Deutsche Bank in Germany and Spain, Absa in South Africa, Scotiabank in Canada and Mexico, and Westpac in Australia and New Zealand). However, if you withdraw cash from a non-global alliance ATM, you will be hit with a charge of up to £4.50 per transaction.
Clearly, it’s important to check the terms and conditions on your cards before you use them abroad. And be careful not to trip up on the jargon. The “foreign exchange fee”, for example, may also be called an “optional issuer fee” or “non-sterling transaction charge”. Whatever it’s called, the end result is the same – more money for banks and less.
source: www.telegraph.co.uk
SEO Copywriting Expert Monika Mundell Excited To Include Corporate Packages
Brisbane, QLD, Australia, September 25, 2010 – SEO copywriting expert Monika Mundell is no stranger to working with corporations to help them gain better search engine rankings. Her website www.monikamundell.com has long been the place to go for savvy webmasters looking for sizzling web copy.
Mrs Mundell has introduced SEO copywriting packages to help corporations in need of regular web content save money. Her sought after packages help companies (and individuals) benefit from her expertise as an experienced SEO copywriter. Great SEO copy will attract more search traffic and higher rankings in the search engines.
Mrs Mundell said. “I’m really excited about my revamped SEO copywriting packages. Many of my existing clients have already taken advantage of this offer. The feedback has been great so far.”
About Monika Mundell: Highly valued for her skills as an expert SEO copywriter, Mrs Mundell has helped hundreds of clients achieve better search engine rankings with her SEO copywriting. Visit www.monikamundell.com today to see how she can help your business rank better.
source: www.webwire.com
Mrs Mundell has introduced SEO copywriting packages to help corporations in need of regular web content save money. Her sought after packages help companies (and individuals) benefit from her expertise as an experienced SEO copywriter. Great SEO copy will attract more search traffic and higher rankings in the search engines.
Mrs Mundell said. “I’m really excited about my revamped SEO copywriting packages. Many of my existing clients have already taken advantage of this offer. The feedback has been great so far.”
About Monika Mundell: Highly valued for her skills as an expert SEO copywriter, Mrs Mundell has helped hundreds of clients achieve better search engine rankings with her SEO copywriting. Visit www.monikamundell.com today to see how she can help your business rank better.
source: www.webwire.com
Enterprise Software Spending to Rise 4.5 Percent This Year
by Timothy Prickett Morgan
The global enterprise software market is on the rebound this year after taking it on the chin thanks to the Great Recession last year. According to the analysts at Gartner, worldwide software sales across all categories will come to $232 billion in 2010, up 4.5 percent from last year's spending levels.
Gartner is projecting that software spending will rise even faster in 2011, up 6.3 percent to $246.6 billion, and is projecting for sales to hit $297 billion by 2014. This represents a compound annual growth rate of 6 percent over the six years running from 2009 through 2014.
"After declining 2.6 percent in 2009, the worldwide market for enterprise software is recovering well with signs of continuing growth on the horizon," said Joanne Correia, a managing vice president at Gartner who tracks software spending, in a statement accompanying the projections. "Aging systems, as well as greater demand for security and aligning software with business requirements, are key decision factors for end users increasing their spending within the infrastructure software market."
Gartner reckons that enterprise software spending in North America will rise by 8.5 percent, to $110.8 billion, this year and will continue to grow through 2014 until it hits $143.6 billion. Software sales in the United States and Canada were front-loaded, showing pent up demand in 2010 and growth is expected to slow in the second half of the year. (The PC market had the same ricochet curve and I suspect the server racket will eventually follow a similar curve once the virtualization boom goes bust.)
Software sales in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa are still not out of the woods and are projected to fall by 3.4 percent, to $64.5 billion; sales are nonetheless expected to eventually recover and hit $76.2 billion by 2014. Western Europe is finding its legs in terms of enterprise software spending, but Eastern Europe is volatile, according to Gartner. Germany and France are leading a recovery in spending for software, with the United Kingdom and the Nordic countries doing alright, but Portugal, Ireland, Greece, and Spain--the so-called PIGS--are struggling. Sometimes Italy is thrown into the mix to make the PIIGS.
The Asia/Pacific region, which includes China and India but not Japan, is expected to grow 13 percent, to $22 billion, this year, balancing out some of the decline in Europe but clearly, for all its growth, the AP region is a lot smaller than the EMEA region when it comes to enterprise software and is utterly dwarfed by North America.
source: www.itjungle.com
The global enterprise software market is on the rebound this year after taking it on the chin thanks to the Great Recession last year. According to the analysts at Gartner, worldwide software sales across all categories will come to $232 billion in 2010, up 4.5 percent from last year's spending levels.
Gartner is projecting that software spending will rise even faster in 2011, up 6.3 percent to $246.6 billion, and is projecting for sales to hit $297 billion by 2014. This represents a compound annual growth rate of 6 percent over the six years running from 2009 through 2014.
"After declining 2.6 percent in 2009, the worldwide market for enterprise software is recovering well with signs of continuing growth on the horizon," said Joanne Correia, a managing vice president at Gartner who tracks software spending, in a statement accompanying the projections. "Aging systems, as well as greater demand for security and aligning software with business requirements, are key decision factors for end users increasing their spending within the infrastructure software market."
Gartner reckons that enterprise software spending in North America will rise by 8.5 percent, to $110.8 billion, this year and will continue to grow through 2014 until it hits $143.6 billion. Software sales in the United States and Canada were front-loaded, showing pent up demand in 2010 and growth is expected to slow in the second half of the year. (The PC market had the same ricochet curve and I suspect the server racket will eventually follow a similar curve once the virtualization boom goes bust.)
Software sales in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa are still not out of the woods and are projected to fall by 3.4 percent, to $64.5 billion; sales are nonetheless expected to eventually recover and hit $76.2 billion by 2014. Western Europe is finding its legs in terms of enterprise software spending, but Eastern Europe is volatile, according to Gartner. Germany and France are leading a recovery in spending for software, with the United Kingdom and the Nordic countries doing alright, but Portugal, Ireland, Greece, and Spain--the so-called PIGS--are struggling. Sometimes Italy is thrown into the mix to make the PIIGS.
The Asia/Pacific region, which includes China and India but not Japan, is expected to grow 13 percent, to $22 billion, this year, balancing out some of the decline in Europe but clearly, for all its growth, the AP region is a lot smaller than the EMEA region when it comes to enterprise software and is utterly dwarfed by North America.
source: www.itjungle.com
ONE OF THE TOP SEO SPECIALISTS IS IN TOWN
Looking for some fresh SEO secrets to launch or expand your business?
Well you can't miss out on the A4U Expo coming up on 12th-13th October 2010 at the London Excel. Gary R. Beal the Managing Director of Vanguard SEO, will be in town. Gary has been established as a successful Search Engine Optimization specialist for the past 13 years. He has presented at numerous A4U Events before, in addition to many Search Engine Strategies (SES), Casino Affiliate Program (CAP), Social Networking, Dating plus other conferences, all around world. So without a doubt, this year he is guaranteed to deliver exciting new and innovative ideas to the world of SEO.
Gary is a down to earth guy famous for his free one-to-one service at conferences and his straight to the point yet simple to understand presenting style, which makes people feel at ease.
This testimonial says it all:
“Gary’s seminar was far superior to any on SEO I have seen before. There is a tendency amongst most speakers to either regurgitate basic information or go into overly technical detail. Gary managed to avoid both by giving a well presented, highly informative and easily understandable presentation.”
Paul Harris - www.allaboutlaw.co.uk
Over the years Gary has worked in highly competitive industries such as Online Gaming, Travel, Banking and Finance, Insurance and Dating. He has also been on many expert SEO panels and has written many specialized articles for several online marketing publications.
Search, Pay Per Click, Affiliate Management and Email Marketing are his specialist areas that he has vast knowledge and experience in. The SEO/SEM/PPC forums Gary is well known as GaryTheScubaGuy and a Moderator. As an analyst and consultant, he has been influential in the development of many SEO and PPC tools – and he gives them away!
One of the hot topics Gary will be discussing in this conference is the release of two free tools that will have a major impact on the industry. Vanguard SEO has been working hard over the past 2 years developing them internally within Vanguard SEO and they are constantly being improved to obtain optimum results, by tracking web and ranking traffic. This is something to be excited about and as always with the generous Gary; he is offering all this at no cost.
Oh, as usual he will be doing his Top 12 SEO Tips as well.
So if you want to find out some of Gary's top SEO secrets for this year, then come and visit A4U Expo on the 12th-13th October 2010 at the London Excel. For more information visit our website at https://www.a4uexpo.com.
source:www.responsesource.com
Well you can't miss out on the A4U Expo coming up on 12th-13th October 2010 at the London Excel. Gary R. Beal the Managing Director of Vanguard SEO, will be in town. Gary has been established as a successful Search Engine Optimization specialist for the past 13 years. He has presented at numerous A4U Events before, in addition to many Search Engine Strategies (SES), Casino Affiliate Program (CAP), Social Networking, Dating plus other conferences, all around world. So without a doubt, this year he is guaranteed to deliver exciting new and innovative ideas to the world of SEO.
Gary is a down to earth guy famous for his free one-to-one service at conferences and his straight to the point yet simple to understand presenting style, which makes people feel at ease.
This testimonial says it all:
“Gary’s seminar was far superior to any on SEO I have seen before. There is a tendency amongst most speakers to either regurgitate basic information or go into overly technical detail. Gary managed to avoid both by giving a well presented, highly informative and easily understandable presentation.”
Paul Harris - www.allaboutlaw.co.uk
Over the years Gary has worked in highly competitive industries such as Online Gaming, Travel, Banking and Finance, Insurance and Dating. He has also been on many expert SEO panels and has written many specialized articles for several online marketing publications.
Search, Pay Per Click, Affiliate Management and Email Marketing are his specialist areas that he has vast knowledge and experience in. The SEO/SEM/PPC forums Gary is well known as GaryTheScubaGuy and a Moderator. As an analyst and consultant, he has been influential in the development of many SEO and PPC tools – and he gives them away!
One of the hot topics Gary will be discussing in this conference is the release of two free tools that will have a major impact on the industry. Vanguard SEO has been working hard over the past 2 years developing them internally within Vanguard SEO and they are constantly being improved to obtain optimum results, by tracking web and ranking traffic. This is something to be excited about and as always with the generous Gary; he is offering all this at no cost.
Oh, as usual he will be doing his Top 12 SEO Tips as well.
So if you want to find out some of Gary's top SEO secrets for this year, then come and visit A4U Expo on the 12th-13th October 2010 at the London Excel. For more information visit our website at https://www.a4uexpo.com.
source:www.responsesource.com
Nokia N8 Contract: Enjoy Talking
 |
| Nokia N8 Mobile |
Nokia is known for its many advanced and hi-tech mobile phones. Success behind the brand is due to its ability to manufacture all possible handset and that can fulfill all the requirement of every kind of mobile users. One such mobile phone is Nokia N8. It is a simple classy device with good communication tool that shows the unique and elegant features. With this user can access friends, family, information, files more comfortably. This N8 handset is available under Nokia N8 Contract in market with which user can enjoy facilities of reduced handset’s price with many pleasant offers.
Orange, Vodafone, Virgin, O2, Talk mobile, 3 Mobile are some of the famous network service provider companies that are presenting many contract of different time periods. Time periods varies as 6 / 12 / 18 / 24 / 36 months. To acquire the contract, it is necessary to sign up an agreement of any of the associated network service provider. An individual can go for any of the available time period depending up on their calling habits, dependency on mobile and necessities. The Contract is a win-win situation where both the parties (that is retailer and customer) get benefited.
Samsung Galaxy S Goes Free with Mobile Phone Deals
The new Samsung Galaxy Tab is to be bundled as a free gift with a range of mobile phone deals upon its launch, the independent retailer BuyMobilePhones has now confirmed that they will be including a free Samsung Galaxy Tab with a large range of their mobile phone deals and best of all consumers can receive their new tablet in under 72 hours.
Examples of the deals that will be available include the best selling HTC Desire with a free Samsung Galaxy Tab at only £40 per month, with the HTC Wildfire at just £25 per month and at the same line rental the Sony Ericsson X10 Mini.
Obviously, all of those are Android powered phones but the range of handsets on offer include all operating systems with the cheapest deals on the lower specced phones starting from just £20 per month. Of course consumers will also be able to buy this first Samsung tablet on its own with a contract deal as soon as it is released.
The Samsung GALAXY Tab brings together all of Samsung’s leading innovations to provide you with more capabilities while on the move. You are able to experience PC-like web-browsing and enjoy all forms of multimedia content on the perfectly sized 7-inch display, wherever you go.
As a new category of device, the Samsung GALAXY Tab brings a wealth of mobile experiences. Its striking 7″ TFT-LCD display delivers exciting mobile experience for watching films, viewing pictures, e-reading or sharing documents. In design, its light (380g) build provides perfect portability, with its svelte dimensions making it easy to grip and use. Supporting the latest Adobe Flash Player 10.1, the Samsung GALAXY Tab fully supports swift, seamless viewing of every single page of the web.
With 3G HSPA connectivity, 802.11n Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 3.0, the Samsung GALAXY Tab enhances your mobile communication on a whole new level. Video conferencing and push email on the large 7-inch display make communication more smooth and efficient. For voice telephony, the Samsung GALAXY Tab turns out to be a perfect speakerphone on the desk, or a mobile phone on the move via Bluetooth headset.
Powered by a Cortex A8 1.0GHz application processor, the Samsung GALAXY Tab is designed to deliver high performance whenever and wherever you are. At the same time, HD video contents are supported by a wide range of multimedia formats (DivX, XviD, MPEG4, H.263, H.264 and more), which maximizes the joy of entertainment.
While the front-facing camera allows face-to-face video telephony over 3G, the rear-facing camera captures still images and video that you can edit, upload and share, all without any hassle. As online content explodes, the Samsung GALAXY Tab is the best portable solution for every lifestyle that needs a constant connection.
About Phones Limited: A price comparison website for the latest mobile phone deals from over 20 leading UK mobile phones retailers and networks resulting in over 1.5 million deals compared daily.
source:mynewsdesk.com/uk
Examples of the deals that will be available include the best selling HTC Desire with a free Samsung Galaxy Tab at only £40 per month, with the HTC Wildfire at just £25 per month and at the same line rental the Sony Ericsson X10 Mini.
Obviously, all of those are Android powered phones but the range of handsets on offer include all operating systems with the cheapest deals on the lower specced phones starting from just £20 per month. Of course consumers will also be able to buy this first Samsung tablet on its own with a contract deal as soon as it is released.
The Samsung GALAXY Tab brings together all of Samsung’s leading innovations to provide you with more capabilities while on the move. You are able to experience PC-like web-browsing and enjoy all forms of multimedia content on the perfectly sized 7-inch display, wherever you go.
As a new category of device, the Samsung GALAXY Tab brings a wealth of mobile experiences. Its striking 7″ TFT-LCD display delivers exciting mobile experience for watching films, viewing pictures, e-reading or sharing documents. In design, its light (380g) build provides perfect portability, with its svelte dimensions making it easy to grip and use. Supporting the latest Adobe Flash Player 10.1, the Samsung GALAXY Tab fully supports swift, seamless viewing of every single page of the web.
With 3G HSPA connectivity, 802.11n Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 3.0, the Samsung GALAXY Tab enhances your mobile communication on a whole new level. Video conferencing and push email on the large 7-inch display make communication more smooth and efficient. For voice telephony, the Samsung GALAXY Tab turns out to be a perfect speakerphone on the desk, or a mobile phone on the move via Bluetooth headset.
Powered by a Cortex A8 1.0GHz application processor, the Samsung GALAXY Tab is designed to deliver high performance whenever and wherever you are. At the same time, HD video contents are supported by a wide range of multimedia formats (DivX, XviD, MPEG4, H.263, H.264 and more), which maximizes the joy of entertainment.
While the front-facing camera allows face-to-face video telephony over 3G, the rear-facing camera captures still images and video that you can edit, upload and share, all without any hassle. As online content explodes, the Samsung GALAXY Tab is the best portable solution for every lifestyle that needs a constant connection.
About Phones Limited: A price comparison website for the latest mobile phone deals from over 20 leading UK mobile phones retailers and networks resulting in over 1.5 million deals compared daily.
source:mynewsdesk.com/uk
My Home Finance scheme a boost to excluded borrowers
The government's My Home Finance scheme aims to offer borrowers with a poor credit history a cheaper alternative to loan sharks
Borrowers who are normally forced to seek exhorbitantly expensive credit from door step and pay day lenders will be offered a cheaper source of borrowing by the government and the National Housing Federation from today.
Work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith is launching a new loan scheme for people who are financially excluded by the high street banks because they have a poor credit record or are on a low income.
The scheme My Home Finance, run in collaboration with the Royal Bank of Scotland, 26 housing associations and the Wates Foundation, will provide loans charging a typical APR of 29.9%, comparing very favourably to the rates charged by doorstep and pay-day lenders, which can range from 200% to 2,000%. Loans of around £500 will usually last for a year, but borrowers can select a shorter or longer term if preferred.
My Home Finance will start with 10 branches across the West Midlands by the end of October, and will roll out to the rest of the UK from next April if successful, writing up to 150,000 loans to people on lower incomes over the next 10 years. The branches will be located in busy high streets and shopping centres, providing easy access to those who have previously been turned away by high street lenders.
The West Midlands has unemployment levels among the highest in the UK and the National Housing Federation says the area is in particular need of affordable credit, access to bank accounts and money advice. Branches have already opened in Hereford, Worcester, Walsall and Northfield, south Birmingham. By the end of October, further branches will have opened in Coventry, Tamworth, Dudley and Wolverhampton, and in Birmingham city centre and Erdington, in north Birmingham.
Around 2.5 million people borrow from doorstep lenders at rates often in the region of 272% for new customers. A further 200,000 are estimated to borrow from loan sharks. A majority of those financially excluded are social housing tenants.
Dixon Erroll, a cleaner from Birmingham who has three or four part-time jobs and a history of missed loan payments, is borrowing £1,000 from My Home Finance to pay off two payday loans totalling £800 which cost him £200 a month to renew. He will be paying an interest rate of 16% APR over one year to repay the £1,000 loan.
He said: "I've dealt with doorstep lenders in the past, and payday lenders now, and they are robbers. My Home Finance are very fair to deal with, and the loan will be repaid after 52 weeks so you know exactly where you stand."
Loan payments will be made by direct debit: My Home Finance will help those who don't already have an account open one with the Royal Bank of Scotland.
Itisam Akhtar, office manager for the Birmingham branches, said that each case would be judged on its merits: "If they've got a recent entry on their credit record, we need to look at that with a bit of caution. We will have a chat with the customer – we know what questions to ask. But we can't dismiss them out of hand – that would undermine the whole purposes of the scheme."
David Orr, the federation's chief executive, said: "My Home Finance will provide an affordable, convenient and trusted option for people on lower incomes looking to build up their savings and borrow modest sums.
"By offering fair loans at fair prices, we hope to offer an alternative to both loan sharks, who cynically prey on hard-up families, and doorstep lenders, who are all too willing to lend cash to the desperate at hugely inflated rates of interest.
"This ambitious not-for-profit sustainable scheme shows the determination of the housing association sector, the government and RBS, to help financially excluded consumers to join the financial mainstream by saving and borrowing in a fair and responsible manner."
Malcolm Hurlston, chairman of the debt advisory charity Consumer Credit Counselling Service, welcomed the launch of My Home Service, but said that given the limited number of loans the service was intending to make, it would not replace doorstep lenders and payday loans.
He also questioned the wisdom of collecting payments by direct debit, pointing out that although this has enabled the service to keep interest rates low, lenders in the the high risk, "sub prime" market have previously said that regular face-to-face contact with borrowers was necessary to ensure payments were made. "Although paying by direct debit will keep the costs down, it could be a weakness as well," he said.
sources: guardian.co.uk
Borrowers who are normally forced to seek exhorbitantly expensive credit from door step and pay day lenders will be offered a cheaper source of borrowing by the government and the National Housing Federation from today.
Work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith is launching a new loan scheme for people who are financially excluded by the high street banks because they have a poor credit record or are on a low income.
The scheme My Home Finance, run in collaboration with the Royal Bank of Scotland, 26 housing associations and the Wates Foundation, will provide loans charging a typical APR of 29.9%, comparing very favourably to the rates charged by doorstep and pay-day lenders, which can range from 200% to 2,000%. Loans of around £500 will usually last for a year, but borrowers can select a shorter or longer term if preferred.
My Home Finance will start with 10 branches across the West Midlands by the end of October, and will roll out to the rest of the UK from next April if successful, writing up to 150,000 loans to people on lower incomes over the next 10 years. The branches will be located in busy high streets and shopping centres, providing easy access to those who have previously been turned away by high street lenders.
The West Midlands has unemployment levels among the highest in the UK and the National Housing Federation says the area is in particular need of affordable credit, access to bank accounts and money advice. Branches have already opened in Hereford, Worcester, Walsall and Northfield, south Birmingham. By the end of October, further branches will have opened in Coventry, Tamworth, Dudley and Wolverhampton, and in Birmingham city centre and Erdington, in north Birmingham.
Around 2.5 million people borrow from doorstep lenders at rates often in the region of 272% for new customers. A further 200,000 are estimated to borrow from loan sharks. A majority of those financially excluded are social housing tenants.
Dixon Erroll, a cleaner from Birmingham who has three or four part-time jobs and a history of missed loan payments, is borrowing £1,000 from My Home Finance to pay off two payday loans totalling £800 which cost him £200 a month to renew. He will be paying an interest rate of 16% APR over one year to repay the £1,000 loan.
He said: "I've dealt with doorstep lenders in the past, and payday lenders now, and they are robbers. My Home Finance are very fair to deal with, and the loan will be repaid after 52 weeks so you know exactly where you stand."
Loan payments will be made by direct debit: My Home Finance will help those who don't already have an account open one with the Royal Bank of Scotland.
Itisam Akhtar, office manager for the Birmingham branches, said that each case would be judged on its merits: "If they've got a recent entry on their credit record, we need to look at that with a bit of caution. We will have a chat with the customer – we know what questions to ask. But we can't dismiss them out of hand – that would undermine the whole purposes of the scheme."
David Orr, the federation's chief executive, said: "My Home Finance will provide an affordable, convenient and trusted option for people on lower incomes looking to build up their savings and borrow modest sums.
"By offering fair loans at fair prices, we hope to offer an alternative to both loan sharks, who cynically prey on hard-up families, and doorstep lenders, who are all too willing to lend cash to the desperate at hugely inflated rates of interest.
"This ambitious not-for-profit sustainable scheme shows the determination of the housing association sector, the government and RBS, to help financially excluded consumers to join the financial mainstream by saving and borrowing in a fair and responsible manner."
Malcolm Hurlston, chairman of the debt advisory charity Consumer Credit Counselling Service, welcomed the launch of My Home Service, but said that given the limited number of loans the service was intending to make, it would not replace doorstep lenders and payday loans.
He also questioned the wisdom of collecting payments by direct debit, pointing out that although this has enabled the service to keep interest rates low, lenders in the the high risk, "sub prime" market have previously said that regular face-to-face contact with borrowers was necessary to ensure payments were made. "Although paying by direct debit will keep the costs down, it could be a weakness as well," he said.
sources: guardian.co.uk
A Mingling of Leaf - Peeping and Time Travel
CONSTRUCTION began in 1846 on the Boston, Concord and Montreal Railroad, so business travelers and others have been gazing out the windows of trains huffing north into the White Mountains of New Hampshire for quite some time. Eddie and Brenda Clark only took the idea of a train rolling through tree-carpeted countryside and turned it into a lavish autumn excursion for sightseers in no particular hurry
Multimedia
When the Clarks bought the line, in the 1980s, they originally had in mind a railroad theme park. That plan grew into the Hobo and Winnipesaukee Scenic Railroads, which cover about 55 miles of track in New Hampshire.
The trip “fits that whole image of New England in the fall,” said Emily Clark, Eddie and Brenda’s daughter-in-law, who works for the family-owned Hobo line.
It is one of many vintage (or tourist) railroads — using steam or diesel engines — in the Northeast that do most of their business in the autumn, and for good reason: They take sightseers through woodland faster than on foot but slower than in a car. On the tracks, “you make good progress, but you aren’t flying by, unable to enjoy the view,” said Jim Wrinn, editor of Trains magazine.
Peak foliage season in the Northeast varies from year to year, depending on temperature and rainfall. But generally leaves turn color from north to south during a six-week period from about the middle of September to the first week of November, according to tracking sites like foliagenetwork.com, which provides regular reports.
In recent years, about a dozen tourist railroads in the region have added and expanded programs that take advantage of the exquisite autumn views. The Hobo and the Winnipesaukee, for example, offer one-, two-, four-hour and all-day trips. The Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway in Pennsylvania, the Catskill Mountain Railroad in upstate New York and the Wilmington & Western Railroad in Delaware are among the lines that cater to leaf peepers.
And seats fill fast. “We shotgun these things out the door, one after the other,” said David Ludlow, executive director of the Wilmington & Western.
Aesthetically, vintage steam or diesel locomotives offer trips back in time. Although the notion of “foliage trains” has been around since tourist railroads replaced some working ones 50 years ago, Mr. Wrinn said these trains retained their popularity because most roll through undeveloped land, like woods and farms.
“You can drive and see the fall colors, but you’re spending 75 percent of your attention on the road,” Mr. Wrinn said. “While with the train, you can let someone else take care of the transportation, and you can enjoy the changing kaleidoscope of autumn colors.”
Some of the rides are open-air, and Mr. Wrinn said that onboard, “there’s a certain joy in feeling the chill of the air in your face — it’s a subtle reminder that this beauty is fleeting and should be savored.”
Mr. Wrinn said he was a big fan of the Conway Scenic Railroad, in northern New Hampshire near the Maine border, and the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad, whose tracks slip through the rolling, tree-blanketed Allegheny Mountains. But you do not have to be a train buff to take advantage of lines within a short drive from New York with views — at comfortable temperatures.
The Catskill Mountain Railroad, which runs between Mount Tremper and Phoenicia near the Esopus Creek, chugs through a majestic tunnel of tree branches that looks like a cathedral. The Wilmington & Western, a 10-mile excursion, travels from the Coastal Plain region to the Piedmont, offering a glorious display of hardwoods with leaves in blazing colors.
Many of these panoramas cannot be seen from a road or are very difficult to access, even on foot. The Potomac Eagle runs along the south branch of the Potomac River, near Romney, W.Va. David Corbitt, president of the railroad, said there was no way a car could get down into the deep valley, locally known as the Trough.
That’s one reason the landscape remains pristine. Mr. Corbitt said activity around eagles’ nests among the limestone cliffs was at its peak in the autumn. Fox and bear sightings are common. Waterfowl migrate through the area. Paddlers in canoes or kayaks can enjoy the autumn scenery, Mr. Corbitt said, “but that’s about it.”
Although there are elaborate, multiday New England fall foliage excursions like those coordinated by Vacations by Rail and other companies and some leaf peepers have been known to book a year ahead, smaller railroads say those who call ahead for information and arrive at least an hour before the departure of foliage excursions usually get seats.
Some lines tie into autumn’s splendor with pumpkin patches at stops along the way, offering cider and cookies to everyone, and pumpkins to the youngest riders. Others coordinate trains with local foliage festivals, like the Lehigh Gorge line in Jim Thorpe, Pa., which offers special two-and-a-half-hour Hometown High Bridge excursions on weekends in October.
“We were turning hundreds of people away a day,” so more trains were added last year, said Laura Kennedy, the director of the Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway.
Visitors to the Conway Scenic Railroad come from all over the world in the fall, and the number of visitors from the Western United States spikes dramatically in October, said Susan Logan, the railroad’s director of marketing and events. To meet the demand, the railroad offers short excursions to a pumpkin patch and longer excursions like a five-and-a-half-hour trip.
The mood on a foliage train tends to be more serene than it is in the summer, Ms. Clark said, because children have returned to school, and the riders tend to be older. And as leaves thin, rock formations and waterways are more visible.
Those who built railroads like the Boston, Concord and Montreal through the Northeastern United States more than a century ago were simply trying to find a way to transport freight and passengers from one rural outpost to another. Now passengers are looking for a way to move like a slowpoke.
“You definitely get that old-world nostalgia,” Ms. Clark said.
sources: travel.nytimes.com
Multimedia
When the Clarks bought the line, in the 1980s, they originally had in mind a railroad theme park. That plan grew into the Hobo and Winnipesaukee Scenic Railroads, which cover about 55 miles of track in New Hampshire.
The trip “fits that whole image of New England in the fall,” said Emily Clark, Eddie and Brenda’s daughter-in-law, who works for the family-owned Hobo line.
It is one of many vintage (or tourist) railroads — using steam or diesel engines — in the Northeast that do most of their business in the autumn, and for good reason: They take sightseers through woodland faster than on foot but slower than in a car. On the tracks, “you make good progress, but you aren’t flying by, unable to enjoy the view,” said Jim Wrinn, editor of Trains magazine.
Peak foliage season in the Northeast varies from year to year, depending on temperature and rainfall. But generally leaves turn color from north to south during a six-week period from about the middle of September to the first week of November, according to tracking sites like foliagenetwork.com, which provides regular reports.
In recent years, about a dozen tourist railroads in the region have added and expanded programs that take advantage of the exquisite autumn views. The Hobo and the Winnipesaukee, for example, offer one-, two-, four-hour and all-day trips. The Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway in Pennsylvania, the Catskill Mountain Railroad in upstate New York and the Wilmington & Western Railroad in Delaware are among the lines that cater to leaf peepers.
And seats fill fast. “We shotgun these things out the door, one after the other,” said David Ludlow, executive director of the Wilmington & Western.
Aesthetically, vintage steam or diesel locomotives offer trips back in time. Although the notion of “foliage trains” has been around since tourist railroads replaced some working ones 50 years ago, Mr. Wrinn said these trains retained their popularity because most roll through undeveloped land, like woods and farms.
“You can drive and see the fall colors, but you’re spending 75 percent of your attention on the road,” Mr. Wrinn said. “While with the train, you can let someone else take care of the transportation, and you can enjoy the changing kaleidoscope of autumn colors.”
Some of the rides are open-air, and Mr. Wrinn said that onboard, “there’s a certain joy in feeling the chill of the air in your face — it’s a subtle reminder that this beauty is fleeting and should be savored.”
Mr. Wrinn said he was a big fan of the Conway Scenic Railroad, in northern New Hampshire near the Maine border, and the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad, whose tracks slip through the rolling, tree-blanketed Allegheny Mountains. But you do not have to be a train buff to take advantage of lines within a short drive from New York with views — at comfortable temperatures.
The Catskill Mountain Railroad, which runs between Mount Tremper and Phoenicia near the Esopus Creek, chugs through a majestic tunnel of tree branches that looks like a cathedral. The Wilmington & Western, a 10-mile excursion, travels from the Coastal Plain region to the Piedmont, offering a glorious display of hardwoods with leaves in blazing colors.
Many of these panoramas cannot be seen from a road or are very difficult to access, even on foot. The Potomac Eagle runs along the south branch of the Potomac River, near Romney, W.Va. David Corbitt, president of the railroad, said there was no way a car could get down into the deep valley, locally known as the Trough.
That’s one reason the landscape remains pristine. Mr. Corbitt said activity around eagles’ nests among the limestone cliffs was at its peak in the autumn. Fox and bear sightings are common. Waterfowl migrate through the area. Paddlers in canoes or kayaks can enjoy the autumn scenery, Mr. Corbitt said, “but that’s about it.”
Although there are elaborate, multiday New England fall foliage excursions like those coordinated by Vacations by Rail and other companies and some leaf peepers have been known to book a year ahead, smaller railroads say those who call ahead for information and arrive at least an hour before the departure of foliage excursions usually get seats.
Some lines tie into autumn’s splendor with pumpkin patches at stops along the way, offering cider and cookies to everyone, and pumpkins to the youngest riders. Others coordinate trains with local foliage festivals, like the Lehigh Gorge line in Jim Thorpe, Pa., which offers special two-and-a-half-hour Hometown High Bridge excursions on weekends in October.
“We were turning hundreds of people away a day,” so more trains were added last year, said Laura Kennedy, the director of the Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway.
Visitors to the Conway Scenic Railroad come from all over the world in the fall, and the number of visitors from the Western United States spikes dramatically in October, said Susan Logan, the railroad’s director of marketing and events. To meet the demand, the railroad offers short excursions to a pumpkin patch and longer excursions like a five-and-a-half-hour trip.
The mood on a foliage train tends to be more serene than it is in the summer, Ms. Clark said, because children have returned to school, and the riders tend to be older. And as leaves thin, rock formations and waterways are more visible.
Those who built railroads like the Boston, Concord and Montreal through the Northeastern United States more than a century ago were simply trying to find a way to transport freight and passengers from one rural outpost to another. Now passengers are looking for a way to move like a slowpoke.
“You definitely get that old-world nostalgia,” Ms. Clark said.
sources: travel.nytimes.com
Tecmark appoints mobile apps and SEO specialists
Tecmark appoints mobile apps and SEO specialists
Shiny 'appy people
Gareth Chadwick has been made client services manager, reporting directly to managing director, Richard Heyes. He will manage clients across both the SEO and app divisions.
Adrian Wu and Alex Kelbas will be concentrating on iPhone application development. The pair graduated with computer science degrees this summer, with smart phone applications a key element of their course.
“Our business is growing at a rapid pace as the demand for app development is at an all time high,” said Heyes.
“We are handling an incredible number of enquiries every month and to meet this demand and to service all our clients to the highest standards, we have taken on our three new recruits. They will be a valuable asset to the team and will contribute to our future growth and expansion as we become a major force in the UK app and SEO markets.”
It brings the total staff number at Tecmark to 11 as the agency predicts its most successful year to date, with turnover anticipated to hit £1.2m by the end of this financial year (March 2011), it currently stands at £750k.
source: how-do.co.uk
Apple Intercepts 27-inch Cinema Display Orders with Software Update 1.0
A note on the Support / Downloads section of Apple’s web site says that the LED Cinema Display Software Update 1.0 provides support for the 27-inch LED Cinema Display.
For more information about the update, Apple directs customers to a knowledge base article where it explains that this software updates the System Preferences pane where customers can change Ambient Light Sensor settings.
To do this, users must enable the option "Automatically adjust brightness as ambient light changes" to turn the ambient light sensor on and off. A slider is there so that customers can adjust the brightness level to suit their needs.
“Additionally, this software update includes a modification to Sound preferences pane that will allow you to select the LED Cinema display as your audio output,” Apple notes. “You can also control the left and right balance using the slider,” the Mac maker adds, and posts relevant imagery as an example.
Checking with Apple’s Support document HT4293 is important, as it includes the proper instructions for installing this software update.
Updates such as these - adding support for new hardware - must be done exactly as instructed, otherwise there will be compatibility issues. The instructions are provided as follows.
(The downloadable LED Cinema Display Software Update 1.0 can be found at the bottom of this article)
1. Connect your Mac to your LED Cinema Display (27-inch).
2. Your computer and display power cords must be connected and plugged into a working power source.
3. Save all open documents and quit all other applications.
4. Download the update.
5. If you downloaded the disk image using Safari, Safari will notify you that an application is in the image. Click OK to continue.
6. The downloader will place the disk image with an installer in your Downloads folder or in the location specified in the General tab under Safari > Preferences.
7. If "Open safe files after downloading" is enabled in Safari preferences, the disk image file will mount by itself. If that preference is not enabled in Safari, double-click the disk image to mount it.
8. Double-click LEDCinemaDisplaySoftwareUpdate1.0.pkg.
9. Click Continue.
10. A license agreement appears. Click Continue to proceed.
11. Click Agree to accept the terms of the license agreement.
12. Select a destination to install the software. The destination will be highlighted by a green arrow. Click Continue.
13. To install the software, click Install.
14. Enter the computer administrator's password and click OK.
15. A dialog appears, indicating that this software will require a restart to complete the installation process. Click Continue Installation.
16. An "Installation was successful" dialog appears. Click Restart.
Apple Intercepts 27-inch Cinema Display Orders with Software Update 1.0
A note on the Support / Downloads section of Apple’s web site says that the LED Cinema Display Software Update 1.0 provides support for the 27-inch LED Cinema Display.
For more information about the update, Apple directs customers to a knowledge base article where it explains that this software updates the System Preferences pane where customers can change Ambient Light Sensor settings.
To do this, users must enable the option "Automatically adjust brightness as ambient light changes" to turn the ambient light sensor on and off. A slider is there so that customers can adjust the brightness level to suit their needs.
“Additionally, this software update includes a modification to Sound preferences pane that will allow you to select the LED Cinema display as your audio output,” Apple notes. “You can also control the left and right balance using the slider,” the Mac maker adds, and posts relevant imagery as an example.
Checking with Apple’s Support document HT4293 is important, as it includes the proper instructions for installing this software update.
Updates such as these - adding support for new hardware - must be done exactly as instructed, otherwise there will be compatibility issues. The instructions are provided as follows.
(The downloadable LED Cinema Display Software Update 1.0 can be found at the bottom of this article)
1. Connect your Mac to your LED Cinema Display (27-inch).
2. Your computer and display power cords must be connected and plugged into a working power source.
3. Save all open documents and quit all other applications.
4. Download the update.
5. If you downloaded the disk image using Safari, Safari will notify you that an application is in the image. Click OK to continue.
6. The downloader will place the disk image with an installer in your Downloads folder or in the location specified in the General tab under Safari > Preferences.
7. If "Open safe files after downloading" is enabled in Safari preferences, the disk image file will mount by itself. If that preference is not enabled in Safari, double-click the disk image to mount it.
8. Double-click LEDCinemaDisplaySoftwareUpdate1.0.pkg.
9. Click Continue.
10. A license agreement appears. Click Continue to proceed.
Publish Post
11. Click Agree to accept the terms of the license agreement.
Guernsey drops four places in finance centre rankings
Guernsey has dropped four places in a ranking of global finance centres, but experts say they are not concerned.
The island was ranked 26th in the Global Financial Services Index, four places below Jersey, but ahead of the Isle of Man.
Guernsey Finance, the group that promotes the local industry, said the island had retained its position as a leading "offshore" centre.
Peter Niven, its chief executive, said the result was a satisfying one.
He said: "Overall I think we can be satisfied with the outcome of this report.
'Good position'
"We can see from the table that Guernsey is not alone - particularly among 'offshore centres' - in seeing a drop in its ranking."
While Guernsey's score fell by 16 rating points, Jersey dropped 17 points and four places to 22nd and the Isle of Man lost 20 points and eight places, falling to 32nd place.
Mr Niven said the trend was down to emerging financial hubs such as Taipei, in Taiwan, and Seoul, in South Korea.
He said: "They have gained significantly from the last report and so have both Hong Kong and Shanghai."
Mr Niven said the island's work in establishing and strengthening relationships with these areas put the island "in a very good position to take advantage of the business flowing through these rapidly developing centres".
London came top of the list of 75, which is published every six months.
source: bbc.co.uk
The island was ranked 26th in the Global Financial Services Index, four places below Jersey, but ahead of the Isle of Man.
Guernsey Finance, the group that promotes the local industry, said the island had retained its position as a leading "offshore" centre.
Peter Niven, its chief executive, said the result was a satisfying one.
He said: "Overall I think we can be satisfied with the outcome of this report.
'Good position'
"We can see from the table that Guernsey is not alone - particularly among 'offshore centres' - in seeing a drop in its ranking."
While Guernsey's score fell by 16 rating points, Jersey dropped 17 points and four places to 22nd and the Isle of Man lost 20 points and eight places, falling to 32nd place.
Mr Niven said the trend was down to emerging financial hubs such as Taipei, in Taiwan, and Seoul, in South Korea.
He said: "They have gained significantly from the last report and so have both Hong Kong and Shanghai."
Mr Niven said the island's work in establishing and strengthening relationships with these areas put the island "in a very good position to take advantage of the business flowing through these rapidly developing centres".
London came top of the list of 75, which is published every six months.
source: bbc.co.uk
Guernsey drops four places in finance centre rankings
Guernsey has dropped four places in a ranking of global finance centres, but experts say they are not concerned.
The island was ranked 26th in the Global Financial Services Index, four places below Jersey, but ahead of the Isle of Man.
Guernsey Finance, the group that promotes the local industry, said the island had retained its position as a leading "offshore" centre.
Peter Niven, its chief executive, said the result was a satisfying one.
He said: "Overall I think we can be satisfied with the outcome of this report.
'Good position'
"We can see from the table that Guernsey is not alone - particularly among 'offshore centres' - in seeing a drop in its ranking."
While Guernsey's score fell by 16 rating points, Jersey dropped 17 points and four places to 22nd and the Isle of Man lost 20 points and eight places, falling to 32nd place.
Mr Niven said the trend was down to emerging financial hubs such as Taipei, in Taiwan, and Seoul, in South Korea.
He said: "They have gained significantly from the last report and so have both Hong Kong and Shanghai."
Mr Niven said the island's work in establishing and strengthening relationships with these areas put the island "in a very good position to take advantage of the business flowing through these rapidly developing centres".
London came top of the list of 75, which is published every six months.
source: bbc.co.uk
The island was ranked 26th in the Global Financial Services Index, four places below Jersey, but ahead of the Isle of Man.
Guernsey Finance, the group that promotes the local industry, said the island had retained its position as a leading "offshore" centre.
Peter Niven, its chief executive, said the result was a satisfying one.
He said: "Overall I think we can be satisfied with the outcome of this report.
'Good position'
"We can see from the table that Guernsey is not alone - particularly among 'offshore centres' - in seeing a drop in its ranking."
While Guernsey's score fell by 16 rating points, Jersey dropped 17 points and four places to 22nd and the Isle of Man lost 20 points and eight places, falling to 32nd place.
Mr Niven said the trend was down to emerging financial hubs such as Taipei, in Taiwan, and Seoul, in South Korea.
He said: "They have gained significantly from the last report and so have both Hong Kong and Shanghai."
Mr Niven said the island's work in establishing and strengthening relationships with these areas put the island "in a very good position to take advantage of the business flowing through these rapidly developing centres".
London came top of the list of 75, which is published every six months.
source: bbc.co.uk
Tecmark appoints mobile apps and SEO specialists
Tecmark appoints mobile apps and SEO specialists
Shiny 'appy people
Gareth Chadwick has been made client services manager, reporting directly to managing director, Richard Heyes. He will manage clients across both the SEO and app divisions.
Adrian Wu and Alex Kelbas will be concentrating on iPhone application development. The pair graduated with computer science degrees this summer, with smart phone applications a key element of their course.
“Our business is growing at a rapid pace as the demand for app development is at an all time high,” said Heyes.
“We are handling an incredible number of enquiries every month and to meet this demand and to service all our clients to the highest standards, we have taken on our three new recruits. They will be a valuable asset to the team and will contribute to our future growth and expansion as we become a major force in the UK app and SEO markets.”
It brings the total staff number at Tecmark to 11 as the agency predicts its most successful year to date, with turnover anticipated to hit £1.2m by the end of this financial year (March 2011), it currently stands at £750k.
Mumbai presents greatest potential for corporate air travel, hotel cost savings in 2011
The world's fifth largest travel management company, Egencia, has said that India's commercial capital Mumbai and the Australian city of Melbourne, offer the greatest potential for savings on corporate air travel and hotel bookings in 2011, and also predicted that average ticket prices (ATPs) for top corporate travel destinations would also be slightly up in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific regions.
According to its 2011 Corporate Travel Forecast and Annual Hotel Negotiability Index (HNI) forecast, which is an Advance Purchase Advisory that identifies ideal advance booking windows and potential savings for flight purchase in nearly 40 markets around the world, the HNI suggests that corporations will face a more challenging negotiating environment in 2011.
Melbourne and Mumbai have been cited as ideal travel destinations due to excess supply, while the other cities provide a challenge for rate negotiations.
Egencia's Director for India, Gaurav Sundaram, said: "Air capacity is expected to moderate in 2011 as the domestic airlines reduce their highly aggressive price wars, organisations should see greater stability and consistency in corporate travel."
Sundaram added: "Mumbai presents the greatest potential for cost savings to our travellers with the only decrease to be seen in ADRs in APAC, in addition to a high negotiability index for organisations."
According to the release, the outlook for corporate travel ATPs is mixed for Asia Pacific destinations, with prices staying flat or slightly down across several cities like Hong Kong and Melbourne. Tokyo, Singapore and Shanghai will likely see ATPs increase slightly. Egencia also anticipates a rise in ADRs for this region, most dramatically in Shanghai, Sydney, Delhi and Beijing.
Unlike 2010, where the Asia Pacific air pricing landscape fluctuated greatly on a market-by-market basis, 2011 should see more price stability across the board, the Egencia, a unit of Expedia, Incorporated, said in its release.
ATPs for corporate travellers to the APAC region are likely to increase slightly in half of the destinations and remain flat or slightly down in others. The pronounced economic recovery in China and India, as well as increased demand across all major destinations, is helping to place upward pressure on air ticket prices for corporate travellers.
To arrive at these findings, the Egencia study evaluated global industry trends, macroeconomic factors, in-depth research of supplier markets and capacity across air, hotel and car rental channels in both domestic and international destinations, along with booking window analysis tailored for business travelers.
"Corporations are traveling again this year, though still below 2008 levels," a company press release quoted its president, Rob Greyber, as saying.
"Egencia clients - large and small - remain focused on cost containment and cost avoidance but through tools such as policy compliance, rather than the broad cuts we saw last year. We expect the modest spending rebound to continue, but careful, policy-driven governance will still be a theme in 2011," Greyber added.
The markets, which are forecasted to show moderate decreases are primarily due to increased competition in the local markets as well as the downward pressure forged by domestic pricing wars in Australia.
Overall, average daily rates for corporate travellers are expected to be slightly up across key cities. With very little new supply coming into the market in the short term, there is improved occupancy in most top business markets resulting in upward pricing pressure.
"The general trend across Asia Pacific is a slight increase in air and hotel prices as a direct result of the speedy recovery of the APAC economy," said Cecilia Routledge, Managing Director, Egencia, Asia-Pacific.
Routledge added: "Next year, organisations can expect a more challenging negotiating environment with their preferred hotel partners. As a result, our customers are turning to us to assist in managing and monitoring the rising cost associated with corporate travel."
Egencia's exclusive Advance Purchase Advisory (APA) informs travel managers and corporate travellers of the best booking timeframe and possible savings for advance air ticket purchases.
The advisory shows that business travellers should book three to four weeks (21-30 days) in advance to realize maximum savings.
Egencia's Hotel Negotiability Index, an indicator of the overall supply landscape in top APAC cities, suggests that 2011 will be a challenging year for corporate negotiations with preferred supply partners.
Compared to 2009, rates are hardening across the region with limited flexibility.
The global Egencia study surveyed more than 500 global travel buyers regarding cost control measures, travel spend and expectations for 2011.
According to survey respondents, one third of buyers have slightly or significantly increased travel over the last six months, compared with a slight increase of only three percent a year ago in October/November 2009.
According to its 2011 Corporate Travel Forecast and Annual Hotel Negotiability Index (HNI) forecast, which is an Advance Purchase Advisory that identifies ideal advance booking windows and potential savings for flight purchase in nearly 40 markets around the world, the HNI suggests that corporations will face a more challenging negotiating environment in 2011.
Melbourne and Mumbai have been cited as ideal travel destinations due to excess supply, while the other cities provide a challenge for rate negotiations.
Egencia's Director for India, Gaurav Sundaram, said: "Air capacity is expected to moderate in 2011 as the domestic airlines reduce their highly aggressive price wars, organisations should see greater stability and consistency in corporate travel."
Sundaram added: "Mumbai presents the greatest potential for cost savings to our travellers with the only decrease to be seen in ADRs in APAC, in addition to a high negotiability index for organisations."
According to the release, the outlook for corporate travel ATPs is mixed for Asia Pacific destinations, with prices staying flat or slightly down across several cities like Hong Kong and Melbourne. Tokyo, Singapore and Shanghai will likely see ATPs increase slightly. Egencia also anticipates a rise in ADRs for this region, most dramatically in Shanghai, Sydney, Delhi and Beijing.
Unlike 2010, where the Asia Pacific air pricing landscape fluctuated greatly on a market-by-market basis, 2011 should see more price stability across the board, the Egencia, a unit of Expedia, Incorporated, said in its release.
ATPs for corporate travellers to the APAC region are likely to increase slightly in half of the destinations and remain flat or slightly down in others. The pronounced economic recovery in China and India, as well as increased demand across all major destinations, is helping to place upward pressure on air ticket prices for corporate travellers.
To arrive at these findings, the Egencia study evaluated global industry trends, macroeconomic factors, in-depth research of supplier markets and capacity across air, hotel and car rental channels in both domestic and international destinations, along with booking window analysis tailored for business travelers.
"Corporations are traveling again this year, though still below 2008 levels," a company press release quoted its president, Rob Greyber, as saying.
"Egencia clients - large and small - remain focused on cost containment and cost avoidance but through tools such as policy compliance, rather than the broad cuts we saw last year. We expect the modest spending rebound to continue, but careful, policy-driven governance will still be a theme in 2011," Greyber added.
The markets, which are forecasted to show moderate decreases are primarily due to increased competition in the local markets as well as the downward pressure forged by domestic pricing wars in Australia.
Overall, average daily rates for corporate travellers are expected to be slightly up across key cities. With very little new supply coming into the market in the short term, there is improved occupancy in most top business markets resulting in upward pricing pressure.
"The general trend across Asia Pacific is a slight increase in air and hotel prices as a direct result of the speedy recovery of the APAC economy," said Cecilia Routledge, Managing Director, Egencia, Asia-Pacific.
Routledge added: "Next year, organisations can expect a more challenging negotiating environment with their preferred hotel partners. As a result, our customers are turning to us to assist in managing and monitoring the rising cost associated with corporate travel."
Egencia's exclusive Advance Purchase Advisory (APA) informs travel managers and corporate travellers of the best booking timeframe and possible savings for advance air ticket purchases.
The advisory shows that business travellers should book three to four weeks (21-30 days) in advance to realize maximum savings.
Egencia's Hotel Negotiability Index, an indicator of the overall supply landscape in top APAC cities, suggests that 2011 will be a challenging year for corporate negotiations with preferred supply partners.
Compared to 2009, rates are hardening across the region with limited flexibility.
The global Egencia study surveyed more than 500 global travel buyers regarding cost control measures, travel spend and expectations for 2011.
According to survey respondents, one third of buyers have slightly or significantly increased travel over the last six months, compared with a slight increase of only three percent a year ago in October/November 2009.
Egencia's Director for India, Gaurav Sundaram, said: "Air capacity is expected to moderate in 2011 as the domestic airlines reduce their highly aggressive price wars, organisations should see greater stability and consistency in corporate travel."
Mumbai presents greatest potential for corporate air travel, hotel cost savings in 2011
The world's fifth largest travel management company, Egencia, has said that India's commercial capital Mumbai and the Australian city of Melbourne, offer the greatest potential for savings on corporate air travel and hotel bookings in 2011, and also predicted that average ticket prices (ATPs) for top corporate travel destinations would also be slightly up in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific regions.
According to its 2011 Corporate Travel Forecast and Annual Hotel Negotiability Index (HNI) forecast, which is an Advance Purchase Advisory that identifies ideal advance booking windows and potential savings for flight purchase in nearly 40 markets around the world, the HNI suggests that corporations will face a more challenging negotiating environment in 2011.
Melbourne and Mumbai have been cited as ideal travel destinations due to excess supply, while the other cities provide a challenge for rate negotiations.
Egencia's Director for India, Gaurav Sundaram, said: "Air capacity is expected to moderate in 2011 as the domestic airlines reduce their highly aggressive price wars, organisations should see greater stability and consistency in corporate travel."
Sundaram added: "Mumbai presents the greatest potential for cost savings to our travellers with the only decrease to be seen in ADRs in APAC, in addition to a high negotiability index for organisations."
According to the release, the outlook for corporate travel ATPs is mixed for Asia Pacific destinations, with prices staying flat or slightly down across several cities like Hong Kong and Melbourne. Tokyo, Singapore and Shanghai will likely see ATPs increase slightly. Egencia also anticipates a rise in ADRs for this region, most dramatically in Shanghai, Sydney, Delhi and Beijing.
Unlike 2010, where the Asia Pacific air pricing landscape fluctuated greatly on a market-by-market basis, 2011 should see more price stability across the board, the Egencia, a unit of Expedia, Incorporated, said in its release.
ATPs for corporate travellers to the APAC region are likely to increase slightly in half of the destinations and remain flat or slightly down in others. The pronounced economic recovery in China and India, as well as increased demand across all major destinations, is helping to place upward pressure on air ticket prices for corporate travellers.
To arrive at these findings, the Egencia study evaluated global industry trends, macroeconomic factors, in-depth research of supplier markets and capacity across air, hotel and car rental channels in both domestic and international destinations, along with booking window analysis tailored for business travelers.
"Corporations are traveling again this year, though still below 2008 levels," a company press release quoted its president, Rob Greyber, as saying.
"Egencia clients - large and small - remain focused on cost containment and cost avoidance but through tools such as policy compliance, rather than the broad cuts we saw last year. We expect the modest spending rebound to continue, but careful, policy-driven governance will still be a theme in 2011," Greyber added.
The markets, which are forecasted to show moderate decreases are primarily due to increased competition in the local markets as well as the downward pressure forged by domestic pricing wars in Australia.
Overall, average daily rates for corporate travellers are expected to be slightly up across key cities. With very little new supply coming into the market in the short term, there is improved occupancy in most top business markets resulting in upward pricing pressure.
"The general trend across Asia Pacific is a slight increase in air and hotel prices as a direct result of the speedy recovery of the APAC economy," said Cecilia Routledge, Managing Director, Egencia, Asia-Pacific.
Routledge added: "Next year, organisations can expect a more challenging negotiating environment with their preferred hotel partners. As a result, our customers are turning to us to assist in managing and monitoring the rising cost associated with corporate travel."
Egencia's exclusive Advance Purchase Advisory (APA) informs travel managers and corporate travellers of the best booking timeframe and possible savings for advance air ticket purchases.
The advisory shows that business travellers should book three to four weeks (21-30 days) in advance to realize maximum savings.
Egencia's Hotel Negotiability Index, an indicator of the overall supply landscape in top APAC cities, suggests that 2011 will be a challenging year for corporate negotiations with preferred supply partners.
Compared to 2009, rates are hardening across the region with limited flexibility.
The global Egencia study surveyed more than 500 global travel buyers regarding cost control measures, travel spend and expectations for 2011.
According to survey respondents, one third of buyers have slightly or significantly increased travel over the last six months, compared with a slight increase of only three percent a year ago in October/November 2009.
The world's fifth largest travel management company, Egencia, has said that India's commercial capital Mumbai and the Australian city of Melbourne, offer the greatest potential for savings on corporate air travel and hotel bookings in 2011, and also predicted that average ticket prices (ATPs) for top corporate travel destinations would also be slightly up in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific regions.
According to its 2011 Corporate Travel Forecast and Annual Hotel Negotiability Index (HNI) forecast, which is an Advance Purchase Advisory that identifies ideal advance booking windows and potential savings for flight purchase in nearly 40 markets around the world, the HNI suggests that corporations will face a more challenging negotiating environment in 2011.
Melbourne and Mumbai have been cited as ideal travel destinations due to excess supply, while the other cities provide a challenge for rate negotiations.
Egencia's Director for India, Gaurav Sundaram, said: "Air capacity is expected to moderate in 2011 as the domestic airlines reduce their highly aggressive price wars, organisations should see greater stability and consistency in corporate travel."
Sundaram added: "Mumbai presents the greatest potential for cost savings to our travellers with the only decrease to be seen in ADRs in APAC, in addition to a high negotiability index for organisations."
According to the release, the outlook for corporate travel ATPs is mixed for Asia Pacific destinations, with prices staying flat or slightly down across several cities like Hong Kong and Melbourne. Tokyo, Singapore and Shanghai will likely see ATPs increase slightly. Egencia also anticipates a rise in ADRs for this region, most dramatically in Shanghai, Sydney, Delhi and Beijing.
Unlike 2010, where the Asia Pacific air pricing landscape fluctuated greatly on a market-by-market basis, 2011 should see more price stability across the board, the Egencia, a unit of Expedia, Incorporated, said in its release.
ATPs for corporate travellers to the APAC region are likely to increase slightly in half of the destinations and remain flat or slightly down in others. The pronounced economic recovery in China and India, as well as increased demand across all major destinations, is helping to place upward pressure on air ticket prices for corporate travellers.
To arrive at these findings, the Egencia study evaluated global industry trends, macroeconomic factors, in-depth research of supplier markets and capacity across air, hotel and car rental channels in both domestic and international destinations, along with booking window analysis tailored for business travelers.
"Corporations are traveling again this year, though still below 2008 levels," a company press release quoted its president, Rob Greyber, as saying.
"Egencia clients - large and small - remain focused on cost containment and cost avoidance but through tools such as policy compliance, rather than the broad cuts we saw last year. We expect the modest spending rebound to continue, but careful, policy-driven governance will still be a theme in 2011," Greyber added.
The markets, which are forecasted to show moderate decreases are primarily due to increased competition in the local markets as well as the downward pressure forged by domestic pricing wars in Australia.
Overall, average daily rates for corporate travellers are expected to be slightly up across key cities. With very little new supply coming into the market in the short term, there is improved occupancy in most top business markets resulting in upward pricing pressure.
"The general trend across Asia Pacific is a slight increase in air and hotel prices as a direct result of the speedy recovery of the APAC economy," said Cecilia Routledge, Managing Director, Egencia, Asia-Pacific.
Routledge added: "Next year, organisations can expect a more challenging negotiating environment with their preferred hotel partners. As a result, our customers are turning to us to assist in managing and monitoring the rising cost associated with corporate travel."
Egencia's exclusive Advance Purchase Advisory (APA) informs travel managers and corporate travellers of the best booking timeframe and possible savings for advance air ticket purchases.
The advisory shows that business travellers should book three to four weeks (21-30 days) in advance to realize maximum savings.
Egencia's Hotel Negotiability Index, an indicator of the overall supply landscape in top APAC cities, suggests that 2011 will be a challenging year for corporate negotiations with preferred supply partners.
Compared to 2009, rates are hardening across the region with limited flexibility.
The global Egencia study surveyed more than 500 global travel buyers regarding cost control measures, travel spend and expectations for 2011.
According to survey respondents, one third of buyers have slightly or significantly increased travel over the last six months, compared with a slight increase of only three percent a year ago in October/November 2009.
CID to install new software for fighting vehicle theft
The Criminal Investigations Department computer system will soon be linked with Kenya Revenue Authority for easy and fast delivery of service, CID Director, Francis Muhoro has said.
Muhoro said they plan to install high-tech computer system at the CID headquarters and Flying Squad offices in Pangani and link them with KRA for fast reference and action information.
"We want to be at par with other agencies in investigations and other criminal matters. This will be done soon," he said.
Registrar of motor vehicles, which has records of all vehicles in the country is under KRA. Most thieves steal and tamper with vehicles’ records to avoid detection.
New software
Muhoro said they intend to install software that will enable detectives deliver services faster to the public.
He cited investigations on stolen cars, which sometimes take longer than intended arguing, the software to be installed will enable a detective know ownership of a particular car at touch of a button.
"We will know who owns a car at any point and when we want. What I ask officers and public is to be patient," he said.
He made the remarks at the Flying Squad headquarters offices when he made an impromptu visit.
Muhoro said the department’s demand of working tools will be fully addressed as police reforms roll out slowly.
Mohoro said the government has documented all the tools and equipment that the department requires to effectively deliver to the public.
Sh81billion
He said the Sh81 billion budgeted for the police reforms may address some of the pressing needs and urged for patience.
"Even if we are given all the money now we can not be able to buy all the tools today. This is a process that will be achieved in the end," he said.
Muhoro also made a surprise visit to the Central police station later in the day.
He said he had visited various police stations across the country and seen what the officers there need for efficiency.
Said he: "I believe there is goodwill from the government and other partners to address these needs."
Police reforms will cost Sh81 billion to be implemented in four years. The proposed reforms demand that the CID be semi autonomous.
Muhoro is barely a month old in the CID after his appointment from the police reforms committee at police headquarters.
Meanwhile, a team of detectives has left for Uganda to pursue several vehicles that have been stolen in the country.
Muhoro said they plan to install high-tech computer system at the CID headquarters and Flying Squad offices in Pangani and link them with KRA for fast reference and action information.
"We want to be at par with other agencies in investigations and other criminal matters. This will be done soon," he said.
Registrar of motor vehicles, which has records of all vehicles in the country is under KRA. Most thieves steal and tamper with vehicles’ records to avoid detection.
New software
Muhoro said they intend to install software that will enable detectives deliver services faster to the public.
He cited investigations on stolen cars, which sometimes take longer than intended arguing, the software to be installed will enable a detective know ownership of a particular car at touch of a button.
"We will know who owns a car at any point and when we want. What I ask officers and public is to be patient," he said.
He made the remarks at the Flying Squad headquarters offices when he made an impromptu visit.
Muhoro said the department’s demand of working tools will be fully addressed as police reforms roll out slowly.
Mohoro said the government has documented all the tools and equipment that the department requires to effectively deliver to the public.
Sh81billion
He said the Sh81 billion budgeted for the police reforms may address some of the pressing needs and urged for patience.
"Even if we are given all the money now we can not be able to buy all the tools today. This is a process that will be achieved in the end," he said.
Muhoro also made a surprise visit to the Central police station later in the day.
He said he had visited various police stations across the country and seen what the officers there need for efficiency.
Said he: "I believe there is goodwill from the government and other partners to address these needs."
Police reforms will cost Sh81 billion to be implemented in four years. The proposed reforms demand that the CID be semi autonomous.
Muhoro is barely a month old in the CID after his appointment from the police reforms committee at police headquarters.
Meanwhile, a team of detectives has left for Uganda to pursue several vehicles that have been stolen in the country.
Masterclass: The Essential SEO Toolkit for better search rankings
In this series we have already covered the Google AdWords Keyword Tool and the Google Webmaster Tools. They are among the most important tools you will use. Many websites offer online and desktop tools to make your SEO work easier. It is easy to get into “tool overload” where you waste time on a new tool that does the same task as another. Here are some tools that I use.
Web-based tools -
SEOmoz:
Rand Fishkin and his team run SEOmoz.org, a great resource with many free features and a few paid options. I subscribe to the daily SEO blog post, as it is one of the best ways to learn from experts. The site provides several useful tools, including:
* Linkscape - a professional grade backlink tool that uses patented metrics to give you a measure of your backlinks. These are mozRank, mozTrust and Domain Juice. Since we can’t get Google’s measurements, SEOmoz has come up with its own benchmarks based on analysing millions of pages. This tells me, for example, that a link from a certain blog passes more link juice than one from another site. For those of you who buy links, this could be a great way to assess the value of a link. The detailed report requires a paid subscription and this tool alone may justify the cost. It is also available as a Firefox plugin.
* Trifecta Tool Set gives you the number of sites/pages that link to you; the number of times your brand is mentioned on the web; and how much traffic your site receives.
* Term Target tells you how well a given page is optimised for a keyphrase.
* Rank Tracker enables you to check, track, and monitor your rankings at all the major search engines.
* Juicy Link Finder helps you to find links that have authority, such as old domains with a high PageRank that rank well for your keyphrase.
* Backlink Analysis tells you the anchor text used by the linking sites.
SEObook:
Aaron Wall operates seobook.com, which is focused on his ebook, but also has some useful tools:
* Keyword Suggestion Tool. Although US-centric, this tool produces a wealth of related keyphrases and their search statistics from several sources.
* SEO for Firefox. This tool will display details about every result in a Google or Yahoo search, such as PageRank, Age, types of backlinks, Delicious.com bookmarks, and a lot more.
HitTail:
HitTail shows you real-time visitor and keywords information. Even a free account is quite useful. Such analysis could show if your site is coming up for unintended search terms. If they are inappropriate (they chew up bandwidth), you can reword your pages.
Source: Apcmag.com
Nokia N8 Plug and Touch concept turns your TV into a touchscreen
 |
| Nokia N8 Deals |
Plug and Touch is deceptively simple: point the N8 smart phone's camera at a HDTV, and connect to the same TV using an HDMI cable. The TV then becomes an extension of the phone -- a giant touchscreen. Marshall Chang, from Nokia Research in Beijing, showed off the tech at last week's Nokia World in a video on the Nokia blog.
When Chang made gestures close in front of the TV (you don't have to touch, but it helps) the N8 picked it up and responded to the action. It only needed the download of a 34K application and to be fixed in a clamp, although eventually it might just need to face the screen. Currently the technology only recognises the click and vertical scrolling controls and suffers some lag.
"I assume you've seen Iron Man," Chang said. "You know in his lab we've seen 3D things and he's interacting in the air? One day I'd love to see it, where we have a device that pops up a user interface in the air that we can interact with.
"In order to do that we have to figure out how to interact with that, how this device can track the gestures that we are doing. This is our first step to getting to that point."
Last week we saw Nokia's work on a Star Trek communicator phone, further demonstrating that the Finnish company is still beavering away behind the scenes on research, despite its much publicised problems in the high-end smart phone market.
With the release of the N8, C6-O1, C7 and E7, Nokia is making a comeback of sorts, but what the company really needs is a game changer. With the N9 due before Christmas and possibly running the new mobile OS MeeGo, could it have one?
Source: Crave.cnet.co.uk
PS3 Jailbreak now available on Nokia N900
 |
| Nokia N900 Mobile |
PSFreedom is an open source version of the PSJailbreak program which normally requires a specialised USB dongle. The hack has now been reworked to run on a Nokia N900 (N810 and Palm Pre versions also exist, apparently). Some level of tech expertise is required and you need to fiddle around with the eject button while you boot – but this still looks pretty simple to do and will no doubt be giving someone at Sony a headache.
Cheap Travel Adventures in Europe
Europe is an amazing continent. Money should not stop you from experiencing its beauty. The sooner you can plan your adventure, the more likely you are to get the price you want. Airlines and hotels often up their prices the closer you get to the desired travel date.
Transportation:
Getting to Europe can be one of your greatest expenses. If you have saved up any frequent flier points now would be a great time to use them. Another option is to get passage on a ship sailing to Europe. You can exchange transportation, room and board for work on the ship.
The sooner you can book your flight the cheaper it will be. There are many discount airlines in Europe so do you research to find the cheapest one. Keep in mind that traveling in Europe is quite popular, there are also more popular times. If you are traveling in the tourist season, or during a long weekend or festival, cheap flights will tend to go a lot faster. If you can’t seem to find a reasonable flight price try changing your dates. Even by just a few days can help. Flights are generally more expensive on weekends then during the work week.
Because there are so many discount airlines in Europe, this can be a great way to travel the continent. It is quick and efficient. However if you want to go on the more scenic route the train is perfect. You can buy the Eurail Global Pass which allows you to travel between 18 different countries. You can also purchase a One Country Pass that allows you to travel within that country on the train, unlimited, for that month.
Hitch hiking is a well established tradition in Europe. Families and truck drivers often stop to pick up strangers. Do this at your own discretion though. Never hitch hike alone, at night or in secluded areas. When touring a city using taxis and public transportation can be pricey. A cheap alternative is renting a bike or touring on foot. Most cities have a great bike rental system. Both of these options give you the flexibility to stop where you like and go at your own pace. It’s a great scenic way to explore the city. Don’t worry about getting lost, that’s part of the adventure!
Accommodation:
Again booking ahead can be key in finding a cheap hotel. It also guarantees that you get what you want. Good hotels at good prices go quickly. If you don’t want to book in advance then be prepared to be patient, adventurous and flexible when you are trying to find a place to stay.
Hostels are very popular in Europe. The further away from city center and tourist sites the cheaper it will be. Make sure you can still easily access the places you are interested in seeing. When choosing your room, choose one with more beds. Rooms with 6-10 beds are cheaper per bed, where as rooms with 2-4 beds will be more expensive.
Because youth hostels are so popular in Europe, you may be able to work for your room. Approach the person in charge politely and ask if there are any chores you can do in exchange for your room. They may even be generous enough to give you a meal.
Food:
Saving money on food when traveling can be the most difficult part. You want to eat well and save money at the same time. Experiencing different cultural foods can be one of the best parts of traveling.
The easiest way to save money on food when traveling in Europe is to keep your eating habits similar to when you are at home. Go to the grocery store. Buy bread and make sandwiches in your hotel room before heading out for the day. Granola bars, trail mix and fresh fruit are great inexpensive snacks that you can easily bring with you.
Of course you will still want to dine out and experience some of the culture in this way. Make sure you set a budget for dining out so that you know how often you can afford to do so.
Getting Out:
There are tons of free things to do in Europe. Just walk around and see what you find. Every country, city and town is unique so you will never be disappointed. There are tons of street performers; dancers, singers, mimes, magicians. People always congregate and watch these free shows. A great way to meet people and find out what everyone is doing. Just hang out where the Europeans hang out.
There are many museums and tourist attractions. A good way to save money is to stay away from these. You can have a great time doing day hikes, sightseeing and just riding your bike around the city. The architecture in Europe is beautiful and distinct in each new place. You will always be able to find something new and interesting to do.
Conclusion:
Taking an Adventure Vacation to Europe can be inexpensive and very interesting. You just have to plan ahead and go off the beaten path a little bit.
Unsecured loans 'can be a real burden'
People who take out unsecured loans may find they are a real burden on their day-to-day lives, without even realising it.
Anna Sofat, Founder of Addidi, revealed that even overspending by small amounts or purchasing holidays on credit cards can have an adverse impact on personal finances.
"There was a culture of buy now and pay later but this is changing and has been changing since 2008, as credit is much harder to come by," she continued.
Ms Sofat emphasised that in many cases, people are thinking twice before making purchases as they wonder how they will repay the loan.
Recent research from uSwitch.com shows that women's love of fashion causes them to accumulate debts of over £13 billion.
Of those polled, 74% revealed they use a combination of credit cards, storecards, overdrafts and loans to feed their addiction, while 41% will ignore their overdraft limit when making purchases.
Source: uswitch.com
Anna Sofat, Founder of Addidi, revealed that even overspending by small amounts or purchasing holidays on credit cards can have an adverse impact on personal finances.
"There was a culture of buy now and pay later but this is changing and has been changing since 2008, as credit is much harder to come by," she continued.
Ms Sofat emphasised that in many cases, people are thinking twice before making purchases as they wonder how they will repay the loan.
Recent research from uSwitch.com shows that women's love of fashion causes them to accumulate debts of over £13 billion.
Of those polled, 74% revealed they use a combination of credit cards, storecards, overdrafts and loans to feed their addiction, while 41% will ignore their overdraft limit when making purchases.
Source: uswitch.com
Blackberry 9300 Curve 3G - going To Beat Apple Iphones
When we compare the mobile phones with the past they were just a status symbol but now it has become necessity of life. Initially the prices were touching the skies but seeing the present scenario now these handset are made affordable and cheaper. Even cheap blackberry phones are now affordable.
The major consequence is that updated technology can not be sold at reduced prices as the companies have to pay high amount to purchase the technology. Now at the advancement stage the technology is moving very fast, which have forced the company to reduce the prices of the handsets. It is easy to purchase a mobile phone.
Now technology in built phones can be purchased Blackberry Company as they have been continuously launching their series like Blackberry Pearl Series, Blackberry Bold Series and Blackberry Curve Series, The latest release of curve series is Blackberry 9300 curve 3G get cheapest blackberry 9300 curve 3g deals from mobilephoneshopuk.net .
All these series are featured with Digital camera, Contact features, GPS Navigation, Text messaging , push e-mail, QWERTY keypad, internet faxing etc. In fact the company stands first to facilitate the advanced email features in the mobile phones.
The Most sold handsets manufactured by Blackberry are Bold 9000, Storm 9500, Pearl 8110, and Curve 8900 many more. Blackberry phones are designed such while keeping in view the business requirements and the personal as well. Trained themselves of making stylish phone in the mobile industry the company is doing wonders in the International Market.
Now the blackberry phone can be easily purchase by the various deals available in the market. The sim free and contract deals are most popular among the rest ones. The customer can acquire networks like , Virgin, Orange, O2, T- Mobile and Vodafone. And can grab the best that suits their needs and pocket.
Source: Officialwire.com
Nokia N8 Contract: Good Quality Phones at Low Prices
Nokia has been a huge hit in the mobile industry. They have sold millions of handsets over the years, establishing themselves as one of the biggest brands the market has ever seen. Over time their success has enabled them to develop their technology and skills and create better phones. The Nokia N8 comes from the N series, one of the best creations introduced by the company. The Nokia N8 contract deals offer a very good phone with highly advanced features under cheap deals. The deal helps people to use good quality phones at low-priced rates.
The Nokia N8 was recently released in March, 2010. Starting from its AMOLED capacitive 3.5 inch display, the phone has many other eye-catching features. The handset supports 2G and 3G networks making it possible to access speedy internet and enable high rate of data transfer. One of the most profound features of the phones is its 12MP camera. The Carl Zeiss lens with Xenon flash and additional attributes like auto-focus, smile detection, high tech sensor and geo-tagging creates an amazing camera for the phone. Apart from all of these there are other aspects like a proximity sensor, an internal memory of 16GB extendable to 32GB, Wi-Fi, bluetooth connectivity, GPRS, EDGE and an accelerometer sensor.
Nokia N8 contracts are available with network providers like Vodafone, Virgin, O2, 3, T mobile and Orange. The contracts look out to bring down heavy charges and fight tough competition by providing the most economical deal. A legal bonding enables a buyer to use the phone for a limited period of time with profitable costs. They bring down per minute calling charges and even provide free texts and extra talktime. Additionally, people can even pick up free gifts from them. Laptops, DVD players, video games, snooker tables, digital cameras and home appliances fall under such gifts. The internet is a great source for more information.
New CAM software blog kicks off at IMTS
Sescoi, makers of CAM Software for 2 through Simultaneous 5-Axis programming has launched a blog to coincide with IMTS 2010. The goal of his new CAM blog, which can be found on http://blog.sescoi.com, is to share opinions and comment across the community of CNC machining operators, programmers and professionals.
Jeff Jaje, Marketing & Business Development Manager at Sescoi Inc, will manage the blog. Jeff says, “The timing is right for a CAM related blog. It seems that there are plenty of CAD bloggers out there, but virtually nobody is blogging about CNC programming, machining topics or best practice on a regular basis. My aim is to change that and, because CNC programming is much more than just CAM software, We’ll be covering milling machines, mill controllers, cutters, CAM tips, and much more”.
Experienced programmers, industry experts and representatives from complementary technologies are invited to share blog links and post their comments on Jeff’s blog.
Jeff, who holds a bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering from Kettering University (U.S.A.), and has been involved in the CAM software field since 1990 and has been a speaker on 5-axis CNC machining at industry shows in Japan and the U.S. Meet Jeff on the Sescoi booth (E-3936) at the IMTS show in Chicago on September 13-18 and attend his free seminar on “Utilizing New Software Algorithms to Improve CAM programming, Shorten Mill Times and Increase Security” on September 14.
SEO Software Submitter New Version launched
SEO Software Submitter new version (2.0.1) released today with complete database updates and cleanup. Customers can download the latest version info from Live Update Messenger of the product.
SEO Software Submitter is all in one SEO Software to move any kind of website to unshakable #1 page position in search engines. Couple of weeks back, V2.0 was launched with major functionality changes and step by step SEO user manual. Today, EPractize Labs launched new version of SEO Software Submitter with site list changes in the tool.
The new features (2.0.1) are listed below:
1. Google and Alexa rank updates for all sites
2. Database cleanup for PAD Submitter
3. Database cleanup for PR Submitter
4. Database cleanup for Article Submitter
5. Database cleanup for RSS/Blog Submitter
6. Database cleanup for Directory Submitter
7. Database cleanup for Ad Submitter
8. Database cleanup for Video Submitter
9. Database cleanup for WeblinkSubmitter
This product is ‘must need’ for any kind of online business promotion to drive traffic and sales. SEO experts agree to usage of SEO Software Submitter techniques and tools for genuine SEO and hate old way of analyzing a site like competitor analysis, increasing keyword density, spying top 10 google sites, etc. The tool pull a site from any page into first page without spending much effort and drives traffic immediately even if your page is not listed in top pages.
The next release is planned with the following features:
1. Social Media Marketing tools to promote a site/product
2. Dynamic site list updates by SEO Software Submitter user
3. Webmaster tool to find duplicate Title, META Descriptions on a website
4. Webmaster tool to find broken/dead links
5. SEO analytical report for a site and recommendations
Note that SEO Software Submitter is a downloadable product and licenses are lifetime. Customers can utilize new features any time, EVEN AFTER 100 YEARS.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)