Knowledge Update

Munich, May 4 (IANS) German car producer BMW Group reported here on Tuesday that its sales have reached a new record in the first quarter of the year. According to the group's statistics, sales volume in its automotive segment for the Bavarian company rose by 5.9 percent to a total of 557,605 units in the first three months of the year. A total of 127,167 units were sold on the Chinese mainland in the first quarter, representing an increase of 10.5 percent, Xinhua reported. "Our first-quarter performance is further proof of our ability to generate positive earnings with our core business, despite a volatile environment," Harald Krueger, chairman of the board of management, was quoted as saying. "We forecast slight increases and thus new record figures for sales volume in the automotive segment and group profit before tax in 2016," Krueger added. In addition, BMW reported that its size of the workforce increased by 4.4 percent to 122,692 people compared with the same period last year.​

​London, April 29 (IANS) Words like "gent" instead of "man" and "authentic" for products in place of "genuine" can fetch up to fifty percent more money on eBay, revealed a research conducted by a British university Researchers from Birmingham City University trawled more than 68,000 items sold on eBay and spanned more than 15 million words to find out how online sellers choose to describe their products and revealed patterns in language which significantly changes the price. Results showed that items like watches labelled as "men's" word are sold for an average of 30 pounds while "gents" went for 70 pounds, and fragrances labelled "genuine" fetched 21 pounds but "authentic" ones set buyers back 34 pounds. 'What's also interesting is that on eBay, unlike other online stores, sellers write their own descriptions, so we find a lot of language variation between sellers too. The variation between those categories is really interesting from a linguistic perspective,' said Amdrew Kehoe, researcher from Birmingham City University's School of English. Grammatical errors such as missing apostrophes and internet speak were also found to have a negative impact on the price products sold for. Used car sellers were found to shy away from the term "second-hand" with only nine instances of the phrase found among nearly 1,000 sold. Instead traditional car sales speak was found with phrases like "honest", "reliable", "clean" and "reluctant" all among the top terms. "The term 'second-hand' seems to have a stigma attached when it comes to cars, but people will happily use it to sell smaller items like books or DVDs. We've found that the language used in eBay descriptions really does have an impact on whether items sell and for how much," added Kehoe.​

​Hong Kong, April 29 (IANS) Italian luxury fashion house Gucci has sent warning letters to Hong Kong shops not to sell paper versions of its branded products as offerings to the dead, a report said on Friday. Paper replicas of items like mansions, cars, iPads and luxury bags are burnt in the belief when people die so they can use them in the afterlife, BBC reported. "We fully respect the funeral context and we trust that the store owners did not have the intention to infringe Gucci's trademark," Gucci Hong Kong said in a statement. "Thus a letter was sent on an informational basis to let these stores know about the products they were carrying and by asking them to stop selling those items," the statement said. In Hong Kong, some shops that had reportedly received the letters have removed their Gucci wares. But other brands, including Louis Vuitton, Saint Laurent, Burberry and New Balance, are still on sale. Demand for these products is highest during the Qingming "tomb-sweeping" festival which took place last month.​

Tokyo, April 27 (IANS) Japanese videogame company Nintendo will release its new console globally in March 2017, the company announced on Wednesday. "Nintendo is currently developing a gaming platform codenamed 'NX' with a brand-new concept... NX will be launched in March 2017 globally," the company said in its report, without giving any more details. The Kyoto-based company decided to halt production of its Wii U game console, after scanty sales till December 2015 that pushed it to focus on the Nintendo NX, EFE news reported citing the Nikkei daily. The launch of the new console could, however, result in a greater dip in Wii U sales, which dropped 8.4 percent in 2015.​

London, April 25 (IANS) Fancy a device -- dubbed “Rolls Royce of smartphones" -- that will set you back by nearly $10,000 (over Rs.6.6 lakh) The “most advanced mobile device with highest privacy settings” is not being built in the US or China but in a quite corner in Israel. Called “Solarin,” the high-end smartphone is set to be rolled out May-end by Sirin Labs, a Tel Aviv-based startup that recently raised $72 million to make what it bills as the “Rolls-Royce of smartphones”, technology website venturebeat.com reported. According to Sirin Labs, it was to “create the most advanced mobile device that combined the highest privacy settings, operated faster than any other phone, built with the best materials from around the world.” The company's first smartphone may be launched at a dedicated retail store in London - “the natural home of the Sirin LabsÂ’ customer,” according to the company. The luxury smartphone is not new. In 2006, Nokia launched a $310,000 “Signature Cobra” device in 2006 and the $5,000 “Constellation” smartphone in 2011. In 2012, Nokia dropped luxury-phone brand maker Vertu. After leaving Nokia, Vertu brought its first Android device “Vertu Ti” to market. According to media reports, the smartphone was priced at a whopping Rs.6,49,990 in India. It has dual-core 1.7GHz processor along with 1GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. According to Vertu, its smartphones have 184 individual parts. The body is made by Grade 5 titanium, and has a set of Bang & Olufsen stereo speakers. The sapphire crystal renders the screen virtually scratch-proof and it is tested to be four times stronger than other smartphones in terms of impact resistance, it had claimed. Vertu was later acquired from Swedish private equity group EQT by a consortium of Chinese investors. According to Sirin Labs, its high-end device will first go on sale on its e-commerce site and the firm plans to open additional retail stores across Europe, North America and Asia soon.​

​New York, April 22 (IANS) Ad buying on Facebook has got more easier with the social media website introducing a familiar terminology for broadcast advertisers, making the purchase easy and more TV-like. Target rating point video buys on Facebook or photo-sharing website Instagram can now leverage day-parting and Nielsen Designated Market Area (DMA) targeting -- two features that were previously unavailable -- www.adage.com reported. DMAs are defined by Nielsen Media Research and are used to identify specific media markets for those interested in buying and selling television, advertising and programming. DMA targeting allows marketers to home in on a specific local television market area while day-parting delivers advertisements during specific parts of the day. The move will provide marketers further brand building capabilities on mobile as well as flexibility to extend TV and video campaigns on Facebook with a currency broadcast advertisers are familiar with. "At the same time, the company is telling advertisers to rethink the way they deliver video on Facebook -- particularly on mobile -- as opposed to TV," the report said. Facebook said that broadcast advertisers should consider various factors when implementing TV ads on its mobile News Feed. "The mobile feed has fundamentally changed the way people view and absorb information, and this is especially true with video," Matt Idema, vice president of monetisation product marketing at Facebook was quoted as saying. "For marketers, this shift makes it essential to take new creative considerations into account when designing effective video ads," Idema added. According to data released by Facebook this week, on Facebook's mobile News Feed, for example, users spend on average 1.7 seconds with a piece of content versus 2.5 seconds on desktop.​

​London, April 22 (IANS) A Britain-based technology company has claimed to have developed a smartphone-sized handheld DNA analyser that may diagnose infectious diseases like tuberculosis (TB) in flat 15-20 minutes. Running on a solar-powered battery, the low-cost handheld device called "Q-Poc" may analyse biological samples submitted via a small-sized cartridge, the Guardian reported. Swabs can be used to detect sexually-transmitted infections (STIs) while sputum is used to detect TB, its makers claimed. "We are now at the point that we have a working prototype that can perform a highly sensitive tuberculosis test from a sample through to results in 15-20 minutes," Jonathan O’Halloran, the company’s co-founder, was quoted as saying. According to its developers, “Q-Poc” analyses the DNA of pathogens rather than proteins within the sample. The device uses microfluidic technology that allows fluids to pass through various microscopic channels. A chemical process then breaks down the sample into a molecular soup. It is then sent through a nanoscale-based filter system that isolates the DNA for analysis. The company plans to launch the product for the use by health care providers by as early as 2018. The device will initially be used to detect TB. It has built-in smartlphone technology, enabling the results to be shared in real time. “It sounds simple, but it is absolutely groundbreaking,” O’Halloran added. Clinical trials of the device are planned in South Africa later this year.​

​London, April 10 (IANS) Instead of reading a label, consumers could soon be interacting with an electronic screen on packages in the future. Scientists from the University of Sheffield have developed a new way of attaching electronic screens to paper-based packaging where screens can display simple messages to customers -- a move that can revolutionise the packaging industry. "Labels on packaging can become much more innovative and allow customers to interact with and explore new products. The use of displays or light emitting panels on packaging will also allow companies to communicate brand awareness in a more sophisticated manner," said led researcher and professor David Lidzey. The team collaborated with technology company Novalia to create a new way of displaying information on packaging. It can be used in greeting cards or products where a customer could receive a simple message. Further developments can include a countdown timer on the side of a packet to indicate when a timed product was ready -- such as hair-dye, pregnancy tests or home-baking using a 'traffic lights' system. The process involves printing electronic tracks onto paper and then fixing low-cost electronics and a polymer LED display to the paper using an adhesive that conducts electricity. Scientists also designed and constructed a touch-pad keyboard on the paper that allows a user to selectively "drive" the LEDs in the display. The team's next steps are to create fully flexible organic displays on a plastic substrate that then fix onto the electronic tracks. The LED devices need to be low-cost and flexible enough to be used on all packaging. "The paper-based packaging industry is worth billions of dollars. This innovative system could give manufacturers a way to gain market share by being able to distinguish its products from competitors," noted Chris Jones from Novalia said in a paper published in the IEEE Journal of Display Technology.​

​Munich, April 12 (IANS) German car producer Audi AG on Tuesday announced that its sales in the Chinese market in the first quarter rose by 4.7 percent to 139,540 units. "Following a year of consolidation in 2015, Audi is once again on track for growth in China," Xinhua news agency cited Audi as saying its website. Statistics show that 50,986 cars were sold in March to customers in China, an increase of 5.4 percent and gains were seen particularly in the compact class. In addition, the four rings company also announced that it has achieved the best first quarter in the company's history along with the most successful sales month. The Ingolstadt-based company increased global sales by 4.6 percent to a monthly high of around 186,100 units in March, which brings cumulative deliveries since January to around 455,750 cars, four percent more than in the same quarter last year, according to a statement. "The strong demand in the first quarter confirms that we are on the right track to achieve another sales record for the full year in 2016," said Dietmar Voggenreiter, member of the board of management for sales and marketing.​

​Macau, April 7 (IANS) In a yet another fillip to the idea that smartphone can one day become your laptop or personal computer, HP Inc on Thursday unveiled Elite x3 - a 5.96-inch touchscreen device that runs Windows 10 Mobile and supports Continuum - a feature that allows the device to be attached seamlessly to a separate screen, mouse and keyboard. To be available in Asia Pacific and Japan in September this year and then in India, HP Elite x3 bridges phablet, laptop and desktop use cases from a single computing device while enabling users to run key productivity apps across seamlessly. "At HP, we are constantly pushing the envelope in design, productivity, security and entertainment to build innovative products for 'One Life'," Anneliese Olson, vice president of personal systems business, HP Asia Pacific and Japan, told reporters here. By utilising Continuum in Windows 10, the Elite x3 enables frictionless multi-screen transitions between a phone and a desktop PC. The device sports 8MP front camera and 16MP rear camera. For users' security, the device has both a fingerprint reader and an iris recognition camera, offering biometric security as part of Window's biometric Hello framework. "Users can dock Elite x3 with its ecosystem of accessories to render desktop and laptop productivity experiences while also retaining productivity on-the-go in a world-class premium and commercial-grade phablet," HP added. Although Elite x3's docking station is not new in the field but what takes HP device into a new league is its mobile extender that helps Elite x3 double as a laptop. The Elite x3 offers a unique computing experience by leveraging the power of the Snapdragon 820 processor, the optional HP Desk Dock and the optional Lap Dock, allowing the device to let people work on their own terms no matter where the locale. Users can also enjoy easier, faster charging with Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 technology. The Desk Dock offers a full featured desktop experience for the Elite x3. It includes a DisplayPort for external monitor support, two USB-A and a USB-C connection for business continuity and wired Ethernet to seamlessly scale users' productivity at their desk. The Elite x3 docks in portrait mode at a comfortable viewing angle when sitting at a desk. The dock also supports the Elite x3 with and without a protective case. The HP Lap Dock creates a laptop experience using a near zero bezel 12.5-inch diagonal HD display that's mere one kg. No data is stored on the Lap Dock for additional security and all of the apps, passwords and files are managed and stored from the Elite x3. The Elite x3 also allows users to work with the apps they love and rely on. HP Workspace - an app catalog designed by HP to easily enable access to virtualised apps - drives a seamless app usage experience. HP Workspace on the Elite x3 creates a virtual PC, giving users access to company curated catalogs of x86 apps via a virtualized solution. Users benefit from quick access to their virtualised apps with a full keyboard and mouse experience not typically available from a mobile device when using the Desk Dock and Lap Dock. HP is also partnering with Salesforce, the world's leading customer relationship management (CRM) platform, to include Salesforce on every Elite x3, empowering users to run their businesses from their mobile devices with powerful tools that work in the cloud, keeping them up-to-date with whatever real-time data they need. The price of Elite x3 device is yet to be announced.​