These Stunning Screenshots From 'Grand Theft Auto' Look Like Real-Life Photographs | ||
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"Grand Theft Auto IV" has been out since 2008. Since then, PC enthusiasts have tested the limits of the game, installing their own modifications to increase the game's level of detail. Photographer and game enthusiast Raphael Smith has installed a handful of these mods on a PC that only cost him $950 a few years ago. The resulting screenshots are so realistic and lifelike that they can easily be mistaken for photographs, and that's not an exaggeration. You've never seen game graphics look this good. Note: All screenshots used with permission. Smith used a few different "mods" to make sure every little detail was updated. He used two different mods to increase the textures of the city buildings. Another mod added realistic weather to the game. See the rest of the story at Business Insider  | ||
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Here's Why NFL Fans Are Getting Screwed When It Comes To Watching Football | ||
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Around 16 NFL games are played every Sunday. Unless you have the DirecTV Sunday Ticket premium service, you will only be able to watch 5 or 6 of the games on television. DirecTV only has approximately 20 million subscribers in the US, so the majority of NFL fans are left without access to the games on their televisions. DirecTV recently inked a deal with the NFL that will keep this system in place for the next 8 years. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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We Tried The Fitness Band That Shocks You Into Breaking Your Bad Habits — And It Hurts! | ||
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Most fitness bands claim that they want to help you change your habits and get in shape. But none of them actually go so far as to physically punish you for slipping up on your goals. That's where the $149 Pavlok wristband comes in. The Pavlok, created by startup Behavioral Technologies, uses negative reinforcement in the form of a subtle shock to train your brain. Behavioral Technologies CEO Maneesh Sethi told us all about the psychology behind his company's wristband and how it works back in July, but at this year's Engadget Expand, we actually got to try the wristband firsthand. The version we tried was just a prototype, but the real thing should start shipping in April for Indiegogo backers. Those who preorder the device at a discounted price at Engadget Expand will get theirs in January. Here's an idea of what the final version will look like.
A representative at the Pavlok booth strapped a prototype around my arm. Without warning, he tapped the zap button in the wristband's accompanying app and sent a shock to my forearm. The shock feels like a small pinch, and while it's not really painful — it's certainly not pleasant. Don't expect to feel an intense vibration or buzz when wearing the Pavlok; rather, the sensation feels like a quick, sharp pinprick. The unit we tried was only set to 40% in terms of intensity. The Pavlok representative that gave us the demo said he wasn't allowed to let us try the highest setting just yet.
You can wear the Pavlok band on either your forearm or your wrist, but you're likely to feel the shock a bit more on your forearm. If you want, you can also take the sensor out of the band and wear it directly on your skin as shown below. You're likely to feel the shock more prominently if you choose to wear it like this.
The idea behind the Pavlok is to create motivation for wearers to achieve certain goals. Within the Pavlok app, you can set a goal for yourself, such as exercising on a regular basis or learning a new language. The app will then assess your goal and break it down into actions you can perform every day. If you miss your goals, however, your friends can punish you through the app by forcing you to pay a fine or by issuing a small shock. It sounds like your friends will be responsible for shocking you through the app, but there's also an alarm app that will work with the bracelet. If you snooze too many times, the band will zap you into waking up. Other than its ability to issue small shocks, the Pavlok can track your steps, activity, and sleeping patterns. "You get used to vibrations," Sethi told Business Insider in a previous interview. "You start to notice less and less when something is vibrating in your pocket and on your wrist. But you don't really get used to the shock." SEE ALSO: Silicon Valley Never Talks About The Real Reason You Don't Own A Smartwatch Or Wearable Tech Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Another Sequel To The Greatest Skateboarding Video Game Of All Time Will Come Out Next Year | ||
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Yay! Pro skater Tony Hawk announced on Twitter Friday that he's working with Activision on a new addition to to his awesome skateboarding video game franchise, "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater," for the latest-gen living room consoles. He's also working on a mobile game. Hawk had been working on a mobile game, called "Shred Session," which was announced in January. According to TouchArcade, the game soft launched but was pulled entirely from the App Store last month. Hawk said on Friday that it's been put on hold indefinitely, presumably so he could focus work on a console game. SEE ALSO: The Maker Of The Game 'Destiny' Gave A Man Recovering From Brain Surgery A Rare Gift Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Bankrupt Sapphire Glass Supplier Reveals New Details Of Its Disturbing Relationship With Apple (GTAT, GTATQ, AAPL) | ||
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GT Advanced, the former Apple sapphire supplier that filed for bankruptcy back in October, never had a chance. In a supplemental declaration by GT Advanced COO Daniel Squiller unsealed on Friday outlining GT Advanced's relationship with Apple, it's clear — at least as Squiller tells it — that Apple and GT's relationship was doomed from the start. We first saw the document after it was posted by the folks at StreetInsider. This document follows a declaration from Squiller unsealed late last month that outlined some of the problems in Apple and GT's relationship. Friday's document offers a bit more color. For one, Apple was supposed to be customer of GT Advanced, but the agreement between the companies didn't require that Apple be GT Advanced's customer. Apple simply became a lender. And the agreement struck between the companies in the fall of 2013 was done via what Squiller called a "classic bait-and-switch strategy." This agreement also stated that GT could not do business with any of Apple's competitors, which would be a reasonable requirement, because presumably Apple wouldn't want to be funding the manufacture of materials that found their way into a competitors' device. But again, Apple wasn't required to buy any sapphire at all. Additionally, GT was required to build sapphire to Apple's specifications, which Squiller said, "continually changed and remain in flux to this day." (Squiller's complaint was given October 8; GT has subsequently said it will be exiting the sapphire business.) The complaint also said that as of October 8, GT had incurred costs of $900 million related to the deal. Ahead of its bankruptcy filing, GT's market cap was about $1.5 billion. Here's the ugly year-to-date chart of GT shares.
And the whole arrangement, at least as it's outlined in the declaration, seems foisted upon GT Advanced, and certainly not by the company's choosing. As Squiller says: "[T]he extensive and all-consuming nature of negotiations with Apple would have allowed little time to pursue alternatives. Knowing tht GTAT had no practical choice at that stage other than to concede to Apple's terms, Apple forced a set of agreements on GTAT that, in combination with Apple's economic leverage, put Apple in de facto control of GTAT." Squiller also says Apple advised GT management that they shouldn't "waste their time" trying to negotiate with the company. And when GT management, "expressed obvious concerns to Apple regarding the deal terms during the contract negotiations, Apple responded that similar terms are required for other Apple suppliers and that GTAT should: 'Put on your big boy pants and accept the agreement.'" Some of the terms outlined in the document that GT wasn't too excited about include a $50 million penalty per occurrence that any aspect of GT's agreement with Apple were disclosed, and a $1 billion penalty if GT doesn't honor Apple's 30 day exclusivity window should GT seek to sell its assets, or its sapphire business, or receives interest from a third party. Apple also required GT establish a new wholly-owned subsidiary to implement what Squiller called, "a convoluted and artificial structure that serves no economic purpose—other than protecting Apple—such that GTAT Corp. would be obligated to buy and assemble furnaces for Apple, but the cash and furnaces would then be 'round-tripped' through GT Equipment, a so-called 'bankruptcy remote entity' using an illusory sale and leaseback between GTAT Corp. and GT Equipment." And ahead of inking its agreement with Apple, GT also paid off the remainder of a credit facility with Bank of America, which the complaint says, "was necessary to permit Apple to take a lien on all of the assets of both GTAT Corp. and GT Equipment — yet another deal term that Apple demanded." So Apple basically owned GT Advanced. The document does not paint the picture of a healthy relationship between two business partners, and sounds much more like Apple essentially buying a supplier, but structuring the deal in such a way so as to not assume any of the financial risk. In a separate court document filed by Apple, the company said, "The [Squiller declaration] contained numerous statements about Apple that Apple believes to be untrue, irrelevant, and inflammatory." Apple added that, "Much of the Supplemental Squiller Declaration goes far beyond what was reasonably necessary to describe the Debtors' current financial situation and instead includes gratuitious characterizations of Apple's motives, negotiating tactics, and business practices." We've embedded both documents below. You should read them. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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The Story Behind The First Thing Design God Jony Ive Made For Apple (AAPL) | ||
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In this excerpt from "Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple's Greatest Products," author Leander Kahney describes Apple design genius Jony Ive's first big assignment. Jony’s first big assignment at Apple was to design the second-generation Newton MessagePad. The first Newton hadn’t yet been released, but the design team already hated it. Thanks to a rushed production schedule, the first model had some serious flaws that Apple’s executives, as well as the designers, were eager to fix. Just before the Newton was shipped, Apple discovered that the planned lid to protect its delicate glass screen wouldn’t clear expansion cards, which were to be inserted into the slot at the top. The design group was charged with developing some quickie carrying cases, including a simple leather slipcase, and off it went into the marketplace. In addition, the Newton’s loudspeaker was in the wrong place. It was in the palm rest, so the user tended to cover it up when holding the device. The hardware engineers wanted the second-generation Newton (code-named Lindy) to have a slightly larger screen for better handwriting recognition. Since the pen was attached awkwardly to the side, a kludge that gave the Newton extra width, they wanted the new version to be significantly thinner; the original was so bricklike, only the largest of jacket pockets could accommodate it. Jony worked on the Lindy project between November 1992 and January 1993. To get a grip on the project, he began with its design “story”— that is, by asking himself, What’s the story of this product? The Newton was so new and versatile and unlike other products, that articulating what it was primarily used for wasn’t easy. It morphed into a different device depending on what software it was running, so it could be a notepad or a fax machine. CEO Sculley called it a PDA but, for Jony, that definition was just too slippery. “The problem with the first Newton was that it didn’t relate to people’s everyday lives,” Jony said. “It didn’t offer a metaphor that users could grasp.” He set about fixing that. To most people a lid is just a lid, but Jony gave it special attention. “It’s the first thing you see and the first thing you interact with,” Jony said. “Before you can turn the product on, you must first open the lid. I wanted that moment to be special.” To enhance that moment, Jony designed a clever, spring-loaded latch mechanism; when you pressed the lid, it popped open. The mechanism depended on a tiny copper spring carefully calibrated to give just the right amount of pop. To allow the lid to clear any expansion cards in the slot on top, Jony created a double hinge to allow the lid to clear any obstructions. When the lid was open, it flipped up and over the back to be stored out of the way. That conveyed something to the user too. “Pushing the lid up and around the back was important because the action is not culturally specific,” Jony noted at the time. “Folding the lid to the side, like a book, created problems because people in Europe and the U.S. would want to open it on the left whereas people in Japan would want to open it on the right. To accommodate everyone, I decided the lid would have to open straight up.” Next, Jony turned his attention to the “fiddle factor,” the special nuances that would make the product personal and special. The Newton was pen based, so Jony focused on the pen, which he knew users would love to play with. Jony’s solution to the challenge of reducing width and integrating the pen into the MessagePad itself was a storage slot at the top. “I insisted the lid fold up and over the top, like a stenographer’s notepad, which everyone understands [and] . . . users saw Lindy as a notepad. The stored pen at the top, where a stenographer’s notepad’s spiral binding would be, made the right connection. “That became a key element of the product’s story.” The slot was too short for a full-size stylus, so Jony created a stylus that cleverly telescoped. Like the lid, the pen featured a pop-up mechanism that made it pop out when the user pressed its top. To give it weight and heft, he fashioned the pen from brass. His colleagues all went nuts for it. “Lindy was Jonathan’s shining moment,” said fellow designer Parsey.
On top of all this, Jony was under an extremely tight deadline with enormous pressures to deliver. The first edition of Apple’s pioneering handheld device had been doomed by the Doonesbury cartoon that came to define it. Cartoonist Gary Trudeau depicted the Newton’s handwriting recognition as hopeless, delivering a gut punch to the device from which it never recovered. Thanks to Trudeau, the first Newton MessagePad had to be replaced as quickly as possible. The pressure fell to Jony. “When you’re aware of the lost revenue each day the schedule slips, it tends to focus your attention,” he said with typical British understatement. To the amazement of his colleagues, Jony was able to go from the initial design to the first foam concept models in two weeks, the fastest anyone had seen. Jony was determined to finish the project on time, and he traveled to Taiwan to fix manufacturing problems. He camped out in a hotel near the factory where the Newton would be made. He and a hardware engineer troubleshot the pen’s pop-up mechanism in his hotel room. Parsey remembered Jony pushing himself to create something special. “To do the best design you have to live and breathe the product. At the level that Jonathan was working, it becomes like a love affair. The process is exhilarating . . . and exhausting. But unless you’re willing to give everything to the work, the design will not be great.” When it was done, Jony’s colleagues were stunned and impressed with both the new Newton and Jony, who had joined the team only months earlier. Apple executive Gaston Bastiaens, who was in charge of Newton, told Jony he would win every single design award. He nearly did. After Lindy’s introduction in 1994, Jony won several of the top awards in the industry: the Gold Industrial Design Excellence Award, the Industrie Forum Design Award, Germany’s Design Innovation Award, a Best of Category award from the I.D. Design Review and the honor of being featured in the permanent collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
One of the things about Jony that struck Rick English was Jony’s dislike of awards. Or, rather, his dislike for receiving awards in public. “Even early on, Jony Ive stated that he was not going to go to those events,” said English. “That was interesting behavior because it was really different. He hated going up on stage and receiving awards.” Jony’s Newton MessagePad 110 was on the market by March 1994, only six months after the original Newton went on sale. Unfortunately, no amount of fiddle factor was enough to save the Newton, as Apple made a series of blunders marketing it, both rushing the first device to market before it was ready and hyping its capabilities. In the face of unrealistic expectations, the Newton never reached critical mass. Both generations of Newtons were also plagued with battery problems and the poor handwriting recognition that Trudeau mocked. Not even Jony’s stellar design work could save it. Phil Gray, Jony’s old boss at RWG, remembers seeing Jony in London just after his MessagePad 110 came out. “The Newton was like a brick in retrospect, but at the time was a handheld device that no one had done before,” Gray said. “Jony was frustrated because although he had worked really hard on it, he had to make a lot of compromises because of the engineering elements. Afterwards, at Apple, he went on to be in a position where he not only could influence engineering but also manage and control those processes.” Excerpted from "Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple’s Greatest Products," by Leander Kahney, in agreement with Portfolio, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Copyright © Leander Kahney, 2013. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Meet The 15-Year-Old Who Took The Viral Photo Of 'Alex From Target' | ||
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This weekend, a teen named Alex made headlines as a photo of him bagging groceries at a Target in Texas made its way around the internet at rapid-fire pace. Alex is a good-looking kid, and the photo, somehow mysteriously, went super, super viral. Alex got hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter. A marketing team then claimed responsibility for the phenomenon, but that turned out to be fake. So who took this photo? Yahoo found out, and it talked at length with the teenager who snapped the now-famous shot, a 15-year-old named Brooklyn. This is Brooklyn Reiff:
Yahoo! reporter Alyssa Bereznak talked to Brooklyn. Reiff is a junior at Prosper High School in Prosper, Texas. She's on the softball team there, where she plays left field, sometimes center. When asked if she's interested in any particular subject at school, she replied "not really." In other words, she’s a typical teen who just happens to be Patient Zero in a massive Internet meme that millions of people have read or heard about. You can read the full interview here, but here's what we thought was the most important part: Brooklyn doesn't even think Alex from Target is that cute. "Were you like, "OMG, he's cute" when you saw him?" Bereznak asks. No, Alanna had tweeted a few times about the cashier being attractive at Target, and she’d been subtweeting him. And she put his name on there, and she was like, “Somebody get his @ name!” So I took a picture of him and tweeted back to Alanna as a comment from her original tweet, and then that was the end of the conversation. A couple days later the photo had gone viral. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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On The 35th Anniversary Of The Iran Hostage Crisis, The CIA Breaks Down Facts Vs. Fiction In The Film 'Argo' | ||
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Well, this is cool. On what is the 35th anniversary of the Iran hostage crisis, the CIA is taking to its Twitter account to break down what's "real" vs. "reel" in the movie "Argo," which is about the events. On Nov. 4, 1979, militants invaded the U.S. embassy in Tehran, taking 66 Americans hostage. Six of them managed to escape and found refuge in the home of a Canadian ambassador. Fifty-two of them stayed in captivity for 444 days. The CIA has also written about the Iran hostage crisis on its blog. The 2012 film, which stars Ben Affleck, John Goodman, Bryan Cranston, and Alan Arkin, is a retelling of the historical events, highlighting one agent's work to get the hostages out of the country. As with some historical films, "Argo" took a few liberties in the retelling of the story. So the CIA is straightening things out. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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THE E-COMMERCE REPORT: Mobile Is Giving Traditional Retailers A Chance To Bounce Back These Holidays | ||
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Using smartphones and tablets as shopping devices is a relatively new trend, and legacy retailers are using it to catch up to the original e-commerce giants. For example, Target's audience is more mobile-centric now than even Amazon's. In a new report, BI Intelligence takes an exhaustive look at the e-commerce market, looks at mobile's surge, estimates holiday sales and shipments, tracks consumer behavior, and outlines the mobile and online strategies that retailers are using to catch up in e-commerce. Access The Full Market Forecast By Signing Up for A Risk-Free Trial Today >> Here are some of the key points in the report:
The final holiday quarter of the year is retailers' do-or-die moment, a trial membership to BI Intelligence allows access to all our downloadable charts and data on the upcoming e-commerce holidays. In full, the report:
To access the E-Commerce Market Update Report and BI Intelligence's ongoing coverage on the future of retail, mobile, and e-commerce — including charts, data, and analysis — sign up for a trial membership today. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Mobile allows traditional retailers a chance to catch up in e-commerce. Google's Eric Schmidt Shows Off His Acting Skills In An Ad For The Economist | ||
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Eric Schmidt has managed to take some time off from his day job to take up acting on the side. Kind of. Google's executive chairman is the star of The Economist's latest advertising campaign, Marketing Week reports. The ad will broadcast on CNBC in Europe and Asia and will also appear across The Economist's social media channels. Take a look at the ad: The 2014 version shows a businessman waiting patiently for an elevator to move, before Eric Schmidt stops the doors from closing and steps in. The rest of the ad shows the businessman trying — and failing — to build up the confidence to start a conversation with Schmidt. The "Broaden Your Horizons" ad aims to explain that if people read the Economist, they'd have lots to talk to Schmidt about. OK, so Schmidt doesn't really do much by way of acting in this ad, but it is quite remarkable that The Economist has persuaded one of the world's most powerful businessmen to do some work on camera to plug its brand. SEE ALSO: Google Just Confirmed It's Coming After TV's Money Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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19 Crazy Facts About Bill Gates' $123 Million Washington Mansion | ||
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With a net worth of $81.5 billion, Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates is the richest man in America. It shouldn't be too surprising that one of the wealthiest people in the world also has an insanely extravagant home. It took Gates seven years and $63 million to build his Medina, Washington estate, named Xanadu 2.0 after the fictional home of "Citizen Kane"'s Charles Foster Kane. At 66,000 square feet, the home is absolutely massive, and it's filled with high-tech details. We've rounded up some of Xanadu 2.0's most over-the-top features here. 1. It's worth at least $123 million.According to the King County public assessor's office, the property is worth $123.54 million as of this year. Gates purchased the lot for $2 million in 1988. He reportedly pays around $1 million in property taxes each year. 2. Half a million board-feet of lumber was needed to complete the project.The house was built with 500-year-old Douglas fir trees. 300 construction workers labored on the home — 100 of whom were electricians. 3. A high-tech sensor system helps guests monitor a room's climate and lighting.When guests arrive, they're given a pin that interacts with sensors located all over the house. Guests enter their temperature and lighting preferences so that the settings change as they move throughout the home. Speakers hidden behind wallpaper allows music to follow you from room to room. 4. The house uses its natural surroundings to reduce heat loss.Xanadu 2.0 is an "earth-sheltered" house, meaning that it's built into its surroundings to regulate temperature more efficiently.
5. You can change the artwork on the walls with just the touch of a button.$80,000 worth of computer screens are situated around the house. Anyone can make the screens display their favorite paintings or photographs, which are stored on storage devices worth $150,000. 6. The pool also has its own underwater music system.The 60-foot pool is located in its own separate, 3,900-square-foot building. People in the pool could swim underneath a glass wall to come up to a terrace area on the outside. There's also a locker room with four showers and two baths. 7. There's a trampoline room with a 20-foot ceiling.No word on how big the trampoline itself is, but we can imagine it would be a fun alternative to your standard exercise routine. The exercise facilities total 2,500 square feet and also include a sauna, steam room, and separate men's and women's locker rooms. 8. An enormous reception hall could accommodate up to 200 guests.The 2,300-square-foot hall could seat up to 150 people for a dinner party, or 200 people standing up at a cocktail event. A six-foot-wide limestone fireplace dominates one wall, while another wall has a 22-foot-wide video screen. 9. The house has 24 bathrooms, 10 of which are full baths.Those bathrooms would definitely be useful if Gates were throwing such a big party. Otherwise, it seems a little over-the-top.
10. There's a total of six kitchens.They're situated at different parts of the house so staff can be ready for any event. 11. An enormous library houses a manuscript Gates paid more than $30 million for.The 2,100-square-foot library has a domed roof and two secret bookcases, including one that reveals a hidden bar. On the ceiling you'll find a quote from "The Great Gatsby" that reads: "He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it." The library is home to the Codex Leicester, a 16-century Leonardo da Vinci manuscript that Gates bought at auction for $30.8 million in 1994. 12. The home theatre can accommodate 20 guests in plush seats.It's designed in an Art Deco style, with comfortable arm chairs, couches, and even a popcorn machine for snacking. 13. An existing home was removed by barge to make room for a separate activities building.The 900-square-foot building sits next to Gates' sport court, putting green, and boat docks. 14. The guest house is just as high-tech as the main house.According to US News, the 1,900-square-foot guest house was the first building to be completed on the property. The house — which has its own bedroom and bathroom — was meant to be a test of the technology that would eventually be used in the main house. Gates wrote much of "The Road Ahead" here.
15. All together, Gates' garages can accommodate up to 23 cars.There are several different garages located at different points around the property. The most interesting one, however, is an underground cave made out of concrete and stainless steel. That garage alone can park 10 cars. Some of the concrete was purposely broken to give it a rough, "deconstructivist" look. 16. Gates has a favorite tree, and it's monitored electronically 24 hours a day.He reportedly became fond of a 40-year-old maple tree that grew close to the home's driveway. It's monitored by computer, and if at any point it becomes too dry, water is automatically pumped into it. 17. An artificial stream is kept stocked with fish.The stream and wetland estuary were created to solve any problems with runoff that the property's large walls might have created. The water is kept stocked with salmon and sea-run cutthroat trout. 18. The sand on Gates' beach is imported from the Caribbean.The lakefront shore contains sand that's delivered in large quantities by a barge from St. Lucia each year. 19. Someone once paid $35,000 just to tour it.Microsoft holds an auction each year, where employees donate products and services to be bid on. Proceeds go to the company's charitable fund. Gates has donated private tours of Xanadu 2.0 in the past. According to the Puget Sound Business Journal, a Microsoft employee once won the tour with a bid of $35,000. SEE ALSO: Take A Tour Of Bill Gates' New 228-Acre Ranch, Complete With A Horse-Racing Track Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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What 29 Rockettes Doing Kicks In Perfect Sync Looks Like In iPhone 6 Slo-Mo | ||
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I was lucky enough to see the Radio City Christmas Spectacular last night for the first time. The show, of course, stars the Rockettes. It's alot of fun. I shot a video from my seat using the iPhone 6 new slo-mo feature. Take a look. Produced by Justin Maiman. Edited by Sam Rega. Follow BI Video: On Facebook Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Home Automation Gadgets Are Leading Explosive Growth In The Consumer 'Internet Of Things' Market | ||
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Homes around the world are going to become smarter and more connected over the next five years. Overall, a fair number of mainstream consumers still don't fully understand what connected-home devices are and how they work. However, adoption and awareness is still high for such a new category. We expect the devices to become more prevalent in the next two years, when growth will peak. In a recent report on the connected home, BI Intelligence takes a closer look at this market, and forecasts shipments and revenue growth for connected-home devices over the next five years. We also examine current consumer sentiment about these new devices, the potential opportunities and barriers the Internet of Things will face on its way to mainstream adoption, and the leading companies currently in the market. Access The Full Report And Data By Signing Up For A Trial Today >> Here are some key points from the report:
The report is full of charts and data that can be downloaded and put to use. In full, the report:
For full access to all BI Intelligence's charts, data, and analysis on the mobile and Internet of Things industry, sign up for a trial. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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One Venrock Partner's Three Keys To Being A Killer Investor | ||
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| David Pakman co-created Apple's Music Group and worked for three digital music start-ups before finding his real calling as a venture capitalist. Now he's a partner at Venrock and has invested in companies like Klout, Dstillery and Dollar Shave Club,. But his early entrepreneur experiences shaped those ventures and help him stand out as a star investor in a competitive field. Pakman sat down with OneWire CEO Skiddy von Stade and gave these three tips on how to best to source deals as a VC based on all he's seen in his career (so quite a bit): (1) Develop an area of expertiseThese days investors are chomping at the bit to fund start-up digital media companies — "and everyone’s money’s just as green," Pakman said. So Venrock capitalists strive to add more than just capital to their ventures. "Venrock’s been around for more than 40 years and has invested in many of the world’s most incredible companies," Pakman said. "The belief is that we’ve seen this show before and we can offer some guidance to an entrepreneur." (2) Get some experience as an entrepreneurNot only does Venrock have that kind of expertise, but Pakman does too. "I’ve started and ran companies, so I’ve seen that grind," he said. Pakman said new entrepreneurs tend to be short-sighted and focused on the next few weeks or months ahead. So he aims to provide longer-term wisdom to his partners. "I try to help entrepreneurs see around corners," he said. (3) Understand and share your partners' vision — because you're going in for the long haulPakman said entrepreneurs must feel that you see eye to eye with them, sense the same macro trends taking place, and share a long-term vision. It can take years to get a start-up company where you want it to go. "So you have to be aligned with the same super long-term vision as an entrepreneur, and I think that’s another way to differentiate," he said. Watch the full OneWire interview above and subscribe to the series to get new interviews as soon as they are posted. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Mark Zuckerberg Reveals Why You Were Forced To Download Facebook's Separate Messenger App (FB) | ||
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In August, Facebook finally pulled the plug on messages within the main Facebook app, forcing users instead to download its separate Messenger app. People weren't happy, and while Messenger rocketed to the top of the App Store charts, it was flooded by negative reviews from disgruntled users. We never really got a good answer why Facebook decided to make Messenger its own app, but CEO Mark Zuckerberg finally explained the move Thursday during a Q&A, according to The Verge's Ellis Hamburger. "Asking everyone in our community to install a new app is a big ask," Zuckerberg said. "I appreciate that that was work and required friction. We wanted to do this because we believe that this is a better experience. Messaging is becoming increasingly important. On mobile, each app can only focus on doing one thing well, we think."
"Ten billion messages are sent per day, but in order to get to it you had to wait for the app to load and go to a separate tab," Zuckerberg said. "We saw that the top messaging apps people were using were their own app. These apps that are fast and just focused on messaging. You're probably messaging people 15 times per day. Having to go into an app and take a bunch of steps to get to messaging is a lot of friction." Zuckerberg acknowledged that forcing users to download a separate app is "painful" for them, but only in the short term, and the result is a more focused experience. "Why wouldn't we let people choose to install the app on their own at their own pace? The reason is that what we're trying to do is build a service that's good for everyone. Because Messenger is faster and more focused, if you're using it, you respond to messages faster, we've found. If your friends are slower to respond, we might not have been able to meet up. "This is some of the hardest stuff we do, is making these choices. We realize that we have a lot to earn in terms of trust and proving that this standalone messenger experience will be really good. We have some of our most talented people working on this." You can read Zuckerberg's full comments on Messenger over at The Verge.
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Zuckerberg explained that the main Facebook app's primary purpose is its News Feed, and even though more and more people are messaging, the messaging feature was tough to get to, which created a lot of friction.
Samsung's Next Major Galaxy Phone Could Come With A Crazy, Flexible Screen That Curves Around Its Edges | ||
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Samsung has been showing off its flexible displays for years, but soon we may be seeing that technology appear in more mainstream smartphones. One analyst thinks the Korean tech giant will outfit its upcoming Galaxy S6 with a display that curves on both sides, unlike the company's recently released Galaxy Note Edge which only curves on one side. Jerry Kang, a senior analyst at IHD Technology, said the following at the IHS Display Analyst conference on Thursday (via Phone Arena): "The Galaxy S6 to be released next year will feature a 'dual-edged' screen which is curved on the right and the left sides." Kang also noted that this was the original concept for the Galaxy Note Edge, but Samsung scrapped that idea in favor of a design that curves only on the right. Although Samsung has been experimenting with flexible displays for the past few years, it doesn't seem likely that the company will bring its tech to a mainstream device such as the Galaxy S6. There's a chance we'll see a spin-off sort of the like Note Edge, which is essentially a clone of the Galaxy Note 4 other than its curved screen. Here's what the Note Edge looks like — the curved part of the screen is actually a separate display that can act independently of the main screen.
The Galaxy S6, however, is rumored to come with either a 16 or 20-megapixel camera and an all new design that's made from scratch. Samsung is said to be calling the phone "Project Zero" internally, but we won't know more about the phone until next year. SEE ALSO: This Mind-Blowing Prototype Shows How Crazy Smartphones Could Look In The Future Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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How To Take The Perfect LinkedIn Profile Photo | ||
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Having a LinkedIn profile picture makes you 7 times more likely to be clicked on by an employer. Don’t have a profile picture? Or need to take a new one? Here’s a step-by-step guide to taking the perfect LinkedIn profile picture. Produced by Devan Joseph. Narrated by Matt Johnston. Follow BI Video: On Facebook Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Facebook Is Stealing A Huge Chunk Of YouTube’s Audience (FB) | ||
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It has not even aired on TV yet, but John Lewis' latest Christmas ad is already a huge sensation. It is always a huge annual event in the UK — the retailer treats it like a Super Bowl commercial — but this year's tale of a boy arranging a mail-order love match for his toy penguin friend has gone bigger online than any of John Lewis' previous festive efforts on their first day. Why? It looks as if Facebook video has given the UK department store an extra helping hand. Stats show Facebook has stolen 40% of the online audience for the video, which would previously have belonged entirely to YouTube. The shift is dramatic: Until very recently, Facebook was simply not a destination for video. Now, the social network is slicing off large chunks of YouTube's business. As of 9 a.m. Friday, just over 24 hours after John Lewis unleashed its latest holiday campaign on the internet, the video had been shared 202,953 times across social media, according to data from the social video marketing company Unruly. At the same point last year, John Lewis' 2013 "Bear and the Hare" ad had 198,244 shares. That might not seem like a massive leap, but interesting is that last year John Lewis did not upload its Christmas ad direct to Facebook; it shared only the YouTube link. YouTube still dominated in terms of views — 4.1 million views to Facebook's 2.8 million views. But even so, that still means 40% of John Lewis' views are now on Facebook, when last year there was none. This time around, Facebook is actually dominating in terms of social-media shares. As of 9 a.m. Friday, the Facebook video had been shared 156,063 times, while the YouTube video had been shared just 46,890 times. So Facebook attracted 76.9% of the shares in the first 24 hours.
And for marketers, sharing is a far more important engagement metric than a view. If someone shares a video, it's a sign of endorsement — something they would be proud to be associated with (even if a video is criticized in its comments, the fact a video has elicited some sort of emotional response is still a bonus for a marketer), rather than something to passively view. So the fact that 5.66% of the people who watched the video on Facebook went on to share it on social media, compared with 1.14% of YouTube viewers, is likely to speak volumes to John Lewis about where it should prioritize placing its next piece of video content: Facebook. If early stats on the John Lewis Christmas ad are not enough to convince marketers of the power of Facebook video, last month researchers at Socialbakers found that content creators were migrating from YouTube to Facebook in droves. YouTube’s share of the number of video posts has dwindled throughout 2014, while Facebook’s share is on an upward trajectory.
Similar patterns have followed for the share of video interactions.
In September, The Wall Street Journal reported that Facebook was trying to poach some of YouTube's hottest stars in a bid to get them to publish directly to Facebook and take a cut of some of the associated advertising revenue. It has been made very clear in recent months that Facebook is placing video at the heart of its growth strategy, having announced in September that since June this year its platform achieved more than 1 billion video views each day. Facebook has only a modest video advertising business, though, having just launched its first video advertising product in December last year. Facebook has repeatedly insisted that it wants to roll out autoplay video ads "deliberately slowly" to get users used to the idea of them appearing in the News Feed, rather than overloading them with content from brands right away. But while video advertising makes up just a small chunk of the company's advertising revenue, organic video is key to building engagement on Facebook. The more time users spend on the platform, the more valuable those users are to advertisers. More ads can be served to them, and the price of Facebook advertising goes up. That's not to discount YouTube. It is still, by far, the biggest video platform, with a 73% share of the US visits to multimedia portals (ahead of Netflix with 5.6% and Bing videos with 3.3%), according to Statista. Its owner, Google, is also increasingly using the same method TV broadcasters use — upfronts — to secure major upfront advertising commitments for YouTube. But as Unruly CEO Scott Button told Business Insider: "[The John Lewis stats are] no surprise to us as it shows that posting an ad on YouTube alone isn't enough to make an ad go viral ... The proliferation of online video platforms, which exploded in 2013 with the launch of Vine and Instagram Video, shows consumers' growing appetite for choice when they are watching and discovering videos across the open web."
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Q&A: The Man Behind LiveLeak, The Islamic State's Favourite Site For Beheading Videos | ||
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Video sharing site LiveLeak isn't your average startup. There's no CEO, office, PR team or venture capital funding. But LiveLeak has grown to be one of the biggest video sharing sites on the internet. Along the way, LiveLeak has received death threats, fought back against ISIS/Islamic State, and seen itself mentioned by Prime Minister Tony Blair and White House Press Secretary Tony Snow. "War is no longer something read in dispatches, it comes straight into the living room. Take a website like LiveLeak, which has become popular with soldiers from both sides of the divide in both Afghanistan and Iraq. Operational documentary material, from their mobile phones or laptops, is posted on the site in real time." British Prime Minister Tony Blair speaking on Jan. 12 2007. If you've watched a video originating from Iraq, Syria, Libya or Russia in recent years, you've probably seen a LiveLeak logo in the top left corner. The site has carved out a niche amongst the vast amount of video sharing startups online by offering a far more relaxed policy on what can and cannot be uploaded. The video embedded below, "Idiot Causes Head-on Collision," is typical of the content found on the site: It originates from an Eastern European country (Belarus), it's filmed using a dash-mounted camera, and it depicts a serious, potentially fatal, car crash: LiveLeak is best known for videos such as the car crash footage embedded above. Often, the videos contain violence, or visible injuries. A page that shows the most-viewed content on the site includes videos of a plane struggling to land, a Russian tampon commercial, and the execution of Saddam Hussein. Violence, car crashes, sex and conspiracies make up a vast amount of LiveLeak's most popular videos. But, despite its reputation as an uncensored version of YouTube playing host to some of the goriest videos on the internet, LiveLeak has actively worked to create a more family-friendly community. LiveLeak's founding team met while working on a related project in the early 2000s. Ogrish was a classic internet shock site that specialized in gory, violent videos. Its original tag line was "Can you handle life?" hinting at the graphic content hosted on the site. But on Halloween 2006, Ogrish abruptly shut down, directing its users to visit a new video service: LiveLeak. Forty-one-year-old Hayden Hewitt is the only public member of LiveLeak's founding team. All other founders of the site have remained anonymous since LiveLeak launched in 2006, perhaps fearful of the impact that the site could have on their careers. Hewitt, who lives in Manchester spoke to Business Insider about the site's history. "Ogrish had gone as far as it could go," Hewitt told us. "It risked becoming a parody of itself. Ogrish was a very serious site, it wasn't like a lot of the gore sites you might see now that are based off that model. It was tremendously serious, everything was researched, there was no laughing at dead people or anything like that, the community was actually remarkably reserved." "We’d gone as far as we could go with [Ogrish] ... Traffic was still climbing, but we felt we reached a point where we didn’t want to progress with it. We closed it down before we ran the risk of becoming like the imitators." Despite launching as a tamer version of Ogrish, LiveLeak was soon mired in controversy. In 2008, Dutch politician Geert Wilders created a short documentary named Fitna that was highly critical of Islam. After attempting to hire extra security to screen it in Holland and then having his website suspended, Wilders turned to LiveLeak and requested that they host the controversial film. Unprepared for what was to come next, LiveLeak agreed.
But thing were about to get crazier. LiveLeak was forced to take the video offline after Hewitt became the target of death threats. "We get a lot of threats in general, but these were becoming very, very specific ... Certain outlets were reporting my full name, and the rough area of Manchester which I was living in at the time, so the threats started becoming a little bit more direct. We had to do something. We took it offline for 48 hours while we made a lot of preparations, including ensuring my family would be looked after for a period of time if anything happened to me." Fitna was eventually re-uploaded to LiveLeak, although it was then taken down again over a copyright claim. The controversy died down as many of the video's critics were able to view the film, which resembled a poorly edited PowerPoint presentation. The Fitna incident had shown LiveLeak's founders just how powerful the site could be. By relaxing the restrictions found elsewhere, they could host videos that nobody else would. But with that notoriety came a risk to the lives of the site's founders. Business Insider asked Hewitt why he chose to become the only public face of the organization: "I drew the short straw on that one. It’s a case of necessity. Just being another faceless website is a little too corporate. It is an independent outfit, everybody works, everybody has other jobs. There are no full time LiveLeak employees." Were Hewitt's family aware of his second life as one of the founders of a notorious website? "My wife was fully aware at the time, of course. I don’t imagine she was over the moon, but this was something I believe in. Sometimes ignorant people should be able to have a voice. I believed in that. But, I’ve got a kid now, so I don’t know." Does being the public face of one of the internet's most notorious websites hurt Hewitt's career away from the site? "It has harmed my career in that I spend far more time than is financially responsible on the site. But not much of what I do relies on the skillsets I’ve developed over the years in terms of community development. I was asked in a recent interview why I don’t do consulting, and that’s because it’s never occurred to me. I’m too busy. It’s neither been one way or another. I think it’s been beneficial in a lot of organisational ways, communicative ways, perhaps. But overall, I just spend far too much time on it." More often that not, the LiveLeak community is able to quietly share and discuss videos on the site without interference or criticism. But every few years, LiveLeak resurfaces as the polar opposite of the restrictions on mainstream sites. The divide between LiveLeak and other sites became more prominent in 2013 after Facebook issued a six-month ban on all videos showing beheadings. Facebook had decided to remove the violent videos after being warned that viewing beheadings could cause its users long-term harm. LiveLeak, however, had allowed beheading videos since its inception, and continued to let users upload graphic content. Hewitt was invited onto Britain's Newsnight current affairs programme to discuss LiveLeak's policy of allowing content that was banned elsewhere. With its graphic violence and notoriety, does LiveLeak's sole public founder consider the site to have a positive impact on the internet? Hewitt isn't sure it has any impact at all. "If you look at the wider world, it certainly couldn’t make it any worse. It depends what you take out of it, what the experience is ... Me personally, I don’t think it has any impact on the greater world whatsoever, and if we look around us, it’s relatively small-fry in terms of any nastiness." LiveLeak returned to prominence in August after ISIS/Islamic State released a video showing the beheading of American journalist James Foley on Aug. 19. The video was quickly removed from YouTube, as it violated the site's policy on violent content. But LiveLeak, which chooses not to censor violent content unless it's overly gratuitous, decided to host the video. Site traffic soared as people searched for the video:
Hewitt and the other LiveLeak founders held a vote over whether the site should host further beheading videos from ISIS. The result was unanimous: ISIS was banned from LiveLeak. LiveLeak went on to publish a blog post that explained the reasons behind the ban. For a community famed for its tolerance of graphic violence, many questioned the reasons behind the ban. In its statement, LiveLeak explained that it had no desire to host any beheading videos from ISIS, remarking "We've shown the world the true horror of this form of execution more than once in the past and we cannot find any compelling reason to even be thought of as promoting the actions of this group." LiveLeak kept its word. As ISIS released more brutal videos showing the beheading of American and British journalists and aid works, the moderators of LiveLeak have worked to remove them from the site. Footage from Syria and Iraq remains popular, however, and there are still car crash videos emerging from Russia. So what's next for LiveLeak? The site hasn't changed very much since its inception, but there are big changes on the way. Hewitt told Business Insider that the "next step is the live streaming aspect which is very close to a Beta launch after a long development." LiveLeak users will soon be able to stream video from war zones and protests in real-time, without interruption or censorship. LiveLeak is going to become its own online network of live feeds from around the world. The site remains popular with soldiers fighting in far-flung locations. Soon, as well as car crashes and tampon commercials, we may see live video from the frontlines. That could give rise to even more controversy than the site has seen before. SEE ALSO: ISIS Banned From Controversial Video Site LiveLeak After James Foley Execution Video Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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"The video went live and I think half of the Netherlands actually logged into the site that day," says LiveLeak founder Hewitt. "In terms of numbers, quite literally half the country. Everything just went crazy."
But LiveLeak's founders had to make an important decision. As traffic soared, they received news that ISIS had further hostages, and the group was planning to behead them also. This concerned LiveLeak's founders. When the terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi began releasing beheading videos in 2004, Ogrish, the forerunner to LiveLeak, allowed them on the site. But now, the founders felt uneasy about potentially facilitating another series of gory videos. This Diagram We Saw Inside Facebook's London Office Made Us Think Twice About Apple's Dominance Of Apps (FB, AAPL) | ||
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For years, Apple has dominated the $45 billion app business with its App Store. Android has always been the second-best place for apps. Facebook, however, has a plan that could change all that. This hastily scrawled diagram on a whiteboard in its London office represents that plan, and it ought to scare the folks at Apple who work to maintain the primacy of iOS among app developers. (We explain the diagram below.) iPhone and iPad users are generally more lucrative than Android people for apps, in terms of download fees and in-app payments. So the best apps are developed first for Apple's iOS mobile operating system. Only if they are successful do companies produce an Android version, often months or years later. Even then, Android apps tend to be copies of the original iOS app, with all the flaws and compromises that implies. The dominance of iOS creates a bizarre distortion in the app market: In many major markets, Apple has only a about a 12% share of mobile users; 80% of users are on Android. Android has twice the number of activated devices globally (~1.6 billion versus ~775 million), according to BI Intelligence. Yet the majority is treated as second class in the app world. It can actually be difficult to hire Android developers because staff members want to work only on iOS. And you can be hugely successful as an app creator, even if the vast majority of phone users have no contact with your product. At Facebook in Europe, however, executives think that Apple's iOS dominance might be about to weaken. We spoke to Facebook's Europe, Middle East, and Africa platform director Julien Codorniou recently and were surprised when he told us that the trend he was seeing favored Android. Revenue generation on Android is catching up to that of iOS, and more developers — particularly for game developers — are going Android-first, especially in Europe. Facebook is hoping to take advantage of this via its Parse app development platform, which Codorniou believes virtually erases the two-step iOS/Android development process, letting companies release new apps on both platforms simultaneously. (He drew the diagram for us as he explained how the Parse platform works — it is obviously not Facebook's "official" business plan.) Erasing a key selling point for the iPhone.That would actually be good for Apple in the sense that a robust, growing app market only increases Apple's App Store revenues. But it would also be bad for Apple, because if apps are released simultaneously on Android, it erases one of the key selling points of the iPhone: that users who want the cool new apps must be Apple users to get them.
Traditionally, app developers would essentially make two separate apps — one for iOS and then, later, one for Android. They needed a lot of operations to support them, like servers. Facebook's Parse platform replaces that: It lets companies build, store, and serve apps directly from the Parse cloud. All developers have to do is create an iOS client, an Android client, and even a Windows Phone client, and publish them as needed. Once the apps are in the Apple App Store and the Google Play store, then developers can use Facebook's various marketing products — mobile app install ads, engagement ads, and the Facebook Audience Network — to promote them. The inequality statement at the bottom of the diagram, "CPI < LTV," indicates what developers are aiming for: As long as the Cost Per Install (the marketing investment it took to persuade you to download an app) is less than the Long Term Value of new downloads, users, and in-app payments, then the company should keep spending on more ads on Facebook. If the cost is greater than the value, the companies are advised to halt what they are doing and think again. More than 270,000 apps are using the system, up from 100,000 the year before. (For scale, both Apple's App Store and Google Play have more than 1 million apps available. So Facebook is partnering with a significant chunk of the market.) "We see more people being Android-first because of the size of the market."
"I would say no," Cordoniou says. "We can make you big on Facebook.com, on the web, on iOS, on Android, on Windows phone, on any new platform coming up that we support. The main value proposition of Facebook is the fact that it’s cross-platform." Developers still have to build separate clients of course; that isn't going away. But are they more likely to continue to build the Apple one first? "We see more people being Android-first because of the size of the market. The Parse technology is like Unity in gaming," Codorniou says, referring to the game development platform on which you can create games for multiple systems. "You build on Unity, you’re almost de facto on iOS and on Android. You see a lot of cross-platform tools, this is why we have an amazing partnership with Unity on top of Parse and on top of Facebook Canvas, because if you build on Unity, you can build on iOS, Android, and Facebook at the same time. You see a lot of games like that being developed by Russian developers." "It’s easier to update your app on Android."Android-first, really? "People look at the numbers," Codorniou says. "They want downloads, installs. They know that the monetization is catching up on Android. Of course iOS is the better platform when it comes to monetization, but it’s easier to update your app on Android. There are many people on an Android phone ... The world you described [in which Apple is dominant] was true a year ago, but I see that things are changing.
"There is a pattern coming from Eastern Europe. The Russian developers develop on Android first because of a big audience, and it maybe being easier to develop. They liked the fact that they could submit a new version of the app every day. [With Apple, each new version of the app must be approved before it hits the App Store. There is no new-version approval for Android.] This is a trend that I see and I think it is going to accelerate." Codorniou has a team spreading the word, too: "As of today, I have four guys from my team in Paris talking to Android developers about the greatness of Parse, Facebook login, app links, app events, all of these things we introduced at f8. It’s a very important bet for us." Time will tell, of course. The App Store is generating perhaps $10 billion in annual revenue for iOS developers, while Google Play is generating $5 billion. It could take a long time to shift that momentum in such a way that developers become encouraged to go Android-first or even Android-equal. But if it were to happen, Facebook wants developers to know it has just the system to help with that.
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As we discussed the app market, Codorniou drew the diagram (see right) on a whiteboard on the eighth floor of Facebook's cavernous London offices. We have annotated it here so you can see what's going on.
But does the Parse platform compete with Apple or Google?
"The vision we have with Parse and with the platform in general is to accelerate the time to market. It should not take you six months to develop from iOS to Android.
A Brutal Takedown Of Dick Costolo's Reign At Twitter: 'People Are Losing Confidence In Him' (TWTR) | ||
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The Wall Street Journal has published a long, detailed and at times brutal analysis of CEO Dick Costolo's reign at Twitter. Seriously, go read the whole thing if you care about the fate of world's best platform for sharing news (and why it seems to be treading water compared to the meteoric rise of Snapchat and Instagram). If you follow Twitter closely, you'll notice little in the story that is specifically new. What the article does instead is put together the entire jigsaw in one place: And when you see the complete picture, it's harsh: • A vague and difficult to understand description of Twitter's audience as a series of "eccentric circles." (Does he mean concentric circles?) • Costolo wants to emphasize Twitter's wider, non-logged in audience (i.e. on news pages that have embedded tweets) to avoid comparisons to Facebook. But talking about the larger size of the Twitter audience invites comparisons to Facebook's even larger off-platform audience. • Endless management turmoil, much of it triggered by Costolo himself (especially when he hired one of his friends, Michael Sippey, to run the product team, who later left the company). • This bit is especially worrying: "In all, the CEO has replaced or lost five direct reports since the IPO. Last week, he named Twitter’s fifth head of product in as many years. Its most recent vice president of product, Daniel Graf, who came from Google Maps and was handpicked by Mr Costolo, lasted less than six months in the post." The stock has fallen from around $55 in September to around $40 now. So the scrutiny is warranted. Walter Price of Allianz Global’s Technology Fund has reduced his position in Twitter, he told the Journal: “People are losing confidence in him.” In the meantime, here's my take on the way people mostly misunderstand why Twitter is so interesting and so important. Disclosure: The author owns Twitter stock. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Spending On Native Advertising Is Soaring As Marketers And Digital Media Publishers Realize The Benefits | ||
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Native is one of the hottest topics in digital media, and advertisers and publishers are taking notice. By creating advertisements that are in the same format as the content audiences are there to consume, marketers hope to provide a much less disruptive advertising experience. Native ads have also proven effective, drawing higher click rates than traditional banner ads, particularly on mobile devices. New and exclusive data from BI Intelligence finds that spending on native ads will reach $7.9 billion this year and grow to $21 billion in 2018, rising from just $4.7 billion in 2013. We are the only research service that has provided a detailed breakdown of spend projections and growth rates for each of the three main native ad types — social-native, native-style display ads, and sponsored content. Access The Full Report And Downloads By Signing Up For A Trial Membership » Here are some of the key takeaways:
The report is full of charts and data that can easily be downloaded and put to use. In full, the report:
For full access receive to all BI Intelligence's analysis, reporting, and downloadable charts and presentations on the digital media industry, sign up for a trial. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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10 Things In Tech You Need To Know Today | ||
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1. The FBI arrested a former SpaceX employee, accusing him of running deep web drug marketplace the Silk Road. Prosecutors claim he immediately admitted everything. 2. Microsoft Office is now available for free on iPhone. An Office 365 subscription unlocks premium features. 3. Amazon unveiled a new speaker with a built-in personal assistant. The Amazon Echo will retail for $199. 4. Phone manufacturer Lenovo has unveiled a new device that looks incredibly similar to the iPhone 6. The s90 Sisley is even being advertised in a similar way. 5. Twitter is planning on opening an office in Hong Kong early next year. Reports suggest that it is aimed at the Chinese market. SPONSORED BY: Four Points 6. Symantec will lay off 2,000 employees as part of its split. That's about 10% of its total workforce. 7. Mark Zuckerberg says he wears the same T-shirt every day to clear his life. He wants to make as few decisions as possible. 8. Apple has shut down the "Wirelurker" vulnerability that affected Mac computers and iPhones. The company blocked the malicious apps. 9. Home Depot says that hackers stole 53 million email addresses. The hack is worse than previously thought. 10. Zynga's losses widened in its Q3 earnings. The company behind FarmVille is struggling to make another hit game. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Good morning! It looks set to be a rainy day in London. Here's the tech news you need to know today. The Maker Of The Game 'Destiny' Gave A Man Recovering From Brain Surgery A Rare Gift | ||
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Bungie, the developer behind one of the hottest games of the year, gave a man recovering from brain surgery a rare gift: The Fate Of All Fools. That may not sound like much. But to fans of the game, it's huge. It's a rare weapon that actually doesn't exist yet; it will be offered as a reward for a mission in future content. (Learn more about the Fate Of All Fools on DestinyDB.) According to Reddit user Bkbunny87, her husband's doctor recommended that he play the game "to serve as a form of physical therapy for him, following several brain surgeries." "... his neurologist told us that video games have been showing tremendous use as a PT tool for brain and memory damage," Bkbunny87 wrote. "He even brought 'Destiny' up on his computer and after some speed reading he was all but jumping at the opportunity the game could pose for someone in my husband's position." She says that not only was the "Destiny" Reddit community supportive, but that Bungie Community Manager Deej reached out and said that a care package is on its way. The entire post reads: Yesterday I had a post talking about my husband and his Doctor recommending Destiny to serve as a form of physical therapy for him following several brain surgeries. This community was amazing, and raid groups are being organized for him out of all the people who offered to help him. But just as amazing, Deej contacted me and has sent my husband a care package from Bungie that is on the way. Then this morning, a message from Deej told us to have my husband check with Tess the Post Master in the tower. Lots of screaming ensued. He has been sent the exotic gun Fate Of All Fools, a solar primary that looks like it will be available in future content. Vision of Confluence had been my husbands dream weapon, as scout is his favorite and he wanted that solar damage. A more perfect weapon could not have been chosen. I'm so jealous, but mostly so damn happy for him. As for him-- well, you can imagine :) Thank you guys for being such a caring community. Thank you Deej and the crew at Bungie, you've made him ecstatic. That makes her husband the only player in the world to hold such a rare gift. (Via Gameranx) SEE ALSO: Here's How To Play More Than 900 Classic Arcade Games Without Spending A Single Quarter Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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These Stunning Screenshots From 'Grand Theft Auto' Look Like Real-Life Photographs | ||
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"Grand Theft Auto IV" has been out since 2008. Since then, PC enthusiasts have tested the limits of the game, installing their own modifications to increase the game's level of detail. Photographer and game enthusiast Raphael Smith has installed a handful of these mods on a PC that only cost him $950 a few years ago. The resulting screenshots are so realistic and lifelike that they can easily be mistaken for photographs, and that's not an exaggeration. You've never seen game graphics look this good. Note: All screenshots used with permission. Smith used a few different "mods" to make sure every little detail was updated. He used two different mods to increase the textures of the city buildings. Another mod added realistic weather to the game. See the rest of the story at Business Insider  | ||
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Here's Why NFL Fans Are Getting Screwed When It Comes To Watching Football | ||
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Around 16 NFL games are played every Sunday. Unless you have the DirecTV Sunday Ticket premium service, you will only be able to watch 5 or 6 of the games on television. DirecTV only has approximately 20 million subscribers in the US, so the majority of NFL fans are left without access to the games on their televisions. DirecTV recently inked a deal with the NFL that will keep this system in place for the next 8 years. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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JPMorgan cutting 3,000 more retail banking jobs | ||
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New York (AFP) - JPMorgan Chase will cut 3,000 more jobs than previously planned this year in its retail banking businesses, bringing the total to 11,000, a senior executive said Friday. The US banking giant had announced in February it would trim its retail banking unit by about 8,000 by the end of the year. But Gordon Smith, chief executive of Chase Consumer & Community Banking, told a Boston conference that the company was moving more swiftly in downsizing. In the non-mortgage consumer banking business, where about 2,000 jobs had been planned for elimination, Smith said the company was on track to exit the year with 4,000 fewer people. The mortgage business will see an additional 1,000 jobs cut, for a total of roughly 7,000, he said. The staff reductions at the largest US bank by assets are part of a cost-cutting program aimed at reducing spending by $2 billion in the mortgage business and by 1.0 percent for the rest of the retail banking operations. Smith also reiterated JPMorgan's forecast to shave $2 billion in spending by the end of 2016. JPMorgan employed a total of 265,000 people at the end of 2013. Most of the large US banks have cut staff in their mortgage businesses in recent years, as tighter credit conditions imposed following the housing market crash have curbed lending. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Ex-No. 1 NBA Draft Pick Anthony Bennett Lost 20 Pounds, Got Eye Surgery So He Can See The Scoreboard | ||
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There may not be an NBA player with a stranger injury history than Minnesota Timberwolves forward and 2013 No. 1 NBA Draft pick Anthony Bennett. In the last 15 months he has battled: sleep apnea, asthma, weight issues, and poor eyesight. After a historically bad rookie year in Cleveland, Bennett was dealt to Minnesota as part of the Kevin Love trade and spent the summer addressing these ailments. He had his tonsils and adenoids removed to deal with his sleep apnea — a condition where breathing is disrupted during sleep. He told Basketball Insiders, "Since [having] my tonsils out, my adenoids, I have a lot more room to breathe. It was hard, definitely, with my tonsils in. I feel like taking them out was a huge step." Last season Cavaliers coach Mike Brown attributed Bennett's conditioning issues to his asthma. According to the Star Tribune, Bennett improved his conditioning by dropping 20 pounds in six weeks over the summer. Here's what he looked like last year:
Here's what he looks like now:
Bennett's final cured ailment — his eyesight — might be the most significant. He got laser eye surgery this summer. He told Sports Illustrated's Chris Mannix that his vision has always been terrible, but he hates contacts so he'd just not be able to see things like the scoreboard during games. From SI: "'You see that white board?' Bennett said recently, pointing to a board no more than 10 feet away. 'Last year, I couldn’t read the writing on it.' "And during games? "'Anything far, I couldn’t really see,' Bennett said. 'I couldn’t see the people in the stands. Now I can see the scoreboard. I can see what plays coach wants to run.'" Bennett now sleeps, sees, breathes, and runs better than he did last year. It's no surprise that his numbers have improved. He's shooting 56%, compared to 35% last year. He's playing around the same number of minutes, but his points per 36 minutes are up to 17.4 from 11.8. Bennett is only 21 years old. While he had a nightmare rookie year, there's still plenty of time for him to grow into a solid NBA player, especially now that he can do basic human functions so much better. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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The 25 Best Value Suburbs In America | ||
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Suburban life can have a ton of perks — great schools, open spaces, a sense of community — but some suburbs aren't cheap to live in. We went through our list of the 50 Best Suburbs in America and came up with the suburbs with the best value. We believe that value is more than just affordability: It's about getting a great education, a safe and thriving community, and affordable real estate. To come up with this list, we looked at over 300 suburbs across the country with populations between 5,000 and 100,000 that were within 40 kilometers (24.9 miles) of the the nearest metropolitan area. We then factored in two criteria: housing affordability and school ratings from GreatSchools. To gauge affordability we looked at the percentage of homeowners in each suburb spending no more than 30% of their income on housing costs. Elm Grove, Wisconsin, which was No. 1 on our full list, dropped to No. 8, while Morton, Illinois, which was No. 28 on the full list, ranked first when it comes to value.
Click here to see our full methodology. SEE ALSO: The 50 Best Suburbs In America Get all your lists in one place: Follow @BI_Lists on Twitter! Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Obama Just Doubled Down On The Battle Against ISIS | ||
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The US military has drawn up plans to significantly increase the number of American forces in Iraq, which now total around 1,400, as Washington seeks to bolster Iraqi forces battling the Islamic State, US officials told Reuters on Friday. The United States aims to help advise and train Iraqi and Kurdish forces battling Islamic State fighters who swept into much of northern Iraq. According to a statement from the Pentagon, "The commander-in-chief has authorized Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel to deploy to Iraq up to 1,500 additional US personnel over the coming months, in a non-combat role, to expand our advise and assist mission and initiate a comprehensive training effort for Iraqi forces." This deployment will "accommodate the training of 12 Iraqi brigades," including 9 from the Iraqi Army and 3 from the Kurdish Peshmerga, the paramilitary of Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government. The decision was made "based on the request of the Government of Iraq, US Central Command's assessment of Iraqi units," and "the progress Iraqi security forces have made in the field." This doubling of the US's ground presence in Iraq would come at a time when the American-led coalition in the country has made ambiguous progress in the fight against ISIS. Heavy aerial bombardment against ISIS positions outside of Kobane have managed to prevent the group from taking over the fiercely contested town, which sits on the Turkish-Syrian border. Here are the latest positions of US airstrikes against ISIS, according to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies' Military Edge project:
(Reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by Bill Trott) SEE ALSO: The miscalculation at the heart of Obama's letter to Iran's Supreme Leader Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Obama approves sending up to 1,500 more troops to Iraq | ||
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Washington (AFP) - President Barack Obama has approved sending up to 1,500 additional troops to Iraq to train Baghdad government and Kurdish forces fighting the Islamic State group, roughly doubling the number of US troops in the country, the White House said Friday. "As a part of our strategy for strengthening partners on the ground, President Obama today authorized the deployment of up to 1,500 additional US military personnel in a non-combat role to train, advise, and assist Iraqi Security Forces, including Kurdish forces," it said. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Nick Saban's Salary Is Getting Closer To That Of The Highest-Paid NFL Coaches | ||
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After reportedly telling the University of Texas that he would be willing to accept their head coaching position, Nick Saban received a new contract at the University of Alabama that raised his salary to $6.9 million as the highest-paid coach in college football. Curiously, this brings Saban's salary much closer to the pay of the top coaches in the NFL, where Sean Payton makes $8 million as the highest-paid pro football coach. It used to be that the top coaches often had to weigh the higher salaries of the NFL against the chance for better job security in the college ranks. However, that line has become blurry as college salaries rise and security falls. In addition to his salary, Saban also has bonuses built in to his contract (up to $700,000 under his previous contract) and he even recently had his mortgage paid off by Alabama boosters. Those likely boost the total value of Saban's position close to or even past that of Payton.
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The Latest Trend In High-End Liquor Is Blending Them Together | ||
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Hybrid foods aren't stopping at cronuts and ramen burgers—they're coming for your cocktails next. Over the last year and beyond, craft distilleries and established high-end liquor brands alike have successfully marketed hybrid spirits. Creations like Grey Goose's VX (vodka and cognac) Red Eye Louise's Vodquila (vodka and tequila) and Jim Beam's Kentucky Dram (bourbon and scotch) have all been at least moderately successful in boosting flagging sales. Wine combinations have also entered the mix, with Smoke (Moscato and vodka), Sutra (vodka and sparkling wine), and Ferdinands's Gin (infused with Riesling) all jumping into the mix. Why are liquor purveyors doing this? According to Bon Appetit, it's clear they're trying to market their products to a younger, hipper, primarily female demographic "seeking the next new party drink." That's not to mention the runaway success of other flavored liquors, such as the now-famous Fireball. Grey Goose's sales dropped unexpectedly more than 5 percent last year, which may explain the sudden spirit of invention. Grey Goose, for its part, is also attempting to separate themselves from the flood of hybrids. “It is not a hybrid,” Grey Goose brand ambassador Guillaume Jubien told Bon Appetit regarding Grey Goose VX. “It’s a love story of Maître de Chai François Thibault’s two passions: Grey Goose and Cognac.” SEE ALSO: How To Taste Liquor Like A Pro DON'T FORGET: Follow Business Insider's Life on Facebook! Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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We Tried The Fitness Band That Shocks You Into Breaking Your Bad Habits — And It Hurts! | ||
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Most fitness bands claim that they want to help you change your habits and get in shape. But none of them actually go so far as to physically punish you for slipping up on your goals. That's where the $149 Pavlok wristband comes in. The Pavlok, created by startup Behavioral Technologies, uses negative reinforcement in the form of a subtle shock to train your brain. Behavioral Technologies CEO Maneesh Sethi told us all about the psychology behind his company's wristband and how it works back in July, but at this year's Engadget Expand, we actually got to try the wristband firsthand. The version we tried was just a prototype, but the real thing should start shipping in April for Indiegogo backers. Those who preorder the device at a discounted price at Engadget Expand will get theirs in January. Here's an idea of what the final version will look like.
A representative at the Pavlok booth strapped a prototype around my arm. Without warning, he tapped the zap button in the wristband's accompanying app and sent a shock to my forearm. The shock feels like a small pinch, and while it's not really painful — it's certainly not pleasant. Don't expect to feel an intense vibration or buzz when wearing the Pavlok; rather, the sensation feels like a quick, sharp pinprick. The unit we tried was only set to 40% in terms of intensity. The Pavlok representative that gave us the demo said he wasn't allowed to let us try the highest setting just yet.
You can wear the Pavlok band on either your forearm or your wrist, but you're likely to feel the shock a bit more on your forearm. If you want, you can also take the sensor out of the band and wear it directly on your skin as shown below. You're likely to feel the shock more prominently if you choose to wear it like this.
The idea behind the Pavlok is to create motivation for wearers to achieve certain goals. Within the Pavlok app, you can set a goal for yourself, such as exercising on a regular basis or learning a new language. The app will then assess your goal and break it down into actions you can perform every day. If you miss your goals, however, your friends can punish you through the app by forcing you to pay a fine or by issuing a small shock. It sounds like your friends will be responsible for shocking you through the app, but there's also an alarm app that will work with the bracelet. If you snooze too many times, the band will zap you into waking up. Other than its ability to issue small shocks, the Pavlok can track your steps, activity, and sleeping patterns. "You get used to vibrations," Sethi told Business Insider in a previous interview. "You start to notice less and less when something is vibrating in your pocket and on your wrist. But you don't really get used to the shock." SEE ALSO: Silicon Valley Never Talks About The Real Reason You Don't Own A Smartwatch Or Wearable Tech Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Both Of The Men Accused Of Running The Silk Road Made The Exact Same Mistake | ||
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The FBI arrested 26-year-old San Francisco tech worker Blake Benthall on Wednesday, accusing him of running the infamous deep web marketplace the Silk Road. But Benthall wasn't the founder of the site. Instead, his version of the Silk Road was often dubbed "Silk Road 2.0" to reflect the fact that it was a relaunched version of the original site. The first incarnation of the Silk Road was shut down by the FBI in October 2013, after alleged founder Ross Ulbricht was arrested in a San Francisco library. Court documents for the seizure of both the original Silk Road and the Silk Road 2.0 show that the site's two alleged operators made the same error that enabled authorities to link them to the site. Ross Ulbricht, the San Francisco resident accused of creating the original Silk Road, allegedly used a Silk Road user account which was registered to his personal email address. The rossulbricht@gmail.com email account was also posted on the Bitcoin Talk forum as contact information for a poster looking to hire "an IT pro in the Bitcoin community." Ulbricht was caught in part due to the links between his personal Gmail account and other online accounts. It was trivially easy for investigators to string together usernames and IP addresses, with the help of information and IP logs obtained from Google. The records show that Ulbricht regularly logged into a VPN service in a San Francisco internet café. On the same days he was allegedly using the VPN to mask his web traffic to the Silk Road's administrative dashboard, Google's records showed that he also checked his personal Gmail account. After learning of the demise of his predecessor, surely the man behind the Silk Road 2.0 would take better care? It seems not. The FBI briefly took the Silk Road 2.0's servers offline in order to make a copy (known as an "image") of the site. Because of the way the hosting account was set up, it fired off a series of emails to a pre-determined address in order to detail the site's downtime. Those emails, the FBI claim, went to blake@benthall.net, the personal email account of the San Francisco web developer accused of running the site. Benthall used his personal email account to manage the web hosting account that the FBI says was used to keep the Silk Road 2.0 online. Additionally, he used that email address to create an account on a US-based Bitcoin exchange, and received his first transaction on the very day that the Silk Road 2.0 came online. As the Daily Dot reports, Google again turned over IP logs and account information, this time for Benthall's personal email account, to the FBI, revealing Benthall's name and location information. It was obvious who owned the account: The email address was blake@benthall.net, it was registered to "Blake Benthall," and IP logs show that it was accessed from Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe hotel rooms reserved under the name "Blake Benthall." There's no denying that Ulbricht and Benthall were clever men, after all, the FBI accuses them both of running a complex deep web marketplace. Both men are alleged to have used modern anonymity services, and took care to anonymize their currency movements online. But it was the simple mistake of using their personal email accounts for activities related to the Silk Road that made the FBI's job easy, and likely led directly to their capture. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Star Financial Reporter Herb Greenberg Is Leaving TheStreet.com For A New Research Firm | ||
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Financial journalist Herb Greenberg just announced on Facebook that he's leaving TheStreet.com to join the newly formed short-focused firm GVB Financial Research. Greenberg didn't announce his new role, but said the only other employees will be Donn Vickrey, a former accounting professor who co-founded Gradient Analytics, and John Bossler, a former hedge fund portfolio manager who Greenberg said has been one of his sources for decades. He will remain a contributor at CNBC. "This move back to research will be a natural progression of what I've been doing much of my career," wrote Greenberg, who was the senior stocks commentator at CNBC for three years before joining TheStreet.com From 2008-2010, Greenberg took a hiatus from journalism to co-found and run Greenberg Meritz Research & Analytics. He's also contributed to MarketWatch.com and The Wall Street Journal. "I enjoy being part of running a business and, quite frankly, have missed it!" he wrote. Here's the full announcement from Greenberg: Dear Friends and Colleagues, At the end of the year I'll be leaving TheStreet to join forensic accountant Donn Vickrey and investigative research analyst John Bossler at the newly formed GVB Financial Research, an institutional short-oriented independent research firm.
I thoroughly enjoyed working on Reality Check at TheStreet.com over the last year, and much of what I did on Reality Check laid the foundation for this next chapter. Reality Check, without question, has contained some of the best work of my career.
The beauty of having spent a career in the news biz is that it sets you up to go in many different directions. This move back to research will be a natural progression of what I've been doing much of my career, including CNBC, The Street, MarketWatch and, until four years ago, GreenbergMeritz Research & Analytics.
Plus, I enjoy being part of running a business and, quite frankly, have missed it!
I've known Donn and John for years and can't think of a better team with more experience, perspective and, perhaps most importantly, our collective instincts.
Donn is a former accounting professor who co-founded Gradient Analytics and is unquestionably one of the top independent forensic analysts of publicly traded companies.
In addition to doing deep-dive research, John has managed short-only assets and has been a hedge fund portfolio manager. He has also been a source of mine since the late 1990s. His work uncovering the fraud, Exide Battery -- whose CEO went to prison -- still sticks out as one of my favorites.
I, of course, know how to report and tell the stories.
Best of all, it will be just the three of us hashing out the ideas and doing the research. I will remain a contributor at CNBC.
And thanks to TheStreet and my friend Jim Cramer for supporting me in work that I love: my passion for uncovering unique risk reward ideas.
Onward....
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The 30 Best Universities In The World For Economics | ||
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Given that economics is one of the most popular majors among millionaires around the world, it's probably a valuable degree. But not every school shows strength in its economics department. QS World University Rankings published a list of the best schools in the world for economics. To come up with this list, QS asked professors and people in academics around the world to identify the institutions where they believe the best work is currently taking place within their field of expertise. The list below shows the picks from economics professors. You can read the complete methodology here. Here are the top 30 universities around the world for economics:
SEE ALSO: The 50 Best Colleges In America WE'RE SOCIAL: Follow Business Insider on Instagram! Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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The NBA Is Using The D-League To Try A Rule That Would Make Games Much More Dramatic | ||
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The NBA has been experimenting with several different ideas to try and improve their product. They tried a shortened game in the preseason, they considered changing the draft lottery, and they considered changing free throw rules, too. However, now that the NBA regular season has started, they're using the D-League to continue more rule experiments. Perhaps the most interesting experiment is a new rule for advancing the ball in the final two minutes of a game and overtime. Currently, in the final two minutes of the fourth quarter, teams can call timeouts to advance the ball to half-court. The rule's only purpose is to give teams an easier chance to score in the final minutes — teams can't advance the ball at any other point in the game. In the D-League experiment, teams will now be able to advance the ball without using a timeout. After re-gaining possession, teams would point to the sideline to signal that they want to advance the ball. Substitutions can be made, but players can't go to the benches to talk with coaches or draw up plays. Teams would be given one advance in the final two minutes of regulation and one in overtime. It seems like a simple notion, but it could have a profound effect. The idea is still the same, but it has the potential to keep contests closer and more dramatic. Instead of burning a timeout, teams can save several seconds on the clock, make offensive substitutions, and get the chance to score the ball and keep the game close. It also allows coaches to save timeouts. In tight, end-of-game situations, coaches often burn all of their timeouts advancing the ball to get quicker shots. In this proposed rule, they could advance the ball with timeouts and then use the advance rule instead of having to go the length of the court when they're out of timeouts. If the rule is successful in the D-League, it likely won't reach the NBA until next season. But if/when it does, it could create far more exciting, dramatic finishes. SEE ALSO: LeBron James Single-Handedly Ties Game With 6 Points In 10 Seconds, Loses On Buzzer Beater ALSO READ: NBA Is Going To Experiment With A Radical Change That Could Make Games Even More Exciting Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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We Tried On The Norwegian Onesie That Could Be The Next Snuggie | ||
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Norwegian clothing brand OnePiece, which specializes in jumpsuits, or "onesies," as they are affectionately called, is bringing its product to the US. The OnePiece was born on a "lazy Sunday" in 2007 when three friends decided it would be cool to sew together a pair of sweatpants with a hoodie and have a giant zipper. The jumpsuit is perfect for cozying up at home, but it's also meant to be worn in public. This fashion trend seems to be catching on with some celebrities like Khloe Kardashian and Justin Bieber. This week, OnePiece opens a pop-up shop in the SoHo neighborhood of New York City, where it will offer discounts on the jumpsuits based on the size of customers' social-media footprint. We got a group of Business Insider employees to try out the onesies, which retail for up to $299. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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All 72 Of Oprah's 'Favorite Things' Will Cost You $13,407 | ||
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For middle-aged women across the country, it’s their favorite time of year — Oprah’s Favorite Things is finally out for 2014. The huge list of 72 Oprah-approved items would cost you $13,407 if you bought every single thing on it**. Among some of the pricier items are a Beats by Dr. Dre headphones set for $700 and a trio of Swiss Army luggage for $1,160. Of course, it wouldn’t be an Oprah’s Favorite Things list without a little self promotion. Oprah’s book, a movie she co-produced, a shirt she designed for the Peace Love Oprah collection, an Oprah Teavana set, a meditation transformation trilogy she helped create, and a membership to the Oprah ‘Circle Of Friends’ club all make appearances. But probably my favorite item on the list this year is an $85 “365 Gathered Truths Box” which is literally just a box filled with sayings printed on handmade paper. “I like to read as many as I can while I'm waiting five minutes for my [Oprah] chai to steep,” she says. “If you get only one of my Favorite Things this year, I'd want this to be it." Oprah, never change. Below, a comprehensive list of all of Oprah’s favorite things this year for those curious, from least expensive to most expensive. *Blackberry Patch Premium Fruit Syrups, $7 each *Emi-jay Infinity Soft Headbands, $10 *May Designs Customizable Notebooks, $14-$22 Nate Berkus At Target Dessert Plate Set, $20 "What I Know For Sure" by Oprah Winfrey, $25 *Sweet Lady Jane Holiday Cakes, $30 Kate Spade Ballpoint Pens, $36 *Bantam Bagels Mini Filled Bagel Balls (36 in six flavors), $36 Garnet Hill Kids Character Hats, $40 “The Hundred-Foot Journey” Blue-Ray Combo Pack, $40 *Anastasia Beverly Hills Beauty Express Brow Kit, $40 Heart Snapshot Mix Photo Art, $42 Remarkable Bark Holiday Tins (set of two), $42 Tatte Bakery Petit Quiche Assortment, $42 *Astrological Star Map Necklaces, $48 *Annie B’s Candy Handcrafted Caramel Mixed Assortment Box, $49 *Olympic Provisions European Salami Sampler, $50 *Eat This Local Jams And Marmalades Sampler Gift Set (six jams), $55 *Sabatino Truffles Truffle Oil Holiday Set, $59 Cowgirl Creamery Cheese Holiday Collection, $60 *Petal Lane “Be Bright” And “Surprise And Delight” Magnet Boards, $65 each Vineyard Cuff Links, $68 *Maggie Louise Confections Holiday Statement Chocolate Box, $70 Tequila Casa Dragones Blanco, $70 Sfoglini Pasta Of The Month Club (three months), $75 Edward Bess Black Sea Precious Pearl Perfector Lotion, $78 Echo Touch Quilted Cuff Glove, $78 O Circle Of Friends Gift Tier Membership, $79/year Nine West Hadley Tote, $79 *No Matchy-Matchy Initial Stud Earrings, $80, or $150 with diamonds *Sheepy Fleece Robe, $84 *365 Gathered Truths Box, $85 *Teavana Oprah Chai Holiday Collection, $90 *Doo Bop Butter Trio, $93 Warby Parker Eyeglasses And Sunglasses, $95-$395 Peace Love Oprah ‘I Love Sundays’ Collection Shirt, $98 *Oprah And Deepak’s Meditation Transformation Trilogy, $100 UGG Australia Alena Waterproof Suede Slippers, $120 Big O Key Rings and Ossential and Big Ossential Card Cases, $120-$130 *Set of Four French Bistro Coffee Mug, $120 *Burt’s Bees Baby Ultimate Take Me Home Basket, $125 *Hampton Forge Forte 13-Piece Cutlery Block Set, $130 Williams-Sonoma Waring Popcorn Maker With Melting Pot, $130 GoPro Hero Camera, $130 Morelle & Co. Pullout Jewelry Box, $135 *Côte 9 Nail Polish Gift Set, $144 *Foot Cream and Sock Gift Set, $144 Eliza Bar Happy Holiday Loaf, $150 Suzanna Dai Khepri Large Drop Earrings, $155 *Lurin Long Pajama Set, $155 Charter Club Cashmere Zip Hoodie, $169 *Deluxe Vine and Bloom Box, $189 *The Smokehouse NY Smoked Salmon Sampler Gift Box, $195 *Naked Undies Charlie V-Neck (set of three), $214 *Lafco Complete Holiday Candle Collection (set of four), $240 La Cienega Wedge Boots, $245 *Oyo Box Eyewear Case, $250 *Ginger Beauty and Wellness Collection, $265 *Classic Plain Travel Collection, $289 *Copper Tray And Mug Set, $365 Tory Burch Double-Wrap-Strap Reva Watch, $395 Le Creuset Baking Dishes, $405 Vitamix S30 Blender, $409 VertuoLine Single Serve Brewer And Espresso Maker, $430 *Cushy Dog Beds, $445-$710 Samsung NX Mini Camera, $450 *Donna Salyers’ Faux-Fur Coat, $499 *Chamilia12 Days Of Christmas Gift Set, $500 *Yoga Tablet 2 Pro, $500 Electra Loft 7-Speed Ladies’ Bike, $550 Beats By Dr. Dre Golden Beats On-Ear Headphones & Pill Speak, $700 Swiss Army Luggage Set (Carry-on, Duffel, Upright), $1,160 *Special discounts or promotions with the code OPRAH. You can see the entire list here. **Assuming you bought the most expensive variation. DON'T FORGET: Follow Business Insider's Life on Facebook! Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Another Sequel To The Greatest Skateboarding Video Game Of All Time Will Come Out Next Year | ||
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Yay! Pro skater Tony Hawk announced on Twitter Friday that he's working with Activision on a new addition to to his awesome skateboarding video game franchise, "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater," for the latest-gen living room consoles. He's also working on a mobile game. Hawk had been working on a mobile game, called "Shred Session," which was announced in January. According to TouchArcade, the game soft launched but was pulled entirely from the App Store last month. Hawk said on Friday that it's been put on hold indefinitely, presumably so he could focus work on a console game. SEE ALSO: The Maker Of The Game 'Destiny' Gave A Man Recovering From Brain Surgery A Rare Gift Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Jay Z Bought A Luxury Champagne Brand Just To Spite Cristal | ||
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On Wednesday, it was announced that a new company led by Jay Z had acquired Armand de Brignac Champagne — a celebrity favorite — from Sovereign Brands for an undisclosed amount. The luxury champagne brand, more commonly name-checked in rap lyrics as "Ace of Spades" because of its logo, sells bottles for $300 and up. A 30-liter bottle, which weighs 100 pounds and is equivalent to 40 regular bottles, can sell for over $200,000, according to the New York Times. But Jay Z's involvement with the company goes back much further than this week — to May 2006, to be exact — when Frederic Rouzaud, the manager of the company that makes Cristal champagne, made an unsavory comment about his brand's clientele. “What can we do?” Rouzaud replied when a reporter from the Economist asked his thoughts about the popularity of Cristal among rappers. "We can’t forbid people from buying it. I'm sure Dom Pérignon or Krug would be delighted to have their business."
Many in the hip-hop industry viewed the comments as racist, so Jay Z called for a boycott of the brand. Later that year, a gold bottle appeared in Jay Z's music video for “Show Me What You Got” and with that, the ever-present Cristal was officially replaced with Ace of Spades — despite Cristal being more highly regarded among wine critics. In "Show Me What You Got," Jay Z sings the lyrics, "H.O.V.A., gold bottles of that Ace of Spade/Why even fool with these other guys" and in the video is seen rejecting a bottle of Cristal in favor of Ace of Spades.
Jay Z and his attractive friends then party with buckets full of the gold bottle. The entire music video reads like an advertisement for Ace of Spades.
The product placement wasn't an accident. As Zack O'Malley Greenburg reported in his 2012 Jay Z biography "Empire State of Mind" and later wrote on Forbes, the rapper "had a financial interest in Armand de Brignac since its inception — helping boost his net worth to $520 million, by Forbes’ latest estimate — as the $300-per-bottle champagne has become one of hip-hop’s favorite brands." In a new Forbes story on Jay Z's champagne deal, O'Malley Greenburg writes that one of his sources previously pegged the value of the rapper's stake in the company at $50 million. So what was this week's big acquisition announcement all about? Essentially, O'Malley Greenburg presumes, "Jay Z added to his existing share in the Armand de Brignac brand by buying out Sovereign’s stake." He adds, "As one source with knowledge of the situation told me, Jay Z saw a chance to purchase more of something he thought would be worth more in the future than it is today, so he did. He was investing, essentially, in himself." And it appears the Jay Z brand synergy is already working, with Ace of Spades now infiltrating the sports world, as well, in part thanks to his sports agency, Roc Nation Sports. "Various sports teams, including the Dallas Mavericks and the Boston Bruins, have celebrated championships by taking big gulps from enormous metallic bottles of Armand de Brignac," reports the NY Times. "David Ortiz of the Boston Red Sox popped a 15-liter bottle of the Champagne after his team won the World Series in 2013."
SEE ALSO: JAY Z: How The Hottest Agent In Sports Makes And Spends His $500 Million Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Bankrupt Sapphire Glass Supplier Reveals New Details Of Its Disturbing Relationship With Apple (GTAT, GTATQ, AAPL) | ||
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GT Advanced, the former Apple sapphire supplier that filed for bankruptcy back in October, never had a chance. In a supplemental declaration by GT Advanced COO Daniel Squiller unsealed on Friday outlining GT Advanced's relationship with Apple, it's clear — at least as Squiller tells it — that Apple and GT's relationship was doomed from the start. We first saw the document after it was posted by the folks at StreetInsider. This document follows a declaration from Squiller unsealed late last month that outlined some of the problems in Apple and GT's relationship. Friday's document offers a bit more color. For one, Apple was supposed to be customer of GT Advanced, but the agreement between the companies didn't require that Apple be GT Advanced's customer. Apple simply became a lender. And the agreement struck between the companies in the fall of 2013 was done via what Squiller called a "classic bait-and-switch strategy." This agreement also stated that GT could not do business with any of Apple's competitors, which would be a reasonable requirement, because presumably Apple wouldn't want to be funding the manufacture of materials that found their way into a competitors' device. But again, Apple wasn't required to buy any sapphire at all. Additionally, GT was required to build sapphire to Apple's specifications, which Squiller said, "continually changed and remain in flux to this day." (Squiller's complaint was given October 8; GT has subsequently said it will be exiting the sapphire business.) The complaint also said that as of October 8, GT had incurred costs of $900 million related to the deal. Ahead of its bankruptcy filing, GT's market cap was about $1.5 billion. Here's the ugly year-to-date chart of GT shares.
And the whole arrangement, at least as it's outlined in the declaration, seems foisted upon GT Advanced, and certainly not by the company's choosing. As Squiller says: "[T]he extensive and all-consuming nature of negotiations with Apple would have allowed little time to pursue alternatives. Knowing tht GTAT had no practical choice at that stage other than to concede to Apple's terms, Apple forced a set of agreements on GTAT that, in combination with Apple's economic leverage, put Apple in de facto control of GTAT." Squiller also says Apple advised GT management that they shouldn't "waste their time" trying to negotiate with the company. And when GT management, "expressed obvious concerns to Apple regarding the deal terms during the contract negotiations, Apple responded that similar terms are required for other Apple suppliers and that GTAT should: 'Put on your big boy pants and accept the agreement.'" Some of the terms outlined in the document that GT wasn't too excited about include a $50 million penalty per occurrence that any aspect of GT's agreement with Apple were disclosed, and a $1 billion penalty if GT doesn't honor Apple's 30 day exclusivity window should GT seek to sell its assets, or its sapphire business, or receives interest from a third party. Apple also required GT establish a new wholly-owned subsidiary to implement what Squiller called, "a convoluted and artificial structure that serves no economic purpose—other than protecting Apple—such that GTAT Corp. would be obligated to buy and assemble furnaces for Apple, but the cash and furnaces would then be 'round-tripped' through GT Equipment, a so-called 'bankruptcy remote entity' using an illusory sale and leaseback between GTAT Corp. and GT Equipment." And ahead of inking its agreement with Apple, GT also paid off the remainder of a credit facility with Bank of America, which the complaint says, "was necessary to permit Apple to take a lien on all of the assets of both GTAT Corp. and GT Equipment — yet another deal term that Apple demanded." So Apple basically owned GT Advanced. The document does not paint the picture of a healthy relationship between two business partners, and sounds much more like Apple essentially buying a supplier, but structuring the deal in such a way so as to not assume any of the financial risk. In a separate court document filed by Apple, the company said, "The [Squiller declaration] contained numerous statements about Apple that Apple believes to be untrue, irrelevant, and inflammatory." Apple added that, "Much of the Supplemental Squiller Declaration goes far beyond what was reasonably necessary to describe the Debtors' current financial situation and instead includes gratuitious characterizations of Apple's motives, negotiating tactics, and business practices." We've embedded both documents below. You should read them. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Putin Is Reverting To The Cold War Era, And It's Incredibly Troubling | ||
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When the Berlin Wall fell 25 years ago, it meant Russia wouldn't be able to dominate eastern Europe as it had. The historic fall on Nov. 9, 1989 also meant European democracies would no longer have to worry about a hostile superpower looming over their neighborhood. That held until this year, when Russia reverted to many of its Cold War-era policies. Vladimir Putin's annexation of Crimea and support for an armed separatist rebellion in eastern Ukraine represent a crucial reversal, even though they're far from a full restoration of Russia's former reach. To be sure, Putin's aggressive policies in 2014 did not erase the progress that began in 1989. Eastern Europe enjoys remarkable political freedom and national sovereignty compared to a quarter-century ago. It is true that there have been some tough spots since then: Hungary is backsliding into autocracy and the years after 1989 have seen armed conflict in Moldova, Georgia, Azerbaijan, the former Yugoslavia, and now Ukraine. But 11 European countries that were socialist autocracies the day the wall fell are now in the EU and 13 are in NATO. Vladimir Putin can't do anything to change that — even though he's embarked on an alarming return to the Cold War playbook over the past year. There's his cultivation of his own personal "class of 1937," a corps of totally loyal young professionals and civil servants from conservative or peripheral regions of the country modeled after a similar, Stalin-led effort. There's his anti-US rhetoric that goes beyond the purview of policy disagreement, like Putin's attacks on American democracy during a speech in Sochi last month. There's Putin's global misinformation campaign, culminating in Kremlin media attempts to whitewash the cause of the crash of a commercial airliner over eastern Ukraine in July — a tragedy that was almost certainly the fault of pro-Moscow separatists, carried out with Russian-supplied weaponry. Most typical of the Soviet toolset is Putin's recourse to violence to push his objectives forward or resolve the crisis of the moment — regardless of what's permissible under normative international relations or international law. Thus, the constitutional replacement of a pro-Kremlin leader in Kiev this past February led to Putin's illegal annexation of Crimea. The shoot-down of MH17 and the sectoral EU and US sanctions that followed were met with the invasion of eastern Ukraine by an estimated 5,000 Russian troops in August. Putin hasn't dealt with Russia's diplomatic, political, and economic isolation through compromise or moderation but through even greater belligerence — the kidnapping of an Estonian intelligence agent, the deployment of a submarine to Swedish territorial waters, scores of violations of NATO airspace, veiled threats of the possible use of tactical nuclear weapons. It's possible to even map out the emerging strategic battlefront that Putin's policies are creating: The Berlin Wall has long fallen. The world, and eastern Europe in particular, is in a better place today than it was 25 years ago because of it. But Putin has reached back to the oppositional politics of the Cold War era, returning Europe to a time in which an aggressive and revisionist Russia is willing to use its military advantages over its neighbors to project its power west. The front line is several hundred miles east of where it was on Nov. 9, 1989. But even if it's on a more limited scale or confined to a different sector of the map, the overall power dynamic that the Wall starkly and dramatically symbolized for nearly three decades is making a troubling comeback. SEE ALSO: Putin describes the "meaning of life" Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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The Story Behind The First Thing Design God Jony Ive Made For Apple (AAPL) | ||
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In this excerpt from "Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple's Greatest Products," author Leander Kahney describes Apple design genius Jony Ive's first big assignment. Jony’s first big assignment at Apple was to design the second-generation Newton MessagePad. The first Newton hadn’t yet been released, but the design team already hated it. Thanks to a rushed production schedule, the first model had some serious flaws that Apple’s executives, as well as the designers, were eager to fix. Just before the Newton was shipped, Apple discovered that the planned lid to protect its delicate glass screen wouldn’t clear expansion cards, which were to be inserted into the slot at the top. The design group was charged with developing some quickie carrying cases, including a simple leather slipcase, and off it went into the marketplace. In addition, the Newton’s loudspeaker was in the wrong place. It was in the palm rest, so the user tended to cover it up when holding the device. The hardware engineers wanted the second-generation Newton (code-named Lindy) to have a slightly larger screen for better handwriting recognition. Since the pen was attached awkwardly to the side, a kludge that gave the Newton extra width, they wanted the new version to be significantly thinner; the original was so bricklike, only the largest of jacket pockets could accommodate it. Jony worked on the Lindy project between November 1992 and January 1993. To get a grip on the project, he began with its design “story”— that is, by asking himself, What’s the story of this product? The Newton was so new and versatile and unlike other products, that articulating what it was primarily used for wasn’t easy. It morphed into a different device depending on what software it was running, so it could be a notepad or a fax machine. CEO Sculley called it a PDA but, for Jony, that definition was just too slippery. “The problem with the first Newton was that it didn’t relate to people’s everyday lives,” Jony said. “It didn’t offer a metaphor that users could grasp.” He set about fixing that. To most people a lid is just a lid, but Jony gave it special attention. “It’s the first thing you see and the first thing you interact with,” Jony said. “Before you can turn the product on, you must first open the lid. I wanted that moment to be special.” To enhance that moment, Jony designed a clever, spring-loaded latch mechanism; when you pressed the lid, it popped open. The mechanism depended on a tiny copper spring carefully calibrated to give just the right amount of pop. To allow the lid to clear any expansion cards in the slot on top, Jony created a double hinge to allow the lid to clear any obstructions. When the lid was open, it flipped up and over the back to be stored out of the way. That conveyed something to the user too. “Pushing the lid up and around the back was important because the action is not culturally specific,” Jony noted at the time. “Folding the lid to the side, like a book, created problems because people in Europe and the U.S. would want to open it on the left whereas people in Japan would want to open it on the right. To accommodate everyone, I decided the lid would have to open straight up.” Next, Jony turned his attention to the “fiddle factor,” the special nuances that would make the product personal and special. The Newton was pen based, so Jony focused on the pen, which he knew users would love to play with. Jony’s solution to the challenge of reducing width and integrating the pen into the MessagePad itself was a storage slot at the top. “I insisted the lid fold up and over the top, like a stenographer’s notepad, which everyone understands [and] . . . users saw Lindy as a notepad. The stored pen at the top, where a stenographer’s notepad’s spiral binding would be, made the right connection. “That became a key element of the product’s story.” The slot was too short for a full-size stylus, so Jony created a stylus that cleverly telescoped. Like the lid, the pen featured a pop-up mechanism that made it pop out when the user pressed its top. To give it weight and heft, he fashioned the pen from brass. His colleagues all went nuts for it. “Lindy was Jonathan’s shining moment,” said fellow designer Parsey.
On top of all this, Jony was under an extremely tight deadline with enormous pressures to deliver. The first edition of Apple’s pioneering handheld device had been doomed by the Doonesbury cartoon that came to define it. Cartoonist Gary Trudeau depicted the Newton’s handwriting recognition as hopeless, delivering a gut punch to the device from which it never recovered. Thanks to Trudeau, the first Newton MessagePad had to be replaced as quickly as possible. The pressure fell to Jony. “When you’re aware of the lost revenue each day the schedule slips, it tends to focus your attention,” he said with typical British understatement. To the amazement of his colleagues, Jony was able to go from the initial design to the first foam concept models in two weeks, the fastest anyone had seen. Jony was determined to finish the project on time, and he traveled to Taiwan to fix manufacturing problems. He camped out in a hotel near the factory where the Newton would be made. He and a hardware engineer troubleshot the pen’s pop-up mechanism in his hotel room. Parsey remembered Jony pushing himself to create something special. “To do the best design you have to live and breathe the product. At the level that Jonathan was working, it becomes like a love affair. The process is exhilarating . . . and exhausting. But unless you’re willing to give everything to the work, the design will not be great.” When it was done, Jony’s colleagues were stunned and impressed with both the new Newton and Jony, who had joined the team only months earlier. Apple executive Gaston Bastiaens, who was in charge of Newton, told Jony he would win every single design award. He nearly did. After Lindy’s introduction in 1994, Jony won several of the top awards in the industry: the Gold Industrial Design Excellence Award, the Industrie Forum Design Award, Germany’s Design Innovation Award, a Best of Category award from the I.D. Design Review and the honor of being featured in the permanent collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
One of the things about Jony that struck Rick English was Jony’s dislike of awards. Or, rather, his dislike for receiving awards in public. “Even early on, Jony Ive stated that he was not going to go to those events,” said English. “That was interesting behavior because it was really different. He hated going up on stage and receiving awards.” Jony’s Newton MessagePad 110 was on the market by March 1994, only six months after the original Newton went on sale. Unfortunately, no amount of fiddle factor was enough to save the Newton, as Apple made a series of blunders marketing it, both rushing the first device to market before it was ready and hyping its capabilities. In the face of unrealistic expectations, the Newton never reached critical mass. Both generations of Newtons were also plagued with battery problems and the poor handwriting recognition that Trudeau mocked. Not even Jony’s stellar design work could save it. Phil Gray, Jony’s old boss at RWG, remembers seeing Jony in London just after his MessagePad 110 came out. “The Newton was like a brick in retrospect, but at the time was a handheld device that no one had done before,” Gray said. “Jony was frustrated because although he had worked really hard on it, he had to make a lot of compromises because of the engineering elements. Afterwards, at Apple, he went on to be in a position where he not only could influence engineering but also manage and control those processes.” Excerpted from "Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple’s Greatest Products," by Leander Kahney, in agreement with Portfolio, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Copyright © Leander Kahney, 2013. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Goldman Sachs Hired More Yale Graduates This Year Than Any Other Company | ||
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Goldman Sachs is the biggest employer of the Yale University Class of 2014, hiring 23 new graduates of the Ivy League school, The Yale Daily News reports. The data comes from an annual survey of Yale seniors put together by the university's Office of Career Strategy. According to the YDN, 1,225 of the 1,298 Class of 2014 members have responded — almost 95% of students. According to the OCS survey, the YDN reports, "73.3 percent of the class currently holds a full-time, part-time or short-term position, while others are conducting independent research, traveling, volunteering or performing military service or care work ... Taking 16.6 percent of the class, financial services was once again the most popular industry for Yale graduates." Goldman Sachs hired the most Yale graduates, 23, while McKinsey & Company hired 21, Bain & Company hired 18, and Microsoft hired 13. One Yale junior — who interned for Goldman Sachs after her freshman year — told the YDN that "she thinks Yalies are drawn to Goldman Sachs because of its intellectually stimulating environment." "[Working at Goldman Sachs] is high-reward and relatively low-risk," the student said. See more information about the post-grad plans of the Yale Class of 2014 at The Yale Daily News >> SEE ALSO: 16 Incredibly Impressive Students At Princeton FOLLOW US! Check Out BI Colleges On Facebook Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Shopping Cart Abandonment: Online Retailers' Biggest Headache Is Actually A Huge Opportunity | ||
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Shopping cart abandonment — when shoppers put items in their online shopping carts, but then leave before completing the purchase — is the bane of the online retail industry. But it's also a huge opportunity: Approximately $4 trillion worth of merchandise will be abandoned in online shopping carts this year, and about 63% of that is potentially recoverable by savvy online retailers, according to BI Intelligence estimates. In a new report, BI Intelligence explains what leads a shopper to abandon an online purchase and how retailers can begin to combat rising shopping cart abandonment rates. We collected and analyzed data from top e-commerce companies, and spoke with industry experts whose job it is to reduce abandonment rates and boost conversions, to come up with a number of solutions that can help retailers recover lost sales. Access the Full Report by Signing Up For A Free Trial Today >> Here are some key points from the report:
In full, the report:
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The Most Expensive Range Rover Of All Time Is An Homage To A Famous Gun Maker | ||
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At $285,000 (£180,000), the Range Rover Holland & Holland is the most expensive SUV ever produced in the brand's 44-year history. This special edition — which costs $100,000 more than the top-of-the-line long-wheelbase Range Rover Autobiography Black upon which it's based — is a collaboration between the company's Special Vehicle Operation (SVO) and storied gun maker Holland & Holland. So what makes this Range worth so much more than any other luxurious SUV? The Holland & Holland edition is completely decked out in the finest soft-touch leather, and its interior woodwork is cut from a single massive piece of walnut to make sure all of the trim match up perfectly. The walnut is also finished with oil to resemble the stocks of Holland & Holland's signature rifles.
The inside of the Range also features embroidered Holland & Holland logos and engraved metallic accents — an homage to the handcrafted shotguns and hunting rifles synonymous with the brand since 1835. “The whole SVO team is very proud of this car, a bespoke design, which perfectly meets the very particular needs of Holland & Holland’s customers," said Jaguar Land Rover Special Vehicle Operations managing director John Edwards. "This shows the huge potential of SVO, which encapsulates both off- and on-road performance as well as luxury and craftsmanship.”
The backseats are particularly impressive. Rear-seat passengers are treated to a pair of executive jet-style reclining seats, retractable walnut tray tables, and a pair of massive infotainment screens. The Holland & Holland edition will be available with a variety of engine options — ranging from a humble diesel engine to Jaguar Land Rover's 500 horsepower supercharged V8 shared with Jaguar's XJR supersedan and the F-Type sports car.
Another reason why this Range Rover costs so much is the fact that Holland & Holland guns are expensive — ridiculously expensive. With price tags ranging from $43,000 to $277,000 for the "Royal" double barrel shotgun, the company's guns make the high priced-Range Rover feel like a bit of a bargain. To store these guns, Range Rover has installed a carbon fiber and aluminum gun case that can slide out through the tailgate. As with the rest of the car, it's finished in fine leather and polished walnut.
The Holland & Holland Range Rover will be very rare. Jaguar Land Rover plan to build roughly 40 examples a year over the next three years. Whomever is fortunate enough to get their hands on one of these mega-buck Range Rovers will certainly have the ultimate in luxurious hunting vehicles. SEE ALSO: This $263,000 Panamera Is The Most Expensive Porsche Sedan Ever Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Here's How To Properly Layer For Winter | ||
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"People get really surprised when I say that I used to work at a ski mountain," she says of growing up in Melbourne. "We can see snow if we want to." That experience served McKie well as she designed the first fall collection for Sködia, her line of minimal, high-end basics made with an emphasis on comfort. Who better to ask, then, for pro tips on layering for winter? Here are McKie's top six failsafe rules below, even if your wardrobe skews toward the not-so-softwear. Pay Attention to Color Check Your Silhouette Don't Be Afraid to Mix Materials Simplicity Is Key Opt for Versatile Pieces Invest in a Nice Jacket
More From Details:10 Rules of Style When Dressing For Work The Only 5 Exercises You'll Ever Need What to Do If Your Hair Starts Thinning
SEE ALSO: 6 Crucial Style Rules For Guys In Their 20s Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Don't let the Aussie accent fool you: Designer Jess McKie knows her way around dressing for a cold winter.