One of the most popular ad blockers is releasing a mobile browser, which could be huge — but costly for companies like Google (GOOG) | ||
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Adblock Plus, which claims to be the most popular ad blocking tool, is launching its first mobile browser. The Android browser will automatically block ads, which Adblock Plus says will save up to 23% of a user's smartphone battery life, and also save on their data plan. The app is initially launching in beta, so users can provide feedback on the experience. Further down the line Adblock Plus also plans to add additional tools within the browser such as malware protection. As with the Adblock Plus desktop browser extension, which the company says has been downloaded more than 400 million times and is said to have 50 million active users, some ads do get through the net, or are white-listed, in other words. Almost all ads - including "native ads" like Facebook ads that appear in the newsfeed or ads that appear on publishers' websites that have the same look and feel as other content on the site - are blocked as standard. Publishers and advertising networks - such as Google's huge display network, or other independent ad servers - then have to apply to get each type of ad they serve on to Adblock Plus' "acceptable ads" list. Adblock Plus then works with the ad seller to help their ad match its acceptable ads criteria and the whitelisting proposal is submitted to its user forum, in order for the community to declare any concerns. The type of ads that don't make the cut are usually pop-ups, pop-unders, "interstitials" that interrupt the reading flow on a page, and ads that are not clearly labeled as ads. If the publisher or an ad seller is small - a WordPress blog with two ads, for example - Adblock Plus and its parent company, the Germany-based Eyeo, won't charge for companies to go through this process. But bigger entities like Google, Microsoft, Amazon pay huge fees to Eyeo to get their ads unblocked - 30% of the additional revenue they would earned were the ads unblocked, according to a Financial Times report. Ben Williams, Adblock Plus operations and communications manager told Business Insider that only about 10% of companies on its whitelist pay for their ads to be unblocked. He said the fees are based on the scale of the company and how much time Eyeo's 38-strong team will need to take to get their ads into shape. And even then, users can always choose within the desktop browser extension, or the new Android app, simply to suppress all ads - even acceptable ones. Only 25% of Adblock Plus users choose to do this, the company claims. A way to get around Google blocking Adblock Plus from the Android Play Store
Williams said it has happened before. Back in 2013, Google removed Adblock Plus and other ad blockers from the Play Store. At the time Google said this was because the app violated a Section 4.4 of its Developer Distribution Agreement, which stipulated that apps cannot interfere with another app's functionality. A browser, however, will not affect other apps. But it's unlikely Google will look kindly on it. Indeed, Williams hinted that this was part of the reason Adblock Plus didn't decide to go down the iOS route first, like most app developers. "iOS is harder to develop on, it's a walled garden that's more difficult to get an API, simply put ... I think that might have been part of the reason, and also, most of the people in our office use Android ... and in Europe ... Android is an open development system," Williams added. Adblock Plus is already available on Android, but users have to first download the Firefox browser, and then side-load the Adblock Plus afterwards - which Williams said "is a bit of an issue for a normal user, and more than they can bear" - hence the need for a browser. Williams said the mobile browser is the company's first concentrated effort into mobile adblocking, so it may take time before it becomes ubiquitous: "We're just starting on Android for now. I want to make clear that this is our first foray into the mobile solution and we are taking a scalpel to rather than a hammer - doing one thing and doing it right ... I really hope we get a lot of people but I wouldn't expect it to rival our desktop [userbase] yet." The argument against ad blocking
The reaction to the news was fierce: The Financial Times wrote that mobile ad-blocking "risks becoming a barrier to innovation," research firm and consultancy to advertisers Warc said Shine "threatens mobile ads," and The Next Web said ad blockers are "immoral." Ad blocking is on the rise - the number of people with ad blockers installed worldwide grew 70% year on year to 144 million in 2014, according to PageFair and Adobe. As ad blocking use becomes widespread, this forms an existential threat to publishers and ad networks as advertisers won't pay for ads that are blocked from being served. Were ad blocking to become ubiquitous, companies would surely be shuttered and journalists would lose their jobs. The free web might have to live behind a paywall. That said, ad blocking is not illegal. In Germany last month, news sites took Adblock Plus owner Eyeo to court in Hamburg to challenge its right to suppress ads from the web, but they lost their case and ad blocking was ruled legal. Williams says Eyeo is ready to face legal challenges again, but he is confident the judge will rule in the ad blockers' favor - and that of user rights and user choice. He argues the case for the ad blockers: "Ad blocking is a symptom of bad ads. Newspaper ads, magazine ads, and TV there is a level of acceptance to a degree. But these transferred one by one over to the digital space, and that didn't work out so well. Click-through-rates and the money people were getting back from impressions fell under a while. And the response was to just make more ads." Williams continued: "Users have decided: 'I have more control about how I digest this media on my screen.' You can manipulate a newspaper, you can draw mustaches on all the models if you want, you leave the room when commercials are on TV. We can’t let mobile get terrible state desktop has become." Spend on mobile ads is predicted to top $100 billion worldwide in 2016, according to eMarketer. Eyeo and its small team look set to be busy. Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: 5 Tricks Advertisers Use To Make You Buy Their Products  | ||
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So if Eyeo is demanding huge fees from Google already, and its users can choose to blanket block all its ads, surely Google could just block the Android app from the Google Play Store?
Earlier this month another mobile ad blocking solution made the headlines: Here's how accurately this robot can recognize what's going on in 11 photos | ||
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One of the most intriguing areas in artificial intelligence research is computer vision. From being an integral part of self-driving cars to allowing machines to guess your age, making it possible for software to see is a big deal. Computer scientist Stephen Wolfram has released a new tool, the Wolfram Image Identification Project, that allows users to upload or link to an image and then see how well the computer can recognize what's going on in the picture. In a blog post, Wolfram describes the underlying technology behind the project. Like many computer vision programs, Wolfram's project is built around an "artificial neural network": a software framework inspired by biological brains that excels at the kind of pattern recognition needed for computer vision. In Wolfram's case, the neural network was "trained" by being exposed to tens of millions of labeled images. As Wolfram puts it in the blog post, "We don’t have any intrinsic way to describe an object like a chair. All we can do is just give lots of examples of chairs, and effectively say, 'Anything that looks like one of these we want to identify as a chair.' So in effect we want images that are 'close' to our examples of chairs to map to the name 'chair', and others not to. We decided to try the algorithm out on a few images that were on the front page of Business Insider around 3:30 PM eastern time Tuesday afternoon. In many cases, the image identifier was able to at least get the overall gist of the pictures. It classified the Twin Peaks restaurant in Texas that was the site of a grisly shootout between rival biker gangs as a "store":
It also correctly classified Hillary Clinton and Marissa Mayer as "people", although it wasn't able to identify them specifically by name:
The algorithm also correctly, if vaguely, identified Paris cafe Le Comptoir as a building:
In a few situations, the algorithm completely ignored the people in an image, instead focusing on particular inanimate objects. Rather than noticing boxer Gennady Golovkin, the algorithm locked on to the glove on the boxer's hand, helpfully pulling up some extra info on boxing gloves:
Similarly, in this still from an upcoming KFC commercial, the algorithm ignored former "Saturday Night Live" actor Darrell Hammond's portrayal of Colonel Sanders and instead noticed the cars around him, identifying them as "transport":
In other cases, the algorithm got temptingly close but was just slightly off. It classified this Samsung smartphone as a "remote control," and as with the boxing glove, gave us some context:
On the subject of Tesla, the image identifier correctly noted that Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk was standing in front of a car, but misclassified the car as a two-door coupe, rather than a four-door sedan. Still, pretty impressive:
Some images completely threw the algorithm off. The grey background and dark chyron on this NFL Network screenshot appear to have convinced the image classifier that New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft is in fact a clapperboard:
The algorithm also had trouble with more abstract items. The Yo app logo was parsed as "instrumentation":
And this screenshot of leaked footage from the upcoming video game "Doom 4" showing a soldier in a desolate wasteland was interpreted as a "spider":
While image recognition and classification are hard, and the algorithm is still a work in progress, it is fun to play with. Read more about the technology behind the app on Wolfram's blog here, or test it out with your own pictures here. SEE ALSO: THE GLOBAL 20: Twenty big stories that define the world right now Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: This robot competition inspired students and will get you excited about the future  | ||
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Report: The CEO ousted from his company after pleading guilty to domestic violence was arrested for allegedly kicking another woman | ||
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Gurbaksh Chahal, the former CEO of RadiumOne who was forced to resign amid domestic violence allegations, was arrested last October for allegedly kicking a different woman, the San Francisco Business Times reported Tuesday. Chahal was placed on probation after pleading guilty in April 2014 to misdemeanor charges for allegedly assaulting his girlfriend in 2013. Chahal has maintained his innocence and said he only pleaded guilty to avoid a "witch hunt." Now, the San Francisco district attorney's office confirmed to the Business Times that it is seeking to revoke his probation, but did not say why. The Business Times says that on Sept. 17 of last year, Chahal allegedly attacked a woman he was dating and kicked her repeatedly in the leg, according to an investigative report. The police later arrested Chahal in October and he was set free on $100,000 bail, according to the Business Times. In the police report about the arrest, the Business Times reports, the woman complains that Chahal grabbed her hair during an argument and once pushed her against the wall, bruising her wrist. Chahal formed his current company, Gravity4, after being ousted from RadiumOne. Last week, Gravity4 made an unsolicited $350 million takeover bid for rival Rocket Fuel, but Rocket Fuel rejected the deal and said in a written response that it believed the bid was "not a credible offer." In another case, Chahal and Gravity4 are being sued by a former employee for sexual discrimination. Chahal and Gravity4 did not immediately respond to requests for comment. We will update this story if we hear back. Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Kids settle the debate and tell us which is better: an Apple or Samsung phone  | ||
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Reddit CEO Ellen Pao: 'It's not our site's goal to be a completely free-speech platform' | ||
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Interim Reddit CEO Ellen Pao is caught between a rock and a hard place when it comes to online harassment. Last week, Reddit introduced controversial new rules to fight the rampant harassment and make users feel safer on the mega-popular social sharing and community site. Some of Reddit's user base saw it as censorship, as too vague to possibly enforce, or as Reddit pandering to a vocal minority of complainers. Many others appreciated the principle behind Reddit's anti-harassment stance, but saw the anti-harassment policy as lacking teeth, given the fact that Reddit wouldn't lay out specifics of what it would do with any reports of harassment. To defend the new anti-harassment policy, Pao went on NPR's All Things Considered to give comments that only further confused the situation. When asked if Reddit would ever delete offensive subreddits (small communities within Reddit) like "Gas The Kikes" (which actually exists) if it made a Jewish user uncomfortable, Pao basically dodged the question (emphasis ours): The question is whether it would make them fear for their safety, or the safety of those around them or where it makes them feel like it's not a safe platform. Somebody expressing ideas that aren't consistent with everybody's views is something that we encourage. There are certain posts that do make people feel unsafe, that people feel threatened or they feel that their family or friends or people near them are going to be unsafe, and those are the specific things that we are focused on today. It's not our site's goal to be a completely free-speech platform. We want to be a safe platform and we want to be a platform that also protects privacy at the same time. In other words, Pao isn't ruling out the idea that Reddit could heavily moderate comments, but won't give specifics on who or how. Right now, Pao says that the team dealt with 20 to 30 harassment claims in the past "half a week," and that Reddit is building tools to find and deal with repeat offenders using fake, so-called "throwaway" accounts. It's understandable that Pao and the Reddit team want to provide a safer space without pissing off the base of users that have gotten it to its current 100-million-user strong peaks of success. But if it's serious about fighting harassment, Reddit is going to have to go public with an enforceable set of specific rules, and soon, or else it's going to completely alienate both camps.
SEE ALSO: Reddit is finally mounting a war against trolls Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Facebook And Google 'Degrade Our Humanity,' Says 4chan Founder  | ||
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People in pink blazers and blue jackets were begging to park my car for me today | ||
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Today, I drove into downtown San Francisco for a work event and took advantage of the on-demand valet service offered there. All of a sudden, I felt like I was in the middle of a war — to park my car. The valet service being used by the conference was called Luxe Valet. First, I pointed out all my car's flaws (yes, that giant dent in the door was already there). I asked my valet Christopher to please remember to turn it off before he whisked it away to an unknown lot. Then I handed over my baby and its janitor-sized keyring. As I turned, suddenly a man in a bright pink blazer ran up and shoved a Caarbon flyer in my hand. "Next time, park with Caarbon," he said. Here I was, using an on-demand valet parking for the first time ever, and I was caught in the middle of San Francico's startup parking wars: blue jackets versus pink blazers. Razor scooters versus black umbrellas. Guerrilla marketing tactics. Luxe valets have become an increasingly common sight in San Francisco. They wear bright blue jackets and zip around on matching blue scooters, although some choose to run and get in their cardio workout. Joining their fray is the new kid on the block: Caarbon (soon to become Carbon with just one "a." The company is only in limited testing now.) Their agents, as they call them, wear pink blazers and stand with one arm behind their back. They open the door for women first and escort everyone to and from their car with a black umbrella.
Inside the conference, which was all about the "on-demand" economy, the founder of another valet service, Zirx, spoke about how he didn't need to compete outside. "There’s blue shirts outside and pink shirts outside. We probably think the least about competition," said Shmulik Fishman. "I would hate to be in a space where nobody is trying anything remotely connected." Back outside, though, the competition was visible based on just the flashy jackets. (Zirx agents, according to their site, wear yellow). The Luxe valets hung inside their parking lot, while Carbon agents stood on the outside by the entrance. "We embrace it. Pink versus blue," said Bill Bonhorst, an operations manager at Carbon. "We will escort you to the curb with an umbrella. We're not going to roll up to the curb with a scooter or a skateboard." He compared it to the Four Seasons level of service rather than a Holiday Inn. Luxe valets, though, didn't back down. "We're pretty much the only true on demand," said Michael Skillman, who has been a valet since October. He said Zirx operates only around their garages, while Luxe has a whole umbrella over the city. And while Carbon's operations managers said they shared the parking lot, the Luxe valets countered that the startup only had a few spaces, while Luxe controls the entire bottom floor. Zirx wasn't there at all. Meanwhile, outside a bicycle was parked with a sign advertising Upshift — a company that delivers rental cars on demand. In case you don't already have a car to park. Bootstrapped marketing at its best.
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Amazon's cloud is ten times bigger than the next fourteen competitors combined | ||
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The Amazon Web Services cloud sees ten times as much usage as the next fourteen competitors combined, according to a new report from industry research firm Gartner. Perhaps equally eye-opening: The No.2 cloud service by usage, Microsoft's Azure cloud, has twice as much compute capacity as the next 13 players combined (not including Amazon). This just goes to show the gigantic size of the industry's leaders and why it's so hard to compete with the likes of Amazon and Microsoft. Cloud computing allows companies to run many of their operations by renting computing power from special providers instead of operating their own data centers. It's a hot market. After all, Amazon Web Services is a $6 billion business. The key to Amazon's growth here, as Gartner's report indicates, is the sheer number of outside developers it's attracted to make their software available from Amazon's cloud. If you're an IT guy, chances are pretty good that you can find the tools you need to get a modern business up and running on Amazon Web Services pretty easily. "Although [Amazon Web Services] will not be the ideal fit for every need, it has become the 'safe choice' in this market, appealing to customers who desire the broadest range of capabilities and long-term market leadership," says the report. In other words, Amazon can't be everything to everybody — Gartner attributes much of the Microsoft Azure cloud's growth to its strong integrations with the rest of Microsoft's server and software suites, even if it's still working on getting more developers on board. Gartner credits the success of Google Cloud Platform, which is widely assumed to be number-three cloud player by revenue, to its friendliness towards developing new kinds of applications that are so-called "cloud native" and not beholden to old ways of doing things. It's in the harder-to-reach niches that many of the other cloud providers mentioned in the report fall: Rackspace Hosting can't compete at Amazon's level, so it focuses on white-glove support; Virtustream focuses heavily on helping customers run more complex, old-school applications from vendors like Microsoft, Oracle, and SAP. But for the vast majority of the world, Amazon Web Service is good enough, Microsoft Windows Azure integrates well enough, and Google Cloud Platform is developer-friendly enough to meet their needs. Time was, nobody got fired for buying IBM. These days, nobody gets fired for buying Amazon. SEE ALSO: Microsoft, Google, and Amazon haven't won the cloud wars yet Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Watch Amazon's New Robots Fill Customer Orders And Do The Heavy Lifting At Its Warehouses  | ||
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In Japan, IBM employees have formed a football team complete with pro stadium, cheerleaders and televised games (IBM) | ||
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What started off as a way for IBM employees working in Japan back in 1976 to enjoy an American past-time, football, has become a really big deal. According to IBM's Tumblr page, IBM's employee football team, called Big Blue, now ... includes cheerleaders, a professional stadium and a nationally televised audience. It all started in 1976, when a handful of new IBM Japan employees gathered together and decided to start a team. By 2001, they not only had an undefeated record, but also reached the top division. In fact, American Football has become a big deal in Japan. The country's so-called X League was founded in 1971, just a few years before IBM joined. Today there are so many teams that the league has multiple divisions. Teams can be made up of a company team (all players must be employees) or club teams (open to anyone via try-outs). X League players are often so good that they have reportedly been recruited to play for pro teams like the Japanese National Team, which competes in the American Football World Cup.
However, the Big Blue team is still a popular one with its own website, its own Facebook page, its own mascot (mascots are very popular in Japan) and its own fan club. And like many a pro U.S. team, the Big Blue cheerleaders are also popular, featured on the team's website, with their own Facebook page, and a calendar of promotional appearances, too.
Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Here's how Floyd Mayweather spends his millions  | ||
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IBM's Big Blue team didn't finish 2014 on top. It lost its playoff game to the 
A former CIA chief says other governments could launch crippling computer attacks on the US | ||
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Royden, who spent 40 years in the CIA — 35 years as an operative and 5 years as head of counterintelligence — knows what he's talking about. Though he's been retired for more than a decade, he isn't blind to what he believes is a new type of threat that has emerged in an increasingly connected world: "The trouble is, it’s extremely difficult, in fact, it’s impossible — everyone is connected to everyone, and as long as you’re connected you’re vulnerable. And there are firewalls, but every firewall is potentially defeatable, so it’s a nightmare in my mind. You have to think that other governments have the capability to bring down the main computer systems in this country, power grids, hospitals, or banking systems — things that could cause great economic upheaval and paralyze the country." He adds: "Now, if they were to do it to us and we were to do it to them, it would almost be like a nuclear standoff. They could do it but if they did it what would the cost be? Because they know we have the same capabilities and that we presumably attack their computer systems the same way and we could destroy their economy. So you hope that no one is going to do that but you’re vulnerable. These days, I think the cyber world is the big threat."
READ OUR FULL INTERVIEW: A former CIA chief told us what makes a great spy and why they missed on 9/11 Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: NASA's new drone flies like a plane and takes off like a helicopter  | ||
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A former Director of Counterintelligence for the CIA — Barry Royden — believes that cyber terrorism is the next big threat to America. Amazon's Jeff Bezos appoints the first woman to a highly coveted role as his 'shadow' | ||
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For almost as long as Amazon has existed, Jeff Bezos has had a "shadow" — an up-and-coming executive who gets the much-envied chance to go with the CEO to daily meetings, talk over problems, and generally have as much access to Bezos as they can handle. Today, we learned that Bezos has appointed 15-year Amazon veteran Maria Renz to the "shadow" position (the official title is "technical advisor to the CEO"), making her the first woman shadow in the company's history, as reported by Re/code. At Amazon, Renz has been involved in many aspects of Amazon's retail business, including Health & Grocery, Shoes & Jewelery, and deal-a-day site Woot.com. For the past two years, she had been serving as CEO of Quidsi, an Amazon acquisition and the parent company of Diapers.com. Amazon's past shadows have gone on to lead big projects. Andy Jassy, head of the now-$6 billion Amazon Web Services business, used to be a shadow. So was Greg Hart, who headed up development of the Amazon Echo speech recognition appliance. Amit Agarwal, the head of Amazon's growing Indian business, was one, too. Shadows usually last about two years in the role. Renz is replacing former Kindle VP Jay Marine, who stuck around for about that long. Now that he's left Bezos' side, Marine will be heading up Amazon Instant Video in Europe. Of Amazon's eight executive roles, including Bezos, the only woman is Worldwide Controller Shelley Reynolds. Renz's appointment to this much-desired, super-intensive mentoring role at least shows signs of progress at the very top of Amazon. Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Here's What Will Happen To Amazon Without Jeff Bezos  | ||
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These high schoolers built an Iron Man-inspired 'exosuit' that can lift 400 pounds | ||
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"Ian, can you normally lift 50 pounds with your pinky?" asked Gabriel Perko-Engle. Ian Simons, like most humans, can't. Strapped into the robot-like "exosuit" he helped build though, Simons is capable of super-human powers. By pushing a joystick with his pinky, Simons moves the suit's arm and effortlessly lifts a 50-pound weight. The AJAX Exosuit, short for Amplified Juggernaut Assistance Exoskeleton, was assembled by eight high-schoolers and inspired by movies the teens had watched, like Iron Man, The Edge of Tomorrow and Elysium. It's not an exosuit that could be used for disabilities since it responds to physical movements, but it could have military and commercial applications since it can hold up to 400 pounds.
The high-schoolers from the Bay School of San Francisco, though, saw it not as a business but as a fun weekend project to prepare for the Maker Faire, an annual California gathering of makers and tinkerers. Joseph DeRose had made projects with his family for the Faire before, including a flight simulator from Battlestar Galactica and an eight-foot tall animatronic fire-breathing dragon. The exosuit, though, was his most ambitious and hardest project so he recruited his friends. The group assembled on the weekends as part of the Young Makers program and raised money on Kickstarter and through sponsors to assemble their exosuit.
The project was moving smoothly with each teen focusing on his specialty, until they turned it on a month before Maker Faire and had the "oh-no" moment every maker dreads. "Right after this thing was fully completed, we realized it wasn't working," Perko-Engel said. Fixing the problem is worse than painstakingly troubleshooting faulty Christmas tree lights, the teens explained. Instead of just removing each bulb, the process is more like removing and re-creating each bulb until they figured out each issue. Now, the suit responds to a person moving their legs or tapping the joystick arms up and down. "You're in it and it just feels really good," Cole Yarbrough said.
The last hurdle is smoothing out how to walk in the exosuit. When humans walk, they shift weight from side to side as they lift their feet off the ground. The exosuit can't adjust side to side though, so the walking is a bit jilted right now and the group hasn't done many walks outside of the carrier. A few of the teens will keep working on designing the proper feet for it though. When asked what's next, they joked, "maybe recreating the Thriller video?"
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11 pieces of life-changing advice from commencement speeches by tech celebrities | ||
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A lot of them are filled with unnecessary cliches. But these 11 speeches by some of the most successful tech giants will inspire you to do great things in life. Evan Spiegel: "I am now convinced that the fastest way to figure out if you are doing something truly important to you is to have someone offer you a bunch of money to part with it." At age 24, Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel is only a few years older than the students who graduated this year. Yet he gave a pretty inspiring speech at USC's 2015 business school's commencement. Best quotes: "It turns out there are two things that can dramatically reduce conformity in a group setting. The first is a single dissenting voice. The second is the ability to communicate privately with other members of the group." "I am now convinced that the fastest way to figure out if you are doing something truly important to you is to have someone offer you a bunch of money to part with it...The best thing is that, no matter whether or not you sell, you will learn something very valuable about yourself. If you sell, you will know immediately that it wasn’t the right dream anyways. And if you don’t sell you’re probably onto something. Maybe you have the beginning of something meaningful." "Please voice your dissent. Anticipate your erasure. And find something you aren't willing to sell." Watch full video here. Dick Costolo: "Not only can you not plan the impact you're going to have, you often won't recognize it when you're having it." Speaking at the 2013 graduation of the University of Michigan, Twitter's CEO Dick Costolo gave a commencement speech filled with jokes, wisdom, and valuable advice. In fact, prominent VC Fred Wilson said it's a speech "relevant to everyone working in the startup world." Best quotes: "Not only can you not plan the impact you're going to have, you often won't recognize it when you're having it…The impact is what others frame for you and the world after it happens. The present is only what you're experiencing and focused on right now…You cannot draw that path looking forward. You cannot draw any of your paths looking forward. You have to figure out what you love to do, what you have conviction about, and go do that." "When you're doing what you love to do, you become resilient. You create a habit of taking chances on yourself. If you do what expected of you and things go poorly, you will look to external sources for what to do next, because that will be your habit. You will be standing there frozen. If you are just filling a role you will be blindsided." "What I implore you to do is believe that if you make courageous choices and bet on yourself and put yourself out there that you will have an impact as a result of what you do and you don't need to know now what that will be, or how that will happen, because nobody ever does." Watch the full video here. Drew Houston: "I stopped trying to make my life perfect, and instead tried to make it interesting." At the 2013 MIT graduation, Dropbox CEO Drew Houston spoke about how giving himself a break and giving into some of the distractions actually helped him launch Dropbox. By doing so, it made his life more interesting too. Best quotes: "What scares me is that both the poker bot and Dropbox started out as distractions. That little voice in my head was telling me where to go, and the whole time I was telling it to shut up so I could get back to work. Sometimes that little voice knows best." "When I think about it, the happiest and most successful people I know don't just love what they do, they're obsessed with solving an important problem, something that matters to them." "I stopped trying to make my life perfect, and instead tried to make it interesting. I wanted my story to be an adventure — and that's made all the difference." Watch the full video here. See the rest of the story at Business Insider  | ||
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Commencement speeches could often get boring. The Navy's new drone-killing laser may not be as impressive as it seems | ||
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When the US Navy tested a weaponized laser late last year, blasting holes in both aerial and seaborne targets from as far as a mile away, the development was greeted with acclaim. The new weapon, called the Laser Weapons System, or LaWS, could replace costly conventional projectiles with blasts of focused heat that only cost as much as their energy input — perhaps as little as $1 per shot. But the reality may have been very different. According to a startling new analysis from laser scientist Subrata Ghoshroy in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the test and the weapon may have been little more than an elaborate public relations stunt. As Ghoshroy argues, the tests aboard the USS Ponce were at a short distance and low-energy, and were aimed at particularly vulnerable targets. The test was publicly documented by the Navy and included a weapon curiously ahead of its development schedule — and even then it didn't represent a leap in existing technology, much less a revolutionary new super-weapon. In the USS Ponce tests, the distance of engagement appeared to be short — less than a mile," Ghoshroy writes. "The sides of their speedboat target were thin, and the target drone aircraft appeared to be small. So, it was possible to accomplish a so-called 'successful' test with a relatively low power, in the 10 to 20 kilowatt range." As Ghoshroy writes later in the article, the developers' "ultimate goal ... for a tactical weapons-grade laser" is a burst of around 100 kilowatts. Ghoshroy also writes that the beam from the USS Ponce test was of "low-quality," explaining that "high-quality has long been the Achilles heel of high-power lasers." In Ghoshroy's view, the LaWS is part of a long string of developments that have been sold as breakthroughs in US laser weapon technology — but that have only exposed how far "directed energy" weapons have still to go in order to be portable, reliable, and practical.
"[W]hile lasers ... offer the tantalizing possibility of being game-changers, they will not likely be ready for prime time anytime soon," Ghoshroy writes. "Like a mirage, battlefield lasers are always just over the horizon." There are numerous potential benefits to laser weapons. A powerful enough laser could shoot down incoming ballistic missiles. In 2007, the US military successfully tested a laser system housed inside of a custom-made Boeing 747 that shot down a mock-up of a tactical ballistic missile. Infantry lasers could render bullets or even certain anti-aircraft weapons obsolete. In the closing decade of the Cold War, President Ronald Reagan mobilized the US government to develop a shield of space-based lasers that could take down high-flying strategic ballistic missiles — an objective that became a chief obstacle in arms control talks with the Soviet Union throughout his presidency. The shield was never practical, and never came particularly close to actually getting built. But as Ghoshroy puts it, "the path to laser weapons is littered with dead lasers." Existing solid-state lasers can't build up enough energy or strike at sufficient range to take down a major target. Gas or chemical-based lasers are currently too cumbersome for battlefield use. Even the YAL-1, which had one of the largest laser turrets ever built, was deemed so impractical that the airframe itself was eventually scrapped (even though the laser worked, getting a 747 within laser range of an incoming ballistic missile is incredibly difficult to pull off). The test aboard the USS Ponce involved a fiber-based laser. That types of laser is showing promise, but Ghoshroy warns that "some issues related to the structure of the fiber itself and the efficiency with which the photons are pumped up could be show-stoppers."
The LaWS isn't a new drone-killing super-weapon. At most, it points towards a possible future breakthrough. It's a necessary proof of concept, rather than something that could replace conventional ballistic weapons in the near future. But the Navy's promotion of the test, and the media attention that surrounded it, demonstrates something that's already been clear for decades. Lasers are incredibly useful to defense policy makers as a red herring: they demonstrate technological progress, and motion towards eventual lower costs — along with the resolution of vexing strategic and tactical concerns. As weapons, they don't really work. At least not yet. Read Ghoshroy's entire piece here.SEE ALSO: Business Insider talks for former acting CIA director Michael Morell Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Here's what happens when you get bitten by a black widow  | ||
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The Pirate Bay's new logo sends a loud message to the authorities trying to shut it down | ||
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The Pirate Bay has been facing legal issues for years. But that hasn't stopped the popular torrent website from fighting back. And its newest logo says just that in not so many words. For context: Late last year police in Sweden raided the Pirate Bay's servers, and the site has been facing a multitude of lawsuits aiming to shut down its sites. While things have been quieting down, numerous authorities have continued in their attempt to shut down the file sharing site once and for all. Today the site was dealt a major blow: The Stockholm District Court ordered that its hallmark .se domains be taken down, reports TorrentFreak. To many, the domains PirateBay.se and ThePirateBay.se were the primary portal for Pirate Bay access. Though the domains may have died, the website has reportedly unveiled a new logo showing that it will not give up fighting. The Pirate Bay's old logo was merely an ominous looking pirate ship with its name proudly written below. This new image, which surfaced on Reddit earlier today, has a similar pirate ship-like design, but emerging from behind the ship is a hydra with domain suffixes hovering over each hydra head. And these new domains are indeed up and running, according to TorrentFreak. This new image easily be interpreted as a message to the authorities that they can shut down one domain, but that will only cause numerous new domains will only spring up. While the website may still have a long trudge ahead and face numerous (perhaps endless) legal fights, at least the Pirate Bay's artistic director is feeling optimistic. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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56-year-old tech giant Computer Sciences is cleaving itself into two public companies (CSC) | ||
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CSC, the giant IT consulting company founded in 1959 is the latest huge, aging tech company to cleave itself into two. CSC is best known for outsourcing contracts and working on huge government contracts. Those are the kind of expensive, multi-year projects that are going out of favor as companies look use cloud computing for more of their tech needs. Revenues at the company have shrunk from $15.6 billion in 2011 to just under $12.2 billion in its fiscal year 2015, which it reported on Tuesday. For its fourth quarter, it posted a beat on profits and a miss on revenue. So, it has decided to sever itself into companies, both publicly traded: CSC Global Commercial, which will service Fortune 1,000, with $8.1 billion in FY 15 revenue, and over 1,000 customers (including 175 of the Fortune 500) and 51,000 employees and 34 delivery centers globally. CSC U.S. Public Sector, focused on government work, with $4.1 billion in FY and employs 14,000 people, including 3,500 U.S. military veterans. Breaking up is a huge trend among older enterprise IT players as they face an onslaught of up and coming startups birthing faster, cheaper tech, and often backed by hundreds of millions of dollars in venture capital. Other companies splitting themselves include eBay/PayPal, Symantec, and Hewlett-Packard. Valley venture capitalist superstar Marc Andreessen, who a former board member at eBay and is still on the board at at HP, predicted last fall that ALL giant tech companies 20-years-old will follow suit, either voluntarily breaking up or having activist investors march in and try to force them into it. The idea is they need to get smaller so they can respond faster to new markets. With CSC, his prediction is coming ever more true. Next up? Sound off in comments.... SEE ALSO: Insiders say some HP execs are looking to leave after the company splits itself in two Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: 6 million people have watched this mesmerizing video of a man splitting firewood  | ||
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Samsung will reportedly release a new version of its gigantic Android phone in July to beat Apple | ||
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Of all the smartphones Samsung makes in a year, there are usually two that end up being its most popular: the latest version of its flagship Galaxy S phone, and its newest giant Galaxy Note device. Samsung usually waits until the August/September timeframe to release its large-sized Galaxy Note phones, but this year the company will reportedly make the big announcement in July, according to a recent Korean news report. Samsung is expected to move its announcement up in an effort to undercut Apple, which is rumored to unveil a successor to the iPhone 6 Plus in September, reports Korean news outlet WhoWiredKorea. The launch of the Note 5 would also reportedly coincide with the release of Samsung Pay — Samsung's own mobile payment system that will work with any standard credit card or NFC terminal. A prototype of the new phone is expected to be finished by June, according to WhoWiredKorea, and the company is expected to show it off to carrier partners before the end of July. The Galaxy Note 4 is currently the biggest competitor to Apple's iPhone 6 Plus. But, while Apple has been selling boatloads of iPhones, Samsung has been struggling a bit. It's relying on a new phone like the Note 5 to give consumers a reason to choose its Galaxy phones over the iPhone. It's too soon to know exactly what to expect from the Note 5, but blog Sam Mobile, which has an excellent track record when it comes to reporting on unreleased Samsung gadgets, claims to have some insider information. Samsung is reportedly developing a new version of its curved Note smartphone, too, which would be a successor to the Galaxy Note Edge. The phone is reportedly being called "Project Zen" internally, and it might have different hardware than the standard Galaxy Note 5. This would be a different step for Samsung, considering the Galaxy Note Edge is essentially a clone of the Galaxy Note 4, but with a curved screen. Sam Mobile says the Note 5 will feature either a 2K or 4K resolution screen and will run on one of Samsung's Exynos processors. It's important to keep in mind that even if this information is accurate, there's a chance it could change by the time Samsung actually unveils its new Galaxy Note phone. SEE ALSO: THE RISE OF ANDROID: How a flailing startup became the world's biggest computing platform Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Kids settle the debate and tell us which is better: an Apple or Samsung phone  | ||
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Here’s another chart that shows Slack’s incredible growth | ||
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It's no secret that Slack has enjoyed an impressive growth spurt since its launch in August 2013. The business communication app now worth more than $2.8 billion has 750,000 daily active users with 200,000 paid members. By February, it was adding $1 million in annual recurring revenue every 11 days, on top of the $12 million ARR it built in its first year. Now there's one more way to measure Slack's meteoric rise. According to this chart, put together by BI Intelligence and based on PitchBook data, Slack is the fastest company ever to get to a $1 billion valuation, hitting the milestone in just 15 months. That’s faster than Groupon, the $4 billion social commerce site that previously held the record, and nearly twice as fast as Pinterest, the photo-sharing site worth $11 billion. By any measure, Slack’s growth is truly remarkable. But its outsized valuation should also be taken with a grain of salt, as Sand Hill East’s managing partner Josh Burwick tells PitchBook. "Just because a bunch of smart investors say a company is worth a certain valuation and invest money with that underlying assumption, does not make it a reality," he says.
SEE ALSO: This one chart shows Pinterest’s massive potential as an e-commerce site Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Peter Thiel's 3 Keys For Building A Successful Startup  | ||
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Besides texting, here's what else we do on our smart phones while driving | ||
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Texting while driving isn't the only dangerous activity plaguing our roads. The American motorist is also obsessed with checking Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, and video chatting while behind the wheel of a car, according to a study released today by mobile provider AT&T. AT&T – which started the It Can Wait campaign to combat distracted driving – and Braun Research polled 2,067 American motorists age 16-65 who have smartphones and drive at least once per day. What they found is that smarter phones make dumber drivers. According to the study, 70% of respondents say they engage in smartphone activities while driving. 61% say they text while driving and 33% say they send emails while driving. In terms of social media, 27% of drivers enjoy checking Facebook while driving, while 14% check Instagram and Twitter, and 11% check Snapchat. Other smart phone activities behind the wheel include internet browsing (28%), taking selfies (17%), and video chatting (10%). “One in 10 say they do video chat while driving. I don’t even have words for that,” Lori Lee, AT&T’s senior executive vice president for global marketing, told the New York Times. Of those polled, 22% cite addiction as the reason for why they use their phone behind the wheel, and 27% believe they can do it safely while driving. According to info from the Center for Disease Control, 3,328 people were killed in 2012 due to accidents involving a distracted driver. According to Distracted.gov, the official government website on distracted driving, 660,000 motorists at any given moment are using cellphones or manipulating electronic devices while behind the wheel of a car. In addition, people in their 20s make up 27% of all distracted drivers. The National Safety Council, a nonprofit organization, says that texting while driving accounted for 6 percent of all crashes in 2014, up one percent from 2013. Although 46 states currently have laws banning texting while driving, the poll notes that 62% of drivers said they still like to keep their smartphones within easy reach when they are behind the wheel. SEE ALSO: IndyCar driver Helio Castroneves went airborne in a scary crash during Indy 500 practice Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: This new version of Google's self-driving car will hit the streets of Mountain View this summer  | ||
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6 ways to instantly make yourself more attractive | ||
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From an evolutionary standpoint, we are attracted to people who we perceive as beautiful, like those with symmetric faces or large eyes, because it tends to signify good genetics. And good genes means healthy babies. But just because you're not born with model looks doesn't mean you're doomed. Science tells us that there are ways to spice up your sexiness, through techniques that aren't necessarily regulated by biology. Here's a short list. Hang out in groupsYou look better with your friends than you do on your own, psychological scientists have found. The phenomenon known as the "cheerleader effect" happens because the human brain tends to average the faces of people in a group rather than seeing them as individual subjects. This benefits people with less attractive physical features. Source: Psychological Science, 2013 Stick around for closing timeIn a 1979 paper, University of Virgina researchers cite numerous studies showing that in a bar setting, individuals of the opposite sex are seen as more attractive as "the time to decide whether to interact with them decreases." A more recent study from 2010 confirmed that bar patrons see romantic potentials as "significantly more attractive" at closing time, but only if the observers were not in a relationship. Source: Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 1979; Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 2010 Smile moreThe same region of the brain that is activated when people receive a reward, called the medial orbitofrontal cortex, is engaged when a person sees a beautiful face. Using brain scans, a team of researchers showed that this response is "further enhanced by a smiling facial expression." The health of a person's chompers is also important. A separate study conducted by British researchers found that white and evenly-spaced teeth makes people seem more attractive, probably because it's a sign of good health, and in women, fertility. Source: Neuropsychologia, 2003; PLoS One, 2012 Wear redRed is the colour of hearts, roses, and love it seems. The well-studied "red-effect" suggests that both men and women are more drawn to the opposite sex when they are wearing red. In several experiments, researchers from the University of Rochester looked at women's responses to photographs of the same man in a variety of color shirts. A similar experiment was conducted to quantify the effect of red-garbed women on men. In both scenarios, the participants were more eager to get it on when the person in the photograph was wearing red. This could be partly learned, as red has long been associated with royalty, and we now equate it with power or being able to provide. For women, the response may be more biological. "Research has shown that nonhuman male primates are particularly attracted to females displaying red," according to a statement from the University. "Female baboons and chimpanzees, for example, redden conspicuously when nearing ovulation, sending a clear sexual signal designed to attract males." Source: Journal of Personal Social Psychology, 2008; Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 2012 Change the pitch of your voiceThe way we speak plays a key part in the perceived attractiveness of men and women. In one study, researchers from the University College London found that in women, a higher-pitched voice is seen a more attractive because it indicates the speaker has a smaller body size. Guys, on the hand, should aim for a deep voice with a touch of breathiness, indicating they have a large-size frame, but low levels of aggression. Source: PLoS One, 2013 Work on your sense of humour"Both men and women prefer someone with a ' good sense of humor' as a relationship partner," a study led by Eric Bressler of Westfield State College found, but each sex values humor differently. While women like men who make them laugh, men like women who laugh at their jokes (men don't care much about a woman's wit). In another study, French researcher Nicolas Guéguen instructed men in a bar to either tell or not tell a funny joke to their friends as a woman sat at nearby table. The men who told jokes were three times more likely to get that woman's number than those who did not. "The effect of a great sense of humor on women's attractions might be partially explained by the fact that funny people are considered to be more social and more intelligent, things that women seek in a mate," evolutionary psychologist explains in an article on Psychology Today. Source: Evolution & Human Behaviour, 2006; Personal Relationships, 2005; Psychological Reports, 2010 Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Kids settle the debate and tell us which is better: an Apple or Samsung phone  | ||
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The history of medicine will seem blunt and random compared to what's coming next | ||
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"So much of medicine is just based on the average patient," Dr. Eric Green said in an interview at Smithsonian magazine's "The Future is Here" festival. "There are so many cases where you'll give a medicine to somebody and you know there's a fifty-fifty chance the medication is either not going to work or it's going to make them sicker and yet you know that 50% it's going help." Precision medicine could change all that, letting doctors prescribe treatments specifically tailored to each patient based on genetic information and other factors that make them unique, rather than rolling the dice with drugs that work most of the time or — in the cases of some cancer treatments — only a small fraction of the time. After all, diseases and people are both incredibly complex. We might have a drug that barely slows the growth of a common type of lung cancer in the vast majority of the population, but in a tiny percentage of people it eliminates cancer completely. Finding and understanding the medically-relevant intricacies that are unique to each individual won't be easy. The Precision Medicine Initiative, announced by President Barack Obama during this year's State of the Union, is a massive national project that plans to delve into the specific biology of diseases and the genetic code of individuals so we can figure out what form of treatment works for each person. Green, the director of the National Human Genome Research Institute at the National Institutes of Health, argued in his conference speech that the initiative, started with a $215 million federal investment, could radically transform medicine. He pointed to five reasons why we're at a turning point with precision medicine:
"Ten years from now, you'll look at [what we've been doing] and say, 'oh that was so crude and rough,' compared to what we'll be doing 10 or 20 years from now," Green said. Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Watch these giant container ships collide near the Suez Canal  | ||
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The Bank of England is staying on autopilot with another unanimous vote to hold interest rates | ||
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The minutes of the Bank of England's latest monetary policy committee (MPC) meeting were just released, and people are scanning closely for hints on when the BoE may finally start to raise interest rates. The vote to hold the Bank's benchmark interest rate at 0.5% was unanimous once again, with nine members voting to hold and none voting for anything else. There's little sign of the dissenters that voted for a small hike last year. The minutes say that two members — probably Martin Weale and Ian McCafferty — were "finely balanced between voting to hold or raise Bank Rate." Despite the unanimous vote, all members agreed that an increase in rates is the likely next step for the Bank. Here's the full detail of the minutes. Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Here's what 'Game of Thrones' stars look like in real life  | ||
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Japan economy picks up pace in wobbly recovery | ||
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Tokyo (AFP) - Japan's economy grew more than expected in the first three months of the year, data showed Wednesday, as it crawls back from a brief recession, but observers cautioned that a strong recovery may still be some way off. The 0.6 percent on-quarter expansion was bigger than revised 0.3 percent growth in the last three months of 2014, and beat market expectations for a 0.4 percent rise. In annualised terms, the world's number three economy expanded 2.4 percent in January-March as capital spending and the housing market showed signs of strength, although exports dipped slightly and consumer spending was weak. The relatively upbeat figures -- outpacing a lacklustre 0.2 percent annualised rise in the US economy during the same period -- may cool expectations of imminent stimulus from the Bank of Japan (BoJ), after a sales tax rise last year hammered consumer spending. The sales levy hike -- Japan's first in 17 years -- plunged the economy into recession and threw Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's growth-boosting programme, dubbed Abenomics, into question. Investors embraced Wednesday's growth figures, sending the benchmark Nikkei 225 index 0.82 percent higher in the afternoon, as Japan wraps up its latest earnings season with many firms reporting strong profits, largely owing to a weak yen. "The January-March (gross domestic product) growth data were good... and buoyed sentiment," said Takuya Takahashi, senior strategist at Daiwa Securities. "Corporate earnings for the fiscal year to March were (also) generally good and many companies took measures to return surplus to shareholders," he added, referring to share buybacks and dividend hikes. But some analysts are warning that, despite the pick-up, Japan's full-year growth may come in flat, as firms' rising inventories underscore still-lacklustre consumer spending. "The acceleration in GDP growth last quarter was mostly due to a jump in inventories, and a range of indicators point to a slowdown in the second quarter," Marcel Thieliant from Capital Economics said in a commentary. "Industrial production in March was four percent below its January peak, and the drop in the manufacturing PMI (purchasing managers' index) to a multi-month low in April suggests that conditions are unlikely to improve quickly." - Households cautious - The tax rise from 5.0 percent to 8.0 percent was introduced to help pay down Japan's enormous national debt, one of the biggest among wealthy nations. Faced with souring economic data, Abe delayed a second hike planned for this year to 2017. And it remains unclear if the wage hikes announced by many of Japan's biggest companies after annual spring negotiations would convince consumers to buy more. "Household spending remains weak because of modest wage increases," said Harumi Taguchi, principal economist at IHS Economics in Tokyo. Japan has been struggling with a string of tepid data recently, particularly on the price side as efforts to reach the BoJ's 2.0 percent inflation target look increasingly out of reach. The central bank, which kicks off a two-day policy meeting Thursday, has now conceded the original timeline for achieving its goal would be missed, while it has also cut its growth forecasts. Japanese inflation in March picked up for the first time in 10 months, but stripping out the impact of the sales tax rise, it came in at a tepid 0.2 percent. Sustained inflation is a cornerstone of Abe's drive to conquer years of deflation and kickstart growth in the economy. Deflation may sound good for Japanese consumers, but it means people tend to put off buying because they do not expect prices to rise and hope they might even get goods cheaper down the line. That, in turn, hurts producers and holds back their expansion and hiring plans, which is bad news for the economy. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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The 10 things in advertising you need to know today | ||
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Good morning. Here's everything you need to know in the world of advertising today. 1. Adblock Plus has launched a mobile browser. That could prove a costly headache for companies like Google. 2. These are the hottest pre-IPO ad tech startups of 2015. These are the private companies that could be filing for an IPO or subject to acquisitions in the coming months. 3. The Pirate Bay has a new logo. It sends out a strong message to the authorities trying to shut it down. 4. These are the most-chosen brands in the world. Kantar Worldpanel has released its annual rankings of the biggest CPG brands. 5. Gurbaksh Chahal, the ad tech CEO ousted from Radium One after pleading guilty to domestic violence was arrested for allegedly kicking another woman. The San Francisco Business Times reports that Chahal allegedly attacked a woman he was dating and kicked her repeatedly in the leg. 6. KFC is making two big changes to beat the competition. It is bringing back its Colonel Sanders mascot to its advertising and giving its restaurants a clean new redesign. 7. Marissa Mayer has explained why it never made sense for Yahoo to merge with AOL. Yahoo doesn't want to be in the business of helping other sites monetize, like AOL, she said. 8. Actor John Hamm has revealed what he thinks happened to his character Don Draper after the "Mad Men" finale. We won't reveal any spoilers here. 9. Amazon's Jeff Bezos has appointed the first woman to a highly coveted role. Maria Renz is the new technical advisor to the CEO, or his "shadow." 10. Pinterest has announced a whole series of updates to its advertising product including new video Promoted Pins. The company told Business Insider it has "the best kind of business model." Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: A YouTuber created this incredible animation using a string of yarn  | ||
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One of the most popular ad blockers is releasing a mobile browser, which could be huge — but costly for companies like Google (GOOG) | ||
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Adblock Plus, which claims to be the most popular ad blocking tool, is launching its first mobile browser. The Android browser will automatically block ads, which Adblock Plus says will save up to 23% of a user's smartphone battery life, and also save on their data plan. The app is initially launching in beta, so users can provide feedback on the experience. Further down the line Adblock Plus also plans to add additional tools within the browser such as malware protection. As with the Adblock Plus desktop browser extension, which the company says has been downloaded more than 400 million times and is said to have 50 million active users, some ads do get through the net, or are white-listed, in other words. Almost all ads - including "native ads" like Facebook ads that appear in the newsfeed or ads that appear on publishers' websites that have the same look and feel as other content on the site - are blocked as standard. Publishers and advertising networks - such as Google's huge display network, or other independent ad servers - then have to apply to get each type of ad they serve on to Adblock Plus' "acceptable ads" list. Adblock Plus then works with the ad seller to help their ad match its acceptable ads criteria and the whitelisting proposal is submitted to its user forum, in order for the community to declare any concerns. The type of ads that don't make the cut are usually pop-ups, pop-unders, "interstitials" that interrupt the reading flow on a page, and ads that are not clearly labeled as ads. If the publisher or an ad seller is small - a WordPress blog with two ads, for example - Adblock Plus and its parent company, the Germany-based Eyeo, won't charge for companies to go through this process. But bigger entities like Google, Microsoft, Amazon pay huge fees to Eyeo to get their ads unblocked - 30% of the additional revenue they would earned were the ads unblocked, according to a Financial Times report. Ben Williams, Adblock Plus operations and communications manager told Business Insider that only about 10% of companies on its whitelist pay for their ads to be unblocked. He said the fees are based on the scale of the company and how much time Eyeo's 38-strong team will need to take to get their ads into shape. And even then, users can always choose within the desktop browser extension, or the new Android app, simply to suppress all ads - even acceptable ones. Only a "low single digit" percentage of users actually do this, Adblock Plus claims. A way to get around Google blocking Adblock Plus from the Android Play Store
So if Eyeo is demanding huge fees from Google already, and its users can choose to blanket block all its ads, surely Google could just block the Android app from the Google Play Store? (At the time of writing, the app is not yet live on Google Play, either, as it waits to go through the approval process.) Williams said it has happened before. Back in 2013, Google removed Adblock Plus and other ad blockers from the Play Store. At the time Google said this was because the app violated a Section 4.4 of its Developer Distribution Agreement, which stipulated that apps cannot interfere with another app's functionality. A browser, however, will not affect other apps. But it's unlikely Google will look kindly on it. Indeed, Williams hinted that this was part of the reason Adblock Plus didn't decide to go down the iOS route first, like most app developers. "iOS is harder to develop on, it's a walled garden that's more difficult to get an API, simply put ... I think that might have been part of the reason, and also, most of the people in our office use Android ... and in Europe ... Android is an open development system," Williams added. Adblock Plus is already available on Android, but users have to first download the Firefox browser, and then side-load the Adblock Plus afterwards - which Williams said "is a bit of an issue for a normal user, and more than they can bear" - hence the need for a browser. Williams said the mobile browser is the company's first concentrated effort into mobile adblocking, so it may take time before it becomes ubiquitous: "We're just starting on Android for now. I want to make clear that this is our first foray into the mobile solution and we are taking a scalpel to rather than a hammer - doing one thing and doing it right ... I really hope we get a lot of people but I wouldn't expect it to rival our desktop [userbase] yet." The argument against ad blocking
Earlier this month another mobile ad blocking solution made the headlines: Shine, an Israeli ad blocking software company that claims to have the support of mobile carriers, which could start rolling out ad blockers among their customers to reduce infrastructure costs from data-sucking ads. Ad blocking is on the rise - the number of people with ad blockers installed worldwide grew 70% year on year to 144 million in 2014, according to PageFair and Adobe. As ad blocking use becomes widespread, this forms an existential threat to publishers and ad networks as advertisers won't pay for ads that are blocked from being served. Were ad blocking to become ubiquitous, companies would surely be shuttered and journalists would lose their jobs. The free web might have to live behind a paywall. That said, ad blocking is not illegal. In Germany last month, news sites took Adblock Plus owner Eyeo to court in Hamburg to challenge its right to suppress ads from the web, but they lost their case and ad blocking was ruled legal. Williams says Eyeo is ready to face legal challenges again, but he is confident the judge will rule in the ad blockers' favor - and that of user rights and user choice. He argues the case for the ad blockers: "Ad blocking is a symptom of bad ads. Newspaper ads, magazine ads, and TV there is a level of acceptance to a degree. But these transferred one by one over to the digital space, and that didn't work out so well. Click-through-rates and the money people were getting back from impressions fell under a while. And the response was to just make more ads." Williams continued: "Users have decided: 'I have more control about how I digest this media on my screen.' You can manipulate a newspaper, you can draw mustaches on all the models if you want, you leave the room when commercials are on TV. We can’t let mobile get terrible state desktop has become." Spend on mobile ads is predicted to top $100 billion worldwide in 2016, according to eMarketer. Eyeo and its small team look set to be busy. Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: 5 Tricks Advertisers Use To Make You Buy Their Products  | ||
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Marks & Spencer has a big problem — it's still not fashionable | ||
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But while profits improved, this was largely down to cutting costs, particularly in its supply chain, rather than growth. Revenue was near-stagnant, rising by just 0.4% to £10.31 billion. It's clear that things are far from fixed at M&S, which has been struggling for years. The retailer's crucial clothing line, once the centrepiece of the business, is still in a terrible state. Sales at the "general merchandise" division, which is mainly clothing, fell by 2.5% in the year and 3.1% if you don't include sales from new shops opened during the period. The retailer admitted the figure was "disappointing". It's particularly damning when you consider how hard M&S has working to reinvent itself as a fashionable brand, particularly with women who traditionally form the backbone of its customer base. Marks & Spencer has launched several big budget advertising campaigns over the last year in a bid to shift its image as a dowdy shop for grannies. It has also trumpeted the appeal of key pieces such as the suede skirt and is partnering with hip brands for things like trainers. Clothing sales did return to growth in the final quarter of the year, but only by 0.7% and it's not clear if this trend will continue. The 2.5% fall across the year shows that even if it does, Marks & Spencer has a long way to go to repair its fashion business. If Marks & Spencer can't fix the problems at its clothing business, it won't be able to grow revenues. And if it can't grow revenues, it's only a matter of time before profit begins to fall again. There are only so many efficiencies you can make and costs you can cut. Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: 'The Little Prince' trailer looks better than anything Pixar has made in years  | ||
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High street retailer Marks & Spencer has finally managed to end four year's of falling profits, Altice moves into US market with purchase of Suddenlink | ||
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Paris (AFP) - European cable and mobile operator Altice said Wednesday it had bought 70 percent of Suddenlink Communications in a deal that values the seventh-largest US cable company at $9.1 billion (8.2 billion). "With this acquisition, the Altice Group enters the large and attractive US cable market and takes a further step in diversifying and balancing its portfolio of high-quality businesses," said a statement from the company, which owns the French cable and mobile operator Numericable-SFR. With 1.5 million residential and 90,000 business customers in Texas, West Virginia, Louisiana, Arkansas and Arizona, Suddenlink is present in attractive growth markets and generated $2.3 billion in revenue and over $900 million operating profits last year. "We are very excited about the acquisition of Suddenlink and are highly committed to continue to improve network investment, customer offers and service innovation in the attractive US market," Altice chief executive Dexter Goei said in a statement. "Our investment in Suddenlink, our first in the cable sector in the US, opens an attractive industrial and strategic avenue for Altice in the US, one of the largest and fastest growing communications markets in the world," he added. Luxembourg-based Altice, which is controlled by French-Israeli billionaire Patrick Drahi, has been on an acquisition drive. Last year it propelled itself into the major leagues in France when it won a bidding war for mobile operator SFR which it is merging with Numericable. That deal, worth as much as 14.25 billion euros, was financed mostly with debt, and raised eyebrows as its market capitalisation at the time was just 11.3 billion euros. It also snapped up the Portugese assets of Portugal Telecom for 7.4 billion euros. Altice said it would pay $1.2 billion in cash and that most of the Suddenlink transaction would be financed with $6.7 billion of new and existing debt at the US company. The remainder would be financed by a $500 million vendor loan note and roll over from BC Partners and CPP Investment Board, which will retain a 30 percent stake in Suddenlink.
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Burberry's stock is absolutely tanking despite rocketing sales | ||
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Burberry's stock is absolutely tanking this morning despite the luxury fashion retailer posting an 11% surge in revenue for the year ending March 31, 2015. Sales hit £2.5 billion ($3.9 billion) and adjusted profit before tax shot up 7% to £456 million ($706 million). It said British-made trench coats and cashmere scarves were the "principal drivers" of its revenue climb. However, shares fell by over 5% in the opening trading session. This is because, actually, foreign exchange rates had an adverse effect on profits, which fell 1% when you take the £38 million ($59 million) impact into account. In other words, the surge in the Swiss franc, the strength of the U.S. dollar, and the weakness of the euro hurt the company. Burberry added that the massive currency fluctuations will continue to impact the group all the way into 2016 and therefore it predicts that profits will be £40 million ($62 million) lower than it previously anticipated. "It is ‘uncertainty in certain markets at this early stage of the year,’ which has spooked traders and management alike, with the latter cutting FY 15/16 guidance for Retail/Wholesale revenues and profits to only marginal progress (blame FX moves again), net new retail space adding only low single digit revenue growth and group profits likely being more H2 weighted," said Mike van Dulken, Head of Research at Accendo Markets.
"We are pleased to report a strong full year performance, with revenue up 11% and adjusted profit up 7% underlying," said Christopher Bailey, Chief Creative and Chief Executive Officer, at Burberry. "Against a challenging external backdrop, our global team has focused ever more intensely on our core, including celebrating the British-made products that are our brand signature and extending our online and offline integration. "At this early stage of the year, we are seeing increased uncertainty in some markets. Against this background, we will continue to manage our business dynamically - capitalising on the significant opportunities we have by channel, region and product to create long-term shareholder value." Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Forget the Apple Watch — here's the new watch everyone on Wall Street wants  | ||
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German rail passengers face more chaos as drivers strike | ||
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Frankfurt (AFP) - German rail operator Deutsche Bahn cancelled two thirds of long-distance passenger services Wednesday as train drivers began an open-ended walkout that will last at least one week. The strike, the ninth in a protracted dispute, had actually begun on Tuesday, initially affecting freight trains, but was extended to passenger services from 0000 GMT on Wednesday. It is the latest flareup in a battle over wages, work hours and negotiating rights between the small GdL union and national rail operator Deutsche Bahn (DB). In early May the union staged a nearly week-long walkout, the longest in DB's history, which industry groups estimated cost Europe's top economy almost half a billion euros ($550 million). The GdL, which represents some 20,000 train drivers, is demanding a wage rise and shorter work hours as well as the right to represent other rail workers such as conductors and restaurant carriage staff. That demand is effectively a turf war with the larger railway union EVG, which has more than 200,000 members, and which is now involved in separate, less heated, wage negotiations with DB. After weekend talks between the GdL and Deutsche Bahn again ended badly, the union on Monday announced the latest strike. GDL has not said how long the latest walkout will last, but said it will be longer than the six-day industrial action at the start of May. The union said it would give 48 hours' notice when the strike will end. Deutsche Bahn confirmed Wednesday that two thirds of long-distance services would be cancelled and an average one third of regional services, varying from region to region. In freight services, around two thirds would run, the company said. Eastern Germany was particularly hit. And fewer than half of regional trains in Berlin and in Hamburg were running. Deutsche Bahn said it would "do everything in its power" to ensure that as many services as possible could run at the weekend, which is the Christian Pentecost holiday. Deutsche Bahn transports around 5.5 million passengers and over 600,000 tonnes of cargo in Germany every day. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Zoopla is getting hurt badly by the estate agent fightback | ||
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Estate agents seem to be abandoning online property portal Zoopla. Zoopla's half year results filed today show the number of agents on its platform fell by 23% in the six months to March 31, equivalent to just under 4,000 people. That's a lot of lost revenue for Zoopla, which charges agents a subscription of around £300 ($464) per month to list as many properties on the site as they want. The big problem is the creation of OnTheMarket, a rival online property website launched in January by estate agent themselves. Agents are unhappy with the dominance of Zoopla and rival Rightmove and have launched a rival site that charges less to advertise and gives agents more say. OnTheMarket is backed by Agents' Mutual, a not-for-profit backed by top estate agents including Savills, Knight Frank, Chestertons and Strutt & Parker. One of OnTheMarket's policies is that anyone who lists property on the site can only feature it on one other property portal. Zoopla blamed this policy for hitting agent numbers, as subscribers to multiple site whittle down their numbers to join OnTheMarket. Zoopla thinks it's only a temporary problem though. The company said 'churn levels' — the number of subscribers leaving the site over the period — "have slowed significantly over the past few months and are returning towards normal historic levels." Only 106 agents left the platform in April. Zoopla is also managing to extract more cash from the agents that are staying, with average revenue per advertiser rising by 13% in the period. Overseas agents and commercial agents are also coming on to the platform. These factors helped Zoopla grow revenue by 10% compared to last year to £42 million ($65.07 million). Earnings before exceptional costs rose by 14% to £21.4 million ($33.15 million). Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: 'The Little Prince' trailer looks better than anything Pixar has made in years  | ||
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UBS fined $203 mn over LIBOR scandal but gets immunity on forex | ||
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Zurich (AFP) - The Swiss banking giant UBS said Wednesday that it will plead guilty to fraud in the US for manipulating benchmark interest rates and pay $203 million in fines (182 million euros), but has escaped prosecution for foreign exchange manipulation. The announcement comes as four other major banks are expected to fined billions of dollars for rigging the foreign exchange market in settlements with US and British regulators. The US Department of Justice dropped charges against UBS into the currency rigging probe, and granted it conditional immunity for cooperating with the authorities, the bank said in a statement. It will nevertheless pay a $342-million penalty (307 million euros) to the US Federal Reserve and change the way its foreign exchange system works, the bank said. But a 2012 non-prosection agreement between the bank and the US Department of Justice over the LIBOR interest rate scandal was revoked by US officials, the bank added. UBS said it had agreed to plead guilty to one count of wire fraud for conduct in the LIBOR matter, pay a $203-million fine and accept a three-year term of probation. UBS was fined 1.4 billion Swiss francs ($1.49 billion, 1.33 billion euros) in 2012 by Swiss authorities for its part in manipulating the benchmark rate. The regulators verdicts on American giants JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup, British banks Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland are expected to fall Wednesday. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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The booming solar company that made its chairman one of China's richest men just imploded and shares tumbled 47% | ||
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One of China's most prominent companies saw its stocks absolutely torn to pieces today. Shares in Hanergy, the enormous Chinese producer of thin-film solar power components, fell by as much as 47% before trading was suspended. The collapse follows a suspicious boom that made the company's chairman one of the world's richest men. Hanergy shares rose by more than 500% in the last year, so even such a colossal decline only takes the price back to where it was around the start of 2015. Li Hejun, Hanergy's chairman, had been in contention for the title of China's richest man through his position, challenging Jack Ma, chief of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba. Here's how today's plunge looks in context:
The Financial Times says that Li did not attend the company's annual meeting on Wednesday, but there's not much more of an explanation beyond that: Hanergy’s public relations firm confirmed that Li Hejun, chairman and majority shareholder, did not attend Wednesday’s annual meeting in Hong Kong, although other senior executives, including Frank Dai Mingfang, chief executive, and Eddie Lam, finance director, did attend. “Chairman Li did not attend the AGM,” said T.L. Chow, an external spokesman for Hanergy. “He had something to do.” Mr Chow did not say where Mr Li might be, and Mr Li did not respond to request for comment. An investigation from the FT earlier this year showed some extremely suspicious movements in the company's share price. The huge surge in Hanergy's stocks had been occurring almost exclusively in the last ten minutes of the trading day. That meant that if you held the stock during its surge period, but only between market open and half an hour before the close (missing any gains made in the last half an hour) you actually would have lost money. During the period of Hanergy's rise there have been widespread concerns about overvalued Chinese companies. During the last year alone, the Shanghai Composite Index has more than doubled in value (though Hanergy is listed in Hong Kong). The Wall Street Journal has also cast doubt on Hanergy's model, suggesting that it "makes equipment to build niche kinds of solar panels that are either so inefficient that they have been abandoned by peers, or so new that the economics are untested." Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Forget the Apple Watch — here's the new watch everyone on Wall Street wants  | ||
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North Korea has reportedly miniaturized nuclear weapons for use on a missile | ||
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North Korea said Wednesday it has succeeded in miniaturizing its nuclear weapons, a development which could allow them to be delivered by missile. "It has been a long time since we began miniaturizing and diversifying our means of nuclear strike," the powerful National Defence Commission said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency. North Korea has made dubious claims about weapons before. Experts recently determined that photos purporting to show a North Korean missile being launched from a submarine were altered by government propagandists. But a top US general stated last year that North Korea had likely figured out how to miniaturize nuclear weapons that could be placed on top of a rocket. While news coming out of North Korea is always difficult to verify, Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, the commander of US forces on the Korean peninsula, said in October that he believes North Korea has "the capability to miniaturize a device at this point and they have the technology to actually deliver what they say they have." The US had not, however, seen any evidence of North Korea testing miniaturized nuclear weapons. And experts note that successfully fitting miniaturized warheads on a ballistic missile is difficult and an actual launch might still be beyond North Korea's capabilities. US Secretary of State John Kerry said this week that North Korea has "not even come close" to reining in its nuclear program enough to merit talks with the US. Kerry noted that North Korea "continues to pursue nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles" and said the US is considering implementing further sanctions against the oppressive dictatorship. Scaparrotti pointed out that North Korea has relationships with Iran and Pakistan, both of which have nuclear programs. The US is currently negotiating with Iran to monitor and restrict its nuclear program and prevent the country from obtaining a nuclear weapon. Pakistan already has nuclear weapons. SEE ALSO: Why the latest report about North Korea savagely executing a general is probably true Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Here's what happens when you get bitten by a black widow  | ||
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EU, ex-Soviet states meet in Putin's shadow | ||
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Warsaw (AFP) - European Union leaders and six ex-Soviet states hold a summit Thursday focussed on the bloc's Eastern Partnership project, which was designed to bolster mutual ties but has been undermined by Russia's intervention in Ukraine. The number one question at the two-day meeting in the Latvian capital Riga will be how the 28-member EU should reconcile the programme -- involving Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine -- with its relations to Russia. Russia's 2014 annexation of the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine, and alleged backing of separatists in eastern Ukraine showed that it is determined to block its former satellites from shifting towards the West, and thereby maintain its sphere of influence. Given that, the Eastern Partnership project -- which was set up in 2009 to ensure an area of stability and security -- can only move forward slowly, according to Latvian political scientist Andris Spruds. However, there have been signs of desire to calm the storm in Ukraine by Berlin, Paris and even Moscow, which dropped its opposition to a landmark EU-Ukraine trade deal starting next year. On Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov adopted a relatively conciliatory tone in Brussels regarding the Eastern Partnership project. "We only want one thing... for these ties to not be built at the expense of the Russian federation's legitimate interests," he told reporters. - 'Bull in a china shop' - The last Eastern Partnership summit, in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius in November 2013, went up in flames after then-Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych pulled out of an association accord with the EU in favour of closer ties with Russia. The last-minute decision provoked weeks of protests, Yanukovych's flight from the country, Russia's annexation of Crimea and the ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine between pro-Kremlin rebels and government forces. It was only in June 2014 that Ukraine's current pro-EU President Petro Poroshenko inked the association agreement. The two sides are now due to sign a document confirming new economic aid worth 1.8 billion euros ($2 billion) for Ukraine on the sidelines of the summit. Prospects of EU membership for the six Eastern Partnership countries are nonexistent for now, and will remain so for the next five years, according to European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. His diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini is looking first and foremost to improve relations with Russia, according to Eastern Partnership expert Elzbieta Kaca from the Polish Institute of International Affairs. So the collective effort will be to balance EU interests and objectives, while also showing respect for those of Moscow. "Many think we should build a monument to (Russian President Vladimir) Putin because he has mobilised many countries, many identities," Spruds told AFP, adopting a slightly joking tone. "He has mobilised NATO, the EU, reinforced Ukraine's identity. Russia is in a positive way the bull in a china shop," he added. But "for many countries within the EU (Russia) is not just a business partner, but also a political and diplomatic partner whose interests will be indirectly taken into account." - Visa-free EU access - Even the summit organisers, the EU and Latvia -- currently at the helm of the six-month rotating EU presidency -- recognise that no major decision is in the cards this time. "We want to get a reconfirmation from the European Union of the strategic importance of this region and of this policy," said Juris Poikans, Latvia's ambassador to the Eastern Partnership. "The summit will not break new ground but will show that the policy works," added an EU official. Those countries that have already concluded association agreements with the EU -- Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine -- will be encouraged to continue to reform their laws and regulations to move towards better cooperation with the bloc. A potential incentive for them is visa-free access to the 28-member EU, which Moldova already cinched last year, but which Georgia or Ukraine have yet to obtain. Visa-free access for Georgians and Ukrainians is off the table for now, according to sources close to French President Francois Hollande. Armenia, meantime, turned its back on the association agreement with the EU when it joined Putin's flagship Eurasian Economic Union last year. Moscow set up the trading bloc, which also includes Belarus and Kazakhstan, in 2010 to counter the pull of the EU on former communist east European states. Yet Armenia could announce in Riga that it is returning to the negotiation table with the EU. The summit could also provide a framework for talks on off-topic but pressing issues, including sanctions against Russia, migrant quotas and Greek liquidity woes. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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10 things you need to know before European markets open | ||
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Good morning! Here are the major market stories you should read about today. Bank of England and Fed minutes are coming. The BoE releases its latest minutes at 9:30 a.m London time (4:30 a.m. New York), and the Fed will at 7 p.m. London time (2 p.m. New York). Markets will be looking for signals of a coming rate hike in both sets. Yahoo shares went through the floor. The stock fell 7.6% on Tuesday, with most all of this happening in just a few minutes before the US close. It appears that concerns about the company's spin-off of its 15% share in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba sparked the plunge. Greece's international creditors rejected its VAT plans. That's according to a report from Bloomberg. PM Alexis Tsipras confirmed the rejection to legislators and said the government would make further proposals, according to a source. Japanese economic growth smashed expectations. According to data released by Japan’s Cabinet Office Wednesday the economy grew by 0.6% in seasonally adjusted terms in the three months to March. Analysts had been expecting an increase of 0.4%, slightly above the downwardly-revised 0.3% level recorded in final quarter of 2014. Samsung's latest Note model is reportedly coming earlier than expected. Samsung usually waits until the August/September timeframe to release its large-sized Galaxy Note phones, but this year the company will reportedly make the big announcement in July, according to a recent Korean news report. Nearly 40% of JP Morgan shareholders voted against Jamie Dimon's pay deal. The 2014 Compensation of JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and other top bank executives won support from only 61% of shareholder votes cast at the company's annual meeting on Tuesday, according to a preliminary tally. Japan approved a third nuclear plant for restart. Japan's nuclear regulator signed off on the basic safety of a reactor at a third nuclear plant on Wednesday, as the country inches toward rebooting its atomic industry more than four years after the 2011 Fukushima disaster. The chairman of Liberty Global thinks it should merge with Vodafone. A merger with Vodafone Group Plc would be a "great fit" for Liberty Global in western Europe, Liberty Chairman John Malone said on Tuesday. Citing the benefits of a merger in markets such as Germany, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, Malone said "enormous shareholder value" could be created if a deal was worked out. UBS must buy back an investor's Puerto Rico bond fund portfolio. UBS must buy back the portfolio for $1 million (£644,750), securities arbitrators ruled on Tuesday in a rare, lengthy rebuke of the firm's sales practices on the Caribbean island. Asian markets are mixed. The Nikkei got a big boost from Japan's strong GDP number, sending it up 1.03%. The Shanghai Composite Index is up 1.92%, but Hong Kong's Hang Seng is down 0.22%. Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: 'The Little Prince' trailer looks better than anything Pixar has made in years  | ||
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Mixed reception as Liverpool's Sterling accepts award | ||
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Liverpool (AFP) - A mixture of boos and calls for him to stay greeted Liverpool and England forward Raheem Sterling when he received the club's Young Player of the Year award on Tuesday a day after it emerged he wants a transfer. The 20-year-old -- who joined Liverpool from Queens Park Rangers in 2010 -- had stirred up fans feelings when it was reported in Tuesday's papers he was seeking a move away having turned down a new contract worth around £100,000 ($155,500, 139,000 euros) a week. While his agent moved to calm the mood earlier on Tuesday by saying the reports had been "blown somewhat out of proportion" it is still expected that Sterling will tell club manager Brendan Rodgers and chief executive Ian Ayre at a meeting on Friday he wishes to leave. Speaking at the awards -- where Brazil midfielder Philippe Coutinho was named player of the year -- Rodgers admitted it had been a "difficult, trying season". "A number of distractions that we couldn't have planned for have made it difficult, but the players have given everything," added Rodgers, whose own position at the club has been questioned as they missed out not only on silverware but also a Champions League place. If Sterling -- who told the BBC earlier this year he was not a 'moneygrabber' but wanted to win trophies -- does go on the market deposed English champions Manchester City are the perceived favourites to sign him. Sterling told Rodgers he wanted to leave before Liverpool's 1-1 draw with Chelsea game on May 10, but it is understood Liverpool want to retain his services. Sterling has two years left on his current deal, thought to be worth £35,000 a week. Sterling is believed to want to play in the Champions League and, aside from City's interest, Real Madrid, Arsenal and Chelsea are also reported to be watching the situation. Liverpool's US-based owners Fenway Sports Group will demand a fee of around £50 million before they would consider selling. The Sterling issue is another blow to Rodgers, who has struggled to replace Luis Suarez following the Uruguay striker's move to Barcelona last year. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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