This Uxbridge farmer is ditching diesel for a solar-powered tractor

“It’s not just a dream that one day you’ll be able to farm without fossil fuels. It’s real. It’s here,” says Tony Neale.
Read more: https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2018/12/28/this-uxbridge-farmer-is-ditching-diesel-for-a-solar-powered-tractor.html?source=Snapzu

An annual survey suggests developers are losing confidence in Valve

Small developers are losing confidence that Valve is earning its 30% of Steam sales, according to a new survey. In 2017, 39% of developers agreed that Valve had earned its share, but that number has dropped to 11% in this year’s survey. Lars Doucet, who has run this survey for three years, is quick to note that these results are not scientific – but they do put numbers to issues developers have lately been in heated discussions over.
Read more: https://www.pcgamesn.com/steam-developer-survey?source=Snapzu

The Next Big Blue-Collar Job Is Coding

What if we regarded code not as a high-stakes, sexy affair, but the equivalent of skilled work at a Chrysler plant?
Read more: https://www.wired.com/2017/02/programming-is-the-new-blue-collar-job/?source=Snapzu

Another analyst lowers iPhone sales forecast, this time cutting iPhone XS Max by nearly half

Yet another analyst is cutting iPhone demand for the first quarter of 2019. As reported by Reuters, Citi Research has lowered its forecast from 50 million to 45 million for the quarter, primarily due to weak iPhone XS Max demand. While Citi is cutting its overall iPhone shipment forecast by 5 million, its iPhone XS Max forecast is seeing a much bigger hit. The firm is lowering its forecast for the 6.5-inch device by a whopping 48 percent for the first quarter of 2019.
Read more: https://9to5mac.com/2018/12/29/iphone-xs-max-production-cut-analyst/?source=Snapzu

A $21,000 Cosmetology School Debt, and a $9-an-Hour Job

When she was in cosmetology school, Tracy Lozano had a love-hate relationship with weekday mornings. Those predawn moments were the only time she saw her infant daughter awake, and she savored them. When the time came to hand the baby to her own mother, she said in a recent interview, she would stifle her tears, letting them roll only when she had closed the door behind her.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/26/business/cosmetology-school-debt-iowa.html#commentsContainer?source=Snapzu

The year consumers fought back against rising Apple prices

Apple has for years been a premium brand that rarely, if ever discounted products. Period. Every year, the company could raise prices on products, and consumers would not only happily pay, but stand in long lines for the privilege of doing so. So when Apple started putting misleading, but seemingly consumer-friendly posters in front of Apple Stores at the end of 2018 offering a new iPhone model for $300 off (with trade-in of your current phone), you know something different happened for the company this year.
Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/nletter/2018/12/28/consumers-fought-back-2018-against-rising-apple-prices/2423765002/?source=Snapzu

Apple still considering North Carolina campus, report suggests

The 281-acre plot of land in Wake County, which Apple purportedly considered for a new campus earlier this year, was this week sold to a recently established LLC called Acute Investments, reports WRAL Tech Wire. Scott Levitan, CEO of the Research Triangle Foundation, confirmed the sale concluded this week, but would not comment further on the deal. Apple is not officially attached to the purchase, but R. Bruce Thompson, a lobbyist connected to the tech giant, was named in the public documents. Thompson is Apple's local arbitrator when the company negotiates government incentives related to local job recruitment, the report said.
Read more: https://appleinsider.com/articles/18/12/28/apple-still-considering-north-carolina-campus-report-suggests?source=Snapzu

Did Apple retail prices get too high in 2018? Consumers say way yes.

Apple has for years been a premium brand that rarely, if ever discounted products. Period. Every year, the company could raise prices on products, and consumers would not only happily pay, but stand in long lines for the privilege of doing so. So when Apple started putting misleading, but seemingly consumer-friendly posters in front of Apple Stores at the end of 2018 offering a new iPhone model for $300 off (with trade-in of your current phone), you know something different happened for the company this year.
Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/talkingtech/2018/12/29/did-apple-retail-prices-get-too-high-2018-consumers-say-way-yes/2432445002/?source=Snapzu

It Looks Like the End has Finally Come to the Essential Phone

It wasn’t the successful, industry-changing run we had all hoped for from the startup founded by Android creator Andy Rubin, but the Essential Phone might be done. After a good year and a half of price drops and flash sales after a rocky, expensive start, the Essential Phone has begun slipping away into unavailability land.
Read more: https://www.droid-life.com/2018/12/28/it-looks-like-the-end-has-finally-come-to-the-essential-phone/?source=Snapzu

TV antennas are making a comeback in the age of digital streaming

Karl Rudnick, a retired 69-year-old mathematician who lives in Solana Beach, Calif., recently bought a second home outside Minneapolis to be close to family members. He did not have to draw on his knowledge of advanced calculus to reject the idea of paying for two cable TV subscriptions. “I talked to the cable companies and asked if there was a way to have one account,” Rudnick said. “There wasn’t, and all of a sudden I was looking at spending $300 a month just to have internet and TV.”
Read more: https://www.latimes.com/business/hollywood/la-fi-ct-tv-antennas-20181228-story.html?source=Snapzu

We need to rethink our moral obligations to create a better world

Our collective overuse and misuse of antibiotics is accelerating resistance to these universal drugs, leaving people increasingly vulnerable to infections that can no longer be treated. This applies not only to the use of antibiotics in human medicine, but also in animal industries. Antibiotic resistance is an example of a collective action problem. These are problems where what is individually rational leads to a collectively undesirable outcome.
Read more: https://theconversation.com/we-need-to-rethink-our-moral-obligations-to-create-a-better-world-93286?source=Snapzu

TSA to deploy more floppy-ear dogs because they're less scary than pointy-ear dogs

In its effort to make the airport security screening process faster, the Transportation Security Administration is employing new high-tech baggage scanners, facial-recognition cameras and “automated lanes” to eliminate passenger gridlock. But TSA Administrator David Pekoske said the agency is also making at least one new change to reduce traveler stress: deploying more floppy-ear dogs, rather than pointy-ear dogs, to sniff out explosives in public areas.
Read more: https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-travel-briefcase-tsa-dogs-20181228-story.html?source=Snapzu

U.S. consumer confidence posted its sharpest decline in more than three years in December

A measure of U.S. consumer confidence posted its sharpest decline in more than three years in December, rattling investors already nervous about the prospect that a global economic slowdown was spilling over into the United States. In a sign households were growing more worried about the economy, the Conference Board on Thursday said its consumer confidence index fell this month by 8.3 points to a reading of 136.4, the largest one-month drop since July 2015.
Read more: https://stockmarketnews.today/2018/12/27/u-s-consumer-confidence-posted-its-sharpest-decline-in-more-than-three-years-in-december/?source=Snapzu

Athletes Don’t Own Their Tattoos. That’s a Problem for Video Game Developers.

Sports video games strive for realism by closely replicating real-life players, but digitally reproducing their tattoos has led to court fights over ownership rights.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/27/style/tattoos-video-games.html?source=Snapzu

Top Amazon boss privately advised US government on web portal worth billions to tech firm

Exclusive: Emails show how tech firm has tried to gain influence and potentially shape lucrative government contracts
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/dec/26/amazon-anne-rung-government-services-authority?source=Snapzu

Huawei is the world’s fastest-growing smartphone seller despite increasing global scrutiny

China’s Huawei, the world’s second-largest smartphone maker, announced it sold a record-breaking 200 million units in 2018, despite increasing crackdowns from the US and its allies and a falling smartphone market overall.
Read more: https://www.technologyreview.com/the-download/612681/huawei-is-the-worlds-fastest-growing-smartphone-seller-despite-increasing-global/?source=Snapzu

Retail is having its best holiday season in 6 years

Retail is having its best holiday shopping season in six years, according to early data tracking consumers' purchases. Sales in the U.S. from Nov. 1 through Christmas Eve were up 5.1 percent to more than $850 billion, according to Mastercard SpendingPulse, which monitors spending both in stores and online via all forms of payment. Mastercard also said online sales during that time frame were up 19.1 percent from a year ago, in line with earlier reports that showed robust growth in e-commerce this holiday season.
Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/26/retail-is-having-its-best-holiday-season-in-6-years.html?source=Snapzu

Elon Musk: This is why I push myself to the brink

Elon Musk has become infamous for his extreme work schedule. When he was ramping up production of the Model 3 Tesla, he put in as many as 120 hours in a week. He slept at the factory because he had no time to go home. He called 2018 "the most difficult and painful year of my career." "[I]t was excruciating," he told The New York Times. In late October Musk finally said he was working a much more manageable schedule of 80 to 90 hours a week.
Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/14/elon-musk-this-is-why-i-push-myself.html?source=Snapzu

Are Stock Buybacks Starving the Economy?

Stock buybacks are eating the world. The once illegal practice of companies purchasing their own shares is pulling money away from employee compensation, research and development, and other corporate priorities—with potentially sweeping effects on business dynamism, income and wealth inequality, working-class economic stagnation, and the country’s growth rate.
Read more: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/07/are-stock-buybacks-starving-the-economy/566387/?source=Snapzu

Dow soars over 1,000 points as stocks bounce back from Christmas Eve meltdown

The worst Christmas Eve in stock-market history was more than offset Wednesday by the best day-after-Christmas trading day on record, with the Dow logging its first-ever 1,000-point, single-day gain as equities roared back from oversold conditions. Equities closed early in an abbreviated session Monday and were closed Tuesday for Christmas Day.
Read more: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-stock-futures-lower-as-market-readies-to-reopen-after-christmas-eve-meltdown-2018-12-26?source=Snapzu

iPhone XR made up 32% of iPhone sales in November, down from iPhone 8/8 Plus in 2017

A new report from CIRP today provides some insight on how iPhone XR, XS, XS Max and more have sold after the first few months of availability. With 32% share of total iPhone sales, the XR took a bit lower share at 32% than the iPhone 8/8 Plus did during the same period in 2017. CIRPs latest report dives into the iPhone sales mix for November 2018 and compares the data to previous years to see how iPhone XR, XS, and XS Max have performed during the holiday quarter.
Read more: https://9to5mac.com/2018/12/26/iphone-xr-holiday-sales/?source=Snapzu

Google opts not to dispute Russian watchdog’s fine

The US-based Google Corporation elected not to dispute the fine of 500,000 rubles ($7,300) imposed by the Russian telecom regulator Roskomnadzor for failure to comply with Russian laws on deletion of links to resources banned in Russia from search results, the company’s press service told TASS on Monday. "We can confirm that we decided not to dispute the fine; we will pay it," the company said.
Read more: http://tass.com/economy/1037711?source=Snapzu

Canada’s soil is in crisis — and change is needed, says advocate

Don Lobb, a prominent soil advocate since the 1980s, argued agriculture needs a radical shift in focus to make soil health the top priority.
Read more: https://www.albertafarmexpress.ca/2018/12/18/canadas-soil-is-in-crisis-and-change-is-needed-says-advocate/?source=Snapzu

Perspective | Dairy farming is dying. After 40 years, I’m done.

Family farms can’t survive low milk prices, tariffs and terrible government policies.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/dairy-farming-is-dying-after-40-years-im-out/2018/12/21/79cd63e4-0314-11e9-b6a9-0aa5c2fcc9e4_story.html?utm_term=.6744db78ff97?source=Snapzu

The Dollar Store Backlash Has Begun

The U.S. has added 10,000 of these budget retail outlets since 2001. But some towns and cities have had enough.
Read more: https://www.citylab.com/equity/2018/12/closest-grocery-store-to-me-dollar-store-food-desert-bargain/577777/?source=Snapzu

Wall Street Quietly Shelves Its Bitcoin Dreams

Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and many more built it. But they didn’t come.
Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-12-23/wall-street-quietly-shelves-its-bitcoin-dreams?source=Snapzu

McDonald’s Adds Vegan Burger to Menu in Chicago

McDonald’s recently added the McAloo Tikki burger to the global menu at its 6,000-square foot headquarters located in Chicago. “Customers have expressed interest in items from McDonald’s restaurants located in India, and we’re excited to offer them the opportunity to try the longtime vegetarian favorite, McAloo Tikki,” McDonald’s Owner and Operator Nick Karavites said.
Read more: https://vegnews.com/2018/12/mcdonalds-adds-vegan-burger-to-menu-in-chicago?source=Snapzu

Walmart cashier pays woman's bill after she breaks down at register

A Texas teenager’s kindness is encouraging others to pay it forward after he covered the tab of a Walmart shopper who wasn’t able to pay her grocery bill at the register. John Lopez Jr., 19, took a job at a Princeton, Texas, Walmart in March to earn money to help pay for college, CBS Dallas reports. During his shift on Monday night, a shopper named Laci Simms spotted Lopez, who was working at the register, pay for another customer’s full cart of merchandise.
Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/walmart-cashier-pays-womans-bill-breaks-register-184721794.html?source=Snapzu

Mark Zuckerberg could be 2018's biggest loser — he's already down nearly $20 billion

So far, Zuckerberg has seen his wealth dive by more than 25 percent since the beginning of the year. In the wake of a tumultuous time for the stock market and also for Facebook , CEO Mark Zuckerberg is on track to end 2018 down the most money of any billionaire. Zuckerberg has lost $19.8 billion year to date, according to Bloomberg. With a current net worth of $52.9 billion, Zuckerberg ranks seventh on Bloomberg's Billionaires Index, a daily ranking of the world's richest people that is...
Read more: https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2018/12/22/mark-zuckerberg-could-be-2018s-biggest-loser-hes-already-down-ne/?source=Snapzu

This company brings in $7 million a year testing dog poop DNA to catch non-scoopers

Tom Boyd is 80 years old. He loves to play golf. He loves to make money. "I've had 17 businesses, and I never had one that didn't make money." His latest money-making endeavor tests dog poop left unscooped in public spaces. Using DNA, Boyd hunts down the dog's owner. Don't laugh. His detective work will bring in up to $7 million in revenues this year. "Sometime in the next five years it's going to be $120 million," he says, confidently.
Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/19/pooprints-brings-in-millions-testing-dog-poop-dna-to-snag-non-scoopers.html?source=Snapzu

YouTube's Copyright Protection System is a Total Mess, Can it Be Fixed?

YouTube users are becoming increasingly frustrated with the platform's handling of copyright complaints. Legitimate videos are being claimed or removed based on false claims, either by automated mistakes or intentional abuse. Perhaps it's time for YouTube to hold 'abusive' copyright holders responsible for their actions?
Read more: https://torrentfreak.com/youtubes-copyright-protection-system-is-a-total-mess-can-it-be-fixed-181222/?source=Snapzu

Gaming chat startup Discord raises $150M, surpassing $2B valuation

Chatty gamers are apparently worth billions. Discord, the gaming chat startup with more than 200 million active users, announced Friday that it had secured $150 million in funding at a $2.05 billion valuation.
Read more: https://techcrunch.com/2018/12/21/gaming-chat-startup-discord-raises-150m-surpassing-2b-valuation/?source=Snapzu

As scandals mount, advertisers begin to question Facebook's value

Facebook has suffered a near non-stop drip of bad news in 2018, and with each event advertisers have barely uttered a peep while continuing to spend. But this week, with yet another revelation about the company's past data practices, one agency chief finally said enough is enough, while other ad agency senior executives say they are questioning how much consumers continue to trust Facebook and whether advertisements on the social network continue to be effective.
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/all/scandals-mount-advertisers-begin-question-facebook-s-value-n951131?source=Snapzu

Comcast Swindled Customers With Rate Hikes, Bogus Equipment Charges, Lawsuit Claims

Comcast is accused of swindling thousands of customers through rate hikes and made-up fees, according to a lawsuit filed Friday by the Minnesota Attorney General. The lawsuit accuses the internet and cable provider of attracting customers with appealing rates for TV packages, then later charging customers more “at its own whim.” The company allegedly increased prices, billed for bogus equipment orders and never sent Visa gift cards promised with deals, according to the office of Minnesota AG Lori Swanson.
Read more: http://fortune.com/2018/12/21/comcast-customers-minnesota-ag-lawsuit/?source=Snapzu

Dow’s dive reaches nearly 500 points after White House ups the chance of government shutdown [Paywall]

After the news from Trump and a Fed rate increase, the Dow and the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index were on pace for their worst quarter since 2011.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/us-stocks-extend-losses-as-traders-digest-fed-news/2018/12/20/cf3edfd2-0464-11e9-9122-82e98f91ee6f_story.html?source=Snapzu

If the Latest Facebook Revelations Won't Get You to Delete It, What Will?

On Tuesday night, the New York Times revealed that Facebook has been handing your most personal data over to the other companies in your life, including Microsoft, Amazon, Spotify, Netflix, and many others, making Mark Zuckerberg the figurative drug lord for the best shit on the internet: you.
Read more: https://www.esquire.com/lifestyle/a25645143/facebook-privacy/?source=Snapzu

No, Apple, a slightly bent iPad Pro straight out of the box isn't acceptable

A slightly bent chassis may not impede the new iPad Pro from working right, but Apple implying that this happening in any quantity to end-users is okay in any way defies reason. Contrary to appearances, I don't work all day and all night. So, when I hit the headlines this morning and was confronted with an array of testimonies talking about how some of Apple's customers with a new iPad Pro were taking them out of the box pre-bent, that took a few reads to fully process.
Read more: https://appleinsider.com/articles/18/12/20/no-apple-a-slightly-bent-ipad-pro-straight-out-of-the-box-isnt-acceptable?source=Snapzu

Facebook's data-sharing deals exposed

Facebook has been caught on the back foot again over its data privacy practices, following an investigation by the New York Times. The newspaper has disclosed fresh details about ways the social network shared access to users' data with other tech firms, including Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Netflix, Spotify and Yandex. In some cases, the other companies have said they were not even aware they had special access. Facebook has defended its behaviour.
Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-46618582?source=Snapzu

Renowned Global Investor Predicts Fall Of US Dollar And Bets On Chinese Market

Jim Rogers, author of “A Bull in China: Investing Profitably in the World’s Greatest Market” and a renowned investor who co-founded the first global investment fund with George Soros in 1973, has made numerous extraordinary predictions about trade market in the past, including the fall of the US dollar. He last predicted the crash of U.S. real estate in 2006 before the subprime crisis happened in 2007. As a pioneer of investment in China’s shares in the 90’s, Rogers has an extensive understanding of the red dragon economy and believes some Chinese industries have a rich future ahead.
Read more: https://goldsilverbitcoin.com/renowned-global-investor-predicts-fall-us-dollar-bets-chinese-market/?source=Snapzu

Stocks Tumble Below 23,000; Twitter, Netflix, Amazon Hit Hard

The Dow continued its tumble Thursday, dropping below 23,000 at one point as several tech giants including San Francisco-based Twitter were hit hard by the sell-off.
Read more: https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2018/12/20/stocks-tumble-below-23000-twitter-netflix-amazon-hit-hard/?source=Snapzu

Mark Zuckerberg did everything in his power to avoid Facebook becoming the next MySpace – but forgot one crucial detail…

No one likes a lying asshole. Let's get one thing straight right off the bat: Facebook, its CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and its COO Sheryl Sandberg, and its public relations people, and its engineers have lied. They have lied repeatedly. They have lied exhaustively. They have lied so much they've lost track of their lies, and then lied about them.
Read more: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/12/20/facebook_disaster/?source=Snapzu

For the First Time in More Than 20 Years, Copyrighted Works Will Enter the Public Domain

A beloved Robert Frost poem is among the many creations that are (finally) losing their protections in 2019
Read more: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/first-time-20-years-copyrighted-works-enter-public-domain-180971016/?source=Snapzu

J&J loses its battle to overturn a $4.7B baby powder verdict

Things just went from bad to worse for consumer product giant Johnson & Johnson. After losing more than $40 billion in value amid an explosive Reuters report that it knew its iconic baby powders, at times, tested positive for asbestos, a carcinogen—it lost its bid to overturn a $4.7 billion verdict to plaintiffs who blamed the product for giving them cancer.
Read more: https://www.foxbusiness.com/features/jj-loses-its-battle-to-overturn-a-4-7b-baby-power-verdict?source=Snapzu

CBS Considers Dropping Nielsen Ratings Contract as TV Landscape Changes (EXCLUSIVE)

CBS is considering ending its longstanding contract with TV ratings provider Nielsen as it looks for new ways to measure audiences in the multiplatform universe. The nation’s most-watched TV network is prepared to drop Nielsen’s measurement services if the two sides can’t come to an agreement by the end of this month, according to a person familiar with the matter. CBS’ current contract with Nielsen – valued at more than $100 million a year — expires at year’s end, the source said.
Read more: https://variety.com/2018/tv/news/cbs-nielsen-tv-ratings-contract-drop-1203093249/?source=Snapzu

Facebook plummets following burst of bad news

Facebook tumbled 7.3 percent Wednesday following a spate of bad news, including revelations that it shared more user data than previously thought and a lawsuit from the Washington, D.C., attorney general. The drop is the second-steepest this year for Facebook, following a 19 percent drop on July 26 after an earnings report warning of slowing sales. Before Wednesday's Federal Reserve meeting, Facebook had been the only major tech stock in the negative. By the end of the day, it suffered the worst fall among its peers as the Nasdaq Composite Index closed down 2.17 percent.
Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/19/facebook-plummets-on-a-booming-day-for-tech.html?source=Snapzu

The 2019 Ford Ranger Isn't the Ranger You Remember, but It's Good at What It Does

The Ford Ranger seems to strike a personal chord with pretty much everybody in America; I remember being crammed into the jump seats of my dad’s as a kid. When the “return” of the truck in the form of the 2019 Ford Ranger was announced, people reacted like it was going to be personally delivered by God himself. Now it’s finally here, and it’s not the stripped-out little truck we all remember—but it’s pretty good at what it’s trying to do.
Read more: https://jalopnik.com/the-2019-ford-ranger-isnt-the-ranger-you-remember-but-1831147912?source=Snapzu

How to avoid the middle-income trap: Lessons from Poland, a European Tiger

Poland is one of a handful of economies that have sustained high growth and graduated to high-income country status.
Read more: https://www.brookings.edu/blog/future-development/2018/12/17/how-to-avoid-the-middle-income-trap-lessons-from-poland-a-european-tiger/?source=Snapzu

A Monstrous Apple Patent on all-things Face ID Surfaced in Europe this week with both Face & Touch ID on the same iPhone

This week the European Patent Office published two major patent applications from Apple that relates to biometrics and more specifically to both Face and Touch ID on the same iPhone. In part one we focus on the first monstrous 982 page patent filing.
Read more: https://www.patentlyapple.com/patently-apple/2018/12/a-monstrous-apple-patent-on-all-things-face-id-surfaced-in-europe-this-week-with-both-face-touch-id-.html?source=Snapzu

Why are Poles unimpressed with Poland’s economic achievements?

Poland’s rapid economic ascent has created new challenges that have challenged its citizens’ resilience.
Read more: https://www.brookings.edu/blog/future-development/2018/12/18/why-are-poles-unimpressed-with-polands-economic-achievements/?source=Snapzu

Are You Doing Great As An Online Marketer? - URTasker

Here are some crucial guidelines and important tips to successfully increase your marketing intelligence. Read from Urtasker!
Read more: https://www.urtasker.com/are-you-doing-great-as-an-online-marketer/?source=Snapzu