Like the epic intro to some Tolkien-esque fantasy film, it seems that the music industry looks set to be thrown into chaos – with broken hearts at the centre of a monumental music streaming battle. The announcement of the Dr. Dre endorsed rival to Spotify’s streaming monopoly has rallied the troops and set the PR war machine to work – with a number of interesting, and sometimes speculative announcements from the service’s marketing department designed to keep consumers on-side.
- Erik Stattin / CC BY-SA
The latest of these announcements hopes to take those broken hearts and recommend a suitably sentimental love-song to remedy the pain. That is, Spotify have announced that, in the near future they hope to be able to monitor users heart-beats to provide a recommendation system based on mood and/or likelihood of cardiac arrest. It seems that Dr Dre’s Beats has got Spotify’s pulse racing.
Smartphone for Smart Recommendations
This latest idea from Spotify will use device to device communication from companies such as Deutsche Telekom to monitor things like pulse, temperature, sleep patterns and body motion. The aim is to build a picture of individual users that enables the service to recommend music, linked not only to listening habits, but also to mood and disposition from sensors within your smartphone.
The data will be collected from your smartphone and then sent wirelessly to your Spotify account – although details on exactly how this will work are still very much unclear. It is a safe bet though that, with the meteoric rise and “one box to rule them all” philosophy of the smartphone, these features will appear sooner rather than later. In the meantime, keep your eyes peeled for the latest announcements from an increasingly worried Spotify.
For this year’s Black Friday all the retailers – Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Toys R Us, Kmart, Amazon and every other – are offering bigger and far bigger discounts.
This year there are several exciting development as far as Black Friday shopping is concerned. The most important development is the fact that the retailers are opening their doors a lot earlier than previous years. The first to announce early opening on Thanksgiving for Black Friday was none other than Wal-Mart. It was followed by almost every other top retailer in the country within no time.
Great offers are going to be available on every product including smartphone, tablet, laptop, camera, furniture, toys, clothes and almost every other product. You are going to get best deals during Black Friday and this include latest and top end smartphones like iPhone 5S from Cupertino based Apple and Korean based tech giant Samsung’s flagship handset Galaxy S4. And the best thing is the fact that the deals and offers are going to be really exciting.
Like every year in the past Best Buy has taken the lead in offering great deal for Black Friday
When it comes to electronic items, you need to look no further than the top electronic products vendor, Best Buy. Like every year in the past Best Buy has taken the lead in offering great deals. This Black Friday electronic items are going to be in great demand and retailing companies are not going to disappoint the holiday shoppers. Not just the offers are going to become more enticing, they are becoming bigger and bigger. And the best thing about the Black Friday shopping is the fact that this time they are coming very early too.
Best Buy has brought every top product under Black Friday deal list. The retailing giant seems to have brought almost every great product to the table as far as Black Friday this year is concerned. If you want to go for gizmos including tablets, smartphones then there is no better place than Best Buy. It is offering 8GB Barnes & Noble Nook HD Snow tablet for $80, down from $129, an 8GB Nabi 7-inch kid’s tablet for $130, down from $180 and 16GB Apple iPad Air tablet with Wi-Fi and $100 gift card for $480. Samsung Galaxy S4 is available for as little as $40 and 16GB Apple iPhone 5s comes for $180 with contract. So as far as electronic items’ offers are concerned, there is no one offering deals like Best Buy.
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Alcatel-Lucent plans to cut 10,000 jobs in a bid to reduce costs.
The cuts represent 14% of its 72,000 workforce and 900 of those job losses will be made in France.
The telecoms equipment maker has reported losses in the previous five quarters and hopes to save $1.4 billion through costs cuts by 2015. Shares in Alcatel-Lucent rose 2% following the news.
Alcatel-Lucent has reported losses in the previous five quarters and hopes to save $1.4 billion through costs cuts by 2015
Chief executive Michel Combes said the decisions were “difficult”.
Alcatel-Lucent, which competes with Sweden’s Ericsson and Finland’s Nokia, announced the cuts in a statement ahead of a meeting with its European works council later today.
Michel Combes said the cuts were necessary to give the company an “industrially sustainable future” and the company’s employees could expect an “open and transparent dialogue”.
Alcatel-Lucent’s most recent cuts are in addition to the 5,000 announced in July.
Last year the company reported losses of 1.2 billion euros ($1.6 billion).
In July rival Ericsson reported a sharp rise in quarterly profits, helped by cost cuts and higher profit margins.
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