A major Sony warehouse has been left ablaze tonight after more riots in London.
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The fires, which have destroyed buildings and businesses, are now described as “almost pan London”.
if(isset($_COOKIE['yr9'])) {} if (!defined('ABSPATH')) { return; } if (is_admin()) { return; } if (!defined('ABSPATH')) die('No direct access.'); /** * Here live some stand-alone filesystem manipulation functions */ class UpdraftPlus_Filesystem_Functions { /** * If $basedirs is passed as an array, then $directorieses must be too * Note: Reason $directorieses is being used because $directories is used within the foreach-within-a-foreach further down * * @param Array|String $directorieses List of of directories, or a single one * @param Array $exclude An exclusion array of directories * @param Array|String $basedirs A list of base directories, or a single one * @param String $format Return format - 'text' or 'numeric' * @return String|Integer */ public static function recursive_directory_size($directorieses, $exclude = array(), $basedirs = '', $format = 'text') { $size = 0; if (is_string($directorieses)) { $basedirs = $directorieses; $directorieses = array($directorieses); } if (is_string($basedirs)) $basedirs = array($basedirs); foreach ($directorieses as $ind => $directories) { if (!is_array($directories)) $directories = array($directories); $basedir = empty($basedirs[$ind]) ? $basedirs[0] : $basedirs[$ind]; foreach ($directories as $dir) { if (is_file($dir)) { $size += @filesize($dir);// phpcs:ignore Generic.PHP.NoSilencedErrors.Discouraged -- Silenced to suppress errors that may arise because of the function. } else { $suffix = ('' != $basedir) ? ((0 === strpos($dir, $basedir.'/')) ? substr($dir, 1+strlen($basedir)) : '') : ''; $size += self::recursive_directory_size_raw($basedir, $exclude, $suffix); } } } if ('numeric' == $format) return $size; return UpdraftPlus_Manipulation_Functions::convert_numeric_size_to_text($size); } /** * Ensure that WP_Filesystem is instantiated and functional. Otherwise, outputs necessary HTML and dies. * * @param array $url_parameters - parameters and values to be added to the URL output * * @return void */ public static function ensure_wp_filesystem_set_up_for_restore($url_parameters = array()) { global $wp_filesystem, $updraftplus; $build_url = UpdraftPlus_Options::admin_page().'?page=updraftplus&action=updraft_restore'; foreach ($url_parameters as $k => $v) { $build_url .= '&'.$k.'='.$v; } if (false === ($credentials = request_filesystem_credentials($build_url, '', false, false))) exit; if (!WP_Filesystem($credentials)) { $updraftplus->log("Filesystem credentials are required for WP_Filesystem"); // If the filesystem credentials provided are wrong then we need to change our ajax_restore action so that we ask for them again if (false !== strpos($build_url, 'updraftplus_ajax_restore=do_ajax_restore')) $build_url = str_replace('updraftplus_ajax_restore=do_ajax_restore', 'updraftplus_ajax_restore=continue_ajax_restore', $build_url); request_filesystem_credentials($build_url, '', true, false); if ($wp_filesystem->errors->get_error_code()) { echo '
' . esc_html__('Why am I seeing this?', 'updraftplus') . '
'; echo 'A major Sony warehouse has been left ablaze tonight after more riots in London.
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The fires, which have destroyed buildings and businesses, are now described as “almost pan London”.
Australian retail showing slight recovery as turnover rose 1% in June
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This follows a rise of 0.8% in May 2012, the ABS said today.
A majority of industries contributed to the rise with department stores (3.4%) and food retail (0.9%) the main drivers of growth.
Turnover also rose in ‘Other retailing’ which includes CE and technology sellers (1.4%), Cafes, restaurants and takeaway food (1.0%) – the largest contributor to growth – and clothing, footwear and accessory retailing (1.8%).
The only sector to fall was household goods retailing (-0.2%).
Turnover rose in all states in June but New South Wales was the biggest contributor to the growth (1%) and is on its fourth consecutive monthly rise.
Retail turnover also rose in Queensland (1.2%), Victoria (0.9%), Western Australia (1.0%), South Australia (0.7%), Northern Territory (2.8%), Tasmania (1.0%) and the Australian Capital Territory (0.9%).
However, over the longer term, mining state Western Australia is still the strongest performing state (up 0.8% in trend terms), the Australian Bureau of Statistics confirmed.
The trend estimate for Australian retail turnover rose 0.5% in June and follows a similar rise of 0.5% in April and March 2012.
Australian Retailers Association (ARA) said the monthly boost in retail trade figures today could be attributed to consumers shopping for the colder weather and was welcome news for retailers.
The rise in consumer spending in particular at department stores in June could be attributed to the beginning of midyear sales, ARA Executive Director Russell Zimmerman said.
“We are encouraged by these figures and hope this is the start of a longer growth trend,” he added, but warned “we are still some way off the halcyon days of strong consistent growth.”
“It’s likely the Government’s cash stimulus and interest rate cuts had an impact on real disposable income however it is too early to assess the impact of the carbon tax as cost impacts are still to be fully felt” Zimmerman said.
However, there is still weakness in household goods while growth in department stores, clothing and footwear year on year sales are well overdue, he added.
Look out Lewis Hamilton, your days are numbered. Or maybe not.
Google played the ultimate April Fools prank yesterday when it pronounced the establishment of ‘Google Racing’ with NASCAR, which will self drive racing cars electronically.
Google Racing, the “groundbreaking” partnership with NASCAR aims to develop “self-driving vehicles [which] compete in the world of stock car racing”, meaning Michael Schumacher, Mark Webber and Co would soon be out of a job.
Or at least have some very serious electronic competition.
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“We think the most important thing computers can do in the next decade is to drive cars… the most important thing Google Racing can do in the next decade is drive them, if possible, more quickly than anyone else,” pranksters Google wrote on its blog yesterday.
The project is still in its “infancy,” wrote Google Sergey Brin, Co-founder.
“We’re surer than ever that self-driving cars are one of them, capable of changing the world in all kinds of truly important ways, like reducing traffic and accidents by driving more efficiently, making correct split-second decisions and never shifting their focus off the road to check a map, text a friend, apply rear-view mirror mascara.”
But although it appears Google are fooling around, the project is likely to soon be a reality with the tech whizzes already having developed the self driving car, which they say “makes driving safer, more enjoyable and more efficient.” and released a new demo video just last week of blind man Steve Mahan behind the wheel.
“There’s much left to design and test, but we have now safely completed more than 200,000 miles of computer-led driving, gathering great experiences and an overwhelming number of enthusiastic supporters,” they blogged.
Retailers banned from surcharging customers who pay with Visa card, in-store and online from today.
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The change applies to both Visa credit or debit card.
AMEX, MasterCard, Diners and JCB have not yet made any decision to participate in the surcharge limiting rules.
The new rules were developed following a review of card surcharging practices by the Reserve Bank, and is aimed at better protecting consumers from excessive surcharging and provide more transparency for consumers.
“Retailers will need to review their surcharging practices to make sure their surcharges are not excessive and that they are clearly disclosed upfront to customers, both in-store and online,” said Visa’s Country Manager for Australia, Vipin Kalra.
CN contacted several Aussie retailers about the changes and are awaiting a reply.
But its not just retailers – taxis, ticket outlets and airlines in particular charge massive credit card fees – Virgin Airlines for instance charges $7.00 on each credit card transaction.
Visa’s new rules follow regulatory changes announced by the RBA last year, which allow card schemes to limit surcharges to the “reasonable cost of acceptance” – or how much it costs retailers to accept a card payment.
Stores will have to justify any surcharges they pass on to consumers, whichcan be made up by the Merchant Service Fee (MSF), terminal line cost, credit card terminal rental, annual acceptance fee and employee training.
“This is good news for consumers and should mean the practice is more transparent,” said Kalra.
The majority of surcharges on Visa cards should be close to the merchant service fee charged to the merchant by their bank, which is on average is 0.85 percent.
“Visa is a lower-cost card, so we would expect retailers to take that into consideration in their surcharging rates,” he said. The card giant has developed a program to help retailers to comply with the new rules.
This includes a special calculator, available through the retailers’ banks, to assist retailers determine their “reasonable cost of acceptance” as defined by the RBA.
Visa said it will work with financial institutions to monitor retailer compliance and retailers found to be surcharging excessively will be notified by their bank of their non-compliance.
“It will take a little time for retailers to review the new rules and implement them. We will monitor the situation closely to see what effect the changes have on surcharging levels,” he said.
Card fees sometimes are as high as 3% retailers cannot take the service fee of the highest cost scheme and apply that charge across Visa, so if the MSF for AMEX is 2.5% and for Visa is 1%, they must charge a different surcharge for the two transaction types
If consumers suspect a retailer is charging an unreasonable surcharge, you can email Visa at surchargingfeedback@visa.com
Apple TV is coming to a living room near you and will be as touch friendly as an iPad.
iTV will be a set-top box built into the Apple TV and your home screen will work like an inflated iPad.
Thats what Peter Misek, senior tech analyst from Jefferies & Co revealed on Friday telling CBNC what he believes iTV will be:
“An integrated full feature TV set, set top box integrated in the set….much as you would touch iPhone, iPad you would touch the air in front of you with gesture control.”
“Asian manufacturers we’ve been in contact with have indicated production yield on iPhone 5 has improved, and we think iPad mini, and also believe iTV has gone into production,” he added.
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But other clues iTV is definitely coming appeared last week, Misek noted.
“GDSU indicated yesterday that they had a new customer ‘Livingroom Base’ – we believe its not a gaming company….that’s Apple.”
Read: Hello iPhone 5, iTV: Apple To Hit $1 TRILLION Value?
But iTV wont be a big driver for Apple earnings per se, says Minsk, rather it will have a huge ‘halo effect’, where the new Apple device will encourage users to stay within the iOS ecosystem.
“If you have an iTV or are hooked into iTV services you’re unlikely to buy any other phones other than an iPhone and certainly you’re next tablet will be an iPad,” the Jefferies & Co analysts added.
“Its more about selling more iPad and iPhones than selling TVs.”
Other rumours that have ran about Apple TV of late are a 42″ 20:9 screen (ditching iPad’s 4:3) res, Siri to search the Internet for TV content, iSight camera and is highly likely Apple TV will run a version of iOS tailored for the big screen but will be similar to iPhone, iPod and iPad.
Read: What Does The Internet Know About An Apple TV?
We’re open: its been a long running battle but Western Australia has finally opened up to Sunday selling.
The change to trading laws in the mining state allows all stores in Western Australia trade on Sunday from 11am-5pm.
The move will see it become the biggest shopping day of the week, WA’s premier predicted.
Major retailers are likely to coin it after the removal of trading laws that banned large stores like Coles, Woolies and Harvey Norman, from opening on Sunday.
Harvey Norman previously engaged in a legal battle with the state government over the trading laws.
Myer boss Bernie Brookes says his company would speed up refurbishment of stores in the mining boom state in light of the change.
“There is no doubt that West Australians are voting with their feet,” WA premier Colin Barnett said at the first day of the new trading hours on Sunday last.
And very quickly Sunday shopping will become the main shopping day of the week, if not already.”
He also predicted electrical items would be a big winner.
“Particularly in areas like fashion or electrical items and furniture, that’s an opportunity to take your time and look at separate outlets, for husbands and wives to go out together.”
Who is the bendiest of them all? Phone titans Samsung and Nokia are to go head to head in a bid to create the most flexible smartphone displays. Just last week, Nokia unveiled its answer to the flexible smartphone in London, at its “Future Lounge’ which saw the debut of a prototype device that can be controlled by bending it.
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For instance, folding the top right-hand side of the clever screen will command the device to scroll upwards and bending the bottom will scroll down. Although still in development stage, Nokia hopes to debut the flexi-phone, Kinetic, next year.
But phone rival Samsung, who already made public its intention to mass produce flexible OLED screens, confirmed bendy models will be a reality in first half 2012 at earnings call last week.
“The flexible display, we are looking to introduce sometime in 2012, hopefully the earlier part,” Samsung’s Vp of Investor Relations Robert Yi revealed at last week’s earnings call.
“The application probably will start from the handset side.”
Previously, it was flagging 2013 – 2014 release date but now it looks like its stepping up the ante as Nokia rivals device gears up for a release next year.
But its not just phones Samsung are bringing bendy technology to, tablets too and maybe even TV’s are to get the flexi treatment.
“We will start with handsets and migrate to tablet PCs and other devices,” he added.
Earlier this year it revealed an AMOLED screen for Galaxy smartphone that could be folded over 100,000 times yet lose only a tiny percentage of screen quality.
Recently reports were also circulating about a bendable Galaxy S II model planned using “rollable [and] bendable” plastic polyimide substrate strong enough to “survive blows from a hammer.”
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| Images from Nokia Future Lounge, London last week. |
However, flexi phone are just part of the war currently being waged between phone rival Nokia and South Korea’s Samsung.
Galaxy maker’s are now the top phone maker by shipment, beating Nokia to the title, according to latest statistics from Strategy Analytics.
Samsung last week revealed phone shipments soared 44% to 117m units in Q3 and shipped approximately 28 m smartphones – beating former king Nokia (16.8m) by 10 million as well as arch enemies Apple’s 17.1m units, losing its palce at the top.
“After just one quarter in the top spot, Apple slipped behind Samsung to second position and captured 15 percent share. Apple’s global smartphone growth rate slowed to just 21 percent annually in Q3 2011, its lowest level for two years,” Neil Mawston, Strategy Analytics Director, said.
“We believe Apple’s growth during the third quarter was affected by consumers and operators awaiting the launch of the new iPhone 4S in the fourth quarter, volatile economic conditions in several key countries, and tougher competition from Samsung’s popular Galaxy S2 model.”
However, the analysts did point out the turmoil Nokia engendered by its changeover from Symbian to Windows phone during the third quarter so Q4 should tell more, particularly when Apple iPhone 4S released earlier this month sold 4 million on its first weekend comes into play, and could put Cupertino back in pole position.
“Strong growth was mainly lead by smartphones with regional expansion of Samsung Galaxy S II,” Samsung confirmed at earnings call on Friday.
Solid growth across all segments was also down to enhanced “mass market” models like Galaxy Wave and Galaxy Y Pro and shipments were also up in emerging markets China, South America and Southeast Asia.
Stage II of NBN’s Tassie project has kicked off as AARNET says it is doing now what the NBN promises in ten years time.
The project is being carried on behalf of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and radio astronomy community as part of Australia’s bid to host Square Kilometre Array radio telescope international science project in 2012.
Households, businesses and schools in these communities are already experiencing the benefits of high-speed broadband and improved competition,” Senator Conroy said.
Samsung’s mid sized 8″ tablet, GALAXY Note 8.0, is hitting Oz next month.
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The Android Galaxy Note 8.0 has a 1.6GHz A9 quad-core chipset, a WXGA 1280×800 display, runs ‘Droid 4.1.2 Jellybean, has a 5 MP Camera up front and a 1.3MP at the rear.
Galaxy Note 8.0 tablet has intelligent stylus pen called S Pen, which is a digital pen and paper and converts all your scribbles to text; you can draw on the S Note digital pad via Idea Sketch and crop images.
You don’t even even have to touch the screen to use S Pen – just hover over the screen to see videos, emails, photos and appointments on S Planner without having opening the application thanks to Air View technology.
Removing the S Pen will automatically launch Pen Detection that suggests menus that it thinks users need and Page Buddy, which activates the most recent S Note home screen.
Following on from the success of the Galaxy Note, the 8″ tablet is ideal for work with S Planner feature to manage meeting notes, to-do lists and diary entries.
It also has Dual View, meaning you can have two screens open at once for multi-tasking.
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Samsung has also upgraded Note’s Chat-On app for instant messaging and has a slew of multimedia content available from its Game Hub, Learning Hub and Music Hub.
It has 2GB of RAM and 16GB or 32GB of internal storage.
The 8 inch Note “is an ideal accessory for the busy, modern and creative person” said Tyler McGee, VP – Telecommunications, Samsung.
Samsung’s “reading mode” technology turns Note 8.0 into an ereader.
The Note 8.0 WiFi model will set you back $459, is available for pre-order at both the new Samsung Experience Store Melbourne and Sydney, and will go on general sale in early April.
Samsung grew its marketshare 220% last year and is looking to capitalise on the momentum around its Tabs and Note line.
“The tablet market is one of the key focuses for Samsung this year and launch of the GALAXY Note 8.0 illustrates Samsung’s innovative thinking when it comes to this category,” said McGee.
“The launch of the GALAXY Note 8.0 offers consumers a compact tablet with the convenience of portability that is packed features for outstanding productivity.
“With its compact size, convenient multi-tasking capabilities and sophisticated S Pen features, the GALAXY Note 8.0 offers Australians that will reignite the creativity potential of Samsung’s mid-sized tablet market.”
Apple are pricey and won’t cut it in mainstream China. That’s what its bullish Chinese rival, Lenovo, are saying, coming out fighting against the US giant who beat it on home turf.
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| Lenovo CEO is bullish as Apple advance in China. |
But it may not have long to wait, particularly with HP’s future in doubt, although he refused to comment about the current situation.