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How to get Apple’s new iPhone 7 for free

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Reported by MarketWatch 24 minutes ago.

Apple is paying to tweet without tweeting

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Apple is paying to tweet without tweeting Apple joined Twitter back in 2011, but it left its account inactive until yesterday morning. Apple's Twitter account lit up with a new avatar, background photo, and verified status, ahead of the company's iPhone event next week. Apple kept its account clear of Tweets for most of Friday, until a promoted tweet started appearing later in the day referencing the event next week. However, the tweet didn't appear on Apple's timeline, and the company still has 0 tweets.

It's a move that means Apple is paying to tweet without tweeting, as the company has still not issued a public tweet despite joining the service five years ago. Apple's promotional tweet is also designed to trigger an automatic tweet reply to anyone who retweets it, meaning... Reported by The Verge 1 minute ago.

in depth: 6 standards headphone makers can adopt to make us love a 3.5mm-less iPhone 7

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Reported by TechRadar 21 hours ago.

dna Tech Reads: Frome Galaxy Note 7 exhange offers to BSNL's new ultra-cheap broadband plan

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-*1. SpaceX to shift Florida launches to new pad after explosion*-

The Federal Aviation Administration requires that SpaceX's flights be suspended pending results of an investigation of the explosion. Read more here.

- *2. Lenovo launches K6, K6 Power and K6 Note smartphones at IFA 2016*-

The smartphones will be available to consumers by early September although the company has not yet announced the price tag Read more here.

- *3. Samsung announces exchange offer for Galaxy Note 7 with Galaxy S7 or S7 Edge*-

Reported cases of exploding Samsung Note 7 batteries comes just days before Apple is expected to launch the iPhone 7. Read more here.

- *4. BSNL unveils unlimited wireline broadband plan at Rs 249*-

BSNL today said it will soon launch a promotional broadband plan that effectively translates into less than Re 1 per GB. Read more here.

- *5. 'Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare' multiplayer trailer revealed*-

The multiplayer component of future-themed action game "Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare" has been unveiled ahead of the game's release on November 4. Read more here.

 

ReportSci/Techdna Web Teamdna webdeskMumbai

· SpaceX
· Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
· Lenovo K6 Power
· Lenovo K6 Note
· Galaxy Note 7
· BSNL
· Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare
· Web Exclusive

Sun, 4 Sep 2016-09:00am
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From Print Edition:  Reported by DNA 8 hours ago.

RJio's full-fledged 4G services available to all from tomorrow

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*Consumers across the country can avail Reliance Jios services from tomorrow, as the company opens its doors to all potential users having any 4G-enabled handset in an aggressive quest to garner 100 million subscribers.*

According to sources, the Jio SIM -- which so far was available only at Reliance Digital stores -- will now also be offered through multi-brand outlets and mobile phone shops.

"The SIMs will be available at nearly two lakh stores across the country, including locations where SIMs from other vendors are also sold," sources said.

A major beneficiary of the offer would be users of devices like iPhone, Xiaomi, Motorola and Lenovo who were not a part of the preview offer so far. RJio, which had already roped in 1.5 million users in the test phase, is gunning for 100 million users at the shortest possible time.

Nearly 20 brands including Sony, Sansui, Videocon, LG, Samsung, Micromax, Panasonic, Asus, TCL, Alcatel, HTC, Intex, Vivo, Gionee, Karbonn and Lava were part of the preview offer which provided free 90-day unlimited calls and high-speed mobile broadband trials to 4G smartphone users of these brands.

The offer is now being rebranded as a welcome offer, which from September 5 will provide unlimited services till up to December 31, after which users have been promised voice calls - both local and STD - as well as roaming free of cost, for life.

The data charges are also pegged as low as Rs 50 per GB, compared to Rs 250 a GB prevailing in the market.

The process of procuring the SIM, said sources, will now be simpler with eKYC, which does not require consumers to physically fill out lengthy forms and wait for an equally lengthy verification process.

The form filling and verification is done using Aadhaar data and the customers fingerprint and the facility is being rolled out at various locations.

"At the time of taking the SIM, consumers will have to choose plans - pre-paid or postpaid - and they will continue to get free services till December 31, after which tariff plans opted for will become applicable," sources said.

The company has introduced 10 tariff plans beginning with a one-day plan at Rs 19 for occasional data users going all the way up to Rs 4,999 a month for heavy data users.

Reliance is also offering a Jio apps bouquet worth Rs 15,000, complimentary to all active Jio customers up to December 31, 2017.

In the Rs 19 prepaid plan, users will get 100 MB data and 100 SMSes for a day, apart from unlimited free voice calling. The Rs 149 plan, available for both prepaid and postpaid users, will offer 300 MB data and 100 SMSes with a validity of about a month.

Under the Rs 4,999 plan, users will get 75GB of 4G data as well as unlimited 4G access at night for a period of 28 days or one month for prepaid and postpaid users, respectively.

Other plans would be available for Rs 129 (prepaid only), Rs 299 (prepaid only), Rs 499, Rs 999, Rs 1,499, Rs 2,499, and Rs 3,999. Reported by Deccan Herald 7 hours ago.

Apple to unveil new iPhone this week

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Apple chief executive Tim Cook will be hoping to turn attention away from tax affairs when he unveils the next generation of the iPhone this week. Reported by SBS 12 hours ago.

Rain Design unveils mStand series for Macbook, iPad and iPhone with Apple-matching colors at IFA Sep 2016

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BERKELEY, Calif., Sept. 04, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- 

*mStand and mStand 360 *
Rain Design's best selling  *mStand * and  *mStand360*  now come in 3 Apple matching colors: silver, gold and space gray.  *mStand*  transforms your notebook into a stylish and stable workstation so you can work comfortably and safely all day. The  *mStand360*  has a swivel base that makes screen-sharing and accessing ports easy. It allows the user to safely turn the laptop without the pressure of weight. 

*mStand tablet pro 9.7" and 12.9"*
*mStand tablet pro*  transforms your iPad Pro into a stylish and stable desktop, making complex work with touching, swiping or writing with a pencil easy. mStand tablet pro features adjustable viewing angle and height with a simple slide 'n' lock mechanism for personalized comfort and flexibility. It can also be used as a second display when using a Macbook with a mStand laptop stand. mStabd tablet pro is available in silver, gold and space gray, and comes in 2 sizes: 9.7" and 12.9" for iPad Air/Pro 9.7" and iPad Pro 12.9", respectively.

*mStand tablet, mStand tablet plus and mStand mobile *
*mStand mobile and tablet*  stands support your iPhone or iPad and free your hand, so you can work comfortably with touching, swiping, typing or simply enjoy a relaxing video chat.  *mStand tablet plus* comes with the additional feature of adjustable viewing angle for optimal viewing comfort. Made of a single solid piece of aluminum with matching iPad/iPhone's sand-blasted and anodized finish, the mStand mobile and tablet stands are available in silver, gold or space gray. Fits iPad and iPhone with or without Smart Cover/ Case.

Photos accompanying this announcement are available at
http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/37df260a-2928-4848-ae0e-43acfdc003ba

http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/b0dcb56e-134b-41c4-a08f-1006b3ba349e

http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/20bc887a-79e6-46aa-bde8-8891146bb81e

http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/a278e82c-b6f9-4f7b-94e6-1707dcdb3f26

Rain Design mStand series shipping now. For more info:  www.raindesigninc.com . 
Press contact:  press@raindesigninc.com  

Rain Design
1036 Ashby Ave, Berkeley, CA 94710
+1 415 863 3826
press@raindesigninc.com
--------------------This announcement is distributed by NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions on behalf of NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions clients.

The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein.

Source: Rain Design, Inc. via GlobeNewswire

HUG#2039459 Reported by GlobeNewswire 7 hours ago.

Rain Design, Inc.: Rain Design unveils mStand series for Macbook, iPad and iPhone with Apple-matching colors at IFA Sep 2016

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BERKELEY, Calif., 2016-09-04 09:31 CEST (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- mStand and mStand 360 Rain Design's best selling mStand and mStand360 now come in 3 Apple matching colors: silver, gold and space gray. m... Reported by FinanzNachrichten.de 7 hours ago.

iPhone 7 Storage Versions Confirmed by Foxconn Worker in New Leak

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iPhone 7 Storage Versions Confirmed by Foxconn Worker in New Leak Apple is expected to take the wraps off the new iPhone 7 on Wednesday, and we already know pretty much everything about the new model, although last-minute leaks seem to point to some unexpected tweaks that could see daylight as well. And new information that emerged today comes to confirm the storage options that we’ve told you about for the new iPhone lineup, as Apple is making changes that would make a little bit more sense since no microSD card support is offered. The 16 GB version of the iPhone will be discontinued, so the entry-level model will come with 32 GB of storage, which is quite an important change given the fact that iOS and the pre-installed apps already eat up at least several gigabytes on each device – and iOS 10 is very likely to take even more space. Previously, the 16 GB iPhone had some 11 GB available because of the pre-installed software. Three storage options for the iPhone 7 According to today’s leak, which reportedly com... Reported by Softpedia 7 hours ago.

How the Apple iCar could crack the automotive industry

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Apple iCar as imagined by Autocar

Tech giant Apple has ambitious - but secretive - plans to create a car which will revolutionise personal mobility

Billions of dollars in research operations, more than 1000 developers, mysterious workshops – the Apple iCar looks set to revolutionise personal mobility, bringing with it technologies that promise to alter the way we have traditionally used and perceived the car.

Behind a heavy veil of secrecy, it has now progressed to what insiders describe as committed project status. Autocar outlines the electric car every established automotive manufacturer secretly fears.

Behind the pre-fabricated aluminium façade of a large building at the rear of an industrial estate in Sunnyvale, California, USA, work is progressing on what could possibly be the most significant car to emerge since Karl Benz’s ground breaking Benz Patent-Motorwagen first introduced the world to the motorised carriage 130 years ago. 

The nondescript factory unit, located at 960 Kifer Road, houses an electric car workshop run by Apple – the US-based electronics giant whose iconic products have revolutionised the way we work, use our free time and converse with one another on a day-to-day basis. Known simply to Apple employees as SG6, the otherwise unremarkable building has been the subject of intense speculation since Sunnyvale city council documents revealed a secretive shell company formed by Apple had leased the site in November 2015.

The electric car development being carried out at the heavily shielded workshop in the middle of Silicon Valley is treated with the same all-encompassing confidentiality as work being focused on other future Apple products. Precious little about its operations are known outside the tight-knit circle of engineers, software specialists and construction experts posted there.

Anyone who enters the five-acre complex is asked to sign a confidentiality agreement that legally binds them to remain tight lipped on anything they have seen, heard or experienced at the site. Not that many outsiders are invited to visit the facility, which is remarkably plain looking for a company with such an enviable reputation for design excellence as Apple.

The only hint that activities being run by Apple in Sunnyvale are of an automotive nature is a fleet of Dodge Caravan prototypes that regularly frequent its forecourt, and which have also been sighted at the GoMentum Station, a former naval base in San Francisco with over 20 miles of paved streets guarded by the military that’s often used by car makers for testing purposes. According to automotive industry experts, the modified MPVs, leased by Apple, are being used to test autonomous driving technology, which is thought to be under consideration for the so-called iCar – the name given to what’s being billed as Apple’s next big thing.

*Need to know basis*

As it stands, no one outside the company knows for sure if Apple, whose market capital is presently ten times that of BMW at a staggering $581 billion as of May 2016, intends to enter the automotive industry with its own electric car or, as has recently been suggested, is simply developing technology to integrate into the future models of traditional car makers. However, with more than 1000 employees from backgrounds as diverse as body-in-white engineering and autonomous software coding, already claimed to be involved of the so-called iCar, many, including the world’s financial community, are clearly betting on the former. 

When asked about the long-rumoured electric car last year Apple president, Tim Cook, has only added to its mystery, saying, “I don’t have anything to announce about our plans. But I think there’s some significant changes in the automobile industry over the next several years with electrification and autonomous driving. And there’s a need for a focus on user interface. So I think there’s a lot of changes that will go on there.”

In a more recent shareholder meeting, Cook was again pushed on the subject of the Apple car. His vague reply? “Do you remember when you were a kid, and Christmas Eve it was so exciting you weren’t sure what was going to be downstairs. Well, it’s going to be Christmas Eve for a while”. This immediately led analysts to surmise that, contrary to earlier indications, development of the iCar was indeed well underway but still some way off.

Those who have held talks with the Apple president during the past 12 months, including executives from Audi, BMW, Fiat Chrysler, Ford, General Motors and Mercedes-Benz are under no illusion of the company’s intentions. They are convinced Cook has already given the go-ahead to the partly autonomous iCar and expect it will be launched by 2021 as a precursor to a fully autonomous successor model to be introduced around 2026 as regulatory conditions are altered to allow features such as fully automated parking.

Apple’s goal? An initial 500,000 sales annually, according to those that have met with Cook. That might not sound like much for a company that manages to shift some 230 million smartphones each year. However, it is an acceptable target for a company new to the automotive scene and 10 times what another one of California’s electric car start-ups, Tesla, managed in 2015. As a further point of reference, combined sales of the BMW i3 and i8 totalled just 29,500 last year.

To ensure wide spread appeal for the Apple car, Cook is relying on the implementation of what automotive business leaders interviewed by Autocar describe as “disruptive technologies” – a term given to features that are expected to significantly change the face of motoring in much the same way the touchscreen altered our use of the mobile phone: highly efficient electric propulsion, rapid charging, autonomous driving capability, gesture control, holographic displays, wireless internet functions, artificial intelligence... the list goes on.

The iCar will get you from A to B, but it's set to be much more than mere transport for masses. Like the iPhone, it has been conceived to also be a personal assistant with a level of connectivity far beyond that of any existing car of today.

To achieve this, Apple has already allocated billions of dollars to development programs like the electric driveline program being carried out in Sunnyvale. At the same time, Apple has been active in purchasing technology and patents, either through takeovers or joint ventures similar to that which it recently announced with ride hailing start-up Didi Chuxing, China’s equivalent of Uber. Autocar research also reveals the company is investing heavily in production process management in a move that’s expected to see the iCar introduce a new assembly process that will allow it to be built cheaply yet highly efficiently at a number of different sites.

Despite all the pervading secrecy that surrounds its activities, Apple’s entry into the automotive field is expected to take a similar path to that which has seen it come to dominate the personal electronics field with its iconic design-led products.

Famously founded in garage of former president Steve Jobs’ parents in 1976, Apple wasn’t the first to offer a digital music player in the iPod. Nor was it first to place a smartphone on the market with the iPhone. Neither did it invent the tablet computer with its iPad. It only entered these respective markets once it was convinced it had a product that significantly redefined them, possessed true customer appeal and, although expensive compared to rival products, proved attainable for most willing to sign up to contracts with outside partners.

The expectation is, just like Apple’s popular products today, the iCar will feature a highly contemporary design, high-quality materials and an innovative interface providing a whole new level of connectivity through features such modified versions as its Siri speech recognition, Force Touch and multi-aperture digital camera technology.

Word out of South Korea also suggests Apple has inked an agreement that will allow it to independently develop its own hollow lithium ion battery cells using patented technology from energy storage specialist Orange Power. The hi-tech batteries, which are claimed to provide increased energy density due to unique cooling properties, could be used in combination with highly efficient new-generation electric motors already being tested by Apple at a separate research centre close to its Sunnyvale facility and its own proprietary power electronics in move providing the iCar with zero-emissions compatibility. 

Beyond this, there is mounting evidence that Apple is also planning to integrate its own autonomous driving, artificial intelligence and crash prevention technology into the iCar as part of a broader plan that could allow it to form the centre piece of a car-hailing operation through Didi Chuxing.

*The product is king*

One of the factors driving Apple’s plans for its own car are predictions the growth of digitisation, increasing automation, the rise of connectivity solutions and new mobility sharing models will revolutionise the automotive industry within the next 15 years. A report tabled by McKinsey and Company earlier this year suggests the automotive industry will significantly diversify towards on-demand mobility solutions, creating up to $1.5 trillion in additional revenue in global car sales by 2030.

While Apple is yet to official confirm it plans to stretch beyond its current portfolio of products with its own uniquely branded car, one former Apple employee, who has asked to remain anonymous due to confidentiality agreements signed during a period of employment at the company, says the building blocks of such a project are already well-established. “They can say what they like, but they can’t deny the iCar, or whatever they like to call it, is not already under development. Such an enormous undertaking requires huge planning and it can’t be held secret forever,” he says. 

Autocar’s source reveals product development is central to operations at Apple, suggesting there is traditional flexibility in the way management signs off on products. “At this stage of development there won’t be a strict timeline, as various departments and developers will be working on solutions to different tasks. As with the iWatch, Apple may well decide to delay the introduction of the iCar if it is not convinced goals are being met.” 

What is known is for sure that Apple’s president Tim Cook has provided the iCar project with a working title: Project Titan. He has also set about assembling a team of experts from a range of different industries to complete the herculean task of conceiving, designing and developing a car from scratch. While the number of Apple employees working directly on the iCar is currently put at around 1000, this is expected to increase to over 1800 within the next year or so as development moves into top gear.

Backing up reports that the iCar had been upgraded to a “committed project” last September, fully integrating it into Apple’s vast product development operations, Cook has already set about making a number of key changes to Project Titan following an internal review that back in February led to the departure of Apple’s product design boss, Steve Zadesky, who had acted as the head of its secretive electric car operations.

Zadesky, a former Ford engineer, had worked on the iPod and iPhone, and was seen as a possible successor to Cook himself. He is succeeded by Apple veteran Bob Mansfield, who has the task of expanding the iCar’s focus more toward autonomous driving in a move that now sees it working both on the hardware and software solutions in-house.

No stranger to Apple, Mansfield joined the company in 1999 and was one of its leading executives under former founding president, Steve Jobs. After overseeing hardware engineering development of some of the most popular Apple products of the past decade, including the MacBook Air, iMac and iPad, he stepped back from Apple’s day-to-day operations in 2012. Instead of retiring from the scene completely, though, Mansfield was retained by Apple as an adviser to special projects, including the Apple Watch.

In his new role, Mansfield answers directly to Apple president Cook, unlike his predecessor, who reported to the company’s highly respected hardware boss, Dan Riccio, who in turn reported to Cook.

This realignment of hierarchy within the Apple ranks is a attempt to streamline development of the iCar after a decision to not only equip it with the latest in electric driveline knowhow but also cutting edge autonomous driving technology by reducing the restraints of vertical management.The allure of working for Apple has attracted many highly regarded people to the Project Titan. Among the more prominent names contributing directly to the development of the iCar is the former development boss at Tesla and Aston Martin, Chris Porritt. Other high profile recruits from Tesla include former senior powertrain engineer, John Ireland; engineering manager, David Nelson; CNC programmer, David Masiukiewicz and driver assistance specialist, Hal Ockerse.

Such has been the brain drain at Tesla, that its founder, Elon Musk, was moved to comment on the iCar, saying it was “obvious” Apple was working on its own car. “It’s pretty hard to hide something if you hire over a thousand engineers to do it,” he said. 

Beyond Tesla, Apple has also hired Megan McClain, a former Volkswagen engineer; Doug Betts, who was previously responsible for quality at Fiat Chrysler; Paul Furgale, an autonomous driving program specialist from the Swiss Institute of Technology in Zurich;*, *Kevin Harvey, previously of Andretti Motorsport; Sanjai Massy, an engineer who worked at Ford; Stefan Weber, a former Bosch engineer who specialises in driver assistance systems; Vinay Palakkode; a researcher from the Carnegie Mello University; and Lech Szumilas, an autonomous driving expert from Delphi and Xianqiao Tong, who rose to promience developing driver assistance system for chip maker NVIDIA.

Also high on Apple’s list of recruitments are battery specialists, including Mujeeb Ijaz, who previously headed up technical operations at A123 Systems. Joining him are a number of inductive charging specialists, including, Kurt Adelberger, who previously worked for Google and Nan Liu, and is a graduate from the University of Georgia Institute of Technology.

More recently, Apple hired Dan Dodge, who formerly ran BlackBerry’s automotive software division and developed the highly regarded QNX software platform used in a variety of in-car infotainment systems.

While there is a heavy engineering and software developer presence within the iCar ranks, it's the design and user interface that is arguably more important to its success. The man responsible for the styling of Apple’s first car, Jonathon Ive, has worked for the company since 1992 and led the design teams for a range of products including the iMac, iBook, MacBook Pro, Power Mac G4, iCube, iPod, iPhone, PowerMac G5 and iPad. A self-confessed car connoisseur, he uses a Bentley Mulsanne as everyday transport and is also the owner of a rare Aston Martin DB4 among other classics.

Ive heads a team that includes a number of designers with strong automotive credibility, including Marc Newson, the man behind the Ford 021C concept car. Also on board is Julian Hoenig, who has worked for Lamborghini and Audi, as well as Aaron von Minden, who was involved in the styling of the fabric covered BMW Gina concept car.

In preparation for its launch, Apple has been active in trademarking and registering possible names for its new car. The internet search agent Whois revealed it registered a number of internet domain names, including apple.car, apple.cars and apple.auto via the company MarkMonitor in January 2016. While the move could simply be to stop opportunists snapping up the names and then selling them on at inflated prices later, Apple has a history of registering domain names shortly before a new product appears.  

Ground zero for the iCar right now is the workshop at 960 Kifer Road in Sunnyvale.  In this Silicon Valley suburb, which is also home to a long established Mercedes-Benz research and development centre among hundreds of ambitious start-up companies, Apple is rumoured to be developing elements of its newest product under the cloak of a shell company called SixtyEight Research.

The leasing of the 8919m2 site, formerly used by Pepsi as a bottling plant, was first made public by Sunnyvale City Council in March 2016. Since then, no modifications have been made to the exterior of the complex, though neighbours report windows at the rear of the main building on the industrial estate have been blanked out to shield what goes on inside. There have also been reports of rolling test bed equipment being delivered to the site. 

The location of Apple’s iCar development workshop in Sunnyvale is significant as it is just five miles from a former FedEx site at 335 Brokaw Road in Santa Clara that has also recently been leased by Apple. It is also a similar distance from Apple’s headquarters at 1 Infinite Loop in Cupertino.

The shell company behind the workshop, SixtyEight Research, is as mysterious as the iCar itself. Registered in California in 2015, its limited website presence suggests it is a marketing operation, although many believe this is merely a fictional reference to hide its true role in the development of the iCar.

Further adding to the intrigue, SixEight Research is named on documentation as being the importer of a 1957 Fiat Multipla 600 from the UK to the US in 2014 – a move that has led to rumours that the production iCar could take the form of an upright one-box MPV-style car similar in dimensions to the Volkswagen Budd-E  revealed at the Consumer Electronics Show last January.* *

Shortly after the leasing of the industrial complex in Sunnyvale sent internet chat rooms into overdrive over the apparent acceleration of project Titan, further word began to spread within automotive industry circles about a heavily cloaked research and development laboratory established by Apple in Berlin, Germany.

Initial reports suggested the new Berlin site was being used as a testing base for electric motors being sourced from a German supplier, possibly Bosch or ZF. However, the official line from Cupertino sources is the laboratory is being run as part of a strategic operation for Apple Maps – the navigation app that appears set to play a crucial role in Cook’s plans to provide the iCar with autonomous operation.

The mapping laboratory, which employs around 25 people, was set up following the joint €2.8 billion purchase by Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz parent company Daimler of Nokia’s mapping division Here, which by no coincidence is also based in the German capital. Apple’s primary goal? To poach high ranking officials from Here as part of efforts to produce the world’s most accurate mapping app as part of the iCar’s arsenal of new-age technology.   

As secretive as its heavily cloaked development operations are the production plans for the iCar. Looking to establish a business model similar to that of the iPhone and controversial Chinese electronic manufacturer Foxconn, Apple has attempted to court a number of established car makers in recent years with the view towards outsourcing assembly of its new car.

For a while it appeared Apple may have secured a highly prized partner in BMW. But after Apple boss Cook inspected production of the i3 at a factory in Leipzig, Germany in August 2015, BMW allegedly pulled back on the idea, its newly installed chairman, Harald Krueger, fearing the closeness to Apple may be playing into the arms of a potential future rival by revealing its own production secrets despite telling journalists at last year’s Frankfurt motor show that rumours suggesting the iCar could be based on the i3 as a “nice idea”.

A similar liaison with Mercedes-Benz has also been confirmed by insiders at parent company Daimler, who suggest Apple was interested in entering into a joint venture with the German car maker for the eventual production of the iCar. However, aggressive manoeuvring by Apple officials is claimed to have annoyed Mercedes-Benz boss, Dieter Zetsche, who lashed out at the electronics giant when asked about the company’s relationship with Apple, telling journalists, “We don’t wish to be contract manufacturers like Foxxconn”.

Further talks with Fiat Chrylser boss, Sergio Marchionne, were subsequently abandoned when it was revealed the Italo-American company had partnered with Google for the development of autonomous driving technology.       

While it appears to have struck out with plans to attract an established car maker, one plausible line of thinking is that Apple is now looking to commission an automotive production specialist such as Magna to assembly of the iCar. Nothing is official, though it is interesting to note that BMW recently pulled production of the Mini Countryman out of Magna’s Austrian facilities, suggesting capacity has been freed for the production of a new car, possibly the iCar.

*Read more: Is the Google Car in trouble?* Reported by Autocar 7 hours ago.

iPhone 7 predictions by analyst Ming-Chi Kuo: 2.4GHz A10 chip, 3GB RAM, dual 12MP cameras and more

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In a matter of four days, Apple will unveil the iPhone 7. However, the rumours just don’t stop. Now, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who is known for accurate Apple predictions, has released a detailed research report revealing specifications for the upcoming iPhone 7.

According to a report by *MacRumours*, the iPhone 7 could include a new A10 chip, topped out at 2.4-2.45 GHz, along with 2GB of RAM and 3GB of RAM for the iPhone 7 Plus respectively. Apple will offer three storage options: 32GB, 128GB, and 256GB. The low-end 16GB variant might finally go away.

Additionally, Kuo said that the new iPhones will offer five color options: Silver, Gold, Rose Gold, along with a "dark black" color variant which will mostly replace the Space Grey color variant. A new color by Kuo is described as glossy ‘piano black’.

The company’s newest iPhone could finally be water resistant. The report points out that the device would come equipped with an improved IPX7, which would make the device, “suitable for splashes, showering, and even brief dips in water up to one meter deep.”

Apple might ditch the 3.5 mm headphone jack, and instead provide Lightning EarPods with the iPhone. The iPhone 7 Plus will most likely sport 12MP dual cameras. Kuo explains that one will be a wide-angle camera with larger pixel sizes, a 6P lens, and optical image stabilization, while the second will be a telephoto lens with smaller pixel sizes and a 5P lens. In other features, we can expect an upgraded rear camera flash along with a possible upgraded proximity sensor. 

Lastly, Kuo believes iPhone 7 shipments will be below that of the iPhone 6s through the end of the year, coming in at 60-65 million compared to 82 million last year.

Stay tuned to dnaindia.com/scitech for full coverage of the iPhone 7 event, scheduled for Wednesday, 7 September.

 

ReportSci/Techdna Web Teamdna webdeskMumbai

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· watch iphone launch

Sun, 4 Sep 2016-02:39pm
Date updated: 
Sunday, 4 September 2016 - 2:39pm
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From Print Edition:  Reported by DNA 4 hours ago.

Samsung recall hands Apple a timely gift

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After iPhone maker’s tax bill blow, next product update could capitalise on rival’s woes Reported by FT.com 4 hours ago.

How 34-year-old Ben Winston became one of the most influential TV producers on the planet

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How 34-year-old Ben Winston became one of the most influential TV producers on the planet Ben Winston’s Twitter profile picture is revealing. A tall, snappily dressed figure with designer stubble, he is captured strolling nonchalantly next to the Queen. It is the image of a man who appears at ease in the company of the rich and famous.

His CV only supports this theory. At 23, he co-founded British production company Fulwell 73 with three friends from a Jewish summer camp.

More than a decade later — and without a penny or dime of investment — he is making TV, films, music videos, and adverts with the likes of David Beckham, Justin Bieber, and Usain Bolt.

Fulwell has achieved this while keeping a reasonably low profile. The company prefers to let its work, and the stars it partners with, do the talking. But that is changing.

Business Insider meets Winston at the Edinburgh International Television Festival, where we discuss how he helped James Corden go from ridiculed to revered in America in the space of 18 months on CBS's "The Late Late Show With James Corden." In doing so, Winston has established himself among the world's TV making elite.

He has been friends with Corden since they met while working on Channel 4 drama "Teachers" in the early 2000s. They moved to Los Angeles last year and Winston only took a six-month contract on a rented apartment for fear the CBS show would flop.

His concerns never materialised, but his vision for "The Late Late Show" still stands today. In a crowded market and with a 12.37 a.m. billing, he says Fulwell 73 needed to create a programme that had a life beyond television.

"We didn’t go out to make viral hits, we went out to make the best possible entertainment variety show and hoped people watched it in any form they wanted to," Winston explains.

"James said the other day: ‘I’m James Corden’s biggest fan. I think he's funny, quite good looking, and hilariously entertaining, but even I can't stay awake that late to watch me, so why should any one else.’ That’s our mentality."

*The "Carpool" cash cow*

"Carpool Karaoke" is the best example of this. The idea first appeared in a sketch Corden did with George Michael for the BBC in 2011 and was honed for a documentary he later presented on Take That singer Gary Barlow.

“It was a lovely bit where someone listening and singing to their own hits in their car was really funny. We also created huge intimacy because we left them alone with cameras," Winston reflects.

It got off to a slow start in America, with Winston admitting that Fulwell struggled to convince music artists to take part. Winston says a chance encounter with Mariah Carey's publicist changed that and her participation turned the segment into a viral sensation.

That original video has been viewed nearly 30 million times, while Winston claims that the video featuring Adele is now the "highest-viewed clip in the history of late night television" in America, with 125 million hits.

"Carpool Karaoke" regularly boosts music sales, Winston adds, and is now being made into its own series for Apple Music. He got the series away after striking up a friendship with influential Apple executive Jimmy Iovine and is one of the first producers to benefit from the tech giant's much-anticipated move into TV.

Winston has done the same with "Drop The Mic," another viral segment on "The Late Late Show," which has now been sold to US network TBS as a show in its own right. Not that the "The Late Late Show" is alone in this regard: "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" gave the world "Lip Sync Battle."

Winston says: "I don’t think you can ever say, 'I want this to be a viral hit.' You say 'I want to make this bit really funny.' With YouTube, there is no schedule, there is no lead-in, there is no timeslot. The best stuff rises to the top."

*Winston: The BBC's behind Brit success in America.*

The producer says Brits are enjoying notable success in America currently. Naming stars including John Oliver and Simon Cowell, he argues: "The Brits aren't taking over, but it is remarkable that a country the size of New Jersey has as much success in film and television."

Winston believes the BBC has played a big role in raising the standard of British television and has given companies like Fulwell 73 the platform to shine on the world stage.

He explains: "Partly because of the BBC, British television strives for creativity and originality, whereas elsewhere can be quite focused on business. People knocking the BBC, we should be careful what we wish for. The BBC gives all of the programme makers in Britain a real grounding in quality."

As for Fulwell's own approach, Winston, son of celebrated British professor Lord Robert Winston, says the company has built relationships with household names by being "very honest with people" and "being clear what will work with them at a certain time." Being a jack of all trades has also helped.

"It was the fact we didn’t specialise in anything that has become our biggest strength. If you look at One Direction as an example, we can say, we’re going to make your music videos, we’re going to make your movie with Columbia Pictures, we’re going to do your eight-hour live stream for YouTube, we’re going to make your commercials, and we’re going to make your live gigs."

He is more coy about Fulwell 73's own plans to expand. The company has recently signed an output deal with CBS Studios and Business Insider asks if Winston has received takeover approaches. "I don't think about it," he replies enigmatically.

He adds: "We are associated closely with certain talents and we enjoy getting the best out of them. When you’re working with high-profile talent, they should take the public eye and the producers and directors shouldn’t."

And with that, Winston disappears into the crowd of British TV royalty networking noisily outside of the main conference theatre at the Edinburgh International Television Festival. He greets many of them like they are old friends.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: It's going to be a bad year for the iPhone — here's why Reported by Business Insider 3 hours ago.

Apple boosts iPhone security after powerful spyware targets an activist

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A botched attempt to break into an activist's iPhone using hitherto unknown espionage software has triggered a global upgrade of Apple's mobile operating system, researchers said Thursday.

The spyware took advantage of three previously undisclosed weaknesses in Apple's mobile operating system to... Reported by L.A. Times 3 hours ago.

How 'Uber for truckers' Cargomatic burned through $15 million as it quietly pivoted away from being a tech company and ran at a loss

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How 'Uber for truckers' Cargomatic burned through $15 million as it quietly pivoted away from being a tech company and ran at a loss Cargomatic has had a rough ride in 2016 so far.

The Venice, California-based "Uber for truckers" has seen several key members of staff — including its CEO, CFO, and COO — all head for the exit. It has laid off 50% of its staff, more than 50 people.

Multiple sources inside the company tell Business Insider the company is running out of cash, having struggled to raise funding.

They also revealed the company's huge, unpublicised pivot away from the strategy that made it sexy: Now the so-called tech platform relies on data being manually inputted by its staff. The company is currently dependent on just one customer to stay afloat.

This is the story of how a once-promising tech startup went drastically off course, burning through nearly $15 million in investors' money and bank loans, while deliberately running the business at a loss. As the company continues to spiral down, one of its cofounders is jetting around the world on vacation and employees use a private Slack channel to look for new jobs.

*The dream: A tech platform to connect truckers with space in their vehicles with people who want to ship freight quickly*

In theory, Cargomatic is a really good idea. Trucking is currently a human-run business, controlled by people calling each other on the phone and sending emails and paperwork manually to confirm that trucks have made their deliveries. Automating that system with software could potentially earn someone a fortune.

Cargomatic's core product is an Uber for truckers. It matches companies who need goods moved with truck drivers able to move them. Like Uber, it solves the "excess capacity" problem beloved by Silicon Valley entrepreneurs: Truckers, like car drivers, often travel from A to B with spare room in their vehicles. Both Uber and Cargomatic simply let them know if anyone is willing to pay them to occupy the free space.

A shipper logs on to Cargomatic.com or one of its apps, enters details about what they are shipping, where it is going, and when it needs to get there. Cargomatic pre-verifies its drivers to ensure they have the correct paperwork. Qualified drivers see the job pop up on their app, and the first to click "book it" gets the work.

The short-haul "less-than-truckload" (LTL) business has revenues of about $77-billion-a-year, on journeys of 200 miles or less. The US trucking industry at large is a huge. It is the way a majority of freight is transported in the country. In many US states, more people are drivers than any other type of occupation. VCs have been interested in the space due to the sheer size and fragmentation of the companies within it — there are probably about 500,000 trucking firms, ranging from companies with just two trucks and a phone, to huge fleet haulage businesses.

Around 27 tech startups that match truckers with loads — both full-load and less-than-truckload — have raised more than $180 million in venture backing since 2011, according to research firm Armstrong & Associates. Some of the biggest trucker/shipping tech startups: include Otto, which was acquired by Uber in August, Convoy, Transfix, Cargo Chief, and Trucker Path.

LA-based Cargomatic was founded in 2013 by friends Brett Parker and Jonathan Kessler. The two were introduced by Parker's wife.

Parker comes from a trucking and logistics family. His father Allan owns The Triangle Group, a 44-year-old company that delivers apparel to retailers' distribution centers. He grew up working in the family business and from 2009 to 2013, Parker Jr. was the managing partner at the firm.

Around 2012, Parker shared an idea with Kessler.

As the LA Times reported in 2014, Parker lamented the time-consuming chore of finding and vetting drivers. He wanted a service that could connect him to pre-verified drivers without the time suck.

Kessler, a perma-tanned marathon runner who the LA Times describes as "an adventurer and technology tinkerer who's gone from being an Alaskan fisherman to building button-making machines in Ecuador" was on board with the idea.

Kessler was a popular, Messiah-like figure inside the company. One former employee described him an "electrifying,""first in, last out, kind of guy."

"He was a nice guy to have a beer and a chat with, how could you not like him?" said another, who was more cynical about Kessler but nevertheless appreciated his impact on the company.

Cargomatic became the eighth startup Kessler had been involved in. 

His last startup was a technology company that aimed to connect smartphones with TV sets before the idea of "second screening" had become the norm. According to Kessler's LinkedIn, Hand Eye Technologies raised money, built a proof-of-concept model, and filed provisional patents, but pivoted to become a mobile app development consultancy, working with customers including Nokia, Intel, and Sephora.

Prior to founding Hand Eye in 2006, he was in the founding team at audio and video codecs company Camino Networks. Just eight months after Camino was founded, its parent company Sonoritt was sold to Skype for $27 million in stock (back when Skype was owned by Ebay) in 2006.

Between 2002 and 2005 he was director of client services at web search and visualization company Groxis, which ceased operations in 2009.

Having spent years trying to make his mark in Silicon Valley, Kessler believed a move south to "Silicon Beach" to create a disruptive shipping logistics company would be the way he could finally hit the big time.

*Cargomatic begins raising money and expanding outside Venice*

Kessler and Parker raised an undisclosed seed round from Acequia Capital in April 2013, followed by an official $2.6 million seed round in June 2014. The round included participation from the investors including Canaan Partners, SV Angel, Acequia Capital, Structure Capital, Sherpa Capital, and Winklevoss Capital.

That year, with around 20 office staff, Cargomatic claimed to run more than 100 deliveries a day, with the average driver hauling more than 1,000 pounds of freight each time, while the average shipper would pay about $120.

Cargomatic made money by charging a fee to both sides — the trucker and the shipper — usually around 20% of the transaction.

As the business began picking up customers, at the turn of 2015, Cargomatic announced its Series A investment: An $8 million round led by Canaan Partners, with involvement from 13 other investors. It brought the company's total funding to $12.1 million, although it never publicly revealed a valuation.

Cargomatic would go on to use that investment to expand East, launching its first New York office in the summer of 2015.

Dan Harman was hired from 3D printing company MakerBot, where he was director of international sales, to lead the New York business. In addition to its California roots, Cargomatic now also handled shipments in Greater New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania.

In an interview with Crain's magazine announcing the office opening, Harman and Kessler noted the challenges of trucking in New York versus Los Angeles.

"'It’s logistically quite complex,' Mr. Harman noted.

Trucking lingo also varies by coast. Some terms have entirely different meanings, he said.

Another difference: tolls, which don’t exist in Los Angeles.

'We have to deal with water crossings—bridges, tunnels—and massive amounts of traffic,' Mr. Harman said of New York.

'And let’s not forget snow,' Mr. Kessler chimed in. 'We did not have to worry about snow in L.A.'

'Or even rain,' said Mr. Harman."

As it turned out, Harman would leave Cargomatic just a year after joining, when the New York office was shut down.

*Kessler: We are "a couple of years ahead of rivals"*

But in 2015, Cargomatic was scaling rapidly. In December, the company went on to launch in San Francisco.

Asked at the end of 2015 where he saw Cargomatic in five years, Kessler said: "We plan to continue to improve and expand our service in the markets we currently serve, while seeking out opportunities for expansion in other markets in the U.S. and internationally."

Kessler became increasingly bombastic in interviews. In a March 2016 article with Trucks.com, he dismissed Cargomatic's rivals. First, he was asked about Convoy, a Seattle-based startup that uses tech to connect shippers with truckers. At the time, Convoy had raised $2.5 million in funding from investors including Marc Benioff, Drew Houston, and Bezos Expeditions. Its total equity funding is now at $18.5 million.

Of Convoy, Kessler said: "We have more coverage than they do. We’re in more places and we’ve been doing it longer. We know more about the business. We’re a couple years ahead of where they are."

Kessler added that rival app Trucker Path was "really just an app for truckers to use to help find truck stops." He called Cargo Chief a "technology-enabled long-haul broker"— Cargomatic didn't compete there because it focused on short-haul shipments.

*Layoffs hit — 50% of staff are shown the door*

A month later, Cargomatic fired 50% of its staff — around 50 to 60 employees in total across two rounds of layoffs.

Some employees had sensed something was up when a big recruitment spree — the company was moving so fast on hires its recruiters could barely keep up — came to a "dead stop" around February 2016.

One former employee told us: "I think everyone had a sense that something was amiss when management implemented a sudden hiring freeze with no explanation. But no one could have expected something of this magnitude. Everyone that was laid off was given no warning whatsoever. They were completely blindsided."

When asked for explanations, managers were simply told the company was looking to "do more with less," the source added.

In an emailed statement at the time, Kessler told Business Insider:

"The Cargomatic marketplace continues to expand and has enjoyed year-over-year growth since our founding in 2013. Key to growing a successful company is knowing where to staff appropriately at different growth phases. Sometimes that means making difficult decisions, and to that end, we recently reduced the size of our marketplace operations and inside sales teams."

He added that the reduction in staff had allowed the company to build out its enterprise sales department, pointing to recent hires, and that the company had made additions to its engineering team to "automate tasks that previously had been handled manually."

"Cargomatic remains laser-focused on developing world-class technology that provides increased efficiency, transparency, and affordability to the trucking industry," Kessler said.

*Cargomatic had quietly pivoted away from being an Uber-like app to being a traditional brokerage business*

Pointing out that Cargomatic had hired enterprise sales staff was telling. Uber doesn't need a sales team. Why would the so-called "Uber for truckers"?

As it turned out, there had been weak demand for Cargomatic's core product. Adoption of the app had been slow and the challenge of working in the less-than-truckload space is that you need to have density in order to succeed.

Cargomatic instead became a traditional brokerage business, relying on enterprise accounts and calling and taking meetings the old-fashioned way. As DC Velocity pointed out, this saw it enter a crowded segment and the move "alienated" brokers who had expected to be partners with Cargomatic, not competitors.

In particular, Cargomatic shifted into the "drayage" business — picking up containers from the port. For outside investors, the pivot looked like a success. The average container price was around $550, compared to an average sale of just $40-45 on the app. Revenue was growing at a clip.

Despite its "Uber for Truckers" nametag, the majority (sources estimated around 90%) of Cargomatic's business had nothing to do with the app, which now pretty much just functioned as a facade for the underlying brokerage business. It wasn't looking like a tech startup any more.

What's more, while Cargomatic was demonstrating top-line growth, the bottom-line was looking seriously unhealthy.

One of Cargomatic's clearest flaws was its lack of concern for margins.

The sales team could sign-up customers at a negative margin, yet still receive a bonus as they were rewarded on billings, rather than the actual money it made for the business, according to former employees. The goal was to take a margin of around 10% from each transaction, but in the desperation to gain and retain customers, those margins were often reduced to the low single digits, or fulfilled above cost.

One former employee said: "The margins were always negative. You hire me to move freight for you, you pay me $100, but then I need to pay costs that could be $150 to $200. We were actually paying to move freight. That was crazy, in my opinion."

Despite this, the sales team would still take their bonuses — pushing the negative margins down even further.

This kind of behavior — paying for growth to get better penetration and visibility with customers — is reasonable for a large, well-funded startup (like Uber). But there has to be a clear path in which customers can be gradually moved up the price scale, or costs moved down, so that in the long run the extra volume of business the company acquires becomes profitable.   

There's a clear problem with this strategy in trucking: What if they don't turn into repeat customers? Lots of Cargomatic's customers were simply businesses that needed to move excess freight. It's a random, rather than cyclical, need that would not guarantee repeat sales.

** **



Selling is fun here, Monday inside sales day. #mondayfunday #teamcargomatic

A photo posted by Cargomatic (@cargomatic) on May 4, 2015 at 4:41pm PDT on May 4, 2015 at 4:41pm PDT



*Cargomatic struggles to raise a Series B and Kessler is ousted as CEO*

Investors took notice. In 2016, Kessler was charged with pitching the company around Silicon Valley in the hope of raising a Series B round.

"Investors would look at the top line, but they would also look at the profitability of our accounts and saw we were super top heavy — savvy investors saw that," one former employee said.

Kessler was ousted from the CEO role a month after the layoffs in May by the Cargomatic board. The company said he had moved to the position of chief product officer, while still remaining on the board.

Cofounder and president Parker sent Business Insider this statement at the time:

"It is common in the maturation of a fast-growth technology company to have the visionary founder move to a new role. The change does not affect our continued expansion and our prospects have never been more positive. With the backing of Canaan Partners, the recent addition of seasoned logistics executives and an increased focus on enterprise sales, we are poised for growth in 2016 and beyond."

But in reality, "adventurer" Kessler booked out and traveled the world, as chronicled on his Instagram account.

** **



Another amazing part of the world. The S. Tyrol, Merano, Italy. More German than Italian. Great people ridiculously good food and amazing hot spring. Basically a mountain paradise. #whatawonderfulworld

A photo posted by Jonathan Kessler (@jkessler178) on Jul 28, 2016 at 7:54am PDT on Jul 28, 2016 at 7:54am PDT



Kessler's exit hit many employees hard. When Kessler left, a part of the culture disappeared from the young startup too.

*Board member Richard Gerstein becomes the de-facto CEO*

In his absence, new leadership came in from the outside. Richard Gerstein, a board member, whose title was executive chairman, became the de-facto CEO (although he's not listed on the company's website). Gerstein — who was barely seen in the office and would instead conduct team meetings over video call as he was often abroad, dealing with his other businesses — was not as popular amongst the majority of staff members, and neither was Parker, whose position now seemed elevated.

Gerstein was described by a former employee as an "old school guy." He is currently a president at venture capital firm Finca LLC. Prior to that, he had worked at the international rail logistics firm IntelliTrans for 22 years.

Sources said he was not particularly interested in the tech side of the business — the part that drew many employees to work there — whether it was the type of product Cargomatic was trying to sell, or the kind of tools the company was using. He wasn't happy Cargomatic was using HR software Zenefits, for example, telling staff in one meeting he would prefer if all employee information was kept in a filing cabinet.

One former employee said: "If you watch a movie about the cliche American boss, who just wants to fire everyone, he's that cliche American boss. He's not a leader or an entrepreneur, he's a boss."

Former employees described Parker — who at least was in the office every day, unless he was at meetings, and did have a small group of allies within the company — as an internally competitive salesman, whose bonus structure was "legendary."

Like the rest of the sales team, he was rewarded based on gross sales, rather than profitability. Parker attached himself to some of the largest accounts Cargomatic had on its books.

But his sales technique was criticized by some former employees.

One said: "In these meetings he would say: 'This is what we do and how we are trying to change the industry,' but they were more infomercials. Sales don't come from those meetings. We got no sales, we just got business cards."

Another said of his style: "He has the tendency of saying a lot and letting everyone get confused and not relaying anything ... he is disorganized, barely understands the tech world. He can't sell to tech-oriented people nor explain it to non-techies."

*"We were throwing out everything that made Cargomatic sexy" and "real-time" data was inputted manually*

One of Gerstein's first major moves was to fire the company's popular COO, Sean Whiteley, a tech executive the company had hired in June 2015 from secure healthcare messaging startup TigerText. It was another decision from the board that didn't go down well with employees.

One former employee described Whiteley as "a very good person, a solid guy: honest and trustworthy." Another said: "Sean is really popular around LA. He's really well-known around here and he is an awesome dude, very energetic."

Senior staff began leaving in their droves. Notable departures included the VP of operations and the VP of engineering. Staffers were increasingly unhappy that Cargomatic was moving away from being a tech company and that the senior management, most of whom now only had experience in the old-school logistics industry, were trying to turn it into a traditional logistics setup.

"We [were] throwing out everything that made Cargomatic sexy and replacing it into a simple logistics company," one former employee told Business Insider.

** **



Catered lunch days be the best days, made better today buy a surprise 🍕 delivery by one of our hardest working drivers!

A photo posted by Cargomatic (@cargomatic) on Mar 24, 2016 at 11:57am PDT on Mar 24, 2016 at 11:57am PDT



Most freight companies don't use any kind of tech platform — they know when something arrives at the warehouse because the warehouse manager calls them to let them know the delivery has arrived. The dream of Cargomatic would be to offer customers real-time data so they knew exactly where their shipments were. Customers fell in love with the idea that they could see their shipment on their way to its location in real-time.

It wasn't the reality. Cargomatic staff would manually input the data each day. Rather than being integrated, shipping data from the LA port, for example, was grabbed manually and put into the shell of the product. When the warehouse manager made the call, a Cargomatic employee would update the system manually.

"Yes. Everything was manual. Our mobile applications were constantly sending the wrong type of data and the operations team need to fix them all the time inside the system. Our containers system was just a glorified spreadsheet where nothing is automated," a source told us.

Another said: "It was a show-game. Customers thought this process was automated but we were asking people behind the scenes to make it look automated."

Rather than develop its own trucker management system (TMS), for example, which the engineering team had been working on, Cargomatic began licensing a software package called Mercury Gate instead. Before he was forced out of the company, Whiteley had advocated that if Cargomatic wasn't going to create its own software, it could at least opt for a better-known platform that more of its customers used instead. But he was overruled by the rest of the board. Gerstein also happens to sit on the board of Mercury Gate.

There were other operational issues. Customers kept disputing their bills. Cargomatic threw temporary accountants at the issue.

Staff even nick-named them "temporary accountant one,""temporary accountant two," as so many temps flew in and out of the building asking questions.

"It was an absolute clusterfuck," said one former employee.

As Cargomatic's situation became increasingly messy, sources within the company told us customers were left in the dark about the changes.

One former employee said: "It's not being communicated at all. Richard told everyone ... that we should never ever talk to the media and never talk to customers about what's happening inside the company."

This reporter's name was mentioned specifically as a member of the media staff members shouldn't speak to. A source told us that Parker mentioned this so much that employees were increasingly suspicious he had been the source of the leak for our initial layoffs story earlier this year.

*"You'd sit in a meeting and the lights were out in the room"*

With the company's popular leader on vacation and other employees heading for the exit of their own volition, the mood within the company was bleak.

"Morale is so low that people are coming in mostly to collect their paychecks and wait for the inevitable. We have a private Slack channel in which we circulate possible job positions, ask for referrals and vent about the lack of management inside the company," an employee told us in July.

A former employee said: "You'd sit in a meeting and the lights were out around the room. They were disengaged, everyone was in their own battle. Some of these people I felt sorry for. They'd take on a job, sign a one-year lease on an apartment in an expensive area, then find out later they were out of a job. It was a tough place to be. It was very difficult on staff to be in an expensive area and at a company that was floundering."

Meanwhile, one customer was kept incredibly well-informed of Cargomatic's operations.

CEVA Logistics, a transportation and logistics company with offices in more than 160 countries, became Cargomatic's biggest customer. CEVA operations personnel were often seen inside the Cargomatic offices. Routes for truckers were planned within CEVA's office. The rumor among the staff was that Cargomatic was actively trying to be bought by CEVA — a huge company, but another account that was also being run at a negative margin.

"I'm pretty sure Richard [Gerstein] will make Cargomatic worth something, even if that means killing the business and getting acquired by CEVA," a former employee told us.

A CEVA spokesperson said the company does not comment on its suppliers or speculation.

*Just two months of cash left*

Cargomatic secured a bridge round of a couple of million dollars at the beginning of the year 2016, plus a $3 million bank loan, according to a source. The company's runway was supposed to last through November.

But in August, The Wall Street Journal reported that the company's interim chief financial officer Seth Klein had resigned and that Cargomatic had just two months of cash left.

Hrach Simonian, who sits on the Cargomatic board and is a general partner at its biggest investor, Canaan, brushed the matter off. He told The Wall Street Journal: "The fact that there’s two months of cash left is irrelevant. They have [an] indefinite runway … There will absolutely be a new cash infusion in the company in short order."

Simonian's other deals at Canaan include grocery delivery service Instacart, crowdsourced real estate data startup Compstak, real estate crowdfunding company RealtyMogul.com, and Washio, the LA-based on-demand laundry service that went out of business earlier this week.

Meanwhile, Gerstein told The Wall Street Journal, with an attitude somewhat indicative of his opinion on tech: "There’s a perception in Silicon Valley that you can just start with a blank piece of paper and you don’t need to know the rules. That might work in some industries, but not in freight transportation. To scale this company, we need people who have knowledge of the traditional technology in manufacturing and distribution."

The day the article was published, Gerstein held an all-hands meeting, dialing in from abroad.

According to sources, Gerstein berated staff about the WSJ article and told them they shouldn't be talking to the media about the company. Gerstein named random people in the room and demanded they repeat back to him what he had just said. "He treated them like children," said a source with knowledge of the call. 

Right now, it's unclear what's going to happen to Cargomatic. It has no CEO, no CFO, and no COO. Gerstein is only in the office around once a month. Many current employees are planning their exits and the mood inside the office is increasingly sour, according to sources. There is no sign of a Series B. A source estimated "99%" of Cargomatic's business currently comes from CEVA, and CEVA alone.

Parker, Kessler, Gerstein, and Simonian have all not responded to Business Insider's repeated requests for comment.

Ricardo Salgado, the CEO of on-demand truckload shipping startup Loadsmart, said he hopes the issues at Cargomatic don't cast a shadow over other companies claiming to be the "Uber for X." He outlined some of the challenges in the "Uber for trucking" space.

"The industry is changing rapidly because of new technology but the adoption curve is slow. This is not an industry where you have a Snapchat, where you give the app access to your contacts and have 150 million active users. It's B2B and adoption is lower," Salgado said.

"Lots of people describe themselves as the 'Uber for trucking,' but I disagree with that completely because moving people is much easier. With Uber, you just have the rider and the driver — two parties. And one in every 200 times there's an operational issue: the rider left their cell phone in the car and he just writes to support@uber.com and they figure it out."

"When you're moving freight, you have six different players touching the cargo. The cargo is worth X, there's insurance, the driver, the dispatcher, pick-up at the warehouse, drop-off with the warehouse manager, sometimes there's a broker, a shipper. Things happen all the time — the cargo is not ready, the truck broke down, the driver needs to rest because he drove 12 hours — all that type of stuff makes it more complex than on the consumer side."

So what does the future look like for Cargomatic?

One former employee predicted: "Cargomatic will shrink a lot. It will focus a lot more on being a logistics brand, using third-party software, or just using whatever they had before, then eventually get sold or fold."

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Apple is announcing a new iPhone on September 7 — here's what you're getting Reported by Business Insider 3 hours ago.

After 9 years, the smartphone boom is finally over

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After 9 years, the smartphone boom is finally over When the iPhone launched in 2007, it was such a revelation that it kicked off a huge boom in smartphones, with electronics manufacturers of all shapes and sizes working around the clock to meet customer demand for newer, better, faster phones.

Now, just over nine years since the introduction of the iPhone, it looks like the boom is over.

Data from analyst firm IDC released this week suggests that smartphone market growth will only be up 1.6% in 2016 versus 2015, with 1.46 billion phones sold. In 2015, it was up a solid 10.6% versus 2014. The boom is flattening out.

It gets worse, too. In developed regions, which includes the United States, Canada, Japan, and Western Europe, IDC is projecting that growth will just keep declining. What modest growth IDC is projecting comes from the rest of the world, what it calls "emerging markets." 

Consumers are increasingly happy with their existing smartphones, IDC says, which means fewer people buying them. That means that the smartphone manufacturers are trying to spur people to upgrade early and often — in case you were wondering why Apple is so focused on its iPhone trade-in and upgrade programs.

IDC sees a bright spot on the horizon, though: Thanks to the rise of virtual reality headsets like the Samsung Gear VR or the Google Daydream platform, which both require phones to work, IDC is projecting that there will be more demand for phones with larger screens, which could spur more smartphone upgrades, too. 

Still, though, barring another revolutionary shift in the smartphone landscape, it looks like the boom is pretty much over, and demand is going to stay nice and steady. Word is, though, that Apple is planning a huge iPhone upgrade to mark the device's 10th anniversary in 2017. So maybe history will repeat itself.

On a final note, there's not many surprises in IDC's breakdown of operating systems by device sold: Android is still on top, on track for 85.3% market share in 2016, making it the most popular operating system in the world. What's really astonishing is that Microsoft's Windows phones will fall 75% versus 2015, hitting 0.5% market share. Ouch.

*SEE ALSO: The end of Nest as we know it is a sign of a new beginning for Android*

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iOS 10 will have common sense changes that might be weird at first. But you'll eventually find they're big improvements. 

You'll probably have to update, anyway, to keep your device secure and because Apple sends a ton of reminders to update your software.

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