Ford Invests and Creates Jobs In Cleveland Engine Plant

Ford invests $145 million and creates 150 jobs at its Cleveland engine factory to grow in the industry and satisfy UAW.

Ford stated on February 26, 2015 at its engine factory in Cleveland that it is providing 150 jobs and investing $145 million for its 3.5-liter second-generation EcoBoost engine. The Dearborn carmaker uses 3.5 liter engine (ltr) in its Taurus, Flex, Transit, Expedition and Explorer.

The future generation engine will be at least powering the 2017 Raptor and F-150; the US automaker refused to reply whether it will be utilized again for the automobiles  that aren’t a part of the F-150 team.

Ford promised United Auto Workers (UAW) for an investment of $150 million at its plant located in Cleveland during the course of its 4-year agreement with the UAW. The 2.3 and 2 liter GTDI engines and 3.7 liter TiVCT will also be updated by the company.

Cleveland Engine employs around 1500 workers who manufactured around 1 million EcoBoost engines since 2009. The Raptor-unique three-and-a-half engine will attain over 434 pound-feet of torque and 411 horsepower achieved by the current 6.2-liter V-8 engine, the company claimed. A 10-speed transmission will be provided with the Raptor which will be offered for sale this fall.

Ford launched its well-promoted turbocharged engine as a 3.5 liter V-6 on the 2009 Taurus SHO. Since then, its EcoBoost series has expanded to include nine different engine sizes that can be discovered by one on any light-duty passenger automobile apart from the C-Max Hybrid.

Ford delivered over 1 million EcoBoost engines in one year for the only time in the last year. The automaker’s series of these engines, first launched in 2009, is its cornerstone of international engine strategy to cut down the levels of emissions and fuel consumption. The size of these engines is smaller, but together with gasoline direct injection, variable valve timing and turbocharging, they provide the same ability as bigger-displacement engines, with considerably less fuel consumption. 

Ford first equipped the F-150 with 3.5 liter EcoBoost engine in 2011. Since then, the company has delivered around 875,000 trucks equipped with these engines. Over 60% of F-150 consumers either opt for the newer 2.7-liter EcoBoost or the 3.5 liter EcoBoost, stated an official of Ford, Joe Hinrichs.

The existing F-150 equipped with the 3.5 liter Eco Boost engine attains 20 miles-per-gallon in combined highway/city driving. The company pumps investment in Cleveland to upgrade manufacturing plant, which elevates mutual benefits for the city and organization itself. In return, it provides jobs and higher efficient engines. 

Facebook Introduces Canvas To Assist Advertisers

 

Facebook launched Canvas to facilitate advertisers in the industry where it needs to attract them.

Facebook is interested in providing immersive means to access people without leading to their exit from the social platform. On February 25, 2016, it officially introduced its ad Canvas for every advertiser. When users tap Facebook News Feed advertisement connected to Canvas, rich media, full screen page is opened by it within the social platform rather than compelling users to wait for mobile webpage to load.

In 2015, the networking giant began testing Canvas, referred to as ‘Instant Articles’, for advertisements by Tech Crunch. The impetus for the social network was that the size of mobile sites has increased by three times since 2011, which has led to five to ten second of loading times; users are not interested in sitting through to view an advertisement.

The types of rich media marketing experiences that are actually memorable by people load far more slowly on mobile. So, the company established the endpoint of advertisements into its own app so it is equipped with the capacity to show and pre-load them in around a second.

Canvas removes constraints placed by low-power mobile webpages on content. Facebook Canvas allows interactive elements such as product catalogs, videos, tilt-to-tilt images, carousels and animations. Canvas connects from and to News Feed advertisements on Android and iOS. The social network company is assessing how to extend it to other applications like Instagram and versions.

With the help of a self-serve tool, brands can develop Canvas ads. No code is required there. The design tool of the social media service provider permits them to just drag around pictures, videos, GIFs and more, then ensure that attributes are set and begin showing their advertisement.

There is no extra cost to be paid to establish a canvas advertisement. Businesses only pay the cost for the same News Feed advertisements as done always, but get an opportunity to deliver an improved destination led by them. Various versions of Canvas can be aimed to various demographics only as normal ads placed on Facebook.

Facebook said more ads on its social platform would not be associated to Canvas. A tiny upward arrow, denoting full-screen experience, can help users to identify Canvas. The organization says initial tests of Canvas demonstrated users are interested in sticking around and enjoy the ads.

Around 53% of users who open a Canvas view at least 50% of it. The average time spent by users to view is 31 seconds. In this new Canvas campaign, where Wendy deconstructed a cheeseburger for people to see, swipe and scroll GIFs of various ingredients, received an average view time of 65s. 

European Commissioner Pressurizes Google Prior To Meeting With CEO Sundar Pichai

Google faces excessive pressure from European Commissioner.

Alphabet is being sunk into an anti-competitive quagmire. European Commission might beef an antitrust complaint against Google, as per reports of Bloomberg on February 22, 2016. American authorities are investigating the company too.

Proving abuses will not be easy, but the growing scope indicates that the company will need to exert more power to pull out of the problem. From a long period, it has been dominating web searches; it has almost captured two-thirds of the United States market, and a larger percentage in the markets of Europe. Due to this, regulators have scrutinized it for long.

Proving that Google has abusively used its position has not been easy. It is easy to click on another search engine and difficult to prove that the technology giant is harming people by injecting extra information into results. In 2013, American authorities stopped probing against Google after it pledged to behave responsibly.

Previously this month, a British court found the search organization had not unjustly crashed a competitor by placing its maps amongst the topmost search results. In 2015, the European Commission’s charges that Google favored its own shopping service were treading on old ground. An investigation into Google’s behavior with Android, nevertheless, would be more dangerous.

There is little rivalry in mobile operating systems and a leading provider can act abusively by grouping services and applications together. The antitrust problems of Microsoft had similar roots.

European Commissioner Margrethe Vestager is piling on pressure prior to the meeting scheduled later this week with CEO of Google Sundar Pichai.

Europeans are investigating whether the advertising competition is being restricted by other means – like paying Apple for keeping Google as its iPhone’s default search engine. A transaction worth $1 billion between the two tech giants in 2014 was brought into light by the recently disclosed United States court documents.

Margrethe also state she is open to investigate whether a taxation agreement between UK and Alphabet led to illegal state aid. She would stretch her authority by threatening the tax agreements of Google and her anger might not pan out in a legal manner. However, it will have effects. This might have persuaded US regulatory bodies to reinitiate their probes in 2015.

More significantly, the amount of effort and time spend by Google in the press and court battling these allegations are revamping forward. This can leave competitors, such as Facebook, hunting for advertisers and new technologies, such as virtual reality, comparatively unencumbered. 

Amazon Adds To Cost Of Not Becoming Prime Member

Amazon's another step to turn a large number of its customers into Prime members.

As Amazon seeks to increase the huge number of its loyal customers, the cost of not getting the Amazon Prime membership has just increased – at least for non-buyers of a large number of books published on dead trees.

The American e-commerce company increased the threshold to $49 for shipping free of charge for those who are not subscribers of Amazon prime. This represents a rise by $14 from the past $35. The change has already been made.

People who are fond of books might save some money, nevertheless as orders containing at least books worth $25 will be sold without being charged for shipping. Audio books on CD are also eligible.

The measure comes as the online retailer witnesses steep rises in the cost of selling merchandise to consumers. Last year, $5 billion were incurred in net delivery costs, a 19% increase from the earlier year and equivalent to around 5.1%.

Increasing the purchasing threshold is not too much concerned with delivery costs as it’s about nudging consumers to become a member of loyalty program ‘Prime’ whose members spend approximately twice than non-members. They are also paying a yearly fee of $99, which helps the Seattle-based company to earn billions of dollars in sales revenue.

In return, members of Prime get two-day shipping covered along with other benefits like music service, video streaming facility with exclusive offers and in some areas, they also get restaurant delivery service.

Now that consumers have to pay approximately $50 per order to avail shipping free of charge, Prime becomes a much more interesting and compelling offer, states CEO of Clarus Commerce, Tom Caporaso.

Clarus Commerce is an e-commerce enterprise focusing on logistics. Given that “right now it’s very much a land grab around e-commerce,” Amazon’s effort to attain the loyalty of even more consumers makes sense, Clarus states.

The electronic trading platform does not reveal the number of Prime members but it states that its members increased by 47% in the United States in 2015. That crossed even a 35% growth estimate given by the Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, which estimated 54 million members of Prime.

This may be another element to the strategy of the retail giant. The more the members of Prime are, the larger the incentive for outside merchants for paying Amazon for handling logistics with the help of the Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) program.

FBA sellers are eligible to provide their consumers with the same Prime delivery perk, which the company is offering for its own products. The number of FBA subscribers increased by over half in the last year.

Apple Declined Court Order To Bypass Passcode For FBI To Access iPhone

Apple refused to act according to the federal magistrate's order and claimed that China hasn't even asked it to crack the passcode of an iPhone to access it.

Apple responded to an order given by an American court. The government of the United States has asked to be granted greater access to the software of the US consumer electronics manufacturer than even the government of China, an executive of the company stated, as it is resisting a ruling compelling it to crack the passcode of a smartphone used by San Bernardino killer.

The smartphone manufacturer and the government used increasingly bellicose tones while debating over whether the manufacturing of products by the Silicon Valley can be dictated by national security.

On February 16, 2016, a federal magistrate ordered the company to help FBI in bypassing the iPhone. The company refused, claiming that by doing so, it would set a legal precedent compelling it to hack a smartphone of a suspect every time the authorities face a warrant. It claims that would violate privacy, user trust, and consequently lead to weakening the core safety of the organization’s flagship smartphone.

Early Friday, US Department of Justice released a lengthy legal filing. The filing alleged Apple for the misinterpretation of the regulation and giving priority to its marketing objectives over US national security.

Apple legal team was huddled on February 19, 2016, preparing its response while refusing to talk about the record. After being called many times by reporters, a senior executive of the company agreed to respond if his/her identity is kept anonymous and that the reporters do not quote the exact words of the executive.

The executive of the company stated the request of Justice Department was unprecedented so much that no other state – specifically naming China – had asked to be provided similar access. That came after it was reported that the state, a large market for the company, has asked for the inspection of western tech products for “security”.

The executive of the organization also stated assuming that Apple would be continuing to equip its products with more safety features for making it difficult still for investigators to attain access was safe.

The latest spat of the organization with the US prime law enforcement agency started in 2014, when it extended the encryption’s default use on the newer versions of its iPhones. Now, it stated it would now be unable to retrieve passcodes used for unlocking smartphones for agents of FBI.

The FBI recently admitted it cannot compel the company to provide it the passcode, but a clever workaround was concocted by it. A judge was persuaded to order Apple to help it easily guess the passcode by ensuring that the rest of countermeasures are weakened.

Uber Lost $1bn In China Due To Fierce Competiton

CEO Travis Kalanick claimed that fierce rivalry in China has led to a loss of $1 billion dollar on yearly basis.

Uber disclosed that it is losing over $1 billion on a yearly basis in China, amidst fierce rivalry from domestic ride-sharing competitor ‘Didi Kuaidi’. CEO Travis Kalanick insisted that the American application based taxi service provider is better positioned than its Chinese rival due to its ability to accommodate losses, at least to some extent, by using the profits it earns from other states.

Mr. Travis spoke to Canadian tech news website ‘Betakit’, “We’re profitable in the USA, but we’re losing over $1bn a year in China. We have a fierce competitor that’s unprofitable in every city they exist in, but they’re buying up market share.”

Didi’s spokersperson claimed that the comments made by Mr. Travis regarding its financial performance were “outright untrue”. A breakeven point was reached by it in over 200 cities of China where its operations reside.

The new battle of words is underscoring the fierce war between the two enterprises in the country, where both of them were heavily spending on promotions and discounts in an effort to pursue market share. Uber technologies has planned to increase the number of Chinese cities in which it runs its operations by 100% later this year.

Comments of Mr. Travis also indicated the funds being spent. In January, the documents leaked to the webpage ‘The Information’ revealed that Uber’s global losses increased to approximately $1 billion in first six months of 2015, nearly 50% greater than its entire annual losses in the year before.

Uber refused to share its views on the figures, but Mr Travis spoke to Betakit that the significant difference between Didi Kuaidi and his business is its capability to offset the losses contributed by China.

Uber dominates majority of the markets of the US, and it has raised sales revenues by adding to its commission and booking fee in a large number of US markets. It has received over $10 billion to date. Russian tycoon ‘Mikhail Friedman’ has recently turned into its investor. Other investors of Uber include Fidelity, Goldman Sachs and TPG.

In 2015, the Beijing-based taxi service received $3 billion in a financing round, which raised its cumulative funds to over $4 billion from investors that include Tencent, Alibaba, sovereign wealth fund of China and CIC.

Didi has actively invested in the Uber’s rivals including Grab and Lyft. Both Didi and its Western rival have heavily spent money to provide subsidies to riders and drivers for speeding up adoption and gain scale, hoping that costs will decrease as the number of passengers and drivers grows. 

Toyota Recalls Three Million Cars

Toyota recall three million vehicles due to faulty seays

Toyota Motor Corp. is calling for 2.87 million SUVs across the globe due to faulty seat belts as claimed by the company on Thursday.

It was deduced that the seat belts could actually be ripped apart if they got in contact with metal seat frames. They would eventually get severed during a frontal crash. The decision was taken when a fatal accident was reported in Canada and another in the United States- where one individual was injured. As per the company, the recall was due to a defect found in the design, which can be fixed with the installation of a resin cover for the frames free of cost. The vehicles that have been recalled encompass EV, RAV, RAV4 and Vanguard SUVs.

 As per the data revealed by the company, the vehicles that have been affected encompass 625,000 cars in Europe and 434,000 cars in China.

Back in May, 2015 the company recalled almost 5 million cars across the globe. This included 637,000 cars in the United States which had the Takata air bags. These airbags were likely to fall apart during a fatal accident which could result in injury. Almost 14 automakers across the globw asked for 24 million cars to get a replacement for the Takata air bags. This was said to be the largest auto safety recall in the history of the United States.

During the present annum, Toyota Motors  seems to be on track and might just record high annual operating profit margins that are driven by growth for its Luxury Lexus and RAV4 SUVs. During the first nine months of the fiscal year of 2016, the company’s operating income has superseded 9% on a year over year basis to $20.31 billion. For the complete fiscal year, analyst predicts that $26.99 billion is operating income which has risen from $25.33 billion in FY15. It needs to be noted that the high recall costs can exert pressure on the bottom line during the fiscal year of 2016. The results are expected by May 6, 2016.

Back in 2015, Toyota Motors Corp. delivered almost 10.15 million cars across the globe where it was said to be the global market dominator in terms of sales volume. Considering the diesel engine scandal that took place, Volkswagen AG was said to be in the second place by selling 9.93 million cars. On the other hand, General Motors was successful in delivering 9.8 million cars across the globe last annum.

During the present year, the automotive market across the globe is buoyed via purchase tax stimulus governed by Chinese authorities. On the other hand, the United States has the potential to persist with high growth due to the low fuel costs. Considering the company’s performance over the past year, Toyota can maintain its strong hold in the industry this year as well.

Hence, the decision taken by the company can save several lives. The recall is on a mass level and ascertains the fact that the company cares about the safety of its clients.

Amazon Establishes Own-Label Fashion Brand

Amazon wants to hire former official of Marks & Spencer to help it establish its own fashion brand.

Amazon is planning to dominate the fashion industry with its owned label-clothing brand. Rumors that the American e-commerce company would soon introduce its own fashion brand were fuelled previously in February 2016 when it started to advertise for jobs like merchandiser, inventory manager, and fit specialist on its own online jobs website.

In 2002, the online retailer initially began selling branded clothing of third party brands. It is currently on track for turning into America’s top fashion retailer, growing rapidly than retail giants like Target and Wal-Mart but the online trading giant has not been able to easily lure some brands wanted by it amidst fears that selling fashion along with televisions, nappies, and disposable razors will affect their image.

The Seattle based enterprise is already selling its own branded electronics, under the brand name Amazon Basics and Strathwood furniture in Britain.

Frances Russell, who left Marks & Spencer as head of its womenswear in August 2015 when the British multinational retailer did reshuffling of its management, has talked to enter Amazon at a senior post. It is still not known whether she would work for the enterprise in UK or US.

According to The Guardian, Amazon wants to recruit Russell to help it establish its own fashion-clothing brand. It has a huge British fashion operation stretching from New Look to Tommy Hilfiger. In 2015, a large photography studio was opened by it in Shoreditch of London for promoting its range of clothes.

Last summer, the company recruited actor and British model Suki Waterhouse to lead its fashion ad campaign, as it tries to improve its fashion ranges’ profile. It faced criticism regarding its taxation affairs and refused to share views on reports of appointment of Russell. The report followed the claim by the fashion industry press that the company was finding a senior product manager to manage its Europe based private label business.

Amazon, which suffered from criticism for sucking out money from the high streets of UK, is believed to be getting ready to introduce an entire range of grocery items following its Amazon Fresh project. The addition of fresh food items would threaten supermarkets. Recently, it included 60 frozen and chilled food products to currently available 20,000 items for speed delivery.

In other news, Leicester Mercury reported that Amazon would establish its new site in the British country ‘Leicestershire’, which will provide 500 new job opportunities. In this autumn, a fulfillment center covering 1 million square feet will be opened in Coalville, the company has confirmed today.

FBI Agents Brute Force Apple iPhone Passcode Of San Bernardino Shooter

A federal judge of US has ordered Apple to let FBI agents unlock the iPhones of a San Bernardino shooter.

Apple is ordered by a federal magistrate in US to let the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) conduct an investigation to unlock an iPhone of San Bernardino shooters. Up till now, the magistrate’s order is the most significant case for US government which is trying to find out how it could use the existing legislation to get around encryption used in the phones.

It will probably intensify an already heated discussion between Washington DC and Silicon Valley regarding the balance between electronic privacy and national security. In this high-profile case, director of FBI James Coney said his agents haven’t been given access to the phones of shooter as they are searching for evidence regarding the massive shooting in December last year.

Investigators are yet making efforts to find out that to what degree groups of radical Islamic terrorists influenced the shooters and with whom they had communicated prior to the rampage. In 2014, the American consumer electronics manufacturer started to manufacture iPhones equipped with additional encryption software.

The company said it was not capable of unlocking that encryption software, even if a court orders it to do so. It took that action to safeguard privacy of consumers and in the name of cyber safety. Since then, a public matter has locked the organization with the FBI.

The problem faced by the FBI is that it is not easy to tell a very popular company of the US that how products should be manufactured by them. In the case of San Bernardino killing, it is trying to get into the iPhone 5c of the suspect.

The federal magistrate Sheri Pym has ordered the company not to turn off encryption but to let agents of the FBI randomly guess the iPhone passcode of the suspects (brute force). Apple has established a safety feature into its iPhones to decline attempts to “brute force” into a smartphone by guessing passcode one by one.

The built-in delay is too much substantial that the company said someone would take 5 and half years to guess of any possible code for an iPhone. The judge also wants the company to switch off auto-erase functions in its phones if they are enabled.

In the order, it stated this action would be taken with a program. The organization is ordered allow the agents of FBI to install it on the phone of the suspect at Apple or federal facility.

Uber Ridership Increases In Manhattan After Price Cutdown

The cut down in prices have helped Uber to increase its passengers in Manhattan.

Uber has proved to be successful in the US. In the outer boroughs, ‘ridership’ of the American application oriented cab service provider has increased since it reduced its prices – with rides from outside Manhattan now contributed to over one-third of the organization’s huge Apple Business, the officials of the enterprise spoke to The Post on February 15, 2016.

In the Bronx, the total ridership has increased by one-third in two weeks since the cut down in price by 15% on January 29. In Queens, the ridership has surged by 21%, officials of Uber technologies stated.

The ridership increased by 26% in Manhattan. In the outer boroughs, passengers believe that the reductions in price are making the taxi service more reachable for the masses.

Cumulatively, New Yorkers totaling 75,000 have logged up for Uber application over the past two weeks since it reduced its prices and over 50% of those new users belong to regions outside Manhattan.

In Queens, new users are approximately 18,612. In Brooklyn and Bronx, there were 16,714 and 5334 users respectively. Another 34,624 people logged up in Manhattan. The transporter succeeded in igniting a firestorm by announcing that it would cut down its fares one day before it did so.

A team of drivers did a 3-day long strike against it and launched protests around the city. They asked Uber for restoring the older prices, ensure that a tipping option is included in the app, and reduce the commission from 20%-25% to 10%.

Uber claimed that drivers are actually earning a greater amount of money with the deduction in price because of the less amount of idle and waiting time spent by them. In July 2014, trips of Uber in outer boroughs increased twice when it reduced its prices.

Advocate reported that the legislators of West Virginia told drivers of Uber should be permitted to skip LGBT persons. Records have shown that 65 members of the legislature gave their vote against the requirement of anti-discrimination policy for the transporter that would ban discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation. Only 27 of the house members voted for the amendment.

A member of the Republican Party who is also the representative of Fayette delegate supported for allowing discrimination and claimed that sexual orientation is chosen. Uber provides everyone an opportunity to request a ride from a driver nearby and then catch it to reach his/her destination. 

Dunkin' Donut Sued Over Charging Sales Tax on Non-Taxable Items

The restaurant holding brand was charging tax on items which as per the Sales Tax Guide were not taxable; and hence got sued for it by a resident.

A lawsuit has been filed against Dunkin Brands Group by a resident according to which it has been the coffee chain has been overcharging its customers, at a few of its franchises in New Jersey and New York; it has been doing so since the last three years. According to the complaints filed by the resident, the franchises of Dunkin Donut were charging 7% sales tax on non-taxable items in New Jersey which included grounded coffee and bottled water and in New York they were charging sales tax on packaged coffee beans.

The lawyer who is covering the matter, Carl Mayer explained to the New York Post that the coffee brand should stop doing this with its customers and either refunds them the extra money that it has charged them or simply provides them with discounts; so that they are compensated for the extra money they were being charged. In a time span of three years, Mr. Mayor informed that the franchises made as much as $10 million from New York and $4 million from New Jersey.

According to the New Jersey Sales Tax Guide, a number of food items which specifically include water and packaged coffee are not subject to sales tax – and it is clearly mentioned in the guide that stores and restaurants cannot charge its customers extra money on those. Furthermore, the lawyers have evidence to prove that the franchises were aware of this rule before making money off their customers. Carl Mayor informed the New York Post that initially Dunkin Brands was made aware of this issues which it did not comply to.

The reaction that was received by Dunkin Brands Group Inc. was that, Michelle King, its spokesperson stated that they organization will contact these franchises and see into this issue further, as per the statement that was given to Fortune. This would mean that the company will contact over 1000 franchises in New York and New Jersey that are being owned by individuals – who are ultimately liable to comply by these terms and conditions of the state that they are in. An attorney for the New York plaintiffs, Zachary Liszka stated that he does not understand why a company would want its customers to pay more taxes than they are required to- despite the fact that it was clearly stated that it can’t do so.

Dunkin stock is being traded at a share price of $40.93 currently; which represents an increase of 0.89% during the previous trading session. Throughout the session, the stock price of the restaurant chain kept fluctuating between a high share price of $41.38 and a low share price of $40.19 – while the 52-week reported by the business of $56.79 and the one year low reported by the company was $36.44. The earnings reported Dunkin Brands was 1.08 with price to earnings ratio of 37.94. Additionally the revenue generated by the restaurant holding group was reported to be $203.8 million. The figure was very close to the estimation of the analysts, who had expected the revenue to be at $204 million.