The Saudi Prince Has Money And Can Flaunt It

Posted by Kirhat | Monday, August 01, 2022 | | 0 comments »

Expensive Property
During his trip to France to meet President Emmanuel Macron, Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is staying at a lavish chateau dubbed "the world's most expensive home" when he purchased it in 2015.

The Chateau Louis XIV in Louveciennes outside Paris is a new-build mansion intended to mimic the extravagant luxury of the nearby Versailles Palace, once the seat of the French royal family.

The 7,000-square-meter property was bought by an undisclosed buyer in 2015 for 275 million euros (US$ 300 million at the time), leading Fortune magazine to call it "the world's most expensive home."

Bin Salman, 36, was reported two years' later by The New York Times to be the ultimate owner via a series of shell companies.

Local government officials confirmed to AFP that the controversial heir to the Saudi throne was staying at the property ahead of his dinner with Macron last 28 July.

Reporters outside the perimeter wall saw security personnel in suits guarding the entrance and a large police presence, including half a dozen vehicles.

Macron and bin Salman were set to meet at the more modest Elysee presidential palace later Thursday for talks that critics in France view as inappropriate.

Bin Salman was judged by U.S. intelligence to have approved the gruesome murder and dismemberment of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018.

But after four years as an international pariah, the prince is being courted by Western leaders again as they urgently seek fresh energy supplies to replace lost Russian production.

In a twist of history, the Chateau Louis XIV was built by Khashoggi's cousin Emad Khashoggi who runs a luxury property development business in France.

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Ghosting
It appears that some Filipino lawmakers has a lot of time in their hands. Instead of passign poverty-related or economic measures to uplift the lives of ordinary citizens, they found ways to address issues that are not of significant value to the impoverished Filipinos.

Arnolfo Teves Jr. recently proposed that the act of "ghosting" be declared a punishable emotional offense. Teves, the Negros Oriental 3rd District representative and a member of the Nationalist People's Coalition, argued that "ghosting is a form of spite that develops feelings of rejection and neglect," making it an act of emotional cruelty.

Ghosting is the act of cutting all forms of communication with an individual, usually a romantic partner, without warning or explanation. The proposal defines ghosting as "a form of emotional abuse and happens once a person is engaged in a dating relationship with the opposite sex which affects the mental state of the victim."

The House Bill No. 611, also known as "An Act Declaring Ghosting as an Emotional Offense," was filed by Teves on June 30. While Teves says the act should be punished, he did not suggest any penalties.

"The ambiguity with ghosting is that there is no real closure between the parties concerned and as such, it can be likened to a form of emotional cruelty and should be punished as an emotional offense because of the trauma it causes to the 'ghosted' party," Teves wrote in the explanatory note of his proposed legislation.

While the proposal has sparked amusement and disbelief online, government officials were also criticized, with many Filipinos questioning their priorities amid greater national concerns such as inflation.

Arjan Aguirre, an instructor at Ateneo de Manila University, told The Washington Post that the bill may be an attempt to distract the public from other pressing issues. Aguirre also believes that the bill is Teves' way of getting "public attention and media mileage."

"It is a calculative move to make him popular and be part of the public conversation," Aguirre said.

The recent bill is not Teves' first controversial legal proposal. Teves, who is allied with the current ruling administration of Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr., previously proposed to rename the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) to Ferdinand E. Marcos International Airport in honor of the late dictator and ousted president Ferdinand Marcos Sr.

He incorrectly claimed that NAIA was built during the presidency of Marcos Sr. in his proposal, which was also widely criticized, with critics viewing the bill as an attempt to distort history and as Teves’ attempt to gain favor with the newly instated president.

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San Francisco Is Not Safe Anymore For Businessmen

Posted by Kirhat | Thursday, July 28, 2022 | | 0 comments »

Moghadam
The prominent CEO of Prologis, Hamid Moghadam, feels no one is safe in the company’s hometown of San Francisco after he was robbed at gunpoint by several men.

The June 26 incident, until now not publicly reported, highlights rising concerns over crime and other challenges facing the Bay Area and adds to worries more residents and companies will opt to leave the region.

In a wide-ranging interview this week, Moghadam shared with San Francisco Business Times how the experience has made him more vocal in urging San Francisco’s leadership to make public safety their top priority. Moghadam founded Prologis, the world's largest industrial landlord, in the city in 1983.

The robbery occurred as he pulled his car up in front of his house in tony Pacific Heights, a neighborhood that is home to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Rep. Nancy Pelosi and other luminaries. It came as he returned home from a trip to Stanford.

"This car comes out. The guy jumps out with a hoodie and a gun," Moghadam said as he reviewed security-camera footage of the robbery with me. "His friend comes out with another gun."

The thieves took his Patek Philippe watch, part of a product line that retails for US$ 12,500 to more than US$ 2 million. "It was a very ordinary-looking steel watch. But apparently, these watches have gotten very popular. When I bought it, it was much less expensive. I had the watch for many years."

"They were using a bunch of choice words. Mostly starting with 'm' and 'f.' They were attacking me," said Moghadam, who recalls the entire incident occurring in less than 30 seconds. "It happened so fast that I didn’t have time to get scared."

Unfortunately, San Francisco’s 911 system doesn’t work so fast. Moghadam said he waited about 10 minutes for 911 to answer his call. But he has high praise for the San Francisco Police Department’s fast response, which he estimates took about 90 seconds. In a letter Moghadam sent to elected officials, he praised police officers responding to his 911 call, naming Gaetano Acerra and Kevin Lynch. In my interview he also praised Sgt. Anthony Santos.

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Facebook India
Last 2 February, whenMeta Platforms reported Facebook's first-ever quarterly drop in daily users, its finance chief identified higher mobile data costs as a unique obstacle slowing growth in India, its biggest market.

On the same day, the U.S. tech group posted the findings of its own research into Facebook's business in India on an internal employee forum. The study, conducted over the two years to the end of 2021, identified different problems.

Many women have shunned the male-dominated social network because they're worried about their safety and privacy, according to the Meta research, which hasn't been previously reported.

"Concerns about content safety and unwanted contact impede women's FB use," said the study, reviewed by Reuters, as it detailed the platform's main challenges.

"Meta cannot succeed in India while leaving women behind."

Other obstacles included nudity content, the perceived complexity of its app design, local language and literacy barriers and a lack of appeal among internet users seeking video content, according to the research, which was based on surveys of tens of thousands of people as well as internal user data.

Facebook's growth began plateauing last year, when it added a few million users in the space of six months in the country of about 1.4 billion people, significantly lagging sister apps WhatsApp and Instagram, according to the report, which noted: "FB has grown more slowly than the internet and other apps."

A Meta spokesperson, contacted about the study, said the company regularly invested in internal research to better understand the value its products provide and help identify ways to improve.

"But it's misleading to characterize 7-month-old research as an accurate or comprehensive representation of the state of our business in India," they added.

Nonetheless, the main Indian issues detailed in the research were not cited by Meta's chief financial officer, Dave Wehner.

Wehner said Facebook's user growth in Asia-Pacific and some other areas was hit by competition, plus comparison with prior quarters when COVID resurgences aided user engagement. He identified higher mobile data costs as a "unique" headwind for India.

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Expect Changes in Apple App Store Soon

Posted by Kirhat | Wednesday, July 20, 2022 | | 0 comments »

Apple App Store
App Store has been under pressure to make some changes around payments, and it's finally giving some apps a break. Starting next year, Apple will allow what it calls "reader" apps like Netflix and Spotify to bypass Apple's payment system and direct users to their own websites for payment.

The move was prompted by a ruling from the Japan Fair Trade Commission, but it'll apply worldwide. It also follows a new South Korean law passed in August requiring Apple to offer alternative payment options in the App Store.

Small source of revenue, big profits The App Store generated less than US$ 20 billion in net revenue for Apple in 2020. The company takes a maximum 30 percent commission on App Store purchases, which totaled US$ 64 billion worldwide last year.

In total, App Store sales account for less than 7 percent of Apple's total revenue. However, the operating profit margin on the business is extraordinarily high. It was 78 percent in 2019, and that number's only expanding as the business scales, according to testimony and documents provided in Epic Games' lawsuit against Apple. For comparison, Apple's overall operating profit margin in 2020 was 24 percent.

While the App Store counts for a single-digit percentage of revenue, it may account for over 20 percent of Apple's total operating income. So, investors need to pay close attention to how any changes to its policies will impact the business.

What exactly is changing Starting in early 2022, Apple will allow "reader" apps to direct users to their own website to sign up for a subscription instead of requiring users to subscribe in-app. Apple defines reader apps as those that "provide previously purchased content or content subscriptions for digital magazines, newspapers, books, audio, music, and video."

What's notable is that subscriptions have become a growing business within the App Store. As of the end of the third quarter, Apple counted more than 700 million paid subscriptions across all of its services, which also includes Apple's first-party services like Apple Music and iCloud. That's up 150 million from the same time last year, CFO Luca Maestri said on Apple's third-quarter earnings call.

But, it's unlikely anything is going to happen to those subscriptions. Apple will continue to collect a monthly commission on existing subscriptions.

Furthermore, the impact on subscription revenue going forward could be muted as well. The biggest subscription services, like Netflix and Spotify, currently don't allow users to sign up directly in their iOS apps. Now, at least, they'll be able to direct new users who approach them through their iOS apps to sign up on their websites.

While subscriptions account for a significant portion of App Store sales, the change probably won't have a drastic impact on revenue growth.

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Apple Intent To Know If iPhone Can Detect Depression

Posted by Kirhat | Tuesday, July 19, 2022 | | 0 comments »

iPhone Depression
A report from The Wall Street Journal says that Apple wants to know whether its devices could help detect depression early.

The tech giant is allegedly working with scientists to study if data its devices collect, such as sleep patterns and typing behavior, maps onto certain mental-health conditions or cognitive decline. The Journal cited internal Apple documents and interviews with unnamed people familiar with the matter.

The hope is that if data gathered from Apple devices, such as the iPhone, correlates with a health condition, Apple could develop an app or feature that could warn people that they are at risk so they can seek care.

The research is part of Apple's partnerships with US biotech Biogen and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), which were announced earlier this year, The Journal reported. Apple's research with Biogen is focused on cognitive decline and its research with UCLA is focused on stress, anxiety, and depression.

The UCLA researchers will use the iPhone's video camera, keyboard, and audio sensors, as well as the Apple Watch, to collect data. This could include how users speak, how often and how fast they walk, their heart and breathing rates, their sleep patterns, and more. Researchers may also measure typing speed and the frequency of typos, per the report.

At the same time, users will fill out questionnaires about how they feel, and researchers will collect hair samples to measure levels of cortisol, the stress hormone, The Journal reported. The researchers hope that the information will provide insights into the user's emotions, concentration, energy level, and state of mind.

Biogen and Apple will track cognitive function over time using the iPhone and Apple Watch data in a similar way to the UCLA researchers, and will compare data against traditional cognitive assessment tests and brain scans. The Biogen study is set to last two years and follow about 20,000 people.

"Seabreeze" is Apple's code name for the UCLA project and "Pi" is the code name for the Biogen project.

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