Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Larry Page isn't the only one trying to make 'flying cars' a reality

Larry Page isn't the only one trying to make 'flying cars' a reality

larry page flying car patentAn early patent of Zee.Aero'scraft.US Patent and Trademark Office
A "flying car" prototype developed by Zee.Aero, the company Google co-founder Larry Page has been funding, was spotted in the wild last week, according to a report Monday in the Monterey Herald.
Witnesses in Hollister, California reportedly saw the vertical take-off plane hover about 25 feet above the ground, land, and then hover again. Many are referring to planes of this nature as flying cars because of their ability to take off vertically, which allows them to be stowed in driveways.
Zee.Aero isn't the only company interested in vertical take-off planes — here are 5 others.

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1. German company eVolo wants to make its multicopter the future of urban mobility. Called the Volocopter, it has 18 rotors and can fit two people.

1. German company eVolo wants to make its multicopter the future of urban mobility. Called the Volocopter, it has 18 rotors and can fit two people.
eVolo

The Volocopter is powered by six batteries that allow for 20 minutes of flight, but eVolo is working to get that up to an hour. The company has begun manned testing in Germany and aims to roll out a production model in two years.

The final version of the Volocopter will be able to reach 62 miles per hour. It has 130 independent computers onboard that could allow it to fly autonomously later on.

The final version of the Volocopter will be able to reach 62 miles per hour. It has 130 independent computers onboard that could allow it to fly autonomously later on.
e-Volo

2. Airbus is developing a vertical take-off plane under its Silicon Valley arm A³ as part of its Project Vahana. The aircraft will be autonomous and can carry a single passenger or cargo.

2. Airbus is developing a vertical take-off plane under its Silicon Valley arm A³ as part of its Project Vahana. The aircraft will be autonomous and can carry a single passenger or cargo.
Project Vahana
A³ CEO Rodin Lyasoff said in a Medium post that it will fly a full-size prototype before the end of 2017 and have a "productizable demonstrator" by 2020. You can see a rendering of the Project Vahana aircraft above, which Airbus has said will be used for commercial or personal use.

Airbus is also designing a flying taxi system, named CityAirbus, that would have multiple propellers and resemble a small drone. Multiple people would be able to book a ride on the flying taxi system via an app.

Airbus is also designing a flying taxi system, named CityAirbus, that would have multiple propellers and resemble a small drone. Multiple people would be able to book a ride on the flying taxi system via an app.
Airbus Group
Airbus wrote on its website that the CityAirbus taxi would first be operated by a pilot, but that a fully autonomous version would be released once regulations are in place. However, the flying taxi wouldn't land and pick you up from wherever. You would have to go to the "nearest helipad" for a lift after booking a seat.

3. Chinese drone company EHang is working to get its giant, taxi drone in the air as soon as federal regulations will allow it. It can carry 220 pounds, cruise at 62 mph, and fly over 11,000 feet.

3. Chinese drone company EHang is working to get its giant, taxi drone in the air as soon as federal regulations will allow it. It can carry 220 pounds, cruise at 62 mph, and fly over 11,000 feet.
EHang

The EHang is another Uber-like system in that passengers would enter their desired location and the drone would then fly on its own.

The EHang is another Uber-like system in that passengers would enter their desired location and the drone would then fly on its own.
Steven Tweedie/Business Insider

A prototype of the EHang has been tested in China, but the company is still working to get approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to begin flying in the US.

A prototype of the EHang has been tested in China, but the company is still working to get approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to begin flying in the US.
Steven Tweedie/Business Insider

4. Terrafugia is building a car that can take off, fly, and land autonomously — but you would still have to drive it manually.

4. Terrafugia is building a car that can take off, fly, and land autonomously — but you would still have to drive it manually.
Terrafugia

The plug-in hybrid has a range of 500 miles, and it can take off vertically so you don't need to be on a runway for lift off.

The plug-in hybrid has a range of 500 miles, and it can take off vertically so you don't need to be on a runway for lift off.
Terrafugia

Passengers can simply enter their desired location and it will fly on its own. The company has said a production version will be ready by 2025.

Passengers can simply enter their desired location and it will fly on its own. The company has said a production version will be ready by 2025.
Terrafugia

5. Uber is interested in using small planes that can vertically take off for short-haul trips within cities.

5. Uber is interested in using small planes that can vertically take off for short-haul trips within cities.
REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton
Uber's head of products Jeff Holden recently told Recode that a commercial aircraft could be viable within a decade.

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The world's oldest bank is cutting 2,600 jobs — and shares are crashing

The world's oldest bank is cutting 2,600 jobs — and shares are crashing

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renzi1Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi pouts.Reuters
Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, the stricken Italian lender, will cut about 2,600 workers as part of accelerated plans to overhaul the bank.
Italy's third-largest lender said on Tuesday it would cut about 10% of its total staffing costs, adding that it would close about 500 branches by 2019. That will drop the bank's total number of sites to roughly 1,500 from 2,000.
The bank's new cost-cutting plan also includes the disposal of MPS' merchant acquiring business — an activity in which the bank processes credit- and debit-card payments on behalf of a merchant.
The cuts are part of a plan to turn around MPS and attract investments into a €5 billion recapitalisation plan for the lender. The lender's bad loans have concerned investors, pushing the bank to the brink of collapse. As a result of the new cuts, MPS' management says it is aiming for a net profit of more than €1 billion by 2019 and a return on equity of about 11%.
After the new plans were announced, the bank's shares took off in early trade before crashing sharply midmorning, moving from a jump of 14% to a fall of 13% in about 20 minutes. Here's how it looks at 12:15 p.m. BST (7:15 a.m. ET):
MPS lunchtime oct 25Markets Insider
Before woes about the future of Deutsche Bank started to spook the markets in September, MPS was Europe's most worrying bank, having come dead last in the European Banking Authority's stress tests over the summer.
The bank would be insolvent in less than three years under an "adverse scenario," according to the results of the stress test, which also showed that Monte dei Paschi had the biggest deterioration in its key capital ratio, the so-called fully loaded common equity tier one ratio, or CET1 ratio, which takes into account new regulations set to take effect in the near future.
Monte dei Paschi's CET1 ratio fell by 14.51% since the previous test, leaving Italy's third-largest lender with a ratio 0f -2.44%, suggesting that the bank would become insolvent in the event of a substantial economic shock over the next three years. The 14.51% fall was more than four times the average fall of about 3.4%.
The bank has gained a new CEO since the tests, after former boss Fabrizio Viola resigned in August after being involved in an investigation into suspected false accounting and market manipulation.
Monte dei Paschi must try to get rid of a near €30 billion surfeit of bad loans to avoid a European Union-mandated bail-in, something the bank, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, and the EU are all keen to avoid.
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Twitter is planning to cut as much as 8 percent of its staff this week

Twitter is planning to cut as much as 8 percent of its staff this week

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jack dorseyTwitter CEO Jack DorseyBill Pugliano/Getty
TWTR Twitter
 17.52 -0.59 (-3.30 %)

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Twitter is planning a big round of layoffs that could affect up to 8% of its staff, or 300 people, according to a Bloomberg reportciting anonymous sources.
The layoffs come as the money-losing social networking company continues to struggle  to grow its audience and its business, and as plans to sell the company appear to have foundered.
The job cuts could be announced this week, perhaps before its third-quarter earnings report which will be released before the market opens on Thursday, Bloomberg said.
Shares of Twitter, which are down more than 40% from their 52-week high, were essentially unchanged in after hours trading on Monday.

Deal problems

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is increasingly under the gun. The Twitter cofounder is doing double duty as CEO of mobile payment company Square as well as Twitter, raising criticisms that the 39-year old tech entrepreneur is not able to devote sufficient time and energy to turning Twitter around.
Since taking over as Twitter CEO last year, Dorsey has already initiated one round of job cuts. But he has been unable to grow Twitter's audience, which stalled at around 300 million users, even as larger companies like Facebook continue to amass millions of new users.
Twitter has put itself on the auction block, but so far, no one seems to want it. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, who had deal talks with Twitter, said that he was forced to walk away from the deal table after his shareholders protested.
Other potential buyers, including Walt Disney and Google's parent company Alphabet, also reportedly looked at the company and passed. The latest rumor is that Softbank is kicking the tires on an acquisition, though there doesn't seem to be any real evidence of a deal. 
Earlier on Monday Twitter raised eyebrows with a last-minute rescheduling of its third-quarter earnings report. Instead of announcing its results after market close on Thursday, as it had originally planned, the company said it would report its results at 4am Pacific Time, before the market opens — a highly unusual move for tech companies based on the West Coast.
Twitter declined to comment.
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Apple Watch sales are in freefall

Apple Watch sales are in freefall

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Apple shipped 1.1 million Apple Watches in the third quarter of 2016, which is down 71.6% from the year-ago period, according to an estimate from IDC.
Last year, during the third quarter, Apple shipped 3.9 million Apple Watches.
That's a bigger drop than in the second quarter of this year, in which shipments were down 56.7% on an annual basis. 
This trend towards lower sales is obviously a bad sign for Apple's smartwatch, but it is worth noting that Apple did not ship a new version of the device with GPS until September, towards the end of the quarter. 
The well-telegraphed launch of Apple Watch Series 2 in September could have muted sales as customers waited for the new model. 
Apple also redesigned the device's software and gave the original model a price cut to $269, which should help holiday sales. "With lower price points and improved experiences, Apple could be heading for a sequential rebound in 4Q16," write the IDC researchers.
Apple likes to compare the Apple Watch to the iPod, and suggests that the device should see strong seasonal sales as it makes for a good holiday gift. But Apple has never reported its own internal sales numbers, leaving shipment estimates like the IDC tracker as the best guide. 
It's important to note that Apple still has the best-selling smartwatch worldwide, beating the likes of Garmin, Samsung, and Lenovo. And Google's own smartwatch project seems to be stuck in neutral. 
But 71% drops in year-over-year sales is not good for any product no matter which way you slice it, especially for a new product without a clearly established market.
Here are the 3Q shipments stats, via IDC: 

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Greece just got permission to be massively bailed out again

Greece just got permission to be massively bailed out again

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Alexis TsiprasGreek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras delivers his speech during a congress of leftist Syriza party in Athens, Greece, October 13, 2016.REUTERS/Michalis Karagiannis
Luxembourg (AFP) - Eurozone officials announced Tuesday they have approved 2.8 billion euros for Greece from its huge third bailout after the cash-strapped nation delivered the needed reforms.
Following the latest disbursement approved by the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), Greece will have received 31.7 billion euros of the 86-billion-euro bailout granted in July 2015, its third since being engulfed by debt in 2010.
"Today's decision to disburse EUR2.8 billion ($3.0 billion) to Greece is a sign that the Greek people are steadily making progress in reforming their country," the ESM's managing director Klaus Regling said in a statement.
The Greek government has reached milestones in pension reform, bank governance, the energy sector, and revenue collection, according to the director of the ESM, the Eurozone body controlling Greece's bailout loans.
"It has also taken further steps in making the new privatisation and investment fund operational," Regling said.
If Greece implements more of the reforms under the bailout programme, its economy could "accelerate next year and the government may be able to start issuing bonds again next year," Regling said.
On October 10, Eurozone finance ministers unlocked 1.1 billion euros for Greece but held back the other 1.7 billion over Athens's mountain of unpaid bills amid doubts from Germany.
The eurozone had demanded more data before approving disbursement.
Athens is eager to win the latest bailout cash and complete a second review by the end of the year, which would then trigger talks on reducing the country's huge debt load despite reluctance from powerhouse Germany.

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