Shyloo

Appetize Bolsters Cloud Platform With Paytronix, Givex And 7shifts Software Integrations LOS ANGELES, March 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Appetize Technologies, Inc., the leading food, beverage, and retail management software company, has partnered with three restaurant and hospitality platforms— Paytronix, Givex and 7shifts—to enhance operations and improve guest experiences with seamless loyalty, off-premise ordering, gift cards and labor management. Appetize's industry-leading Developer Center enabled the partners to efficiently integrate via APIs, quickly providing the flexibility and reliability operators seek to empower their business through 2021 and beyond. "We're thrilled that these three best-in-class partners are joining our partner network to achieve the common goal of a more frictionless, software-enabled customer experience," says Appetize CIO and Co-Founder Jason Pratts. "At Appetize, we focus on providing enterprise customers one singular commerce platform to enable a rich set of functionalities—and our newly launched Developer Center is the key for them to quickly and scalably integrate with 3rd party companies." The new partnerships include: Paytronix. Paytronix Systems empowers restaurants and c-stores to build the best customer experiences possible. Its loyalty, online ordering, delivery management, CRM, and stored value products help brands form strong one-to-one relationships with their guests. The Paytronix platform is used by more than 500 of the world's most iconic brands. "At Paytronix, we are focused on creating the best guest experiences for our customers, and that means that everything within the restaurant technology ecosystem must work as one," says Matt d'Arbeloff, COO of Paytronix. "Our customers can only be their best when their loyalty and gift solutions work seamlessly with every possible touchpoint, and we love working with companies like Appetize that are pushing toward the same goal." Givex. Appetize has proudly partnered with Givex, a platform for gift cards, for 6 years, though this is the first time the two companies entered the restaurant space together. Givex provides tools like gift cards and e-gifts to advance customer incentive campaigns and track success in real time. "We're thrilled to enter the restaurant space with Appetize, a company we've proudly partnered with for many years," says Joe Donaldson, CMO of Givex Corporation. "Appetize has built an incredible platform we can rely on, and together with our solutions, like gift cards and e-gifts, businesses have the ability to increase customer loyalty and meaningful experiences." 7shifts. The restaurant labor management platform for scheduling, communication and time and attendance entered a partnership with Appetize in April 2020. 7shifts helps streamline and simplify operations, and is trusted by over 350,000 American restaurant professionals. "7shifts and Appetize share the common goal of simplifying operations for restaurateurs, so our new partnership was a natural fit," says 7shifts CEO Jordan Boestch. "With the integration, Appetize and 7shifts' restaurant customers can connect the systems they rely on to streamline their operations and make smarter business decisions around predicting labor needs. We're looking forward to working with the Appetize team to help restaurants navigate 2021 with more operational visibility than ever before." The three software integrations further bolster Appetize's advanced cloud POS platform that offers contactless payments, mobile ordering, and menu management. Additionally, Appetize continues its partnership with NetSuite, a platform for inventory and ERP management. About Appetize Launched in 2011, Appetize powers food, beverage, and retail transactions for the world's highest volume businesses—including multi-unit restaurants, sports and entertainment venues, theme parks, education campuses, and travel and leisure companies—through its advanced, fully cloud-based solutions. Specializing in contactless payments, mobile ordering, and menu management, Appetize's enterprise commerce platform includes point of sale terminals, self-service kiosks, handheld devices, online ordering, mobile web, and API integrations, as well as powerful management tools to control operations.

My vote goes to DH1 , I like the vocal + rhythm

Call Of Duty R1 Shadowhunter Live Now, But Having Issues The R1 Shadowhunter crossbow was recently made available in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and Call of Duty: Warzone, but this was accidental. It wasn't supposed to actually release until later this season, and Activision has removed the weapon from both games. It's also issuing refunds to those who grabbed it during this brief period. It's since been confirmed that the R1 Shadowhunter crossbow is indeed launching this week, on March 24. Activision shared the news on its official support Twitter page, saying the bundle that included the weapon will be returned to the store at "a later date," along with an associated challenge. We now know the new date is March 24, so it's only a couple of days away from arriving. An issue with the R1 Shadowhunter weapon appearing earlier than planned in Warzone and Black Ops Cold War has been resolved. Refunds are planned for players who purchased the bundle while it was live in the Store, and the bundle and in-game challenge will return at a later date. Prior to it being removed, the weapon was available for stealth-minded players. It fired silent crossbow bolts, letting you take out targets without alerting others in the area. This would be especially useful in Warzone, where alerting others to your position is often the difference between life and death. Getting the weapon in Cold War, at least during the initial accidental release, was possible by getting a series of the One Shot, One Kill in 15 games, so players who have been playing for months will likely be able to get it fairly quickly when it comes back. Plenty of new content did come to the game on purpose recently. A recent update added several different weapon bundles, and an assault rifle that appears to have a dragon spitting out a gun barrel. That weapon, part of the NecroKing Mastercraft Bundle, is available now. Zombies continue to spread across Verdansk in Warzone, as well, adding another wrinkle to the game's ever-changing story. It hasn't gotten as goofy as something like Fortnite, but the developers certainly seem committed to keeping the battle royale game fresh.

New Nvidia Professional GPUs Spotted: RTX A5000 and RTX A4000 Two upcoming professional graphics cards from Nvidia — the RTX A4000 and the RTX A5000 — have received an OpenCL 1.2 certification from the Khronos Group, the consortium that oversees that API. The submission for certification indicates that Nvidia is getting ready to release these products commercially. Nvidia submitted its yet-to-be-launched RTX A4000 and RTX A5000 proviz graphics cards along with appropriate drives to Khronos Group back in mid-February, as noticed by . By now, the organization has tested the boards and found that they conform to the OpenCL 1.2 specification. It is noteworthy that the new professional graphics cards were submitted to Khronos Group along the RTX A6000 board and all three were submitted as Quadro RTX A6000/A5000/A4000 products despite the fact that Nvidia started to phase out its Quadro brand last October and ceased to use it with Ampere-based proviz boards. However, these are professional GPUs so we don't expect them to compete with the best graphics cards for gaming or carry the GeForce branding. Nvidia's RTX A6000 professional graphics card is based on the GA102 GPU with 10752 active CUDA cores as well as 48 GB of memory. Specifications of Nvidia's RTX A4000 and RTX A5000 products are unknown. The GPU developer only used its TU102 and TU104 for its Quadro RTX family launched in 2018. If it follows the same approach with the RTX A-series cards, then both the RTX A4000 and the RTX A5000 will be powered by the GA104 chip. Theoretically, Nvidia could use the GA106 for the RTX A4000. Neither RTX A4000 nor the RTX A5000 boards have been formally announced, and Nvidia does not typically comment on rumors, so we'll have to wait for an official announcement for confirmation of these specs and models.

OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro are now receiving their first software update OnePlus has announced a trio of new smartphones today, and two of those are already in the process of receiving their first ever software update. We're talking about the OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro, to which OxygenOS 11.2.1.1 is now rolling out over-the-air. Since these aren't on sale yet, only review units are receiving the update for now, but it's a safe bet that this new build will be awaiting early buyers when they unbox their shiny new handsets. OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro are now receiving their first software update It's still based on Android 11, of course, and you're faced with a 345MB download to obtain it. It comes with optimizations for charging stability and the UI display of notifications, as well as fixes for other known issues and overall better system stability, Bluetooth compatibility, and improved stability of telecommunication functions and Wi-Fi transmission performance and stability. Additionally, there's optimized video filming fluidity, better color performance for the Pro mode, and supposed improvements to noise and white balance issues with the rear camera, as well as its nighttime brightness and highlight control. All in all, it seems like a good one to install from the moment you receive your OnePlus 9 or 9 Pro. If you're still wondering whether to buy either one, we have reviews ready for both of them - here's our OnePlus 9 Pro review, and here's our OnePlus 9 review. Hopefully these will help you decide which one is for you.

Porsche could use e-fuels to sell combustion cars after 2030 The UK government will impose a ban on the sale of new combustion-engined cars from 2030, but Steiner said that it would make more sense to ban fossil fuels, rather than the engines themselves. "If it comes to banning ICE or plug-in hybrids," he said, "we are convinced this is a misunderstanding – the problem is not the ICE itself, it's the fuel you burn. "We have to do a lot to come down on CO2 emissions – and we are totally committed – but the problem is not the engine, it is the fuel you burn. We do a lot to convince that there should be room, regulation-wise, for such cars to run on e-fuels. Whether this will be really reflected in legislation, we do not know, but in principle – the wrong thing is being beaten." He went on to suggest that Porsche's work with Siemens could be used to demonstrate to governments worldwide that combustion engines can be used cleanly, negating the need for a blanket ban. He explained: "We would like to show with a certain volume of e-fuels that this is really feasible. There are still a lot of questions from people who are not convinced this will work, so we have to show it will, and we will do that. "We will do all we can do to give such highly emotional cars a chance, be it in racing – where we see a big future for e-fuels – or for road cars. Whether we will be really successful, we do not know. "Our job in R&D is to show what's technically possible, and then to convince people that there might be no need to ban everything." Steiner did note, however, that Porsche's overarching priority remains the roll-out of new electric cars and the electrification of its current line-up. "E-fuel is only in addition to e-mobility – the biggest budget and forces are going to e-mobility, but some developers and budget are going towards e-fuels," he said. Porsche will begin testing "a small volume" of its e-fuels in 2022 with the 911. The two-door sports coupé, it has been said numerous times, will be the last Porsche model to go electric, so successful e-fuel trials could extend its life cycle.

North West Norfolk MP criticized over BBC Director General flag questioning The MP for North West Norfolk has faced criticism over his questioning of the BBC's Director General Tim Davie during a Commons committee. During an appearance at the Public Accounts Committee, James Wild, Conservative, pressed Mr Davie on how many images of Union flags were present in the BBC's most recent annual report. Mr Wild asked: "In your annual report last year, 268 pages, do you know how many Union flags featured in the graphics on those glossy pages?" "Of all the briefings I got for this meeting that was not one of them I'm afraid," replied Mr Davie. The BBC Director General Tim Davie The BBC Director General Tim Davie Credit: House of Commons Pressed by Mr Wild on how many flag images were in the report, the Director General said: "I have no idea." "It was zero," Mr Wild replied, "do you find that surprising?" "No, I think that's a strange metric." Mr Davie said. Mr Davie then went on to describe the credentials of the BBC in promoting the UK. He detailed a Union Jack which flies above broadcasting house; his work around the world with the BBC and the private sector promoting the interests of the UK; and he invited anyone walking up Regent Street in London to have a look at the "Union Jack flying proudly above the BBC." Mr Wild questioned the BBC Director General at the Commons Public Accounts Committee Credit: House of Commons Undeterred, Mr Wild continued. "Always good to the see the Union Jack flying, I just think in a 268-page report about the BBC, the British Broadcasting Corporation, my constituents would expect to see probably more than one flag appearing." Mr Davie replied, "I just don't see it as a metric." Mr Wild continued. "In the report you published last week, the BBC across the UK, again how many images of the Union Jack were in that?" Mr Davie replied, "I could hazard a guess based on where the question is going, but I haven't looked." The exchange, which was tweeted by Mr Wild yesterday has been seen more than 400,000 times has been mocked by many online. One person tweeted: "I’m really struggling to take this seriously... let me get this right... a 260+ report and the take-away is flags?! Has he just flicked through the pages to look at the pictures?" Another, supporting Mr Wild said, "what a courageous stand for the very fabric of our nation. Our grandchildren will thank you."

Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade Video Shows Off Big PS5 Improvements Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade releases exclusively on PS5 in only a few months, and Square Enix has released an expanded version of its previous announcement video showing off the visual enhancements. We also get to see more of the new features, including a robust photo mode. The biggest immediate improvement you can see is the lighting, which adds a sense of life to scenes that--while still impressive on PS4--didn’t give characters’ faces or the environment the same subtle shadows. It also allows you to better see the details on the models, such as Barret’s forehead wrinkles. When walking in the slums of Midgar, the light seems to leak through from a space in the metal structure above, making the world beyond seem much more inviting. Textures have received a makeover that also benefits from the lighting, but beyond that, they also show much more detail. It was an area the original PS4 game could sometimes fall flat--literally--with main characters’ super-detailed models standing next to pretty primitive walls and doors. Depending on your display and the gameplay experience you want, you can choose between a few different optimization modes, too. These include a performance mode for 60fps action, as well as a graphics mode that prioritizes 4K resolution. With a photo mode includes that can be customized to take the ideal action shot, we suspect players will be sharing some very impressive pictures online. Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade launches for PS5 on June 10, and it’s a free digital upgrade for those who own the PS4 version, though not those who claimed it on PS Plus. The new Yuffie-centric episode also gives those who already beat the game a reason to play it again. You can preorder the game now, including its deluxe edition for bonus content. Another Final Fantasy 7 game, called Ever Crisis, is also coming to mobile devices and retells the entire saga, while The First Soldier is a battle royale game. Yes, really. We'll have to wait a while longer before we get the chapter in Final Fantasy 7 Remake, which will presumably pick up after the Midgar chapter we played in the first one.

Intel's Comet Lake Refresh CPUs Tested Intel is about to launch its enthusiast-grade Rocket Lake processors in the coming days, bringing its latest microarchitecture to the desktop. But Rocket Lake will only be used for its high-end and performance-mainstream Core i9, i7, and i5 families. For its Core i3 lineup, the company will offer refreshed Comet Lake products with a speed bump. The Comet Lake Refresh lineup is not really big: it contains six Core i3 quad-core models for desktops and one Core i3 dual-core SKU for ultra-thin notebooks. The family's key models are the Core i3-10105, the Core i3-10305, and the Core i3-10325. There are also the Core i3-10305T, Core i3-10105F, and Core i3-10105T. The main difference between the Core i3 'Comet Lake Refresh' and the original Core i3 'Comet Lake' is a 100 MHz speed bump for the base and max turbo frequencies. For example, the Core i3-10325 runs at 3.90 GHz – 4.70 GHz, just 100 MHz higher than the Core i3-10320. Since Intel has been manufacturing quad-core Comet Lakes for about a year now, process technology improvements allowed the company to introduce a speed bump without affecting the yields. Back in February, the Core i3-10105F made it to the retail in Malaysia, but while the new chips are listed on Intel's website, they are not available just yet. Interestingly, a Chinese blogger has managed to obtain Intel Confidential samples of the Core i3-10105 and Core i3-10325 and even reviewed them. Since we are talking about CPUs that are only 100 MHz faster than their predecessors, it is not surprising that they barely demonstrate a performance bump in synthetic benchmarks. For example, the new Core i3-10325 is 1.4% ~ 2.5% faster than its predecessor in Cinebench R23 and it is 1.3% faster in 3DMark Time Spy Extreme. In other tests, the newbie's advantage over its ancestor is even less noticeable. The publication of the review shows that Intel has supplied its partners with samples of the new chips to test them for compatibility with their platforms. We still do not know when the Comet Lake Refresh CPUs are set to be available, but probably in the coming weeks or months.

AOE software is like injecting your music or video game audio with steroids You’ve heard the old adage that a picture is worth a thousand words. Of course, if that’s true, that must mean your audio is worth a million. Like fingernails on a chalkboard, muddy, ill-defined, or poorly separated sound can be a serious dealbreaker — especially in situations where the sound design really matters, like playing a video game with headphones on. Rather than buying a $1,000 speaker or set of headphones, you can vastly improve the quality of your audio at a fraction of that price with Audio Optimization Experience software. AOE is sort of like running all of your music, movie audio, and game sound through a smart audio processor before it hits the speakers. AOE constantly assesses the audio signal to best match it to the capabilities of your speakers or headphones. It listens for the same things a human would listen for in the audio, then adjusts volume levels to prominently feature sounds, music, or dialogue, so they never get washed into the noise of your device’s sound mix. In fact, the patented Bongiovi Acoustics Lab’s Digital Power Station technology uses 120 different calibration points to optimize soundwaves in real time to maintain that precision balance. The result is a deeper, clearer, more well-defined sound that can vastly improve audio quality, even if you’re dealing with cheap internal speakers. Of course, if you’re playing a video game — particularly if you’re wearing headphones — then AOE is a serious treat, dynamically pinpointing audio sources around you into an immersive soundscape. If you’re skulking through a jungle battle scene, AOE will help break out every twig snap or firearm bolt slide to help players better hone in on danger and escape. And if AOE can give your game even a moderate boost when you’re taking on all those other online players, it’s worth it just for the added bragging rights. While improvements like the DPS V3D headphone technology really elevate gameplay, they’re also perfect for watching TV or movies, or even for streaming voice communication from VOIP to Zoom or Skype video calls. Regularly $299, a lifetime of access to Audio Optimization Experience technology is now on sale for more than 80 percent off at just $49.99. VentureBeat Deals is a partnership between VentureBeat and StackCommerce. This post does not constitute editorial endorsement. If you have any questions about the products you see here or previous purchases, please contact StackCommerce support here. Prices subject to change.

Destiny 2 Update Coming March 23 Will Help You Get Deep Stone Crypt's Exotic Rocket Launcher here might be a reason you haven't been able to claim Destiny 2's Eyes of Tomorrow Exotic rocket launcher yet. The top-tier reward for clearing out the Deep Stone Crypt, Destiny 2's newest raid, hasn't been dropping with quite the frequency it should for players, but that'll be fixed--along with the weapon's damage output--in an update to the game slated for March 23. Bungie detailed the issue in its This Week at Bungie blog post, which includes some information about changes coming with Hotfix 3.1.1.1. One of those changes is to fix the bad luck protection in the Deep Stone Crypt raid, which will increase the chances of the Eyes of Tomorrow rocket launcher dropping for everyone who plays it but hasn't yet received one. Bungie also acknowledged that the damage Eyes of Tomorrow does to enemies has been inadvertently lowered by another past update, and that'll be fixed in Hotfix 3.1.1.1 as well. Now Playing: The Devils' Lair - Destiny VS Destiny 2 Comparison The drop rates for Eyes of Tomorrow is intentionally set low, encouraging players to revisit the Deep Stone Crypt raid week after week. However, the more times you clear the raid, the more you're supposed to build up "bad luck protection" against missing out on the Exotic. Essentially, that means your chances of getting Eyes of Tomorrow are supposed to increase each time you clear the raid until, theoretically, your protection reaches 100%. The trouble is, Bungie's bad luck protection for the raid was getting applied per character, rather than per account. So if you ran Deep Stone Crypt on your Hunter, then returned and ran it again on your Titan, the two characters could theoretically have different levels of bad luck protection. And that meant that players who haven't yet received the rocket launcher have longer odds than they should. There are a few other minor bug fixes coming with Hotfix 3.1.1.1, as well as a bunch of balancing changes to Destiny 2's Stasis abilities that Bungie detailed previously. The TWAB also notes that a new Iron Banner competitive event kicks off on March 23, which will give you more chances at Pinnacle loot drops, helping you gear up to take on the game's new Grandmaster-level Nightfall: The Ordeal Strikes.

GPU Pricing Index: Tracking eBay Sadness Our GPU pricing index tracks all the best graphics cards and pretty much everything else in our GPU benchmarks hierarchy. This past week saw the launch of AMD's latest Radeon RX 6700 XT, which quickly joined the ranks of the "Sorry, you can't buy it!" list of GPUs. You could pay extreme pricing on eBay, but we don't recommend that. Ethereum mining continues to be a major factor in eBay GPU prices, and the past week showed continued volatility, with most GPUs continuing to sell for at least double their official MSRPs. Our charts and data come via code originally developed by Michael Driscoll, which we've modified for our purposes. Mostly, we've adjusted the search parameters and tweaked the look of the charts. We're looking at the past week of sales, but we also have a longer look at pricing history on the next page. We update this article on a weekly basis with the latest pricing trends, and will continue to do so as long as it makes sense. We've included all major GPUs of the past several generations and ran queries against eBay's sold auctions, filtering for junk data. While we do our best to exclude listings where it's an image of a card, or just the box, some of those may slip through, but we're mostly interested in the overall trends. As with last week, the overall trend on GPU prices from eBay remains mostly flat, though with a continued upward trend on the newest cards. AMD's RX 6700 XT debuted with prices ranging from $800 up to over twice that, for example. Here are the charts for Mar 4–11, 2021. We've gathered data on 62 different GPUs, which we'll organize into groups based on the GPU generations. Ampere and RDNA2 Graphics Cards The latest generation graphics cards from AMD and Nvidia see the most demand, and every Ampere and RDNA2 card saw slightly higher prices during the past week. That's likely thanks to Bitcoin reaching a new all-time high of over $61,000 on March 13, and while prices dropped a bit after that spike, it's still up 3% over the past week. Ethereum saw a similar jump in price, but it wasn't able to eclipse it's previous high of $2,030, peaking at around $1,930. In total, nearly 2,000 Nvidia Ampere graphics cards traded hands on eBay last week (1,984 by our count). That's a bit less than the previous week (2,085), though the time of day when we collect the data likely accounts for some of that. AMD's numbers are quite a bit lower, with 260 RDNA2 cards sold in total. That's up from the 188 sold the previous week, and the 13 RX 6700 XT units only had a small impact. We'll have to see if the 6700 XT picks up next week, though at these prices it's hard to imagine there are many buyers. Of course, we're only able to pull data from eBay's public listings. While we suspect the relative proportion of AMD to Nvidia sales at retail is similar, there's certainly a wider margin of error. With ever major site still showing every recent GPU as out of stock or backordered, though, every GPU produced continues to get snapped up by a voracious market.

Siemens Digital Industries Software wins Forrester PLM award Siemens Digital Industries Software was named a leader in product lifecycle management (PLM) by Forrester Research for its Teamcenter portfolio. Siemens was among the select companies that Forrester invited to participate in The Forrester Wave: Product Lifecycle Management for Discrete Manufacturers, Q1 2021 evaluation. In this evaluation of the Teamcenter portfolio and six other PLM platforms, Siemens was top ranked in the current offering category, tied for the highest score in the strategy category, and received the highest possible score in the market presence category. The Teamcenter portfolio is a PLM platform that connects people and processes across functional silos with a digital thread for innovation. A technician using Siemens’ Simcenter Testlab. “For over 20 years, Teamcenter has been the PLM solution of choice for thousands of innovative companies that have placed it at the heart of their digital transformation strategy. Siemens is honored and appreciative to be recognized by Forrester Research as a leader in PLM,” said Joe Bohman, Senior Vice President of Lifecycle Collaboration, Siemens Digital Industries Software. “Now with Teamcenter X, we are leading the way with an instant-on full PLM solution that grows with our customers’ needs, built on a modern cloud platform.” According to the report, “Siemens shared with Forrester an above-par vision and roadmap for PLM for discrete manufacturing, together with above-par innovation, partner ecosystem, and transformation strategy”. In addition, Siemens’ Teamcenter was noted for demonstrating “above-par capabilities in requirements management, design, bill of material management, embedded software lifecycle management, manufacturing process planning and management, digital twin, simulation, stakeholder engagement, IoT platform, additive manufacturing, user interface, integration capabilities, configurability, architecture, and developer tools”. The Forrester report also cited Siemens’ “deep international experience in product lifecycle management. It is most appealing to manufacturers that must manage embedded software and, taking into account its acquisition of Mendix, that want to exploit low-code extensibility.”

New 2022 Toyota Aygo reinvented as rugged compact crossover Previewed by the Aygo X Prologue concept ahead of an expected market launch before mid-2022, the successor to the hugely successful city car has been designed, Toyota says, to "prove that cars traditionally referred to as an entry point can still deliver standout design". Despite the raised ride height, 19in wheels and heavily flared arches (aspects that will likely be toned down for the production car), the influence of the existing Aygo is clear in its upright rear light clusters, glass bootlid, two-tone paint scheme and wheels pushed right out to the corners. Off-road-inspired design cues include contrasting skidplates at the front and rear, chunky raised roof rails and distinctive hexagonal foglights. Uniquely, the concept also features "action cameras" mounted in its door mirrors for "capturing and sharing special moments of exploration," while a pop-out bike holder is integrated into the rear bumper. The Aygo X remains smaller than the Yaris supermini, with which it shares its GA-B platform, in terms of footprint: it's 3700mm long and has a 2430mm wheelbase. At 1500mm tall, however, it's about the same height as its sibling. For reference, the current Aygo is 3465mm long, 1460mm tall and has a wheelbase of 2340mm. Toyota previously confirmed that the production version of the Aygo X will exclusively use internal combustion engines in line with its accessible billing. Specifications remain unconfirmed, but the Yaris's entry-level 1.0-litre three-cylinder petrol engine is a likely candidate, and the Aygo X will likely be available with either a five-speed manual or CVT automatic gearbox. Ian Cartabiano, president of Toyota's European Design Centre in Nice, France, said: "Reimagining the A-segment means offering something new to the customer, and I love that [the Aygo X] has some of those crossover cues but looks more fun to drive and is definitely more on the urban side. "The great side effect of the bigger wheel and tyre package - and the new platform - is that the higher hip point makes getting in and out quick and easy; it increases visibility, which is great for urban environments and country roads; and loading into the hatch is at a more natural height." Cartabiano added that although the Aygo X is positioned "more as a crossover," he sees it as "a lifted hot hatch with some great usability and versatility". However, Toyota has yet to give any indication that the Aygo X will receive a hot GR-badged range-topper, as with the Yaris. The Aygo X will remain Toyota's most affordable car in Europe, likely matching the current Aygo's £12,500 starting price, and also like the current car will be built in Kolín, the Czech Republic.

Uber says fares will not rise as it offers minimum wage, holiday pay and pensions Uber says it will give its 70,000 UK drivers a guaranteed minimum wage, holiday pay and pensions in a move that could prompt a shake up of the country's gig economy. The ride-hailing giant said all drivers would earn at least the National Living Wage, which is £8.72 an hour. It comes a month after it lost a legal battle in the UK over drivers' status. Uber said it showed it was "willing to change" and fares were unlikely to rise because of the change in conditions. However, analysts said the company increased prices in California after a similar ruling and was likely to do the same in the UK. Union leaders and employment experts said Uber's move would have far reaching consequences for the gig economy. Bates Wells lawyer Rachel Mathieson, who represented Uber drivers fighting for worker rights, called it "a very significant milestone". Woman using phone to summon a taxi IMAGE COPYRIGHTGETTY IMAGES 'Willingness to change' However, one union complained Uber would still not pay drivers for the time they spent waiting in between jobs. The changes also do not apply to couriers in its food delivery business, Uber Eats, who remain self-employed. Writing in the Evening Standard, Uber's chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi said: "This is a significant improvement in the standard of work for UK drivers. But I know many observers won't pat us on the back for taking this step, which comes after a five-year legal battle. "They have a point, though I hope the path that we chose shows our willingness to change." In last month's Supreme Court hearing, Uber had argued it was a third-party booking agent, and its drivers were self employed. But the court ruled its drivers were workers, a category that means they are entitled to minimum legal, holiday and pension rights. The company is being challenged by its drivers in multiple countries over whether they should be classed as workers or self-employed. Workers' rights Uber, which has never made a profit, said the changes to its UK drivers' pay would come in from Wednesday, and form an earnings floor, not an earnings ceiling. The company said the new rates would come on top of free insurance to cover sickness, injury and maternity and paternity payments which have been in place for all drivers since 2018. Uber says: It will pay at least the National Living Wage for over-25s, irrespective of a driver's age, after accepting a trip request and after expenses All drivers will be paid holiday time based on 12.07% of their earnings, paid out on a fortnightly basis Drivers will automatically be enrolled into a pension plan with contributions from Uber alongside driver contributions, setting drivers up over the long term It will continue free insurance in case of sickness or injury as well as parental payments, which have been in place for all drivers since 2018 All drivers will retain the freedom to choose if, when and where they drive Former Uber drivers James Farrar and Yaseen Aslam pose in front of the Supreme Court on Friday IMAGE COPYRIGHTADCU UNION image captionFormer Uber drivers James Farrar and Yaseen Aslam spearheaded a battle that began six years ago to grant Uber drivers worker status Jamie Heywood, regional general manager for Northern Europe at Uber, said: "Uber is just one part of a larger private-hire industry, so we hope that all other operators will join us in improving the quality of work for these important workers who are an essential part of our everyday lives. "Drivers have consistently told us that they wanted both the flexibility that we provided but also they wanted the benefits and we've been struggling to find a way of bringing those two together in a way that work for us and work for drivers," he said. Uber pointed out in its statement announcing the changes that a worker is a classification that is unique under UK employment law. Workers are not full-blown employees but are entitled to the minimum wage, holiday pay and a pension. The company said the recent UK Supreme Court ruling had provided a clearer path forward as to a model that gives drivers the rights of worker status - while continuing to let them work flexibly.

Fortnite Golden Artifacts Guide: Where To Find Three Golden Artifacts Near The Spire Fortnite Season 6 has arrived and, alongside some major changes like hunting and taming wildlife, as well as crafting survival items, there are new challenges to take on. As always, challenges are the quickest way to level up your new Fortnite Season 6 Battle Pass. In this guide, we'll show you all you need to know about where to find Golden Artifacts near The Spire, which is a new location for Season 6. Where to Find Golden Artifacts Near The Spire There are three Golden Artifacts you'll need to find, though you can do so across multiple rounds. Naturally, you'll first want to land at The Spire. It's the new location at the center of the map, sitting where the Zero Point once was. Head to the southeast corner of the main building in this area shown here. Head up the stairs and around the wall to your left. Sitting beneath a tent is your first Golden Artifact, a gilded bust of a Loot Llama. From there, turn around and head back toward the door you used to enter, but this time go up the stairs instead. Head inside the door at the top of those stairs and straight ahead to find, tucked into the corner, Golden Artifact #2. It is shaped like Meowscles as a hula dancing bobblehead. Now turn around again and head back out the door you entered, immediately going left up the outdoor stairs, into a covered area and through to the far end where another door leads you back outside. Run straight ahead up one last flight of stairs and turn left to find a boarded-up wall. Smash through that wall and you'll find your third and final Golden Artifact, another bust of a Loot Llama.

Intel's Rocket Lake Blasts Off With Fewer Cores, Higher Pricing Intel has spent a long five months on the ropes after AMD's Zen 3-powered Ryzen 5000 chips beat the company's Comet Lake processors in every metric that matters, taking an unprecedented lead in our Best CPUs and CPU Benchmark hierarchy, but now Intel is finally blasting back with its 11th Gen Rocket Lake chips. Today Intel has finally revealed the official specs and pricing for Rocket Lake in advance of the March 30th embargo date for full reviews and retail sales. However, while much of AMD's successful formula has consisted of more cores, a newer architecture, and a newer and denser 7nm node, Intel is launching a new architecture on its older less-efficient 14nm node, but with fewer cores and a higher price tag. As a result, Rocket Lake's flagship $539 Core i9-11900K comes to market with eight cores while the previous-gen Core i9 family came with 10 cores and AMD's leading chips stretch up to 16. Surprisingly, Intel has actually hiked its recommended pricing on its highest-end chips despite this seeming deficiency, signaling that it thinks its eight-core chips have the chops to take on AMD's competing models. Much of Intel's confidence stems from its first new microarchitecture for the desktop PC in the last six years, Cypress Cove. Intel says it backported its Sunny Cove design from the 10nm process to its aging 14nm to create the new design, a necessity because 10nm couldn't support the higher frequencies needed for desktop PCs (we imagine yields might have played a role, too). Intel admits that Rocket Lake's lowered core count can lead to reduced gen-on-gen performance in heavily-threaded applications, but the Cypress Cove architecture brings a 19% improvement in instruction per cycle (IPC) throughput and Rocket Lake also tops out at a blistering 5.3 GHz that Intel says will help reestablish its performance leadership in gaming. Naturally, higher IPC and fast clocks help offset the step back to fewer cores, at least in most applications, but there will be areas of regression. Rocket Lake has plenty of other notable advances, too: Intel stepped forward to faster DRAM speeds (though that comes with a big caveat), finally adopted the PCIe 4.0 interface, added AVX-512 support and AI-boosting DL Boost technology, and also moved to the integrated UHD Graphics 750 engine that hails from the company's 10nm Tiger Lake chips. Intel says these Xe-powered graphics provide up to 50% more performance than preceding models. Intel also has its eyes on other gaming optimizations with added support for Resizable Bar, which boosts gaming performance with supported discrete GPUs, and caters to the enthusiast crowd with a host of overclocking features to wring more performance from the silicon, including unlocked memory overclocking with cheaper B- and H-series motherboards. We finally have all of the new details; let's dive in. Intel 11th-Gen Core Rocket Lake-S Specifications and Pricing Intel's chip specifications have become an incredibly confusing affair for most normal folks, with different specifications for Thermal Boost Velocity (TVB) in both single and all-core flavors, along with separate all-core boost turbo, Turbo Boost 2.0 (TB2) and Turbo Boost 3 (TB3) ratios all combining to create a stunningly complex mishmash of specs — sometimes all on a single model. To present the data in a digestible format, we've boiled that down to the peak frequencies listed in the table below. We've also culled a few of the less interesting models, at least in terms of the competitive landscape, from the table to focus on the key competitive price bands. We'll provide the full specs and list of models later in the article. Intel spreads the Rocket Lake (RKL-S) chips into the familiar Core i9, i7, and i5 families, but there's a fly in the ointment: Intel has decided to use refreshed Comet Lake (CML-R) chips for its Core i3 and Pentium families. Those chips feature the same architecture as other Comet Lake chips but come with slightly increased clock speeds, which we'll cover a bit later. Intel also continues to offer graphics-less F-series models that offer the same specs as their full-featured counterparts, but at a lower price point.

Signiant Acquires Germany’s Lesspain Software LEXINGTON, Mass.—Signiant has announced the acquisition of Lesspain Software, a German-based provider of embedded media processing software. Signiant is bringing in Lesspain’s talent and technology to help it expand the functionality of its Software Defined Content Exchange (SDCX) SaaS platform, adding tools for interaction with media assets. The SDCX platform is designed to provide connective fabric between globally distributed content repositories, both within and between media companies. This includes providing access to media assets from anywhere as well as managing information about the assets. Core members of the Lesspain team will remain in Germany, where Signiant has plans to grow its development organization. Signiant CEO Margaret Craig says this acquisition is part of the company’s strategy to target software companies with complementary functionality that can be transformed into cloud-native SaaS. “We’re operating the industry’s preeminent SaaS platform at scale, and we have built SaaS-centric operational infrastructure across every functional area of the company,” said Craig. “Through adjacent acquisitions, these investments can now be leveraged to deliver the media-centric capabilities that our customers are clamoring for—all on a unified software platform.” “We’re excited about the opportunity to become part of an innovative, customer-centric organization that is committed to the media industry,” said Lesspain’s Robert Krüger. “Our deep experience with content processing and management will enable meaningful contributions as the company continues to advance the SDCX platform vision beyond file transfer.”