US Factory Production Rebounded in September | ABC News

October 17, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

U.S. manufacturers boosted output modestly last month, led by greater production of construction supplies, autos and petroleum products.

Factory production rose 0.2 percent in September, following a decline of 0.5 percent in the previous month, the Federal Reserve said Monday. The broader industrial production category, which includes mining and utilities, ticked up 0.1 percent.

Even with the gain, manufacturing output has been flat in the past year. Factories have been hit by several headwinds: weak business spending on machinery and other equipment, a strong dollar that has made U.S. goods more expensive overseas, and sharp cutbacks in oil and gas drilling that have lowered demand for pipeline and other supplies.

10 Reasons Why Women Kick Butt in Business | All Business

October 12, 2016October 12, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Entrepreneurship isn’t for the faint of heart. It brings endless challenges and demands a whole host of diverse strengths and skills. Although not all that long ago viewed as “the weaker sex,” women are kicking some serious butt in the business world.

As a female entrepreneur, I’ve always believed that women have what it takes to succeed. And according to the 2012 U.S. Census data, I’m not wrong. The 2012 survey showed 9.9 million female-owned businesses, a not-too-shabby 2.1 million firm increase (almost 27 percent) over the 7.8 million in the 2007 U.S. Census.

That’s steady progress toward reaching—and exceeding—the 14.9 percent of male-owned businesses reported in 2012 (which only increased by 1 million businesses in the five years after the 2007 survey numbers came out).

ABC and Amazon will produce podcasts Start Up and Lore into TV shows | Adweek

October 12, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

In a sentence that only makes sense in 2016, your favorite podcasts are becoming TV shows.

As announced earlier this year, Start Up, a podcast that follows the creation of Gimlet Media, a podcast producing company, will air on ABC. While Lore, a podcast that details “real-life scary stories,” is coming to Amazon. For the podcasts, it’s been a rapid transition from iTunes to the small screen.

“Did I think we’d be in the TV business before our two-year mark? I never expected that,” said Matt Lieber, president and co-founder of Gimlet Media, and whom the podcast is partly focused on. “But what motivates Gimlet is telling stories that help our audience better understand each other and the world,” said Lieber.

Tesla to unveil “unexpected” new product October 17 | TechCrunch

October 11, 2016October 10, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Tesla will unveil something on Monday October 17, according CEO and founder Elon Musk. It’ll be a new product, he said in a Tweet on Sunday, which will be “unexpected by most,” and which will be separate from a Tesla/SolarCity product unveiling on the 28th.

Musk previously teased the October 28 event, saying it would include the unveiling of joint products from both the electric car and the solar energy companies, including a solar roof, along with an integrated second generation of the Tesla Powerwall energy storage solution, and a Tesla EV charger.

Here’s Why Samsung’s Shares Are Climbing Despite The Galaxy Note 7 Crisis | Forbes

October 11, 2016October 10, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 recall fiasco has become like a scene from a disaster movie – the worse it gets, the harder it is to look away.

America’s top carriers said over the weekend that they would halt sales of the phone. Note 7 replacements have reportedly been catching fire. Now Samsung itself is halting production of the phone, according to both The Wall Street Journal and Reuters.

It would appear that Samsung is in the midst of a full-blown crisis that threatens not only the Galaxy brand name, but that of Samsung itself, FORBES contributor Ewan Spence writes.

Yet you wouldn’t think that much was amiss from looking Samsung’s share price.

Technology Stocks: A Lucrative Investment as Long as You Know the Ropes | CoolBusinessIdeas.com

October 10, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Many big name investors like Warren Buffet and Peter Lynch were against investing in technology stocks. They were aware that they would miss many large winners, but were willing to make that trade off so they would have a certain guarantee of solid earnings. They argued that technology stocks with high valuations and complex business models were too risky to invest in. They may have been right sometimes but missed out on some lucrative areas.

Is Kroger going to buy Whole Foods? | Money CNN

October 10, 2016October 10, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Will $6 bottles of asparagus water soon be coming to a Kroger, Ralphs or Harris Teeter near you? Whole Foods stock shot up 5% Thursday and briefly rose again Friday on chatter that supermarket king Kroger may want to buy the troubled organic grocer.

But is Whole Foods (WFM) really for sale? Investors may need to take these rumors with several grains of Himalayan pink sea salt.

For one, Whole Foods is still facing many challenges, mostly stemming from bad press about its high prices. The company settled charges of price gouging with regulators in New York City last year, but the company’s Whole Paycheck image persists.

More Entrepreneurs Needed: Women Hold the Key to Economic Expansion | Getentrepreneurial.com

October 10, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

According to a report conducted by the Kauffman Foundation, supporting women-led businesses could have a huge positive impact on the economic growth of the U.S. Over the last few decades, more women have started to enter the workforce, and they began to outshine males in degrees. This led to women helping the U.S. economy by creating huge economic gains.

However, many have said that the annual economic growth of 3 percent has slowed down with the Kaufmann report suggesting that this could hit a low of 2 percent in the next few years. What’s the answer to boosting this growth again? Women.

Facebook Finishes Its “Secret Conversations” Encryption Rollout to Messenger Users | WIRED

October 6, 2016October 5, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

LAST SPRING WHATSAPP pushed out code adding a new layer of security to a billion users’ apps, creating the largest end-to-end encrypted messaging network in history. Now WhatsApp’s parent company Facebook has finally given people who use its other massively popular chat app the chance to catch up.

A Facebook spokesperson tells WIRED the company just finished rolling out “Secret Conversations” to all 900 million Facebook Messenger users in the past few weeks. The opt-in feature allows users to encrypt their messages so that no one can read them except the two people on either end of a conversation—not even Facebook or law enforcement or intelligence agencies. “Your messages are already secure, but Secret Conversations are encrypted from one device to another,” states a description in the app when users initiate their first encrypted conversation.

Jack Dorsey Is Losing Control of Twitter | Bloomberg

October 6, 2016October 5, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

A few days before Twitter’s Sept. 8 board meeting, as the company’s finance team readied a presentation, it received conflicting directions on a crucial question. Should their slides reflect Twitter’s prospects as an independent company or delve into the benefits of getting acquired?

Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s chief executive officer, argued that the 10-year-old company should remain on its current course and work to capitalize on recent product improvements and success in streaming live video, people familiar with the discussions said. Ev Williams, a former CEO who has a history of clashing with Dorsey, was in favor of exploring a sale. Other directors agreed they had a fiduciary duty to consider that option. The board ultimately decided to consider takeover prospects after getting an expression of interest from a potential acquirer, which led it to hire Goldman Sachs and Allen & Co. to evaluate possible bids.