Wednesday morning witnessed the successful berthing of Orbital Sciences’ Cygnus spacecraft at the International Space Station. The spacecraft which was carrying 3300 pounds of cargo including small satellites and student experiments was launched on Sunday evening and at 3:00 am ET the spacecraft made its approach to the station. The entire berthing sequence was completed at 8:53 am.

Cygnus-Spacecraft-Safely-Berthed-at-the-International-Space-Station
The cargo delivery by Orbital stems from a $1.9 billion contract with NASA and this was the second out of eight total deliveries that Orbital will provide under the contract. The spacecraft is to remain attached with the station till August 15 when it will be filled with trash and released to burn in earth’s atmosphere.
The craft was named after a former NASA astronaut and Orbital employee, SS Janice Voss who passed away in 2012.

The ISS Commander Steve Swanson stated that Janice was a seventh crew member who had just joined them and talked about how Janice Voss devoted her life to space. He said that Janice’s legacy continued in space through the spacecraft.

United Arab Emirates always desire to be on the top of everything like it’s one of the richest countries of the world, have already made the tallest tower of the world, has the world fourth top city, and has the biggest oil company.

In spite of all these things they are not tired yet and they have plans to send the first Arab spaceship to Mars in 2021. The name of that spaceship is not yet mentioned to the press. Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum says that they wish to do this in order to prove the world that they are competent and can make contribution in the line of technology as well.

Numerous other first world countries have done this experiment but most of them are ineffective. If this plan becomes successful then it will definitely shed a really positive signs on country’s economy and will polish the talent of youngsters in this field.

It may be difficult to believe at first, but research indicates that smartphone vendors in the US still have a lot more room to expand. The US is having a population of 318 million out of which only 169 million use smartphones. Relative to the population; smartphones have only penetrated into 50% of the population.

Moreover recent statistics suggest that 70% of the mobile users in the US use smartphones. The numbers are self-indicative of the potential for the expansion for smartphone companies, provided they attract the right buyers. Also, on average Americans keep their smartphones for about 21 to 24 months which also indicates the possibility to attract users to switch their smartphones.

Amongst all the OEMS, Apple has the highest market share when it comes to smartphones with an impressive 41.9% while the OS market is dominated by Google’s Android OS. It is interesting to note that Android is not only leading globally in smartphone OS but also in the US. The sales share of Android in the US smartphone market stood at 61.9% compared to iOS’s 41.9% in the three months ended on May, 2014.
As you would have guessed the market for Symbian and Blackberry Os has significantly declined despite the Lumia series.

The statistics and their analysis implies that the majority of smartphone users in the US are not new but rather switch between smartphones this is problematic as it restricts new market development.

COLUMBUS: Ohio Attorney General Mike Dewine recently announced a proposed settlement of damages against Apple.inc for their involvement in the price fixing conspiracy in the e-books market. If the settlement agreement is approved by the U.S District Court for the Southern District of New York it will resolve claims for damages brought forward by Ohio and 32 other states.
Attorney General Dewine has emphasized the importance of challenging anti-competitive practices and the need to protect consumers from such practices. He suggests that the settlement seeks to provide relief to the consumers and e-book purchasers.
The amount consumers are to receive under the settlement is dependent upon the District Court’s decision for Apple’s appeal against the finding that the company violated antitrust laws and conspired with numerous publishers to raise e-book prices between 2010 and 2012. The appeal remains pending before the U.S Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Nationwide consumers are to receive $400 million in case the court’s ruling is affirmed. In case the appellate court is not able to reaffirm the court’s ruling and the ruling of Apple’s appeal is in their favor the settlement provides a significantly smaller recovery of $50 million.
Interestingly, the settlement combined with earlier settlements with the publishers will amount to twice the actual payable damages in case Apple is held liable and the appeal fails.
E-book purchasers all over the nation have received a total of $166 million in settlement funds paid by the following publishers which have been determined to be involved in the conspiracy: Penguin Group (USA), Inc. (now part of Penguin Random House); Holtzbrinck Publishers LLC d/b/a Macmillan; Hachette Book Group Inc.; Harper-Collins Publishers LLC; and Simon & Schuster Inc.
Notwithstanding the economic inefficiency or lack of cogency in the rationale for compensation these high amounts ought to fulfill the deterrent purpose of damages to say the least.

Things seem to be going quite well for Samsung as the South Korean giant anticipates the best second half since 1999. The Samsung group continues to take more businesses public and consequently recent stock sales have produced three times the Asian average.

Credit Suisse, a leading global financial services company has projected that compared to last year companies might raise 30% more from initial and secondary public offerings in the seconds half, which would mean a total of 8.4 trillion won!

This year, the Korean listings rose 79% on average compared to an average of 21% for the region.
Samsung’s listed units comprise about 24% of the index and they are planning to take two more of their companies’ public. According to Daewoo Securities, the offerings might attract more chunks of foreign money to what is now Asia’s fifth largest stock market. The head of the corporate finance division at Daewoo Securities, Kim Sang-tae suggests that a significantly larger pool of competitive companies will be open for investment.

Samsung Everland disclosed its plan to list as early as the first quarter next year and Samsung SDS intends a float by the end of the year.

The following transactions will facilitate the evolution to holding company structure, at least which is what the analysts at Morgan Stanley and CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets suggest.

However factors such as the hospitalization of the chairman and the government ban of family owned conglomerates have contributed to a greater scrutiny of the group.

Nevertheless, the sales continue to help revive the fortunes of Korea’s stock arrangers after the second worst start to a year since the year 2008. The Director at Credit Suisse, Tan Kang expects the outlook to get better as large listings will bring a reviving change in the stumbling IPO market.

Recently, Microsoft has changed its CEO and that designation has been assigned to Satya Nadella. Nadella has started making some big adjustments soon after his appointment.

Firstly he makes two executive of Microsoft form different department to leave the company. Secondly he has announced one of the biggest job cuts, around 6000 people, in the history of the Microsoft Company.

When the reason has asked behind all these shake ups and job cuts, he hasn’t changed 6000 employees from their company; they were the people who work in the Nokia Handset division.

Microsoft has added nearly 30,000 employees after they get hold of Nokia handsets division. He also mentioned that shortly they will hire a few more people for their entertainment department for which obviously they will ask some of the old employees to leave the company. Nadella stated it quite clearly that his plan is to develop new skills which require the removal of old staff.

He gave a fair warn to the old employees that if you wish to stay in Microsoft then you better alter your list of work and add some fresh passionate ideas in it. He has plans to make Microsoft more than merely a software company instead he wants it to be a company which sells online services and applications as well.

Nadella is under the criticism of several companies as well, they complain that he has not given them any clear instruction regarding his upcoming strategies for the revival of Microsoft.

Wednesday morning witnessed the successful berthing of Orbital Sciences’ Cygnus spacecraft at the International Space Station. The spacecraft which was carrying 3300 pounds of cargo including small satellites and student experiments was launched on Sunday evening and at 3:00 am ET the spacecraft made its approach to the station. The entire berthing sequence was completed at 8:53 am.
The cargo delivery by Orbital stems from a $1.9 billion contract with NASA and this was the second out of eight total deliveries that Orbital will provide under the contract. The spacecraft is to remain attached with the station till August 15 when it will be filled with trash and released to burn in earth’s atmosphere.
The craft was named after a former NASA astronaut and Orbital employee, SS Janice Voss who passed away in 2012.

The ISS Commander Steve Swanson stated that Janice was a seventh crew member who had just joined them and talked about how Janice Voss devoted her life to space. He said that Janice’s legacy continued in space through the spacecraft.