British audio company Ruark has launched its latest product, the R5 High Fidelity Music System, in an effort to appeal to music and design enthusiasts alike. 

Designed to act as an all-in-one music system, the Ruark R5 features a multi-format CD player, DAB/FM and internet radio tuners, as well as support for aptX HD Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi streaming. You can even hook it up to your turntable thanks to a dedicated RIAA turntable input, or charge your devices using the USB playback/charging port.

Like previous Ruark devices, the top of the music system features a ‘Rotodial’ controller, which allows you to control playback. It also features an remote control that’s identical to the inbuilt Rotodia controller, so you can control your music without having to get out of your seat. you don’t even have to point the remote at the system as it works via radio communication. 

You can control the R5 uses Ruark’s ‘LINK’ app, which is free to download on iOS and Android devices.

Style and substance

The Ruark R5 promises to deliver a fantastic level of audio quality, thanks to Class A-B amplifiers in a 2:1 stereo configuration. The speakers use a neodymium magnet system – that's the most powerful naturally occurring magnet in the world  - allowing for potent drivers that displace a large volume of air when they vibrate. This means the R5 should deliver powerful bass frequencies, particular when coupled with the systems built in long-throw subwoofer.

The cabinet that houses all this audio tech is similarly designed to provide a high level of sound quality, having been specially tuned and damped. It’s not all about the audio though; thanks to its gently curved shaped and fabric grille, the R5 has a mid-century quality to it that should look super stylish in the home. 

It comes in two finishes, a ‘Rich Walnut’ wood design or a more modern-looking ‘Soft Grey’ lacquer (both look great, but we like the look of the wood/fabric combination best). There’s no word yet on an official release date, but Ruark says the R5 will be available to buy in the next few months for £999 (around $1300 / AU$1800 based on current conversion rates.)

• Best stereo speakers: the best bookshelf, floor, and Hi-Fi speakers in 2019

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We were expecting LG to launch the LG G8 at MWC 2019 in late February, but it now seems that might not be the company’s only flagship on show, as a report claims that the LG V50 ThinQ will also be announced.

That’s according to ETNews, which adds that the LG V50 ThinQ will support 5G, while the LG G8 won’t. The site also says to expect a Snapdragon 855 chipset, a 4,000mAh battery, a 6-inch display and a vapor chamber (to keep the phone cool) in the V50 ThinQ.

The LG V50 ThinQ will apparently also have a new gesture-based interface and is said to go on sale in Europe and the US in March, with Sprint listed as one of the network partners. That makes sense as we'd previously heard that LG's first 5G phone would be a Sprint-exclusive in the US.

However, if you want to buy it you might want to get saving, as the report also says to expect a price of between 1.3 million won (around $1,170/£890/AU$1,600) and 1.5 million won (roughly $1,350/£1,025/AU$1,850).

Two become one

The idea seems to be to give customers the choice between a super-premium 5G handset in the form of the V50 ThinQ, and a more conventional, affordable flagship in the form of the LG G8, which will apparently get a wider, global launch.

Moving forward though LG might look to ditch the G range according to this report, and roll it into the V series. That could happen soon, with the LG G8 potentially being the last in the range, but this is just a rumor for now, so we’d take it all with a pinch of salt.

Still, with LG also seemingly looking into foldable phones, it might make sense to combine its V and G series, rather than adding a third premium option to the mix.

• Here's all the 5G phones we're expecting in 2019

Via Phandroid

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Recent research has revealed that one in four Christmas gifts will be returned early this year, worth around £4.8 billion of the estimated £19 billion in online sales over the festive period, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research.  

Barclaycard research suggests a quarter of retailers (26 per cent) have seen a rise in returns in-store and online since 2016, with the number of returned items up by 22 per cent on average.  

Returns put a significant amount of pressure on retailers, resulting in reduced revenue alongside the challenge of stock management. Siloed IT systems between applications, branches and warehouses can result in a disjointed approach to inventory reporting, negatively impacting the customer experience and potentially harming sales and customer loyalty.   

2018 was a challenging year for retailers, with sales at brick-and-mortar retail stores falling 1.9 per cent in December on a like-for-like basis – the worst year-on-year monthly sales fall in over a decade.  

With economic growth flat-lining - alongside Brexit on the horizon - markets are as uncertain as they’ve ever been. Consumers are being cautious with their spending, seeking the best deals where they can find them, driving up competition.   

With that in mind, the customer experience is as critical as a retailer’s pricing strategy. Connected data, up-to date stocklists and a quick and seamless purchasing process must all be staples in any retailer’s diet.  

The returns challenge

There is no shortage of tech applications and systems in the market today to support retailers. Any store - digital or physical - could be managing a multitude of IT systems from physical in-store point-of-sale (POS) systems, e-commerce platforms and warehousing applications to billing, customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource management (ERP) solutions. Yet for a business to fully harness the potential of these systems and applications - and deliver a first-class customer experience - they must be able to talk to each other, share data and help the business glean better intelligence into its customer-base.  

Cloud-based integration platforms provide a simple, user-friendly way to integrate applications and data without the cost and complexity of clunky solutions that require custom coding. Retailers will benefit from a platform that can connect any combination of best-of-breed cloud applications with legacy on-premise systems (and with each other) - transforming themselves into more transparent, experience-driven organisations focused on delivering a superior customer journey.

Online growing pains

The growth in online shopping - alongside this deluge of on and offline returns - has put extra strain on retailers, with limited time in order to process orders, track refunds and update stocklists to ensure accurate and up-to-date listings. January always sees a peak in shoppers, whether they’re buying or returning gifts - and retailers must ensure their online sites are ready for this surge in visitors, with their teams and IT systems also able to scale quickly to support changes in demand. 

We’ve already seen examples of online retailers being struck down during crucial times for their customers. Recently, during its famed Amazon Prime Day, Amazon was hit by stark technical glitches that could have cost the company around $90m. Argos also saw its website go down shortly before the launch of its Black Friday sale in 2016, with the UK retailer citing “high demand” as a factor contributing to the outage.

Delivering in an omni-channel era 

Such outages and IT failures can have a clear impact on customer loyalty, as well as the immediate loss in sales, with a whole host of rivals ready to step in at any given moment. Whether it’s the website going down, unavailable stock or a poor user experience, all of these aspects can affect customer allegiance. After all, why would you go back to a store when you’ve received a below par service?  

With online and mobile shopping expected to rise again this year, ensuring a seamless customer experience that’s channel-agnostic is even more key for retailers seeking to transform a good experience into a great one.  

Linking multi-channel orders and customer records together - to bring a single view to marketing and support services - enables retailers to deliver more personalised experiences for their customers. They can also deliver accurate, real-time inventory data across ecommerce and physical stores to influence online purchasing and help ‘save sales’. With automated updates, shoppers aren’t left disappointed by incorrect stock displays causing delays, late deliveries or even missing out on products they want.  

In fact, the provision of live visibility into inventories enables retailers to significantly enhance demand planning and streamline stock replenishment processes – keeping more accurate tabs on what’s selling and what needs a promotional boost.

While a large amount of festive gifts will be returned this year, ensuring people, processes and data are integrated is key for retailers seeking to deliver a seamless, connected customer experience. Those most connected of retailers will be best placed to ride out the storm.

Derek Thompson, VP of EMEA, Dell Boomi

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Last week nearly all the specifications for four new Moto G7 phones were leaked, and now the high-end variant - the Moto G7 Plus - has been spotted in the wild. 

Images of the Moto G7 Plus surfaced on a closed Facebook group for Brazilian Motorola fans, and revealed some interesting features for the smartphone. 

The handset in the leaked images appears to be a box-ready Moto G7 Plus complete with a protective plastic sheet over the screen spelling out some of the phone's key features.

If genuine, the image confirms the 16MP rear camera on the Moto G7 Plus will feature Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) - which should provided more detailed, blur-free shots and improved low-light shooting.

The leaked shot of the rear of the Moto G7 Plus shows a dual camera setup (the second sensor is rumored to be 5MP) and a fingerprint scanner below it, incorporated into the Motorola logo.

So far then, these specs match previous leaks we've seen regarding the handset.

TurboPower fast charge to get a boost

Another interesting tidbit from the leak is that the Moto G7 Plus will apparently support 27W TurboPower fast charging. Usually, 15W fast-charging adapters are included in the box of many smartphones, but the G7 Plus may buck the trend with a 27W adapter.

Other specifications of the phone such as the 6.2-inch Full HD+ (2270 x 1080 pixels) display and Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 processor are also shown, with the octa-core CPU clocked at 1.8GHz and arrives alongside 4GB of RAM.

The Moto G7, Moto G7 Plus, Moto G7 Play and Moto G7 Power are expected to launch on February 7, and TechRadar will be reporting live to bring you all the latest from Motorola. 

• Moto G7 Plus release date, price, news and leaks

Via Gadgets360

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Microsoft has opened the doors for those Insiders who want to ‘skip ahead’ and go straight to early testing of the next big update of Windows 10 which is due to land in late 2019 (19H2).

This isn’t surprising, considering earlier this week, we heard that Microsoft is preparing to roll out 19H2 builds of Windows 10 to testers in just a few weeks (and indeed an internal build – version 18823 – was spotted recently, too).

Current testing is on 19H1, the update due to arrive in the first half of this year – probably April – and those skipping ahead to test the next major Windows 10 upgrade can expect to encounter lots of bugs early on, as ever.

If you wish to skip ahead to 19H2, you better get on board now, as places are limited and they tend to disappear quickly. You can opt-in following the instructions as tweeted by Microsoft below.

The enrolment process actually went live late yesterday, which again underlines the urgency with which you’ll need to move if you want to get in.

Bug ahead

That said, apparently when the gates were officially opened, a bug was present that meant plenty of folks couldn’t see the option to sign up for ‘skip ahead’. At the time, Brandon LeBlanc, Senior Program Manager on the Windows Insider team, acknowledged there was a problem and said Microsoft was looking into it.

Shortly after, however, he said the issue was resolved, so all should hopefully be fine by now. If you’re still not getting the option to join ‘skip ahead’, you could always try rebooting (that age-old solution to everything).

Mind you, the bug just might have worked in some people’s favor, in terms of slowing down the number of testers who have managed to subscribe in the last 12 hours, and maybe giving you a better chance of getting in today.

• Some of the best laptops of 2019 run Windows 10

Via Windows Central

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Samsung is heavily rumored to be introducing a new smartwatch alongside the Galaxy S10, and now we've seen even more evidence that this will be the case as a device codenamed Pulse has been spotted going through the certification process in Taiwan.

Following on from US and South Korean certification we've previously seen, the latest evidence for an impending launch comes from a Taiwanese NCC listing that includes the device.

We've seen the codename Pulse a lot in Samsung documentation, where it refers to a wearable device from the company, and this device is currently rumored to be launching as the Samsung Galaxy Sport or possibly the Galaxy Watch Active.

Another Galaxy

There's no clear sign of what specs and features the watch will include from the listing, but we've previously heard that it's set to sport all of the same tech as the Samsung Galaxy Watch, such as GPS, NFC and other connectivity options, as well as Tizen software.

It will likely come in four colors - those are black, silver, green and gold - as well as including 4GB of storage for apps and music. There's also rumored to be more advanced Bixby support than what we saw on last year's Samsung Galaxy Watch.

Alongside this, we're also expecting to hear about two new Samsung Galaxy Fit fitness trackers soon and perhaps even four versions of the new Samsung Galaxy S10 line of phones.

Samsung is hosting an event on February 20 in San Francisco so we may hear about the Samsung Galaxy Sport there, or we may have to wait a few more days for MWC 2019 at the end of February.

• Samsung Galaxy Sport - what we know so far

Via DroidShout

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It’s been a long year for Nintendo fans waiting on Mario Kart to come to mobile and, unfortunately, more patience is required after the game’s launch was moved back to this summer.

Nintendo announced plans to bring the much-loved franchise to smartphones one year ago. It was originally slated to launch by the end of March 2019, but the Japanese games giant said today it is pushing that date back to summer 2019.

The key passage sits within Nintendo’s latest earnings report, released today, which explains that additional time is needed “to improve [the] quality of the application and expand the content offerings after launch.”

The checkered flag has been raised and the finish line is near. A new mobile application is now in development: Mario Kart Tour! #MarioKartTour Releasing in the fiscal year ending in March 2019. pic.twitter.com/8GIyR7ZM4z

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) February 1, 2018

It’s frustrating but, as The Verge points out, you can refer to a famous Nintendo phrase if you are seeking comfort.

Shigeru Miyamoto, who created the Mario and Zelda franchises, once remarked that “a delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad.”

There’s plenty riding on the title — excuse the pun. Super Mario Run, the company’s first major game for the iPhone, showed its most popular IP has the potential to be a success on mobile, even though Mario required a $9.99 payment to go beyond the limited demo version. Mario Kart is the most successful Switch title to date, so it figures that it can be a huge smash on mobile if delivered in the right way.

from TechCrunch https://tcrn.ch/2DKPmZ3

Jake Bright Contributor

Jake Bright is a writer and author in New York City. He is co-author of The Next Africa.

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Partech has doubled its Africa VC fund to $143 million and opened a Nairobi office to complement its Dakar practice.

The Partech Africa Fund plans to make 20 to 25 investments across roughly 10 countries over the next several years, according to General Partner Tidjane Deme. The fund has added Ceasar Nyagha as Investment Officer for the Kenya office to expand its East Africa reach.

Partech Africa will primarily target Series A and B investments and some pre-series rounds at higher dollar amounts. “We will consider seed-funding—what we call seed-plus—tickets in the $500,000 range,” Deme told TechCrunch on a call from Dakar.

“In terms of sectors, we’re agnostic. We’ve been looking at all…sectors. We’re open to all plays; we have a strong appetite for people who are tapping into Africa’s informal economies,” he said.

African startups who want to pitch to the new fund should seek a referral. “My usual recommendation is to find someone who can introduce you to any member of the team. We receive a lot of requests…but an intro and recommendation…shortcuts one through all that,” Deme said.

Headquartered in Paris, Partech has offices in Berlin, San Francisco, Dakar, and now Nairobi. To bring the Arica fund to $143 million the VC firm tapped a number of other funds, several undisclosed corporate venture arms, and development finance institutions.

They include Averroes Finance III, the IFC, the EBRD, and African Development Bank. Deme would not list figures, but confirmed “the IFC and European Bank for Reconstruction committed the largest amounts.”

On why players like the IFC, which has its own VC shop for African startups, would place capital with Partech, Deme explained, “many have existing mandates to co-invest…others may not know this territory as well and would rather invest in another fund” with regional experience.

Partech used that experience in 2018 to make 4 investments in African startups (2 undisclosed). They led the $16 million round in South African fintech firm Yoco (covered here at TechCrunch) and a $3 million round in Nigerian B2B e-commerce platform TradeDepot.

Partech Africa joined several Africa focused funds over the last few years to mark a surge in VC for the continent’s startups. Partech announced its first raise of $70 million in early 2018 next to TLcom Capital’s $40 million, and TPG Growth’s $2 billion.

Africa focused VC firms, including those locally run and managed, have grown to 51 globally, according to recent Crunchbase research.

As for a bead on total VC spending for African tech, figures can vary widely.

By Partech’s numbers, compiled from an annual survey it does on Africa, 2017 funding for African startups reached $560 million.

Partech hasn’t released its 2018 Africa VC estimate but it will now be up  some $70 million more from its own recent raise.

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Samsung Electronics reported its largest quarterly profit decline in two years during its earnings report today. As the Galaxy maker warned in its earnings guidance earlier this month, its results were hurt by slower-than-expected demand for semiconductors, which had bolstered its earnings in previous quarters even when smartphone sales were slow.

Samsung’s forecast was also dour, at least for the first half of the year. It said annual earnings will decline thanks to continuing weak demand for chips, but expects demand for memory products and OLED panels to improve during the second half.

The company’s fourth-quarter operating profit was 10.8 trillion won (about $9.7 billion), a 28.7 percent decrease from the 15.15 trillion won it recorded in the same period one year ago. Revenue was 59.27 trillion won, a 10.2 percent drop year over year.

Broken out by business, Samsung’s semiconductor unit recorded quarterly operating profit of 7.8 trillion won, down from 10.8 trillion won a year ago. Its mobile unit’s operating profit was 1.5 trillion won, compared to 2.4 trillion won a year ago.

Smartphone makers, including Samsung rival Apple, have been hit hard by slowing smartphone sales around the world, especially in China. Upgrade cycles are also becoming longer as customers wait to buy newer models.

This hurt both Samsung’s smartphone and chip sales, as “overall market demand for NAND and DRAM drop[ped] due to macroeconomic uncertainties and adjustments in inventory levels by customers including datacenter companies and smartphone makers,” said the company’s earnings report.

Samsung expects chip sales to be sluggish during the first quarter because of weak seasonality and inventory adjustments by its biggest customers. The company was optimistic about the last two quarters of 2019, when it expects demand for chips and OLED panels to pick up thanks seasonal demand and customers finishing their inventory adjustments.

from TechCrunch https://tcrn.ch/2Ts5sMQ

Grab’s fundraising push continues unabated after the Southeast Asian ride-hailing firm announced that it has raised $200 million from Central Group, a retail conglomerate based in Thailand.

Central’s business covers restaurants, hotels and more than 30 malls in Thailand, while it has operations in markets that include Vietnam and Indonesia. Its public-listed holding companies alone are worth more than $15 billion.

Singapore-based Grab confirmed that this deal is not part of its ongoing Series H fundraising, but is instead an investment into its Thailand-based business. Rumors of the deal were first reported by Reuters last year.

Following this investment, Central said it will work with Grab in a number of areas in Thailand, including bringing its restaurants into the Grab Food service, adding Grab transportation to its physical outlets and bringing Grab’s logistics service into its businesses.

The investment represents the first time an investor has bought into a local Grab country unit, and the goal is to strengthen Grab’s position in Thailand — a market with 70 million consumers and Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy. Grab is under threat from Go-Jek, which expanded to Thailand at the end of 2018. While Go-Jek’s ‘Get’ service is currently limited to motorbikes on-demand in Thailand, its ambition is to recreate its Indonesia-based business that covers four-wheeled cars, mobile payments, on-demand services and more.

Central is a huge presence in the country, and in recent years it has raised its efforts to translate that offline retail presence into the digital space. Past deals have included the acquisition of Rocket Internet’s Zalora fashion business in 2016, and — more recently — a $500 million joint venture with Chinese e-commerce firm JD.com to create online retail and fintech businesses in Thailand.

Grab, meanwhile, is pushing on with its $3 billion Series H funding round. That deal is anchored by a $1 billion investment from Toyota but it also includes contributions from the likes of Microsoft, Booking Holdings and Yamaha Motors. More capital is waiting in the wings, however, with existing investor SoftBank in the process of transferring its investment to its Vision Fund with a view to investing a further $1.5 billion. The total fundraising effort is targeted at a lofty goal of $5 billion, sources told TechCrunch.

To date, Grab has raised $6.8 billion from investors, according to data from Crunchbase. That makes it Southeast Asia’s most capitalized tech startup and it was most recently valued at $11 billion. The company recently announced it has completed three billion rides; it claims 130 million downloads across its eight markets.

Go-Jek, meanwhile, closed the first portion of a $2 billion funding round last week, sources told TechCrunch. The new financing is aimed at growing out its presence in new market expansions which, beyond Thailand, include Singapore, Vietnam and the Philippines.

from TechCrunch https://tcrn.ch/2HHJEvf

On Wednesday New York Attorney General Letitia James announced that her office had reached a settlement with Devumi, a company that made millions selling fake followers to unsuspecting customers. The state of New York found that Devumi had engaged in illegal deception and illegal impersonation in the course of fluffing up social media profiles with its automated accounts.

First reported by CNN, the settlement follows a New York state probe into the company after reports of suspicious activity and potentially deceptive business practices first surfaced. Almost exactly a year ago, The New York Times reported a big feature on the company that prompted the state’s probe.

In that piece, the Times describes Devumi as “an obscure American company… that has collected millions of dollars in a shadowy global marketplace for social media fraud.” The reported detailed how the company used a stable of 3.5 million bots to fuel a business that boiled down to making people look important on platforms including Twitter. Like any bot worth its sticker price, those accounts often came with names and profile images culled from real people to help them blend in and appear legitimate.

Devumi shut down operations mid-last year in the face of the state probe and slack sales. While some customers of the company and its affiliates were aware they were buying fake followers, many others were not. That deception is central to the state’s case.

The AG’s actions set an interesting precedent for a newly defined category of potential cyber crime — one that may strike fear into the hearts of sketchy social media companies the web over.

“Bots and other fake accounts have been running rampant on social media platforms, often stealing real people’s identities to carry out fraud,” James said of the settlement. “As people and companies like Devumi continue to make a quick buck by lying to honest Americans, my office will continue to find and stop anyone who sells online deception.”

from TechCrunch https://tcrn.ch/2TiVE7A