BlackBerry Ltd. is now a “Tier One” supplier for Ford Motor Co., a designation that cuts out the use of a middleman in supplying products or services to the auto maker. The move, announced Monday, represents an “inflection point” taking place in the global car business, said John Wall, head of BlackBerry’s QNX Software Systems. BlackBerry, a once-dominant smartphone maker, has increased its focus on software development after losing significant market share to Apple Inc., Samsung Electronics Co. and others in the global handset wars. Being recognized as a Tier One supplier, rather than having to go through other suppliers to sell to companies like Ford, is important for BlackBerry’s future in the automotive industry. The Canadian company is developing software for several challenges facing car companies, including helping to coordinate functions for autonomous vehicles. Ford, which is being lapped on self-driving car testing or electric cars by some tech companies and startups, including Tesla Motors Inc. and Google’s car project, aims to have a fleet of autonomous test-vehicles next decade. BlackBerry aims to offer products that can enable so-called connected cars but faces a barrage of competition both from the traditional auto-supply base and tech firms. BlackBerry’s QNX Software is already in tens of millions of cars, spanning Volkswagen AG to General Motors Co. Its relationship with Ford dates back several years and relates to software needed as an operating system in the auto maker’s SYNC infotainment service. In an interview, Mr. Wall said BlackBerry typically deals with auto makers early in vehicle development, but then works through an auto supplier that is supplying a component to the auto maker with BlackBerry’s product embedded in it. The transition comes as auto makers are continually adding lines of software code to their vehicles and scrambling to boost the security and capability of systems ranging from mapping to vehicle-to-vehicle communication. Apple, Samsung, Google parent Alphabet Inc. and other tech companies are looking to ink supply agreements with auto makers or are developing their own systems for autonomous vehicles and other services. At the same time, Apple’s iOS mobile operating system and Google’s Android are becoming more ubiquitous in light vehicles due to new systems being installed by auto makers that allow occupants to plug in their smartphones so that the device’s operating system can take over. Mr. Wall said working as a Tier One supplier likely will lead to more BlackBerry QNX deployment in cars. Mr. Wall didn’t comment on how the arrangement will affect BlackBerry’s pricing power with companies like Ford. read more

CenturyLink Inc. on Monday said it reached a cash-and-stock deal to buy Level 3 Communications Inc. for roughly $25 billion, a marriage that would give the communications companies more heft to weather a competitive landscape. Level 3 runs one of the largest internet backbones in the world but has turned its focus to small and midsize business customers to reverse slowing sales growth in its core operations. CenturyLink, traditionally a rural phone company, has sought to upgrade its network with fiber-optic lines in a bid to compete with AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications Inc. and rivals in the cable industry. ”The financial benefits speak for themselves,” Level 3 Chief Executive Jeff Storey said Monday during a conference call with analysts, pointing to nearly $1 billion of expected cost savings from sharing data lines and cutting overlapping jobs. “I believe scale matters.” The deal would turn CenturyLink—which has grown from a small Louisiana phone provider by scooping up the former Qwest and Sprint Corp.’s landlines—into an even more corporate-focused service provider, with about three quarters of its revenue coming from business customers. The combined company would also keep millions of home internet subscribers, most of whom use slower digital subscriber lines. CenturyLink CEO Glen Post said the company had no plans to spin off its residential business. “That certainly is an option for us, but not an objective,” he said. Level 3 will help trim CenturyLink’s tax bill by adding nearly $10 billion of accumulated net operating losses to its balance sheet. Level 3 racked up massive losses for most of its history, as heavy infrastructure costs outstripped its service revenues. The newly profitable carrier has more recently used those past losses to reduce its effective tax rate. The cash-and-stock deal initially valued Level 3 at roughly $25 billion, or $69.92, based on closing prices Friday, offering a premium of 49% based on the stocks’ closing prices Wednesday, before The Wall Street Journal reported the companies were in advanced talks. Shares of CenturyLink fell 12% on the news in Monday afternoon trading, lowering the deal’s value to about $23 billion. Level 3, meanwhile, gained 5%. The deal would add about $11 billion in long-term debt to CenturyLink’s roughly $18 billion in debt. Under the deal’s terms, CenturyLink agreed to swap $26.50 in cash and 1.4286 shares for each share of Level 3. The company said the deal was worth $34 billion, including debt, and is expected to close by the third quarter of 2017. Mr. Post, a 64-year-old who has led CenturyLink since 1992, will serve as CEO of the combined company, and Level 3’s chief financial officer, Sunit Patel, will serve as financial chief. CenturyLink agreed to add four of Level 3’s directors to its board at closing. The combined company will be based in Monroe, La., and will maintain a significant presence in Colorado and the Denver metropolitan area, where Level 3 is based. Both companies have historically been acquisitive. In 2014, Level 3 bought TW Telecom for about $6 billion, and in 2011, it bought rival Global Crossing Ltd. for roughly $2 billion. CenturyLink, formerly called CenturyTel, bought Qwest Communications International for $11 billion and Savvis Inc. for $2 billion in 2011. It also purchased Embarq Corp., Sprint’s former landline operations, for about $6 billion. Another potentially disruptive regulation is headed CenturyLink’s way later this year. The Federal Communications Commission in May floated new “business data services” rules that could cut the fees incumbent telephone companies can charge rivals by as much as 19%. CenturyLink opposes the proposed rate changes and on Monday sent the agency a letter criticizing its transparency. “This drastic rate cut would cripple many providers’ ability to continue providing quality service, much less have money left to invest in broadband innovation for the future,” the letter said. Level 3 has railed against legacy telephone companies like Verizon and CenturyLink for allegedly overcharging it for access. Level 3 built its network on fiber-optic cables strung between big data centers and downtown business districts, and it relies on local telephone companies to provide the last link to its customers in shops and office buildings not yet hooked up to its backbone. Mr. Post said the looming FCC decision didn’t drive the acquisition, though the broader regulatory environment played into both companies’ decision. He said he expects that regulators will put tough demands on the carriers but will ultimately approve a deal that allows more competitive prices. The merger partners also reported third-quarter earnings on Monday. CenturyLink reported a profit of $152 million as its revenue fell 3.8% to $4.38 billion. Level 3 posted a $143 million profit on revenue that was flat at $2.03 billion. read more

NDTV

Simulation is a great way to design a product for users who don’t share the same context as you do. This is what Facebook aims to drill through to its staff by slowing down the site for one hour on Tuesdays.

Through the initiative—dubbed “2G Tuesdays”—the company hopes its staff will better understand what its like to access the platform via a 2G connection, a reality for many of its users living in the developing world. In Africa, Facebook has over 120 million active users, 57% of which access the platform using a feature phone with a 2G connection.

“They’re going to see the places that we need to improve our product, but they’re also going to see the places where we have made a lot of progress,” said Tom Alison, Facebook’s engineering director.

Earlier this month, the company optimized its news feed to allow users with slow connections access it quickly. Through other initiatives, like Internet.Org, Facebook Lite—a mobile app designed for 2G connections—and the company’s recent announcement that it will beam internet by satellite in Africa starting next year, it is clear that Facebook is betting on the “next billion” internet users—many of which still use 2G technology.

But all of these initiatives aren’t just philanthropic deeds. By optimizing the platform for slower connections and helping to improve access to the internet, Facebook wants to continue grow its user base rapidly in countries like India and Nigeria with the view to generating more revenue in the long term.

With 1.42 billion active monthly users by the end of the second quarter this year, the popular social network has become a mega advertising entity. In the second quarter of this year, 96.4% of Facebook’s revenue (pdf, pg. 8) came from advertising, while 76%, or $2.6 billion, of that ad revenue was derived from mobile advertising.

While Facebook is notching up billions of dollars in revenue in North America and Europe, its average revenue per user (ARPU) in the developing world lags behind, as Quartz has previously reported.

Figures from the company’s second quarter earnings for 2015 show how regions like Africa and South America (accounted for in the “rest of the world” category) generate 10 times less in average revenue per user (ARPU), than the two North American countries, US and Canada. read details.

IBM Agrees to Acquire Weather Channel's Digital Assets

Jing Cao jinglebellscao

October 28, 2015 — 5:37 AM PST Updated on October 28, 2015 — 6:14 AM PST

 

Computerworld

 

IBM agreed to acquire digital assets from Weather Co., which include the Weather Channel and Weather Underground apps and websites, attempting to strengthen its ability to crunch data for customers and capitalize on the so-called Internet of Things.
The Weather Channel television property, which isn’t part of the acquisition, will license weather forecast data and analytics from IBM under a long-term contract, the Armonk, N.Y.-based company said in a statement Wednesday.
Terms of the purchase weren’t disclosed.
Chief Executive Officer Ginni Rometty has been seeking to bolster IBM’s cloud and data analytics offerings, shifting from software sales and information-technology services amid a stock decline and multiyear revenue slump. The Weather Co. acquisition extends a bet that so-called cognitive computing by IBM’s Watson division, which draws insights from vast amounts of data, will drive future growth. IBM this year purchased Merge Healthcare for $1 billion to add medical imaging technology and data to the Watson Health Cloud business unit.
Combining the technology and expertise from the two companies will serve as the foundation for the new Watson Internet of Things unit and cloud platform, IBM said.

‘High Volume’

While IBM already had access to the Weather Channel’s data, the acquisition will allow IBM to use the underlying platform, which “can ingest data at a very high volume in fractions of a second that will be an engine that feeds Watson,” John Kelly, a senior vice president at IBM, said in an interview on Bloomberg Go. The applications and websites handle 65 billion unique accesses on weather data a day, he said.
IBM plans to expand the capabilities to industries beyond weather “in a matter of months and quarters,” Kelly said.
Weather Co.’s owners -- Blackstone Group LP, Bain Capital LLC and Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal -- have been working with Morgan Stanley and PJT Partners Inc. to explore a sale, people with knowledge of the matter said in August. The three firms acquired the company for about $3.5 billion in 2008.
The company’s digital businesses include The Weather Channel’s website, Weather.com; Weather Underground; and Weather Services International. Two-thirds of U.S. consumers over 18 years old use a Weather Channel brand monthly, according to the company’s website.

SEC Probe

IBM’s shares rose 1.3 percent to $139.73 at 9:54 a.m. in New York. The stock fell to a five-year low on Tuesday after the company disclosed that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is conducting an investigation related to revenue recognition in the U.S. the U.K. and Ireland. IBM said it was cooperating with the probe.
Underscoring the challenges of its strategic transition, IBM last week lowered its full-year profit forecast, excluding some items, to $15.25, plus or minus 50 cents from a previous outlook of $15.75 to $16.50. The company remains dependent on big software deals, which take time to secure, while it invests in its strategic shift. IBM’s goal is for the new businesses to deliver $40 billion in revenue and account for 40 percent of total sales by 2018. see more

 

10 paid iPhone and iPad apps on sale for free right now

By Brad Reed on Oct 28, 2015 at 11:55 AM

 

You could use a pick-me-up to get you through Hump Day, which is why we’ve created our biggest list this week of paid iPhone apps on sale for free for a limited time. Today we’re bringing you ten, yes ten, iPhone and iPad apps that would normally cost you $17 but are all completely free if you act right now. Check them out below!
MUST READ: I’ve made the iPhone 6s into my dream Android phone
These are paid iPhone and iPad apps that have been made available for free for a limited time by their developers. There is no way to tell how long they will be free. These sales could end an hour from now or a week from now — obviously, the only thing we can guarantee is that they were free at the time this post was written. If you click on a link and see a price listed next to an app instead of the word “get,” it is no longer free. The sale has ended. If you download the app, you will be charged.

Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock

Normally $0.99

Waking up made easy.
Free today with App of the Day HD
An intelligent alarm clock that analyzes your sleep and wakes you in the lightest sleep phase – the natural way to wake up feeling rested and relaxed.
Sleep Cycle helps millions of people to wake up rested!

Download Sleep Cycle

Sometimes You Die

Normally $1.99

In a game, you die.
And imply that it has no effect on you.
You feel invincible in the realm behind the screen.
This one is different.
In this game, you have to die.
∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ G A M E ∙ ∙ ∙
What is your motivation?
What do you expect from this game?
Do you want to beat it?
How do you know it can be beaten?
This game plays with expectation, illusion, and reality.
∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ P U Z Z L E S ∙ ∙ ∙
Think before you act.
Who knows what it means to die behind the screen?
Is it only a number that goes up?
Pixels that change their intensity?
Solve disturbing, surprising, and malicious puzzles.
∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ D E A T H ∙ ∙ ∙
Is it possible to go through the game
without dying even once?
Will you aim for it?
∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ D I F F I C U L T Y ∙ ∙ ∙
Some think the game is easy.
I think,
those haven’t discovered the hidden levels yet.

Download Sometimes You Die

ParkSmart!

Normally $0.99

Locations such as college campuses, airports, unfamiliar cities, amusement parks, and concert venues make it easy to forget where you parked and to spend an eternity trying to figure it out – especially after a tired day. Eliminate the worry with ParkSmart!.
Park your vehicle, mark its location, then easily find your way back to it. With an intuitive interface, foolproof, and simple design, ParkSmart! is the easiest – and quickest – way to find your way back to your vehicle.
ParkSmart! allows you to mark you car’s coordinates, take a quick picture of its surroundings, and create general notes about it within a simple design. When you’re ready to find your vehicle, just press “Locate” and the app will generate a walking path back to it, return the address of your car, how far you are away from it, and it will allow you to launch “Maps” with turn-by-turn driving directions from your very own Siri with the press of a button.

Download ParkSmart!

Private Calculator

Normally $1.99

Private Calculator can hide your photos/videos/documents/notes/contacts behind a calculator. What everyone can see is just an ordinary calculator. You can access your private world by entering your password on the calculator.
FEATURES:
File Manager:
– Wifi File transfer to/from PC/Mac
– Import Photo/Video from Camera Roll
– Full screen, full functional photo viewer.
– Support almost all video formats: avi, mkv, wmv, flv, mp4, m4v …etc
– Support Image files: jpg, png, gif, bmp
– Support Document files: txt, html, pdf, doc …etc
– Support creating custom folder
– Photo slideshow
– Unzip file
– Thumbnail gallery
– Share Files with other APPs
Private Browser:
– Simple, elegant UI and full feature private browser
– Bookmark & History manager
– Switch to Desktop/iPhone/iPad browser easily
– Download all images on the page by one button
Private Notes:
– Unlimited to create notes
– Custom font and font size
– Copy/Share/Send Mail
Private Contact:
– Unlimited to add contacts
– Import contacts from iPhone
– Add memo for contact
– Quick dialing / send SMS / send Email
More Features:
– Simple & Fast calculator
– Automatically back to calculator when the app in background
– Shake to unlock – Shake your device after entering the password to access your folder, avoid someone entering your password unintentionally.
– Touch ID – use Touch ID to unlock.
– Decoy Mode – use decoy passcode to enter an empty fake space.
– The APP name is ‘My Calculator’ on springboard

Download Private Calculator

rop

Normally $0.99

New, polished, mind-bending, minimal puzzle game with dozens of levels and extra-ordinary design..
Features:
– Beautifully crafted minimal puzzle game
– 198 mind bending levels
Get ready for the new puzzle experience..
Exclusive for iOS.
Optimized for iOS8 and human brains

Download rop

iReminder

Normally $0.99

Massively popular iOS Reminder App completely re-designed for the modern user, ultra efficient, concise, and has exactly what you need to stay on track to get things done!
* Snooze (and Autosnooze)
* Alerts Popup Box (Local Notification, similar to a text message reminding you to do something)
* Categories (ex. Shopping List, Homework Schedule)
* Repeat Alerts
* Non-Alert Categories

Download iReminder

Chemio

Normally $1.99

Interactive periodic table, solubility table, molar mass calculator and the 3D widget for designing electron configuration of atom. The most necessary chemical references for students in the one neat app – it’s Chemio!
Chemio is an interactive chemical reference. It provides a set of useful instruments, which allow you to perform search and calculations faster. Our app’s purpose is to replace traditional chemical books and to help you with your research or education.
We’re open for your feedback about the app’s performance and functionality.

Download Chemio

PicIt! Pro

Normally $1.99

A must-have companion app for the iOS Camera Roll, PicIt! Pro automatically catalogs the entire photo library with a beautiful, immersive user interface that allows you to organize, access, share and re-engage with past memories like never before.
“The richness of life lies in memories we have forgotten.”
– Cesare Pavese (Italian Poet)
PicIt! Pro is ideal for causal photographers to globetrotters to anyone in between who loves to capture his/or her life experiences in photographs. PicIt! Pro organizes and displays your photos in an intuitive layout so that you can find and relive the moments of your past with ease and fitting nostalgia.
– In your spare moments, take a walk down memory lane with the intuitive MapIt! feature that pinpoints the exact locations of your adventures!
– Search for the specific photographs by country and state/province with the insightful StateIt!
– Quickly find your summer vacation pictures from three years ago with DateIt!
– Use the ClockIt! feature to learn about your usual habits by the hour of the day!
– Whether you’re a globetrotter, vacationer, business traveler, exchange student or a causal photographer, share your Trophy Case with the world and win bragging rights!
Location services required for full functionality of features like MapIt!, StateIt! and Trophy Case.

Download PicIt! Pro

Map My Customers

Normally $2.99

Map my customers puts your sales territory on a map – easily import and visualize your customer base. Track customer progress with notes, phone numbers, check-ins, reminders, groups, custom pins, routing, lead generation, etc. – all through one beautiful app to help you sell more than ever.
Our new teams feature allows you to share pins with team members, track their location, view live updates from them in the field, and more. Visit http://www.mapmycustomers.me and login for details.
All Features:
– Import contacts from excel or similar spreadsheet programs
– Import contacts from address book
– All customer pins sync with your iPad, iPhone, and our website
– One tap to create and sync a customer meeting with your iOS calendar
– Share pins with colleagues
– Save and name routes through multiple pins with directions
– Get push notified of nearby accounts
– View all customers within 300 mi of you
– Set reminders about when to visit/follow-up with customers
– Export customers to excel/csv
– Make phone calls and get directions directly to customer
– Choose from 10 different colors to display pins
– Easily delete and add pins, phone numbers, and notes
– Make pin groups to hide/show sets of customers
– Auto-add current location as a pin or drag and drop pins to add rural locations
– Check in at customer locations for keeping track of visits
– Easily search all of your customers by name, address, number, etc.
– 24/7 customer support
We’d love to hear what you think of mapmycustomers, please consider rating on the app store and sending us your thoughts on how we can make it a better product for your sales needs.
Note: Continued use of GPS running in the background can dramatically decrease battery life.

Download Map My Customers

Scored

Normally $1.99

Scored is an elegant, lightning-fast sports app for the iPhone. View live scores, results, and schedules at a glance and receive instant score alerts when you want them.
Scored is a premium sports app with a focus on clarity and simplicity.
• Support for all NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL teams.
• Live scores, recent results, and upcoming games at a glance.
• Customizable score alerts – instant push notifications at various game stages.
• Full season schedules and results.
• View scores and results direct from your ‘Today’ screen.
• A simple, clean design. No waiting around for results to load or jerky scrolling to catch up. No blinking lights or obnoxious ads. A truly modern sports app.

Download Scored

Tags:

iPhone

 

read full article from bgr.com

 

Emil Protalinski October 28, 2015 8:10 AM

Tags: Microsoft, Skype 

 

Microsoft today updated its Skype for Android and iOS apps with video message filters and 3D touch support on the new iPhones. You can download the new apps now directly from Google Play and Apple’s App Store (iPhone, iPad).
First up, the apps are getting video message filters, which are essentially video effects that you can add on top of your Skype video messages. Skype has had video messages — short clips you can send to your Skype contacts to be viewed at any time — for a while now, but you couldn’t do much with them beyond recording and sending.
Now, you can tap the filter wand at the bottom left of the video message window, choose a filter to see it in action, and then hit the record button. You can add balloons, change the appearance of your face, or even apply a negative filter.

iOS users are getting the bigger update. Skype has added a bunch of iOS 9 features for the new iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus:

• 3D Touch the Skype icon on your home screen for quick access to our most used features — search your Skype contacts, start a call or chat, and access the Skype dial pad. Clicking any of these options takes you to that task in Skype instantly.
• Once you’re in the app, you can 3D Touch a Recent conversation to Peek the latest instant messages or live video if you’re on a call. Swiping up reveals more actions and a harder press will Pop the conversation into the foreground.
• If you’re in a conversation and someone shares their location, a photo, URL or contact, you can 3D Touch to Peek it, then swipe up to reveal more actions or harder press to Pop it into the foreground.

Skype for iPhone and iPad now also lets you hide and delete chats by swiping the contact or tapping Edit — you can also delete the entire chat history from within any conversation by using the chat menu. Lastly, you can now share a Skype contact by tapping the contact card icon in a conversation to open your contact list.
Unfortunately, Skype once again has apparently excluded Windows users from the mix. We’ve asked Microsoft for more information on when Skype for Windows will get these features. see more
 

By Paul Keegan  This post originally appeared in Inc.

hoto by Bay Ismoyo/AFP/Getty Images

Before Dan Price caused a media firestorm by establishing a $70,000 minimum wage at his Seattle company, Gravity Payments ... before Hollywood agents, reality-show producers, and book publishers began throwing elbows for a piece of the hip, 31-year-old entrepreneur with the shoulder-length hair and Brad Pitt looks ... before Rush Limbaugh called him a socialist and Harvard Business School professors asked to study his radical experiment in paying workers ... an entry-level Gravity employee named Jason Haley got really pissed off at him.

It was late 2011. Haley was a 32-year-old phone tech earning about $35,000 a year, and he was in a sour mood. Price had noticed it, and when he spotted Haley outside on a smoking break, he approached. "Seems like something's bothering you," he said. "What's on your mind?"

"You're ripping me off," Haley told him.

Price was taken aback. Haley is shy, not prone to outbursts. "Your pay is based on market rates," Price said. "If you have different data, please let me know. I have no intention of ripping you off." The data doesn't matter, Haley responded: "I know your intentions are bad. You brag about how financially disciplined you are, but that just translates into me not making enough money to lead a decent life."

Price walked away, shocked and hurt. For three days, he groused about the encounter to family and friends. "I felt horrible," he says. "Like a victim." An entrepreneur since he was a teen, Price prided himself on treating employees well at Gravity, which he co-founded in 2004 with his brother Lucas Price. Three years before, as a 16-year-old high school kid, Dan Price saw bar owners being gouged by big financial firms every time they swiped a patron's credit card. By first outsourcing technology, and then building its own systems, Gravity offered lower prices and better service, and grew rapidly for four years—until the Great Recession nearly wiped it out. Traumatized, Price kept a lid on wages even after the economy recovered—to save the company, of course! Why can't employees see that? Yet the more people tried to cheer him up about his wage policy, the worse Price felt.

Finally, he realized why: Haley was right—not only about being underpaid, but also about Price's intentions. "I was so scarred by the recession that I was proactively, and proudly, hurting my staff," he says. Thus began Price's transformation from classic entrepreneur to crusader against income inequality, set on fundamentally changing the way America does business. For three years after his face-off with Haley, Price handed out 20 percent annual raises. Profit growth continued to substantially outpace wage growth. This spring, he spent two weeks running the numbers and battling insomnia before making a dramatic announcement to his 120-member staff on April 13, inviting NBC News and the New York Times to cover it: Over the next three years, he will phase in a minimum wage of $70,000 at Gravity and immediately cut his own salary from $1.1 million to $70,000 to help fund it.

The reaction was tsunamic, with 500 million interactions on social media and NBC's video becoming the most shared in network history. Gravity was flooded with stories from ecstatic workers elsewhere who suddenly got raises from converted bosses who tossed them out like Scrooge after his epiphany—even, in one case, at an apparel factory in Vietnam. Price was cheered at the Aspen Ideas Festival and got an offer from The Apprentice reality-show impresario Mark Burnett to be the new Donald Trump on a show called Billion Dollar Startup. Gravity was inundated with résumés—4,500 in the first week alone—including one from a high-powered 52-year-old Yahoo executive named Tammi Kroll, who was so inspired by Price that she quit her job and in September went to work for Gravity at what she insisted would be an 80–85 percent pay cut. "I spent many years chasing the money," she says. "Now I'm looking for something fun and meaningful."

Price had not only struck a nerve; he had also turbocharged a debate now raging across the American landscape, from presidential forums to barrooms to fast-food restaurants. How much—indeed, how little—should workers be paid? While financiers and C-suite honchos have showered themselves in compensation, most Americans haven't had a raise, in real dollars, since 2000. Especially in the wake of the recession, entrepreneurs and corporate bosses have tightly controlled costs, including wages. That boosts profits—and bonuses. But at what cost? In a U.S. economy that is more than two-thirds consumer spending, GDP growth is chained to income growth. Workers can't spend what they don't have, nor do they have the home equity to borrow and spend. Weak wage growth helps explain why this long economic expansion has been so tepid.

Until Price dropped his wage bomb, much of that debate was punditry. He gave it a name and a face: A modern Robin Hood helping the working class by stealing from himself—and perhaps from shareholders of other companies whose bosses are now also putting employees ahead of profits: #imwithdan! Was it coincidence that Walmart, that paragon of parsimony, coughed up raises for its lowest-paid workers?

Then the inevitable backlash came. Price has been pilloried on Fox News and trashed by the multimillionaire Limbaugh ("I hope this company is a case study in MBA programs on how socialism does not work, because it's gonna fail"). A Times story in July was so laden with quotes from disgruntled customers and staff that Price's worried friends called to say he always has a place to stay if things don't work out. Others accused Price of orchestrating a clever publicity stunt. ("If it was," he replies, "I'm a genius.") Shortly after Price announced his minimum, his brother Lucas sued him, claiming Dan had previously paid himself "excessive compensation" and asked the court to order Dan to buy Lucas's 30 percent share of Gravity "at fair value" or dissolve the firm. Lucas declined to comment; Dan denies his brother's claims.

Price isn't backing down about pay going up. Now he's going all in. He revealed to Inc. that he has sold all his stocks, emptied his retirement accounts, and mortgaged his two properties—including a $1.2 million home with a view of Puget Sound—and poured the $3 million he raised into Gravity. As majority owner, he is not exactly penniless. But if Gravity fails, so does Price. "Most people live paycheck to paycheck," he says. "So how come I need 10 years of living expenses set aside and you don't? That doesn't make any sense. Having to depend on modest pay is not a bad thing. It will help me stay focused."

And business owners will stay focused on him. The Dan Price Pay Experiment will either be hailed as a stroke of genius showing that entrepreneurs have underpaid their workforces to their companies' detriment, or as proof positive that Gravity is being run by a well-intentioned fool.

"I love Monday mornings," says Price, relentlessly upbeat as usual, walking through Gravity's sparse office in the Ballard section of Seattle, a rapidly gentrifying former fishing village. He wears the full hipster regalia of ripped jeans, untucked shirt, and sneakers. The office looks as you might expect—desks and computers in bland cubicles—but the space is reorganized every six months so people can sit near different colleagues. "So we don't get too comfortable," Price says.

Being comfortable wasn't a goal in Price's family when he was growing up in rural southwest Idaho, near Nampa. He and his five siblings took turns waking at 5 a.m. to make breakfast before Bible readings and prayers led by their Evangelical Christian parents. On his own, Price spent hours reading Scripture and reached the finals of a national Bible-memorization competition in the fifth and sixth grades. Like his siblings, he was homes-chooled until age 12. That's when he rebelled a bit, dying his hair with red and blue streaks and painting his nails like the punk rockers he listened to.

Price learned to play bass guitar and formed a Christian rock trio called Straightforword, which was successful enough to tour and get national airplay. At 16, when the band broke up, he decided to help the struggling owners of bars and coffee shops where they had played by negotiating cheaper rates from the credit card processing companies, which offered little more than exorbitant prices and spotty service.

Though his family struggled financially, Price never thought of his enterprise as a way to make money. Inspired by his father, Ron Price, a self-employed consultant who often spoke of living according to your values, Dan says he just wanted to help friends like Heather, who ran the Moxie Java coffee shop in Caldwell, Idaho. But make money he did, rounding up more than 200 clients and in a good month netting $12,000. By the time he entered Christian Seattle Pacific University in 2004, Price had developed a more sophisticated business model: processing credit card transactions himself using outsourced technology.

Though fluent with computers, his real skill was negotiating—cobbling together deals with the myriad firms involved in making a single credit card swipe go through smoothly. While continuing to serve his Idaho customers, he found enough new ones in Seattle to start Gravity Payments with Lucas, five-and-a-half years older and already a college graduate. He also married Kristy Lewellyn, a high school sweetheart whose strict Christian parents demanded, when Price was 16, that he commit to marriage or stop seeing her. He agreed, but the union didn't last, ending amicably in 2010.

Dan and Lucas were 50-50 partners in Gravity and shared responsibilities but had a falling out about 18 months after launch. Lucas was frustrated at being given menial tasks by his kid brother, and in 2008, they agreed that Dan would become majority owner. Lucas is now an executive at the Seattle texting startup Zipwhip.

Funded in part by Dan's savings, credit card debt, and student loans (diverted to fund his venture), the company grew rapidly as Gravity built its own technology and brought the card-processing systems in-house. He somehow graduated from college in 2008, won several business awards, and met President Obama. Then the recession hit and Gravity fell rapidly to earth. Revenue dropped 20 percent, and vendors and clients went bankrupt. Price was spooked. "We almost lost everything," he says. Always stingy with pay, he had offered employees the usual startup promise: We'll give you an exciting place to work, and you'll learn so much you'll eventually be financially successful—either here or elsewhere. But after his encounter with Jason Haley, he decided to try a new tack.

The 20 percent raises Price implemented in 2012 were supposed to be a one-time deal. Then something strange happened: Profits rose just as much as the previous year, fueled by a surprising productivity jump—of 30 to 40 percent. He figured it was a fluke, but he piled on 20 percent raises again the following year. Again, profits rose by a like amount. Baffled, he did the same in 2014 and profits continued to rise, though not quite as much as before, because Gravity had to do more hiring.

"But I was still bothered and I didn't know why," he says. In March, Price went walking with a good friend who earned less than $50,000 at another firm. She was smart, capable, and worked 50 to 60 hours a week. But her Seattle rent was rising another $200 a month, and she was struggling with student debt and worried about how to pay for basics. "I was so angry," Price says. "Here I am walking around making $1 million a year, and I'm working shoulder to shoulder with people in her situation who are every bit as good and valuable as I am."

As a numbers guy, he knows all the statistics. Even as the nation's productivity has improved 22 percent since 2000, median wages have risen only 1.8 percent, adjusted for inflation. Wages have actually fallen by 3 percent since the recession. Meanwhile, productivity gains are going to CEOs who earn, on average, about 300 times more than typical workers, compared with 71.2 times in 1990, according to the Economic Policy Institute. (Price's $1.1 million salary was about 23 times the $48,000 average at Gravity.) Such trends have driven the push for a $15 minimum wage in some cities, including Seattle.

"I began wondering what my friend would have to make so she wouldn't have to worry about a $200 rent hike," says Price. He recalled a 2010 study by Princeton behavioral economist Daniel Kahneman finding that, while people did not feel happier on a daily basis as their income rose above $75,000, they were decidedly unhappier the less they earned below $75,000. At Gravity, new hires made $35,000 a year.

By any measure, Gravity was doing relatively well. Revenue hit $150 million in 2014 and was growing 15 percent per year on $7 billion in customer transactions. Profits hit $2.2 million—actually a so-so 1.46 percent net margin, below the industry average. About 40 percent of the profits went to Dan and Lucas as dividends (Dan put his in an emergency savings account for the company). The rest went back into the business. "We had a great culture and hundreds of people were applying for positions, so we could have gotten away with underpaying for a while longer," he says.

But Price worried that employees with money troubles would fail to provide the top-notch service that had made Gravity successful. He also believed that low starting salaries were simply wrong—contrary to his values, which his father had always taught him to respect. "I just decided I'm gonna do $70,000," he says. "I don't care if I have to stop paying myself or I have to work 20 hours a day. I'm going to do it."

The plan will eventually double the salaries of 30 workers and give raises to 40 more making less than $70,000. Phased in over three years, this will cost $1.8 million. The minimum jumped to $50,000 immediately and will climb by $10,000 in each of the next two years; those who earn $50,000 to $70,000 will get $5,000 raises. Price has vowed not to raise prices, lay off staff, or cut executive pay. More than half the cost will be offset by Price's pay cut. Unless revenue grows, the rest will be covered by that $2.2 million profit, leaving little margin for error.

Since that April made-for-TV moment, Price says he's had no second thoughts—mostly because he's been learning how his employees had been struggling. Garret Nelson, 31, a salesman in Boise, Idaho, got a $5,000 raise, to $55,000, allowing him to pay for teaching supplies and music lessons for his five homeschooled kids. "People back in Idaho said he was nuts," says Nelson, who went to middle school with Price. "But it really energized the employees."

Is there a magic number that keeps workers focused while still generating a profit? Price calculated a figure but never imagined the publicity he's gotten would boost new customer inquiries from 30 per month to 2,000 within two weeks. Customer acquisition costs are typically high, so in that sense, the strategy has paid off. And in this business, customer retention is key. Gravity's 91 percent retention rate over the past three years—far above the industry average of about 68 percent—has been crucial to its success. Maria Harley, Gravity's vice president of operations, looks at a different set of numbers. While the company had to hire 10 more people than anticipated to handle the new business, most nonlabor costs—rent, technology, etc.—have remained the same, thus improving operating ratios. "We don't need our sales to double," she says. "We only need them to increase marginally—by about 25 to 30 percent. When I started being more logical than emotional about this, I said, 'This is totally possible.'"

Six months after Price's announcement, Gravity has defied doubters. Revenue is growing at double the previous rate. Profits have also doubled. Gravity did lose a few customers: Some objected to what seemed like a political statement that put pressure on them to raise their own wages; others feared price hikes or service cutbacks. But media reports suggesting that panicked customers were fleeing have proved false. In fact, Gravity's customer retention rate rose from 91 to 95 percent in the second quarter. Only two employees quit—a nonevent. Jason Haley isn't one of them. He is still an employee, and a better paid one.

In fact, the biggest threat to Price's company isn't his strategy; it's his brother. Lucas's lawsuit, scheduled to be heard in May, could ruin Gravity. Price estimates legal fees will reach $1 million by then. The suit was filed on April 24, 11 days after the pay-raise announcement—perhaps to pressure Dan to sell when Gravity was in the limelight, thus maximizing the value of Lucas's share. Dan says Lucas has refused his offer to buy him out for $4 to $5 million. (Lucas's attorney says the suit is unrelated to the raises.)

When asked about his brother, Dan maintains his usual upbeat, grateful attitude: "We're in such a great place with the company and Lucas helped me get here. Anything he gets, I won't begrudge. I'll be glad he got it and think he deserves it." Asked how he can remain so charitable when his own brother is suing him—Lucas was best man at his wedding—Price laughs and says he's been seeing a family therapist for about a year.

Brother or not, he vows to fight fiercely to protect his company. "I will do anything to help Lucas reach his financial goals," Dan says, "as long as it doesn't lead to price increases to our merchants, decreases in services to them, pay cuts, or other types of cutbacks to our investments in our team."

Raising your cost of doing business is generally not considered the best way to increase profits and improve market position. Yet the finish line for Price may be when he can lift his own salary up to market rate—making it easier for the company to replace him, if necessary, and show CEOs that sacrifice by the boss is only temporary when overhauling a company's wage structure. He'd also like to get his $3 million loan back—invested to "take us from a low to a high margin for error," he says—but won't sweat it if that doesn't happen. "I started with nothing," he says. "I can always make enough to support myself."

Price says establishing a $70,000 minimum wage is a moral imperative, not a business strategy. And yet he must prove the business wisdom behind it, not only to keep Gravity from sinking—and going down with the ship himself—but also to achieve his long-term goal of transforming the business world. "I want the scorecard we have as business leaders to be not about money, but about purpose, impact, and service," he says. "I want those to be the things that we judge ourselves on." see more

 

If you move abroad, you will miss certain things about home.
I moved to the United States in 2014. When I returned home to Germany this past summer, I looked forward to all of the aspects of life that I had considered to be better in Europe. But after few weeks, I suddenly started missing a lot about the United States.
No, living in Europe isn’t necessarily better than living in the United States. But there are certain things Americans and Europeans might consider copying from one another. This post focuses on things Americans could learn from the “old continent.” In a second post, I will write about the things Europe should consider copying from the United States.

1. Work less.
On average, Americans work longer hours than citizens of other wealthy countries that are part of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

 

There are some legitimate concerns about the European work ethic. France, for instance, basically shuts down at the end of the summer. Each August, the entire nation takes about a month-long vacation. Newscasts are broadcast in reduced makeshift editions because so few people are watching, and the country’s administration closes most of its offices. Tourists describe eerily abandoned streets in Paris because all locals have fled to beaches, mountains or resorts.
Despite all of that (or maybe because of it), French workers are among the most productive in Europe, according to Eurostat data from 2014. (Americans are still slightly more productive, though.) 
Copying at least some of Europe's relaxed work attitude would presumably change little about the United States' productivity, but prevent a lot of unnecessary stress.
2. Travel cheaper.
For sure, the United States is an extremely big country. But still, why does it seem as if so few Americans travel abroad? About two-thirds of all Americans don’t even have a passport, according to the State Department. To be fair, more Americans now hold passports than ever before. About 15 years ago, there were 50 percent fewer passports in circulation.
If you do decide to travel abroad, you might want to skip renting a car and check out some alternatives:
The map below illustrates which far-away areas can be reached within a certain time from the four selected cities: London, Paris, Rome and Madrid. France in particular has managed to build a high-speed railway network, which is also quite cheap.

Less comfortable, but sometimes cheaper than train rides are low-budget planes. Companies such as easyJet, Ryanair and Air Berlin offer cheap intracontinental flights all across Europe — and are dearly missed by Europeans who move to the United States. A flight from London to Copenhagen, for example, can cost about $15 on one of the budget carriers.

3. Limit portion sizes.

You’ve probably heard this already, but: Europeans who care about their health probably wouldn’t follow a traditional American diet. It probably sounds kind of pretentious for Europeans to argue that European food will make you live longer, but many Americans who have lived on the other side of the Atlantic tend to agree.
“We should also learn about farmers markets and the importance of local agriculture — both as a way of being sustainable and of eating fresher foods,” said Nikita Perumal, a Columbia University student who spent two years in Europe.
But it’s not only about what you eat, but also how much. “Super-sized portions at restaurants have distorted what Americans consider a normal portion size, and that affects how much we eat at home as well,” Elizabeth G. Nabel, the director of National Institutes of Health’s National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, is quoted as saying on the institute’s Web site.
Europeans aren’t necessarily less hungry than Americans, but cultural habits and governmental pressure have limited portion sizes in many countries. France, for instance, in 2011, banned ketchup from most meals served in school cafeterias to reduce obesity and to preserve its traditional food culture. When American-style “free refills” were recently introduced at fast-food restaurants in France, the backlash by experts and restaurant owners was swift and sustained.
Vending machines have been replaced with water tanks in schools, and companies are required to warn potential consumers of health hazards in advertisements. The efforts have paid off: In 2010, a study found that obesity levels had not increased in France since 1998 for children of higher-income parents and observed a similar, if weaker, trend among lower-income youths.
4. How about making elite colleges a bit less elitist? 
Okay, Europeans (except for Britons) might be a bit jealous of your higher education: Even Austrians wear Stanford sweaters and think it’s pretty cool. We all know that American higher education is remarkable.
But it’s only good for those who can afford it. Since 1985, U.S. college costs have surged by about 500 percent, and tuition fees keep rising. Elsewhere, they’ve done the opposite, as WorldViews has reported before. In many European countries, including Finland, France, Norway and Sweden, you can graduate from some of the most excellent universities without having to pay tuition fees. In other nations, taxpayers’ money funds at least most of a student’s higher education.
“Europe hosts approximately 32 percent of the top 1,000 universities in the world, and usually charges lower tuition costs, which means American students can get a high quality education for a fraction of the costs,” Carmen Neghina, a researcher for course-comparison Web site studyportals.eu told The Washington Post in an e-mail.
“What we do know is that international students within Europe are very satisfied with their study experience, particularly in the U.K., Sweden and Austria,” Neghina explained.

5. Work harder for gender equal

And then, there’s paternity leave: In Sweden, for a total of 480 days, either the father or the mother of newborn children are legally entitled to receive 80 percent of their previous salaries. Most other European countries offer similar, if shorter, options.
The United States, however, doesn’t guarantee maternity leave — and most other developed countries wonder why. In France, for instance, children can use public transportation for free or receive discounts. The same applies to museums, cinemas, theaters and virtually any other cultural institution.
As WorldViews reported in April, Sweden recently recognized a gender-neutral pronoun in the newest edition of the country’s official dictionary. The Swedish Academy’s SAOL dictionary now features “hen” as an alternative to the male pronoun “han” and the female “hon.”
Support for the idea has also come from nurseries, kindergartens and preschools, which increasingly argue that the pronoun’s usage allows children to grow up without feeling the effect of gender biases. In some nurseries, toys and games traditionally meant for either boys or girls are placed deliberately next to one another, in the hope that children will feel free to choose the items with which they feel most comfortable spending their time.

Politicians in Germany recently demanded to transform some "traffic light men" into "traffic light women," and some lights switched in 2013. (Karl Josef-Hildenbrand/AFP via Getty Images)

In Germany, some have questioned one attempt to deal with gender inequality: For decades, traffic lights in Germany have depicted little male figures to guide pedestrians. Politicians in Germany recently demanded to transform at least some “traffic light men” into “traffic light women.”  see details

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