Friday, May 10, 2024

New Vision For Downtown Danbury Storefront

Image Source: Found here

"They've done their homework, and they feel there's a need here that the post office is not fulfilling," DaSilva said. "They're going to open a little bit earlier, and they are going to close a lot later, so they'll have that going for them. They figured it out. This is the spot they want."

Shopify Drops 18.5%

Image Source: See here

In The News:
ottumwacourier.com

CENTERVILLE — The Davis County Mustangs are back in the "Throne Room" of the South Central Conference.

OTTUMWA — The Ottumwa Community School District will honor 22 retiring staff members totaling 475 years of service in the district during a ce⁘

DES MOINES — Gov. Kim Reynolds has signed several bills from the 2024 legislative session into law, including measures to extend postpartum Me⁘

DES MOINES — Gov. Kim Reynolds has officially given Iowa's community colleges the ability to develop the formula that determines state aid dis⁘

CENTERVILLE — It was a night of disastrous moments followed by moments of pure joy for the Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont girls track and field ⁘

Read more: See here

#news

Wall Street's lull stretched into a second day as US stocks drifted to a mixed close in a quiet Wednesday. Uber Technologies slumped 5.7% after reporting worse results for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It also gave a forecasted range for bookings in the current quarter whose midpoint fell below analysts' expectations, the AP reports.

On the winning side, Lyft revved 7.1% higher after topping expectations for profit and revenue. It said growth was particularly strong for early-morning, commute, and weekend-evening trips. Reddit, another winner, rose 4.1% after delivering its first quarterly report as a publicly traded company. It reported a milder loss and better revenue than expected, while also giving a stronger-than-expected forecast for revenue in the current quarter. Arista Networks climbed 6.5% for one of the biggest gains in the S⁘P 500 after topping expectations for both profit and revenue.

Wednesday, May 8, 2024

How Generative AI Is Redefining Data Analytics

Image Read more: Visit website

The generative AI party is still raging. This zeitgeist has rocked the business world daily in a million ways, and the ground is still shifting. Now, four months into 2024, we're starting to see businesses, particularly those with rarified pragmatic brands, starting to demand evidence of value, of the path to the true ROI derived from AI. As pragmatic voices for value rise, how do thoughtful business leaders respond?

Our survey found that generative AI is already impacting the achievement of organizational goals at 80% of organizations. What led the way, as the #2 and #3 use cases, were analytics—both the creation of and the synthesis of new insights for the organization. These use cases trailed only content generation in terms of embrace.

What makes analytics and generative AI such a potent combination? To explore that, let's get started by diving into what key challenges generative AI solves for, how it works, where it can be applied to maximize the value of data and analytics, and why generative AI requires governance for success.

Companies have long recognized the benefits of using data and analytics to improve revenue performance, manage costs, and mitigate risks. Yet achieving data-driven decision-making at scale often becomes a slow, painful, and ineffective exercise, due to three key challenges.

First, there aren't enough experts in data science, AI, and analytics to deliver the breadth of insights needed across all aspects of business.

Second, enterprises are often hampered by legacy and siloed systems that make it impossible to know where data lives, how to access it, and how to work with it.

Third, even as we struggle with the first two challenges, data continues to grow in complexity and volume, making it much more difficult to use. Combined with a lack of robust governance policies, enterprises are then faced with poor data quality that can't be trusted for decisions.

Generative AI presents two massive opportunities to tackle these challenges by improving the usability and efficacy of enterprise analytics tools.

12 Ways Advertisers Are Using Generative AI For Creative Campaigns

Image More details: Found here

One of the most popular applications of gen AI is the ability to create images, visuals, and copy that appear on ads seen by millions of consumers.

Business Insider delved into the creative agencies making big consumer-facing work that has harnessed gen AI.

From using gen AI to replace photo shoots, write copy, or help brands with their bigger business goals, here are 12 examples of AI marketing in the wild.

The campaign: To introduce its spring 2024 collection, Coach turned to Imma, a virtual influencer created by Aww Inc., which describes itself as "Japan's first virtual human company and creative studios." Imma is billed as "the most popular virtual influencer in Asia," and has hundreds of thousands of followers across platforms like Instagram, Weibo, and Douyin.

Inspired by AI and created by CGI, according to Women's Wear Daily , Imma stars alongside rapper Lil Nas X, actor Camila Mendes, rapper Youngji Lee, model and songwriter Kōki, and actor Wu Jinyan as they explore a colorful virtual world.

"For us, Imma is the perfect ambassador to tell this story because she is challenging the notion of what we consider 'real' today," said Coach Global Chief Marketing Officer and North America President Sandeep Seth in a press release.

Coca-Cola also launched a platform called "Create Real Magic" last year that encourages artists and consumers to make digital artwork using its assets. The winners of a contest had their images appear on billboards in New York's Times Square and London's Piccadilly Circus.

Tuesday, May 7, 2024

Baltimore's Midtown Marketplace Hits The Market For Sale

Image Reference: See here

Midtown Marketplace is 100% occupied by seven national and regional tenants, several in place for almost 25 years. They include Save a Lot national discount grocer, a tenant since 1998. (Photo courtesy of Neuman Commercial Group)

Employees are finding that workplace volunteer programs meet their desires for in-person connections, professi[...]

The NCAA and major college conferences are considering a possible settlement of an antitrust lawsuit that coul[...]

Google's preeminence as an internet search engine is an illegal monopoly, the Justice Department argued at the[...]

Easton-based Shore Bancshares Inc. reported a drop in net income for the first quarter of 2024 amid unexpected[...]

Listen to this article The U.S. Department of Labor last month increased the salary thresholds for t[...]

Monday, May 6, 2024

Low Fee Vanguard Joins The Competition With New Fees For Its Customers

Image Read more: See here

Vanguard has made its name for close to 50 years as a low-cost asset manager that revolutionized investing by cutting fees to the bone, so some of its customers may now be surprised to see new charges start adding up this summer.

"The people paying that fee are going to be retirees who have probably been lifelong Vanguard customers and aren't good with the internet," says Jeff DeMaso, editor and founder of The Independent Vanguard Adviser. "I understand there's an expense to have someone field those calls, but you're still dinging people who have been your longtime customers."

A Vanguard spokesperson said "the vast majority of mutual funds and ETFs trades placed today are done online," where transactions will remain commission-free, and added that it has invested in revamping the digital experience on its website and app in recent years. "Vanguard is committed to helping clients navigate toward secure, simpler, and more seamless digital pathways, and constantly evaluates our brokerage services and products, inclusive of the commissions and fee schedule," the spokesperson said in a statement. "Through these modernization efforts across web and mobile, client satisfaction has steadily improved year over year, now reaching all-time highs."

The new fees put Vanguard, which has long distinguished itself as the lowest cost provider across a host of financial services, right in step with its competition. The fine print on pricing for Charles Schwab and Morgan Stanley's ETrade also includes $25 broker service fees, and Fidelity doesn't share specifics but says "other concessions or commissions may apply if traded with a Fidelity representative." Vanguard's $100 fee to process account closures will be steeper than ETrade's $75 and Schwab's $50 for full transfers.

Vanguard, based in Malvern, Pennsylvania and founded by the late Jack Bogle in 1975, has always branded itself as different from those peers, owned by its 50 million clients who invest in its funds and share in the profits via lower costs. Its weighted average fees of 0.08% are still the industry standard collectively—BlackRock's iShares ETFs have an average fee of 0.25%—but individual index funds managed by companies like BlackRock or Fidelity are comparable or even lower cost now. The Fidelity 500 Index Fund (FXAIX) tracking the S⁘P 500 has $512 billion in assets and a 0.015% expense ratio, compared with 0.04% fees for Vanguard's $1.1 trillion 500 Index Admiral Shares (VFIAX)—more than 2.5 times more expensive.

Toast Unveils Digital Storefront And Marketing Suite For Restaurants

Image More details: Found here