It's get your kicks on 'green' Route 66
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Route 66, a highway made famous for Chicago to Los Angeles road trips, is turning green.
The Mother Road, as the highway is known, is seeing a growing number of electric-car charging stations along the 2,500-mile path, and some states even are pushing for solar panels and electric buses.
Illinois is installing a network of electric-vehicle charging stations from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi River.
And earlier this year, Missouri's highway department announced it was studying a project to cover a portion of its Route 66 with road-ready solar panels.
Route 66-area motel owners also are getting in on the action.
Bella Roma Bed & Breakfast innkeeper Laura Ferrary says she installed a Tesla supercharger at her Albuquerque spot because she anticipates more environmentally conscious travelers in the future.
-- The Associated Press
Cardless ATM withdrawals stir interest
A growing number of banks are letting consumers arrange for ATM withdrawals via a mobile phone app and to pick up the cash at a nearby automated teller machine. Customers authenticate the transaction by scanning a QR code with their phone, entering a one-time security code or tapping their device on the machine.
The idea is to help customers who have forgotten their cards or worry about thieves stealing their card data via ATMs. While so-called cardless cash access is only available at about 2,000 of the half a million or so U.S. ATMs in use today, it's expanding rapidly and will be at as many as 95,000 machines by year-end, according to payments researcher Crone Consulting LLC.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. plans to roll out the feature later this year. Bank of America Corp. said it will extend the technology to 5,000 ATMs by year-end. And Wells Fargo & Co. is letting some users of mobile wallets like Apple Pay authenticate through their phone and expects more than 40 percent of its ATMs to be enabled for this technology by year end.
In possibly the largest deployment to date, Payment Alliance International, the nation's largest closely held provider of ATM processing and maintenance services, announced Friday that it will start rolling out the technology in August or September and plans to have cardless cash access at 25,000 machines in stores and gas stations by the end of 2017.
-- Bloomberg News
Nintendo to offer replica of original NES
Nintendo surprised its fans when it announced that a mini-replica of its original NES console, first released in 1985, will be available on Nov. 11, loaded with 30 of its most recognizable games and priced at $59.99.
Called the NES Classic Edition, it will fit in a single hand and come with an HDMI cable and AC adapter to plug into modern TVs, plus one classic controller. An extra controller will cost $9.99.
The list of games features several of Nintendo's biggest hits, including the first three Super Mario Bros. games, the first two Zelda games, Mega Man 2, Metroid and Excitebike.
"We wanted to give fans of all ages the opportunity to revisit Nintendo's original system and rediscover why they fell in love with Nintendo in the first place," Reggie Fils-Aime, president of Nintendo of America, said in a statement.
-- The New York Times
Google strategy: Train 2 million in India
Google Inc. plans to train 2 million developers in India for its Android platform as its fires up a race with Apple Inc. for the country's developers to create innovative mobile apps.
The Android Skilling program will be introduced for free across hundreds of public and private universities and training schools through a specially designed, in-person program this year. The program would also be available through the government's National Skills Development Corporation of India, the company said in a statement.
India is expected to have the largest developer population with 4 million people by 2018, overtaking the U.S., but only a quarter are building for mobile, said Caesar Sengupta, vice president of product management at Google.
"We believe India is uniquely placed to innovate and shape the Internet experience of billions of users who are and will come online on the mobile platform," he said in the statement.
Google plans to make the curriculum accessible to millions for free to help make India a global leader in mobile development.
"We are hoping to get in about 2,000 different universities, training about 4,000 faculty to reach in excess of 250,000 students in these universities every year," Peter Lubbers, head of developer training at Google, said in New Delhi.
-- Bloomberg News
Microsoft to miss '18 Windows 10 goal
Microsoft Corp., which last year pledged to get Windows 10 on 1 billion devices within two to three years, said it will not meet that goal for its new operating system because of the reduction of its Windows phone business.
The company is still committed to the 1 billion goal, but it will take longer to achieve, Yusuf Mehdi, Windows marketing chief, said in a statement.
"Windows 10 is off to the hottest start in history with over 350 million monthly active devices, with record customer satisfaction and engagement," Mehdi said. "We're pleased with our progress to date, but due to the focusing of our phone hardware business, it will take longer than FY18 for us to reach our goal of 1 billion monthly active devices."
The failure to meet the original forecast shows the continued fallout from the Windows phone strategy, in which the company acquired Nokia Oyj's handset unit and then, amid high costs and little share gains, shut down and sold the business, taking a huge write-down. Last month, Microsoft changed the way it pushes out the Windows 10 update to customers after complaints it was being forced on them or they were being nagged frequently to upgrade.
Windows chief Terry Myerson made the pledge to put Windows 10 on 1 billion devices by fiscal 2018 at Microsoft's developer conference in April 2015. The system was released in July 2015.
The change in the goal was reported earlier by ZDNet.
-- Bloomberg News
Israel plans tax incentive for tech firms
Israel is planning new benefits for technology companies as it seeks to maintain its position as a global hub for innovation.
Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon wants to cut corporate taxes for companies that conduct research and development in Israel and register intellectual property there, according to a ministry official who spoke on customary condition of anonymity. Taxes would drop to as little as 6 percent from the current range of 16 percent to 25 percent, with top benefits going to companies with more than $2.59 billion in annual global sales.
Shareholders would pay a dividend tax of just 4 percent, down from as much as 20 percent, the official said.
The changes, which are to be included in the 2017-18 budget, signal new priorities for Israel as it competes with countries such as Ireland that have lured multinationals with deep tax cuts. They've been proposed partly in response to efforts by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development to clamp down on tax havens by forcing tech companies to register patents -- and therefore pay taxes -- in the countries where they are developed, the official said.
-- Bloomberg News
SundayMonday Business on 07/18/2016