Category: News

The U.S. restaurant industry is beginning to sizzle, according to the 23rd edition of the Chain Restaurant Industry Review, which was released Tuesday at the Restaurant Leadership Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona by GE Capital, Franchise Finance (GEFF). According to GE Capital’s findings, merger and acquisition activity increased to $3.9 billion from $3.7 billion, and the total volume of syndicated leveraged loans in the restaurant space increased almost 21 percent last year.

PRESS RELEASE:

The U.S. restaurant industry is beginning to sizzle, according to the 23rd edition of the Chain Restaurant Industry Review, which was released today at the Restaurant Leadership Conference by GE Capital, Franchise Finance (GEFF). Merger and acquisition activity increased to $3.9 billion from $3.7 billion, and the total volume of syndicated leveraged loans in the restaurant space increased almost 21 percent last year.

In a sign that the American consumer was feeling more confident about disposable income levels, nominal restaurant sales rose 4.2 percent to $425.6 billion in 2012. Sales are projected to increase 3.8% to $441.9 billion this year.

The Top 100 restaurant chains’ system-wide sales were nearly $210 billion, representing more than half of all restaurant sales last year, and gaining 0.5 percent market share from 2011. Their sales grew 4.7 percent year-over-year, outperforming both the foodservice and the restaurant industries, as well as nominal GDP. Total unit growth for the Top 100 at 1.8 percent was the highest since 2007. Franchised unit growth jumped 180 basis points to 77.3 percent of the total — the largest share since the survey’s inception 23 years ago.

Institutional investors were eager to get a piece of the pie. Private equity firms paid premium purchase prices — multiples of eight to 10 times revenues — for growth companies and franchisors. Non-sponsor deals jumped 46.0% to $11.2 billion in 2012, while sponsor deals declined 11.2%. Nearly three-quarters (73 percent) of the total volume was driven by refinancing activity.

After two years of single initial public offerings, four were successfully completed in 2012. Three companies went private.

“In contrast to the slow but promising recovery in the global financial markets, the U.S. restaurant industry has been very focused on growing and expanding,” said Agustin Carcoba, president and CEO of GEFF. “The activity has been driven by the improving economy, changing consumer habits and shifting U.S. demographics. People who are investing in the restaurant industry understand the importance of three factors — operational performance, financial metrics and asset strategy — and how they have changed through the latest cycle.”

Full service restaurant (FSR) sales increased 3.1 percent to $202.2 billion, while quick service restaurant (QSR) sales increased 5.6 percent to $179.3 billion. The FSR category includes family, casual, high-end casual and fine dining restaurants, typically those that provide table service. The QSR category includes limited service, fast casual or take-out restaurants with limited menus and, typically, no table service.

QSR menu prices increased at a 3.2 percent annual rate in 2012 compared to 2.2 percent in 2011. FSR menu prices increased 2.6 percent in 2012 compared to 2.3 percent in the prior year.

With the cost of goods sold (COGS) and labor costs comprising more than 60 percent of operating expenses at both FSRs and QSRs, it’s important for operators to understand how to achieve higher margins. By carefully managing COGS as well as advertising, rent, royalties, etc., operators may be able to achieve substantial savings and, thus, increase profits.

“Restaurants typically have relatively limited profit margins, so operators are always trying to adapt to changing consumer tastes while balancing their other costs,” Carcoba said. “Ultimately, these are successful entrepreneurs who are trying to grow their businesses by enhancing their endangered brand equity and pleasing their customers. When they’re able to reinvest, they can make capital expenditures — for example, investing in new technologies or making equipment purchases — and eventually open new locations and hire more employees. It’s the American dream in action.”

GEFF assembles its proprietary Top 100 Chains and Largest 150 Operators lists annually for publication in the Chain Restaurant Industry Review. Industry sales figures included here are attributable to the National Restaurant Association.

About GE Capital, Franchise Finance

GE Capital, Franchise Finance is a leading lender for the U.S. franchise finance market via direct sales and portfolio acquisitions. With more than 30 years of experience and $9 billion in served assets, it provides financing to more than 2,000 customers and 16,000 property locations. The business specializes in financing mid-market operators with multiple stores in the restaurant and hospitality industries. Its team of industry experts works with entrepreneurial customers to help them develop individualized growth plans. GE Capital, Franchise Finance customers also receive access to its proprietary industry research and cutting-edge digital tools. For more information, visit http://www.gefranchisefinance.com or follow company news via Twitter (https://twitter.com/GELendLease).

GE Capital offers consumers and businesses around the globe an array of financial products and services. For more information, visit www.gecapital.com or follow company news via Twitter (https://twitter.com/GECapital).

GE (NYSE: GE) works on things that matter. The best people and the best technologies taking on the toughest challenges. Finding solutions in energy, health and home, transportation and finance. Building, powering, moving and curing the world. Not just imagining. Doing. GE works. For more information, visit the company’s website at www.ge.com.

The post M&A in U.S. Restaurant Industry Begins to Sizzle, Says GE Capital appeared first on peHUB.

Since launching two years ago, health startup Greatist has been all about content and its brand — every month, about 3 million unique visitors check out the site for a dose of content that’s part socially-savvy Buzzfeed, part fun fitness magazine and part highbrow science journal. But with the acquisition of startup Sportaneous, announced Tuesday, Greatist is expanding its identity from a company focused on content to one that builds technology.

“We have not been technologists and now we can be,” said founder and CEO Derek Flanzreich. “Now we can figure out how to get people from not just reading and talking about our content to actually doing something about it — which is ultimately our whole purpose.”

First launched a couple of years ago, Sportaneous is a small four-person startup that offers an app for finding fitness classes nearby. But like other recently acquired health startups MassiveHealth (sold to Jawbone) and 100Plus (sold to Practice Fusion), Flanzreich said Sportaneous was strong in design and technology, but was having trouble building traction.

“It’s hard to get noticed in the App Store. It’s hard to get that attention unless you’ve got some other way to drive people to that product,” Flanzreich said. “We solved that problem [by going] the other way around and building the brand first.”

With the Sportaneous team’s tech chops, Flanzreich said he plans to build a new product that puts a social layer around people’s fitness tracking activities. Now, Nike Fuelband users can socialize with other Fuelband users and Fitbit (see disclosure) users can communicate with other Fitbit users. But Flanzreich wants Greatist to provide a social hub that pulls in data from a range of tracking services so that people can motivate and encourage (and maybe trash talk…) friends using all kinds of devices.

Another health app, Fitocracy, enables health enthusiasts to interact with others trying to achieve similar goals (for example, people trying to keep a paleo diet or run a marathon can encourage and get motivation from others in the same camp) and it integrates with running app Runkeeper. But Greatist, which has raised a little more than $1.1 million, wants to reach a broader audience of people and integrate with a wider range of tracking services.

As part of the acqui-hire, Flanzreich said Sportaneous co-founder Omar Haroun will become Greatist’s chief product officer and co-founder Reuben Doetsch will be the chief technology officer. The other members of the team will join as developers.

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Skype co-founder Janus Friis is getting ready to launch a new venture: Block Talent Partners, a recruiting agency that has been working with Friis on some of his other ventures, is currently looking for senior engineering talent for a stealthy new incubator. The objective of the new company is to ”change how products get built and startups get launched,” according to a job offer, which reads in part:

“More than just an “incubator” or “accelerator”, tbd. is assembling an elite team of engineers to create a one-of-a-kind company. Their goal is to build, launch and commercialize the hottest new products we can dream up, all with an eye towards reusable code and buttressed by a best-in-class infrastructure.”

It’s unclear whether tbd. was just a placeholder for the job offer, or whether the company will actually use this moniker until it emerges from stealth mode. Friis’ recently-launched video service Vdio operated under the name Project WBS for months until GigaOM broke the story of Vdio’s existence.

Speaking of Vdio: Tbd. will be headed by Todd Berman, who was employee number one at Rdio, the Friis-backed digital music service that is joined at the hip with Vdio. Berman served as Rdio’s CTO until last month, and his Twitter bio currently just reveals that he is now “working on something new.”

The idea to re-use code for launching new products may also at least in part be informed by Friis’ experience with Rdio and Vdio. Friis initially hired a separate team of designers and engineers to build Vdio. But those efforts were eventually scrapped, and Vdio was rebuilt from scratch on top of Rdio’s architecture, with most of original team being let go in the process.

So what will Tbd. build? The job posting offers no details, but it does mention that the eventual goal is to spin out the products it builds into separate companies. It goes on to offer prospective hires “the (highest) compensation in the Valley,” something that Friis can easily afford: In 2001, Friis and his co-founder Niklas Zennstroem made an estimated $1.19 billion by selling Skype to Microsoft.

Image courtesy of Flickr user  Marcin Wichary.

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The data center building boom continues to accelerate at Google. The search giant today announced plans to invest another $400 million in its Council Bluffs Southlands facility, pushing the investment in its Iowa facilities to more than $1.5 billion. The announcement comes the same day that Facebook has confirmed plans to build a major data center in Altoona, making it a giddy day for Iowans.

Google spent $600 million to build the initial phase of capacity in Council Bluffs, followed by phased expansion investments of $300 million, $200 million and now an additional $400 million. Total: $1.5 billion. Let that sink in.

The data center houses some of the infrastructure behind Google search, Gmail, Google Maps and the Google+ social network. “Google has not only invested heavily in Iowa, they’ve helped to create an atmosphere of high tech development that is the envy of the Midwest,” said Lt Gov. Kim Reynolds.

Need for Growth

“Our commitment to Council Bluffs and Iowa grows stronger each day,” Google Data Center Operations Manager Chris Russell said. “As demand for our services grows, our operations need to grow as well. We’re excited to be an integral part of Iowa’s expansion into next generation technology.”

The company is spending like crazy on its infrastructure, and had made Council Bluffs the focus of continued rounds of investment.

“Google has again put Council Bluffs at the center of high tech development in Iowa with this $400 million investment in the next phase of their growth and development south of the City,” said Council Bluffs Chamber President and CEO Bob Mundt. “They’ve also been a tremendous corporate citizen, supporting our local schools, colleges, the Chamber and the City of Council Bluffs. Google’s continued expansion in Council Bluffs is a strong vote of confidence in Iowa and the Council Bluffs region as a major player in the ever expanding technology sector.”

Continued Investments in Renewable Energy

Google reaffirmed its commitment to renewable energy. In 2010, as a measure to reduce its carbon footprint in Iowa, the company entered into a long term agreement to purchase 114 megawatts of wind energy produced by a wind farm in Story County. Google has also made investments to help accelerate the wind power industry in the state; in 2012 the company invested $75 million in a 50 megawatt wind farm in Rippey, Iowa developed by RPM Access.

The commitment to renewable energy extends beyond its own needs. It’s working with its utility partners to develop solutions for large electricity consumers that want to increase use of renewable energy by basically sharing information and outlining how it’s doing it; the company states it looks forward to developing similar solutions in Iowa.

Google’s investment in Iowa goes beyond servers and data centers, as the company has focused on being a good neighbor and engaged in the local community. Some examples:

• Sponsored the 2012 Iowa State Fair
• Sponsored 52 free “Iowa! Get Your Business Online!” events for Iowa small businesses wanting to establish sales in the digital marketplace.
• It Became a key proponent of the Governor’s Iowa STEM initiatives, and has extended over $600,000 in educational grants for science and technology efforts.
• Established the 2012 Caucus Hangout and Media Center for Iowa’s First in the Nation caucuses
• Launched its Google for Veterans efforts in Iowa.
• This summer, Google will offer free Wi-Fi during RAGBRAI, a first for this iconic Iowa event.

Iowa is very happy about this continued investment. “Several years ago, state and local officials began a partnership to streamline our economic development efforts for the high tech industry, said Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad. “Those efforts paid off then with Google establishing a data center in Council Bluffs and today those efforts continue to bear fruit. Iowa is now at the epicenter for high tech development and our work on this front will continue to be a focus of my administration.”

Will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas has admitted to taking someone else’s beat and making it his own after the original artist accused him of copyright infringement.

The song, “Rebound”, is an instrumental number originally done by Arty and Matt Zo. The music is featured on Will.i.am’s track, “Let’s Go, a collaboration with Chris Brown, and Will.i.am claims he got in touch with Arty about using it. However, Arty has said that he never discussed such a collab with the musician.

“Arty is a dope producer so I wrote this song to ‘Rebound’ last year,” he said. “I got in touch with Arty and showed it to him, did a different version to it because I asked him [to] make it newer, because I don’t just want to take your song and rap over it,” he said. “But in a year’s time, time’s gone by [and] we preferred writing over and using the [original] ‘Rebound.’ Something happened and the clearance … hopefully we resolved the issue.”

Interestingly enough, the musician’s solo album isn’t getting the best reviews. While his first solo effort, Songs About Girls, was well received, this time around critics are saying it feels like he’s trying too hard, with guest vocalists meant to ensure radio play (Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber).

Will.i.am says he’s a huge fan of Arty and just wants to share his music with his own fans.

“I’m a fan of Arty. I think he’s great and the world needs to know about how talented those guys are. It’s sad that it’s turned into a fiasco but hopefully it’s resolved because I’m a fan of those guys to the point where I wrote to their instrumental,” he said.

iPad users in Kansas City, rejoice! Starting today, you’ll be able to control your Google Fiber TV with your device, just like Android users.

Google has just released the Google Fiber TV app on iPad. This is the first time that it has appeared for iOS, but it is still not available for iPhone yet.

The Google Fiber TV app lets users find new TV shows and movies, as well as record directly to their DVR. Google says that iPad users can use the app to browse, buy, and watch on-demand content as well.

Android device owners have had this capability for just over a month.

Of course, this announcement only affects a pretty small group of people – iPad users in the Kansas City area. But that’s going to change soon as Google has announced plans to expand their Fiber service to Austin, Texas, and Provo, Utah.

Last week, Google announced that they were finally bringing HBO and Cinemax to Fiber TV.

You can grab the app today in the App Store.

Growing organs in a lab is no longer science fiction. Universities have already proven that you can grow tissue or blood vessels with 3D printers. One company has now taken it a step further, however, by combining the two.

NewScientist reports that Organovo, a San Diego-based medical company, has created a fully functioning human liver via 3D printing. The only catch is that these livers are ridiculously tiny.

Organovo was able to create its tiny livers by using a 3D printer to layer cell after cell until fully functioning liver tissue was formed. It also used cells from blood vessels to ensure that the tissue was getting all of the nutrients that it needed.

For now, the tissue can only live for five days. During that time, however, researchers are able to put it through a number of tests. The hope is that this first batch of liver tissue can be used to reduce the amount of time needed to test new drugs as the 3D printed liver reacts to treatment just like a real liver would.

Of course, the ultimate goal is to create a full-sized human liver. Thousands of people die each year waiting for a transplant. With 3D printed organs, doctors would be able to create a liver from the patient’s own cells so as to ensure perfect compatibility.

Let’s just hope that the advent of 3D printed organs doesn’t throw us into a dystopian world reminiscent of Repo.

It appears that the mystery of how water got into the atmosphere of Jupiter has finally been solved.

The European Space Agency (ESA) today announced that the water in the Jovian planet’s upper atmosphere has been linked to the 1994 Shoemaker-Levy 9 impacts. The comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 broke up and collided with Jupiter in July of 1994. The week-long event, which was the first directly-seen extraterrestrial collision in the Solar Systam, was observed by astronomers around the world.

Though astronomers suspected the Shoemaker-Levy impacts were the source of the water, the ESA’s Herschel space observatory has now been able to map the vertical and horizontal distribution of the water in Jupiter’s atmosphere. The observatory’s infrared imaging was able to discern that there is two to three times more water in Jupiter’s southern hemisphere than in the northern hemisphere. Shoemaker-Levy hit Jupiter’s southern hemisphere, and Herschel has found “most” of the water is concentrated around the impact sites. The findings have been published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.

“Only Herschel was able to provide the sensitive spectral imaging needed to find the missing link between Jupiter’s water and the 1994 impact of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9,” said Thibault Cavalié, lead author of the paper and an astrophysicist at the Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Bordeaux. “The asymmetry between the two hemispheres suggests that water was delivered during a single event and rules out icy rings or moons as candidate sources.

“According to our models, as much as 95% of the water in the stratosphere is due to the comet impact.”

(Image courtesy ESA/Herschel/T. Cavalié et al./NASA/ESA/Reta Beebe)

Jody Eddy, author of the book, “Come In, We’re Closed: An Invitation to Staff Meals at the World’s Best Restaurants” recently gave an “At Google” talk, speaking about her work, which is said to “peer behind the ‘closed’ sign in the world’s greatest restaurants”.

Similarly, author Michael Romano also spoke at Google talking about his book Family Table, which also looks behind the scenes at some restaurants.

More recent At Google Talks here.

Starting this month, BlackBerry 10 is the mobile platform of choice for Canadian Tire Employees. The nationwide deployment will bring thousands of devices to managers across all Canadian Tire stores as well as a group of sports stores: Sport Chek, Sports Expers, National Sports and Atmosphere.

Canadian Tire developed a mobile app for BlackBerry three years ago and it quickly became one of Canada’s most popular mobile apps. The app allowed customers to browse flyers, browse products, make shopping lists, scan barcodes, as well as check to see if an item was in stock at a specific location. Last year the retailer counted over 20 million visits to it’s mobile presence; an impressive figure considering Canada’s population of 35 million.

Click here to download Canadian Tire’s free mobile app from BlackBerry World.

X-Mouse Button Control allows contextual mapping of the mouse buttons. This means that the mouse can initiate different actions depending on a given context (an active application, specific area on the screen).

Obviously, this tool is not intended for users that view the computer mouse as a simple three-button pointing device.
… (read more)

Samsung is a seasoned veteran in the consumer electronics industry, but the company’s growth over the past couple of years came out of nowhere. The South Korean company joined a sizable group of Android partners when the platform began rolling out and just as Taiwan-based HTC was emerging as the clear leader, Samsung stepped up its efforts and pummeled rivals as it grew to become the world’s top smartphone vendor. Now that Samsung sits in the throne, however, the company is seemingly beginning to take measures to lessen its reliance on partners. For one thing, Samsung is using its own components in greater numbers and moving away from various suppliers — when it can. More importantly to software giants Google and Microsoft, Samsung appears to be getting more serious about building its own platforms.

Continue reading…

Google announced the launch of a new upgrade center for upgrading AdWords accounts to Enhanced Campaigns today. The center lets advertisers upgrade several campaigns at once and merge them together.

In a blog post, Google explains how to use the tool:

There are two basic ways to use the upgrade center.

1. Bulk upgrade

This option provides a fast way to upgrade multiple campaigns that don’t need to be merged. Rather than upgrade campaigns one at a time, you can select several campaigns, choose a mobile bid adjustment, view traffic estimates, and upgrade with fewer clicks.

2. Merge and upgrade

If you have search-only or search+display campaigns that have similar keywords and location targets, the upgrade center automatically identifies them as candidates to merge. You’ll then be able to preview and adjust the proposed campaign settings, ad groups, and extensions for the merged campaign. By default, ad groups and budgets will be combined. Other campaign level settings and extensions in the Primary campaign will override those in the Secondary campaign.

The upgrade center will be rolling out over the coming weeks. It can be found in the left-hand navigation bar on the Campaigns tab.

All campaigns will be upgraded to Enhanced Campaigns on July 22.

Facebook has officially announced a brand new data center in Altoona, Iowa, which they say will be among the “most advanced and energy efficient facilities of its kind” when it’s completed.

The data center will be built with the same Open Compute Project server designs and outdoor-air cooling system of Facebook’s other data centers, but the company says that improvements to the building design and networking architecture will make Altoona’s center stand out in the crowd.

“We’re excited to have found a new home in Iowa, which has an abundance of wind-generated power and is home to a great talent pool that will help build and operate the facility. We plan to break ground this summer and expect to begin serving user traffic in 2014,” says Facebook’s Jay Parikh. “We’re especially appreciative of all the partners who helped make this project happen. Facebook’s mission is to connect the world. Thanks to Iowa, we’re building the global infrastructure to bring the next billion people online. We can’t wait to get started.”

Facebook says that they will break ground this summer and they hope the center will be ready to go in 2014.

Reports of the new data center first hit the web last weekend, with the Des Moines Register saying that the social media giant was behind “the most technologically advanced data center in the world.” That reports suggests that the facility will cost upwards of $1.5 billion.

Altoona, Iowa rests inside the West Des Moines Metropolitan area, and at last census had a population of just shy of 16,000 people. The Altoona data center will be Facebook’s 4th, and 3rd in the United States. Facebook currently has data centers in Prineville, Oregon; Forest City, North Carolina; and Luleå, Sweden.

“Our goal is not just to deliver you a fast, reliable experience on Facebook every day – we also want to help make connectivity a universal opportunity. Our data centers are essential for making that happen,” says Parikh.

Microsoft introduced a new ad format for Outlook.com today, called versaTiles. It’s currently being sold in the U.S. and Brazil, but will also soon launch in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Spain and the U.K.

The format consists of flexible-sized tile strips, which Microsoft says gives advertisers a “valuable surface area” to deliver relevant content in scenarios where people expect commercial content. Here’s a look:

There are three customizable templates that advertisers can use: Online Retailer, Media Showcase and Catalogue.

Online Retailer, Microsoft says, “Allows the advertiser to capture consumers’ attention, and showcase a product or a service, and then connect the consumer to the advertiser’s online distributors. From a consumer standpoint, this template enables them to locate brick and mortar retail outlets in their area, alongside viewing and discovering product or service details within the tile experience.”

The company adds that Media Showcase “Gives a unique ad experience to get a brand’s message conveyed by using a combination of video, image galleries and text. The template is applicable to multiple verticals aiming at building awareness and consumer engagement.”

Catalogues simply lets you feature multiple products. The first tile shows the theme, and the others show different products.

In addition to three templates, the versaTiles format also consists of three states: Default, Hover and Click. The default state is what consumers see when they log in to Outlook.com, the hover state shows more in-depth info and/or additional images and info when they hover over the ad, and the click state has the ad expand when clicked, showing different creative elements or brand messaging (which varies by template).

We know you’ve been waiting for it – just a short while ago, some carriers around the globe announced that the BlackBerry Q10 was available for pre-order. Now we’re starting to see availability dates role out, starting with Canada.

If you’ve been reading along on the Inside BlackBerry blog, you’ll know that the BlackBerry Q10 combines the power of the BlackBerry 10 platform with a physical keyboard and stunning touchscreen display. I’ve been using it for a few weeks now and I can say that it is awesome. I’ve taken my typing to the next level on this keyboard.  I don’t want to toot my own horn, but I’m a bit of a phenom when it comes to typing on the BlackBerry Q10. Don’t get me wrong, my typing skills on the BlackBerry Z10 are out of this world too. I’m just saying that you folks who love your physical keyboards are probably going to love your life.

Pricing and Availability information for Canada:

The BlackBerry Q10 smartphone will be available in Canada starting May 1 on Rogers Wireless, Bell Mobility and TELUS starting at $199 with a 3 year contract. It will also be available on Virgin Mobile Canada, Fido, Koodo Mobile, and Sasktel, and at The Source, Best Buy and Future Shop with more details to come.

We know there are so many of you on Team BlackBerry that live outside of Canada, so don’t fret and be sure to stay tuned! Similar to the availability tracker for the BlackBerry Z10,we’ll have more details and we’ll update this post with availability information in other markets as we role out the new BlackBerry Q10 globally.

As it becomes clear that an errant tweet can move stock prices, perhaps it’s time for Twitter to improve security measures and add two-factor authentication for accounts.

The Associated Press’s Twitter account was hacked this morning, sending out updates saying that explosions hit hit the White House and President Barack Obama had been injured. The AP’s account was immediately suspended and the tweets removed, but not before the Dow dropped about 200 points. It has since recovered, but that type of velocity makes it possible for someone to have made a lot of money.

Twitter has had security issues before, most recently when it notified users that a number of passwords had been compromised in February, but now with new SEC rules allowing analysts and traders to check tweets for market-moving information, it’s more important than ever for the company to give influential users as many security tools as possible.

Apple just added two-factor authentication to Apple IDs in March, Microsoft rolled it out last week, and Google has had it for much longer. Two-factor authentication is just one way that users can protect passwords, preventing an individual from hacking an account by requiring them to also have in their possession a second form of identification. For instance, Gmail users can set up their smartphones to work with two-factor authentication, requiring a PIN sent to their phone when they try to log in online.

It’s quickly becoming common practice among large web companies, and as the stakes increase for Twitter, it’s time for the company to consider adding the feature. Ars Technica reported in February that Twitter had posted jobs listings seeking engineers with experience in security, including “multifactor authentication and fraudulent login detection.”

Twitter has not yet responded to our request for comment on its current plans.

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BlackBerry 10 might not have one killer feature, other than its flagship BBM service, but it does have plenty of new and inventive features that can change the way we use smartphones. Instead of being just another smartphone, BlackBerry’s new OS offers users a brand new experience. Here are five factors that stand out in BlackBerry 10.

1. Hub and Peek

What task do you perform most frequently on your smartphone? Chances are it involves checking email and other messages. While there are plenty of apps and other useful features on every smartphone, messaging remains the core functionality. The problem with the current crop of smartphones is that you have to check many different apps to find all of your messages. Even your email might live in multiple locations.

BlackBerry’s messaging feature, BlackBerry Hub, consolidates all of your messages into a single place. When you open it up you’ll see email from all addresses, instant messages, BBM, social media updates, and more. You can remove any number of these from Hub, and you can separate them into groups. When you check your messages, you have everything right there in front of you.

The Peek option only adds to Hub. No matter what app you’re viewing, you can swipe from the left side of the screen to peek into Hub. Again, this reinforces messaging at the core of the smartphone experience. The gesture-based Peek stands about above Android and iPhone for quick messages checking and task switching.

2. BlackBerry Balance

For a while now BlackBerry has tried to separate business from personal, since they serve primarily business customers. They released BlackBerry Balance in the past, but with their declining sales it didn’t go over as well as it otherwise might have. Now that they’ve unveiled BlackBerry 10, though, BlackBerry balance comes back into play — in a big way.

The nature of Balance is simple. On a work phone you have all of your work applications and messages, and chances are you also have personal information there. Given the power of modern smartphones, most people don’t need to carry around two. Companies have realized this and have started letting employees use their work phones for personal purposes. But functionality can get muddled.

Balance keeps the two entities separate. Your personal apps don’t access information from your enterprise apps, and vice versa. It does all this while maintaining the highest level of security, so companies need not fret. It also makes employees happy, since they can get the benefit of both personal and work phones in a single device.

3. BBM and screen sharing

When people think of BlackBerry, they typically associate it with BlackBerry Messenger, or BBM, the company’s killer messaging app. Plenty of people stuck with BlackBerry through everything, because they couldn’t conceive of leaving BBM. Knowing that their customers love it so much, BlackBerry has greatly upgraded BBM for BlackBerry 10.

With faster cellular networks — the BlackBerry Z10 runs on 4G LTE — users can perform more functions with their phones. Video calling has been a big feature, with Apple’s Facetime, Skype, and Google Talk leading the way. BlackBerry added a killer video chat feature to BBM, along with voice chat. This supplements the already excellent instant messaging service, which includes features such as file transfer.

One interesting part the built onto BBM is the ability to share your screen with other BBM users. This can be used for any number of purposes, including troubleshooting. Other platforms offer this in a roundabout way, but BlackBerry 10 makes it easier than everyone else.

4. Active Frames

The Active Frames feature of BlackBerry 10 helps it stand out from the crowd. The icon-based navigation system has been around for over a decade — a navigation system that BlackBerry itself helped pioneer. But it’s time to move on. BlackBerry takes a step in the right direction with its Active Frames home screen.

When you go to your home screen, you’ll see the last eight applications you’ve had open. This isn’t just the app tile, though, but a live preview of what’s running in the app. Most native BB10 apps, such as calendar and App World, have Active Frames already running. As more and more third parties create Active Frames for their apps, it will only get better.

5. The keyboard

In the past six years people have grown used to typing on a virtual touchscreen keyboard. It proved difficult at first, and in that regard BlackBerry maintained a competitive advantage. Not only did its devices continue employing physical keyboards, but they were also the best in the business. Later BlackBerry made attempts, with the Storm and Torch models, to create a virtual keyboard, but it wasn’t much better than the competition.

BlackBerry 10 changes that completely. The first thing you notice when using BB10, in fact, is the responsiveness and accuracy of the virtual keyboard. It’s almost as though you have the traditional BlackBerry keyboard overlaid on the touchscreen. The default keyboard on the BlackBerry Z10 shines. It shows that BlackBerry continues to understand the importance of the keyboard on a smartphone.

That not enough? The Q10 is due out later this spring, and it will have the traditional QWERTY keyboard. We don’t see many of those devices these days.

The post Top 5 Features of BlackBerry 10 that Stand Out appeared first on MobileMoo.

Don Birchenough is joining Deutsche Bank as a Managing Director and Americas Head of Media and Telecom Mergers & Acquisitions. He joins from Credit Suisse where he was most recently Co-Head of the Technology, Media and Telecom M&A group in the Americas.

PRESS RELEASE

Deutsche Bank today announced that Don Birchenough will join as a Managing Director and Americas Head of Media and Telecom Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A). He joins Deutsche Bank from Credit Suisse where he was most recently Co-Head of the Technology, Media and Telecom M&A group in the Americas. Birchenough was previously Americas Head of Telecom and Media M&A at Deutsche Bank. He will be based in New York.
The Bank also announced the formation of a global Technology, Media and Telecom (TMT) group within its Investment Banking Coverage & Advisory (IBC&A) business. Chris Colpitts and Gavin Deane have been promoted to Global Co-Heads of TMT Investment Banking Coverage. Colpitts is based in San Francisco and Deane in London.
“The creation of a unified and coordinated TMT group is a natural step for these businesses that operate in close partnership and can offer our clients interconnected business opportunities,” said John Eydenberg, Co-Head of IBC&A, Americas.
“These changes reflect our continued commitment to promote from within and selectively hire from the market to develop industry-leading teams,” said Tony Whittemore, Co-Head of M&A, Americas.

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