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| New overtime rules New York kicks in on New Year |
12/26/2019 |
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The Labor Department rules that go into effect Jan. 1 raise to $684 per week, or $35,568 a year, the threshold at which employees are exempt from being paid overtime. That's a 50.3% increase from the previous threshold of $455 per week or $23,660 annually.
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| Samsung plans decade long $116 billion capital spending |
12/26/2019 |
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The South Korean company is investing heavily in the next step in miniaturizing semiconductors, a process called extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV). It’s by far the priciest manufacturing upgrade Samsung has ever attempted, a risky bid to move beyond its established business of cranking out commoditized silicon and to leapfrog the incumbent leaders in the $250 billion foundry and logic-chip industry.
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| Manufacturing index for durable goods fell 2% |
12/25/2019 |
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Orders for durable goods fell 2% last month, the biggest decline since May, the Commerce Department said Monday. Orders have fallen in two of the past three months. October’s number was revised down to 0.2% from a 0.6% gain.
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| Amazon just notify merchants a 3% increase in fulfillment |
12/25/2019 |
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Higher costs from infrastructure and programs such as one-day delivery as why the higher merchant fees are needed, with Amazon adding that it has invested more than $15 billion in 2019 in tools, infrastructure and programs to help its sellers.
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| Uber CEO Travis Kalanick is out |
12/25/2019 |
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The departure did not come as a surprise. Kalanick recently sold more than $2.5 billion worth of shares in the company, more than 90% of his holdings.
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| Etron teamed with Lattice to develope DRAM applications with AI |
12/24/2019 |
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Memory design house Etron Technology has teamed up with US-based FGPA chipmaker Lattice Semiconductor on developing new miniaturized AI+DRAM platform for applications to terminal edge computing, industrial robots, and multimedia such as AR/VR.
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| Boeing space capsule safely returned after missing orbit |
12/24/2019 |
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The successful return capped a rocky start to a mission that was supposed to include a docking with the space station. Managers will review all the data before deciding whether to do another test flight or go straight to flying astronauts.
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| Wireless charging is rapidly becoming more common |
12/24/2019 |
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Wireless charging, involves transferring energy between two objects across an electromagnetic field. The concept, refined and applied to several small-sized applications in the mid-1970s, is making a comeback in consumer phones and EVs.
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| Miniaturized MLCC market to recover thanks to 5G |
12/23/2019 |
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Indicator suggesting the market for MLCCs may come back to life in 2020. According to sources at passive component equipment makers, an influx of short lead-time orders has started pulling in. The orders are mainly those for making miniaturized MLCCs, as well as power inductors.
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| U.S. economy grew 2.1% in Q3 |
12/23/2019 |
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The Commerce Department said Friday that the gross domestic product, the economy’s total output of goods and services, grew at a moderate annual rate of 2.1% in the third quarter.
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| Boeing no-bid on $85 Billion Minuteman III missile project |
12/23/2019 |
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Last week marked the deadline for bid submissions for a contract to replace the military’s Minuteman III missile system. Boeing has participated in the military’s program as a Minuteman supplier since 1962, and the company was expected to bid on the project along with competitor Northrop Grumman.
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| Study found face-scanning and recognition has its own difficulties |
12/23/2019 |
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The report cautions biased facial recognition that has alarmed the public, but also confirms similar trends showing higher error rates for women, the youngest and oldest people, and for certain racial groups depending on which image database or software is being used.
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| Taiwan is working towards creating a startup ecosystem |
12/20/2019 |
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A key component in creating a competitive startup ecosystem in Taiwan was the creation of two ‘ecosystem builders’, Taiwan Startup Stadium (TSS) and Taiwan Tech Arena (TTA). Founded in 2015, TSS have played a key role in connecting Taiwan to international startup ecosystems and never fail to catch the eye with their bright yellow in-your-face design. Launched in 2018 as a government-subsidized project, TTA operates as a co-working space for startups and accelerators, and supports startups in.
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| Microchip Technology’s latest EERAM can restore content when power is disrupted |
12/20/2019 |
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Microchip’s EERAM is essentially a serial SRAM that includes non-volatile transistors in every cell inside the device. Unlike NVSRAM, no external battery is needed, he said. It uses a small external capacitor to provide the energy needed to move the contents of the SRAM to the nonvolatile cells when system power is lost, which is accomplished by the IC monitoring voltage at the common collector and automatically handling the data movement between the SRAM and the nonvolatile memory when needed.
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| U.S. industrial production rebounds |
12/19/2019 |
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The Federal Reserve said Tuesday that industrial production — which includes output at factories, mines and utilities — rose 1.1% in November, reversing a 0.9% drop in October and recording biggest jump since October 2017.
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| UltraSense Systems turn any surface into sensing user interface |
12/19/2019 |
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UltraSense Systems (San Jose, Calif.) introduced what it claims is the smallest ultrasound sensor-on-chip for touch and gestures through any material and any material thickness. Dubbed TouchPoint and TouchPoint Z, its initial products are sampling now and are expected to be incorporated into several consumer and industrial devices in 2020.
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