Turkish companies interested to invest in RHD Foundation’s land

Large Turkish construction companies have expressed interest in taking part in land auctions of Russian Housing Development Foundation (RHD), located in different regions including Moscow, Novosibirsk, St. Petersburg and Primorsky Krai.

The representatives of leading Turkish companies met the management team of RHD Foundation under the leadership of Foundation’s CEO Alexander Braverman.  During the meeting both sides comprehensively discussed the implementation of integrated development projects on Foundation’s land.

The likely partners discussed the potential of mutual collaboration in housing and other construction industries. The representatives of RHD Foundation briefed the Turkish businessmen about the advantages of investing in the housing project, building industry and other development projects in Russian territories.

The cooperation between RHD Foundation and Turkish companies has witnessed a dynamic development in the recent years. At the MIPIM 2013 Exhibition, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed between RHD Foundation and a leading Turkish construction company. Turkish bank ISbank and several companies including Eroglu, Yenigun and Agaoglu are keen to participate in RHD Foundation’s auction.

Alexander Braverman said currently the RHD Foundation is planning to auction 33 plots of land in Russian regions. He said the portfolio of projects implemented in Foundation’s area is currently at 16 million square meters and overall there are 103 projects in 38 regions of the country.

RHD Foundation head further said that the Turkish companies have great experience, particularly in the construction sector, which is largely in demand in Russia.

“We are interested in cooperation with Turkish companies in the financial sector, namely, the Turkish banks. A comprehensive approach to a site development fund is priority for us “, he said, adding the Foundation is looking forward to working with investors from more countries.

For more information on the global property market, head to MIPIM 2014 at Cannes. Contact EAS for the best in high quality hotels in MIPIM 2014, marketing and event management. For further information, click here.

Samsung sell over 10m Galaxy S4 Smartphones in first month

Samsung Electronics Galaxy S4 marked its introduction into the global market with a remarkable note as the company says they have sold more than 10 million units in less than a month.

In just the first month, sales of the new Smartphone from Samsung, has surpassed all of its predecessors.

The Galaxy S III had taken 50 days to reach the 10 million mark following its release last year. Galaxy S II reached the mark in five months while Galaxy S accomplished the milestone in seven months.

Galaxy S4 is currently available in 115 countries and will be introduced to 155 countries in cooperation with 327 partners, said Korean electronics giants, who emerged as the leader of the Smartphone market last year by selling over 400 million phones.

The Research firm IDC said that the massive success of Galaxy S4 will help Samsung to sustain its position in the Smartphone market.

Android-powered Galaxy S4 has a 5-inch full HD Super AMOLED display and a dual camera function which allows the user to use both front and rear cameras simultaneously.

Currently, S4 is only available in white and black color, or as Samsung likes to say White Mist and Black Forest. But soon it will be available in more colors including Brown Autumn, Blue Arctic, Purple Mirage and Red Aurora, announced Samsung.

Apple’s iPhone 5 — the main rival of Galaxy S4 — sold about five million devices in the opening weekend of its launch, but the amount disappointed investors, who were expecting much higher sales. The market analysts had predicted nearly eight-million sales for Apple iPhone 5 on the first weekend.

For more information on the world of mobile apps head to MWC 2014 in Barcelona, scheduled to be held from 24-27 February, 2014. Contact EAS for best in high quality accommodation, marketing and event management.  For further information, click here.

Smartphone applications help you save 22 days of your time a year

Smartphone apps help the users to save 88 minutes of their time in a day or as much as 22 days’ worth of free time per year, a latest study has found.

The study was conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of Click Software and was based on the responses of 2,120 U.S adult Smartphone users.

The report states that 97% of Smartphone users access at least one application frequently on their handset every day.  On average, a user saves 88 minutes of his/her time in a day by accessing the apps from their Smartphone and thereby saves 22 days of free time a year.

According to a recent report published by BusinessNewsDaily, email apps are the most frequently used apps on the Smartphone, pursed by text and social networking applications. The other commonly used apps are games, maps, weather, calendar functions and GPS.

Though email apps dominate the overall usage of Smartphone applications, people believe that they save more time using text apps than any other kind of applications. The text apps save 53 minutes a day compared with 35 minutes a day for email applications.

The Smartphone users confessed that apart from personal use, they use their device for work as well. One in five users of GPS and email apps said they use these applications primarily for work, while one in three said they use the abovementioned apps for personal and office purposes equally.

Researchers found that despite spending too much time on the Smartphones, the majority of the users don’t think that they are getting much out of them, because they are not able to utilize their devices properly.

For more information on the world of mobile apps head to Mobile World Congress 2014 in Barcelona, scheduled to be held from 24-27 February, 2014. Contact EAS for best hotels deals during Mobile world congress 2014 in high quality accommodation, marketing and event management.  For further information, click here.

Capital Group to build huge construction site in Mitino

The Moscow authorities have given the approval of another huge construction site in Mitino, the administrative district of North-Western Administrative Okrug.

The Capital Group, one of Russia’s biggest construction companies, will build a new zone of one million square meters.

The website Moskomstroyinvesta reported that the total construction area will be 975,200 squares. 675,000 square feet will be used for housing while the rest of other land will be allocated for public spaces including schools, business center, medical center, fitness center, playgrounds and parking. The company will also construct a big shopping complex and a modern hotel in the capital.

The area will accommodate more than 13,000 people. The estimated cost of the entire residential complex is $ 1.5 billion.

Urban Planning and Land Commission has given the approval of the new draft of city planning area in Mitino on 60 hectares. An official of commission said that this is the land of an ex-poultry farm, which owners sold to Uralsib, a leading Russian financial corporation.

In the mid-2000s, the company Zodiac was willing to build a gated community named “Christmas Hills” on this land. They took the project into the internationally renowned MIPIM exhibition several times to attract the investors but failed to get an interested party. Eventually, Uralsib started searching for a buyer for this land.

Uralsib’s agreement with Moscow authorities for a construction site involved Capital Group. A Moscow Building Complex official confirmed that the company will now implement this project with the help of some investors. The information, however, hasn’t been confirmed or declined by Capital Group itself.

For more information on the global property market, head to MIPIM 2014at Cannes. Contact EAS for the best in high quality accommodation, marketing and event management. EAS is also a licensed travel agency and member of ACAV and ASTA. For further information, click here.

Your hand will be your Smartphone in near future

Your hand will be your Smartphone soon. It sounds like a dream, but the day is not far away because the researchers in Japan are reportedly developing a world-shattering technology which will allow you to keep your mobile phone on the palm of your hand.

Smartphone in Future

The Masatoshi Ishikawa and colleagues at the University of Tokyo, using a special camera that unites two rotational mirrors and high-speed vision, have discovered a way to project a display of the device on your palm, or any other surface, so one can remotely operate it at office or home.

According to Ishikawa, with this technology, the users won’t need to carry a Smartphone or depend upon computer or a keyboard to use the phone and they will be able make a calls without anything.

Ishikawa said the system will have the power to detect the movements of 3D objects every two milliseconds.

A report presented by ABC news says the program tracks the moving object with the help of high-speed vision, allowing users to walk with the image of their mobile phone on their palm.

The computer system beams ultrasonic wave emitters to create the reflection of the mobile phone on the palm and users have the sensation that the keyboard is pressing against their skin.

Ishikawa, who has developed a series of systems using high-speed vision technology, said the palm phone will be become a reality in next two to three years.

Ishikawa’s latest accomplishment was the launch of a high-speed robotic hand last year.

For more information on the world of mobile apps head to Mobile World Congress 2014 in Barcelona, scheduled to be held from 24-27 February, 2014. Contact EAS for best in high quality accommodation, marketing, event management and booked aparments for Mobile World Congress. 

Jolla released first Sailfish-based Smartphone

Jolla, a company founded by ex-Nokia employees, has displayed the first look of its maiden Smartphone, which has a custom operating system – Sailfish.

The much-anticipated Jolla phone will be available for sale by the end of this year.

Sailfish has been developed from remains of MeeGo, a project that Nokia had abandoned a couple of years ago to adopt Windows Phone for its handsets.

The launch of Jolla phone came days after the appointment of company’s new CEO – Tomi Pienimäki – whose brother Sami was one of the founders of Jolla Company.

Powered by a dual-core processor, Jolla phone has a 4.5 inch touch-screen display, 8 megapixel cameras and a replaceable battery. Its integrated storage is 16GB but using an SB card, it can be expanded.

Jolla phone also supports 4G, and the applications developed for Android are compatible to it. There are no navigation keys in the device and the user interface is controlled just with swipes and gestures.

In addition to the other classical features of a handset, another stunning feature of Jolla phone is that its coloured back is interchangeable and the interface changes depending on the type of cover you select.

Several employees of Nokia’s team, which was working on a joint Nokia-IBM project to make a new mobile operating system – MeeGo – to counter Android and Apple’s iOS, had left Finnish phone maker in 2011 to make their own company and carry on development work on the MeeGo project.

The pre-order Jolla phone is only available to buyers in United Kingdom, Germany, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Spain, Italy and France, priced at €399 (£337). It is expected to be shipped by the fourth quarter of this year..

For more information on the world of mobile apps head to Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, scheduled to be held from 24-27 February, 2014. Contact EAS for serviced apartments for upcoming Mobile wrold Congress in Barcelona.

Telefonica reports increased profit despite weak European, Latin American segments

Despite facing multiple challenges in both its Latin America and Europe operations, Telefonica is inking constant success and has reported an increase for the first quarter of 2013.

Telefonica’s executive chairman Cesar Alierta, in a statement, said that the company is generating outcome that reflects “a progressive stabilization of the business and a greater degree of diversification”, adding its financial position is persistently improving.

During the first quarter of this year, Spain’s biggest company announced the net income of €902 million which was 20.6% up from €748 million it generated last year.

The revenue fell 8.8% to €14.14 billion, with the sales in its key Latin American market, which accounts for more than half of the group’s revenues, dropping 4%. The revenue from the European market was down by 11%.

Brazil emerged as company’s biggest market for the first time, surpassing its home market Spain, where the sales declined 9.5% to €3.26 billion. Latin America delivered more than 50% of consolidated revenue to the company for second successive quarter, largely due to company’s downfall in Europe.

The company reported an operating income of €1.08 billion from Latin America, where it has 176.98 million mobile subscribers, and this number is increasing 3.6% annually.

The €1.08 billion operating income was 17.7% less than from €1.31 billion and the revenue of €7.23 billion was down 3.8% from €7.52 billion. The company described the impact of exclusion of Atento, the call-center unit sold last year, and February’s depreciation of the bolivar in Venezuela as main reasons behind recession.

From Europe, where it has 70.33 million mobile subscribers, the company reported an operating income of €1.13 billion, down 10.2% from €1.26 billion. The revenue of €7.56 billion slumped to €6.68 billion after witnessing decline of 11.7%.

For more information on the world of mobile apps head to Mobile World Congress 2014 in Barcelona, scheduled to be held from 24-27 February, 2014. Contact EAS for best in high quality accommodation, marketing and event management.  For further information, click here.

Coscolluelas to help WVCA deliver more luxury buildings in Philippines

The recently-appointed senior partners of WV Coscolluela and Associates (WVCA) – twin brothers Gil and Gary Cosolulluela – are anticipated to take the 55-year-veteran firm to the bigger heights with their exceptional architectural skills.

WVCA’s senior principal architect William Coscolluela, who is also the father of Gil and Gary, said that the appointment of his sons will help the firm to develop attractive, reliable and innovative buildings in Philippines in forthcoming years.

Since its foundation in 1957, WVCA has developed countless luxury buildings across the Philippines but Zuellig Building is hailed as one of its greatest masterworks. Located at the crossroads of Paseo de Roxas and Makati Avenue, Zuellig Building was selected as one of the top three buildings in the “Best Office and Business Development” category of MIPIM Asia Awards 2012.

Zuellig Building is the first high-rise building project in the country that was pre-certified by the US Green Building Council at the LEED Gold level. Down to its superb-location, world-class design and distinctive frontage, Zuellig Building is expected to be premier business location in Metro Manila in future.

SM Aura Premier (Bonifacio Civic Center) at the Bonifacio Global City in Taguig, which is at verge of completion, the Unilab Corporate Offices on Williams Street, Mandaluyong City and P8.5-billion SM Seaside City Cebu, which has just got underway are some other superlative constructions of the firm, which has also participated in overseas projects in Singapore, China, Saipan, Malaysia, and Guam as design consultant.

Gil and Gary have studied in the separate architectural institutes around the country from primary school and up. Gil was previously involved in several projects including Joya Lofts and Towers, RCBC Plaza, Crowne Plaza and PCI Tower in Makati City while Gary’s previous work include the designing of Discovery Shores Boracay in Aklan province, Landmark in TriNoma and several other projects.

For more information on the global property market, head to MIPIM 2014 at Cannes. Contact EAS for the best in high quality accommodation, marketing and event management. EAS is also a licensed travel agency and member of ACAV and ASTA. For further information, click here.

BBM chat app to be expanded to Android and iOS

Blackberry Messenger (BBM) app will be offered as a download to run on the Android and iOS, the company announced on Tuesday.

Blackberry said initially the text, picture messages and group sharing functions will be offered on Google-based and Apple-based iOS operating systems from this summer. The company added that voice, video calls and screen sharing have also been planned that will be totally free of charge.

The surprise news will be confirmed during the company’s annual developers’ conference in Orlando, Florida, Blackberry chief executive Thorsten Heins said. The move is considered disrupting for Whatsapp, Skype and the other players in market.

But Mr. Heins talks down the idea that offering BBM, which the Canadian company said over 60 million Blackberry users access at least once a month, to the rival devices will leave a negative impact over the sales of its own handsets.

Heins said that for the app to work on Android the users would need Ice Cream Sandwich version of Google’s software and iPhone users need at least iOS 6.

Blackberry had launched BBM as a simple instant messaging tool and a free alternative to SMS texts for its handsets but over the years its potential has been extended beyond messaging and it now features several other functions like audio messages, picture messaging photo sharing, and voice and video calls.

The most recent addition in the application is Channels, a feature that allows the users to receive status updates and news from the celebrities and brands they are following on it. The Canadian company has an opportunity to vanquish its open cross-platform rivals by assembling all the features to Android and iOS devices.

For more information on the world of mobile apps head to Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, scheduled to be held from 24-27 February, 2014. Contact EAS for best in high quality accommodation, marketing and event management.  For further information, click here.

Smartphone manufacturer Jolla named new CEO

Start-up Smartphone manufacturer – Jolla – has appointed Tomi Pienimäki as the company’s new CEO ahead of the launch of its maiden product.

Jolla will succeed Marc Dillon, who served as the company’s CEO for approximately seven months. Dillon will now focus his energies on the development of the Sailfish operating system as head of software development.

Dillon played a vital role in promoting the platform during his term as Jolla’s CEO.  While attending the Mobile World Congress, he presented the Sailfish OS as an alternative to the rivals such as iOS and Android.

The newly-appointed Pienimäki, who joined the company from Nordic logistics company Itella, said his task is to listen very closely to the company’s clients and promote collaboration. His record shows that he has vast experience in logistics, management, supply chains and driving growth.

Pienimäki is Jolla’s third CEO, in company’s short-life. Jussi Hurmola filled the role when the company first attracted the limelight last year. Hurmola was later appointed to concentrate on “Sailfish strategy.”

The change of head is largely seen as a reflection of the certainty of Jolla, which was founded by ex-Nokia employees including Pienimäki’s brother Sami.  The team was willing to carry on development work the Finnish phone maker had done on the  MeeGo OS project;, from being a start-up to the product delivery stage, a point where the management role turns out to be more like that of an established corporation.

Jolla will release its maiden device in the second week of May. A pre-sales campaign is likely to begin soon after while the actual sales start will take place during the second half of this year.

Beside Jolla, several other companies are also working on the new operating system for Smartphones. Samsung Electronics and Intel are adapting Tizen camp for their maiden phone, expected to be released later this year while Mozilla is working on Firefox OS.

For more information on the world of mobile apps head to Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, scheduled to be held from 24-27 February, 2014. Contact EAS for best in high quality accommodation, marketing and event management.  For further information, click here.

Iphone and IPad will now have Google Now Service

Google has launched its much-anticipated Google Now service for Apple’s IOS, such as iphone and IPad. With this service, the users can access their personal assistant features offered by the platform, such as weather, traffic conditions as well as their favorite stocks.

Google Now, a real time discovery engine that is constantly flourishing since its release for Android, can be accessed by swiping upwards from the bottom of the application’s homepage.  The iPhone and IPad users can get the Google Search update with Now through iTunes App Store for free.

The Google Now will collect information about its users through their activities and their history in other Google services. The users can edit their home, work and current location, track their favorite stock and get live score updates of their favorite sports team. The service will also alert users to heavy traffic conditions and suggest an alternate to travel.

Though these features can be accessed online comfortably, Google Now was keen to collect all the information user need at a single place. Another idea of Google behind the enclosure of additional features is to encourage the users to look beyond their current homepages, which are generally linked to their email addresses.

With the subscription of Now Service on iPhone and iPad, the iconic Google home page will shine with different sized cards under the search box. The top of screen will contain the traditional Google logo placed on a twinkling light-green background. The Smartphone becomes smarter and smoother when Google Now teams up with the voice search.

While many of Google Now’s features have been passed over to IPhone and IPad, the update reportedly does not contain the components like gesture control and third party integration features.

For more information on the world of mobile apps head to next year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, scheduled to be held from 24-27 February, 2014. Contact EAS for the best in high quality accommodation, marketing and event management.  EAS is licensed travel agency and member of ACAV and ASTA. For further information, click here.