The market is flooded with numerous digital versatile disc (DVD) players, small devices that play videos and music for us. Most DVD players need to be connected to a TV to display video, but some players now come with an attached LCD screen and stereo speakers. DVD players play discs in audio and video format.

The quality of any audio or video output on a screen is highly influenced by the format of the disc being played on the player. There are some optical disc formats compatible with one or other disc players and DVD players. They are compact disc (CD) formats, DVD formats, MP3 formats and others. These days, some companies are coming up with the next generation of optical disc format players. These next generation optical disc formats are known as Blu ray or Blu ray Disc (BD). These are high-density optical disc formats. Blu-ray discs store digital information and also high-definition (HD) video.

The name ‘Blu ray Disc’ is quite unusual, this name is derived from the violet Blu laser that used to read and write this type of disc. More data can be stored on a Blu-ray Disc than on a DVD. This is due to the shorter wavelength of the Blu-violet laser, which is 405 nanometers. Almost 25 Gigabytes (GB) can be stored on a single layer BD. This is more than 5 times the capacity of a single layer DVD which can store almost 4.5GB alone. We have double layer BD that can store up to 50 GB of data.

The BD optical disc format was jointly developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA). BDA is a group of the world’s leading manufacturers of consumer electronics, personal computers and media. These include Apple, Dell, Hitachi, HP, JVC, LG, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Pioneer, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, TDK, and Thomson. Blu-ray is backed by 180 of the world’s leading technology companies. These companies are big names in consumer electronics, personal computers, recording media, video games, and music businesses.

The BD format is widely supported by major movie studios. In fact, most of the prominent movie studios have released movies on Blu-ray format. These are Disney, Fox, Warner, Paramount, Sony, Lionsgate, and MGM. Six studios are releasing their movies exclusively on Blu-ray; They are Disney, Fox, Sony, Warner, Lionsgate and MGM.

Several electronic companies offer products that can read and write CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray discs. Companies such as Sony, Panasonic, Philips, Samsung, Pioneer, Sharp and LG are developing BD/DVD/CD compatible optical head players. BD players are becoming popular due to that simple reason which is quality. In BD players we can also play DVD, it looks even better than before. Therefore, Blu-ray DVD players are the latest buzzword in the entertainment scene, producing a clear picture with vivid colors and crisp sound.

Due to the quality it offers, BD players are in high demand. Day by day, the demand for this next generation technology is increasing. This causes your cost of production to drop. Sony Company is taking advantage of this fact and reducing the price of its BD players. Several companies are taking the lead in manufacturing state-of-the-art BD players. Electronics Company Toshiba sells its high-definition (HD) DVD player for much less than Sony’s BD players. Now Sony is trying to get ahead in the market, so it has slashed £50 off the price of its BD player.

Sony’s Blu-ray discs are supported by companies like Samsung, Dell and Apple, while Toshiba’s HD DVD is supported by NEC, Sanyo and others. We can say that the format war is on. Both HDD and Blu-ray systems have almost the same functionalities, both store a large amount of data, both produce high-quality images and audio, and both use a blue laser to read information. There is only one difference, which is price. Therefore, Sony’s price reduction step may be an additional advantage of Sony’s BD players.

Typically, the only way distant family, friends, and anyone else who cares can say goodbye to a loved one is by making a phone call, sending a card or flowers, or passing on condolences and condolences. Well not yet. Now, thanks to the latest webcasting technologies, anyone from all over the world can be there to experience the entire service from the comfort of their own home.

Hiring a live streaming service provider is the easiest way to stream a memorial service. Today, a home computer, iPad, Android tablet, or smartphone can deliver high-quality HD video, allowing you to create content without the need for expensive video equipment. Cloud streaming services were designed to accommodate anyone who is unable to attend a funeral or special event due to health, distance, cost, or work concerns.

Most service providers create a personalized, secure website for private viewing and send their guests an email that includes a link to the site, a user ID and password, and instructions on how to view the ceremony. Also, viewers can chat with each other, so it becomes interactive.

Helping people heal through remote engagement

As our lives become more demanding and the distances between loved ones grow, it is not always possible to attend a funeral due to poor health, distance, cost or work. However, webcasting services overcome these barriers by providing a live streaming platform for family and friends to participate in the memorial service.

Some funeral directors suggest that sharing condolences with family members may be more important to the grieving process than witnessing the actual service.

A discreet video camera can be set up to film a funeral, which is then broadcast online on a password-protected site for the benefit of mourners who were unable to attend.

A live streaming specialist can webcast the funeral to any internet-connected device (e.g., PC, iPad, Android tablet, or smartphone) so the memorial service can be viewed live from comfort from the remote viewer’s home.

Built for the non-technical user

How simple is the memorial broadcasting service? As the funeral is about to begin, viewers click the link included in their email invitation. Then, through the high-speed Internet connection, they can see the entire service, visually and aurally. That’s all about it. And that’s just one of the reasons more and more families are asking funeral directors about this perfect new option that can bring people together like never before.

An emerging movement

Live webcasting is becoming more prevalent in the funeral industry. Why? For less than the cost of a single plane ticket, family, friends and other supporters can watch a high-quality broadcast of a memorial service from the comfort of their home or on the go. There is no need to miss another funeral, ever again.

This article is the second part of two.

find many answers

At school we are trained to find the correct answer to a problem or a question. In fact, much of his experience with the educational system was probably based on this type of convergent conditioning of his mind. This is, of course, the result of a system that is supposed to produce individuals to fit into society, and not necessarily train independence and creative thinking. The normative power of our educational system is considerable and the conditioning of our brains is quite effective, so don’t expect your efforts to reverse this to be easily achieved.

However, try to miss the only correct answer and change your mind. Explore the possibilities. Perhaps there are other answers, not necessarily more or less correct, but perhaps more productive than the obvious one? Use all aspects of your mind by stimulating different parts of your brain.

• Visualize by drawing the problem with colored pencils.
• Get moving, do some physical activity.
• Tell a friend about the problem or question.
• Try to avoid the piecemeal Western approach we discussed earlier when viewing a problem.
• Ask yourself how this problem is interconnected with other parts of your life. Write all answers in notes.

To play!

Playing is very useful. Sometimes gaming can be described as doing things without a specific purpose. Playing is creative by nature and you may be surprised by the ideas and new perspectives that can come from playing. Consultants know how powerful this can be and that is why participants in management and team building courses are often asked to perform tasks that are new and unusual to most people; whitewater rafting, rock climbing, problem solving in unorthodox environments, etc. Much of these activities are similar to the games we played as children and this is no coincidence. Play is a highly underrated activity among adults in our culture, as it counteracts the rigid, rule-based thinking of our everyday work and lives.

change your perspective

To stimulate creativity you can take your problem out of the usual environment; it can be as simple as sitting on the floor for a while, or going out to a park, visiting a mall or a museum; there are no rules here. Your mind will be stimulated to make new connections and problems will suddenly appear in a different light. You have probably already experienced this; When faced with a difficult problem or faced with troubling news, taking a walk can make it easier to deal with. Strong experiences can also spark your creativity and radically change your perspective.

A few years ago I went rock climbing in the Alps and after a particularly hard climb I found myself on a cliff about 300 meters above the valley, arms throbbing from exhaustion, adrenaline pumping and endorphins making me feel as if I would have been born again. Everything was clear in my mind, and all the problems that had been so overwhelming before now seemed insignificant. Ideas rushed through my brain and I felt like I could do anything. I am sure you are familiar with this feeling, but perhaps we forget, or simply assume, that this state is not natural, or just an exception in our lives. It shouldn’t be. This could and should be a much more natural state of mind for you.

Exercises

Here are some practical exercises you can do to train your creativity and mental flexibility.

• Go out and go on a mini-retreat. Find a quiet place away from your usual environment, preferably in an area without traffic, noise and people. Sit back and watch what is happening around you. Don’t over-analyze or get lost in daydreaming. Stay focused yet relaxed and take note of life as it happens around you. Use and experience the sensation of all your senses. What can you hear? What smells? How does the wind feel on your skin? Open your mind and try to be part of the environment in which you find yourself.
• Take a lunch box to work and start walking outside when the weather permits. He chose a road without much traffic. Focus on your breath and find your center. Be aware of what you see around you, but don’t get distracted. Avoid evaluating what you see, stay neutral in your observations. Find a good place for lunch. With a little practice, most people will find this not only relaxing, but also an effective way to find solutions and answers to problems that seem to fill the void in their mind. Keep a notebook handy to jot down possible ideas.

Lego has been a feature of many children’s toy boxes for many years and more than a few parents have discovered how painful it can be to step on a lost brick. But why has such a simple toy lasted so long?

Today, Lego sets come in many different types, as well as just the standard big box of bricks. You can now get Star Wars and City sets, to mention just a few, and that’s probably the number one reason this toy has managed to stay at the top of its game.

Lego was first made in 1949 and the now famous interlocking bricks were originally called “Self Binding Blocks”. The first bricks were not very versatile and did not fit together very well. The modern brick style was first produced in 1958 and the basic design of interlocking bricks has not changed since then.

Even though the toy is now over 50 years old, Lego has managed to keep the brand fresh and relevant by staying current. Many of the sets on sale today are branded after movies, like Star Wars or Batman. So while the unassuming little plastic bricks will no doubt end up loose in the toy box as they always have, they begin life as part of an exciting, up-to-date action figure set.

However, unlike regular action figure sets, the bricks can be used to create anything. So while a Harry Potter figure can be discarded once wizards aren’t cool anymore, a Harry Potter Lego set can still transform into Power Rangers, Transformers, or whatever else is popular at the time.

In fact, most of the instructions for sets are probably lost forever after the first compile. After that, a child’s imagination begins to fly freely and he begins to create his own robots, spaceships and jet planes. And of course, parents are just waiting for an excuse to sit on the rug and lend a hand with construction projects, too.

Today, Lego is a multi-billion dollar company spanning theme parks, retail stores, and movies like the recently released The Lego Batman Movie. All of which help keep the building blocks modern and relevant.

The other thing that helps keep Lego relevant is that it’s not a boy’s or a girl’s toy. Those little plastic blocks will work just as well as a dollhouse as a fortress or a tank. These blocks are also durable, so they can be passed down from one child to another, or even from one generation to the next.

Best of all, you can spend hours creating a masterpiece and then rip it apart and start over. There is no messing with glue or paint and each piece can be reused in another model.

So why is Lego still so popular? Because a set can start out as one thing and then become anything your imagination can think of. While the sets may have gotten more complex and the figurines more detailed, the basic premise of Lego is that you can put it together any way you want, over and over again. Who could be bored with that?

If you love playing basketball you will love it too and you will be able to get 2k20. This simulated video game is introduced by visual concepts. The publisher’s name is 2K Sports. This is the 21st video game that the franchise buys. Its predecessor is known as NBA 2K 19. Let’s find out more about the game.

On September 6, 2019, NBA 2K20 was released for Microsoft Windows, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch.

development and release

The announcement of this game was made in March 2019. And the game was released on September 6, 2019. The good thing is that the game covers were made public on July 1, 2019.

According to the news, Xbox One X and Xbox One S will be getting special editions of the game. Apart from this, for the smartphone game lovers, there will also be a limited version of this game. It will be compatible with iOS and Android.

The free demo of the game featured the player mode called My Career, which came out on August 21. With the demo, players could create up to 6 MyPlayers.

how to play

As said before, this game is a simulation of the basketball game. Like the previous games, this game offers a representation of the National Basketball Association (NBA). It also offers many improvements.

You can play NBA games with custom players or real life players. In addition, you will have to follow the same rules established by the NBA games. You can choose from many game modes and customize many settings.

In addition to the current season’s teams and players, past games have featured NBA teams like the Boston Celtics and Chicago Bulls.

The good thing about the NBA 2K series is that it has all 12 teams. In addition, it also features Candace Parker.

MyCareer is the staple of this amazing series and returns with many game modes. Actually, MyCareer allows players to create custom basketball players. Also, the mode has an amazing story that you can reveal as you continue playing. In addition, the authoring tools are also reviewed.

During the development of the game, the developers’ focus was on the MyLeague and MyGM modes that give you the task of managing your team’s basketball operations. Actually, MyGM places more importance on realism. On the other hand, MyLeague allows you to benefit from customization options.

Unlike previous games, MyGM mode features a lot of external-type interactions. The idea was to add a story to the game.

Again, NBA 2K20 has MyTeam mode which aims to have the ultimate team and maintain a virtual collection of trading cards. Players come together and play in tournament-style competition in many different formats.

For a team, assets are acquired through various means, such as the auction house and random card packs. In this mode, virtual currency is also used quite a bit.

So, this was a short review of NBA 2K20. Hopefully this review will help you get a better feel for the game.

Before I write the rest of this article, I will tell you what I recently discovered that will make me wait a few months before buying stocks. Hedge funds are collapsing left and right. They will take billions of dollars out of the stock market over the next several months as they crumble and die. Additionally, mutual funds will submit statements showing 30% losses. This could scare both 401k savers and normal investors out of these funds. So I expect the stock market to go down for the foreseeable future before it goes up. So read this article as if it were January 1, 2009 and you will see how I recommend investing.

Now that the stock market has crashed, what should you do next? There are two ways this market could go. One is lower and more liquidations. The other is that the stock market simply stalls around its current levels. So the best solution for this market is still the old solution, big companies with lots of cash and paying dividends. I have always liked Philip Morris (stock symbol PM) and Altria (stock symbol MO) as they pay very good dividends.

Companies with no cash or large debts cannot protect themselves in this market. They will have to take on more debt and then risk bankruptcy. Cash will have run out, so any business that hasn’t saved a lot of money will have to pay high interest rates to borrow money. If they can’t afford the high interest rates, they will have to sell out and negotiate basement prices. Keep the stocks you own something of. You will be surprised how much you know. Wal-Mart (WMT) is a good deed that we all know. They will lose some market share, but gain more market share as their low prices are attractive. Procter and Gamble (PG) is another great action that will work well. They do a lot of staple foods that people must have. McDonalds (MCD) will be the budget restaurant that gains market share as people forgo expensive restaurants and head to McDonalds.

Yes, you must do your own research. I advise against (against what I said!) hiring a financial advisor. I have put so many people who have lost a fortune listening to financial advisors. Financial advisers charge you a lot of money and do not beat the street as they say. You’ve probably heard of the monkey throwing darts at a board to pick stocks. Then they had a financial adviser pick his favorite stocks and waited a year. The monkey won. I could go into why and how all profits are siphoned off by managers and therefore it is useless to try to find big companies. I recommend buying an index fund or mutual fund if you don’t have time to research your own stocks.

Some people have access to reports on their online broker’s website, such as Schwab. I found that most analysts have sold almost all companies so they don’t look bad after missing out on the mortgage meltdown. The rule I live by is to keep it simple, stupid, and it has worked for me. I will share my research on Google and what I think about them.

Google is number 1 in Internet searches. They are expanding to foreign markets. They have great leadership and hire forward-thinking, creative programmers. They get many talented people applying for jobs because of their reputation as a great company. They are launching a new product, a mobile phone. So I know that I will take risks if the mobile phone fails. Google has a market share of 72% in Internet searches. They also have a large amount of data about each Internet user. They are using this data to personalize their ads and charge companies more money. When a user visits a website, the company wants to know details about that person. They want Google to tell them the person’s age, gender and where they live. So if the person is between the ages of 16 and 30, male, and lives in the New York area, the company is willing to pay a lot of money to advertise to that person.

This is how Google gets most of its money. A website is registered with Google. They agree that Google displays advertisements on their web pages. Let’s say the website is about cars. So Google shows an ad for GM. GM only wants people between 18 and 36 years old. When a person visits Google’s website, Google verifies the user and sees that the user’s criteria matches the age of 18-36. Google displays the GM ad and the user clicks the ad which takes them to the GM website and offers them a 10% discount on a new GM car. Google charges the GM $4.00 per click and gives the originating website $2.00 per click. Google continues to improve their system and the way they target ads, so I expect them to see good growth for another two years. They basically crushed their competition. They will raise their prices for clicks and companies will gladly pay. They have so many types of data, especially personal data that no other company in the world has except the United States government. I will watch the launch of the mobile phone to see how well accepted it is.

This is an example of how I research a stock. Many stocks that I determine are not worth buying. Google is a rare one that I liked. I’ve researched Intel and determined they’re about a $10 buy. Intel has fierce competition and a manufacturing cycle where it’s hard to make a profit. Now I know that this market is lousy and that it would be best to wait. Even Warren Buffet has lost 6 billion in this stock market crash. Google should hit $1000 sometime in the next 5 years. That’s 300% off today’s price.

Remember, read all the articles you can find and pay attention to what they are doing.
Use Google to search for information about the company you are interested in. Find out how much money they are paying their executives. I hate to see executives making 5 million. It’s a waste of company money, as only a few people are worth that kind of pay.

The Super Nintendo is a very popular gaming system with hundreds of great games. Many of the games for the SNES have gotten weird since their initial release. And some have even become very valuable collector’s items. Here is a list of the ten most expensive and rarest games for the Super NES.

1. Donkey Kong Country Competition – $400
The game was part of a promotional tournament at Blockbuster Video locations and was never released for public sale. Some Blockbuster stores gave away the games after the promotion or sold them in their sale bins. Because it was a limited edition item, it fetches a hefty premium compared to other Super Nintendo games.

2. Starfox Super Weekend – $220
Another limited edition game used in a Blockbuster promotion. Starfox Super Weekend was sold to some rental customers, and Nintendo Power even sold some extra copies to their subscribers. The game is just as hard to find as the #1 Donkey Kong cartridge, but it doesn’t command the same premium price.

3. Land – $70
Earthbound is the first game on the list that was sold to the general public. The game is not hard to find online, but it is very popular. It is a non-traditional RPG game with everyday household items used as weapons and a fun story. The game has a cult like following.

4. Black Queen Ogres Battle March – $62
Enix only printed 25,000 copies of this game, so it’s pretty hard to find. It is also a highly regarded RPG by critics, so many RPG fans are willing to pay a premium to play this rare game.

5. Ninja Gaiden Trilogy – $60
Ninja Gaiden Trilogy has all three NES Ninja Gaiden games on one cartridge with some slight graphical improvements. The game didn’t sell very well at first, but many gamers want the game now because it includes three great games for the price of one.

6. Castlevania Dracula X – $59
Dracula X is the last Castlevania game released on the Super NES, and like many series, the last game sells the worst. Castlevania collectors and fans help drive up the price of this rare game.

7. Harvest Moon – $57
Harvest Moon was released the same year as the Nintendo 64, so many players had already switched to the next system. Because of this, the game did not sell many copies. This is the first game in the Harvest Moon series, so many fans want to play the game that started it all.

8. EVO Quest for Eden – $56
EVO is not very rare at all, but it is very popular among fans of RPGs. It is a unique combination of platformer and role-playing game and is well regarded by critics. Popularity helps increase the price.

9. Chrono Trigger – $53
Chrono Trigger is not weird at all, but it is one of the best games of all time according to various sites. The stellar cast of developers, great story, and gameplay help this game stand the test of time. Sealed copies of Chrono Trigger have sold for over $1,200 on eBay.

10. Mega Man X3 – $49
X3 was one of only two games to use a special 3D chip in the SNES games. Because this chip made the game a bit weird and has some of the best graphics for the system, gamers are willing to pay a premium.

Now that you know the rarest and most expensive games for the Super Nintendo, be sure to keep an eye out for them when you go game shopping or when cleaning out your collection of old games. You don’t want to sell one of these for a couple of bucks at a garage sale when it’s a collector’s item.

Now I’m not sure about you, but my first contact with the Internet was in my teens, around the same time that ecstasy hit the market. Two massive phenomena that changed the way people party and communicate. Now, I’m not advocating ecstasy, but simply highlighting how they both became popular around the same time, perhaps not for the same reasons. One major difference between them, despite their popularity, is that ecstasy is claimed to damage brain cells and the Internet is argued to increase brainpower. On the other hand, one thing they do have in common is that ecstasy is said to have broken the boundaries of communication: people are loved and accepted; communication or lack thereof, depending on your trip, changed… the internet has changed the way we communicate today… surely that’s ok right?

Not everyone would agree. British professor Nicholas Carr highlights what he believes to be a negative statement about the Internet by stating that Internet use reduces the deep thinking that leads to true creativity. He also says that hyperlinks and overstimulation mean that the brain must give most of its attention to short-term decisions. The vast availability of information on the World Wide Web overwhelms the brain and damages long-term memory. This is because large amounts of stimuli generate a very large cognitive load that makes it difficult to remember something.

Steven Pinker, a psychologist, offers a counterargument that the Internet gives people more control over what they do, and that research and reasoning never came naturally to people, and claims that the Internet is actually making people more smart.

So where is the evidence?

UCLA psychiatry professor Gary Small studied brain activity in experienced web surfers versus casual web surfers. The resulting evidence suggests that the distinctive neural pathways of experienced Web users developed because of their use of the Web. Dr Small concluded: “The current explosion in digital technology is not only changing the way we live and communicate, but it is also rapidly and profoundly altering our brains.”

I guess time will tell how that will play out. One thing I will say is that it is quite shocking how quickly the internet can be picked up. For example, while working in a preschool, I observed how an 18-month-old girl, in a diaper and with a pacifier in her mouth, still without acquiring the power of speech, was able to stand in front of a computer, turn it on. and then she accesses a game that she liked to play. Her attention span exceeded her attention span for singing Humpty Dumpty; In short, she was engrossed and I might add that she was pretty good at the game. So what is this level of hand-eye-brain coordination doing to the brain synapses of a growing baby?

Again, I guess time will tell.

For now, one of the main advances of the Internet since it began to be used is its role as a social media tool.

Surely this should be fine too, right? The ability to access people from all over the world with the same interests can only improve one’s life, right? Well, not according to Evgeny Morozov, who claims that social networks could be potentially harmful to people. He writes that they can destroy privacy, noting that “insurance companies have accessed their patients’ Facebook accounts to try to disprove that they have hard-to-verify health issues like depression; employers have consulted social networking sites to screen prospective employees; university officials have searched the web for photos of their students drinking or smoking marijuana. He also said that the Internet makes people more complacent and risk averse. He said that because of much of the ubiquity of modern technology — cameras, recorders and the like — people may not want to act unusual for fear of getting a bad reputation. People can see photos and videos of you online, and this can cause you to act differently.

Social networking sites are also creating an element of people power that sellers have more control over than governments (unless you take a different stance and see that the government controls sellers, that’s another article!), such as Facebook and Twitter helped people organize political revolutions in Egypt, where it helped certain classes of protesters organize protests, communicate grievances, and spread information.

So it’s no surprise that in some countries social networking sites are scrutinized and filtered and in some cases banned. A few years ago, Turkey banned YouTube because someone uploaded a video saying that Ataturk (the founder of the Republic of Turkey and adorned public figure) was gay. For a country that wanted to join the EU, this was perhaps not a good move.

One thing is for sure: the Internet has brought the world closer together and this indirectly leads to changes in the way people interact with each other and how business is done compared to the pre-Internet world. In fact, the Internet has opened up many business opportunities and at the same time has made business more challenging due to the effect of global competition.

With the explosion of the internet, social media marketing is now the future of marketing,

Social networking tools like blogs, Facebook and Twitter bring them to the forefront. Geoff Livingston offers a dynamic definition of social media:

“Social media… is the democratization and socialization of information, as well as the tools to facilitate conversations online. Put another way, it’s the shift from one-way conversations to two-way conversations.”

Marketing has long been seen as distributing information to your target audience, that form of marketing is dying fast. Livingston speaks of this by distinguishing “audiences” from “communities.” And it really is a paradigm shift.

Marketers no longer have the option of treating people like audiences because people no longer have to sit back and listen. People have options.

The hard fact is that marketers no longer have the option to opt out of community dialogue. Dialogue is happening whether we like it or not. We can close our eyes waiting for them to say good things about our products and company; or we can help shape the conversation through our participation and, in turn, be shaped ourselves.

So it’s time to get on the dance floor and be part of the generation that is changing communication, marketing, brain function and probably much more that is yet to be discovered…

‘Buy’, the only word women frequent is slowly losing its shine. Nowadays, the whole shopping experience is not so pleasant. From queuing in traffic to getting to the store to find a parking space and ultimately not finding the object of desire you’ve wanted to own, it’s pretty disappointing. Therefore, in today’s competitive market, retailers have realized that with the help of modern technology they can improve the experience received by customers more than ever.

Technology greatly drives today’s retail industry. It has transformed the sector into a high-performance one, achieving its goals by serving consumers. Retail stores have tried to renew themselves with the help of technology, especially in the US and Europe in various ways. Retailers have embraced technology as a vital element of commerce.

Technology has allowed retailers greater transparency. Retailers have integrated the technology with manufacturers and consumers through customer and sales data. It is now easier for them to track their supplies from their headquarters. Technology also helps break down national and international barriers and connect with different customers and their demands.

Philip Clarke, chief executive of Tesco PLC, said there had been a “tectonic shift” in the retail industry, forcing businesses to adapt to new-age technologies.
“We are in the first recession of the digital age,” he said at the World Retail Congress in London on September 9, 2012. “Digital technology gives us the opportunity to have a warmer, more meaningful conversation with our customers, local communities , our colleagues and the vendors we work with.

Retail giants like Wal-Mart have put a lot of effort into social networking websites like Facebook, which aim to make their stores stand out locally. It debuted Black Friday sales on social media websites.

“Achieving an optimal state of technology utilization is a very high bar for almost any business,” said Tim Herbert, vice president of research for CompTIA, a nonprofit association for the IT industry. “But the vast majority of retailers clearly want to improve the use of their technology. For some, this will mean adopting new technology; for others, improving the use of what they already have.”

“Location-based technologies can give retailers the tools to incentivize in-store purchases, such as special discounts for in-store customers who check in through an app,” he explained in a press release.
“Reliable wireless connectivity, robust security, quality endpoints, data backup and other IT basics cannot be overlooked by retailers eager to add new capabilities,” he said.

It is estimated that two-thirds of the US gross domestic product (GDP) comes from retail consumption. To see the health of the US economy, the retail industry is a good indicator. According to the latest annual report from the US Department of Commerce, total retail sales in 2011 were $4.7 trillion, an increase of 8% over total retail sales in 2010 (including food service and automotive).

One of America’s most well-known business voices, Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks, said, “Despite all the promise of digital media to bring people together, I continue to believe that the most sincere and lasting parts of human connection come from looking directly at someone. the eyes of others, without a screen in between”.

But he also added: “Information can’t be from business to consumer; it has to be a level playing field where consumers feel they are participating and information is being shared. Cracking the code involves understanding how to create an opportunity for people feel proud, a sense of discovery that they want to share with someone they care about.

Since 2011, retailers’ attention has shifted to mobile devices, with consumers buying more smartphones and tablets and their desire to interact with retail consumers. Now it has become the must-have device for most customers in the US and European countries. Retailers began to approach all things through mobile devices.

Consumers have mobile apps on their smartphones and these offer loyalty points and coupon offers to “sign up” for a particular retail outlet. Mobile devices have become the favorite place or platform to shop for consumers in the U.S. Retailers are seeing a 4 percent increase in total e-commerce sales from smartphones and tablets alone, Shop said. org and Forrester Research.

Mobile payments have become all the rage among consumers and retailers. Mobile payment refers to mobile money, mobile money transfer and mobile wallet, generally refers to payment services operated under financial regulation and made from or through a mobile device according to Wikipedia. It is basically an alternative payment method besides cash, check or credit cards. Consumers can pay for a wide range of services and goods using their mobile phones: music, bus tickets, train tickets, tickets, books, etc. The payment model can be NFC (Near Field Communication), SMS-based, direct mobile billing and mobile web payments (WAP). Globally, mobile payments could reach an excess of $600 billion by the year 2013 forecast by Juniper Research.

Tech giants like Apple have also helped retail better integrate with newer technology. Apple introduced the EasyPay payment system, an application that turns the iPhone into an iWallet. The app uses the user’s credit card information from their iTunes account.

Financial institutions and technology companies are investing millions of dollars in the development of mobile payment service. It is also called a digital or mobile wallet.
All major US retailers such as Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy, 7-Eleven and Sunoco have moved towards developing a mobile payment network service. Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX), a joint venture of more than a dozen retailers, will compete with Google Wallet. This will be supported by mobile carriers AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile.

Consumers now have faster and less cumbersome checkout and retailers believe that creating electronic systems that will aid in mobile payment transactions will deepen customer loyalty.

In August, Starbucks announced that it will invest $25 million in a new company called Square Inc. that will use its technology for mobile payments at Starbucks outlets in the US.

“Can you imagine trying to pay with a phone in a (restaurant)? They need to think of more than one (payment option),” said Denee Carrington, an analyst at Forrester.

Online companies like PayPal and Amazon also have mobile payment options.
A study by Javelin Strategy & Research recently indicated that mobile payments passed the $20 million mark in 2012 and are expected to rise to $1 trillion by 2017.
“Mobile will define the movement to unify all retail channels. It is about to become a turning point in the quest for true omnichannel business, and will likely be a predictor of tomorrow’s winners,” he said. NRF Stores.

In conclusion, the transformation of the retail industry from a single store to a chain store with a worldwide customer base is mainly due to globalization and advanced information technology. And technology has helped them stay in control and connected to the various points of sale. Technology has helped customers to be informed about prices and to obtain their desired products and services in an easier and better way.