Surf Air Expands Unlimited Private Jet Service from California to Europe

Packed in like human cattle. Or human sardines. Forced to wait in long wait lines. Treated to generalized and impersonal service. Suspiciously investigated and monitored. No, that is not the logline for a horror movie but an apt description of enduri...

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The $100 Golden Ube Cristal Donut is a Really Real Thing

This sure isn’t Homer Simpson’s doughnut. Though it may sound like a plot device in an avant-garde fairy tale, the golden donut is absolutely real. Bjorn Delacruz, businessman, bakery owner, and haute-donut pioneer has evolved the plain, humble and yet ubiquitously-loved donut into a hyper-surrealist looking but very real Epicurean wonder. Delacruz is the owner of the family-run Manila Social Club restaurant which has flagship restaurants in Manila and New York City. The restaurant specializes in Filipino-centric cuisine and experimental dishes. 

The Royal Golden Ube Cristal Donut

With his culinary ingenuity, he has concocted an aggressively opulent donut that would have the very affluent, scions of royalty and heads of state questioning their own worthiness to consume such an ultra-elitist looking treat. The Golden Ube Cristal Donut is a handmade artisanal pastry dessert that sells for $100 per donut. “Ube,” is a purple yam plant indigenous to the Philippines. The donut is filled with an uber-derived mousse, a champagne-derived jelly, a tequila-derived jelly, or some mix or variation of each filling. The $100-per-donut Golden Ube Cristal Donut is then dressed with icing derived from Cristal champagne. This donut of affluence is then generously dusted with edible, ultra-thin, 24-karat gold foil, flakes and dust.

$150-per-donut Patron Platinum Rose Margarita Donut

Not impressed? Really? Well, you can also purchase the $150-per-donut Patron Platinum Rose Margarita Donut. This donut is topped with edible dust and foil made from sparkling silver. Rose petal ashes are added to the donut mix, creating a dark-colored consistency. The donut is then piped with a rose-flavored mousse that is pink in tone. Jelly made from Gran Patron silver tequila, lime, and hints of jalapeno pepper are also mixed into the donut. The frosting is also made from Patron Platinum tequila. No, there are no donuts topped with ultra-thin, edible platinum foil flakes for sale at Manila Social Club. Yet.  The $150 Patron Platinum Rose Margarita edition donut is only on sale for limited periods of the year. All profits from the $150 donut are donated to cancer research.

Early Reservations

These rarified donuts of privilege can be reserved on Thursdays but can only be purchased on-site and only on Fridays. There is no online ordering and the highly perishable, uber-opulent treats can’t be shipped. You have to walk into a Manila Social Club restaurant to purchase one. Don’t be surprised to find out that the restaurant is sold out for a week or two due to reservations and/or the expensiveness of the crucial ingredients. About a dozen to three dozen of the artisanal luxe-donuts are handmade at the restaurant every Friday. If you are in the market to indulge in a single $100 or $150 donut or want to have a great story about elegant diversions from your latest travel jaunt, then you shouldn’t look anywhere else.

 

 

Apple Unveils iPad Pro

Apple Inc. announced a bigger iPad with a new keyboard and stylus aimed at business customers.

Chief Executive Tim Cook promised a day of “monster” news Wednesday, but shares of the company remained nearly flat as executives showed off the iPad, which will be priced starting at $799.

Cook began by talking up the Apple Watch, saying customer satisfaction for the new product was 97 percent. Apple is working with French luxury goods maker Hermes on a new watch collection, and Facebook Messenger is coming to the device, he added.

He then rolled out the “iPad Pro” with a 12.9-inch screen and said it had performance similar to a desktop computer. Apple showed off a “smart” keyboard and a stylus called “Pencil.”

Apple said it had partnered with Cisco Systems Inc. and IBM to help power the iPad pro, which it said is up to 1.8 times faster and has a 10-hour battery life. Many people on Twitter seemed unimpressed by the new iPad and lamented its large size, however.

Shares of Apple were up less than 1 percent at $112.68.

Cook promised “monster announcements” at the event, which is also expected to feature an updated version of its Apple TV device and of its iPhones, which drove nearly two-thirds of the company’s $49.6 billion in revenue in the most recent quarter.

Apple is widely expected to keep the size of the phones the same but upgrade them with an improved camera and Force Touch, a display technology that responds differently depending on how hard users press their screens.

A year after Apple rolled out iPhones with larger screens, touching off a frenzy of sales that saw revenue in the most recent quarter increase 32.5 percent from the same quarter a year ago, the latest upgrades may leave some investors and consumers underwhelmed.

“It’s getting harder and harder for Apple to compete against itself,” said analyst Bob O’Donnell of TECHnalysis Research. Apple shares are up more than 14 percent over the last year, although they are down nearly 12 percent in the last three months.

Fortunately for Apple, most consumers buy smartphones under a two-year upgrade cycle, meaning the company will still likely scoop up a lot of sales, said analyst Patrick Moorhead of Moor Insights & Strategy.

“The key point of reference is not how the new phone compares to the iPhone 6, it’s how it compares to the iPhone 5s,” he said.

Expectations have been rising for a revamped Apple TV, a set-top box that has seen few significant updates since its release in 2007. Although Apple has yet to hammer out deals for a long-awaited television service, analysts say the company is poised to overhaul the hockey-puck-sized device.

The device is expected to gain an App Store and an interface that allows users to make requests through the Siri digital assistant and search for specific programs and movies across apps. The company may also discuss the device’s role as a hub for gaming.

“It’s a big day for the big screen!” Apple Senior Vice President Eddy Cue tweeted before the event.

Nearly 20 percent of US broadband households own at least one streaming media player, and Apple has a long way to go in the market, according to data from research firm Parks Associates.

Roku is the leader in streaming media boxes, accounting for 34 percent of all streaming devices sold in the United States in 2014, according to Parks Associates data. Google Inc.’s Chromecast and Amazon.com Inc.’s Fire TV were next. The Apple TV box came in fourth.

“It’s important that (Apple) come out and really get up to date and potentially eclipse some of the other living room devices out there,” Moorhead said.

 

Google Sets up New Parent Company

Google is never an easy company to read, but Alphabet is even more of a head scratcher.

It appears that Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin picked the new corporate moniker before staking out any of the usual digital real-estate — domain names, social media handles or other trademark trappings — to go with it.

In a blog post entitled “G is for Google,” Page sent visitors to Abc.xyz to learn more about the new holding company, Alphabet Inc., drawing on a newer domain suffix that is far less well known than the standard .com.

The most obvious choice — Alphabet.com — is owned by German auto giant BMW, although it doesn’t appear to have done much in terms of putting up a site since registering the address in 1997.

Alphabetinc.com could be up for grabs as it was updated earlier this month through a proxy registration service that masks the identity of the true holder.

A third option, Alpha-bet.com, has been registered to ITimeMarketing in Davenport, Iowa, since 2007. Visitors to that site are redirected to Sun Palace Casino in Panama.

It could be that Google plans to stick with the unconventional abc.xyz, and if so, it could benefit from the move. Last year, Google got into the domain registration business, competing with more established services like GoDaddy.

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has expanded the number of available top-level domains — .xyz among them — as .com, .edu and .gov are in short supply.

This is good for businesses looking to register new names and for companies like Google that are in a position to profit from the landrush for new addresses.

On Facebook, the Alphabet page is also occupied by BMW, which uses it to tout an auto leasing division.

Meanwhile, the Twitter handle @alphabet belongs to Chris Andrikanich of Cleveland, Ohio, who had this to say about the sudden flurry of Alphabet-driven attention: “Well, that was an interesting way to end a Monday…”

As of Tuesday morning, the trademark name belonged to G&S Vodka, which sells a brand of gluten-free vodka under the Alphabet name.

Google’s Page said they picked the name because “it means a collection of letters that represent language, one of humanity’s most important innovations, and is the core of how we index with Google search!”

“We also like that it means alpha‑-bet (Alpha is investment return above benchmark), which we strive for!” he added.

5 Qualities Of Successful Inventors

 

Great inventors have common qualities that made them become successful in the industry.It takes more than a great idea to come up with a successful invention. They encounter many challenges and problems when it comes to figuring out the potential success of their inventions. Each successful investor possesses personality traits that help them build remarkable inventions and innovations. What are these certain qualities that successful inventors have? Let’s find out.

Being Passionate

Inventing requires passion which is all about discovering what you want, what you love and what you are striving for. Successful inventors have a very strong emotion towards achieving their dreams and goals, that’s why they became famous and successful in this field. As soon as they find out a good opportunity, they immediately act on it.

Strong Faith

Faith plays a major role in inventing. Having strong faith is another characteristic of a successful inventor. Successful inventors have complete confidence with their beliefs, work, and abilities. They continue to seek knowledge and make smart decisions regardless of the circumstances they face along the way.

Optimistic

An optimistic attitude is a very important characteristic of an inventor in order to make their idea become successful in spite of experiencing failures and setbacks. You may not be able to please everyone with your invention at first, but to stop your invention and innovation due to negativity of others will surely end it into disappointment. Furthermore, positive attitude motivates inventors towards success.

Patience

Benjamin Franklin once said; “He that can have patience can have what he will.”This is true. As an inventor, patience is an important skill to assess and research the solutions, advantages and disadvantages that relate to a significant inventing decision. Patience is how successful inventors gain respect and honor.

Understanding Others

Knowing and understanding people as well as their needs is how inventors create an invention and innovation. Prior to taking a product to market, a great inventor establish a good relationship to people, share similar interests and knowledge and build trust in others. The ability to understand others is indeed one of the greatest qualities an inventor could ever have.

These are just few of some positive qualities of successful inventors. Having the feeling that your idea could become a million dollar invention and innovation that the whole world will love is certainly an exciting insight. For instance, if you will submit invention idea to someone in order to determine its potential success, you have to be careful on choosing the right invention consulting company. Moreover, make sure that the one you are dealing with is trusted, reliable and legitimate.

 

Successful inventors have shaped and changed the world we live in. Their imagination, researches and ideas have made impossible things become possible that others think are not viable. These five qualities will all reveal upon an inventor’s creation that leads him towards victory. If you have these qualities, you’re in the good company of top and famous inventors all over the world. Embrace and develop these traits and you will become a better innovator.

AUTHOR BIO: Charlot writes for Invent Smarter, invention and innovation consulting company that assesses the potential success of new ideas and discoveries.

 

Image:  petyosi on Flickr