Month: April 2014

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Transportation Service Charlotte |Samsung Level series of premium mobile audio devices launched

Transportation Service Charlotte

By: James Born
Sources: Gadgets.ndtv.com
Posted by: access-clt.com

In a news release on Monday, Samsung announced four new audio products, which will be available from mid-May in most markets. No pricing was mentioned, but the release repeatedly uses the word premium, so don’t expect them to be cheap.

The Level series includes the “flagship” Level Over over-the-ear wireless headset, the wired on-ear and in-ear variants called Level On and Level In respectively, and the Jambox style external speaker, the Level Box.

According to Samsung, the Level Over has features such as active noise cancellation and touch controls, and uses a 50mm dynamic driver. There will also be a companion app, the Samsung Level, which will give users control over the equalizer and audio effects to tweak the sound for different usage scenarios.

Both the Level On and Level In are smaller, wired headsets, and Samsung claims that they offer natural and clear sound, and a full range of rich audio, respectively.

The Level Box, meanwhile, has features like NFC to quickly connect to phones, and a 56mm stereo speaker promises to be reasonably loud. According to Samsung, the Level Box will provide 15 hours of continuous playback. If it actually delivers that much without compromising on the audio, that’s pretty good.

According to the release, while the series will be available from mid-May, the availability of each Level series will vary by market, so for now, it’s not clear which, if any, of these audio devices will be available in India.

“Samsung understands the importance of music and audio in the lives of our consumers,” said JK Shin, CEO and Head of IT & Mobile Communication at Samsung Electronics. “With the Level series, we have crafted an incredible line of audio products designed for the mobile user with organic sound, premium design aesthetics, and optimized mobile audio controls.”

Sources: Gadgets.ndtv.com/Samsung Level series of premium mobile audio devices launched

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Transportation Service Charlotte |Sony’s Waterproof Tablet Goes On Sale In The U.S.

Transportation Service Charlotte

By:  Matt Burns
Sources: techcrunch.com
Posted by: access-clt.com

Sony’s latest Android tablet is now on sale in the U.S. Available for pre-order on Sony.com and available in Sony Stores on May 4th, the Z2 is Sony’s latest effort to shore up its crumbling brand. And an impressive one at that.

The Z2 is the thinner, faster, and waterproof successor to the Z1 that hit in 2013. Darrell was impressed with the device when he spent some time with it last week, saying it’s so thin that he felt he could snap it in half.

As Darrell observed, the Z2 packs an impressive 10.1-inch display that really stands out. It also sports a 8MP camera, front-facing speakers and 3GB of RAM paired with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 SoC running at 2.3 GHz. It’s an impressive kit but at $499 for the 16GB flavor, the Z2 is not a bargain. Still, Sony will not rebuild its brand by racing downmarket and selling Kindle Fire HD competitors. Nope, it needs the Z2 which can stand tall against the best of Samsung and Apple.

Sources: techcrunch.com/Sony’s Waterproof Tablet Goes On Sale In The U.S.

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Transportation Service Charlotte |Saudi Arabia to build world’s tallest tower that will reach one kilometer into the sky

Transportation Service Charlotte

Transportation Service Charlotte

Transportation Service Charlotte

By : Erica  Smith
Source :edition.cnn.com
Posted By : access-clt.com

Dubai -long champion of all things biggest, longest and most expensive — will soon have some competition from neighboring Saudi Arabia.

Dubai’s iconic Burj Khalifa — the world’s tallest building — could be stripped of its Guinness title if Saudi Arabia succeeds in its plans to construct the even larger Kingdom Tower in Jeddah — a prospect looking more likely as work begins next week, according to Construction Weekly.

Consultants Advanced Construction Technology Services (ACTS) have recently announced testing materials to build the 3,280-feet (one kilometer) skyscraper (the Burj Khalifa, by comparison, stands at a meeker 2,716-feet, or 827 meters).

The Kingdom Tower, estimated to cost $1.23 billion, would have 200 floors and overlook the Red Sea. Building it will require about 5.7 million square-feet of concrete, and 80,000 tons of steel, according to the Saudi Gazette.

Building a structure that tall, particularly on the coast, where salt water could potentially damage it, is no easy feat. The foundations, which will be 200 feet (60 meters) deep, need to be able to withstand the saltwater of the nearby ocean. As a result, ACTS will test the strength of different concretes.
Dubai Mall attracts 75 million people a year
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Seven-star resort for Dubai pets

Wind load is another issue for buildings of this magnitude. To counter this challenge, the tower will change shape regularly.

“Because it changes shape every few floors, the wind loads go round the building and won’t be as extreme as on a really solid block,” Gordon Gill explained to Construction Weekly. Gill is a partner at Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, the design architects for the project.

Delivering the concrete to higher floors will also be a challenge. Possibly, engineers could use similar methods to those employed when building the Burj Khalifa; six million cubic feet of concrete were pushed through a single pump, usually at night to ensure the temperatures were low enough to ensure it would set.

Though ambitious, building the Kingdom Tower should be feasible, according to Dr. Sang Dae Kim, the director of the Council on Tall Buildings.

“At this point in time we can build a tower that is one kilometer, maybe two kilometers. Any higher than that and we will have to do a lot of homework,” he told Construction Weekly.

Source :edition.cnn.com/Saudi Arabia to build world’s tallest tower

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Ballantyne Transportation Service |UPAC raids target former Montreal officials, construction bosses

Ballantyne Transportation Service

By: Adam Smith
Source:  montrealgazette.com
Posted by:access-clt.com

Quebec’s anti-corruption squad executed search warrants at the homes of two former high ranking city of Montreal officials along with two of the province’s most high profile construction bosses.

The raids targeted the homes of Frank Zampino, the former head of Montreal’s powerful executive committee, former Montreal city manager Robert Abdallah, retired construction magnate Tony Accurso and construction boss Paolo Catania.

Officers carried out raids at seven locations Wednesday morning in search of information related to the awarding of the city’s controversial $355-million water-meter contract, which was eventually cancelled.

The squad was conducting a series of raids across the Montreal region involving about 90 police officers, said Anne-Frédérick Laurence, a spokesperson for the Unité permanente anticorruption, or UPAC. They also visited the Outremont home of Franco Minicucci, Accurso’s former right-hand man, and the home of Bernard Trépanier, a former municipal party fundraiser.

The names of all six men have surfaced at the Charbonneau Commission, which is investigating corruption and collusion in the construction industry.

Zampino, a former mayor of St-Léonard, resigned his position as chairman of the city’s executive committee in 2008 to take a job in the private sector, but he still remained in the headlines.

In 2009, Zampino admitted that he committed “a blunder” by taking two Caribbean vacations aboard Accurso’s luxury yacht in 2007 and 2008.

At the time he vacationed with Accurso, Zampino was in charge of awarding a $355-million water-meter contract to a consortium of which Accurso’s company Simard-Beaudry Construction Inc. was a member. The contract was later cancelled.

Zampino was arrested by the anti-corruption squad in 2012, along with eight other individuals, on fraud and conspiracy charges related to an alleged plot to rig the sale of city-owned land at the east end Faubourg Contrecoeur site. In 2007, the city’s real estate agency sold the 38-acre lot to Construction Frank Catania et Associés for $4.4 million when the municipal evaluation was about $31 million.

Source:  montrealgazette.com/news/UPAC raids target former Montreal officials, construction bosses

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Transportation Service Charlotte |Public input sought on long-term regional transportation plans

Transportation Service Charlotte

 

By: Kevin Rector
Source: baltimoresun.com
Posted by : access-clt.com

The leaders of central Maryland’s various jurisdictions will haggle and negotiate in the coming months over what regional transportation projects to prioritize over the next two-and-a-half decades — and officials are looking for ideas from the public.

The Baltimore Regional Transportation Board must update the region’s 25-year transportation priorities every four years, making them eligible for federal funding.

“We’re looking for long-range, regional thinking, not filling the pothole on your street,” said Terry Freeland, senior transportation policy planner at the Baltimore Metropolitan Council.

The council, which is helping the transportation board, already has identified nine broad “draft goals” — from preserving existing infrastructure to increasing — for the “Maximize 2040” plan.

The council is hosting a public “open house” Wednesday for interested citizens to talk with board members, council planners and other transportation experts and provide input.

Such trransportation boards are required by federal law for some 400 urbanized areas across the country. Separate organizations represent the Washington region and several other population hubs in Maryland.

The local board consists of the heads of Baltimore, Annapolis and Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Harford and Howard counties, as well as the state’s transportation secretary. The heads of the state’s departments of environment and planning and the Maryland Transit Administration hold non-voting positions.

Every four years, the board must produce a new report outlining the region’s collective transportation goals. Under federal law, major transportation projects are only eligible for federal funding if they are outlined in the region’s longterm plans.

While many parts of the current “Plan It 2035” plan will carry over into the new 2040 plan before it is finalized in October 2015, coordinators also must reconsider a slew of evolving information, including the state’s changed transportation budget under its new gas tax structure.

The plan also will have to take into account new traffic projections, expected population shifts, trends in transit usage, regional air quality progression and projected fluctuations in local and federal transportation budgets.

Board members will balance that information against input from the public — and their own desires for what projects they’d like to see brought to fruition — as they vote on a series of drafts before establishing the final plan.

Freeland said the vast amount of legwork that is done before the plan is finalized “puts some objectivity into it,” so it’s “not just making political considerations.”

Todd Lang, the Baltimore Metropolitan Council’s director of transportation planning, said the make-up of the board also ensures local jurisdictions have a say, beyond state budgeting circles, in transportation policy vital to their constituents.

Source:baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-longterm-transportation-plan

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Huntersville Transportation Service | Limo service owner found way to profit from repairs

Huntersville Transportation Service

By- John Smith
Source-washingtonpost.com
Posted By- access-clt.com

The owner of a Rockville-based limousine company, he was piling up hundreds of thousands of dollars in maintenance bills annually when he decided to take action“I said this is crazy. I decided to buy my own station.”

So in 2001, Alexander plopped down nearly $500,000 for a BP gas station on Rockville Pike in Montgomery County that has three service bays, two mechanics and a helper.

Now, the $1.3 million he spends on maintenance and fuel mostly goes into his own pocket, instead of someone else’s. The move is an example of vertical integration, right out of a Management 101 playbook in which you own the businesses above and below you on the supply and service chain. It allows you to better control your costs as well as the quality of the work.

“I run [the BP station] like a separate business, but I give myself a discount,” Alexander said. “I know the quality of the work and know it’s going to be done quickly.”

Alexander, 47, has a sprawling $25 million transportation empire in Montgomery County that includes RMA Worldwide Chauffeured Transportation, Orange Taxi and his BP station. He has a fleet of 120 cars, buses and shuttles, and employs 225 people. The company takes in an annual gross revenue of $25 million, and the only debt he has is about $550,000 on his fleet.

Suffice it to say, the Potomac resident does very well. But in business, nothing is forever.

After more than 20 years spent building his enterprise, Alexander finds himself fending off Uber, the Web-based disrupter that allows customers to summon a ride at a moment’s notice from a mobile app.

Source-washingtonpost.com/business/economy

 

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Charlotte Limo Service | Every New Car Will Have a Rear-Facing Camera in 4 Years

Charlotte Limo Service

By : John Smith
Source : thewire.com
Posted By : access-clt.com

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has issued a final rule to require all new vehicles under 10,000 pounds, including all cars, SUVs, vans, and trucks to have backup cameras by May 1, 2018. The backup cameras must have a 10-foot by 20-foot zone view behind the vehicle. The backup camera system will also be required to meet NHTSA requirements for “image size, linger time, response time, durability, and deactivation.”

This new law will be saving lots of lives, mainly those of children. United States Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx explained that the official ruling came out of a concern for primarily child safety: “Safety is our highest priority, and we are committed to protecting the most vulnerable victims of backover accidents — our children and seniors. As a father, I can only imagine how heart wrenching these types of accidents can be for families, but we hope that today’s rule will serve as a significant step toward reducing these tragic accidents.”

There are an average 210 deaths and 15,000 injuries every year caused by back up crashes. Thirty-one precent of these deaths are children under five, and 26 percent of deaths are for people 70 and over. The NHTSA estimates that “58 to 69 lives are expected to be saved each year once the entire on-road vehicle fleet is equipped with rear visibility systems meeting the requirements of [this] final rule.”

The rule also satisfies the Cameron Gulsbransen Kids Transportation Safety Act of 2007, which covers vehicle safety for children through backup visibility, vehicle roll away, and a child safety program. Under this safety act, the NHTSA had 36 months from 2008 to issue a ruling on backup cameras, but this was delayed numerous times due to research and rule revision. Some believe the delay in the law came from the government being “reluctant to put more financial burdens on an auto industry already crippled by an economic downturn.” The cost for the cameras to automakers is about $132 to $142 per vehicle for a complete backup system, and $43 to $45 to add a camera to a vehicle that already has a screen.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says 73 percent of new vehicles were already projected to have backup cameras by 2018, as automakers have already embraced both the safety and coolness factors of this new technology. There’s more than just easy parallel parking at stake.

Source :thewire.com/technology