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Coinstar & Coinme Partners to Provide Bitcoin Purchase through Grocery Kiosks

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The America based coin-cashing machine maker, Coinstar, is now ready to offer bitcoin on the coin-counting kiosks at various grocery stores for easy cryptocurrency purchases. Yes! The company has partnered with the Seattle based Bitcoin ATM producers, Coinme, in order to enable people to buy Bitcoins at the grocery stores.

coinstar-kiosk
Image Source: bitcoinerx.com

Coinme is the first licensed Bitcoin ATM operator in the US, having a number of crypto ATMs in the parts of the 11 states, and Coinstar, too, operates a network of thousands of kiosks in the states. People usually use those kiosks to convert their change into bills or gift cards for easy shopping. But now with the same machines, people will also be able to buy Bitcoins.

Coinstar CEO Jim Gaherity, said, “Coinstar is always looking for new ways to offer value to our consumers when they visit our kiosks, and Coinme’s innovative delivery mechanism along with Coinstar’s flexible platform makes it possible for consumers to easily purchase Bitcoin with cash.”

Last year, Coinstar had joined its hands with Seattle based startup doxo, enabling people to pay bills at the Coinstar kiosks. The company also added the Amazon Cash deposit capability to it.

Coinstar will charge a particular fee, to its users for every purchase. They will be able to purchase bitcoin worth $2,500 and will also get vouchers on transactions through the machine. They can easily redeem the vouchers at the official website of Coinme.

Although the charges the Bitcoin ATM machines put on every transaction is too high, but people still find it more convenient. And expectations are that they won’t mind paying the hefty charges on buying Bitcoins through the Coinstar’s kiosks, due to the convenience it is going to provide. For now, the machine will only have the support for purchasing the Bitcoin over cash. In future, it may have the options for credit cards and digital money, too.

Initially, the company will have its cash-counting-cum-Bitcoin machines installed at a few selected stores of Safeway and Albertson, in California, Texas, and Washington. Coinme has also added in their announcement on their website that in future, their partnership with Coinstar will result in thousands of places to buy Bitcoin.

Ford Goes Electric with its Utility Vehicles; Plans to Bring 40 Electric Vehicles by 2022

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At the Deutsche Bank Global Auto Industry Conference (2019), the American multinational automaker Ford announced that it’s going to electrify its most popular F-Series pickup trucks. The rising fuel price has encouraged the company to enter into the business of electric vehicles, and it has been working towards the plan for past one year.

Ford f-150
Image Source: businessinsider.com

Last year, Ford had announced that it has the plans of producing 40 electrified vehicles, by 2022, with an investment of over $11 billion. According to the company, it will manufacture 16 fully electrified vehicles and 24 hybrid vehicles. It has already launched an all-electric CUV with 300 miles of range, under the same program. The early versions of the F-series pickup trucks, including the latest F-150, are going to be the hybrid ones. Those hybrid vehicles may have their fully-electrified versions launched in the coming years.

Jim Farley, Ford’s president of global markets, said, “We are going to electrifying the F-Series with battery electric and hybrid, and we are doing the same for Transit. We launched a PHEV version of Transit, and that will be on a journey of electrifying Transit globally.”

Last year, the company had sold millions of the F-series trucks, and its popularity made Ford initiate the experiment with the same. Since it won’t be fully-electric, there is the least scope of failure.

Farley added, “We have the F-Series, the world and America’s best-selling truck. More than a million units were sold last year. F-Series core strength at the end of the day is: There’s a truck for every customer, and we know those customers really, really well. From the F-150 all the way to the F-750. They all matter to us.”

Tesla is the biggest electric vehicle manufacturer and has been giving tough competition to other automotive companies. But it is more inclined towards the production of luxury cars. Although Tesla and Rivian have also come up with their electric trucks, Ford being an oldie and an expert in the manufacturing of heavy motor vehicles, like trucks and utility vehicles, knows how to build a product that will appeal to people from every class.

Netflix Rising Prices for its US Subscribers

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The popular streaming service Netflix, on Tuesday, announced that it is going to raise the subscription fees for its new users, starting from the 1st February 20019, and will be doing the same for its existing subscribers after three months. The price rise will be between 13 to 18 per cent of the present plans, which is the highest, in more than two decades of its functioning.

netflix
Image Source: worldtvpc.com

Netflix’s cheapest monthly subscription plan is of $7.99, which now will be $8.99, and the most popular plan of Netflix, streaming HD on two different devices, currently costs $10.99 for a month’s subscription, will be raised to $12.99. Also, the four devices plan, the premium plan for 4K streaming, will be raised from $13.99 to $15.99 per month.

The reason Netflix gave for the rise in the prices is that it has been investing a lot in its original series’. The hike in the subscription plans will help it financially to focus more on the original programming.

“We change pricing from time to time as we continue investing in great entertainment and improving the overall Netflix experience,” a representative at Netflix, said.

Currently, more than 58 million people are subscribed to Netflix in the US only, and the last hike it had put on the subscription fee was in 2017. But this time the price rise is way higher, that may attract some criticism. Also, the raised cost may affect Netflix’s new subscribers, and it may face a number of cancellation from its existing users.

In 2011, the company had divided its movie rental service, leading to two subsequent services, one had the movie streaming over the internet, and the other was the DVDs in the mail service. This had caused a lot of criticism, and Netflix lost over 80,000 subscribers at once. At the same time, Netflix’s stock price also had dropped 77 per cent in just four months.

“The Black Mirror”, “Orange Is The New Black”, “Stranger Things”, and now “BirdBox”, Netflix has been providing with unique quality content over the years, and for keeping up with the competition, the company is pushing its limits. Raising the prices will certainly work well for Netflix, but are the users ready to pay that much?

Lexar Unveils World’s First 1TB SDXC Card; Available for Purchase

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The leading manufacturer of flash memory products SanDisk announced a few years ago that it would be launching a 1TB SD storage card soon. But the announcement never took a real structure. But yes there are many other companies too, that are working towards the same goal and have been trying to build a product.

Lexar
Image Source: digitalcameraworld.com

On the same league, a company named Lexar has already achieved the task and has launched the world’s first 1TB SD storage card. Noticeably, the company has been in the field of digital media production for more than twenty years, and in 2017, it had announced that it’d be ceasing retail operations that year. But last year in the month of August, it made its come back with many new products.

Now this time, it has brought the product that everyone was eagerly waiting for the 1-terabyte SD card. Lexar has introduced the 1TB 633x SDXC UHS-I, that has a read speed of up to 95MB/s as well as the write speeds of 70MB/s, and records a video at Class 10/V30 speed. The size of the storage the card is providing may seem to be too large, but people who are shooting the 4K and the 8K videos maybe thanking Lexar for this new storage card as those videos eat up space quite quickly.

“Almost fifteen years ago, Lexar announced a 1GB SD card,” said Joey Lopez, the company’s senior marketing manager. “Today, we are excited to announce 1TB of storage capacity in the same convenient form factor.”

Amazingly, the card has just been launched and already has been made available for the purchase. The cost of the SD card is set to be at $500 (Rs. 35,297). The SD card comes with a lifetime warranty, which is quite unimaginable. The company quotes that they have done various tests on the card and it is compatible with 1100 different devices.

North Launches the New $1,000 Focals Smart Glasses

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It was 2013 when Google launched its first pair of smart glasses. The company brought the glasses too soon, as it lacked in the technical factors and was the biggest failure in terms of privacy, battery, looks as well as the functionalities. The company had to discontinue the product and recycle the ones it had already produced. After Google’s smart glasses, many other companies also tried their hands in the same but was not much successful.

focals
Image Source: techspot.com

This time a company named North has put its all efforts to create a similar product, i.e. Focals Smart Glasses, that it introduced at the CES 2019. The smart glasses look just like the normal spectacles, which consists of a touchpad, camera and a hidden projector placed behind the right lens of the glasses.

The UI for the glasses is a circular piece of polygraphic film which projects like a head-up display of a car dashboard. Using the glasses, the user can search, use the navigation, and also book an uber. The glasses also have got the support for voice text and have the inbuilt Alexa. It allows the user to check time and date as well as the weather.

The Focals comes with a Loop, a ring worn on the finger with a tiny four-direction joystick through which the user can control its menu. Also, it can be connected to the Smartphone through the Bluetooth so that the user can check the messages, notification, etc.

Just like the smartwatches, the vocals of the smart glasses are also there to alert the user about the important notifications. The Alexa in the smartphone can communicate with the smart home device and control them. The glasses can be customized according to one’s fit by taking proper measurements. A single pair of glasses will cost a $1000.

Although Google has already failed in the same technology, with the improved battery life, processor and optics, we can expect that North’s Focals may have some good scope in future. Also, Apple has been planning to launch its smart glasses in a few years. So, there may be a good hope for the glasses as to become a regular, but important gadget like any other, in the coming future.

Binance

The Fight for Bitcoins- Binance acquires Mumbai-based WazirX

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Binance, which serves as the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange network has acquired WazirX is a huge move in the bitcoin market. The Mumbai-based exchange WazirX works within the Bitcoin-related crypto-currency domain. With this acquisition, Binance will be in a position to offer services to over 1 billion Indians. Here’s everything you need to know about the acquisition and what it means for the market.

The Future for India

The announcement regarding the acquisition came out today, out of the blue. The move is tilted to be a significant one that will change the way the nation exchanges Bitcoins. The announcement also says that Indians will now have the option of buying and selling crypto-currency using Indian currency from Nov 25. 

Words from the CEO

Nischal Shetty, who serves as the CEO of WazirX has made it clear that Binance now holds 100% of WazirX. A non-disclosure agreement prevented Nischal from providing any further details regarding the acquisition. However, reports state that the deal is worth around $5 to $10 million. The CEO also mentioned that Binance has plans to employ 20 members of WazirX. Furthermore, the company will function independently in a bid to involve more Indians in the crypto-currency revolution. 

Things are Looking Up

This acquisition will also help in adding the Indian fiat to Binance’s crypto-currency gateway. According to WazirX’s COO Siddharth Menon, adding such fiat ramps will help in boosting the overall economy. Such a move will help in expanding the crypto market and will help more people get access to this sector. Also, Binance is a world-leader in this aspect, and therefore, has access to most of the major traders around the world. Meanwhile, WazirX has been implementing and testing the technology required to make this dream a reality. With both the forces working together, we could be looking at a mass exodus to the cryptomarket by Indians around the country.

Plans for the Future

As per prior announcements, Binance also has plans to utilize WazirX’s auto-matching engine to make fiat-based transactions easier. Such a system will allow Indians to buy the Tether coin using their INR. Afterward, users have the option of trading the Tether with any cryptocurrency of their choice via Binance. As most of the developed nations have already moved to a crypto-currency based economy, the next big move will come from developing nations. India has the power of over 1 billion people, and hence, a mass crypto-market move can help the entire economy. This acquisition will help WazirX make fiat-based ramps and transactions easier for the whole world.

As per Changpeng Zhao, who serves as the CEO of Binace having such a young demographic in hand will help the company adapt and evolve. By making use of the new financial technology that WazirX provides, Binance seeks to play a crucial role in encouraging the adoption of crypto-currency around the world.

Crypto-Currency in India

In 2018, the Reserve Bank of India forbids banks from helping and loaning money to crypto-currency firms. Though several companies filed petitions to reverse this decision, the case is pending. The next hearing of the case is scheduled for January 2020 in the Supreme Court. Furthermore, recently the government proposed a bill of banning crypto trading with a ten-year jail sentence in case of violations. However, several such firms are running successfully in India, with one of the main ones being WazirX.

Founded in 2018, WazirX has grown exponentially about its trading volume and adoption. The company completes transactions amounting to over $30 million a month, and have also made in-roads into the app market, with more than 200,000 downloads. Shetty runs a #IndiaWantsCrypto campaign on Twitter, and the campaign has helped to raise awareness regarding the crypto ecosystem. Members of crypto exchanges have been meeting with Members of Parliament to discuss crypto trading’s future in India. Shetty believes that the acquisition will help the economy as Binance has top-class regulators and negotiators. 

Strict laws by the government had prevented such a large merger until now, but this acquisition might be the first of many to follow! It will be interesting to see how the acquisition impacts the fledgling Indian crypto-market, and whether the government will also take a positive stand soon.

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