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Camber is a Finalist in the 2014 I/ITSEC Serious Games Showcase and Challenge Competition

Camber Corporation announced today that for the second consecutive year, Camber has been selected as a finalist in the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation, and Education Conference (I/ITSEC) Serious Games Showcase & Challenge for a RQ-7B Shadow UAS operator training game called “Eagle Eye.”

“Eagle Eye” is a serious game that leverages an expansive, dynamic, and immersive 3D virtual environment. The application provides our military with the latest reconnaissance and security doctrine and tactics training to the Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) RQ-7B Shadow Platform. The game puts the player in control of an Unmanned Aircraft supporting a Brigade Combat Team in which the player must leverage past performance based training and develop decision making skills.  As players progress through the game they will be trained through intense real world situations using advanced scouting tactics.

At the 2013 ITSEC Conference, Camber was awarded “Best Mobile Game” and “People’s Choice” for GORRDEE, a device agnostic mobile application that uses as an immersive trainer for the Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) Shadow platform.

The goal of Serious Games Showcase & Challenge (SGS&C) is to identify innovative game-based technologies and solutions that improve training across all segments for individuals, groups, and systems.  SGS&C opens the door for game developers to expose their work to some of the best gaming and simulation companies in the world.

November 4, 2014
Business, Technology

U.S. Employee Confidence Level Rises in October

The October Randstad U.S. Employee Confidence Index, which tracks U.S. workers’ monthly perspectives around jobs and the economy, increased 1.8 points to 58.2 from 56.4 in September. Workers showed growing confidence in the strength of the economy, with 37 percent believing the economy is getting stronger, up from 31 percent in September. Only three in 10 workers (30 percent) believe the economy is weakening. The study is conducted online by Harris Poll on behalf of Randstad, among 1,010 employed U.S. adults ages 18 and older.

Despite more confidence in the overall job market in October, fewer workers indicated plans for changing jobs. For example, employees expressed increased confidence in the availability of jobs, with 30 percent saying there were more jobs in October compared to 26 percent saying so in September. Also, nearly five in ten workers (47 percent) are confident in their ability to find a job, a three percentage point increase from September. However, when it comes to workers’ beliefs about their current employment situation, fewer workers in October felt confident in the future of their employer as compared to those reporting confidence in September, and fewer employees plan to seek new employment. In October, just over one-third (34%) of workers said it was likely they would look for a new job, a slight decline from the 36 percent who said so last month.

“U.S. workers are showing more confidence about both the overall economy and the jobs recovery, as demonstrated by our recent surveys,” said Jim Link, Chief HR Officer, Randstad North America. “As we noted in September, an employment environment not seen since before the recession is within sight, and once it arrives, employers will need to turn up their retention efforts. The last bridge to cross before reaching full economic and employment recovery is wage growth. In previous post-recession environments, accelerated hiring eventually drove up pay rates. Wages have yet to improve in the current recovery, but most economists anticipate they will. And when wages do improve, the financial incentive to seek new employment will only stimulate employees’ job mobility and interest in changing employers.”

In September, the average U.S. hourly wage dropped a penny to $24.53 despite the increase of 248,000 jobs. The 12-month increase in hourly wages decreased to 2.0 percent from 2.1 percent in August, falling just slightly faster than the rate of inflation. The U.S. Labor Department reported in October that workers’ weekly earnings in the third quarter ticked down from earlier in the year and are just now matching the amount workers took home near the start of the recession.

“Slow earnings growth typically indicates employers aren’t feeling pressure to increase compensation,” continued Link. “While job openings are high, the pace of hiring is still below that of pre-recession rates, and workers likely sense that all the pieces of the employment picture aren’t together yet. We still see workers opting for stability rather than career change, but believe that with wage growth we’ll see workers demonstrate more interest in new career prospects.”

Randstad, the second largest staffing and HR services firm in the world, has been tracking workforce trends and publishing the U.S. Employee Confidence Index since 2004.

November 4, 2014
Business, Press Releases, Science, Stocks, Technology

Canada ranked as No. 1 country to visit

The international love affair with Canada shows no signs of cooling off. According to a new study from the Reputation Institute, Canada is the top country in the world to visit, live in, study and attend or organize events. A beautiful and enjoyable country, friendly and welcoming people, contributions to global culture and safe environment were key drivers in the rankings.

The 2014 Country RepTrak™ report ranked Canada as the country with the No. 2 best overall reputation in the world, after three consecutive years holding the top spot.

The Reputation Institute, which operates in 30 countries, is known as the world’s leading reputation management consultancy. The 2014 Country RepTrak™ report is based on the online answers from 26,000 consumers in the G8 countries and focuses on the 55 countries around the world with the highest GDP. Trust, esteem, admiration and good feelings the public holds towards these countries, as well as quality of life, safety and attention to the environment are all major factors in the results. According to the Reputation Institute, there is a clear correlation between a country’s reputation and the income it receives from tourism.

“For international travellers, conventions and meetings held in Canada can be the first spark that ignites interest in doing business that leads to investment, in addition to exploring the unique experiences that our country offers,” says Greg Klassen, Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC) president and CEO (Interim). “Canada’s leadership in such areas as natural resources, life sciences and aerospace technologies helps make us an important destination for international meetings and conferences.”

Countries with a strong reputation attract more tourists as well as foreign knowledge, investment and talent.  As visitors—including business people, future immigrants, investors, entrepreneurs and academics—become acquainted with Canada and its high-quality products, services and facilities, they can become advocates for the country, identifying business partnerships and creating a foundation for future trade relationships.

“It’s fantastic that the world holds Canada in such high esteem, which helps make our country such a desirable place to visit,” saysJon Mamela, CTC Chief Marketing Officer. “Looking ahead into 2015, we will continue to offer diverse experiences to curious travellers keen to live a life less ordinary by enjoying our incredible nature, dynamic cities, unique culture and local lifestyles.”

There is no stopping the demand for tourism around the world, with international arrivals expected to grow as much as 4.5% in 2014, according to the UNWTO. Tourism is Canada’s largest service export, contributing $16.4 billion in 2013. Canada is also the No. 1 location for outbound meetings business from the US, which brings in about $1.5 billion annually.

November 4, 2014
Business, Press Releases, Science, Stocks, Technology

Are You Too Social For Your Smartphone?

Aside from the usual suspects like games and social media, streaming and even pre-installed apps are the most likely to chew your smartphone or tablet battery and storage, according to the latest AVG Android™ App Trend Tracker Report from AVG Technologies N.V. (NYSE: AVG), the online security company™ for 182 million active users.

The Q3 report, based on AVG’s analysis of anonymous data from over one million AVG Android app users, charts the top apps worldwide that affect smartphone and tablet performance in terms of data plan consumption, storage capacity and battery life. With its constant background notification checks, which run even when the app is not open, the social networking app from Facebook emerged as having the biggest impact on your mobile device when it comes to overall performance.

Social apps were well-represented in the Tracker with two other social apps, Path and Instagram, making the top five most performance drains. With phone and tablet space at more of a premium than ever, the report also found that real-time news apps featured prominently in the charts. Amongst the list of storage eating apps, the New York Times Breaking News app, which caches the articles accessed through it, was most likely to chew up a device’s storage, ranking higher than Facebook and Spotify. People’s data plans were also likely to be affected by CNN’s Breaking US & World News app and the UK’s Daily Mail app.

“The goal of the App Trend Tracker Report is to analyze anonymized data to give users the important information they need to make informed choices about what they can do to continue to enjoy their favorite apps while reducing their impact on their device,” saidYuval Ben-Itzhak, Chief Technology Officer, AVG Technologies. “It might not be obvious what Facebook, Instagram, Spotify, 8 Ball Pool and Farm Heroes Saga have in common. But in our tech-centric world, running out of battery or storage space at the moment you need it most is hugely frustrating, and that’s why this degree is insight is vital.”

Some other key findings:

  • Some handset makers are draining their own devices. For example, AVG identified three pre-installed Samsung apps (AllShare Cast Dongle, ChatON, WatchON) in the top 10 list of battery draining apps, excluding games. The Samsung WatchON for video also topped the list for auto-starting battery eating apps due to the visual content the app delivers.
  • Three of the most resource-hungry day-to-day tool apps came from Google, with Google Now/Search, Google Text-to-Speech and Google Translate ranking within the top five. The Chrome Browser for mobile also made the list of top 10 storage eaters.
  • Games significantly reduce battery life. Four of the top 10 battery-chewing games came from game producer King, the company behind the ‘Saga’ series.
November 4, 2014
Business, Press Releases, Science, Stocks, Technology

CarCharging Partners with the City of Plano

Car Charging Group, Inc. (OTCQB: CCGI) (“CarCharging” or the “Company”), the largest owner, operator and provider of electric vehicle (EV) charging services, announced today that it has executed an agreement with the City of Plano, Texas for the operation and maintenance of 19 Blink EV charging stations across 7 locations. The Blink EV charging locations include Russell Creek Park, Maribelle Davis Library, Carpenter Park Recreation Center, and Oak Point Recreation Center.

“Texas continues to be a strong growth market for CarCharging, so we are pleased to complete this agreement with the City of Plano,” said Michael D. Farkas, CarCharging’s Founder and Chief Executive Officer. “Located within the Dallas-Fort Worthmetropolitan area, Plano offers the opportunity to expand the services we provide across the state and widen our leadership position in the Southern U.S.”

“Given our vision for the city of Plano, we’re excited to be working with CarCharging to maintain and manage our existing Blink EV charging stations,” said Steve Stoler, Spokesperson for the City of Plano. “Electric vehicle use continues to accelerate, and we believe that by partnering with CarCharging, we can provide the best environment for our residents to take advantage of this clean energy alternative to combustion-based transportation.”

Blink Level II EV chargers are able to rapidly recharge electric cars, and accept payment with the Blink InCard or major credit card via the Blink mobile application, Blink Network website, or Blink customer support center. Blink’s InCard provides drivers with discounted charging fees for charging stations on the Blink Network, the software that operates, monitors, and tracks the Blink stations and all of its charging data. Drivers can easily request Blink’s InCard at www.BlinkNetwork.com and can pinpoint EV charging station locations using the map on the website, as well as the Blink and CarCharging mobile applications.

November 4, 2014
Business, Press Releases, Science, Stocks, Technology

Genpact Formalizes Research Institute for Intelligent Operations

Genpact Limited (NYSE: G), a global leader in designing, transforming, and running intelligent business operations, announces the formalization of the Genpact Research Institute for Intelligent Operations. The Institute is a specialized think tank harnessing the “crowd-sourced” insights of Genpact – as one of the largest enterprise operations providers in the world – together with its ecosystem of clients, partners, and thousands of process operations experts. The Institute has already been operating for over 12 months, ensuring that Genpact generates a continuous feedback loop when partnering with clients to solve their business challenges.

The Institute’s mission is to help companies run better by extending the art of the possible of advanced operating models for business process operations, from back to front office, across nine industries. The goal is to make enterprises’ operations more intelligent by weaving technology and analytics into business processes and operations. The Institute oversees external collaborations with leading academic institutions such as MIT, as well as the engagement of global experts sourced through Genpact’s proprietary operations solutions marketplace.

Cloud-based and mobile applications, advanced analytics, and powerful collaboration tools multiply the effect of well understood levers such as shared services, outsourcing, global delivery and process reengineering – and looking at them holistically will generate material impact. The Institute will give leaders with an operational mindset a practical place to understand what works and can be applied today to run their enterprises’ operations better.

Some notable research outcomes of the Institute to date have been the Business Process Operations compendium, Target Operating Model for Finance, Volatility and Adaptation Index, Data-to-action-to-insight, and Rigorous Business Case for Advanced Operating Models, as well as the advancement of other practices documented by Genpact Insights. One particularly exciting result has been theoperations network analytics solutions built on methods developed by MIT.

“There are very few sources of insight for leaders who are tired of often abstract visions and product vendors’ hyperbole, yet discern the strategic value of process operations and want to make technology and analytics yield material results,” said Gianni Giacomelli, senior vice president and chair of the Institute, Genpact. “Thanks to our work we observe and now share practical approaches to transformation that shrink the time to results and enable operational agility needed to run effectively in these uncertain and volatile times.”

November 4, 2014