PC Tech World: delivery

Showing posts with label delivery. Show all posts

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Reuters: Wal-Mart looking into crowd-sourcing online delivery

Walmart is considering the slightly insane sounding idea of using its in-store customers to deliver online orders to help it compete with bricks and mortar-less competitors like Amazon, according to Reuters. The big box outfit currently ships internet purchases from just 25 of its stores using the likes of FedEx to handle delivery, but plans to drastically increase that number going forward. In theory, customers could sign up for the chore and drop packages off to customers who are on their route home in exchange for a discount. CEO Joel Anderson he could "see a path to where this is crowd-sourced," adding that "this is at the brain-storming stage, but it's possible in a year or two." Naturally, there's a gauntlet of insurance, theft, fraud and legal issues Walmart would need to run first -- along with the slightly skeevy idea of having a random stranger show up with your packages.

Source: Reuters

Friday, February 15, 2013

WSJ: Airbus to drop lithium-ion batteries from A350 to meet delivery schedule

Airbus dropping lithiumion batteries from the A350 in the interest of timeliness

Amidst the ongoing brouhaha over rival Boeing's Dreamliner-grounding battery troubles, Airbus has decided not to use lithium-ion batteries in its newest aircraft, the A350, according to industry officials cited by the Wall Street Journal. The European plane maker is said to be making the change in an effort to stick to its plan of pressing the jet into commercial service by the middle of next year. While the craft's early test flights this summer will still make use of four lithium-ion batteries for on-ground electrical power and as backup in the air as originally intended, it will be delivered to airlines with conventional nickel-cadmium batteries instead. Safety considerations are undoubtedly part of the picture, but since the A350 is already behind schedule by a couple of years, its manufacturer can't afford any further delays -- anticipated in case regulators find fault with the use of lithium-ion packs in flights. As Boeing struggles to find a fix and get the 787 back into the air, it seems Airbus has taken the easy way out.

[Image credit: Airbus S.A.S / H. Goussé]

Source: Wall Street Journal

More Coverage: Reuters

Friday, December 21, 2012

Facebook testing paid message delivery system

Facebook experimenting with messaging monetization

Facebook invited a limited group of users Thursday to test a new feature that lets members of the social network message folks they aren't connected to for a fee.

The feature is being tested in the U.S. only at the moment, and for now the fee is set at a mere $1 to make sure your message is delivered to the recipient's inbox rather than the Other folder.

During this experimental phase, Facebook will try a variety of different prices in an effort to gauge what its users are willing to pay to have an important message delivered to someone in a situation where "neither social nor algorithmic signals are sufficient."

Currently, such algorithms are used to determine whether or not the users are actual friends of the person they're messaging, or friends of friends.

The feature can only be used once per week, and both the sender and the recipient must be active Facebook users (brands and pages are excluded) in the U.S.

Facebook believes charging a minimal fee will help relevant and important messages get through, while keeping unwanted and inconsequential queries from filling up inboxes.

Of course, what it also means for Facebook is a source of revenue, something the company has struggled to tie down. Just how much people are willing to spend to send a message we may never know if FB decides not to move forward with ubiquitous use, but it's an interesting play for profits nonetheless.

LinkedIn has a similar service with InMail, though that service is offered with premium accounts that users pay a monthly fee to run.

In addition to testing out the new pay-to-send system, Facebook also implemented some new filtering upgrades to the existing Messenger for everyone to use.

There are now two new filtering options available to allow users to better determine which messages make it through to their inbox or are automatically pushed to the Other folder.

Basic filtering will let through messages from friends, as well as friends of friends, to the inbox without interruption.

Strict filtering will only let messages from people users are actually connected to in the first degree to appear in the inbox.

Both sets of filters now better manage messages sent from Messenger for Android, or from people with @Facebook email addresses.

More updates are expected to come to Facebook Messenger in the coming months, and we'll keep a special eye out for that fee-based messaging system.