Home Business Success: June 2015

Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Apple's new iTunes update arrives for some and not others

On the same day Apple released its much anticipated new streaming service, Apple Music, the company also offered users a new iTunes update that frustrated more than a few Apple fans.

iTunes 12.2 was meant to be available Tuesday, but the roll out was not without hiccups. For one thing, many users could not immediately access the update and took to social media to share their irritation.

Hey Apple? It would be really nice if I could get that iTunes update.

— Chad (@lionsworld) July 1, 2015 Read more...

More about Itunes, Apple, Software Update, Tech, and Apps Software

New Documentary on Clothes Makes You Rethink Shopping

These days you can make a living (or a nice chunk of change) divulging beauty secrets on YouTube, and showcasing your latest shopping “haul" from the fall.

Hillary Clinton emails from 2009 released by State Department

WASHINGTON — The State Department has released roughly 3,000 pages of Hillary Rodham Clinton's correspondence from 2009, her first year as the nation's top diplomat.

The emails, covering March through December of that year, were posted online Tuesday evening, as part of a court mandate that the agency release batches of Clinton's private correspondence from her time as secretary of state every 30 days starting June 30.

Clinton's emails have become a major issue in her early presidential campaign, as Republicans accuse her of using a private account rather than the standard government address to avoid public scrutiny of her correspondence. As the controversy has continued, Clinton has seen ratings of her character and trustworthiness drop in polling. Read more...

More about Hillary Clinton, Us World, Politics, Us, and 2016 Presidential Campaign

Slack, Netflix, Pinterest crash and you can't blame the leap second

Amazon Web Services (AWS), which provides the backbone Netflix, Slack, Pinterest and thousands of other websites and services, appeared to suffer widespread outage Tuesday. The disruption lasted more than 40 minutes, according to Amazon.

Slack, Asana, Netflix, Pinterest, and many other apps and websites that rely on AWS were suddenly unresponsive Tuesday evening. Newly-launched Beats 1 radio was also reportedly down more than 40 minutes

The status dashboard for AWS, which reports service disruptions, was among the sites that were unavailable during the disruption. Amazon later acknowledged the "connectivity issues," citing an "external Internet provider," on its status dashboard but said AWS services are "not affected." Read more...

More about Amazon, Tech, Aws, Apps Software, and Apps And Software

The USA found its mojo just in time for the Women's World Cup final

The semifinal match women's soccer fans had circled on their calendars since well before the Women's World Cup got underway finally happened on Tuesday night in Montreal

The USA, ranked second in the world, and Germany, ranked first. A trip to Sunday's World Cup final on the line. As big as it gets

A U.S squad that played with more drive and sharpness than we've seen so far had its way with Germany in a 2-0 win. Sunday's final in Vancouver will now pit the U.S. against the winner of Wednesday's semifinal match between Japan and England. In the meantime, here are three big takeaways from Tuesday's USA-Germany showdown Read more...

More about Soccer, Women S World Cup, Entertainment, and Sports

'Creed' trailer is no schlocky 'Rocky' — this thing looks awesome

LOS ANGELES — Now we're ready to believe in Creed.

When it was announced in 2013 that MGM and Warner Bros. were training up a Rocky spin-off with Fruitvale Station director Ryan Coogler and star Michael B. Jordan in the title role, we have to admit we were scratching our heads. Was another trip into the Rocky ring, which seemed out of gas after a wildly uneven six films, really the best move for one of Hollywood's brightest up-and-coming director/actor duos?

Then along came this trailer, which first played at Cinemacon and was released Tuesday. No joke: This thing looks like it has a fighting chance at greatness. Read more...

More about Movies, Movie Trailers, Entertainment, Film, and Rocky

19 celebrity couples that give us hope

Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner announced their divorce after exactly 10 years and one day of marriage — but that doesn't mean love is over forever.

These couples show us that love is alive and well, despite years of fame and rumored breakups. Ain't love grand?

Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments. Read more...

More about Celebrity, Entertainment, Film, Tv, and Lists

A bunch of Girl Scouts are camping out on the White House lawn tonight

Ever wonder what it's like to gaze at the stars from a tent on the White House lawn?

Some lucky Girl Scouts will be doing just that on Tuesday night, thanks to an invitation from the First Lady to pitch their tents in the president's backyard

Tuesday's campout is part of a night of planned outdoor activities on the South Lawn of the White House, including rock wall climbing, knot tying and orienteering as part of Michelle Obama's "Let's Move" initiative against childhood obesity

Not your average camp site... Girl Scouts getting ready for a night at the White House pic.twitter.com/RPK8674KM1

— Mary Bruce (@marykbruce) June 30, 2015 Read more...

More about White House, Girl Scouts, Camping, Us World, and Politics

Donald Trump files $500 million lawsuit against Univision

One day after NBC cut ties with him, real estate mogul and 2016 GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump has filed a $500 million lawsuit against the Spanish-language network Univision — just as he threatened he would. Trump is suing Univision for terminating his contract after Trump's recent inflamatory comments about immigration, and for refusing to air the Trump-backed Miss Universe Pageant.

Donald Trump launches $500 million lawsuit against Univision. Claims Univision decision is attempt to suppress his free speech as candidate

— Jeremy Diamond (@JDiamond1) June 30, 2015 Read more...

More about Lawsuit, Immigration, Donald Trump, Media, and Entertainment

Bullied teen who made her own prom dress just designed one for the red carpet

An 18-year-old girl became a viral star and designed a dress for a celebrity all in one month

Kyemah McEntyre, who created her own prom dress to an applause heard 'round the Internet, designed a gown for an actress at Sunday night's BET Awards

Naturi Naughton, an actress and former member of 3LW, reached out to McEntyre after seeing that the two grew up in the same town

"When I saw her sketches, I just felt like, this girl is an artist," Naughton told Cosmopolitan.

McEntyre finished the mermaid-style dress for Naughton to wear on Sunday's red carpet in under a week with the help of seamstress Markell Mockabee Read more...

More about Fashion, Prom, Bet Awards, Lifestyle, and Prom Dress

2016-2017 College Financial Aid Formula Penalizes Middle Class $8,000

The 2016-2017 update to the federal college aid formula (Federal Need Analysis Methodology) has been announced, and like recent years it penalizes middle class families even more. For families that save at all, the change in the formula has penalized them by almost $8,000 over four years of college, raising their out-of-pocket cost of college.

7 destinations for a cheap last-minute Fourth of July getaway

Want to get away for the Fourth? Haven't even started planning yet? Not a problem.

The window of cheap airfare may have closed. But great hotels in great destinations are still available, often at great prices.

The average hotel rate in the U.S. for the Fourth of July weekend is up 11% over this time last year, according to HotelTonight. But that increase isn't evenly distributed. Some destinations are still great deals, even three days out

Check out these cities for a last minute getaway:

White River Junction, Vermont

More about Travel, Destinations, and Fourth Of July

Facebook Messenger payments is now nationwide

Facebook Messenger has finally rolled out its payments feature across the entire U.S. so that any stateside user can pay friends right inside the app, if they like

David Marcus, Facebook's vice president of messaging products, quietly announced the news via Facebook post on Tuesday, describing the payments feature as "easy and safe."

To recap, users who add their debit card information in Messenger's settings section can send payments by starting a conversation with one or more friends, picking the "$" icon that appears in the row above the software keyboard, and tapping "Pay." Users who receive money do so by opening up that friend's message and accepting the payment when prompted. And just like bank deposits, payment may take up to three business days to go through. Read more...

More about Social, Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Tech, and Apps Software

Fed Data Sheds Fresh Light On Small-Business Creation In The Recession

The Great Recession pushed many white collar workers into starting a business when they lost their jobs. Many of these firms were solo operations. A recent study by the Federal Reserve Board sheds interesting light on such new business creation during that period and how the founders of both startups and established firms fared.

Can This Man Get Corporate America to Rethink An Anti-Dad Culture?

One of the top reasons people leave corporate America to start a solo business is the desire for freedom.

Monday, June 29, 2015

Richard Fisher, The Federal Reserve's Wall Street Critic, Joins Barclays

One of the sharpest and best positioned critics of the bailouts that kept Wall Street afloat in 2008, but did far less to mend the finances of Main Street is following a well-trod path from top regulatory posts to the banks that benefited from the government's intervention.

This Accelerator Targets Startups Aiming To Improve The Lives Of The Elderly

Aging2.0 Academy is an accelerator for startups focused on improving the lives of older people.

A Berlin Startup Gets People To Buy More Books, By Reading Less

Berlin startup Blinkist is getting people to buy more books, by reading less. Business titles like Getting Things Done and The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People are classics in the world of self-improvement. But time has increasingly become a precious commodity. Business books now compete with blogs, and for many, Thinking Fast and Slow and other titles, aren’t exactly summer reading. Shortage of time is what Blinkist is banking on. The digital and audio book subscription site takes non-fiction and business books, and boils them down into digestible highlights and summaries. Each book takes just 15 minutes to read. Call it Cliffs Notes for grown-ups. A blink is a key message from the book, which you can read with the blink of an eye on a Smartphone or tablet. One book consists of 10 blinks, on average.

Why this year's Pride was so historic for this gay man

SAN FRANCISCO — More than a million people on Sunday flocked to San Francisco's Market Street, the city's main thoroughfare, to celebrate the legalization of same-sex marriage with one of the biggest, brightest pride parades the city has ever seen

They came from all walks of life, from as far away as London and Istanbul and as close by as San Francisco's Castro district: gay couples in decades-long relationships cradling each other on the sidelines, grinning LGBT teens showered in glitter, cheered on by friends and family. Apple CEO Tim Cook himself led over 8,000 employees in what was arguably the largest parade showing this year by any organization, though thousands also marched from Facebook, Salesforce, Google and other tech companies. Read more...

More about Apple, Lgbt, Gay Pride, Tim Cook, and Gay Pride Parade

Was this African-themed runway the Rachel Dolezal of fashion shows?

Was there black cultural appropriation occurring on the runways of Paris this past week? The Internet certainly thought so

In Junya Watanabe's spring/summer 2016 show, the Japanese designer, who also creates collections for Comme des Garçons, sent a slew of models down the runway at an African-themed show.

The only problem: All of the models were white, causing Twitter to spark a conversation on whether the show was inappropriate.

#JunyaWatanabe #TeenVogue if you use our culture, use the skin and the kind of hair wich work with... Black models exist ! Thank you !

— Stephanie Swi (@Swi_Stephanie) June 29, 2015 Read more...

More about Fashion, Style, Racism, Race, and Fashion Week

Biggest Startup Mistakes And How To Avoid Them

Microsoft Wants More 'Minecraft' In Education For All The Right Reasons

Ever since Microsoft bought Mojang for $2.5 Billion, fans of the game have wondered what the world’s most popular video game would become in the hands of the world’s largest software company.

Greek prime minister rants about 'blackmail' with surprising intensity

Maybe he’s trying to raise his Klout score?

Greece's prime minister Alexis Tsipras took to Twitter to express his frustration on the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund, and the European Central Bank denying an extension to the bailout money scheduled to run out on Tuesday, and his hopes for a no vote on the upcoming July 5 snap referendum on the eurozone bailout.

Holding nothing back — Tsipras called the negotiations with the EU "blackmail — Tsipras tweeted for over an hour about his frustrations with Greece's European partners

The crisis intensified over the weekend as the country closed its banks and looked increasingly close to defaulting on its debts. And in his tweet storm, Tsipras placed blame on the three organizations, calling the European Commission’s request that Greece make major cuts to its budget in order to receive its final payment “blackmail.” Read more...

More about Twitter, Business, Alexis Tsipras, and Greek Crisis

Bree Newsome, who scaled a pole to take down Confederate flag, speaks out

Bree Newsome has a released a statement, her most thorough comments yet after she scaled a pole this weekend on the capitol grounds in Columbia, South Carolina, and took down the Confederate flag.

Her statement, which was posted on the website Blue Nation Review, addresses her history of activism, citing her experience in Florida (supporting Trayvon Martin), Ohio and Missouri (supporting Michael Brown)

Is the United States prepared/willing to tackle white supremacy the same way it has gone after Islamic extremism? If not, why not?

— Bree Newsome (@BreeNewsome) June 25, 2015 Read more...

More about Us World, Conversations, South Carolina, Confederate Flag, and Bree Newsome

Yoko Ono releases chess app with dogs as pieces

Yoko Chess is out now on the iOS App Store as a free download, and it's pretty damn weird. Not that we'd expect anything less from the famed artist and singer.

There's no Yellow Submarine-themed board, but there is an ideal variant of the game to play while listening to Hey Bulldog — not to mention the White Album

The standard, free game features a 3D chessboard floating in outer space. But there are also two premium boards, on sale for $2.99 apiece: a "Doggie" board, where all the pieces are animated dogs; and a "Play It By Trust" board, based on an art installation that Ono debuted in 1966. Read more...

More about Entertainment, Gaming, Yoko Ono, Apps Software, and Yoko Chess