Sunday, January 22, 2012
THIS IS TEL AVIV: TLV through the lense of Israeli Photographer PINI SILUK
Tel Aviv's night life scene displayed through the lens of the Israel photographer Pini Siluk.
At CES 2012, Jay-Z is Face and Voice of Israeli Tech
As if it wasn’t enough that his wife Beyonce is storming the headlines after giving birth to their first child, music mogul and all around legend Jay-Z is investing big in a hot new tech sector, just signing a multi-year agreement to be the face and voice of Duracell Powermat JV.
So what’s gotten Jay-Z so excited? Even though he has more money than he knows what to do with, Jay-Z’s usually pretty successful with his investments, and he really believes the Duracell Powermat is going to be the next big thing.
“I believe in the future of wireless energy and I believe that Duracell Powermat is the company to bring on the revolution,” Jay-Z said. “I’m partnering with Duracell Powermat because they’re providing the solutions for the future.”
The joint business venture was just announced at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show. Said Ron Poliakine, chief executive officer of Powermat Technologies, “Jay Z is power personified. He inspires millions of people all over the world on a daily basis with his music and his story. There is no better face or voice that can move people to adopt a new paradigm in power delivery.”
Many of you have probably seen some early examples of wireless charging, in which you charge your cell phone by placing it on what’s called a “charger mat.” This new technology means no plugging anything in, you don’t even need to connect the phone to the charger, just having it rest on it is enough to charge the device! And unlike wall chargers, the Powermat has a “brain” and communicates with the device, so power stops flowing and you won’t overcharge your device.
All this technology was developed in Israel by a company called Powermat, Ltd. Founded in 2006, Powermat at first employed only 30 people, but thanks to its partnership with Duracell, their technology is really taking off. Duracell, which is owned by global giant Proctor & Gamble, owns a 55 percent stake in Powermat. Yesterday, they announced a massive project for what is now called Duracell Powermat to equip New York’s famous arena, Madison Square Garden, with wireless charging technology.
“Enhancing the fan experience by integrating state-of-the-art technology is a key component of Madison Square Garden’s currently underway comprehensive, top-to-bottom Transformation,” said Scott O’Neil, president, MSG Sports. “This partnership with Duracell Powermat will ensure that fans at Knicks and Rangers games will always be charged up while watching their favorite teams.”
Going further, each mat can charge multiple phones simultaneously, and like we said before, is smart enough to allocate resources – if a phone on the right side of the mat is finished charging, it won’t be pumping unnecessary energy that way, but focus on the other phones on the mat that still need charging.
Speaking of MSG, Knicks legend Larry Johnson was on hand at Duracell Powermat’s CES booth, adding to their roster of celebrity endorsements.
Last year, Powermat struck a $5 million deal with General Motors to bring wireless charging to the Chevy Volt.
Their vision is pretty ambitious, but with players like Jay-Z and Proctor & Gamble behind the scenes, this is technology that you’re going to see in your house someday soon. “Our mission is to populate the universe with access points in any surface surrounding us in a way that you, as a user, will forget that you even have a battery in your devices” says Poliakine.
Looking beyond cell phones, the company seeks one day to radically transform your house whereby everything from your kitchen appliances to your video game controllers will be charged wirelessly. It certainly sounds like magic, and one of the products being unveiled at CES is tentatively called “magic box.” It’s simply a box that can charge any device running on Duracell batteries. Your remote control for your TV just died? Throw it in the magic box overnight and by morning you’re good to go.
Magic.
American Eagle stores to open in February
Clothing retailer to inaugurate
its first six Israel branches on February 3 in Tel Aviv, Herzliya,
Petah Tikva, Netanya and Haifa. Additional stores to open a week later
in Kiryat Ono, Raanana and Rishon Lezion. Prices expected to be slightly
higher than in US.
Additional stores will open on February 5 in the Kiryat Ono Mall, on February 6 in Raanana’s Renanim Mall, and on February 10 in Rishon Lezion’s Gold Mall. The 10th store will open in the Kiryon Mall in Kiryat Motzkin on February 15.
A VIP sale for 500 people will be held on February 2 at the Ramat Aviv Mall. Guests will enjoy country music and American-style refreshments: Hamburgers and hotdogs.
American Eagle Outfitters is an American fashion retailer which sells basic and trendy clothes, and is said to be the cheap version of Abercrombie & Fitch and Hollister.
The chain specializes in cheap jeans and a variety of accessories, and offers the aerie intimates sub-brand which targets 15- to 21-year-old girls and will also be sold in Israel.
The retailer’s franchiser in Israel is the Fox Group. Harel Wizel, one of the group owners, told Ynet in the past that the prices in Israel would be slightly higher than in the United States due to transport costs and VAT.
Meanwhile, the Hamashbir Lazarchan department store chain is already selling basic American Eagle items, although not necessarily from the current season. Fox and American Eagle Outfitters tried to prevent the sale through an injunction, but an Israeli court denied their request.
Grandiose opening planned
Two years after H&M and Gap entered Israel, and 15 years after ZARA changed Israeli fashion consumption habits, the Israeli fashion industry, which generates NIS 11 million (about $2.9 million) a year, continues to attract international chains.While the first Forever 21 store increased traffic at Tel Aviv’s Azrieli Mall, Gap’s new owners have promised to reduce prices by 20% this year. COS by H&M is expected to open a store at the Ramat Aviv Mall, and additional chains may arrive in Israel as well, including Gap’s Old Navy and even Uniqlo and Urban Outfitters.
American Eagle plans to follow in the footsteps of H&M and Forever 21 with grandiose inauguration celebrations in Tel Aviv. According to Fox, some NIS 40 million ($10.5 million) will be invested in the series of openings.
“Everything you see in a store in Soho or Times Square will reach Tel Aviv,” Wizel promised. “It’s the biggest brand for young people in the US with more than 1,000 stores. The jeans company sells over 30,000 items a year.
“We are familiar with the brand’s power for more than 20 years, and we know that the brand is suitable for the State of Israel. We’ll bring to Israel jeans at the highest level ever seen here, the world’s leading real American jeans for sane prices. We’ll be the first in Israel to sell jeans by length, and we’ll also sell middle sizes – 31 and 32.”
He added that “the entire underwear industry for young women is about to undergo a revolution in terms of the variety of prices, models and shopping experience. Underwear will become a dream, so that all Israeli girls who have been buying aerie abroad will thank us.”
Source: Ynetnews.com
A refugee from South Sudan becomes a student at The Hebrew University
It’s nice to see that even within the complexities of the issue of Refugees, there is a glimpse of light
Click To View Video
Israel invited to EU R&D program
Government to decide whether to take part in activities aimed at furthering Europe’s industrial competitiveness in the world
The program aims to further Europe’s industrial competitiveness in the world. Israel has been considered a European country for this purpose since 1996.
Robert-Jan Smits, the European Commission’s general director, DG Research and Innovation, presented the outline of the new program to Israeli entrepreneurs during a conference held last week at Jerusalem’s Science Museum.
The Israeli government now must decide whether it wishes to take part in the program.
Participation in the new program will cost some NIS 700 million (about $182 million) a year.
Source: Ynetnews.com
The Experts' Guide To The World: Israel
It may seem quirky to pick a busy street corner as your favourite place in a city, but this is no ordinary corner. With your back to the sea, look up the length of the wide Ben Gurion Avenue from its intersection with Ha'atzmaut and wonder at the most beguiling sight in Haifa, Israel's mellowest city: the manicured park, stretching up the Carmel hillside, and the golden domed shrine that is one of the two holiest places in the Baha'i faith. But that's not all there is to this corner, which is not just a junction between two streets, but between east and west, past and future, Jew and Arab.
Dominating Ha'atzmaut to the left is the fortress-like Dagon Grain silo. Built in 1953, it is so massive it cuts off the view of the sea from parts of inner east Haifa, including some of the picturesque Christian-Arab quarter of Wadi Nisnas, in whose narrow streets during August 2006 I took shelter in a gambling den from Hizbollah's Katyusha rockets. Behind the silo is the port itself, today a major entry point for cargo imports, but also, after the Second World War, the destination for Jewish immigrants, European Holocaust survivors, seeking to defy the British blockade on Mandate Palestine. Two kilometres west of here is the impressive Clandestine Immigration and Navy Museum, dominated by the hulk of the ship Nevertheless, intercepted in 1947 by the British, its 434 refugee passengers deported to internment camps in Cyprus.
Long an important Middle East trading post, and now a hi-tech centre, Haifa is a delight to visit. Its sandy beaches, overlooked by the wooded Mount Carmel, are among the best in Israel. What makes it so unusual, however, is the vein of history, some of it ineffably sad, some tinged with what may just be a sliver of hope for the future. The sadness is captured in the Palestinian writer Ghassan Kanafani's famous story "Returning to Haifa", which describes how a couple, among the thousands of Palestinian refugees who fled the city in panic as it passed overnight from British to Jewish control in April 1948, travel from the West Bank to revisit their old home 19 years later. The twist is that the house is now in the hands of Jewish Holocaust survivors along with the infant son they left behind, now a soldier in the Israeli Army. What makes it remarkable is the sensitivity with which Kanafani treats not just the Palestinian agony, but that of Jews at the hands of the Nazis.
Relations in Haifa between Jews and Arabs – while not problem-free – are probably the most harmonious of any city in Israel. Two kilometres north-west of this road junction, high on the hill, is another Haifa favourite: the Stella Maris Carmelite monastery with its breathtaking views across the city and the Mediterranean. On a Friday in January, at Kalamaris, an excellent Arab restaurant across the road, Jewish and Arab families randomly distributed among the tables were eating a leisurely late lunch as dusk fell. The largest group was a mixed one of good-humoured students, celebrating the end of a course. When the Arab manager told the group, in Hebrew, what was on offer, one of the students – an Arab but clearly a fluent Hebrew speaker – briefly replied to the waiter in Arabic. "What, you don't understand his Hebrew?" a Jewish fellow student teased him. Everyone laughed. For a moment you had a glimpse of what this country could be.
http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/middle-east/the-experts-guide-to-the-world-israel-2209503.html
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Aliyah is for ME!
Hear about different people’s Aliyah (moving to Israel) experiences…
Their common theme is that Israel is the place to be!
Click To View Video
Please SHARE with your friends and family!
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