Metaverse Fans Pin Hope on Apple --- 'Mixed reality' headset from iPhone maker seen as potential way to rebuild enthusiasm.

"Grant Anderson founded a virtual tabletop-game startup four years ago with the goal of launching on the Apple headset. Now that the tech giant's product is set to be unveiled this coming week, he and other developers are counting on its success.

"It's kind of a make or break moment because Apple, out of any company in the world, has the ability to make this a must-have consumer item," said Anderson, chief executive of Mirrorscape. "The question is, can they?"

It has taken a lot longer than anyone has expected for the iPhone maker, based in Cupertino, Calif., to get its headset into shape. It has been in development inside Apple for seven years and the device's launch has been delayed several times, The Wall Street Journal previously reported. On Monday at its developer conference, Apple is expected to finally unveil a so-called mixed-reality headset.

Virtual-reality headsets fully immerse people into digital worlds, while augmented reality places digital content in the real world. "Mixed reality" is a headset capable of doing both.

After a period of disillusionment in the industry called the metaverse, many of its most fervent believers are banking on Apple to save the day. While an ecosystem of software startups built up around Meta Platforms' lineup of Quest virtual-reality products, some companies have pulled back recently. Microsoft shut down a social virtual-reality platform it acquired in 2017 and trimmed the team building its HoloLens augmented-reality headset. Walt Disney Co. shut down the division developing strategies for the metaverse.

Venture-capital investments into virtual-reality startups totaled $4.8 billion last year, down nearly 24% from a peak of $6.3 billion in 2019, according to research firm PitchBook. Virtual-reality headset sales also have dipped after swift growth during the pandemic. Shipments nearly doubled to nearly 11 million in 2021, but dropped 21% to 8.6 million units shipped in 2022, according to market researcher International Data Corp.

"So many companies are dependent on Apple to announce this headset, it's unbelievable," said Inga Petryaevskaya, CEO of ShapesXR, a startup that builds collaborative design software for virtual and augmented-reality settings. Petryaevskaya said Apple could achieve with the headset what it did with the first Macintosh, which was expensive but brought creative professionals into the computing era. "They know how to build a religion," she said.

The tech industry is known for its boom-and-bust hype cycles around specific areas of emerging technology.

Artificial intelligence is currently enjoying a boom inspired by OpenAI's ChatGPT, a so-called large language model that can chat and write long text in humanlike ways. Now, investors are pouring billions into the new companies banking on this type of artificial intelligence.

Virtual-reality and related technologies caught a similar wave several years ago. Facebook acquired virtual-reality headset maker Oculus VR for $2 billion in 2014, and augmented-reality startup Magic Leap raised billions of dollars with multibillion-dollar valuations before even releasing its first set of glasses. Then, Mark Zuckerberg changed his company's name from Facebook to Meta Platforms in 2021, prompting another surge of startup activity and investment. On Thursday, Zuckerberg announced plans to unveil the Quest 3 headset in the fall.

During the past year, it has been a slog for virtual-reality startups, said investors and startup executives. New rounds of investment for some of these startups are hinging on what Apple announces in the coming week, some investors and industry executives said.

"I think VR will be up for a renaissance with Apple," said Todd Hooper, a venture partner at startup investor Acequia Capital and former CEO of Vreal, a virtual-reality startup that shut down in 2019. He said that many investors may still be cautious due to getting burned on the last virtual-reality boom.

Anticipation for the Apple headset has been building for many years. Tipatat Chennavasin, general partner at Venture Reality Fund, has been pitched by virtual-reality startups for years, he said, and they would always promise huge growth when Apple releases its headset "next year."

That happened every year for the past seven years. "Apple's headset has always been right around the corner," said Chennavasin.

The Apple headset is unlikely to be available soon, with mass production not starting until the fall. First-year shipments are forecast to be far lower than other Apple products at launch, estimated at 200,000 to 300,000 units, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo previously told the Journal.

There is some skepticism about the headset's potential for mass adoption given the expected price tag of around $3,000 -- triple Meta's priciest Quest Pro headset.

Dan Elenbaas, CEO of virtual-reality healthcare developer Virtual Therapeutics, said he is holding out on developing for the Apple platform given the expected high price. "I'm disappointed in the $3,000 because I just want more people to have the headsets," he said.

"I'm not risking my business on it," said Elenbaas, whose software runs on the Pico headset, which is sold by Chinese TikTok-parent ByteDance. "I'm not spending a lot of money on it until I really see what it is and what the future road map looks like."

In 2025, Apple is expected to release a lower-cost headset alongside a more premium version, the Journal previously reported." [1]

1.  EXCHANGE --- Business News: Metaverse Fans Pin Hope on Apple --- 'Mixed reality' headset from iPhone maker seen as potential way to rebuild enthusiasm. Tilley, Aaron. 
Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 03 June 2023: B.9.

Kaip gauti tinkamus atlyginimus?

   

Lietuvos kainos yra Vakarų šalių lygio, tačiau atlyginimai dvigubai mažesni. Tai nėra gerai visiems. Darbdaviai skundžiasi, kad darbuotojai nenori dirbti už tokį atlyginimą. Lietuvos darbdaviai kelia atlyginimus, bet būtinai mažiau, negu kyla kainos. Kitaip naujo prabangaus automobilio pirkimas gali tapti nerealus. Kaip tai pakeisti? Mokykimės iš Vakarų šalių.

 

     „Nauja darbo veiksmų banga sustabdė krovinių gabenimą didžiuosiuose JAV Vakarų pakrantės uostuose, o dokų darbuotojai kuriam laikui veiksmingai uždarė Ouklando uostą ir apsunkino tvarkymą kai kuriuose iš judriausių šalies prekybos vartų, didėjant konfrontacijai su darbdaviais dėl ilgalaikės sutarties.

 

     JAV Ramiojo vandenyno jūrų asociacija, atstovaujanti Vakarų pakrantės terminalų operatoriams, penktadienį pranešė, kad dokininkai „rengia suderintus ir trikdančius darbo veiksmus“, kurie sustabdė arba labai sutrikdė operacijas nuo terminalų Pietų Kalifornijos didžiajame konteinerių uosto komplekse Los Andžele ir Long Byče iki Sietlo.

 

     Laivybos pramonės pareigūnai sakė, kad dokininkai neatvyko į darbą ir sulėtino veiklą uostuose nuo ketvirtadienio vakaro ir tęsiasi iki penktadienio ryto. „Judame puse greičio, kuriuo paprastai dirbame“, – penktadienį sakė vieno Los Andželo Long Byčo krovinių krovos terminalo pareigūnas.

 

     Kai kurie terminalai Pietų Kalifornijoje buvo atidaryti penktadienio rytą, o po kelių valandų nustojo priimti sunkvežimius.

 

     Ouklando uosto, aštunto pagal užimtumą JAV konteinerių uosto, atstovė sakė, kad uosto tarptautinės operacijos buvo uždarytos penktadienio rytą ir kad neaišku, ar jos bus atidarytos po pietų.

 

     Šie sutrikimai buvo paskutiniai dokai per daugiau nei metus trunkančias derybas dėl sutarties.

 

     Darbdaviai ir dokininkų sąjunga pranešė apie pažangą pastarosiomis savaitėmis, įskaitant susitarimą dėl automatikos naudojimo uostuose sąlygų. 

Laivybos pramonės atstovai teigia, kad santykiai pablogėjo šią praėjusią savaitę, nes darbdaviams ir sąjungai sunkiai pavyksta susitarti dėl atlyginimų." [1]

 

1. EXCHANGE --- Business News: Workers Disrupt West Coast Ports. Berger, Paul. 
Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 03 June 2023: B.9.

How to get decent wages?

 

Lithuanian prices are at the level of Western countries, wages are twice less though. This is not good for everybody. Employers complain that workers do not want to work for such pay. Lithuanian employers raise wages, but necessarily less than the rise in prices. Otherwise, buying a new luxury car can become unrealistic. How to change it? Let's learn from Western countries. Let's learn from Western countries.

 

"A new wave of job actions halted cargo operations across major West Coast ports, with dockworkers effectively shutting down the Port of Oakland for a time and hampering handling at some of the country's busiest trade gateways in an escalating confrontation with employers over long-running contract talks.

The Pacific Maritime Association, which represents West Coast terminal operators, said Friday that dockworkers were "staging concerted and disruptive work actions" that had stopped or severely disrupted operations stretching from terminals at Southern California's big container port complex at Los Angeles and Long Beach to Seattle.

Shipping industry officials said dockworkers failed to show up for work and slowed operations at the ports starting Thursday evening and continuing into Friday morning. "We are moving at half of the velocity that we normally operate with," an official at one cargo-handling terminal at Los Angeles-Long Beach said Friday.

Some terminals in Southern California opened Friday morning and then stopped accepting trucks a few hours later.

A spokeswoman for the Port of Oakland, the eighth-busiest container port in the U.S., said the port's international operations were closed Friday morning and that it was unclear if they would open for the afternoon.

The disruptions were the latest to hit the docks during coast-wide contract talks that have been going on for more than a year.

The employers and the dockworkers' union had reported progress in recent weeks, including an agreement on terms for the use of automation at the ports.

 

Shipping industry officials say relations deteriorated this past week as employers and the union struggled to reach a deal over wages." [1]

1. EXCHANGE --- Business News: Workers Disrupt West Coast Ports. Berger, Paul. 
Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 03 June 2023: B.9.

Vejos laistymas ir tręšimas per sausrą – kaip apskaičiuoti tinkamą vandens kiekį

"Daugiametis vidutinis kritulių kiekis Lietuvoje siekia apie 800-950mm, tačiau vasarą skaičiuojant nuo rugpjūčio iki rugsėjo kritulių teiškrinta tik apie 400 mm, o gražiai vejai per sezoną reikia iki 1000 mm todėl be laistymo sistemos gražios vejos neužauginsi. Tiesa veja ir pieva pavadinimai ir reikšmės panašios, bet rezultatas ir poreikiai skirtingi. Pievas šienaujame kartą per mėnesį, veją kartą ar net du per savaitę. Dažnai pjaunama veja negali išlaikyti drėgmės šaknyne, kai tuo tarpu aukšta pieva atsparesnė sausrai.

Kaip teisingai palaistyti veją? Europos laistymo asociacijos sertifikuotas laistymo sistemų auditorius Ramūnas Rėderis pažymi, kad laistant vejas svarbu tinkamai parinkti laistymo purkštukus ir juos teisingai įrengti.

Svarbu, kad laistymo purkštukai būtų įrengti vertikaliai (pasvirę purkštukai sukelia dirvos eroziją, eikvoja vandenį) tinkamai sureguliuotas laistymo kampas ir purškimo spindulys. Laistyti reikia tą kas auga, kas neauga (terasa, namo sienos, tvora ir pan. greičiau dūla nuo reguliaraus vandens purškimo). Rekomenduojama naudoti taupiai vandenį paskirstančius purkštukus, geriau, kad jie turėtų reguliuojamą laistymo kampą, spindulį, išlaistomo vandens kiekį.

Kaip žinia, veja gali sugerti tik tam tikrą kiekį vandens (iki 10 mm per val.) jei vandens per daug, gali prasidėti dirvožemio erozija, vejos užmirkimas, susidaryti balos, padidėja grybelinių ligų pavojus, laistomas vanduo tiesiog iššvaistomas.

Geriausia kai laistoma kuo tolygiau, lėtai ir ilgai, panašiai kaip lengvas lietutis.

Dažnas klausimas kiek laistyti? R.Rėderis pažymi, kad norit užtikrinti efektyvų vandens ir trąšų panaudojimą, reikia laistyti tiek kiek nugaravo praėjusią parą. Kaip apskaičiuoti kiek mm išlaistėte? Formulė: išlaistytas vandens kiekis per valandą litrais / padalinamas iš palaistyto ploto m2 = kritulių kiekis mm į kv.m. per val.

Kuriuo paros metu laistyti? Geriausias laistymo laikas paroje – ankstyvas rytas, laistant vakare, vandens perteklius užsilieka vejoje, nakčia vandens temperatūra krenta, padidėja ligų pavojus. Laistant ryte patekėjusi saulutė išgarina perteklinius vandens kritulius. Laistant dieną susidarę vandens lašeliai veikia kaip padidinamas lęšis todėl padidėja vejos nudeginimo pavojus (mokyklinis ekperimentas su didinančia lupa ir koncentruotais saulės spinduliais).

Kada reikia tręšti? Jeigu tręšiame su kompleksinėmis trąšomis, jos tirpsta pamažu, todėl pirmas tręšimas pavasarį vidutinei temperatūrai perkopus +10C Balandžio-Gegužės mėn. Vasaros viduryje ir rudenį nuo Rugsėjo vidurio Spalį. Pavasarį rekomenduojama naudoti trąšas su daugiau azoto, vasarą su mažiau, o rudeniui azoto reikia mažiau, svarbu kiti mineralai padedantys vejos šaknynui peržiemoti permainingas žiemas.

Vejos spalva? Sveika veja vientisai žalios spalvos. Pavytusi, pašviesėjusi spalva, dėmėmis signalizuoja, apie vandens trūkumą. Nelaistoma veja užėjus karščiams paruduoja, pradeda retėti, įsiveisia piktžolės, gali pradėti augti kupstais."