One of many peoples favourite snacks maker Hostess is planning on going out of business. With having around 18,500 workers it announced friday, that is it going to shut its doors and fire most of its workers.

While in Canada, a totally different company owns the right to wonder bread and Hostess, but twinkies is not one of them. “Everything is business as usual in Canada.” according to Geoff Wilson, senior vice-president at George Weston.  I think even though the company is closing in the USA, the Canadian hostess brand wont be affected. Their could even go potentially go up with americans crossing the border to buy Hostess products. But twinkies one of their main products cannot be produced by Hostess canada.

Twinkie enthusiasts are spending $50 just to buy a box of twinkies on ebay. I checked earlier today and their was 28 bids on a box of twinkies for 48 dollars. For me getting in 10 more twinkies for $50 is not worth it, but for some snatching that last twinkle may just bring back their childhood memories. 

http://www.theprovince.com/business/Twinkies+maker+Hostess+going+business+putting+almost+work/7561754/story.html#axzz2CT95ReZx

Over the last few months the products that Google has been releasing have  brought them to become a major player in the electronics market. As Omar El Akkad said in his article “Almost overnight, a company best known for its Web-search algorithms has made a big move into the hardware market” . This being said, Google has released 4 new products in the last few months alone. The nexus 7 a 7 inch tablet for only $199, the nexus 10 a 10 inch tablet that I think could possibly out perform the ipad for $399, a chromebook googles own interpretation of a ultrabook for $199, and finally their new and improved galaxy phone that has a price of $309.

I personally think that their prices and product are unbeatable for the product. The nexus 4, their new galaxy phone, is almost better or on par than the samsung galaxy s3 in every way. It has a better interal specs, a more crisp screen and almost half the value. With their price confirmed and is fully unlocked allowing it to be used with any carrier around the world.

With these new products and price point I think companies may have to question their current pricing, because consumers may start to wonder why google products are so much cheaper than theirs.  What do you think?

Some information on googles prices:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/9678525/Google-Nexus-range-battles-Apple-with-low-prices-and-Project-Butter.html

In response to “Its all about the Money” by Devan Dass. 

With Urthecast being opened during 2014, it It is a true project of the future. Being the worlds first online stream of earth from space, it gives a whole new aspect of earth from convectional applications like google earth, and bing maps.

In his post “Its all about the money” Devan Dass talked about how Wade Larson, the Co-Founder and Executive VP was talking about the difficulties of finding financing, and how it is hard to believe a company with so many opportunities have such a hard time finding angel investors. I think because the company has a lack of actual progress, and has a short time contract of only 10 years has a huge impact on why investors are not investing. Urthecast is truly a product that stands out, but investors are unsure if it can compete with big named companies such as google and microsoft.

But because the fact Urthecast is using two cameras mounted on the international space system, it allows footage of going around the world 16 times a day, while google maps has some parts that have not been updated in a few years. This extra data makes you be able to see video streams only with a few hour delay which is unbelievable, and would make anyone want to use their program and site, which in my opinion catch any investors eye.

The new smart meter has been legistated in BC to be on every house by the end of 2012, as that is nearing new products such as the Power Tab by Energy-Aware are coming this way. But is the new smart meter really a good idea. With people have many problems, such a privacy controls and health issues are these new ways of saving energy worth it?

Janice Cheam the founder and CEO of energy-aware came in and talked about the Power Tab. The device itself sounded like a great idea,  being able to see how much electricity you use at any given point is great. It motivates you to  reduce your consumption and save the total energy use. But the concept of the smart meter is concerning. Their have been many reports of individuals hacking into smart meters, stealing and even changing the size of your bill. There are also many accounts of people showing how a Smart Meter is like a wiretap, allowing power companies able to see when you are home, away, or even watching tv. If a device from inside your house could talk to your meter, just imagine what one individual could do to the smart grid.