April 22, 2015 | Prepys' Homepage

Ascott’s Next-Generation Serviced Residences Embrace IoT Technology

April 22, 2015April 22, 2015 PRNEWS Admin Leave a comment

CapitaLand’s wholly-owned serviced residence business unit, The Ascott Limited (Ascott), is set to embrace the Internet of Things technology to design a next-generation serviced residence that will offer guests a seamless smart living experience. The technology will enable guests to control and manage devices within the serviced residence through a single application which connects personal and home devices — from refrigerators and washing machines to smart TVs, smartphones and even wearable devices — through an integrated platform and server.

To bring its vision of a next-generation serviced residence to life, Ascott has entered into an exclusive partnership with Samsung Asia Pte Ltd, a unit of Samsung Electronics (Samsung), to jointly develop Internet of Things-ready smart solutions customised for its serviced residences, making Ascott the first global serviced residence company to embrace smart home technologies. Ascott aims to test bed the new technologies at selected Ascott serviced residences by the first half of 2016, with plans to roll out to its properties across over 20 countries globally in phases.

In the new age Ascott serviced residence, guests will be able to use customised settings on their mobile devices or smart TV to control one or multiple devices simultaneously no matter where they are — turning on air conditioning or monitoring laundry cycle, for example — while inside or outside the serviced residence, or even while travelling abroad. By knowing when the day starts for the guests, the smart devices can even turn on the lights and heat up a coffee pot just in time. Guests can also use their smartphones to get real-time views of the serviced residence via in-built appliance cameras within an air conditioner or robot cleaner. In addition, Ascott’s housekeeping staff can be promptly notified when it is time to service appliances, keep the laundry or replace consumables.

Mr Lee Chee Koon, Ascott’s Chief Executive Officer, said: “As a global leader in serviced residences, Ascott continuously seeks to innovate and test new ideas to ensure that we remain at the forefront of the industry. The Internet of Things technology is on the brink of quick adoption and it will come at a speed we can barely imagine. It will enable us to gain real-time insights to better understand the lifestyle and preferences of our guests and to anticipate their needs. Ascott aims to transform these complex data into useful information to improve customer experience and operational efficiency.”

Ascott will work closely with Samsung to co-innovate and test customised hospitality solutions, with some initial development work done at Ascott’s Innovation Hub in Singapore before testing at its properties. Guests will get to try out the new smart technologies and appliances in specially designed Samsung Experience suites or residents’ lounges in selected Ascott properties for a trial period. In addition, Ascott will explore the application of automated technologies such as robotics at its serviced residences to enhance its employees’ productivity, so that they can focus on ensuring that guests have a memorable stay at its serviced residences.

Auto-update convenience: WordPress upgrades itself to fix critical vulnerability

April 22, 2015April 22, 2015 Max Limpag Leave a comment

Share on Facebook Retweet this

After yesterday’s upgrading of key WordPress plugins to fix a cross site scripting vulnerability, the WordPress team released version 4.1.2, which it described as a critical security release.

“WordPress versions 4.1.1 and earlier are affected by a critical cross-site scripting vulnerability, which could enable anonymous users to compromise a site,” the WordPress team said in a blog post announcing the release. The release also fixed 3 other security issues including an SQL injection vulnerability in some plugins.

I got the notification of the new release at past midnight. Years back, that would have meant that I’d need to stay up very late, download the latest release, upload the files to the server and perform the upgrade for each of the site I’m running.

Now it’s automatic.

AUTOMATIC UPDATES. The email notification I got last night that the WordPress running one of my sites has automatically updated to the latest security release – without any trigger or interventions from me.

Background update

Apart from being easy to set up and use, the background update system of WordPress is one of its best features. Manual updating of content management systems is tedious and if you run multiple websites, it can be frustrating.

With background and auto updating, WordPress makes sure that its users (at least those whose sites have been set up for it) always have the latest release and the corresponding security fixes that come with it.

Previously, I would have gotten the release notification from an alert triggered via RSS. Last night, I knew about version 4.1.2 after getting notified that one of my sites was already upgraded to the new release.

Other CMSes like Drupal, for example, not only do not have auto-updating but upgrading them can be so complicated and wearisome. Drupal upgrades, for example, can break features and introduce incompatibilities between major version updates. Remember CCK?

Share on Facebook Retweet this

The post Auto-update convenience: WordPress upgrades itself to fix critical vulnerability appeared first on Leon Kilat : The Tech Experiments.

DMCI Holdings posts P10.3B in 2014

April 22, 2015April 22, 2015 PRNEWS Admin Leave a comment

Diversified engineering conglomerate DMCI Holdings, Inc. posted P10.3 billion in consolidated core income in 2014, a dip of 3% from the P10.6 billion posted last year. The drop in core income was attributable to the weakened operating results of its power and construction subsidiaries.

From P3.5 billion in 2013, net income contributions from power dropped 42% to P2 billion. Technical problems and commissioning delays forced the extended outage of Power Unit 2 of SEM-Calaca Power Corporation, which exposed the company to high Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) prices for its replacement power during the first half of the year.

Meanwhile, earnings from its construction subsidiary D.M. Consunji, Inc. were dragged down by cost overruns in its engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract for a power plant, and the delayed implementation of major public infrastructure projects due to right-of-way and utility relocation issues.

Net income contributions from construction dropped 62% to P479 million compared to P1.3 billion the previous year.

The mining, real estate and water businesses posted strong results in 2014, which helped offset the income declines in the other segments.

The mining businesses rebounded from last year’s drop and showed significant growth in net income contributions due to the combined effect of higher sales volume and better average prices.

In particular, Semirara Mining and Power Corporation posted a 125% increase from P1 billion in 2013 to P2.3 billion the following year. Net income contributions from DMCI Mining Corporation surged 114% to P362 million, compared to P169 million in 2013.

Real estate subsidiary DMCI Homes continued to deliver remarkable growth, with a 22% increase in net income, mostly coming from gain realized on sale of lots. From P2.7 billion, net income contributions from real estate grew to P3.2 billion.

Continued improvement in the operational performance of affiliate Maynilad Water Services, Inc. pushed net earnings share from the water business to rise 6% to P2 billion compared to P1.9 billion the previous year.

“The resilience of our engineering diversification strategy was apparent in 2014. Despite the weaker-than-expected results of two business segments, we were able to stabilize the overall profitability of our investment portfolio,” said DMCI Holdings Chairman and President Isidro A. Consunji.

DMCI Holdings also reported a P173 million net loss in 2014, which represents its share in the net loss in initial operations of Private Infra Dev Corporation (PIDC), the project proponent and operator of the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Toll Expressway (TPLEX).

Reported consolidated net income decreased by 43% year-on-year mainly due to the one-time gain on sale recognized in 2013. The one-time gain of P519 million in 2014 represents net gain on business combinations accounting for ENK Plc and Toledo Mining Corporation.

DMCI Holdings posts P10.3B in 2014

April 22, 2015April 22, 2015 PRNEWS Admin Leave a comment

Net income contributions from construction dropped 62% to P479 million compared to P1.3 billion the previous year.

The mining, real estate and water businesses posted strong results in 2014, which helped offset the income declines in the other segments.

The mining businesses rebounded from last year’s drop and showed significant growth in net income contributions due to the combined effect of higher sales volume and better average prices.

DMCI Holdings posts P10.3B in 2014

April 22, 2015April 22, 2015 PRNEWS Admin Leave a comment

Net income contributions from construction dropped 62% to P479 million compared to P1.3 billion the previous year.

The mining, real estate and water businesses posted strong results in 2014, which helped offset the income declines in the other segments.

The mining businesses rebounded from last year’s drop and showed significant growth in net income contributions due to the combined effect of higher sales volume and better average prices.