NEW YORK, March 6, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- 70% rate their primary bank as safeguarding their personal information "extremely well" or "very well"; among those interested in digital wallet, 74% would choose their primary bank as their preferred provider versus digital or retailer providers

While early adopters ranging from large retailers to digital brands and telecom-led consortiums are aggressively pursuing a "digital wallet" solution, retail banks still hold a significant advantage over these new players when it comes to consumer trust. Seventy percent of consumers rate their primary bank as safeguarding their personal information "extremely well" or "very well," and among those interested in using a digital wallet, 74% would prefer that their primary bank serve as the provider, compared to 23% who say PayPal and 15% who say Google. That's according to a study released today by AlixPartners LLP, the global business-advisory firm.

Meeting fast-evolving consumer expectations in mobile shopping and payments will be imperative for financial services providers looking to stay ahead of their competitors in the race for the digital wallet, says the new whitepaper -- The Mobile Shopping Revolution, How Mobile is Redefining Shopping and Payments.

"Early development efforts at the digital wallet gained little traction with consumers, as most offerings were focused primarily on the technical features of delivering payment capabilities to the point of sale, rather than addressing the shopping and purchasing needs of consumers who are increasingly turning to their mobile devices as a source of value and convenience. However, with the recent integration of shopping capabilities into the digital wallet concept, there is now a much more compelling 'use' case for consumer acceptance of the digital wallet's payments capabilities," said Bob Hedges, managing director in AlixPartners' Financial Services Practice.

"Today's consumers are not solely motivated by the idea of replacing their leather wallet with a mobile device; rather, they are interested in a digital wallet solution that can offer an integrated shopping experience. Consumer engagement is focused on the many potential value-added capabilities of a digital wallet, such as storing and managing gift cards, hosting a receipt vault, managing post-purchase warranties, organizing coupons or optimizing which payment card to use to maximize reward points," said Teresa Epperson, managing director in AlixPartners' Financial Services Practice.

Consumers' increasing use of their mobile devices for shopping is fueling interest in the digital wallet concept. According to the study, 25% of consumers with a mobile device are aware of the digital wallet concept, with the highest awareness levels among consumers between the ages of 26 and 44, where levels exceed 30%. Consumer interest in the digital wallet concept will continue to grow as mobile devices play an increasingly important role in consumers' shopping and purchase decision-making, says the study.

With consumer interest rising, a wide variety of firms have stepped forward to be potential digital wallet providers. According to the research, banks and other financial services providers are currently well-positioned to deliver a digital wallet offering, as consumers are quite discerning between banks and other providers such as digital firms and retailers when it comes to trust ratings. In the results, 70% of consumers rate their primary bank as safeguarding their personal information "extremely well" or "very well," versus just 29% saying the same for large retailers, 26% for both Google and Apple, and 15% for Facebook. Further highlighting consumers' current trust in banks, only 3% say their primary bank "does not safeguard" their personal information at all, while 26% say the same for Facebook, 15% for Apple, 14% for Google and 10% for major retailers. In regards to using their personal information, 56% of consumers believe their primary bank "always" or "mostly" uses personal information in the customer's best interest, while only 30% believe this is true for large retailers, 27% for Google, 25% for Apple and 19% for Facebook.

"Consumers are drawing a clear distinction between banks and other digital providers, and banks are scoring high as firms that consumers are comfortable sharing their confidential, personal information with," said Hedges.

More importantly, banks are right now clearly the consumer's provider of choice for the digital wallet. According to the AlixPartners survey, when consumers who expressed an interest in the digital wallet concept were asked from which type of provider they would be interested in receiving digital wallet offering, an overwhelming 74% said their primary bank, compared to 23% for PayPal and 15% for Google.

"Financial services providers must get in the digital wallet arena to both stay relevant with consumers and protect their existing customer relationships. Assuming equal feature and functionality, it seems very clear that consumers will choose a digital wallet offered by their primary bank over one offered by non-bank competitors. However, if banks do not move forward quickly to exercise leadership in this space, and instead allow competing digital technology firms to surpass them, consumers may not wait for the financial services industry to move. For banks, the strategic imperative is profound," said Epperson.

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Banks Need to Leverage Their Trust Advantage to Stay in the Race for the "Digital Wallet," According to AlixPartners ...

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Personal Development - Men need to be Covered - Video

Published: Monday, March 5, 2012 at 10:54 a.m. Last Modified: Monday, March 5, 2012 at 10:54 a.m.

Stacy Sevin never planned to get involved in small-business development.

But when the BP oil spill hit, the Chauvin resident found herself assisting various family seafood businesses navigate the disaster's impact.

My whole family is pretty much in the seafood industry. I was basically consulting for about a year to help them get through that time, said Chauvin, 28, who spent her childhood working on her grandparents' dock in Cocodrie.

Her parents, who own Bait House Seafood on Little Caillou Road, devised a business plan and calculated their spill-related losses with the help of the Louisiana Small Business Development Center at Nicholls State University.

The organization gets its money from state and federal grants, and provides free, confidential services and low-cost business classes and training. It was designed to help offset the effects of hurricanes, Sevin said, but happened to open up the day after the spill.

Everybody in this area was affected by this spill, either directly or indirectly, Sevin said. Services like private consulting, or even having a CPA do an assessment for you, are very expensive. The claims process required detailed monthly loss documentation, and many fishermen don't normally do their books monthly.

Having helped her family with claims and development plans after the spill, Sevin realized she had a knack for small-business development work. In August, she started working as a consultant for the center which had helped save her parents' business.

Andrew and Christine Blanchard, who own Indian Ridge Shrimp company in Chauvin, have worked with Sevin for two months.

Stacy's been a big inspiration to us with all her help and ideas, said Christine Blanchard. As far as our website, we didn't know how to post things so we would get hits on Google. We didn't know you could do a Facebook page for a business and use that to get your name out there. She's helping us with our business plan now. Everyone else charges a fortune for all this, and she does it for free.

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Local turns personal experience into business venture

A glimpse of multi-player combat.

Frozen Synapse is a turn-based tactical shooter, featuring pseudo-randomly generated spaces, asychronous multiplayer matchups, and a frenetic pace. It's received considerable critical acclaim since its release last year, and has earned nominations for two awards at the Independent Games Festival. There's also an iPad version, and DLC on the way. We had a chat with Mode 7 to learn more.

Game On: Who are you, and how did you get into game developing?

Paul Taylor: I co-own an indie game development studio with my business partner Ian Hardingham, who is our Lead Designer and Programmer.

I got into indie games through writing music for our first title Determinance. After that we decided to join forces and form a proper company.

Game On: What is Frozen Synapse?

Paul Taylor: We call Frozen Synapse a "simultaneous turn-based" title. Two players face off against each other with a small squad of units. Each player must decide what his units will do in the next five seconds. Once both have made their decisions, they then watch the outcome and see who came out on top!

Ian came up with the idea after playing a lot of an old PC game called Laser Squad Nemesis. He wanted to make a more modern, exciting, instantly-playable version of it that foregrounded the interesting decisions.

Your readers should play it because it's got insanely good reviews and it's brilliantly unique!

Also, we're incredibly humble!

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Getting Personal With Mode 7 and Frozen Synapse

Motorcycles are parked on the pavement blocking people from walking past a street corner in downtown Hanoi on January 6, 2012. Vietnam's big cities such as Hanoi are facing serious urban problems like a lack of parking for both motorcycles and cars.

Viet Nam News/Asia News Network Tuesday, Mar 06, 2012

HANOI - While the number of personal vehicles in Ha Noi is increasing rapidly, the capital is still fumbling with solutions to tackle the dire shortage of parking facilities.

Figures from the municipal Transport Department show that there are about 300,000 cars and over 3.8 million motorbikes of various kinds in the city at present, excluding the number of vehicles owned by people commuting from other provinces to work and study.

The number of personal vehicles is increasing by 15 per cent each year, but there are only 1,178 licensed parking lots in the city, meeting just 10 per cent of demand.

Funding for parking facilities is supposed to account for 3 per cent of the traffic development budget, but in Ha Noi, it is just one-tenth of that, according to Vice Chairman of the Ha Noi Planning and Development Association Dao Ngoc Nghiem.

The remaining 90 per cent of vehicle users in the capital use parking lots in apartment blocks, urban areas, agencies, schools, hospitals, roadsides and alleys.

This lack of parking facilities has led to the development of dozens of illegal parking lots on pavements and in vacant public places throughout the city.

With increasing demand and insufficient facilities, municipal authorities had allowed certain pavements, roadsides and alleys to be used for parking as a temporary measure, said deputy head of the Urban Research and Infrastructure Development Institute Luu Duc Hai.

"However, many of our roads were not designed for this use, and parking on them obstructs traffic and adds to congestion," he said.

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Hanoi faces parking crunch

European regulators have expressed concern over a report that apps are being developed for Google Android with the purpose of mining personal data and passing it on to advertisers.

Around a quarter of all mobile users in the UK use devices running Android, and around 100m apps were downloaded in January alone.

People typically give apps permission to access other parts of their handset when they download them, but a Channel 4 News report yesterday claimed that many developers are 'handing on' these permissions to advertisers.

MWR Infosecurity, which was commissioned by Channel 4 to investigate the development of 'rogue' apps, found that many popular free services were engaged in the practice.

"We found that a lot of the free applications in the top 50 apps list are using advertising inside the applications and that the permission that you grant to these applications is also granted to the advertiser," said an MWR Infosecurity spokesperson.

"If users knew about this I think they would be concerned about it but at the moment I don't think they are aware of the situation and how widely their information can be used."

The code found by MWR Infosecurity gave advertising networks access to contacts, calendar and location. It allegedly came from a large US ad network called MobClix, although the firm has not yet responded to the report.

Channel 4 took the findings to Viviane Reding, the vice president of the European Commission, who is currently trying to push through EU-wide reforms to data protection policies.

"This really concerns me, and this is against the law because nobody has the right to get your personal data without you agreeing to this," said Reding of the report.

"Maybe you want somebody to get this data and agree and it's fine. You're an adult and you can do whatever you want. But normally you have no idea what others are doing with your data."

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Android apps 'handing personal data to advertisers'

PwC kicks off first-ever Personal Brand Week in Canada

TORONTO, March 5, 2012 /CNW/ - The millennial generation (born between 1980-2000) are entering employment in great numbers and will form 50% of the global workforce by 2020 according to a recent PwC report, Millennials at work - Reshaping the workplace. To help university and college students stand out from a sea of graduates looking to land their first job, PwC Canada launched its inaugural Personal Brand Week today with the hopes of helping students build their personal brand for professional success.

A personal brand is the 'X' factor that differentiates a person from other job candidates. It begins with being self aware of one's achievements, knowledge, skills and outlook on goals. Presentation is key and with the current techno-savvy generation, it's about the interactions and presence job candidates have in person as well as online.

"It's important for students to accurately portray themselves online as they would in-person," says Mr. Davidson, Talent Acquisition Manager, Campus, at PwC Canada. "Having a profile you wouldn't be ashamed to show your parents on all of the major social networksLinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Google Profilesis the first step in managing your online reputation."

Indeed, one of the defining characteristics of the millennial age group is their affinity with the digital world. The millennial report indicated that 41% of millennials prefer to communicate electronically at work than face-to-face.

Likewise, candidates can view companies' social media tools to learn more about an organization. "A company website, blog, Facebook or LinkedIn page can help applicants discover more about its corporate values, work environment, and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices," says Mr. Davidson.

Millennials are a diverse group made up of individuals from different ethnic, educational and socio-economic backgrounds. Organizations must recognize and accommodate this diversity within the work environment.

According to the millennial report in 2008, 88% of respondents questioned said they were looking for an employer with CSR values that reflected their own. The brands that appeal to young people as consumers include those that stress their environment and social record, are the same brands that appeal to them as employers.

Networking like it's your job

While some millennials (72%) have made compromises to get into work during the economic downturn, networking has become an essential tool to connect students to the right professional contacts in this uncertain climate.

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Personal branding - The golden ticket for grads aiming to land their first job

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Real Software, creator of object-oriented, cross-platform software development tools for Mac OS X, Windows, Linux and the web, today announced its Apps for Income campaign to provide 20,000 free Real Studio Personal licenses to unemployed workers worldwide. App development has created 466,000 jobs in the United States since 2007,according to a recent report released by technology trade group TechNet. Real Softwares flagship product, Real Studio, allows people with little or no software development expertise to easily create a wide range of applications that have proven to be primary or supplemental income sources for thousands of Real Software users.

Under the terms of the Apps for Income program, people need only provide Real Software proof of unemployment and some basic background information to receive a complimentary license for Real Studio Personal Edition. These users will receive full access to Real Softwares online customer service tools, which include email with support specialists, training videos and user forums.

With the global economy remaining sluggish, we feel that offering Real Studio for free is a great way to give people struggling to find work the chance to create their own opportunities, said Geoff Perlman, Real Software founder and CEO. After hearing so many wonderful success stories over the years of our users who developed apps that became their careers, we are striving to encourage innovation from people who have great ideas but dont know how to make them a reality.

Apps for Income Program Details:

About Real Studio

Real Studio is a full-featured cross-platform software development tool suited to creating a wide range of applications. Real Studio Personal Edition for Windows, Linux or Mac OS X is geared for hobbyists and students. Real Studio Professional Edition is required for cross-platform (Mac OS X, Windows and Linux) compilation. Real Studio Web Edition is the fastest and easiest way to create and deploy web applications.

About Real Software

Real Software provides Real Studio, a cross-platform web, desktop, and console development tool. Real Software was founded in 1996 and is based in Austin, Texas. For more information visit http://www.realsoftware.com or call 866.825.2114.

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Real Software Provides 20,000 Free Development Licenses to the Unemployed Worldwide

John Spencer Ellis and Jairek Robbins Offer Free Rapid Results Video Training for Achieving Fitness and Life Goals

In a free new video training, John Spencer Ellis and Jairek Robbins offer secrets for rapid goal achievement. The online training helps people take action on their dreams.

Anyone interested in rapid results for achieving business or life goals can benefit from a free online training video, 6 Steps for Your Rapid Results in Business and Life. The free online video was developed by personal development and fitness guru John Spencer Ellis and Jairek Robbins, the worlds foremost authority at developing creative solutions for achieving results; it is now available online at John Spencer Ellis website.

The six steps are designed to help people achieve their goals more efficiently and effectively. They include: know exactly what you want, know why this goal is an absolute must and add to it every day, create an extensive action plan, measure and fine-tune your plan, and more. The video offers a six-pronged plan for goal achievement and ideas for tackling each step in the process.

This is a full-length training, mentoring and coaching lesson that can truly enhance your life and your ability to realize your dreams, said Ellis, founder of John Spencer Ellis Enterprises, a personal development and fitness solutions company. We offer a surefire personal development plan that will allow you to quickly take action and live the life youve dreamed about.

In addition, the free training discusses the four main obstacles people need to overcome in achieving their goals and ways to overcome each of these: Not knowing what you want or where you are going; Knowing what to do, but failing to consistently do what you know; Failure to communicate goals, vision and life purpose; The ongoing battle between the head and the heart.

My goal is to assist people in the process of rapidly achieving their goals, so they are able to live the life of their dreams. My hope is that they will eventually pay it forward and help those that they care about the most do the same, Robbins added.

About John Spencer Ellis Enterprises and the Rapid Results Video Training John Spencer Ellis Enterprises is a solutions provider for fitness and coaching professionals around the world, providing education, turn-key business programs, coaching and resources for new and advanced fitness and coaching professionals. For more information about John Spencer Ellis Enterprises or the Rapid Results Video Training, please visit http://johnspencerellis.com/jairek-robbins-and-john-spencer-ellis-6-steps-for-your-rapid-results-in-business-and-life/

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John Spencer Ellis and Jairek Robbins Offer Free Rapid Results Video Training for Achieving Fitness and Life Goals

Taiwan's National Cheng Kung University in Tainan successfully flew a pilotless aircraft powered by a turbojet engine Thursday, with the school saying the technology could lead to the ground-breaking development of personal flying vehicles.

The aircraft, named Sky Fortress-III, was the first university project in the world to combine a turbojet engine with a pilotless plane, according to Lai Wei-hsiang, professor of the southern school's Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics Engineering.

The department has been devoted to the development of pilotless planes for more than ten years. Previous pilotless vehicles built by the university were all powered by propellers.

During the trial flight Thursday morning, the speed of the 7.5-kilogram turbojet aircraft, which carried objects weighing nine kilograms, reached 150 kilometers per hour.

The research team, led by Lai, estimated that Sky Fortress-III, over 3 meters in length and with a wingspan of 3 meters, could carry up to 20 kgs and had the potential to reach a speed of 300 kph.

Lai said that weight capacity and speed were the main focuses of pilotless plane development. The new planes could even be equipped with other technologies, like sensor devices or photography equipment, to detect and monitor a typhoon's course and internal structure, Lai added.

(CNA)

Copyright 2012 Asia Pulse Pty LimitedAll Rights Reserved

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Taiwan University successfully flies pilotless turbojet plane