The payments industry had a huge year in 2014 and it's showing no sign of slowing down. On the one hand tech giants like Amazon and Apple released new products that affirmed their long-term payments ambitions (Apple Pay and Amazon Local Register). On the other hand startups such as Stripe and ShopKeep continued to carve out market share, challenging older players like PayPal and VeriFone. 

Understanding this complex and rapidly evolving space can be challenging. In a new explainer, BI Intelligence offers a high-level look at the payments industry — how it functions, who the key players are, and the trends shaping the industry. We start by explaining payment-card processing, since the majority of consumer payments and transaction volume flow through this system. From there we take a look at how consumers' move to mobile devices is changing the way we pay, and which players stand to benefit.

Access the Full Report By Signing Up For A Risk-Free Trial Membership Today >>

Here are some of the key takeaways:

• The ecosystem for credit- and debit-card processing involves a complicated set of players interacting to process every transaction. Five types of players are involved: acquirers/processors, issuers, card networks, gateway providers, and independent sales organizations (ISOs). 
• To process a typical transaction, three steps must occur: authorizing, batching, and funding. Each participant in this process takes a fee off of the total volume of a transaction. The remainder is deposited in a merchant's account.
• Three trends will shape the payment-card-processing ecosystem from 2015 onward: the EMV security migration, rapid development of new payment technologies, and the massive card-fraud problem in the US. While none of these developments will completely upend the incumbent system for processing payments, each will disrupt key players. 
  
• The mobile point-of-sale (mPOS) is going to have a massive impact on the payments-hardware and payments-software industry. By 2019, we forecast that nearly 80% of US retailers will have implemented a mPOS device. The move to mPOS will continue to put pressure on hardware providers that compete directly against mPOS devices, as well as ISOs that sell legacy devices to merchants.
• While the payment-card-processing system as a whole isn't in danger, the proliferation of mobile devices will have a significant effect on the way we pay. 

In full, the report:

• Provides 9 infographics and diagrams explaining how card transactions are processed and which players are involved in each step. 
• Analyzes the key trends and and forces that will shape they payments industry going forward. 
• Details how mobile is shaping 5 types of consumer payment technologies and which companies to watch for within each category. 

For full access to all BI Intelligence's charts and data on the Payments Industry, sign up for a free trial.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: This 9-year-old makes $1 million a year opening toys

Top high school students from around the world just found out whether they will attend one of the eight prestigious Ivy League universities next year.

Admissions decisions came out at 5 p.m.

Columbia University accepted 2,228 from a pool of 36,250 applications, according to a university press release, for a 6.1% acceptance rate — a record low for the school. Last year, Columbia admitted 6.94% of applicants.

Princeton University accepted 1,908 students from 27,290 applications for the Class of 2019, for a 6.99% admissions rate, student newspaper The Daily Princetonian reports. Last year, Princeton admitted 7.28% of applicants. 

Dartmouth College accepted 2,120 students from 20,504 applications, for an admissions rate of 10.3%, according to a college spokesperson. Dartmouth received 19,235 applications last year.

The University of Pennsylvania accepted 3,697 from 37,267 applicants — the largest in the University's history — according to a university press release. The admissions rate for the Class of 2019 stayed the same as last year, at 9.9%.

Yale University's admissions rate rose, from 6.26% for the Class of 2018 to this year's 6.49%. Yale admitted 1,963 of 30,237 applicants, according to a university press release.

Like last year, the most interesting statistics released for the Class of 2019 will probably be Dartmouth's, which finally posted a rise in applications after consistently lower numbers over the past two years.

The New Hampshire Ivy saw a lower acceptance rate this year, after taking 11.5% of applicants to the Class of 2018. Dartmouth received 19,235 applications last year, down 14% from 2013.

We will continue to update this post as more information becomes available.

Jishai Evers at dadaviz put together this great chart showing how many students applied to each Ivy League university, based on numbers compiled by Business Insider:

SEE ALSO: Here's the college essay that got a high school senior into all 8 Ivy League schools

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 9 animated maps that will change the way you see the world

.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: What the Chinese saying 'The ugly wife is a treasure at home' actually means

Ever stared up at the sky on a clear night and felt suddenly small beneath the stars? Hiked up a mountain and marveled at the immensity of the vast beauty below?

That inexplicable sense of wonder, it turns out, is actually good for you.

A handful of recent studies have found that when people experience a sense of awe, they're generally more likely to feel less stressed, more humble, and more satisfied with their personal lives. "Awe experiences"— like catching a meteor shower in action or being around when a child is born — have also been linked with being less interested in ourselves, more generous towards others, and more curious about the people and things around us.

Feeling less self-obsessed and more interested in others has obvious benefits, from improving relationships to helping beat stress and depression.

Most of the research on awe is still in its preliminary phases, but the findings offer some fascinating clues into why we benefit from experiencing something greater than ourselves.

It could help reduce stress

For a study published in January, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley had 94 college freshman fill out questionnaires detailing how often they'd experienced different emotions (from anger to inspiration and enthusiasm) in the past month.

Then the students gave the researchers samples of their spit, which they tested for a substance called interleukin-6 that's been linked with inflammation, which when chronic can be a sign of stress or poor health.

Not surprisingly, people who'd experienced more upbeat emotions tended to have lower levels of the substance than those who'd experienced more negative ones.

To isolate the role of awe in all of this, the researchers next had 119 additional students fill out a more specific questionnaire that included 7 distinct emotions (awe being one of them). Those students gave a spit sample as well. Again, positive emotions were linked with low levels of interleukin-6. But experiences of awe had the strongest ties with low levels of that substance, an indication of lower overall inflammation.

In fact, the more often someone said they'd experienced awe in the past month, the lower their interleukin-6 levels tended to be.

It's linked with less selfish, more social behavior

Think back to the last time you experienced something awesome. Did you share it with someone else?

Not only are people who've recently experienced awe more likely to interact with others, they're also more likely to act in a way that is kind, generous, and compassionate.

Nature can be particularly awe-inspiring. In a recent study from the University of California, Berkeley, researchers had a group of volunteers stand in a grove of towering trees and look up at them for one minute while another group looked instead at a tall building. Then, he had the volunteers come across someone who had stumbled and dropped a handful of pens.

The volunteers who had stared up at the trees picked up more pens than those who looked at the building.

Don't worry — you don't have to go for a hike in the woods to get your daily dose of awe. On the contrary, you can find it virtually anywhere.

A small 2012 study, for example, found that when people were shown something new and awe-inspiring — even if it was only briefly and whether or not they were simply recalling an experience, reading about someone else's or experiencing it for themselves — they were more likely to feel happier, less constrained by time, and more willing to volunteer their time to help others compared with people who were simply shown something that made them feel happy.

In one scenario, one group of participants (the "awe group") watched a 1-minute TV ad which showed people in various environments seeing and touching mentally overwhelming, realistic images, from waterfalls and whales to astronauts in space. Another group (the "happiness group") watched a different ad which showed people in the same environments playing with confetti falling through the air and seeing a parade of joyful people waving flags and wearing brightly colored outfits.

Not surprisingly, when the researchers asked them to rank their emotions, people in the awe group reported experiencing more awe. But when they asked them to answer questions about their perceptions of time, the awe group participants also said they felt they had more of it than people in the second group.

In another scenario, a different "awe group" was asked to write about a personal experience with awe, while a different "happiness group" was asked to write about a personal experience with happiness. People in the awe group were more likely to say they'd be willing to volunteer their time to help others than those in the happiness group.

The takeaway

Experiencing awe is, well, awesome.

And certain activities — from being in nature to listening to music, making art, and watching others accomplish big goals — appear to help us experience it. So go to a concert, take a trip, or be there for a friend's performance.

You'll likely feel happier and make others around you feel better, too.

SEE ALSO: Many people see the world in a profoundly different way — and they may have learned it from one toy

DON'T MISS: The secret to relieving stress and clearing your mind is surprisingly simple

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Here's the awesome 'Jurassic World' trailer that aired during the Super Bowl

Pizza Hut's huge makeover failed to drive sales. 

Sales fell 3.5% during the fourth quarter, according to Nation's Restaurant News. Pizza Hut's sales in 2014 decreased by 3.7%. 

In November, Pizza Hut called the millennial-focused "Flavors of Now" campaign the biggest makeover in company history. 

The brand reached out to trendy food truck operators in New York for help redesigning the menu, according to Digiday. 

After considering what millennials would want, Pizza Hut added new crusts in flavors like Honey Sriracha and Ginger Boom Boom. 

It also added gourmet touches like balsamic drizzles and cherry peppers. 

While Pizza Hut's sales have lagged, competitor Domino's executed an epic turnaround. 

Sales at Domino's have soared since the company came out with a new pizza recipe in 2009. Having a better core product was necessary for business to turn around. 

Domino's has also innovated its sandwiches, pastas, and side dishes. 

The "specialty chicken," strips topped with cheese and sauces increasingly ordered alongside pizzas, driving up the average ticket sale at Domino's, CEO Patrick Doyle said.  

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 14 things you didn't know your iPhone headphones could do

GoDaddy went public today, nearly 10 months after filing for an IPO in June 2014. 

With a 28% stake, founder Bob Parsons is still the company's largest shareholder. Parsons left his position as GoDaddy's executive chairman in June of 2014. 

Since then, the Scottsdale, Arizona, resident has dedicated more time to doing charity work, growing his motorcycle collection, and scooping up real estate through his investment company, YAM Properties. 

Forbes estimates his net worth at $1.84 billion — not bad for someone who grew up "poor as a church mouse" in Baltimore.

Before becoming an entrepreneur, Parsons was a Marine and did a tour of Vietnam in 1969. He earned a Combat Action Ribbon, Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry and a Purple Heart for his service.

After selling his first company to Intuit for $64 million, he founded GoDaddy in 1997, at first calling it Jomax Technologies. In 2011, he sold the majority of GoDaddy to a group of private equity investors and left his position as CEO. In 2014, he left his position as executive chairman, but still sits on GoDaddy's board.

Source: Business Insider

Since leaving his day-to-day role with the company, Parsons has used much of his time and wealth in charity work with the foundation he started with his wife Renee. They've donated nearly $72 million to charity over the last three years. Here he is outside of a school during one of several trips to Haiti.

Source: Forbes

Constantly tethered to a wall, trying to give your iPhone extra juice?

Here are some tricks that will speed up the charging process.  

If you plug an iPhone 6 Plus into a regular wall charger and wait five minutes, you'll likely see a 3% or so increase in battery life. Good news: There's a way to double that.

First, put your iPhone in Airplane mode. Your iPhone won't waste energy on notifications, texts, or searching for a signal.

Next, take off your iPhone's case.

GoDaddy shares had a huge first day on the public market.

Shares of the web hosting company opened for trade at $26.15, up 30.75% from its IPO price of $20.

Shares closed right at this opening price on Wednesday, giving the stock a nearly 31% in its first day of trading. 

GoDaddy priced its 22 million-share initial public offering at $20 per share on Tuesday night, above the expected range of $17-$19.

At the current stock price, the company has a market cap of around $6 billion. 

On Tuesday, we highlighted analysis from Briefing's Dennis Hobein, who noted that the 18-year-old company known for its commercials is unprofitable and has a mountain of debt.

Hobein wrote: 

It may come as a surprise to some to learn that the company has actually been around for 18 years. In fact, this isn't its first attempt at becoming a publicly traded company. Back in 2006, GDDY was looking to launch an IPO, but, the company cited poor market conditions at the time. Since then, the company has gone through a shake-up in management in 2011 with the CEO stepping down, followed by private equity firms acquiring the company for $2.25 billion.

So, the company certainly has some history -- and some scars -- but because of the highly-recognizable name, and its strong positioning in the internet domain name registration market, its IPO should find some interest among institutional investors.

Hobein added that overall the company's valuation at around $18 per share (his article was posted before the IPO priced) is attractive, and that the IPO should easy enough for the market to "soak up."

Seems that the market did absorb GoDaddy's new shares. 

SEE ALSO: GoDaddy is 18 years old, unprofitable, has a mountain of debt, and is now going public

Join the conversation about this story »

When it comes to diet, easy advice always seems to win out over good advice.

"Watch your portions and don't eat too much processed food" may be tried-and-true, but it won't lead to instant or drastic results, and it won't make anyone rich. It's much easier to, say, just cut out this ONE EVIL THING — saturated fat, sugar, gluten ... whatever the maligned food of the moment is.

The truth is that there's a disconnect; foods are not bogeymen. Eating too much is bad, and eating too much from a particular food group is often bad. 

"What’s getting harder to justify, though,"writes Aaron E. Carroll, a physician and columnist for The Upshot at The New York Times, "is a focus on any one nutrient as a culprit for everyone."

Anyone can cherry-pick nutrition studies to suit a particular agenda. Yet while "we seek a singular nutritional guilty party," Carroll writes, the real problem is quite simple: "We eat more calories than we need."

That's why it shouldn't be surprising that reducing calories, however you choose to do that, is a pretty effective weight loss strategy. Last year, a major analysis of a wide variety of diets found that they all worked, at least to some extent. The diets were all different — some low-carb, some low-fat, etc. — but they had one thing in common: lower calories.

In other words, most diets tell you to eat less of one thing— but it's a ruse. The real goal here is just eating less, period. Cutting one thing out may help you do that in the short-term, but that doesn't mean that thing is inherently bad.

Still, some eating plans are easier than others. Extreme regimens that cut out a whole food group are often hard to stick to. And that's what you really need to figure out if you're trying to eat better: not which nutrient is the enemy (spoiler alert: none are), but how you can eat healthily over the long-term, not for just a month or a year.

"What isn’t helpful is picking a nutritional culprit of bad health and proclaiming that everyone else is eating wrong," Carroll writes. "The best diet is the one that you’re likely to keep."

DON'T MISS: Here is the simplest advice for anyone trying to lose weight or eat healthy

SEE ALSO:  Scientists studied Atkins, South Beach, and nine other diets and… they all work

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: The Simple Science Behind Weight Loss

The very last thing you do before bed tends to have a significant impact on your mood and energy level the next day, as it often determines how well and how much you sleep.

Successful people understand that their success starts and ends with their mental and physical health, which is almost entirely dependent upon their getting enough sleep.

That is why bedtime routines are a key ritual for so many of them — and why the very last thing most successful people do before bed is read.

1. They read.

Experts agree that reading is the very last thing most successful people do before going to sleep.

Michael Kerr, an international business speaker and author of "You Can't Be Serious! Putting Humor to Work," says he knows numerous business leaders who block off time just before bed for reading, going so far as to schedule it as a "non-negotiable item" on their calendar. "This isn't necessarily reserved just for business reading or inspirational reading. Many successful people find value in being browsers of information from a variety of sources, believing it helps fuel greater creativity and passion in their lives."

For example, while some successful people use this time catch up on news stories from the day, skim tech blogs, or browse Reddit and Twitter, others enjoy reading fiction novels and ancient philosophy just before bed. 

2. They make a to-do list.

"Clearing the mind for a good night sleep is critical for a lot of successful people," Kerr says. "Often they will take this time to write down a list of any unattended items to address the following day, so these thoughts don't end up invading their head space during the night."

3. They spend time with family.

Michael Woodward, Ph.D., organizational psychologist and author of "The YOU Plan," says it's important to make some time to chat with your partner, talk to your kids, or play with your dog.

Laura Vanderkam, author of "What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast," says this is a common practice among the highly successful. "I realize not everyone can go to bed at the same time as his or her partner, but if you can, it's a great way to connect and talk about your days."

For some Google employees, one of the biggest debates in the company's history circles back to the name of a pie being served in the campus cafeteria back in 2008.

Google's head of human resources Laszlo Bock details the experience in his new book, "Work Rules!: Insights From Within Google That Will Transform How You Live And Lead," which launches on April 4. The Wall Street Journal's Christopher Mims got an early look at the book and relayed the anecdote.

In 2008, a dessert called the "Free Tibet Goji-Chocolate Crème Pie”was being served in Google's cafeteria.

The name sparked a heated debate among employees. Some say it was the fastest email thread to hit 100 responses in Google history, according to Mims' account of the book. It became the longest internal email chain in Google's history at the time exceeding 1,000 responses.

Google CEO and co-founder Larry Page even received the following email: 

"This is from the menu today. If there is no good answer or action from the company I will quit in protest."

Google employees around the world were concerned for a number of different reasons. Some were angered at the idea that Google would suggest Tibet should be free, while others took the opposite view. A few employees thought the chef should be free to call his pies whatever he pleased, while others were peeved that the name of a dessert had caused so much trouble in the first place.

Bock was in charge of handling the situation — the chef responsible for the name was suspended, but Bock later reversed that. 

Bock's book is bound to be chock full of workplace tips including how to handle experiences like these. The book will dive into the company's staffing secrets and the steps it takes to make Google one of the best places to work in the world. 

Bock wants companies to follow in Google's steps, as he said in an interview with Forbes.

"You spend more time working than you do with your family, with your kids, with your friends, more time on a given day than you do sleeping, it’s such a huge part of life and for most people it’s a pretty miserable experience," Bock said to Forbes. "I don’t think it has to be soul-draining and awful, I think it can be ennobling and empowering and have this connection to some broader impact."

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 5 Awesome Google Features You Didn't Know About

Hillary Clinton's likely presidential campaign organization is reportedly incorporating members of the Ready for Hillary super PAC, which has been the top unofficial cheerleader for a Clinton presidential run since her 2013 departure from the State Department.

Early efforts by the PAC's founder Adam Parkhomenko to drum up support for Clinton have apparently not gone unnoticed and have yielded him a plum spot as director of grassroots engagement on her presumed campaign, sources told The New York Times. 

With Parkhomenko at the helm, Ready for Hillary has garnered support from mega donors, political heavyweights and the grassroots alike.

Total Ready for Hillary receipts in 2014 totaled nearly $9 million, with a hefty donor list including billionaire Warren Buffet, Steve Jobs' widow Laurene Powell-Jobs, and actors Michael Douglas, and Alec Baldwin.

But Parkhomenko also tapped into the Democratic base, peddling Clinton-emblazoned tchotchkes like champagne glasses and infant onesies and sponsoring a bus tour to coincide with the publicity for her book, "Hard Choices."

According to the Times, several other PAC team members, fundraising director Neisha Blandin, organizing director Hans Goff, regional political director Jessica Meija, deputy finance director Alex Smith, and Rachel Schneider, director for young Americans and Jewish Americans director, will also be grafted into Clinton's campaign team. 

A representative for Ready for Hillary did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider. 

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Here's what it takes to be President Obama's right-hand man

Now that college acceptances have rolled in for many high school seniors, students will have to select schools based on fit, program quality, and financial aid.

While comfort level and college prestige are quite subjective, financial aid packages are an objective measure that students can assess if they are having a difficult time picking their top choice.

Financial aid decisions are, of course, determined exclusively by each respective financial aid office, and students and families should take note that free tuition and "no contribution toward the cost of education" are two separate things. When free tuition cutoffs are highlighted on school websites, that typically means that room and board costs are still fees that families must pay.

Below are the financial aid offerings that the eight Ivy League schools and Stanford — with newly updated financial aid guidelines — provide to students according to their financial aid websites. 

Brown

Families with total parental earnings lower than $60,000 are not required to make a parental contribution toward the cost of education.

Columbia

For students coming from families with calculated total incomes of less than $60,000 annually, parents are not expected to contribute to the cost of attendance. For students coming from families with calculated total incomes between $60,000 and $100,000 annually, Columbia offers a reduced parent contribution. 

Cornell

Families with total parent earnings less than $60,000 are not required to make a parental contribution toward the cost of education.

Dartmouth

Free tuition for students coming from families making less than $100,000.

Harvard

Students from families with incomes below $65,000, will generally pay nothing toward the cost of attending Harvard College. Families with incomes between $65,000 and $150,000 will contribute from 0 to 10 percent of income, depending on individual circumstances.

UPenn

Students from families with incomes below $40,000 will generally pay nothing toward the cost of attending UPenn. Some type of financial aid is available for families making $180,000 or less.

Princeton

Students from families with incomes below $60,000, will generally pay nothing toward the cost of attending Princeton. Families who make $120,000 or less will have free tuition.

Stanford

Under its new policy, Stanford will expect no parental contribution toward tuition from parents with annual incomes below $125,000 – previously $100,000 – and typical assets. And there will be zero parental contribution toward tuition, room or board for parents with annual incomes below $65,000 – previously $60,000 – and typical assets.

Yale

Families with income less than $65,000 are not expected to make any financial contribution towards their child’s education. Families earning between $65,000 and $200,000 will contribute a percentage of their yearly income, on a sliding scale that begins at 1% just above $65,000 and moves toward 20% at the $200,000 level.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: What the Chinese saying 'The ugly wife is a treasure at home' actually means

New York (AFP) - Fast-food giant McDonald's announced Wednesday that it would increase wages for 90,000 employees in company-owned restaurants in the United States, as well as offering them paid time-off.

The pay increase though will not apply to the workers in McDonald's restaurants owned by franchisees, which comprise some 90 percent of the 14,000 McDonald's outlets across the country. 

Join the conversation about this story »

Rapper Common has been pulled as the 2015 commencement speaker for Kean University in New Jersey following an outcry from the state's police officers, according to Bergen County newspaper The Record.

Common — who recently won an Academy Award for his song "Glory" from the movie Selma— was announced as Kean's commencement speaker through the college's Twitter account Monday night, The Record reports. However, on Tuesday a Kean spokesperson told the newspaper that the announcement was premature.

"The students expressed interest in Common because he composed the Oscar-winning song 'Glory' with our prior commencement speaker John Legend," Kean spokeswoman Susan Kayne said. "While we respect his talent, Kean is pursuing other speaker options."

Well known for his socially conscious lyrics, Common has been the subject of controversy for his 2000 track "A Song for Assata."

The song supposedly portrays Joanne Chesimard — also known as Assata Shakur — as a victim, following her 1973 killing of New Jersey state trooper Werner Foerster. Convicted of Foerster's murder in 1977, Shakur escaped from prison and fled to Cuba, where she reportedly still lives.

New Jersey law enforcement representatives were quick to denounce Kean's choice of Common as this year's commencement speaker, drawing attention to Kean as a public university.

"We can't control who the university invites to speak. However, we will continue our efforts to make the public aware of Joanne Chesimard's escape and life on the lam and continue to seek her return to New Jersey and justice," Steve Jones, spokesman for the New Jersey state police, told The Record.

Another New Jersey law enforcement union representative told Vibe that Common speaking at Kean's graduation would be a "slap in the face."

This is not the first time the rapper has faced controversy over his lyrics. In 2011, Common was invited to perform at the White House, prompting criticism from Fox News and several Republican commentators.

Here's the controversial track, "A Song for Assata":

SEE ALSO: These 9 US colleges are more selective than some Ivy League schools

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 9 animated maps that will change the way you see the world

McDonald's announced Wednesday that it would be raising wages by more than 10%, but the increase applies to only a fraction of its workers. 

The fast food chain said the changes would not impact franchisee-owned restaurants, which account for 90% of the more than 14,000 McDonald's locations in the US.

That means that just 10% of employees will see a pay bump.

McDonald's said franchisees will have the freedom to make their own decisions regarding pay and benefits for their employees.

"The more than 3,100 McDonald's franchisees operate their individual businesses and make their own decisions on pay and benefits for their employees," the company said in a statement. 

McDonald's franchisees have expressed frustration in the last year over the company's aggressive promotions and costly restaurant upgrades. 

"Growth for McDonald's is over," one franchisee wrote in response to a survey last fall by the financial services firm Janney Capital Markets.

"I am just hoping to be flat," another franchisee said, referring to sales. "[The] customer has lost faith in the brand."

A third franchisee complained, "They are being successful in bankrupting us."

Considering the sentiment gathered from the survey, it seems unlikely that franchisees will follow in McDonald's corporate's footsteps by raising wages for their employees, as well.

In response to wage announcement Wednesday, a labor group released the following statement from McDonald's employee Kwanza Brooks.

"This is too little to make a real difference, and covers only a fraction of workers,"said Brooks, who works at a Charlotte, North Carolina McDonald's making $7.25 an hour. "It’s a weak move for a company that made $5.6 billion in profits last year. We’re going to keep fighting until we win $15 and union rights for all fast-food workers and our families."

SEE ALSO: A former CFO is now unemployed and living on food stamps after his rant against Chick-fil-A went viral

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Animated map of what Earth would look like if all the ice melted

Earlier this week, IBM announced that The Weather Company, best known for The Weather Channel, was "migrating its weather data platform to IBM Cloud."

The deal included some other aspects, like integration of weather data into IBM's analytics tools, but the part that caught our eye was this:

"The Weather Company, including WSI will shift its massive weather data services platform to the IBM Cloud." 

This is interesting because The Weather Company had been a pretty vocal customer of Amazon's rival cloud service, Amazon Web Services. They even participated in a case study.

A "shift" and "migration" seemed like a nice takeaway by IBM.

Except today, we heard from Amazon that this wasn't true. The Weather Channel would continue to be an AWS customer.

Amazon's chief technology officer Werner Vogels even went so far as to call IBM out on Twitter:

Vogels also retweeted a tweet from Weather Company CIO Bryson Koehler who insisted that the company's relationship with AWS remained strong and growing.

So we called Koehler and got the real story.

In fact, the company is using both clouds.

It's going to move its business-to-business unit, TSI, from a private data center to IBM's SoftLayer, but it's also going to continue using AWS for its consumer business, although it might migrate some workloads from other businesses over to IBM's cloud as needed. 

"I am excited about moving to the IBM cloud for B2B. I remain excited about our partnership with AWS for other parts of our business," he put it.

"I believe in a multi-cloud story," he told us. "I’ve said this for years — we’ve built technology at The Weather Company that allows us to be agnostic to cloud providers, I think being agnostic is the right decision. Being able to run in multiple cloud vendors in a hot, hot, hot way is right to do for resiliency, latency, and global deployment."

Koehler said he particularly likes IBM's technology for shifting workloads among physical data centers around the world. 

But in the end, he hasn't signed an exclusive deal with anybody. 

"We're going to balance our workloads in real time based on what works best for our business. If that turns out to be SoftLayer, we're going move more workloads there. If that turns out to be AWS, we'll move workloads there."

So my original story was wrong. I am sorry about that.

SEE ALSO: Companies are racing to change how they build software — and a company called Chef is at the heart of it

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Here's How Much You Have To Buy To Make Amazon Prime Worth It

The New York Auto Show is kicking off this week at the Javits Center in Manhattan.

I've spent the past 10 years in Los Angeles, a city whose automotive extravaganza starts off "car show" season in November. There's always a strong sense of optimism in the air in sunny Southern California.

But by the time April rolls around and the New York show fires up, as grueling winter slowly shifts to bright spring, everyone who makes cars, markets cars, or covers cars is typically pretty wiped out.

I couldn't have picked a better time for my first New York show in a decade, however, because the vibe in NYC in 2015 is unlike anything I've ever experienced in my entire career as an automotive journalist.

No one is wiped out. The mood is extraordinary. 

A comeback of confidence

The industry is buoyantly self-confident these days. Take Cadillac, for example.

Cadillac is in the process of rebranding itself as a New York car company. Okay, Caddy is still part of General Motors and still builds its cars in the Midwest. But it moved its sales and marketing operations to New York last year, in order to more aggressively focus on being a true luxury brand.

On Tuesday, Cadillac began to make good on that promise by throwing one of the biggest new-car reveal parties I've ever seen. Droves of people spent an evening in a vast, soaring space in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, checking out Caddy's flagship CT6 sedan. And enjoying a spectacular spread of sushi, lamb, lobster, live music, and a great variety of beverages. 

It was a very strong signal that Cadillac is going to challenge its German rivals in the luxury realm — and do so with big-time New York style.

The Ford story

Ford is in on the action, too. The company rocked the automotive world when it revealed its new GT supercar at the Detroit Auto Show earlier this year (they've brought the glorious machine to New York).

In New York on Monday, Ford revealed its Lincoln Continental concept car, the latest thrust in an effort to revive Ford's own luxury brand. 

The car is stunning. The ambition is palpable. The philosophy is distinctive — Lincoln is bucking an industry trend of creating evermore sporty luxury sedans, aiming instead to create a sort of modern throwback, a big car that's plush and dignified. "Elegant beauty, not aggressive beauty," as Lincoln head Kumar Galhotra put it.

And that's just the two biggest US carmakers. Around the world, there's a powerful sense that the auto industry has recovered from its dark days during the 2008-09 period. It's true that Europe has been a weak spot, the Russia market is falling apart, Latin America is struggling, and growth in China is slowing. But a rocking and rolling North American market is making up for all of that. After falling below 10 million new vehicles sold annually in the aftermath of the financial crisis, the industry is back up to around 17 million. Some are saying it could go to 20 million.

Supercars! Supercars! And more supercars!

Supercars are breaking out all over. McLaren revealed a new one in New York. The recent Geneva Auto Show was an absolute supercar-palooza. Acura has restored the much-loved NSX to its former glory. New Lamborghinis and Ferraris are appearing in the landscape.

And speaking of Ferrari, the grandest supercar brand of them all is being spun off from parent Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, with an IPO happening later this year. So, even if you've always dreamed of owning one of Maranello's exotic red dream cars but can't quite swing the financials, you can own a piece of the company.

As lively as things are for the traditional auto industry, the story is even more dynamic on the disruptive front. 

Tesla, Google, Apple

Tesla continues to captivate the imaginations of anyone who cares about the Car of the Future. Elon Musk unveiled a new version of the company's Model S sedan last year. Sometime in the third quarter of 2015, Tesla's new Model X SUV is slated to roll off an assembly line in Northern California. If there's a superstar who bridges the gap between the worlds of cars and Silicon Valley tech, it's Musk. Musk, it's always worth noting, also runs another company, SpaceX, that enables him to launch rockets to the International Space Station when he's not trying to reinvent the automobile.

Tesla gets a lot of attention, but two other Silicon Valley companies of some reputation have also leapt into the automotive space in the past six months. Google has been testing its self-driving car technology for years, but it's now officially become a carmaker. Production prototypes of its Google Car are now tooling around the Bay Area.

That's right, Google is a car company!

And of course the talk of the auto industry for the past month has been the Apple Car. No one seems to have any idea of what Apple is up to — Driverless car? Connectivity platform? An expanded version of Apple's CarPlay in-car infotainment system? — but there's been abundant speculation. From where I sit, Apple's "Project Titan" spreads excitement and fear in equal measure. 

So there you have it. It's thrilling to be in the middle of it all.

Because, as of April 2015, the auto industry has fully entered the 21st century. It's a great time to have a front-row seat.

SEE ALSO: Here are the hot cars we can't wait to see at the New York Auto Show

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: A tanker truck carrying 9,000 gallons of fuel just burst into flames

Oscar Health Insurance, a New York-based startup trying to bring modern tech thinking into the health insurance industry, is in talks to raise a round of funding that would value it at more than $1 billion, according to Bloomberg. 

We don't know yet who would be participating in this round, but famed investor Peter Thiel's Founders Fund led an early $30 million round of funding in January of last year.  

A few months later in May, Oscar closed an $80 million round of funding at a valuation of just under $1 billion, led by Joe Lonsdale of Formation8 and including Khosla Ventures, General Catalyst Partners, and others. Its total funding sits at $150 million.  

The way Oscar Health Insurance competes with the established markets is pretty straightforward: Customers in New York and New Jersey can buy their coverage from the marketplaces created by the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare. Their website is slicker than the competition and lets its customers consult with doctors over the phone for free.

Oscar was founded by venture capitalist Joshua Kushner, an ex-Microsoft exec named Kevin Nazemi, and current CEO Mario Schlosser. Oscar was founded in July 2013, making the company a little less than two years old. 

If true, this report would make Oscar Health Insurance the second member of the so-called Unicorn Club of startups that have raised $1 billion this week alone, after Sprinklr announced its own round of funding. 

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: What It Was Like On The Trading Floor During Twitter's IPO

If we compare their careers by age, we can see that Kevin Durant's first seven seasons in the NBA have been remarkably similar to LeBron James' even with Durant only playing 27 games this season.

Using each player's total points, rebounds, and assists per 36 minutes, as well as John Hollinger's Player Efficiency Rating, which measures a player's all-around contributions, the two stars have produced nearly identical careers arcs, with LeBron posting only slightly better numbers prior to their age-25 seasons and Durant matching the production at ages 25 and 26.

Of course, LeBron's production at age 26 declined because he struggled to adjust in his first season with the Miami Heat while Durant has struggled this year with a severe foot injury that ended his season early. Only time will tell if Durant can show the same rebound in his late 20s.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Nate Silver has the perfect formula for winning your March Madness bracket