Nanoscience Instruments to Distribute Phenom Desktop SEMs in the US and Canada

Phenom World North America has appointed Nanoscience Instruments as its exclusive distributor for its Phenom Desktop Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) in the Canadian and the US markets.

The Phenom SEM is small, user friendly and can perform high speed analysis. Its exceptional features include an intuitive touch screen which enables operating the SEM conveniently and a‘never lost’ sample navigation feature enabled by an in-built video camera. The Phenom SEM also features a rapid time-to-image capability. It features application-oriented software packages, unique sample holders and has up to 45,000x of magnification range. Moreover, the latest second-generation (G2) models have sophisticated software choices, upgradeability and enhanced resolution.

According to Bill Flecky, who serves as Phenom World North America’s General Manager, the company is happy about the selection of Nanoscience Instruments as its exclusive distributor in Canada and the US. This deal is vital for the company to establish an efficient worldwide distribution network, he added.

The co-founder of Nanoscience Instruments, Mark Flowers commented that the Phenom SEMs complement their product line including carbon nanotube synthesis instrumentation, 3D optical microscopes and atomic force microscopes. The company can now deliver superior quality, user-friendly imaging equipment for nanoscience education and research, he added.

Honda Canada: Selling the deal on the 2012 Civic

Honda Canada is now busy selling the deal – the deal that is the reinvented 2012 Honda Civic.

The base 2012 Honda Civic DX, for instance, starts at $14,990 and comes equipped with a standard five-speed automatic transmission, versus $16,990 for the 2010 Civic DX with autobox.

It’s a similar story right down the Civic lineup, including the sporty Si which for 2012 is $890 cheaper than the less powerful, less well-equipped 2010 version.

In fact, Honda Canada officials such as senior product planner Matt Wilson argue that not only are prices down, but content across the board is up to the tune of thousands of dollars in value.

Make no mistake, with the 2012 Civic that is being advertised with some pretty incomprehensible commercial spots, Honda Canada is selling the deal at least as much as the latest engineering and design developments.

That’s shocking. For decades Hondas have pretty much sold themselves on the usual left-brain merits of durability, reliability, safety and resale value. Honda’s sales strategy has been more about finding ways to let people buy the cars as opposed to selling them with discounts, low-interest financing and savvy showroom tactics. No more.

The consequences of starting down the road of a discount brand are many for Honda. First among them is resale value.

The latest research from Canadian Black Book shows that Honda brand vehicles have the fourth-best 48-month residual values in Canada. Four years from now your Honda car should be worth 47.7 per cent of its original price, while on the light truck side the four-year residual value for a Honda is 48.8 per cent.

What will happen to Honda resale values now that the company has started moving metal by cutting prices, offering payment deals and sweetening offers with cash-back incentives. Surely this can only have a negative impact on residuals.

This ninth-generation Civic is as much about the deal as it is about the engineering, design, comfort, reliability, safety and fuel-efficient performance. As I said, a shocker and perhaps also a sign of the times.

New Windows Phone software: Good but maybe not good enough

Microsoft today showed off the next version of its Windows Phone 7 software, code-named Mango, that includes 500 new features, including smoother integration with social-networking programs, built-in voice-to-text and text-to-voice support for hands-free use, and the ability to run one application while another is working in the background.

"We set out to make the smart phone smarter and easier," Andy Lees, president of the Mobile Communications Business at Microsoft, said at the end of a news conference in New York City this morning. The software giant said Mango will be available this fall.

The challenge for Microsoft will be living up to the hype created prior to the announcement. Holding an event in New York and encouraging media attendance comes with expectations. And it stumbled early, with the video feed of the press conference bogging down and not loading for many Web watchers, greeting them instead with a screen with a bar slowly loading the video feed.

The company announced plenty of new features, including a version of Internet Explorer 9 for the phone. It introduced a program called Local Scout that offers hyper-local search results, based on a user's location, and recommends nearby restaurants, shopping, and activities. And it's created a new feature called Quick Cards, which provides a brief summary of relevant information and related apps when users search for a product, movie, or event.

Some of the other new features include:
• Threads: Gives users the ability to switch between text, Facebook chat, and
Windows Live Messenger within one conversation.
• Groups: Lets users compile contacts in one place so they can see the latest status
updates from the start screen and quickly text, e-mail, or instant-message the
whole group.
• Linked inbox: Puts multiple e-mail accounts in one linked inbox.
• App Connect: Deepens the integration between apps and search so that
applications surface when they are relevant to a user's Web search query.

Windows Phone has had a rough start. Launched in 2010, the mobile-phone software has yet to make any sort of dent in the leads held by Apple's iOS and Google's Android. Just last week, market research firm Gartner found that of the 100 million smartphones sold worldwide in the first quarter, only 1.6 million of them ran Windows Phone 7. Android, which had just 9.6 percent of the market a year earlier, soared to 36 percent of the market, while Apple held a 16.8 percent share.

No doubt that some of that has to do with the botched efforts to update the Windows Phone 7 software. When Microsoft sent out software to prepare phones for updating in February, some devices failed. Microsoft pulled the update to fix some bugs. But even the follow-up update crashed devices. Microsoft Corporate Vice President Joe Belfiore later apologized for the problems, citing a "lack of preparation."

Even little hiccups hurt. At Mix11, Microsoft announced that the popular game Angry Birds would come to the Windows Phone marketplace on May 25. But last week, news broke that the game would now ship on June 29.

Microsoft is hoping new devices will help right the ship. In February, the company announced a broad partnership with the world's top mobile handset maker, Nokia, to run Windows Phone 7 software on its devices. The first of those devices could roll out before the end of the year. And at the New York press conference, Microsoft announced three new phone partners: Acer, Fujitsu, and ZTE.

The quality of the phones created by those partners, as well as current Windows Phone 7 handset makers HTC, Samsung and LG, will matter as much, if not more, than the cool new features Microsoft announced. Apple has an ironclad grip on the high-end of the market, with its slick iPhones remaining the lust-worthy choice among folks willing to shell out big dollars. And Google's Android has secured the market for customers who aren't willing to shell out as much for a full-featured smartphone.

The current batch of Windows Phone 7 devices offer sleek looks and smooth software. But mobile-phone buyers haven't found them to be enough better than rivals to switch in big numbers.

So while the scores of new features that Microsoft demonstrated in New York look interesting, it's the handful of features that the devices don't have that often matter most. There's no Windows Phone 7 handset, for example, that has a forward-facing camera. That makes using a new video-conferencing Skype app, which Lees said would be coming to the platform soon, an audio-only experience.

Then, there's the matter of applications. Microsoft trumpeted that its marketplace now has 18,000 apps for users to download. The company proudly noted the number, saying the marketplace only opened for business in October. But users don't care about how quickly the store has grown.

They want the best apps possible. And having a wide selection matters too. And it turns out that Apple now has 500,000 apps approved for its iOS platform. Apple benefits from the network effect--the more folks who use iPhones, the more developers want to create applications for it. The Windows Phone platform isn't big enough yet to generate that sort of virtuous cycle.

The Mango release clearly has some whizzy new features that offer users the ability to get tasks done in ways they couldn't previously. And the addition of new hardware partners will add diversity to the handset lineup. But there was little in Microsoft's showcase to demonstrate how it will overcome the biggest challenge Windows Phone faces--Apple and Google.

Canadian companies planning to hire sales, marketing teams, report finds

The number of job openings for sales and marketing staff is likely to jump this year as companies begin to use some of their cash piles to resume hiring and grow their businesses, according to new reports.

About 58% of respondents to the latest American Express/CFO Research Global Business & Spending Monitor said they planned to take on sales staff, while 44% plan to boost their marketing headcount.

In total, 78% said they would use retained cash to expand their business and increase staffing numbers this year.

A separate RBC/Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants survey also found hiring intentions are on the rise, with 47% of chartered accountants polled expecting their companies to boost staff numbers.

Optimism among the nation's CAs has risen to 64%, a near record level, from 41% at the end of last year, the survey found.

"Finance executives are opening up the company coffers to drive growth and are moving away from budget cuts," said Rob McClean, vice president and general manager, Global Commercial Card, Amex Bank of Canada. "Businesses are exercising caution but we will see greater spending to win and retain customers as they jockey for position in a recovering economy."

The situation in Canada contrasts with that south of the border, where many U.S. companies are still focusing on improving profits through cost cutting, the Amex survey found.

More than three-quarters of Canadian executives said they expect economic growth to accelerate in the second or third quarter of this year, compared with just 38% of U.S. executives who see faster growth during this time.

As well as spending on headcount, 75% of executives said they will boost investment in research and development, with 74% planning to increase capital spending, it said.

The RBC/CICA survey found that 73% of executives expect their revenues to rise over the next year, while 69% see profit growing.

"These latest results reinforce the fact that Canadian companies are ready to seize opportunities for future growth and investments," said Christianne Paris, vice-president of business and client strategy at RBC.

Latest Quebec flooding raises questions about building close to water Read it on Global News: Latest Quebec flooding raises questions about building

MONTREAL — As the floodwaters of Quebec's Richelieu River continued their slow retreat Monday, questions surfaced about why people are allowed to build homes in regions where rivers regularly overflow and the taxpayer is expected to pick up the cost of property damages as well as military and other government emergency services.

Private insurers refuse to cover any area that is at risk of flooding, says Jack Chardirdjian of the Insurance Bureau of Canada.

That means the government has to step in with millions of dollars in cash to help victims build emergency defences against the flood waters and to repair damaged homes and help refurnish them.

In the United States, people who choose to live in risky areas have to pay into government insurance schemes to help cover the cost of flood damage.

That's not true in Quebec, where the taxpayer is expected to pick up the whole bill. The Public Security Department said it does not know what the final cost will be.

Lt. Matt Zalot of the Department of National Defence said the army will not know what the deployment will cost until Operation Lotus is over, perhaps by the weekend.

Second homes such as cottages get no government funds.

Chardirdjian noted that despite the inevitable cost to the government, municipalities continue to allow builders to construct homes in flood areas.

"I'm hoping people buying those homes know they are in risk zones," he said.

Chardirdjian said insurers won't cover floods when they are predictable occurrences.

"When rivers always overflow their banks every spring and maybe two or three times a year, no company in Canada covers that," he said.

This holds true even when, as in this case, the flooding reaches a record level.

Chardirdjian said, however, that victims could be insured for flood damage to their vehicles.

Also, if the flood causes sewage to back up in a homeowner's basement, the damage will be covered — but only if the flood waters have not reached the property, he added.

"When you buy a home near a river you know that something is going to happen, you know you will be flooded," he says. "It's like buying a home next to a railway track. You know the trains are going to go past."

So far, the Quebec government has distributed about $1 million to 250 families in the Richelieu area.

About 3,000 homes have been flooded and 1,000 people forced to leave.

If Monday's sunny weather holds, waters will continue to recede throughout the week on Lake Champlain and Richelieu River watershed, but only slowly.

"The declines in levels are really slow," Hydro Meteo, the government agency that keeps track of flooding, says on its website. "But the overall tendency is a decline."

Hydro Meteo says river levels Monday were declining at a rate of 2.5 to five millimetres per hour, and that is not expected to change over the next few days.

"The levels will fluctuate according to the sector," Hydro Meteo says.

Water levels in St.-Jean-sur-Richelieu and in Philipsburg decreased Sunday by three centimetres.

"Today and Tuesday we are expecting reductions of two to four centimetres per day."

Because of the slowness of the declining water levels and concerns about contamination of drinking water, many people won't be allowed to return to their flood-damaged homes before next week at the earliest, government officials said.

Canada Tories to follow tax-cut, pro-business agenda

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, now backed by a powerful parliamentary majority, said on Tuesday the energy sector can rest easy that his government will not impede plans to vastly expand the country's oil sands output and ship some of the crude to Asia.

Harper, in his Western Canadian home base of Calgary on the morning after his Conservatives won big in the federal election, singled out the Western-based oil industry as being a beneficiary of his party's pro-business agenda, which will also include corporate tax cuts and deficit reduction. Investors greeted the result with relief.

"There were a lot of policies being quoted by the other parties, whether it's on West Coast transportation or the energy sector, that simply did not reflect the needs and concerns of this part of the country," he told reporters.

"I actually argued during the campaign that the policies of our opponents were actually quite dangerous to the country as a whole, but obviously some specific policies seemed to be almost targeted to do damage to Western Canada."

The Conservatives won 167 of 308 seats in the House of Commons in Monday's vote, giving Harper a third mandate since 2006 and his first majority. Until now, the Conservatives' minority-government status has meant they had to compromise with other parties on many policies.


The left-leaning New Democratic Party (NDP), which made record gains in Monday's vote to become the official opposition for the first time, and the Liberals, who suffered a drubbing and finished third, both opposed increased tanker traffic on the Pacific Coast.

The idea of shipping tar-sands derived oil to Asia is key to Enbridge Inc's proposed C$5.5 billion ($5.8 billion) Northern Gateway pipeline to the coast from Alberta. Harper has said he would not try to block tanker traffic.

Canada is already the largest oil supplier to the United States. The oil industry is looking to expand production and diversify markets to increase returns, but is opposed by environmentalists and many politicians on the left.

Jack Layton's NDP had promised to cut C$2.2 billion in what he called annual government subsidies to the energy industry and wanted to set up a carbon emissions trading scheme, which scared some investors who feared high costs.

The Conservatives have long planned to cut the corporate tax rate to 15 percent next year from 16.5 percent. Their stated goal: To help business compete in a global market.

They say other tax breaks, including a family-friendly plan that will lower tax rates for couples with children, will follow once they eliminate a record-breaking budget deficit.

SEPARATISTS ROUTED

The election polarizes the political scene, with the centrist Liberals essentially defanged. Their leader, Michael Ignatieff, said on Tuesday he was quitting after the party's seat count fell to 34 from 77.

Also, the separatist Bloc Quebecois is in tatters after the vote and the party's leader without a seat. The Bloc Quebecois advocates independence for the province of Quebec.

That leaves the Conservatives and New Democrats -- parties on opposite sides of the political spectrum -- with the significant positions in Parliament.

"By getting a clear (Conservative) majority in the Parliament, markets are able to handicap investment opportunities better," said Stephen Wood, chief investment strategist for North America at Russell Investments in New York. He said oil and gas shares will probably get a boost, as will tax-sensitive and interest-rate sensitive sectors.

"The outcome of this election gives certainty for a policy continuity and it allows fundamentals to drive investments more."

Investors initially drove the Canadian dollar higher following the vote. But the election result was quickly overshadowed by global growth concerns that wiped out its gains and sent stocks more than 2 percent lower.

Still, the currency outperformed its commodity-linked peers and Canadian government bonds fared better than safe-haven U.S. Treasuries.

Harper's policy priorities will likely include eliminating the Canadian Wheat Board's monopoly position on wheat and barley exports from Canada's western provinces, and ending public financing for political parties, something that may cripple opposition parties less adept at raising funds than the Conservatives.

MARKET MERGER BOLSTERED

His government is more likely to approve foreign investment in Canada than the New Democrats would have been, boosting the chances that the London Stock Exchange's takeover bid for its Toronto rival, TMX Group, will win a Canadian green light.

However, Harper said on Tuesday he would not seek to privatize the country's publicly funded health care system or impose socially conservative policies on Canadians, which his opponents have long said are part of a hidden Conservative agenda.

His rivals have said he is beholden to social and religious conservatives who want to curb abortion rights and scrap gay marriage laws, although he has said he has no plans to reopen the abortion debate and would work to block anyone who tried to do so. Abortion is legal in Canada.

"One thing I've learned in this business is that surprises are generally not well-received by the public, so we intend to move forward with what Canadians understand about us and I think what they're more and more comfortable with," he said.