user: News: An economic double dip won't be so sweet

That's the news from the OECD, anyway. They've published their estimate of how much the British economy grew by in the first quarter of this year, and, well, it didn't grow at all. It shrank. If their estimates are confirmed when the Office for National Statistics publishes its own first estimate next month, then we will officially have entered a double-dip recession. And to think that, just a few weeks ago, there were whispers about "green shoots".

This is bad news for George Osborne's reelection strategy. The Coalition's plan called for austerity now, and the nation was fully prepared for two or three years of falling incomes. But this will make it clear what we were told in the Autumn statement: we face perhaps another four or five years of pain. In the entire time since the Chancellor came to No 10 in the spring of 2010, the economy has grown by a total of about 0.6 per cent of GDP. That's less than it grew in the last quarter of Alistair Darling's time in No 11.

Of course, it's debatable how much this is George Osborne's fault. His tax rises and austerity have certainly lowered the rate of growth, but not by nearly as much as it has fallen. Rather, the cold wind has come from abroad. Our main export market is the eurozone, where mass, German-enforced austerity is sucking demand out of the system. Despite a 30 per cent devaluation of our currency, our balance of trade with Europe has barely changed in two years – mostly thanks to the EU's downturn.

But as the Conservatives demonstrated so effectively when Gordon Brown was in power, that excuse won't necessarily work. And when the newspapers and broadcasters are screaming "double-dip recession", voters may be less forgiving of the Chancellor's failure to meet his targets.

Title: A double-dip recession would expose how badly Plan A has failed


News: There’s a paradox at the heart of consumer culture: the new is popular, but the old never really changes. As Apple introduces its new iPads, it’s hard to ignore the fact that they look like the new iPhone 6 – which, in turn, looks like the original iPhone.

It turns out that makeovers are often for the weak, as far as consumer products go. From sneakers to takeout, the things that last are a special kind of time traveller, always appropriately dressed for the future. Here’s a brief tour of the 10 most unchanging icons in your home.

Unveiled at a Macworld convention in 2007, Apple’s Jony Ive-designed iPhone has barely changed in looks since then, keeping its single centrallyplaced button and large screen. This doesn’t prevent people queueing round the block each time a new model is released, which has happened, like clockwork, once a year since it was launched.

The contoured bottle of Coca-Cola was first introduced in 1916 in response to worries in the company about copycat brands. It was designed by the Root Glass Company of Terre Haute, Indiana, who took inspiration from a cocoa bean to find the shape, and was the first commercial product to appear on the cover of Time magazine. According to the Coca-Cola Company, if all the Coke bottles in the world were laid endtoend, they would reach to the moon and back more than 1,677 times. Which is horrifying, when you think about it.

The basic design of the 911, with its engine slung out over the back wheels, has hardly changed since the car was first introduced in 1963, though the modern iteration is vastly more evolved than its ancestor. It is one of the most successful racing road cars ever designed, winning races as disparate as the World Rally Championship and the Le Mans 24-hour.

Classified as an “essential food” by the rationing authorities in Britain during the second world war, Heinz baked beans are sealed into the cans raw and then cooked in a pressure oven. Some 1.5m cans of Heinz baked beans are sold every day in the UK alone.

Produced to a formula by Ernest Beaux, Chanel’s No 5 was actually the first perfume launched by Coco Chanel, rather than the fifth. For Chanel, who was raised by nuns in an orphanage from the age of 12, the number five was a signifier of the purest embodiment of a thing. It was first released to a few select, favoured clients at her Paris boutique, and its bottle is said to be based on a whisky decanter used by her lover, Arthur Capel.

The only major variation in the basic recipe of the four-finger Kit Kat bar was during the second world war, when shortage of ingredients forced a temporary change from milk to dark chocolate. After the war, the recipe was resumed.

Marquis Mills Converse opened the Converse Rubber Shoe Company in 1908 and first made the Converse All Star basketball shoe in 1917. It wasn’t until 1921, however, that basketball player Chuck Taylor became the brand’s ambassador, and in 1932 his signature was added to the patch on the ankle. The basic high-topped sneaker design has changed little since.

It was advances in Swiss cutting technology which allowed for the manufacture of the millimetre-diameter metal ball that forms the nib of the ballpoint pen, which allows a consistent flow of ink from the barrel to the paper. It was designed by a team at Société PPA, a company owned by Marcel Bich, who had seen a ballpoint pen made by Lázló Biró during the war. The 100,000,000,000th – that’s one hundred billionth – Bic Cristal pen was sold in 2006.

Commissioned as cavalry boots by Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington, the Wellington boot – at first made of leather – was one of the first rubber boots ever made in 1856 when Charles Goodyear’s process for vulcanising rubber was perfected. They were designed by Wellesley’s shoemaker, Hoby of St James, to specifications of the Duke’s own, and first became popular among patriotic Britons after his victory at Waterloo.

Perhaps the Platonic form of the guitar, the Fender Stratocaster was first popularised by Buddy Holly, and later Eric Clapton – who had one covered in gold leaf – and Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour. A Stratocaster signed by Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, Mick Jagger, Pete Townsend, Ray Davies and others was sold at auction to raise funds for victims of the 2005 Indian Ocean tsunami for $2.7m, the most expensive guitar ever sold.

First patented as a container for oysters by a Chicago inventer called Frederick Weeks Wilcox, the design hasn’t changed since. The now-ubiquitous pagoda picture on the side of the box, according to a history of the oyster pail in the New York Times, was added by a graphic designer at a company called Fold-Pak – now the major manufacturer of oyster pail containers – in the 1970s.

Title: Does the new Apple iPad look familiar? That's not a coincidence


News: Japanese electronics firm Sony cut its profit estimate by 9.4% for the financial year that ended in March, as slowing global smartphone sales dented demand for its camera modules.

Sony sne said on Thursday it is estimating an operating profit of 290 billion yen ($2.64 billion) for the year, down from a previously estimated 320 billion yen, citing weaker demand for camera modules.

The company booked an impairment loss of 59.6 billion yen as it wrote down the value of the camera module business to match a weaker sales prospect. The impairment charge was also reflected in the revised estimate.

Analysts had expected on average an operating profit of 341.7 billion yen for the year, according to Thomson Reuters Starmine. Sony will release its full-year results on April 28.

Clients of Sony’s camera modules include major global smartphone makers, such as Apple aapl .

Global smartphone sales are expected to grow in single digits in percentage terms for the first time ever in 2016, according to research firm Gartner.

Sony also said it is assessing the impact on its earnings for the current fiscal year of a series of deadly earthquakes that have halted its image sensor plant in southern Japan.

Title:

assistant: Sony Just Cut its Profit Estimate, Citing Weaker Smartphone Sales