text: Japan's merchandise trade balance shifted to a deficit of Y203.4 billion in May from a surplus of Y481.1 billion in April, in contrast to the consensus forecast of a surplus of Y48.4 billion. The value of Japan's exports increased 14.9 percent on the year in April, up from 7.5 percent in April but below the consensus forecast of 16.0 percent. The value of Japan's imports recorded growth of 17.8 percent on the year, up from 15.2 percent in April and above the consensus forecast of 14.8 percent.
  Despite the move into deficit in May, today's data shows external demand is providing solid support to Japan's economy. Exports are now growing at their fastest pace since January 2015 with year-on-year growth in positive territory for the sixth month in a row. The pick-up in export growth in May was broad-based across Japan's major trading partners. Exports to China grew by 23.9 percent on the year in May, up from 14.8 percent in April and the seventh consecutive increase. Exports to Korea, Hong Kong and ASEAN countries also recorded stronger year-on-year increases in May, offset by a modest fall in exports to Taiwan on the year. Demand from outside the region also picked up appreciably, with exports to the United States up 11.6 percent on the year after growth of 2.6 percent in April, and the the year-on-year increase in exports to the European Union picking up from 2.2 percent to 19.8 percent.
  Stronger headline imports growth in May was largely driven by imports of raw materials, up 25.7 percent on the year in May after an increase of 6.5 percent in April, with iron ore imports accounting for much of this increase. Fuel imports rose strongly on the year, up 41.5 percent, but moderated from the 58.7 percent increase recorded in April. Imports of manufactured goods, machinery and chemicals recorded stronger year-on-year growth in May, offsetting weaker growth in imports of electrical machinery and transport equipment.
  Attached is an advisory notice detailing contract specifications for the new NYMEX Brent 25-Day (Platts) Futures contract.
  There's no need to underline how bad the recession has been for SMBs. But there's light at the end of the tunnel as IDC predicts spending on IT is set to grow this year. Meanwhile, IBM is trying to grab the SMBs Microsoft has annoyed by discontinuing the Windows Essential Business Server.
  In case you weren’t aware of it already mobile technology is really important to small businesses. In fact, according to the recent the Small Business Technology Poll from AT&T more than 20% of SMBs couldn’t survive without it, while a further 43% said it would be a major challenge to do so.
  It also shows that 74% of SMBs depend more on mobile technologies than they did in 2007, a figure that is set to increase as nearly three quarters say they plan to use it more this year than before.
  New research by IT consultancy IDC (news, site) shows that while spending on IT will not return to previous levels until at least next year, it will return to growth this year.
  The research also shows that the recession hit SMBs harder than anyone had anticipated with the result that annual growth will remain at 5.5% annually, much lower than previously expected. Key findings from IDC's SMB forecast include the following:
  The study entitled Worldwide Small and Medium-Sized Business 2010–2014 Forecast is available from the website.
  More jostling for space in the SMB market from IBM (news, site). This time it has announced that it has added more than 200 partners to its LotusLive cloud services sales channel.
  A sales channel without incentives is not much use so IBM has also said it is extending the capabilities of Lotus Foundations by integrating DB2 Express database software into the core appliance offering free of charge, a sure pull for SMBs.
  This means that there is no database size limit, no limit on the number of instances or databases per server and no restriction on the number of users. The move aims to pick up the debris after Microsoft announced recently that it was discontinuing its flagship SMB server Windows Essential Business Server.
  Something else for free. Social software vendor IGLOO (news, site) has just announced the availability of the free edition of its online community software which is targeted specifically at the business community.
  When a user registers and signs up for a free community, they are given a number of business-ready solution templates, such as corporate website, intranet/team space, partner portal and customer support site and eLearning community.
  IGLOO says there will be additional business templates available soon, including Project Team, Research Community, Sales & Marketing Community and an Event Site template.
  For free you get exactly what you’d expect, but if you were thinking of using it as a business tool you might want to check out the small print, particularly the no guarantees on uptime and the once a month only backups.
  Enterprise messaging software developer Gordano has just gone to GA with v17 of the Gordano Messaging Suite (GMS).
  Gordano says it works out at 25% cheaper than Exchange and is marketing it as a scalable alternative to the Microsoft heavy weight.
  A new partnership between NetDocuments (news, site) and Litéra (news, site) will give SMBs a new document management tool enabling them to carry out document comparisons on the NetDocuments SaaS platform.
  The new abilities are the result of the integration of Litéra Change-Pro comparison software and NetDocuments SaaS content management cloud services.
  In practice what this will provide is a document workflow and change management solution that enables organizations to speed productivity and assure document integrity while reducing risk.
  You might recall that NetDocuments services law firms of all sizes and provides features like discovery-type searching, two-factor authentication, ethical wall security, email and digital records management and built-in business continuity.
  Change-Pro is a key component of the Litéra Desktop and enables document authors to compare Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel as well as Corel WordPerfect and PDF documents in all languages with its optional OCR engine.
  Kofax (news, site) has just announced the release of Kofax Desktop 2.0, a new release of its software for individual users that makes scanning a document as easy as printing by seamlessly embedding such capabilities within Microsoft Office 2007 applications.
  The principal upgrade is that it adds full text optical character recognition (OCR) capabilities, allowing images to be exported as searchable PDF files and adding new language versions.
  The new release also significantly expands Kofax Desktop's global market reach with the addition of eight new language versions, including French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, Chinese and Japanese.
  JACKSONVILLE, Fla., March 2, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Drone Aviation Holding Corp. (OTCQB:DRNE), a developer of specialized lighter-than-air aerostats and tethered drones, today announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Drone Aviation Corp. (DAC), has officially launched WATT, the Company's first model of a new line of commercial-grade electric tethered drones designed to provide secure and reliable aerial monitoring for extended durations while being tethered to the ground via a high strength armored tether. Unlike "hobbycraft drones," WATT is uniquely suited for a wide number of news gathering, industrial and emergency response applications where manned aircraft and even free-flying drones are unable to deliver the long flight duration and commercial grade real-time day/night video monitoring capabilities needed, all while operating in compliance with the new guidelines proposed by the FAA.
  WATT is a complete turnkey system that can be launched within minutes of unpacking from a standard case stored in a host vehicle. When launched, WATT is designed to hover in a stationary position directly above its launch site at one of several preset altitudes of up to 300 feet. Once airborne, a highly stabilized military-grade/broadcast quality HD video imager can provide a 360° live aerial monitoring feed transmitted through the tether to its host vehicle while being wirelessly shared to a network of mobile devices such as tablets or laptop computers.
  Unique power system provides the ability to either draw power parasitically from a host vehicle such as TV production trucks, first responder vehicles or common agriculture/infrastructure equipment with standard 120v/220v power or WATT can independently provide up to 8 hours of operation through its own ground power equipment.
  WATT is designed to carry up 10 lbs. of payload such as advanced, highly stabilized optical packages capable of delivering live broadcast-quality or military grade day/night all-weather sensors.
  Significant safety features incorporated into WATT such as fault-tolerant primary sub-systems, on-board battery back-up, automatic telemetry alerts and auto recovery/retrieve functionality for safe and simplified operation.
  Drone Aviation CEO Ms. Felicia Hess stated, "WATT is the result of over 3 years dedicated development and research by our talented design team, and we are proud to now show the industry what we believe is the finest, most cost-effective commercial-grade tethered drone designed to comply with the FAA's proposed guidelines. Over the next several months, we look forward to demonstrating WATT in various upcoming live exercises with our partners and proving its unique capability to support many applications in the rapidly developing global commercial drone marketplace."
  Drone Aviation Holding Corp. (DRNE) provides critical aerial and land based surveillance and communications solutions to government and commercial customers. Utilizing a unique tethering capability, drone systems operate in the National Airspace within FAA guidelines for safe operations. Drone systems are designed and developed in-house utilizing proprietary technologies and processes that result in compact, rapidly deployable aerostat solutions and mast based systems that have been proven to fulfill critical requirements by the military and law enforcement in the U.S. and to our allies around the world. For more information about Drone Aviation Holding Corp. please visit www.DroneAviationCorp.com, or view our reports and filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission on http://www.sec.gov, including the Risk Factors included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2013 and in our Current Report on Form 8-K filed with the SEC on June 5, 2014, as well as our Quarterly Reports for the quarters ended March 31, 2014, June 30, 2014 and September 30, 2014.
  PowerFLOW Solution Forum provides many opportunities to learn about state-of-the-art simulation-driven design solutions from global experts
  BURLINGTON, Mass. and YOKOHAMA, Japan, June 25, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Exa® Corporation (Nasdaq:EXA), the leading innovator of simulation software for product design and engineering, has unveiled the presenters for its ninth-annual PowerFLOW® Solution Forum on June 26 at the Tokyo Conference Center, Shinagawa. Transportation industry experts from Toyota Motor Corporation, Denso Corporation and other globally recognized transportation manufacturers headline this year's presenter lineup.
  The PowerFLOW Solution Forum provides industry professionals with many opportunities to learn about state-of-the-art simulation-driven design solutions from global experts. Several industry speakers will describe how the Exa simulation suite benefits the product development and design process in areas of aerodynamics, aeroacoustics and thermal management.
  Dr. Tsuyoshi Yasuki, Toyota Motor Corporation, will deliver the event's keynote address. Dr. Yasuki possesses more than three decades of industry experience and will discuss how engineers can use PowerFLOW Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations to accurately evaluate and predict the flow around an actual vehicle.
  Dr. Shigeru Akaike, Denso Corporation, will also deliver the event's keynote explaining how his company used computer-aided engineering (CAE) tools to expand and improve its product development roadmap.
  Mr. Masahiro Yoshida, Mitsubishi Motors Corporation, will describe how Mitsubishi used PowerFLOW simulations for aerodynamics development of two of its electric vehicles at last year's Pikes Peak International Hill Climb in Colorado, USA.
  Mr. Kazuhiro Iijima, Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.,will describe how Nissan leverages CAE to accelerate its product development process and his company's plans to use ExaCLOUD™, a secure, web-based cloud platform that offers a comprehensive set of simulation tools, to drive product innovation.
  Mr. Takayuki Morita, Honda R&D Co., Ltd.,will discuss how the combination of PowerFLOW simulations and the Exa PowerTHERM® thermal management solution enables his company to accurately predict vehicle brake performance.
  Dr. Ales Alajbegovic, Exa Corporation, will discuss how a simulation-driven vehicle design process enables engineers to produce better vehicles that meet performance and market demands.
  In addition to these distinguished presenters, Exa Corporation's world-renowned experts will host simulation application discussions that highlight how ExaCLOUD provides cloud-based access to the full suite of Exa simulation products in a scalable and secure high-performance simulation environment. They will also discuss how ExaCLOUD brings state-of-the-art engineering to all companies and eliminates the need for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to invest in expensive hardware and the associated maintenance costs.
  "Simulation-driven design has become indispensable for product development. Incorporating digital tools early in the product design process enables the designer to get the simulation results quickly while achieving target performance goals, resulting in better products and reducing development costs," Exa Japan President Kazuhito Ishikawa said. "At this year's PowerFLOW Solution Forum, we will introduce an efficient method of utilizing digital tools for design challenges. We look forward to your attendance."
  Exa Corporation's visualization and simulation software helps designers and engineers produce better vehicles and equipment. As a design evolves, Exa accurately predicts the performance of that design while providing actionable insight to optimize the performance of the product. With Exa, the need for costly physical prototypes and expensive late-stage changes is reduced. Now, designers and engineers are freed from the risk of producing compromised products that do not meet market and regulatory requirements. Some of the most successful product companies in the world use Exa, including BMW, Ford, Hyundai, Jaguar Land Rover, Kenworth, MAN, Nissan, Peterbilt, Renault, Scania, Toyota, Volkswagen and Volvo Trucks.
  NEWARK, N.Y., July 18, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ultralife Corporation (Nasdaq:ULBI) will report its second quarter results for the period ended June 30, 2013 before the market opens on Thursday, August 1, 2013.
  Ultralife's management will also host an investor conference call and simultaneous webcast at 10:00 AM ET on August 1, 2013. To participate in the live call, please dial (800) 915-4836 at least ten minutes before the scheduled start time, identify yourself and ask for the Ultralife call. A live webcast of the conference call will be available to investors in the Events & Presentations section of the company's website at http://investor.ultralifecorporation.com. For those who cannot listen to the live broadcast, a replay of the webcast will be available shortly after the call at the same location.
  In its June 2011 Home Price Monitor Report, the bank lowered its base home price forecast to a level that's 37 percent under peak price levels.
  The financial-services firm blames its lowered price expectations on a supply-and-demand imbalance, as well as anemic consumer demand and disappointing economic reports.
  Making matters worse, JPMorgan's Home Price Monitor report points to a 12 percent drop in pending home sales in the month of April.
  The bank said, "A looming question is when and if lending standards will ease enough to boost demand."
  Of course, with big banks such as JPMorgan Chase saying they won't own mortgagesunder new capital requirements, lending standards probably aren't easing soon.