Suiteness Startup Suite Contest Gives Startups Chance to Win Stay in Silicon Valley, Mentor with Top VCs

Silicon Valley: Luxury travel company Suiteness has launched Suiteness Startup Suite, a contest offering startups the chance to win a complimentary three-night stay in San Francisco plus one-on-one mentoring sessions with leading venture capitalists. © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

OAKLAND, CA – Oakland-based luxury travel company Suiteness has launched Suiteness Startup Suite, a contest offering startups the chance to win a complimentary three-night stay at the acclaimed Hotel Zeppelin, San Francisco. This travel experience will also include one-on-one mentoring sessions with leading venture capitalists to learn best practices and investment pitching strategies including:

• Eric Weisen, General Partner at Bullpen Capital
• Ludwig Ensthaler, Partner at Global Founders Capital
• Eric Scott, Partner at SciFi VC
• Boris Silver, Co-Founder and President at FundersClub.

Suiteness is an online booking service for exclusive luxury hotel suites and multi-room accommodations.  The Y-Combinator graduate who recently expanded to the San Francisco area is now offering hundreds of glamorous suites and connecting rooms giving business and leisure travelers the space they need and want when they travel.

To enter Suiteness Startup Suite, participating startups must submit a one minute video describing why their team needs to come together in San Francisco – whether it be to pitch Silicon Valley-based VCs, attend a conference or simply escape for a much-needed company offsite. All entries will then be shared with the public for community voting, during which period, startups are encouraged to promote and share their entries to receive votes. The selected winner will be announced on Friday, October 20^th, 2017.

“Suiteness understands the struggles of growing and scaling a new business,” says Suiteness CEO Robbie Bhathal. “It is an exciting experience, but it’s also a stressful one. We believe that connectivity is crucial for young companies to exchange ideas and jumpstart new innovation. Our goal is to bring teams together so that they can succeed at their entrepreneurial goals while also getting a much needed stress reliever.”

Startup Suite Contest Details and Deadlines:

• Phase 1: Application
  • Upload a video no longer than one minute to YouTube, Instagram or Vimeo, and share why their startup needs to stay together in San Francisco
  • September 7, 2017, to October 6, 2017, at 11:59 PM CDT
• Phase 2: Voting
  • Share entries with everyone in their community asking for votes. Companies are encouraged to promote entries via email or via social media channels using the hashtag #StartupSuite
  • October 7, 2017, to October 20, 2017, at 11:59 PM CDT

To apply: https://www.suiteness.com/blog/suiteness-startupsuite

Link to video: https://vimeo.com/231952183#at=3

Suiteness is an online booking platform that allows users to access an inventory of thousands of exclusive luxury hotel suites. Suites range from standard one-bedrooms to spacious apartment-style stays with multiple attached rooms. The company is carving a niche for itself in the international travel industry as the leading website dedicated solely to luxury suites and is finding success with group travelers and families looking for a nice place to stay together.

Suiteness was launched in 2015, with funding and support from investors including Y-Combinator, Structure Capital and Keystone Capital. The platform currently has access to 30,000 luxury suites in San Francisco, Las Vegas, Miami, Los Angeles, New York, Orlando, Chicago, and London. The company is expanding its suite inventory rapidly in key markets across the world.

For more information on Suiteness, visit http://www.suiteness.com.

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Tip Spoke Expands Free Service Showcasing Fun Things to Do, Insider Tips to 60 US Metro Areas

TipSpoke.com links travelers to fun things to do in Boston and 59 other metro areas © 2016 Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

SUDBURY, Mass.– Tipspoke.com has expanded its reach, enabling people to easily find fun things to do in over 60 major U.S. metro areas. Their mission is to focus on helping people and families find fun things to do to enrich their lives. The Tipspoke.com team brings together a wide range of experience to deliver Awesome Tips Worth Sharing™. Tipspoke.com is designed to be easy to navigate, so people can spend less time searching and more time having fun.

Site visitors will find that the site is clearly divided into categories, such as: Fun Things to Do Locally, Travel Tips, and Fun Things to Do at Home – including Arts & Crafts, Family Games &  Activities, Science Experiments, Magic Tricks, Jokes for Kids, Riddles & Brainteasers for Kids, Online Activities, and Food & Dining Activities.

Tipspoke.com not only focuses on covering popular destinations, but also many that are off the beaten path. For example, someone looking for an activity in Boston would find a hand-picked list of over 100 things to do in and around the Greater Boston area. The insider tips can help people have more fun while saving a lot of time and money.

Tip Spoke partners with bloggers and topical experts, who have awesome tips to share, giving them visibility to Tip Spoke’s website and newsletter readership.

Stacey Sao, the CEO of Tip Spoke, is a Villanova grad who launched the successful Boston-area website BostonCentral.com in 2001, and launched the first version of Tipspoke.com in 2015 with just a handful of tips focused on online activities.

“This next version of Tipspoke.com, expanded to over 60 metro areas, is an amazing free resource to help people have more fun. We’re excited to be partnering with bloggers and other websites who have expertise in specific areas to get the best content to our readers,” she said.

For complete information, visit: https://tipspoke.com.

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Bway Zone, Family-Friendly Broadway Theater Site, Launches with Chance to Win Trip to London’s West End

Broadway, New York City, the capital of the theater world. The Broadway League has launched Bdwy Zone, an interactive platform that will feature videos, photos, quizzes, and other Broadway-related content to share with its users © 2015 Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

New York – The Broadway League, the national trade association for the theater industry, is launching a new family-friendly initiative called Bway Zone located at BwayZone.com. A website created by the League’s digital and marketing departments, this interactive platform will post videos, photos, quizzes, and other Broadway-related content to share with its users.

Bway Zone is an online/social media conversation about what’s happening on Broadway in NYC, as well as on national tour throughout the US and Canada. Users will  get connected with Broadway shows, stars, and fans; meet the folks who make magic behind the scenes; find out about what other theatregoers are saying; and much more. Whether new to the community or a seasoned Broadway pro, the most important thing is to have fun and explore, share, create, learn, and participate.

One can scroll through the tiles and click on any kind of content or activity to find a mix of posts from individual shows, theatrical websites, other fans, and more — including exclusive original Bway Zone content. Users are encouraged to share on Facebook, Twitter, and other social platforms.

“The League is thrilled to be launching a new interactive BwayZone.com platform for family engagement. This new digital platform (think Instagram meets Buzzfeed meets Pinterest with a Broadway twist!) will offer curated engagement with Broadway content especially for families, with opportunities for users to participate in and even create content. There is nothing else like this! The world is changing, and so are we. Our goal is to raise awareness of Broadway among fans of all ages, and to encourage theatregoing as family entertainment. We’re in the pilot stage now while we begin to build momentum, but it’s growing quickly,” said Charlotte St. Martin, President of the Broadway League. “Activities including BwayZone, National High School Musical Theatre Awards, Viva Broadway concerts to bring more families through our Family First Nights program and more are part of a strategic plan to engage future audiences in theatre, whether they are in the audience, on stage or backstage.”

Through November 25, 2015, theatergoers have an opportunity to enter for a chance to win a trip for a family of four to see shows on London’s West End. Those who join the BwayZone email list through a special sweepstakes page will be entered for a chance to win the grand prize, which includes: a family of four trip to London, round-trip airfare from any major U.S. city to London via United Airlines, tickets to two West End shows (four tickets per show), and a three-night hotel stay in London’s Rosewood Hotel. Official Rules available on BwayZone.com/sweepstakes. No purchase necessary. Open to legal residents of the 48 contiguous U.S. and D.C, age 13 and older. Void in Alaska, Hawaii and where prohibited.

Visit BwayZone.com or follow #BwayZone on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!

BwayZone is an official program of the Broadway League and is officially sponsored by The New York Times with additional support from Southern Hospitality BBQ.

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RideOn Introduces Augmented Reality Ski Goggles, Like Google-Glass for the Slopes

Ski Heavenly, Lake Tahoe: RideOn Ski Goggles let you communicate hands-free using audio and video, post videos and stats online for your friends back home © 2015 Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

Imagine skiing or riding down a mountain and knowing exactly where you are on the mountain, or contacting your companions, hands free, through your ski goggles. RideOn, a startup based in Tel Aviv, recently unveiled their prototype of ski goggles that incorporate augmented reality (AR) features for the first time ever. RideOn’s see-through display (think Google Glass) projects AR layers and features as if they’re floating in the distance in front of you.

“We wanted to find our locations on a ski resort map instantly, or to quickly contact each other when we’d get separated. We wanted to do these things without having to take our gloves off, or use our phones,” said Alon Getz, CEO and co-founder, on why they created the goggles.

Software engineer and co-founder Ori Kotek noted that heads-up display goggles like Oakley Airwave and Recon’s Snow2 sort of achieved this, but with bulky external devices like wrist-pieces, and a display located in the user’s peripheral vision. “What distinguishes RideOn is our delivery of a true AR experience, derived from a see-through display that projects data onto the center of your field of view, not on the side,” he explained.

Furthermore, users interact with these data and features hands-free just by staring at friends, ski lodges, and ski lifts in the distance, or by looking up at floating buttons fixed to the sky. Getz and Kotek invented this style of UI to keep riders’ hands warm in their gloves. RideOn’s features let you:

Interact

• See your friends’ locations around you
• Communicate using audio and video
• Post videos and stats online for your friends back home
• Annoy your friends: Throw a virtual snowball

Navigate

• See your location on a map
• Find ski lodges, restaurants, and bars highlighted seamlessly in your field of vision
• Find ski lift locations & check queue wait times, and whether lifts are open

Play

• Compete against yourself and your friends in various games and improve your time and accuracy

The goggles also feature an HD camera for capturing video and for video-chatting with friends back home. RideOn uses this camera in combination with inertial sensors and GPS to measure user location and head orientation.

RideOn are the world’s first true AR goggles for skiers and snowboarders who want an enhanced, visually interactive experience on the mountain. Conceived in 2012, founders Ori Kotek and Alon Getz — each with 13 years’ experience in jet-pilot visual technology and inertial systems — created RideOn to let skiers communicate with friends, navigate the mountain’s runs and lodges, and play games, all overlaid seamlessly in the center of their vision.

RideOn is being launched as an Indiegogo crowdsourcing campaign and is be offered for $500.

For information, http://www.rideonvision.com; info@rideonvision.com for inquiries and support; sales@rideonvision.com for sales and marketing, or contact the IndieGoGo page at Igg.me@rideon.

 

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Royal Caribbean Is First Cruise Line to Use Google Street-View as Tool to Plan Vacation

Royal Caribbean International has become the first cruise line to launch Google Maps Business View using Google’s Street View technology onboard the world’s largest and innovative cruise ship Allure of the Seas.

By using Street View technology, Royal Caribbean International will provide consumers with an immersive and interactive experience when they are searching for a vacation.

Vacationers will be able to access the technology, a first for the cruise industry at
www.royalcaribbean.co.uk/royalview or via Google Search results, Google Maps and Google+ whether they’re using their computers, smartphones or tablets.

With just a few clicks, guests will be able to virtually walk through the various decks of Allure of the Seas including the Royal Promenade, a boulevard that runs nearly the length of the ship, flanked by restaurants, boutiques and lounges; Central Park, an outdoor park longer than a football pitch complete with over 12,000 live plants and trees; the Boardwalk, featuring a hand-crafted carousel, two rock-climbing walls and the AquaTheater, a high-dive aquatic performance venue with the deepest pool at sea; Entertainment Place, with an elaborate theatre, night club, comedy club, jazz club and ice-skating rink, which offers professionally produced ice shows; the Pool and Sports Deck featuring a zip line, twin FlowRider surf simulators, full-size basketball/sports court, nine-hole mini-golf course, 15 pools and whirlpools and 22 restaurants, and many, many more.

“Business View allows people all over the world to explore a range of businesses and organizations in great detail in just a few clicks” said Deborah Schenker – Program Manager at Google UK, “You can check out anything from restaurants to aircraft in Google Maps, and now for the first time you can sail the seas too with the first ever cruise ship coming on board.”

Jo Briody, director of marketing & PR, Royal Caribbean International commented: “We’re thrilled to be at the forefront of the industry when it comes to delivering innovative consumer facing technologies, whether it be Roboscreens and digital shows on our newest ships or Google Street View technology on our website. Consumers go online to research their vacations and this is the closest they can get to actually being onboard. We are confident that once people get virtually immersed in Allure of the Seas’ various decks and features thanks to Google Street View technology, they’ll be eager to experience the real thing.”

Over 20,000 images were taken over the course of 60 man hours and eight days to complete the virtual representation of the ship which stands taller than Nelson’s Column (165 feet) at 240 feet high and can accommodate more guests per sailing than the capacity of the Royal Albert Hall (5,544 seats).

The images were taken using a basic DSLR camera using a fisheye lens and a panoramic head resting on a tripod. This method takes twelve photographs at each point and uses high-dynamic-range imaging to ensure the best exposure for areas of different light.

Royal Caribbean International is an award-winning global cruise brand with a 45-year legacy of innovation and introducing industry “firsts” never before seen at sea.  The cruise line features an expansive and unmatched array of features and amenities only found on Royal Caribbean including, jaw-dropping, Broadway-style entertainment and industry-acclaimed programming that appeals to families and adventurous vacationers alike. Owned by Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (NYSE/OSE: RCL), the cruise line sails 21 of the world’s most innovative cruise ships to the most popular destinations in Bermuda and the Caribbean, Europe, Alaska, South America, the Far East, and Australia and New Zealand. World renowned for its friendly and engaging Gold Anchor Service, delivered by every staff and crew member, Royal Caribbean has been voted “Best Cruise Line Overall” for 11 consecutive years in the Travel Weekly Readers Choice Awards.

For additional information or to make reservations, call your travel agent; visit RoyalCaribbean.com; or call 800-ROYAL-CARIBBEAN. Follow on Facebook at Facebook.com/RoyalCaribbean or on Twitter @RoyalCaribbean.

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CellarPass Offers New Online Search for Tasting Room, Food and Wine Events, Reservation and Ticketing Service

You know “you have arrived” when you show up at a trendy winery or artisanal distillery tasting room and your name is listed on the plaque out front.

That’s the “cherry on top” of a great vacation, and it’s one of the fringe benefits of an innovative web-and app-based service called CellarPass, the first online tasting room and food and wine events search, reservation and ticketing service.

Visitors need never again be turned away or forced to wait to taste at the most in-demand wineries, breweries and distilleries. The CellarPass service allows users to book their own experiences when it suits them, right from a computer, tablet or Smartphone in advance or even on-the-go. CellarPass member destinations greet their reservation guests in their own special way, too: some offer a special bottling with a tasting flight, add chocolates to a tasting, or announce their visit on a plaque out front. CellarPass gives visitors an instant “in,” and they love it.

The best part – the service is free to travelers.

How CellarPass works: With just a few simple clicks or swipes of a finger, wine, beer and spirits lovers can search the venues they want to visit, consult actual visitor reviews, reserve tasting and tour times, map locations, and even navigate directly to the destination with turn-by-turn directions delivered right to their devices. More of a last minute planner? With CellarPass’ “Nearby” function, iPhone and iPad users can view offerings within a specified distance from their exact location and book on the go.

With the recent launch of CellarPass’ ticket service, users also have access to a menu of special tastings, pairing dinners and other exclusive wine country events – all in one place.

CellarPass helps make a dream food and wine vacation hassle-free. Check it out at www.cellarpass.com.

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BeFrugal.com Introduces Fly or Drive Calculator

BeFrugal.com has a Fly or Drive Calculator to help you decide which mode of travel is best © 2013 Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

Say you are planning to travel to from New York City to Montreal. Is it cheaper to fly or drive?

When planning a trip, start with a free online tool to decide whether flying or driving makes more sense to get from point A to point B. The Fly or Drive Calculator (http://www.befrugal.com/tools/fly-or-drive-calculator/) factors in time taken, cost and carbon emissions. Use the Fly or Drive Calculator from money saving website BeFrugal.com to determine the best travel mode for your next trip in a few minutes or less.

Simply enter your starting location, destination, travel dates, number of travelers and whether or not it is a one-way trip. Next you can fast forward to results or insert more detailed, optional information such as the vehicle you’d drive, number of hours to drive daily, hotel cost per night, tolls, airports, time at the airport, flying costs (transportation to and from the airport, checked bag feeds, plane ticket pricing, etc.) then view your customized results. A detailed comparison of your travel options is shown to compare the door-to-door time, total cost and CO2 impact.

BeFrugal.com now provides average coupon savings of 27% per order for online purchases plus an average rate of 7% cash back.

BeFrugal.com offers discounts on travel through coupons, deals and cash back with Travelocity, Marriot, Avis, Expedia and more travel merchants:

• · Codes are posted for online coupons
• · Deals are also posted (these do not require a promo code).
• · Cash back is a portion of an online purchase that is deposited into a free BeFrugal.com account. When you are ready, get paid by PayPal or a check in the mail: http://www.befrugal.com/cashback/

For example, see the BeFrugal page for Marriot http://www.befrugal.com/coupons/store/marriott. Codes, deals and cash back are all available.

Here is a list of travel merchants BeFrugal can help travelers save at http://www.befrugal.com/coupons/category/travel

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MyCityWay, New Mobile App, Helps Visitors Navigate 100 Cities Worldwide

MyCityWay is a situationally-aware smart app available for use in over 100 cities worldwide including 40 U.S. cities.

Visitors have a new mobile app to help them navigate a city. MyCityWay is a situationally-aware smart app available for use in over 100 cities worldwide including 40 U.S. cities.

Bringing in the utility of more than 30 different Apps, MyCityWay applies artificial intelligence technologies once reserved for high-powered algorithmic trading to making navigating a city easy, fun and personalized.

Funded by the City of New York and BMWi Ventures (the venture capital company founded by BMW Group), the MyCityWay app harnesses information from hundreds of content partners, cross-references it to ensure validity and instantaneously prioritizes information according to the users’ needs and preferences by uniquely marrying location, intent, timing and information from their social graph.

MyCityWay helps travelers quickly and easily…

· Move: Find local transportation options, schedules and routes

· Shop: Discover the best boutiques by category, neighborhood and location and find sales and deals close by

· Play: Purchase tickets to tours and attractions across the city and identify free activities, including cultural centers, landmarks, museums, art galleries and parks.

· Eat: Choose the best restaurants by neighborhood or cuisine, read reviews, make reservations and get directions

· Party: Learn about the best a city offers after-hours – nightclubs, lounges, sports bars or comedy clubs

· Take care of business: Pinpoint nearby bathrooms and WiFi hotspots

To download the app, visit iPhone/iPad, Android, Blackberry, Nokia or MyCityWay Download Page.

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JustBook Mobile App for Last-Minute, Discounted Hotel Bookings in Europe Links with Miles & More Frequent Flyer Program

A year after launching its free app, JustBook maintains a leading position in Europe for mobile hotel bookings at the last minute, recording 400,000 downloads of the app.

JustBook is now seeing record bookings as a result of a new collaboration with Miles & More frequent flyer program. Effective as of January 10, 2013, JustBook users collect award miles with Miles & More, the prestigious frequent miles program of Lufthansa and associated airlines. This offer is available for all hotel bookings with JustBook at over 1,000 hotels in 46 cities across Europe, independent of specific hotel chain brands.

This latest initiative makes JustBook the first hotel network enabling its members to earn miles “while they sleep”.

The offer adds to existing collaborations, including the latest strategic media partnership with the Swiss Federal Railway (SBB).

JustBook (www.justbook.com/en) is a leading app for spontaneous hotel bookings in Europe. Every day, three to five selected hotels per destination can be booked from 10 am until 2 am the next day, for the same night.

Since are last minute bookings, users typically enjoy savings of up to 50 percent over prices available online. Currently, JustBook is available in 46 European cities including London, Edinburgh, Berlin, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Madrid and Zurich. The JustBook app is available for free on iPhone, Android and BlackBerry.

 

“Even in the best European hotels, some rooms are often still available at the last minute,” JustBook CEO Stefan Menden said. “Hotel guests can save money with spontaneous bookings. In the short term, hoteliers can gain new customers while optimizing their occupancy. 95% of our users are new customers for the hoteliers. If you book with the app you discover new and interesting hotels. We are also continuously adding useful benefits to JustBook such as now with the award miles from Miles & More.”

JustBook offers hotel customers low rates for same day bookings. The company claims that its prices for last minute mobile bookings are between 20 and 50 percent lower when measured against the prices available on the internet.

The company also points to its customer service. In emergency situations, the customer service team is available on the phone until 2.30 am to assure a good night’s rest for all bookings. Especially during this snowy season that causes chaos at airports, JustBook provides reliable help.

Two-thirds of JustBook customers are business travelers who use the app to travel to meetings at short notice. Also, users turn to JustBook when a meeting runs over its allotted time. However Justbook is also useful for spontaneous weekend trips and getaways.

“Thanks to smartphones, leisure activities are just one touch away,” said Menden. “Whether you’re looking for tickets, a table in a restaurant, or a night at a hotel in order to surprise your partner, this was never as easy and as fast as it is today with your phone. The consumer survey regarding spontaneity is just one example of our analysis. We know the European consumer extremely well after one successful year of expansion across the continent’s four corners. We know hotel guests are considerably more demanding than in the United States for example. Our team in Berlin, Barcelona and London can therefore understand and react very specifically and promptly to all customer requests. ”

For information, visit www.justbook.com/en

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Avenza releases PDF Maps 1.6 update on iTunes App Store

Avenza Systems Inc., a developer of cartographic software – including MAPublisher^® for Adobe^® Illustrator^® and Geographic Imager^® geospatial tools for Adobe Photoshop^® – is has just released PDF Maps 1.6, the latest version of the popular map and navigation app on the Apple iOS platform. The PDF Maps app allows users to explore and navigate maps offline without having to worry about cellular data connectivity or incur data roaming charges compared to other streaming map apps.

“The focus of this release is about enhancing existing features and tools to allow our users to experience, navigate, and view maps on Apple iOS devices even better” said Ted Florence, President of Avenza. “Many of the optimizations and improvements have stemmed from user feedback. We’re listening to our users and creating tools that suit their needs. In the end, we’re making a much better product than even we anticipated,” he added.

This release of PDF Maps offers many features including:

• · Data collection – You can now create, import, and export attribute schemas with pick lists.
• · Improved organization – Added folders to the Map List and the ability to move maps between folders.
• · Nearby maps – Maps within 100 km will be shown when panning to the edges of a map.
• · Measure Tool optimization – Measure Area and Measure Direction tools are now merged into one tool. There is also a new option to create custom units.
• · New coordinate display format – Added the Degree Decimal Minutes format.
• · Add placemark optimization – Placemarks can now be added while following your current location.
• · GPS mode optimization – GPS mode is more tolerant to movements and allows adding placemarks while following your location.
• · Photos taken within the app are now saved to the Camera Roll.
• · Improved KML/KMZ file compatibility with Avenza MAPublisher and Esri software.

The PDF Maps app takes advantage of geospatial technology that allows travelers to view and measure real world locations and attributes. Paired together with mobile devices that utilize GPS, such as an iPhone or iPad, the PDF Maps app provides constant access to geographic locations and even points of interest without the risk of losing reception due to cell tower proximity – making it the ultimate traveling accessory for those that are enthusiastic about travel or anywhere internet bandwidth is not available or is cost-prohibitive when roaming internationally. In combination with the embedded map store PDF Maps takes map use commerce into the iTunes-like digital age previously reserved for music, books and videos.

PDF Maps is available now on the iTunes App Store free of charge for personal use. For more information about the app and Avenza Map Store , visit the PDF Maps website at www.pdf-maps.com. Pricing of each map is set by the publisher and free maps remain free to users through the PDF Maps in-app map store.

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