A mobile app called Shower With Friends took first place on Sunday in the TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2014 Hackathon.

But don't take the name too literally. The app doesn't actually encourage you to share a shower with your friends, but rather to compete with friends while you shower (alone) in a game to reduce water consumption. The idea is to encourage environmentally-friendly behavior.

The app, developed by Neil Mansilla, Bob Pielock, Tarandeep Bali, George Perry, and Vivek Chopra, monitors how long you spend in the shower and notifies you via text message whether you used more or less gallons of water compared to the previous day. The information can be shared with friends to compete over who can take the shortest shower.

We like this idea, especially as a fun way to conserve water in drought-stricken states like California. It intends to tackle the drought problem by reducing everyone's shower time by three minutes, the app creators said during their presentation.

A total of 132 teams participated in the competition. An app called Blitz was the first runner-up. 

SEE ALSO: How The Drought Completely Enveloped California In Just Over 3 Years

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MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Sepp Blatter will run for a fifth, four-year term as FIFA president.

The 78-year-old Swiss had pledged before his re-election in 2011 that his current term would be his last. But buoyed by a successful World Cup in Brazil and UEFA President Michel Platini opting not to stand in next year's election, Blatter believes he has the backing to win again.

"I will make an official declaration definitely in September now when we have the executive committee," Blatter said in a pre-recorded interview shown Monday at the SoccerEx conference. "I will inform the executive committee. It's a question of respect also to say then to the football family, 'Yes I will be ready. I will be a candidate.'"

Blatter, who was re-elected unopposed in 2011, had previously stopped short of confirming his candidacy for the May election. Despite ongoing corruption scandals engulfing FIFA and opposition within UEFA, Blatter appears to have retained the support of most national federations.

"A mission is never finished — and my mission is not finished," Blatter said. "I got (from) the last congress in Sao Paulo not only the impression but the support of the majority, a huge majority of national associations asking 'Please go on, be our president also in future.'"

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ATLANTA (AP) — S. Truett Cathy, the billionaire founder of the privately held Chick-fil-A restaurant chain that famously closes on Sundays but also drew unwanted attention on gay marriage in recent years because of his family's conservative views, died early Monday, a company spokesman said. He was 93.

Chick-fil-A spokesman Mark Baldwin told The Associated Press that Cathy died at home surrounded by members of his family. Funeral plans had not yet been finalized, he said.

Cathy opened his first postwar diner in an Atlanta suburb in 1946 and by 1967 he had founded and opened his first Chick-fil-A Inc. restaurant in Atlanta. Over ensuing decades, the chain's boneless chicken sandwich he is credited with inventing would propel Chick-fil-A expansion to more than 1,800 outlets in 39 states and the nation's capital. By early 2013, the company says on its website, annual sales topped $5 billion as the chain offered up a taste of the South that went beyond chicken to such offerings as sweet tea, biscuits and gravy.

Under the religiously conservative founder, the chain gained prominence for its Bible Belt observance of Sunday — none of its hundreds of restaurants are open on that day, to allow employees a day of rest. Its executives often said the chain made as much money in six days as its competitors do in seven.

Those religious views helped win Cathy and his family loyal following from conservative customers, but also invited protests when Cathy's son denounced gay marriage.

Cathy's son, Dan, who is currently chairman and president of the chain, had told the Baptist Press in 2012 that the company was "guilty as charged" for backing "the biblical definition of a family." Gay rights groups and others called for boycotts and kiss-ins at Cathy's restaurants. The Jim Henson Co. pulled its Muppet toys from kids' meals, while politicians in Boston and Chicago told the chain it is not welcome there.

The controversy later subsided.

The family-owned company has said it has had 46 consecutive years of positive sales growth. Cathy's $6 billion fortune as the founder of Chick-fil-A puts him on the yearly Forbes magazine list of the wealthiest Americans in the country. The company has listed him on its website as its chairman emeritus after he left day-to-day operations to younger generations.

Truett Cathy began his career in the restaurant business by opening with his brother in 1946 an Atlanta diner called The Dwarf Grill, which was named for the short and stout shape of the restaurant.

He has attributed his hardworking nature — even as a little boy he made money by selling six bottles of Coca-Cola for a quarter — to growing up poor.

"I've experienced poverty and plenty and there's a lesson to be learned when you're brought up in poverty," he said in 2007. "I had to create some good work habits and attitude."

Even well into his 80s, Cathy was actively involved in the chain's operations, including setting up a contract with his children that said they may sell the privately-owned chain in the future but the company must never go public.

"Why would I retire from something I enjoy doing?" Cathy said in a 2007 interview. "I can hardly wait to get here."

An opportunity in 1961 led to the development of the restaurant chain's trademark chicken sandwich when a company that cooked boneless, skinless chicken for airline meals wanted to sell him pieces that were too big for the airline customer's needs. Cathy took those pieces and cooked them in a pressure cooker and served them in buttered buns.

The sandwich was sold at independent restaurants for a few years before he opened his first Chick-fil-A restaurant at an Atlanta shopping mall in 1967.

Cathy also was known for his efforts to help youth. In 1984 he created the WinShape Foundation to help "shape winners" through youth support programs and scholarships. He also created a long-term program for foster children that has foster care homes in Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee and Brazil.

His sympathy for children was demonstrated in August 2008 when he worked out a deal with the parents of two girls who were accused of causing $30,000 in damage to a home he owned in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. The girls were banned from watching TV and playing video games. They also had to write "I will not vandalize other people's property" 1,000 times.

He told the Daytona Beach News-Journal that he didn't want to have them prosecuted and left with a criminal record.

As the author of several books, his 2007 book "How Did You Do It, Truett?" outlined his strategy for success that included setting priorities, being courteous, cautiously expanding a business and not being burdened with debt.

"There's really no secret for success," he said then. "I hope it will open eyes for people. They don't have to follow my recipe but this is what works for me."

Cathy is survived by his wife of 65 years, Jeannette McNeil Cathy; sons Dan T. and Don "Bubba" Cathy; daughter Trudy Cathy White; 19 grandchildren and 18 great-grandchildren, according to a company statement.

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Reddit is reportedly raising new money at a valuation topping $500 million, Re/code said on Monday.

According to Re/code: "Sources said the almost-anything-goes site has reached a preliminary agreement to sell less than 10 percent of the company for more than $50 million."

Investors in the new funding round are rumored to include the site's founder Alexis Ohanian, Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, and individuals connected to Y Combinator.

Sources who spoke to Re/code about the investment claimed that Advance Publications, the Condé Nast parent company, will continue to own around 50% of Reddit.

Reddit has been mired in controversy recently over its involvement with the spread of stolen nude celebrity photos that emerged after a widespread iCloud hack. The site had avoided clamping down on communities and users sharing the images via the site, but acted on Saturday to ban the "Fappening" subreddit that had served as a hub for users to post the stolen photographs.

SEE ALSO: Reddit Just Banned The Subreddit Where People Were Posting The Celebrity Nude Images

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As the excitement over the Scottish independence referendum (on Sept 18) heats up, Paul Krugman is getting in on the debate, with an important warning to the new would-be nation.

If an independent Scotland continues to use the Pound, as the leaders of the independence movement hope, then the country would be giving up a key measure of economic security.

Krugman recalls what may be the biggest lesson we've learned from the Eurozone crisis, which is that countries that can't print their own money can get into severe sovereign debt crises, while countries that have their own currencies don't (typically). 

A good comparison is the UK vs. Ireland. Both had huge banking systems that required bailouts, but only in the UK (where they could print their own money) were these bailouts done smoothly, without imperiling the stability of the government.

Krugman further demonstrates the importance of having your own currency by comparing Spain and Florida, a comparison he's made several times in the past. Spain got into severe trouble, because it couldn't easily backstop its own banks, or provide counter-cyclical fiscal relief to counteract the real estate bust. Florida, on the other hand, didn't bear the entire burden of its downturn, and because of Federal fiscal backstops, there was no wholesale crisis of the Floridian banking system.

If Spain and the other countries that gave up their own currencies to adopt the euro were part of a true federal system, with shared institutions of government, the recent economic history of Spain would have looked a lot like that of Florida. Both economies experienced a huge housing boom between 2000 and 2007. Both saw that boom turn into a spectacular bust. Both suffered a sharp downturn as a result of that bust. In both places the slump meant a plunge in tax receipts and a surge in spending on unemployment benefits and other forms of aid.

Then, however, the paths diverged. In Florida’s case, most of the fiscal burden of the slump fell not on the local government but on Washington, which continued to pay for the state’s Social Security and Medicare benefits, as well as for much of the increased aid to the unemployed. There were large losses on housing loans, and many Florida banks failed, but many of the losses fell on federal lending agencies, while bank depositors were protected by federal insurance. You get the picture. In effect, Florida received large-scale aid in its time of distress.

If Scotland doesn't have its own currency, it will not only be unable to provide a backstop to its banking system, it will be at the whim of U.K. monetary policy.

If pro-Independence Scottish voters see keeping the pound as a positive, they ought to reconsider.

SEE ALSO: Here's everything you need to know about the Scottish independence referendum.

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Mobile Insider is delivered first thing every morning exclusively to BI Intelligence members.

ALL EYES ARE ON APPLE: Apple's highly anticipated product unveiling is September 9. Rumors continue to swirl about what exactly the company will launch. Here's a roundup of what many experts are expecting to see: 

• A new iPhone 6 will almost certainly be unveiled. It will reportedly come in two different sizes: 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch.
• Mobile wallets seem to be another big bet. The company is reportedly sending updated iBeacon sensors to stores nationwide as well as shipping NFC readers, says 9to5Mac. 
• An Apple-made wearable, currently dubbed the iWatch, is also expected to be revealed. It will come with health tracking capabilities, and may also be equipped with NFC technology to incorporate the aforementioned Apple wallet program.
• As for price, one rumor claims the iWatch could be as much as $400. Additionally, those familiar with the manufacturing chain believe it won't be shipped until 2015. 

MARKETERS NEED TO CATCH UP WITH THE MOBILE TREND: A new study conducted by Forrester looks at the mobile marketing landscape, and found it to be rising but still in its infancy. Advertisers, the report found, are increasingly launching mobile campaigns, yet they are still impeded with problems like targeting and proper campaign engagement metrics. In fact, 86% of the marketers surveyed said they would have invested more in mobile campaigns had there been more effective measurements to track engagement. In short, mobile marketing is at a place where agencies now need to incorporate better metrics to ensure campaigns are working properly. 

The real takeaway is that consumers are increasingly using mobile yet marketing hasn't quite yet mastered it. "The eyeballs and wallets have migrated to mobile wallets," Josh Herman, VP of product and strategy at marketing technology company Acxiom (who co-sponsored the survey with tech advisement firm 4INFO) said to BI Intelligence. "How do you leverage the investment?" He went on to explain that this study proves that it's not a question anymore on whether mobile advertising is a necessity, but how best to implement it. As Herman sees it, it's time for marketers to "catch up with ubiquitous consumer behavior."

T-MOBILE SUES HUAWEI OVER STOLEN ROBOT TECHNOLOGY: T-Mobile has filed a suit against Chinese hardware company Huawei. The U.S. telco alleges that Huawei has been illegally using its software specifications on a "cellphone-testing robot" Huawei calls "Tappy." The lawsuit claims that Huawei employees even tried to steal T-Mobile components out of its lab in Bellevue, reports the Seattle Times. The Chinese company admits that some of its employees may have acted improperly, but claims it has not stolen any of T-Mobile's technology. 

ANDROID STILL REIGNS, BUT LOST SOME U.S. MARKETSHARE: Android is still the dominant mobile operating system in the U.S. with 55.5% of the smartphone subscriber marketshare, compared to iOS's 42.4%, according to numbers from comScore. At the same time, Android did see a 1% dip from April 2014 to July 2014, and iOS saw a 1% increase in that same time-span. Additionally, smartphone subscriptions increased 3% this last 4 months, with 173 million people in the U.S. owning the devices.  

NEST NOW AVAILABLE IN THE E.U.: Google-owned smart thermostat maker Nest has announced that it is now available in more European Union countries: Belgium, France, Ireland, and the Netherlands. Before, it was only for sale in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. 

INDUSTRY MOVES:

• Music streaming service Pandora has hired Katie Peters to lead its governmental affairs division. The company has been faced with numerous legal woes over music licensing. Before, Peters worked as a lobbyist for Motorola Mobility.
• Anand Shimpi, the founder of the well-known tech blog AnandTech announced last week that he is leaving the site. Reports say he is going to take a new position at Apple. His former mobile editor Brian Klug has also joined Apple as well. 
• Keeping with the Apple trend, industrial designer Marc Newsom has joined Apple. Wired says this is big because, "it means that Apple will now officially have two of the world's best-known and most influential designers working together on future products." Well known Apple designer Jony Ive and Newsom are said to be good friends. 

Have news? Tips? Insights? Email me: cweissman@businessinsider.com

Here's what else BI Intelligence subscribers are reading…

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Tablet Demand Is Growing In The Education Sector

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The U.S. is winning and Europe is losing.

That's the basic gist of the diverging global economic stories.

Deteriorating data out of Europe has the European Central Bank surprising us with more monetary policy easing while strong U.S. economic data has Federal Reserve officials saying we should prepare for earlier tightening.

Even Friday's relatively disappointing August jobs report was arguably good.

Here's your Monday Scouting Report:

Top Stories

• The Good From The Ugly Jobs Report: The August jobs report was a big whiff. U.S. companies added just 142,000 nonfarm payrolls during the month, missing expectations for a gain of 230,000. The prior two months saw their payroll numbers revised down by 28,000.
  
  But otherwise, the report had some good details that should have us encouraged.
  
  "Fortunately, a number of areas showed improvement, including those that speak to the structural health of the labor market," wrote Allianz's Mohamed El-Erian. "Long-term unemployment fell by 192,000 to 3 million while the rate of teenage unemployment declined from 20.2 percent in July to 19.6 percent in August, a full three percentage points lower than a year ago. Annual wage growth edged up to 2.1 percent, led by a stronger private sector. And the improvements in both conventional and broader unemployment measures, while slight, were genuine and not due to a decline in labor participation."

Economic Calendar

• Consumer Credit (Mon): Economists estimate consumer credit balances increased by $17.0 billion in July. "Non-revolving consumer credit growth has accelerated in recent months (likely due to an increase in auto loans), while revolving credit continues to grow at an anemic pace," noted Nomura economists.
• Job Opening & Labor Turnvover Survey (Tues): Economists estimate the JOLTS report will reveal 4.711 million U.S. job openings in July. From Credit Suisse: "JOLTS (Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey) has garnered more attention lately as Fed Chair Yellen often cites the survey when assessing the state of the labor market. In June, JOLTS job openings continued to strengthen, rising to 4.7M and job vacancies per unemployed worker increased to 0.49, the highest level since May 2008. The ratio of vacancies to unemployed workers has risen much faster than its post-crisis trend for three months in a row, providing further confirmation that the US labor market has indeed shifted to a period of stronger growth. However, the rate of hiring rose only slightly and quits were unchanged in June, remaining well below pre-crisis levels."
• Initial Jobless Claims (Thurs): Economists estimate weekly initial claims ticked down to 300,000 from 302,000 a week ago. "Initial claims have hovered around 300k (near pre- recession lows) for the past couple of months and should continue to do so as labor markets tighten," said Nomura economists. "Note that we could see some volatility in claims in coming weeks from the Labor Day holiday and the mass layoffs at Atlantic City casinos."
• Monthly Budget Statement (Thurs): Economists estimate the U.S. budget deficit was $130.0 billion in August.
• Retail Sales (Fri): Economists estimate sales climbed by 0.6% in August, or 0.4% excluding autos and gas. "While retail sales growth has been softening on a month-over- month basis, we continue to see relatively strong year-over-year gains," said Wells Fargo's John Silvia. "The recent pickup in revolving consumer credit may help support retail sales going forward, as consumers become more comfortable relying on their credit cards again for spending amid continuing improvement in people’s views on the economy and financial standing."
• Univ. Of Michigan Confidence (Fri): Economists estimate this index of sentiment climbed to 83.5 in September from 82.5 in August. "With broad equity indexes near record highs and gasoline prices falling, the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index for early September probably will reflect some of the improvement already captured in late August," said Credit Suisse economists. "However, the gain in the headline sentiment index probably will be mitigated by continued pessimism about future wage growth."

Market Commentary

At least a few top stock market strategists believe this bull market is far from over. On Tuesday, Morgan Stanley's Adam Parker predicted that the S&P 500 could go from around 2,000 today to 3,000 in about five years before the bull market ends.

"We believe a prolonged period of deleveraging in the U.S., coupled with an uneven global recovery, are just two of the reasons why this could prove to be the longest U.S. expansion — ever," Parker wrote.

RBC Capital Markets' Jonathan Golub shared a similar sentiment in a research note publish around the same time as Parker's.

"Earnings projections for 2015–16 have been rising since April, reversing a downward trend," Golub wrote. "We believe this reflects growing optimism (especially among CEOs via stronger guidance) on the direction of the economy. Given a lower cost of capital and enhanced growth prospects, we see further upside to stocks over the next several years."

Years.

For more insight about the middle market, visit mid-marketpulse.com.

SEE ALSO: Warren Buffett's 23 Most Brilliant Insights About Investing

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Apple stores are typically regarded as providing one of the more pleasant experiences you can find in the retail shopping world.

This doesn't happen by accident. Apple has meticulously planned every little detail of their stores from the physical design, to the customer service the "specialists" provide, which will ultimately make you spend money on their precious products. 

We spoke with Carmine Gallo, an expert on Apple's employee training to learn more about the secrets behind the brand's unique customer service. 

You can look further into Apple's ways by reading his book: "The Apple Experience". 

Produced by Justin Gmoser. Narrated by Matt Johnston. 

Follow BI Video: On Facebook 

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Good morning! Here's what you need to know.

Scotland May Actually Vote For Independence. A new poll out of the U.K. revealed that voters favoring Scottish independence are in the lead. "While the vote (on Sept. 18) has been expected to be close for some time, very few gave the pro-Independence YES side much of a chance of actually winning," BI's Joe Weisenthal reported. "That's now officially changed, and it now looks like a coin-toss as to whether Scotland will leave Great Britain and become an independent nation."

The Pound Is Getting Destroyed. Amid all of this uncertainty, the British pound is getting slammed. It's down be around 1% against the U.S. dollar and the euro today.

Markets Are In The Red. In Europe, Britain's FTSE is down 0.9%, France's CAC 40 is down 0.3%, and Germany's DAX is down 0.1%. Asia closed mixed with Japan's Nikkei up 0.2% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng down 0.2%. U.S. futures are point down with Dow futures down 28 points and S&P futures down 2.9 points.

China's Trade Report Was Good And Bad. China's exports jumped 9.4% in August, beating expectations for a 9.0% growth. This is reflects the better-than-expected health of China's trading partners around the world. Imports, however, unexpectedly fell by 2.4%; economists were forecasting a 3.0% gain.

Japan Shrinks More Than Expected. "Japan's economy shrank an annualized 7.1% in April-June from the previous quarter, more than a preliminary estimate, underscoring concerns the hit from an April increase in the sales tax may have been bigger than expected," reported Reuters Leika Kihara. "The revised contraction was the biggest since January-March 2009, when the global financial crisis hit Japan's exports and factory output, keeping policymakers under pressure to expand fiscal and monetary stimulus should the economy fail to recover from the disruption of the April tax hike."

Germany's Trade Surplus Booms. Germany's exports jumped 4.7% in July, beating expectations for a 0.6% increase. This helped Germany's trade surplus widen to 23.4 billion euros, which compares to economists expectations for 16.8 billion. "Today’s impressive rebound in Germany’s external balance is welcome news from the point of view of Q3 GDP growth, but also slightly difficult to square with a generally flat-lining trend in net trade in recent months," said Pantheon Macroeconomics' Claus Vistesen. "[T]he incoming numbers for factory orders and industrial production also showed some odd upside surprises in July, and it is still too early to say whether this marks the beginning of a new positive trend."

European Investor Confidence Crashes. The Sentix investor confidence index plunged to -9.8 in September from +2.7 in August. Investors were expecting a print of +1.4. "Today’s drop marks the lowest reading of the aggregate Sentix index since July 2013, and indicate that investors are still downbeat," noted Pantheon's Vistesen. "We had hoped for stabilisation in investor sentiment this month given a rebound in equity prices, a weaker euro, and expectations of additional action by the ECB. But we are seeing little signs of this so far in this first investor survey for September. "

Alibaba To Raise $21 Billion In Its IPO. In an SEC filing on Friday afternoon, Alibaba said it would offer up to 320 million shares for between $60 and $66 per share. This would put the company's market value at around $160 billion.

Yahoo!. "After pouring about $1 billion nine years ago into Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., Yahoo! Inc. is set to reap a massive haul as the Chinese e-commerce company goes public: more than $8 billion," reported Bloomberg's Brian Womack. "The payout would punctuate Yahoo’s long investment after Alibaba pushed up the value of the Sunnyvale, California-based Web portal over the years. A new war chest of cash would enable Yahoo to do more buybacks and potentially more acquisitions."

GE Appliances Are Heading To Electrolux. "Sweden's Electrolux said on Monday it would buy General Electric Co's appliances business for $3.3 billion in cash to double sales in North America and take on rival Whirlpool Corp in its biggest ever deal," reported Reuters' Simon Johnson. "Electrolux, which sells under brands such as Frigidaire, AEG and Zanussi as well as its own name, is already the world's second-largest home appliance maker after Whirlpool, but has its strongest market position in Europe."

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Dave Lutz of JonesTrading has the top topics about which traders are talking today:

US futures are ticking slightly lower as the Growth trade is under pressure – not just fresh EU sanctions, but a Scotland Poll this weekend has Pound getting whacked, UK and EU equities under pressure – and a bid under Bunds and Treasuries. The Ukrainian Cease-Fire held over the weekend, but Micex is off small. Trade is light right now, with the DAX off 20bp in volumes 10% light to the last few weeks. FTSE is trading 60% heavier than normal as it loses 1%. A quiet day over in Asia (China, Taiwan, and South Korea closed), Japan GDP revised lower weighed on Yen, sparking a 20bp pop in Nikkei. Aussie Stocks going Ex Divvy pressed their market lower as miners were unchanged - Emerging markets are jumping, led by a 1% overnight jump in India as they approach festival season.

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If you were at a music festival in Michigan over the weekend, you may have been serenaded by Tom Hiddleston.

MTV reports the "Avengers" actor crashed the Wheatland Music Festival Saturday to take over the stage and perform a rendition of country singer Hank Williams' "Move It on Over."

It seems a bit random; however, the actor, best known for his role as Loki in the Marvel universe, is playing Williams in future biopic "I Saw the Light."

It looks like Hiddleston wanted to get a bit of practice in for the role.

You can watch a piece of the performance below as captured by one spectator.

SEE ALSO: Tom Hiddleston sent an amazing email to director Joss Whedon after reading "The Avengers" script for the first time

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Politicians from the UK's three main parties are launching a frantic final push after a shock poll put the pro-independence campaign ahead in Scotland for the first time with only 10 days to go before the vote. With the weakening pound indicating that financial markets are now taking the prospects of Scotland voting Yes seriously it seems those who felt that Sept. 18 would be a one-way bet are quickly hedging their positions.

Here are five things to watch out for over the next week:

1) The giveaways are coming...

Prime Minister David Cameron has already dangled the carrot of giving Scotland further powers over tax and spending policy "soon" if the country votes No to independence. This will likely take the form of the so-called "devolution max," whereby the Scottish parliament will be given increased powers to set tax rates, in particular income tax, and greater control over welfare policy.

In a poll in February, 32% of respondents said they supported Devo Max — whereby Scotland would have control over all policy except for defense and foreign affairs — compared with 31% who favored full independence. However, the survey found that if voters were given the head-to-head choice of Devo Max versus independence, the former would have 61% of the vote to the latter's 39%.

The additional powers are part of Cameron's last-ditch attempt to sway voters who favor giving more powers to the Scottish Parliament, but are who wary of the potential costs that full independence might bring. The question is, however, whether voters will see this as a genuine promise or last-minute panic from Westminster.

2) Scotland will be seeing a lot more of this man: Labour party leader Ed Miliband. 

The oft-repeated joke is that there are more pandas in Edinburgh zoo than Scottish Conservative MPs in Westminster (for the record, there are currently two pandas — with another possibly on the way— to one Scottish Conservative MP). One of the major complaints by First Minister Alex Salmond during the pre-referendum TV debates has been that Scotland has spent more of his lifetime under Conservative governments that he didn't vote for, than any other party.

Labour, however, has a much stronger foothold north of the border having won 41 of the 59 available Scottish seats in the House of Commons at the last election. So who better to provide some much-need support to the Better Together campaign than the leader of the opposition, a man presumably as committed to getting the Conservatives out of power as the Scottish National Party?

Ed Miliband, leader of the Labour party, will be making an appearance in Glasgow next week alongside former Prime Minister Gordon Brown and has called on Labour MPs from England and Wales to “get up there” to help their Scottish counterparts make the case for Union. If the polls remain as tight as they have been, you can expect to see a lot more of the Labour leader and a lot less of the Prime Minister.

3) Every new poll will be greeted as if it's the end of everything, but treat them with caution.

Pollsters tend to be highly professional these days, and the quality of political polling has improved immeasurably over recent years. Nevertheless, these professionals are fully aware of the limitations of a single poll and will constantly point to the importance of looking at the trend rather than the individual data points.

So headlines proclaiming victory for the Yes after a poll gave them 51% to the No's 49% should be treated with extreme caution. The lead is safely within the traditional margin of error for these surveys — so these results could equally suggest the No vote is maintaining a narrow lead.

The trend away from the pro-Union camp and toward the Yes vote over the past month, however, is quite clear as the Financial Times poll tracker shows.

4) Neither side will acknowledge the existence of a Plan B — but both will be working on one frantically.

Despite confident claims by Westminster and Holyrood politicians that they will be victorious on Sept. 18, the tightness of the polls suggests this race is far, far from a forgone conclusion. While campaigning will continue in earnest, behind-the-scenes plans for the fallout if the vote goes the wrong way will be readied will equal vigor.

Chief among the concerns will be the fact that Scotland is home to a number of key strategic assets for the U.K. As a report by the government last year pointed out, Scotland is already an integral part of the country's defense arrangements, hosting just under 8% of armed forces personnel. Underlining the region's importance, the report says that under current plans by 2020 "Scotland will be home to one of three Royal Navy main bases, including all its submarines, one of the British Army’s seven Adaptable Force Brigades and one of three Royal Air Force fast jet main operating bases."

The critical role of Scotland to the Ministry of Defense's plans is likely to mean that, however heated the rhetoric gets over the next 10 days, there will be plenty of wiggle-room for negotiation irrespective of which way the vote goes.

5) There will be cupcakes.

The battle to win over Scottish people's stomachs appears to be every bit as competitive. Members of the group "English Scots for YES" handed out free tea and baby blue frosted cupcakes on Sunday.

SEE ALSO: The Pound Is Getting Destroyed After Scotland Poll Stunner

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After a leaked photo emerged last week that claimed to reveal a 2,915 mAh capacity battery for the 5.5-inch iPhone 6, a new video posted by Nowhereelse (via MacRumors’ Richard Padilla) once again shows an identical 2,915 mAh battery, which falls in line with previous leaks as well.

Check out the video at the bottom of the page.

The iPhone 5S features a 1,560 mAh battery, but that phone’s display only measure 4 inches. The 5.5-inch LG G3 has a 3,000 mAh battery, while the 5.7-inch Galaxy Note 4 has a 3,220 mAh battery — those phones boast talk times of 19 hours and 21+ hours, respectively. The iPhone 5S only gets about 10 hours of talk time.

Considering battery life tends to be an issue with Apple devices, it’s not unreasonable to think Apple would power its biggest phone yet with such a big battery.

Earlier last month, it was rumored the smaller iPhone 6 variant — the 4.7-inch model — would feature a 2,100 mAh battery. The similarly-sized Samsung Galaxy S3, with its 4.8-inch display, has an identical 2,100 mAh battery.

Two separate surveys from WalletHero and Finances Online say “better battery life” is the most wanted feature in the next iPhone. 

We’ll learn more about the batteries of the two iPhone 6 models, and how much they improve overall life in those handsets, during Apple’s big event on Tuesday.

Here's the video:

SEE ALSO: Take A Tour Through Facebook's Gorgeous Data Centers

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At least one prominent fact-checking organization is calling out President Barack Obama for falsely claiming he "wasn't specifically referring to" Islamic State militants when he dismissed them as a "JV" team.

During a Sunday interview on NBC's "Meet the Press," Obama was pressed on the comments, published in a January profile in the New Yorker. In the piece, Obama was asked about the jihadist militants that had just captured Fallujah, Iraq. He replied, "The analogy we use around here sometimes, and I think is accurate, is if a jayvee team puts on Lakers uniforms that doesn’t make them Kobe Bryant."

Obama told "Meet the Press" host Chuck Todd that he was speaking broadly at the time and not specifically about the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, that has recently killed two American journalists and is threatening still more violence.

"Keep in mind I wasn't specifically referring to ISIL. I've said that, regionally, there were a whole series of organizations that were focused primarily locally," Obama said, according to an NBC transcript. "And I was very specific at that time. What I said was, not every regional terrorist organization is automatically a threat to us that would call for a major offensive."

But Politifact, a leading fact-checking organization, subsequently rated Obama's recollection as "false." Politifact even reached out to the author of the New Yorker piece to confirm the specific context of Obama's quote: the capture of Fallujah just days before.

"At the time, Islamic State (often referred to as by its acronyms ISIS or ISIL) was not a household name. It was often referred to as an al-Qaeda-linked group in press reports. But reports from the time clearly indicate that the group was responsible for taking over the city," Politifact reported. "We rate the statement False."

In August, a White House spokesman similarly insisted Obama was talking about multiple groups in the New Yorker interview — not just the Islamic State. At the time, the Washington Post's own fact-checking service rated the administration's spin with "Four Pinocchios.

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A tenuous ceasefire between Ukraine and Russian-backed separatists is holding for now, but the prospect of a political deal to end the crisis is still far away.

With Ukrainian parliamentary elections seven weeks away and tensions simmering, there is little chance that Kiev will make concessions that Vladimir Putin wants before fighting breaks out again.

“The Putin goal is federalization in some way creating an autonomous region inside Ukraine that would influence the whole of Ukraine, in a political way, military way, economic way, binding it with Russia and preventing the whole of Ukraine from going very rapidly to the West without consulting with the Kremlin and with Putin," Alexander Baunov, a Russian writer and political commentator, told The New York Times.

Yuri V. Lutsenko, an influential adviser to Ukraine President Petro O. Poroshenko who is leading his party in elections, wrote on Sunday that the idea of creating a special autonomous zone in the east would be “a cancerous tumor in the Ukrainian organism.” 

He added that “when our living standard will be attractive even for Kremlin-poisoned Donbass citizens, we will open the doors to all who recognize the integral, unitary European Ukraine.”

In the long term, Putin has a lot of things going for him, including Ukraine's imploding economy, the threat of a further Russian invasion, the hesitance of Europe, the face that winter is coming, the state of Ukraine's battered army and militias.

Putin's aim in Ukraine may involve creating a frozen conflict with a breakaway region in Ukraine's southeast corner, or he could push toward creating a land bridge with Crimea (which was annexed in March). The latter option would intensify the war significantly.

In any case, all signs point to a lengthy struggle between Russia and the West as Putin imposes his will.

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Welcome to Apple day. It's going to be warm, with a potential for showers later in the day in New York. But who cares. It's Apple day. 

1. Apple is going to host a whopper of an event where it will announce two new iPhones, a new mobile payments system, and some sort of wearable gadget that everyone calls the iWatch. The fun starts at 1 PM eastern.
2. Here's what happens to Apple's stock on the days that it announces a new iPhone. Historically, it drops.
3. U2 will be at the Apple announcement, and its new album is in some way connected to the new iPhone.
4. Amazon has slashed the price of the Fire phone, it's now $0.99 on a two-year contract, down from $199.
5. Twitter is adding a "buy" button to tweets to enable brands, artists, and charities to sell stuff to Twitter users. Commerce has largely failed with social networks, and there's little reason to believe Twitter can buck that trend.
6. Uber's CEO spoke yesterday and said he thinks the company needs to be a little bit kinder and gentler now that it's one of the biggest, most valuable startups in the world. He says the fierce, scrappy style that works for a startup doesn't look so good for a bigger company.
7. Alexis Ohanian is calling for a day of protest on September 10th to maintain net neutrality."We face a new threat, one that would undermine the most basic principles of the internet as we know it. That threat is a legal proposal by the Federal Communications Commission that would authorize cable and phone companies to create a two-tiered internet, with congested Internet slow lanes for all of us and fast lanes for the giants that can pay them."
8. Tinder has settled its lawsuit with Whitney Wolfe, the ousted founder who accused the company of harassment.
9. Our review of the new Motorola Moto X phone: One of the best Android phones on the market.
10. Microsoft rolled out a new product called Delve, which is sort of like Google Now for Microsoft Office.

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"Hundreds of thousands of partners" are connected to Uber's platform, and the company is now creating 50,000 jobs a month, Mashable reported.

The figures were first announced in an interview with the CEO and cofounder Travis Kalanick at TechCrunch Disrupt Hackathon in San Francisco. Uber then confirmed the figures in an email to Mashable.

The most recent Uber monthly recruitment figures are 30,000 more than May's figure. (What Uber has not reported is the number of traditional taxi-driving jobs it is destroying. Bhairavi Desai, the executive director of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, which represents 50,000 drivers, has said that, “If the Ubers of the world are successful, we’ll be reduced to nothing.”)

Uber is available in 45 countries and operates in 128 cities. It raised more than a billion dollars in June and is valued at more than $18 billion.

But the app has been controversial for traditional taxi drivers — Uber works out the cost of its riders' journeys in the same way as using a taxi meter, which only traditional cabs are often legally entitled to use.

Many capital cities in Europe including London, Paris, and Berlin have seen drivers stage protests in opposition to Uber, with traditional cab drivers saying that Uber drivers have an unfair advantage because they are not subjected to the same kind of fees and regulations as traditional taxis are.

Uber has even been barred in the country that invented the word, Germany, for violating the country's Passenger Transport Act.

In June, The Independent conducted a test, pitting Uber against London's traditional black cabs. The paper found that Uber was both quicker and cheaper than getting a black cab on the same route.

In the Disrupt Q&A, Kalanick was asked whether he minded being called the "Darth Vader in the startup world."He told TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington:

When you're scrapping that hard, it requires you to be abnormally perfectionist, abnormally fierce.

Watch Michael Arrington in conversation with Uber's Travis Kalanick at TechCrunch Disrupt.

SEE ALSO: An App That Could Help Solve California's Water Shortage Just Won TechCrunch's 2014 Hackathon

Don't miss: Drivers Are Protesting Outside Uber's Office In New York

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Bank of England Governor Mark Carney signaled a U.K. interest rate hike could come in early 2015.

"Our latest forecasts show that, if interest rates were to follow the path expected by markets – that is, beginning to increase by the spring and thereafter rising very gradually – inflation would settle at around 2% by the end of the forecast and a further 1.2 million jobs would have been created,"Carney said at the Trade Union Congress in Liverpool.

Thanks to a respectable economic recovery, the U.K. stands to be the first of the major developed economies to experience tighter monetary policy in the post-financial crisis era.

Like many countries, the U.K. faces low inflation highlighted by low wage growth. One of the big concerns in monetary policy is that central bankers will pull dovish policy before wages are on a sustainable growth path.

"As employment approaches its new higher level, wage pressures should increase and capital investment should continue to recover," Carney added. "Productivity growth should pick up bringing the higher, sustainable pay rises that British workers deserve.

"By the end of our forecast, we see 4% nominal pay growth on average across the economy. This is consistent with our inflation target and the economy’s potential."

Read Carney's whole speech at the Bank of England's website.

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Good morning! Here's what you need to know:

Here Comes Apple. Apple is expected to unveil new products on Tuesday including the iPhone 6, a smartwatch, and a new payments system. "Apple hasn't released a new product in 2014, save for some minor refreshes to a few of its MacBook models," reported BI's Steve Kovach. "Instead, it's packing all its announcements into the fall. And it all starts Tuesday."Click here for a complete preview of Tuesday's Apple event.

The Stakes Are High For Tim Cook. BI's Jim Edwards has characterized Apple CEO Tim Cook's speech as the most important speech of his life. "The world Apple lives in is moving faster than it ever has before," Edwards said. "Apple now has rivals that are more nimble than its old enemy, Microsoft ... To a surprising extent, Apple is playing catch-up."

UK Industrial Production Surprises. Industrial output in the U.K. increased 0.5% in July, the biggest jump in five months. This was better than the 0.2% expected by economists. "Industrial production growth was boosted by electricity and gas production, which may prove temporary as it is volatile," noted Bloomberg economists Jamie Murray and Niraj Shah. "The underlying picture is one of slow manufacturing growth (which accounts for the bulk of production)."

Carney Signals A Spring Rate Hike. "Our latest forecasts show that, if interest rates were to follow the path expected by markets — that is, beginning to increase by the spring and thereafter rising very gradually — inflation would settle at around 2% by the end of the forecast and a further 1.2 million jobs would have been created," Bank of England Mark Carney said at the Trade Union Congress in Liverpool. The BoE is expected to be the first of the major central banks to tighten monetary policy.

General Mills Makes A Move Into Organic Food. General Mills is buying organic cheese and shells maker Annie's for $820 million, or $46 per share. The price represents a 37% premium to Monday's closing price. "Powerful consumer shifts toward products with simple, organic, and natural ingredients from companies that share consumers' core values show no signs of letting up," Annie's CEO John Foraker said. "Partnering with a company of General Mills' scale and resources will strengthen our position at the forefront of this trend, enabling us to more rapidly and efficiently expand into new channels and product lines in a rapidly evolving industry environment."

Markets Are Mixed. In Europe, Britain's FTSE is flat, France's CAC 40 is down 0.1%, Germany's DAX is down 0.1%, and Spain's IBEX is down by 0.5%. Asia closed mixed, with Japan's Nikkei up 0.2% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng down 0.2%. U.S. futures were up, with Dow futures up 11 points and S&P 500 futures up 0.6 point.

Job Openings. At 10 a.m. ET, the Bureau of Labor Statistics will publish its July Job Openings & Labor Turnover Survey. Economists estimate the JOLTS report will reveal 4.7 million U.S. job openings in July. "JOLTS (Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey) has garnered more attention lately as Fed Chair Yellen often cites the survey when assessing the state of the labor market," Credit Suisse economists said. "In June, JOLTS job openings continued to strengthen, rising to 4.7M and job vacancies per unemployed worker increased to 0.49, the highest level since May 2008. The ratio of vacancies to unemployed workers has risen much faster than its post-crisis trend for three months in a row, providing further confirmation that the U.S. labor market has indeed shifted to a period of stronger growth. However, the rate of hiring rose only slightly and quits were unchanged in June, remaining well below pre-crisis levels."

Home Depot Confirms Data Breach. "Home improvement retailer Home Depot on Monday confirmed its payment systems were breached, potentially impacting customers using payment cards at its U.S. and Canadian stores," reported Reuters' Shailaja Sharma. "While the full scope of the breach was yet to be determined, there was no evidence that debit PIN numbers were compromised, Home Depot said in a statement."

Trump To File For Bankruptcy. "Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc., the company founded by Donald Trump, will file for bankruptcy again this week, people with knowledge of the situation said, putting a fifth Atlantic City casino in danger of closing," reported Bloomberg's Christopher Palmeri, Elise Young, and Michael Bathon. "The company owns two properties in the struggling New Jersey resort town. Trump Plaza is set to cease operations on Sept. 16, and the Trump Taj Mahal may also shut in November, the people said. Three other casinos have closed in the city this year, including Caesars Entertainment Corp.’s Showboat and the Revel Casino Hotel last week."

Insider Trader Gets 9 Years. "Mathew Martoma, a former portfolio manager at billionaire Steven A. Cohen's SAC Capital Advisors LP hedge fund, was sentenced on Monday to nine years in prison for engaging in what authorities called the most lucrative insider trading scheme in U.S. history," reported Reuters' Nate Raymond. "U.S. District Judge Paul Gardephe in New York also ordered Martoma, 40, to forfeit $9.3 million."

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Google's enemies appear to have persuaded the European Union to reopen its inquiry into whether the search giant uses its status as a de facto monopoly to hurt rival businesses.

Google has a roughly 90% dominance of search in Europe.

The probe could expand to cover Android, too, the Guardian reports.

EU antitrust chief Joaquin Almunia told Bloomberg on Sunday:

“Some complainants have introduced new arguments, new data, new considerations,” the EU antitrust commissioner said. “We now need to analyze this and see if we can find solutions, Google can find solutions, to some of these concerns that we find justified.”

The news will be celebrated over at Yelp, which has long argued that Google pushes down its results in favor of its own properties, even when Google's websites offer lower quality search results.

It's not clear whether some of that "new data" came from Yelp. But what is known is that earlier this year, a document circulated within Yelp that demonstrated the way the company believes it is being cheated by Google.

Google generally says that it returns the best search results it possibly can for any given search query. But the Yelp document shows a heatmap tracking the behavior of a bunch of web users who were overtly searching for restaurant reviews on Yelp. The heatmap shows what people actually click on once they get their search results. Because Google inserts links to its own products, like Google+ and Google Local, under "natural" search results, many people who are searching for Yelp results actually end up on Google's pages, the document suggests.

The document also noted that Google still sends a majority of searchers to Yelp — so it's not clear to what extent Google is helping or hurting Yelp.

Yelp was one of the companies that gave new information to the EU, and Almunia acknowledged that he ahd received "a lot of complaints":

In this investigation, we received a lot of complaints. We have been trying to obtain from Google proposals to overcome the difficulties and the concerns. Now with the last version of proposals we came back to the complainants. The complainants sent us replies during the summer. Some of these replies are very very negative.

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