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A food fight is escalating in Victoria and Minnetonka, as former grocery employees assert they are owed $225,000 in unpaid vacation pay and pension benefits.
The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) is a partner in the fight that has spilled onto Hwy. 5 and into the streets with weekly picketing.
The dispute, which has been going on for weeks, centers on the defunct Fresh Seasons Market. Its two grocery stores closed in May 2014 due to money woes. But the stores reopened this spring, with new owners and new names — Victoria’s Market in May in Victoria and Glen Lake’s Market in June in Minnetonka. One of the new owners is the former owner’s son.
Besides the union-sponsored picketing of the stores, there have been counter protests, lawsuits and neighborhoods plastered with fliers decrying both versions of the squabble.
Managers at both stores — which are now nonunion — say that with the picketing, sales are soft.
That’s the goal, said UFCW members who contend that real estate developer and Fresh Seasons’ founder Tom Wartman stiffed 120 former employees of earned pay and benefits while profiting from the two newly reopened grocery stores.
Wartman still owns the buildings where the stores are located; his son, Tommy, is a co-owner of the new stores. To UFCW Local 653, and its president, Matt Utecht, the relationship shows Wartman is still profiting from the stores.
“When both stores reopened, it was Tom who opened them every day. It was Tom who closed them every night. It was Tom who dealt with the food vendors, the suppliers, the construction workers. He didn’t act like a landlord. He acted like an owner,” Utecht said. “Wartman should prioritize and pay his former employees the money they earned before working to benefit himself by reopening the stores.”
The union sent that message in a letter to 50,000 local residents and rallied at both stores all through the summer.
Tom Wartman, who co-founded Fresh Seasons in 2005, fired back in letters to thousands of local residents that the union “is wrong” and its allegations are “false.” The 64-year-old said he lost the $4 million he invested in Fresh Seasons.
“Fresh Seasons Markets didn’t have enough money to remain open, and the banks foreclosed,” he said in the letter. “I am truly sorry the stores failed.”
He added that he paid $18 million in wages and benefits over Fresh Seasons’ nine years in business.
Reiterating that he did not have an ownership interest in the new stores, he said in the letter that the union wants to put the new markets out of business.
“The effort is unfortunately proving successful by keeping you [residents] away,” he wrote. “Please don’t let the UFCW bully these stores out of business on the basis of disputed allegations made by them against me and my companies.”
Neither Wartman nor his son returned phone calls for further comment.
The battle has landed in court. The union and pensioners sued Fresh Seasons. In February, one Minnesota district judge ruled that Fresh Seasons owes workers $75,000 in pension benefits. A second lawsuit, which alleges $150,000 in owed vacation pay, has since been sealed and is making its way through the courts.
Until the case settles, Utecht is sending union members daily to the reopened stores to picket.
Mary Page, a manager for Fresh Seasons in Glen Lake for nine years, has handed out scores of fliers to area residents. She said Wartman owes her $18,000 in vacation pay and health insurance benefits. Before the original stores closed, she went in for foot surgery only to learn that Wartman had stopped providing employees health insurance. “He didn’t tell anybody,” she said.
An emergency home equity loan covered her $2,700 bill. The insurance cancellation, she said, was a big surprise and came on top of months of wage cuts at both stores.
Former meat manager Dan Kirchmann learned he had no insurance when his wife was four months pregnant. He scrambled to find another job and in the interim paid $150 a week to get coverage through his union. “We were nervous,” said Kirchmann, who has hit the picket line more than 14 times. He said he is owed $2,000 in back wages.
“I don’t have anything against Tom or his businesses. I’d just like him to do what he’s supposed to,” Kirchmann said. “If he paid up, we’d leave him and those stores alone. I feel bad for the employees who work there.”
The union points to Wartman’s many investments in asking for the back pay for members.
Tax records show Wartman owns a $2.6 million house in Shorewood, a nine-bedroom home worth $1.36 million in Hawaii and a $323,000 lake home in Grand Marais, Minn. Wartman’s LinkedIn page says he owns the Gold Nugget Tavern and Grille across the street from Glen Lake’s Market.
Will Jedlicka, manager of Victoria’s Market, just wants to run his store and survive the ordeal. “Sales are not where we expected them to be.”
Some residents recently took to the Internet and the streets to support the new grocery stores. They came with “Shop Victoria” picket signs, stood on the corner opposite the union folks and asked drivers on Hwy. 5 to honk to show their support for local businesses.
“The people I hear from are frustrated,” said Victoria City Manager Laurie Hokkanen. “I get residents who call and say, ‘It’s not really fair that Victoria is getting a bad reputation [instead of] its reputation as a nice quaint little place. Now there is protesting and arguments. So residents are saying, ‘What can we do?’ ”
Members of a group calling itself Shop Glen Lake similarly showed up in Minnetonka. “It’s a source of great pride that the neighborhood came to rally for the store,” said Alan Commins, who manages Glen Lake’s Market. The union is picketing “for the wrong reasons. They are not giving any of our markets a chance to run our business. We are a new business.”
Utecht, from the union, said all picketing will stop “the moment” Wartman pays former workers what they say they are due.


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Motorola’s much-anticipated One Hyper has been announced in the US markets and it brings a pop-up selfie camera to give the front of the device a completely screen-filled look with no notches.
The Motorola One Hyper is a stylish new phone with a 32-megapixel pop-up selfie camera, a 64-megapixel main camera and night mode. Now before the year concludes, Motorola comes up with another affordable smartphone in the form of the Motorola One Hyper, and, as the name suggests, it is the most extreme One series phone Motorola has made yet.
The One Hyper brings us the first pop-up camera for Motorola, a feature we’ve seen from Chinese brands like OnePlus, Vivo and Oppo. The camera pops up when you take a selfie, and retracts on its own. If you drop the phone, sensors also trigger the pop-up camera to go back in its hidey-hole. It’s also Motorola’s first phone with Android 10.
With the popular leaks surfacing from the couple of months, One Hyper is the first Motorola phone with a notch-less display along with thin bezels. The phone offers a 6.5-inch display but it still uses an IPS LCD panel with Full HD+ resolution. Also, Motorola has shifted the fingerprint sensor to the back and put an LED notification ring around it.
Motorola One Hyper Price in India offers a Mid-range Phone.
There’s also the headlining spec that gives the phone its name: 45W USB-C “hyper charging” that’s among the fastest supported charging speeds we’ve seen yet on a smartphone. There’s also a 3.5mm headphone jack, which is always nice to see. On the software side, the Motorola One Hyper ships with Android 10, which is especially welcome on a mid-range device like this.
A stylish design meets a suite of specs that are designed to get you through the day without a lot of extra fuss, excluding that pop-up camera of course. Motorola says that the One line gives the brand the freedom to experiment with features and design, since it’s not part of its essential portfolio of phones that’ll be upgraded as part of a yearly cycle.
The Expected Motorola One Hyper Specifications
|Motorola One Hyper
|Dimensions and Weight
|161.8 x 76.6 x 8.9mm, 210 g
|6.5-inch Full Vision Full HD +, (19: 9)
|Snapdragon 675, Octa-Core up to 2.0 GHz
|4000 mAh, 45 W Hyper Charger
|64 MP main camera; Quad Pixel, f / 1.8; 1.6 µm118 MP 8-Camera Ultra-WideLED Flash, Laser Focus
|32 MP; Quad Pixel, f / 2.0; 1.6 µm
|3.5mm headphone jack
|Wi-Fi, NFC, Bluetooth, GPS

domain: news


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Sierra Nevada Brewing didn't provide the the double rainbow that arched across the sky above Civic Center Park last Friday. But the Chico, California-based brewery certainly took care of all the other details at Beer Camp Across America, a roving seven-city festival that will end in Mills River, Nor ... More >>
Powder Keg Brewing has opened in Niwot, where it's the town's second craft-beer maker; the location has a brewpub license (since it plans to serve food), which means it can also pour beers from other local breweries, including its neighbor, Bootstrap Brewing. Powder Keg plans to be open seven days a ... More >>
California's Sierra Nevada Brewing, the nation's second-largest craft beer maker, is nearing completion on a second production facility, this one near Asheville, North Carolina. And to celebrate, company founder Ken Grossman wanted to turn the spotlight on the craft brewing industry as a whole, rath ... More >>
Beer can pack on calories, especially for the owners and employees of Colorado's breweries, who have to drink their brews for a living (tough life). Fortunately, they know how to work them off as well. On Monday, July 21, owners and reps from six breweries (Avery, Ska, Boulder Beer, Left Hand, Oskar ... More >>
Barrels & Bottles released three flagship beers this week, all of them created by new head brewer Kim Collins. The beers are Piney the First, a 5 percent ABV all Chinook-hopped pale ale; Lil' IPA, a 5.2 percent ABV session IPA; and Hot Lips, a 3.7 percent ABV sour mash blonde ale that was brewed wit ... More >>
Last September, we shared Kiplinger's list of the ten best cities for young graduates. But a new roster by SmartAsset is even more specific. The site shares its picks for the best (and worst) college towns to live in for new grads or just folks looking for a fresh start -- and two Colorado places ma ... More >>
We're accustomed to seeing Denver top marijuana-centric city lists. So we were definitely surprised to come across Elite Daily's "10 Best U.S. Cites For Stoners To Live In" and discover that while Denver was among the two Colorado communities to make the cut, and despite upcoming 4/20 activities dra ... More >>
This past September, the Marijuana Policy Project put up a billboard near Mile High Stadium criticizing the NFL's pot policy -- a gambit that echoed past efforts by Denver-based MPP spokesman Mason Tvert. Check out the photos below. Now, Tvert and company are taking their campaign to an even bigger ... More >>
Alex B is preparing to kick off his latest tour with Paper Diamond this Friday night in Hollywood. The tour, which includes more than thirty dates with support from LoudPvck, Branchez, Gent & Jawns and Manic Focus, is set to crisscross the country before making its way back home to the Mile High Cit ... More >>
At Beast Bottle, servers love to tell the story of Bangs Island mussels nearly as much as people like to eat them. I'm glad I listened to the story: Just a few days after chef and co-owner Paul Reilly told me how he'd braved Maine's chilly November temps to work on a barge in Casco Bay to haul in ... More >>
Gallup has released a new poll that measures the most religious communities -- a list topped by the Provo-Orem, Utah area, where 77 percent of respondents described themselves as "very religious." What about the least religious places? Gallup calculated that, too, with none other than Boulder finis ... More >>
When Paul Reilly shuttered Encore early in this year, in April, he found that he had some free time on his hands for the first time in a long time, and while he was scouring the 'hoods for a space where he could open a new restaurant, he also welcomed the opportunity to do something for himself -- s ... More >>
On Wednesday, September 12, you'll have a chance to become part of history and help the Melvins weasel their way into the Guinness World Records book, which they hope to do by playing shows in all fifty states plus one in the District of Columbia in just 51 days. One can only imagine what sparked th ... More >>
Fiona Apple's coming to the Paramount Theatre on Friday, July 20: With a newly revitalized career thanks to a stint wowing audiences at this year's SXSW and fresh off releasing a brand new album with a notably pithy title (in comparison to When the Pawn..., her 1999 album -- The Idler Wheel is wiser ... More >>
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Danny ClinchBad news: Familiar with that expression, "You snooze, you lose"? Yes? Well, it applies here. If you slept on getting your tickets to see the Black Keys at 1STBANK Center on April 30, you blew it. Show's sold out. D'oh! Luckily for you, though, you'll have another chance to see 'em ... More >>
Danny ClinchWe've just received word that the Black Keys, on the heels of its highly enjoyable new record, El Camino (we seriously can't pry it from our playlist), are coming to the 1STBANK Center on Monday, April 30, with the Arctic Monkeys. Tickets ($55.00 - $59.50, plus service fees) for t ... More >>
Like Colorado, Wisconsin has a long beer tradition and a new breed of craft brewers. The most well-known is probably New Glarus, a brewery that has reached cult status nationwide because of unusual fruit beers like Wisconsin Belgian Red and Raspberry Tart -- and because it only distributes in Wiscon ... More >>
Congratulations, Denver: You have officially been swallowed up whole by the Matrix. Men's Health recently came out with its list of the country's most socially networked cities, and Denver, of all places, came in third. Do we get a prize for this? Like a new FarmVille animal or something?
While Portland, Maine's Cruel Hand has been identified with that strangely durable neo-hardcore style of the last decade, the band's sound stretches a little further, encapsulating the diverse energy and heaviness of Metallica and Bouncing Souls. Vocalist Chris Linkovich leads Cruel Hand with ... More >>
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There are as many styles of beer blogging on the Internet as there are blogs, and there's a new beer blog starting out there every other day. Last weekend, at least a hundred of those bloggers -- from all across the country -- showed up in Boulder to talk beer. They spent the three days of f ... More >>
Update: Two new events have been added (Avery's Rumpkin tapping at Euclid Hall tonight and Vine Street Pub's tapping on Sunday), while the info for the Bull & Bush pig and pumpkin beer tasting has been expanded. See below for details. Pumpkin beers are an acquired taste, but if you love them ... More >>
Colorado makes some of the best beers in the world, but when the Great American Beer Festival is in town, it's your chance to try something from another state, especially the ones that are talked about by beer aficionados across the country. We're lucky in that some of these breweries - like ... More >>
Last week, GQ magazine put out a bucket list of fifty beers to try before you die (see it below). That sounds like a reasonable goal - even if some of the selections were a little odd. I wouldn't have put Anchor Steam on the list, for instance. It may have been a bucket list fifteen years a ... More >>
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As Colorado's medical-marijuana industry grows, marijuana dispensaries of all types and sizes are proliferating around the state. Some resemble swanky bars or sterile dentist offices; others feel like a dope dealer's college dorm room. To help keep them all straight, Westword will be offering ... More >>
If you don't already have plans tonight for Valentine's eve -- like, say, seeing DeVotchKa at the Paramount -- it would be well worth your time to stop by the Bluebird to catch Gregory Alan Isakov & the Freight, with Oakhurst. By now, you're probably intimately familiar with the guy we named be ... More >>
Eschewing pretense, this couple takes a stripped-down approach to music.
White and bright, Sole emerges as independent hip-hop's newest anti-hero.
From the week of September 20, 2001
October 1 - 7, 1998
Meet Steven Ray Liedlich, upright guitarist.


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News - Honda - HR-V
Honda not scared of HR-V rivals
HR-V has a lot more competition now, but Honda Australia confident in small SUV
15 May 2017
HONDA Australia says it is confident its HR-V compact SUV can maintain its strong sales form against an influx of new crossovers in the coming years.
The HR-V has been a sales hit since its launch in Australia in early 2015, quickly overtaking the Civic, CR-V and Jazz as Honda’s best seller.
Since launch, the HR-V has been offered with only one powertrain – a 1.8-litre four-cylinder naturally aspirated petrol engine driving the front wheels via a continuously variable transmission.
Honda Australia director Stephen Collins confirmed at the HR-V’s launch in February 2015 that a turbo-diesel manual variant would be added to the line-up within a year, but Honda has since dropped all diesel-powered models in Australia and appears to have gone cold on the oil-burning HR-V.
Mr Collins played down the suggestion that the HR-V could be even more popular if Honda offered more drivetrains, saying 2WD petrols were the bulk of the small-SUV segment.
“The vast majority of that segment is two-wheel drive,” he said at the Civic hatch launch in Adelaide last week. “From an engine perspective, we get good feedback on it. It provides good performance, good economy.
“So, you can always add heaps of grades, heaps of engines, and that sort of stuff, but we're going to stick to what's core. And what's core in that segment for us and is working really well, is two-wheel drive, petrol engines with a relatively simple grade line-up.”
In its first year of launch, 2015, Honda sold 10,899 HR-Vs in Australia, making it the fourth best selling model in the sub-$40,000 small SUV segment behind the Hyundai ix35 (15,227), Mitsubishi ASX (13,557) and the Mazda CX-3 (12,656) that also lobbed that year.
Last year Honda shifted 12,403 units to come in third behind the CX-3 (18,334) and the ASX (18,126).
So far in 2017, HR-V sales have dipped slightly by 4.3 per cent to 3732 units, and it is again sitting behind the CX-3 (5750), ASX (5050) and the Nissan Qashqai (3935).
More recently, a number of new competitors have arrived to try and cash in on the crossover craze, including Toyota’s fresh CH-R, a new-generation version of Subaru’s popular XV, an updated Holden Trax and the strong-selling Suzuki Vitara.
And there are more waiting in the wings. In the next couple of years, Hyundai will launch its crucial new Kona crossover, while Volkswagen, Kia, Nissan, Jeep and Skoda all have models on the way.
Mr Collins said he expected the HR-V to continue to be a hit for the brand in Australia, but added that he was aware of the incoming rivals.
“I think HR-V has been very, very consistent. I think on average we do a thousand a month. Sometimes a bit more, sometimes a bit less. And, you know, (Toyota) CH-R has recently come in and some others, and we've pretty much been consistent there.
“We think it (HR-V) provides a really good package, value-wise. In terms of space, we think it's probably the sort of market leader in that small SUV for space and utility.
“We've been very happy despite lots of new entrants coming in. There's more coming across, so we need to keep it fresh and we need to keep working on that.
But it's been very consistent for us.”
Mr Collins confirmed that one of the measures to keep it fresh was to introduce an updated model, probably next year, which would be a mid-cycle update, with a full model change still several years off.
“So we have got an upgrade coming in the not-too-distant future. And then the normal cycle would be, maybe next year, we’d have a minor model change, some styling and so forth. So … it fits into our normal life cycle.”
With the HR-V competing against the larger rivals in the small SUV segment, such as the Qashqai and the Vitara, there is room in Honda’s line-up for a sub-HR-V crossover.
However, Mr Collins ruled out an additional model for the segment for now, such as the emerging market BR-V, as there was nothing in Honda’s global catalogue that would suit the mature Australian market.
“There's a couple global models that don't quite stack up for us, at the moment,” he said.
“Right now the BR-V is more in the emerging markets, rather than in this market. But it doesn’t mean the next generation mightn’t fit the bill. So, it’s definitely on our radar and we’ll have to see what happens in the next generation of cars.”
While he could not provide a timeframe for a new crossover model, Mr Collins said: “It’s not in the next year or so”.
The Road to Recovery podcast series
2nd of August 2016
Honda lobs more Limited Editions
HR-V crossover and City sedan get Honda’s Limited Edition treatment
6th of November 2015
HR-V leads Honda Australia's growth
Honda says HR-V is lifting sales this year and Civic could do the same in 2016
16th of February 2015
Honda's HR-V benchmarked against Qashqai, Q3
More than just a jumped-up Jazz, Honda's HR-V was designed to be a global player
13th of February 2015
Honda’s high-flying HR-V threatens Civic
Small car rather than medium SUV sales are on the line as HR-V enters the fray
13th of February 2015
Honda confirms HR-V diesel for Oz
Petrol-powered Honda HR-V soon to be joined by diesel with manual and auto
10th of February 2015
Driven: High-riding Honda HR-V here at last
Honda upsizes successful Jazz value and space formula for re-born HR-V
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Motor industry news


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For years cell phone carriers have loved to shovel “added value” systems into the phones they sell, with the real goal of capturing more cash and controlling how their users exploit particular services. Does the crapware-free Verizon iPhone promise an end to this?
Apple’s Phil Schiller, VP of Worldwide Product Marketing, reported the news to Ars Technica: “We want the experience to be the same for every iPhone user,” he noted, before pointing out that “there are no special Verizon apps preinstalled” in the new CDMA Verizon iPhone. Though Verizon may push specialty apps onto the App Store to “support” its customers, something that AT&T and numerous overseas carriers already do, Schiller wouldn’t comment on this–because he didn’t have to: The absence of side-loaded Verizon apps is significant enough news by itself.
Why so? Because many people had worried, during the many months of rumors preceding yesterday’s news, that Verizon would be the first carrier to force Apple’s hand regarding Verizon apps, Verizon-specific firmware, and external branding of the iPhone–leveraging its might as the U.S.’s largest carrier. Verizon is notorious for this trick on many other smartphones it sells, shoving software like its VCast music store and VZ Navigation suite onto other handsets so that they’re there when users turn a phone on for the first time (thus possibly ending up using them preferentially). It’s also guilty of slapping Verizon logos onto the chassis of devices, and even special Verizon skins onto the UI of the phones, replacing their often carefully crafted interface with a red-splashed affair that’s not necessarily any friendlier to the user or more useful, even onto the business-centric BlackBerry platform. Its overseas partner Vodafone is equally guilty of these tricks.
But Apple’s control over the iPhone “user experience” is now legendary–it results in all sorts of behaviors from app rejections in the App Store to the uniformity of iPhone branding, with no external carrier labeling allowed anywhere that it’s on sale. When Apple first managed this feat with AT&T and the iPhone edition one, it was something of a revolution–representing a sea change in who dictates the user experience on a smartphone. The carriers have since been fighting back, with the handily-skinnable and open-source Google Android OS as one useful tool, and Verizon could easily have brought up the idea during negotiations with Apple.
Yet Apple won this round. Though some commenters may worry that carrier control has now been effectively succeeded by another form of control–manufacturer’s control–the upshot is obvious: Less crapware may become a standard in the mobile phone space, led by Apple’s example, just as it’s becoming more normal in the mobile computing space.
To read more news on this, and similar stuff, keep up with my updates by following me, Kit Eaton, on Twitter.


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Leading components manufacturer Bosch has announced that it has chosen its Bengaluru facility as one of its three global centers that will be dedicated to artificial intelligence (AI). The company’s other two such centers are in the United States (in Palo Alto) and in Germany (in Renningen). The Bosch Centre for Artificial Intelligence (BCAI) is meant to help Bosch achieve its goal of coming up with future solutions related to IoT (Internet of Things), specifically in electromobility. Earlier in 2017, Bosch had announced that it would be investing over 300 million Euros in BCAI in order to ramp up its expertise in IoT
Initially, the BCAI will have a team of 100 experts spread across the three centers. By 2021, Bosch plans to complete its investment in the three centers while adding to the workforce. According to the company, within a decade there will be hardly any Bosch product that does not involve artificial intelligence.
According to Volkmar Denner, the company’s CEO, all of its products would either have AI or AI would have been instrumental in the development or manufacture of that product.
In just five years, products featuring artificial intelligence are expected to account for 10% of Bosch sales. Denner said that Bosch will use artificial intelligence to transform things into intelligent assistants.
Christoph Peylo who heads the Bosch Centre for Artificial Intelligence said that it will not not only aspire to be one of the leading research centers in the world but will also make an effort to make the benefits of artificial intelligence tangible through the products and services it develops.
Manju Mathew, an MBA in marketing, completed publisher training courses from the Oxford Brookes University and New York University. She started with marketing and PR roles before moving on to her current position as a full time writer. Currently living in Dubai, her life as an expat has sharpened her observation skills and flair for writing. She enjoys writing about luxury cars like Ferrari, Lamborghini, etc even if she can only dream of owning them.
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You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen. But, do you recall... Yes, they have been recalled. Again and again.
When it comes to achieving goals, “fuzzy boundaries” often boost performance better than rigidly defined objectives
The epidemic of foreign-made toxic toys making its way onto retail shelves might be best described as something out of a science fiction movie rather than a beloved holiday song.
Losing a job can be a profoundly stressful experience, but the unemployed may be more resilient than previously believed
Men are twice as likely to be suspicious of green marketing. Americans want a standardized certification process for green products.
Recent brain image research found that coaching that encourages students, workers, players or kids to envision a positive future is much more effective.
A bad experience with your favorite brand can be just as likely to cause you to seek revenge as an emotional breakup.
The National Retail Federation predicts it could take years for consumers to start spending the way they did in pre-recession times
American workers no longer value their jobs the way they did before the recession. Workers regret the sacrifices they've made for work.


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This year has brought us some pretty impressive developments from Apple, such as the Apple Watch and the 12-inch MacBook, and next year seems to be just as exciting. 2016 is rumored to be a big year for Apple fans, with plenty of new releases. At CyberCall we deal with many apple mac repairs and iphone data recovery requests so we are always keen to see what challenges we face with the latest technology, Here is what we might see in the coming year.
Apple Watch 2
Many Apple diehards were ecstatic with the original release of the Apple Watch. Despite all of the press around the smart watch, the product seems to have plenty of room for improvement. The experts over at Mac World say a new model will most likely be the result of a partnership with another big company such as Nike. A collaboration of this kind would allow Apple to gain an edge in the electronic fitness device industry. An Apple Watch 2 will also have to improve on many of its other features, like becoming a stand alone device. Its main competitor, Samsung has created gear that doesn’t even need a cellular phone to connect to the network.
Speaking of phones, it wouldn’t be a new year without a new iPhone. As Samsung stays ahead of the game in releasing a new model, Apple is keeping up with the Joneses. Apple may take a page out of Samsung’s book by adopting soft buttons and ditch the main home button. This would result in more room for a bigger screen, which we can all appreciate. This added screen space would allow for smaller devices. It seems that Apple will also find another way to make the device smaller. Rumors are swirling that the iPhone 7 might not have a headphone port. There are also mentions of wireless charging, which is yet another feature that Samsung has already released.
Mac Pro users can rejoice over the possibility of innovation. While there will most likely not be any changes to the Mac Pro’s appearance, there will be changes in the technology. El Capitan’s code references certain changes on the horizon for the machines. There are also rumored possibilities of updates to the MacBook Air and MacBook.
Many Apple fans wonder why this product really even exists anymore. With the rising popularity of Apple Music, iPod owners would be able to take advantage of the affordable music subscription service. Now, this only applies to the iPod Touch. We can’t say much for your old Nano or Shuffle.


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There are two phrases which will get almost any gamer excited, ‘GTA V’ and ‘virtual reality’. When combining those two ideas, the excitement usually boils over, and when adding in other mechanisms, like say your own bicycle into the equation, a gaming extravaganza is born.
This is just what a group of students have done, not in an effort to advance VR gaming per se, but as a way to turn the tedious task of exercising into an affordable and fun undertaking. In comes the Cycler’s Hub, a device which allows nearly any bicycle to be utilized as a stationary controller for interactive virtual reality gaming.
“We’re in an engineering competition right now and are in the quarterfinals,” explained one of the Cycler’s Hub creators, and member of the Virtual Nomads, Nito Lugo.
Lugo, along with his classmates, have worked diligently on the Cycler’s Hub and are currently hoping to garner attention and win first place at the competition. While the initial video of the device, which you can see at the bottom of this article, may already have you excited, especially the promise of riding your own bike in a GTA V virtual environment, the team hopes to eventually expand upon what the device offers, as Lugo explained recently on Reddit.
“The system essentially turns your bike into a game controller, so theoretically it should work with any game. Though, if we pursue the idea after the competition finishes, we want to develop a standalone game, where we’d have a lot of different landscapes to choose between… And in fact, it’s our plan to implement environmental feedback! Things like rumble from terrains, increased incline, and other features are things we hope to include in the future.”
Besides just riding around in a virtual world, the Cycler’s Hub will allow one to compete with their friends, speed up or slow down the movement of the virtual environment around them, and best of all the device shouldn’t break the bank as long as you have your own bicycle lying around. While we don’t know if the team behind the Cycler’s Hub will eventually bring this device to market, we certainly hope that they are able to obtain the financing and interest required in order to be able to do so sooner rather than later. This could be a whole new way to view exercising, and could certainly garner the attention of fitness clubs across the planet.
What are your thoughts on this innovative approach to gaming and exercise? Let us know in the Cycler’s Hub forum on VRTalk.com.


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Welcome to our weekly round-up of the latest news from the accounting tech world.
This week updates include integrations between Taxfiler and KashFlow and Xero, new LLP accounts functionality in Nomisma and Soldo’s new partner programme.
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Taxfiler launches integrations with KashFlow and Xero
This week, Taxfiler added new integrations with KashFlow and Xero, alongside the existing QuickBooks Online integration, to further streamline the submission process ahead of the tax season.
The new integrations will make it possible to move trial balances into the Taxfiler system, enabling tax returns, accounts and VAT returns to be submitted from a single solution. The cloud-based monthly subscription service provider has also announced there will be further integrations in the near future.
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Soldo: Integration with Xero and partner programme
Soldo has recently launched an integration with Xero, connecting to both their automatic bank feed and accounting APIs. The integration includes expense sharing, meaning that Soldo users can validate and transfer expense information such as receipts, notes, spending categories to Xero.
The new integration also allows Soldo to sync with Xero contacts so that users can attribute billable expenses to clients.
Additionally, the integration provides the possibility to pull in tracking codes from Xero and attribute them to transactions, pulling in relevant VAT rates from the Xero chart of accounts and automatically syncing transactions with Xero.
Alongside the new partnership, Soldo also announced a new programme for accountants and bookkeepers that includes access to partner edition products, free use of Soldo and special pricing for the partners’ clients, as well as flexible billing options.
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FreeAgent expands its UK small business sector strategy
FreeAgent has appointed a new senior partnerships manager to help further expand its influence in the UK small business sector. Matt Perkins will lead FreeAgent’s work with fintech companies, organisations that support small businesses across the UK and partners across accountancy channels.
Perkins, who previously worked as UK sales and strategic partnerships manager at Receipt Bank, will oversee the company’s involvement with NatWest’s new business accelerator network, the Entrepreneur Accelerator programme.
“As our ecosystem of fintech services, integrations and partnerships grows, Matt will play a vital role in helping us raise our profile and forge exciting new relationships that will help improve the lives of small business owners throughout the UK,” said FreeAgent’s chief commercial officer Kevin McCallum.
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Nomisma offers LLP accounts functionality
With its latest release, Nomisma has added LLP final accounts to its accounting software solution, which also covers bookkeeping, payroll, self-assessment, company secretary and practice management.
In addition to the accounts production update, the last release also included the addition of SA106 in self assessment, making it possible for users to include foreign income on tax reports.
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Pandle adds attachments to Message Centre
Pandle has released a transaction links feature to enable users to copy transaction links and post them within the Message Centre to discuss specific transactions with their clients. The solution has released an update to include a new attachments feature that can be used to upload file attachments directly into discussions within the Message Centre, such as signed contracts, invoices, screenshots or spreadsheets.
The feature is available to all Pandle Pro users and for Pandle’s partner accountants to use with their own clients.


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Since the iPhone 5S landed in the hands of new owners a few weeks ago, there have been reports that on-board sensors like the gyroscope, compass, and accelerometer haven't been working properly on some devices. We've confirmed the new iPhone's failings on our own. It's not just off. It's embarrassing.
Closets are often dark, and the higher up you get the harder it is to see inside. Adding a lightbulb isn't always the simplest, safest, or even cheapest option, but you can solve all of those problems with a few LEDs.


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Austrian mobile network operator A1 reports that it has successfully tested a new NFC access control service called Airkey, developed by door lock maker Evva, IT specialist Rise and the Vienna University of Technology. 40 participants used Sony Xperia S smartphones for the pilot. A1 already operates an NFC payments service called A1 Paybox, which it is testing with McDonald’s.
- Google discusses Wallet plans
- Johnny Rockets puts tablets in 200 restaurants
- Acer Pay is on the way
- Beep’nGo hits 5m downloads
- Newspaper tests BLE beacons


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Beloved cereals have a history of touting nostalgic tag lines. Who can forget Life cereal and that persnickety Mikey who gave the squares a thumbs up ("He likes it!). Or how about Lucky Charms which, as we all know, are, "Magically delicious." It's the stuff advertising and marketing dreams are made of, and the pop culture expressions that shaped our childhood, for better or for worse.
Recently, however, Kellogg's experienced backlash when a particularly eccentric protest group fought back against one of their latest tag cereal box tag lines in the United Kingdom. Fathers4Justice took umbrage with the Coco Pops slogan which reads "loved by kids, approved by mums."
The group, which appears to abide by the whole actions speak louder than words theory, went to an Asda grocery store in Peterborough, England and poured the chocolate cereal all over an aisle. And, yes, they even topped it with milk.
Fathers4Justice made a video of the chaotic scene, which included members shouting, "Stop cereal discrimination against dads," among other things. It didn't take long before Kellogg's got word of their antics and issued a speedy response to the antics, promising to change the package wording.
Fathers4Justice stage protest over Coco Pops in the middle of Asda
Two men from Fathers4Justice staged a protest in the middle of Asda because Coco Pops wrote "approved by mums" on the packaging.Posted by The i Paper on Wednesday, September 5, 2018
The cereal manufacturer said the original slogan was simply in response to a survey they conducted which concluded that a majority of mothers approved of Coco Pops new low sugar recipe. The box will now say the cereal is approved by parents to avoid any further disruption in unsuspecting grocery stores across the UK.
According to Newsweek, Fathers 4 Justice founder Matt O'Connor started the group in 2001 after experiencing a particularly messy divorce. The settlement forced him to only have limited contact with his two sons.
If you think this protest is over the top, consider another Fathers 4 Justice stunt which involved one dad scaling the front of Buckingham Palace dressed as Batman. This occurred in 2004 and seemed to simply be a way for the group to gain attention for their cause, which is to to end fatherlessness and the cancer of family breakdown as well as to ensure all children (have) a meaningful, loving relationship with their fathers."
Needless to say, police promptly arrested the costumed protester although he did spend about five hours on a palace ledge before being removed.


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Inflation is a problem, but the economy isn’t doomed. At least, it’s not doomed yet.
Inflation doesn’t always spiral out of control. The spiral occurs when consumers and businesses expect inflation to continue. An extreme example of this is the inflation that crippled Germany after World War I. A survivor of that time wrote:
Lingering at the [shop] window was a luxury because shopping had to be done immediately. Even an additional minute meant an increase in price. One had to buy quickly because a rabbit, for example, might cost two million marks more by the time it took to walk into the store. A few million marks meant nothing, really. It was just that it meant more lugging. The packages of money needed to buy the smallest item had long since become too heavy for trouser pockets. They weighed many pounds. … People had to start carting their money around in wagons and knapsacks. I used a knapsack.
When inflation expectations take hold, consumers spend as quickly as they can. Recent data shows that’s not the case right now. A survey of consumers found that they aren’t in a rush to buy big-ticket items to avoid future price hikes.
Consumers’ Inflation Expectations
A large number of consumers will say it’s a good time to buy appliances when the economy is expanding and prices are stable. They will also say it’s a good time to buy if unemployment is low as it is now. But prices are expected to be significantly higher a year from now.
The low reading in this survey indicates consumers don’t expect inflation to continue at its current pace. They seem to be giving the Fed time to prove inflation will not rise much more.
If the Fed fails to deliver lower inflation within the next few months, consumer expectations will shift. If that happens, the consumers who act like they expect higher inflation will, in fact, drive inflation higher. This happened in the 1970s, the last time the U.S. experienced sustained inflation.
Consumer sentiment is one of the most important indicators to watch in 2022.
Michael Carr is the editor of True Options Masters, One Trade, Peak Velocity Trader and Precision Profits. He teaches technical analysis and quantitative technical analysis at the New York Institute of Finance. Follow him on Twitter @MichaelCarrGuru.


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- The LBMA Gold Price AM in US dollars (USD) fell by 4.7% and the Shanghai Gold Benchmark Price PM (SHAUPM) in renminbi (RMB) dropped 4% in the month1
- China’s retail consumption rebounded markedly y-o-y during the Chinese New Year (CNY) holiday2
- While Au(T+D)’s trading volumes tumbled, Chinese gold ETFs gained popularity during the month:
- Au(T+D)’s trading volumes totalled 581 tonnes (t), 148t lower m-o-m and 821t lower y-o-y mainly due to fewer trading days in February
- Chinese gold ETF holdings increased by 8t, reaching 68.6t, the highest ever
- Gold withdrawals from the Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE) fell on a m-o-m basis due to seasonal reasons and fewer trading days in February
- The Shanghai-London gold price spread saw a sizable rise, averaging US$7.3/oz in the month, US$6.5/oz higher than in January3
- China’s wholesale gold demand could rise in March
- The People’s Bank of China gold reserves remained at 1,948t at the end of February, accounting for 3.5% of its total reserves. The Chinese central bank has kept its gold reserves unchanged since September 2019.
Gold prices fell in February
With economic indicators, such as US retail sales, and the COVID-19 vaccine roll-out pointing to recovery in key markets, expectations for the global economic recovery and higher inflation rose. This has led to rapidly climbing government bond yields in many markets, weighing on international gold prices as a result. Both the LBMA Gold Price AM in USD and the SHAUPM in RMB dropped last month.


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Code snippets vaguely suggest a future Google Pixel phone will feature a Samsung camera sensor
The internet giant seems to prioritize software over hardware. It has used the same Sony IMX363 sensor for the main camera since the Pixel 3 and it is clearly due for an upgrade.
XDA Developers' Editor-in-Chief Mishaal Rahman has come across information that mildly suggests that a future Pixel handset will come with a Samsung-made sensor. While fiddling with code, Modder UltraM8 discovered that Google has added support for the GBRG Bayer pattern in the Super Res Zoom algorithm.
A lot of Samsung image sensors have this pattern, so it's possible a future Pixel phone's main image sensor (or telephoto) will use a Samsung image sensor. Super Res Zoom in GCam 8.2 now works on Samsung image sensors without root.— Mishaal Rahman (@MishaalRahman) April 11, 2021
Ex-Google engineer Marc Levoy suggested back in September 2020 that the company might upgrade to a new camera sensor when a module with a lower read noise than existing solutions is released.
Samsung's new 50MP ISOCELL GN2, which is currently the largest smartphone sensor, could be a candidate. It is 1/1.12-inches and has 1.4μm-sized pixels. Larger sensors are theoretically capable of taking better pictures in low-light and capturing a greater dynamic range of tones.
The rumored one-inch 50MP Sony IMX800 sensor is also a possibility but it remains to be seen if it will be introduced this year.
Per a recent report, the Pixel 6 will be powered by an in-house chip codenamed Whitechapel. It will apparently be manufactured by Samsung using its 5nm fabrication technology.
In other Google Pixel news, the company has said that the Pixel 5a will only be released in the U.S. and Japan.


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First Venezuela’s top brewery stops making beer because of a barley shortage, and now in a report published by Linked In, the Coca-Cola company is going to suspend production because of a shortage of sugar. This is a problem that FEMSA believes could last for quite a few months, maybe longer. According to FEMSA, their sugar suppliers in South America paused operations due to the sugar shortage. This is causing FEMSA to rely on dwindling sugar stocks. Coca-Cola FEMSA, serving Latin America, claims that 90 percent of their products require sugar. FEMSA, the largest Coke bottler in the world, is closing their central office in Venezuela but has no plans to leave the country. FESMA runs four Coca-Cola plants in Venezuela. FEMSA was founded in 1974 and its main headquarters are located in Monterrey, Mexico. It has had a place on the Mexican Stock Exchange since 1978.
FEMSA employs more than 100,000 people around the world. With more than 350 million customers, FEMSA has over 100 different kinds of soda under the Coca-Cola name. This means as explained by analyst Manuel Gonzalez it is possible that Venezuela won’t be seeing Sprite, Fanta, Fuze, or Vitamin Water for sometime to come. Venezuela’s economy seems to be close to collapsing. Earlier this week, President Madura had threatened to nationalize all the closed factories.
So far, Venezuelans are learning to live without Clorox after they pulled their supplies out of Venezuela. Avon has scaled back their beauty products.


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With a rich history dating back to 1917, Sutton Tools has grown from a small family enterprise to one of Australia’s most trusted manufacturers of cutting tools, drills and power tool accessories used in the aerospace, defence, oil and gas industries, as well as for professional tradespeople and DIY enthusiasts.
With their head office in Melbourne’s northern suburbs and manufacturing operations as dispersed as regional Victoria, New Zealand and Europe, Sutton Tools’ experience of the COVID-19 pandemic is unique.
We spoke with Managing Director Peter Sutton about how the organisation has navigated recent shutdowns and the impact of those shutdowns on their workplace.
What were some of your plans for 2020 before the pandemic took hold?
Peter Sutton: “Like every other business around the world, most of our plans were put on hold, preparing for who knew what was to come. Having been through the GFC just over a decade ago, we had some experience with what was to potentially come. We ran various scenarios on the impact on the business, from modest to extreme. At the time, we believed we were going to be in a fight for our survival.”
“If a word defined the year, it was ‘uncertainty’. Each day brought on a new challenge for our staff, not only in the way they worked but also for their personal lives. As time progressed, we started to re-establish our business plans where we could but, in reality, we were reacting to what the market was doing on a weekly basis”
Was the slowdown demand-based or did the combination of finding avenues to get material dispatched from Australia to overseas and vice-versa play a significant role?
“Our business is fortunate to have several channels to market – our traditional, local industrial manufactures; building trade and construction; and export. Over the course of the pandemic, export has undoubtedly been the most severely affected. As seen in the news daily, the majority of our customers in Southeast Asia and Europe have been hit hard by COVID. While these regions continue to struggle, we have been fortunate that our domestic market has rebounded strongly.”
“Being a local manufacturer has certainly played in our favour. While global supply chains continue to be disrupted, to a certain extent, we have been self-sufficient for many of our products.”
“We have had to revert to air freighting to the majority of our overseas customers. Fortunately, air freight has not been impacted as severely as sea cargo, and we have been able to provide our customers, in some cases, with greater levels of service – albeit at a higher cost of business. We see the additional expenses as an investment in the long-term, gaining market share and loyalty where others are unable to supply.”
What would you consider as some of the biggest hurdles that Sutton Tools, as an organisation, has been forced to overcome during the pandemic?
“As far as challenges go, I don’t think we can over-emphasise the effect that it’s had on the mental wellbeing of our staff. While Australia has been incredibly fortunate to be in the position we are today, the uncertainty, isolation and disruption has taken its toll. It is important that we continue to communicate with our staff and give them the support they need.”
“From a business perspective, while we have been fortunate to recover reasonably well, the daily roller-coaster of uncertainly continues. Supply and logistics are under constant pressure, whether exporting finished product or importing of our raw materials.”
Have there been any unforeseen positives that Sutton Tools has experienced?
“Having overseas operations in New Zealand and Europe has posed its difficulties. Surprisingly, initially believing this was going to be our greatest challenge, it has proved not the case. While we all sometimes bemoan Zoom and Teams, using these collaboration tools has made us work more effectively. In some respects, our communication amongst the divisions has never been better. I even feel the additional site autonomy has worked in their favour, working closely as a team and making decisions for themselves.”
“From a sales perspective, we have certainly seen a shift in customer support in favour of local manufacturing. Whether it be driven by an inability to source products from overseas or a genuine desire to support local jobs, people are questioning where the things they buy come from. Since the exit of the automotive industry from Australia, I have not heard as much talk about local manufacturing, conversely in a positive way.”
What would you say have been some of the biggest changes at Sutton Tools?
“Probably the biggest change has been the rapid acceleration of the digitisation across the entire company. One simple internal example is our printed paperwork – our paper usage is down 80 percent. Simple things like electronic approval of the invoices, electronic purchase requisition, automated workflows, electronic forms… all now paperless. It’s not just about the cost of the printing and the paperwork, which is relatively minor in the scheme of things – it’s the efficiency.”
“Additionally, with digitisation from a customer point of view, we’ve rapidly deployed customer service portals. Customers now have access to enter orders directly, view stock availability, check pricing, view order status, check on deliveries and so on. These customer experience enhancements have occurred very quickly, achieving more in the last year than we have in the previous five.”
How is Sutton Tools using the pandemic as an opportunity to emerge stronger?
“Witnessing the impact on supply chains, it has given us a resolve to the importance of maintaining local manufacturing. As a business, we have always re-invested for the the long-term. In some ways, we see it as incumbent on us to continue to support local manufacturing as we have for the past 100 years, and especially in these uncertain times.”
“There’s been a general feeling of supporting Australian jobs in manufacturing, and it’s been great to be able to use that opportunity to promote our manufacturing capabilities. People who have sourced product overseas in the past are looking for local alternatives, be it Sutton Tools or other local producers.”
“Overall, we are so proud of all our staff and how they’ve worked together to continue to operate in these at times extremely difficult and surreal times.”
This transcript was previously published at www.integrasystems.com.au/Back


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On today’s Pocketnow Daily, we dig into the triple camera setup that the Galaxy S10 will bring. Then we talk about Huawei as the company is planning to release a foldable smartphone in November to compete with Samsung’s that will launch next year. We get new rumors for the Sony Xperia XZ3 that will feature their 48MP sensor, along with a big display. PCMag recently ran a survey and it looks like people want this year’s iPhones more than any other phone like the Note 9 or the Pixel 3. We end today’s show covering the OPPO Find X Automobili Lamborghini Edition and the flash sale that lasted 4 seconds despite the $1,461 price tag.
- Samsung Galaxy S10 begins to leak one of its best new features
- Samsung and Huawei to release the first folding smartphone
- Upcoming Sony Xperia XZ3 to feature FHD+ resolution, no notch?
- There is more excitement over the new iPhone models than for the Galaxy Note 9
- How long did it take for the OPPO Find X Lamborghini Edition to sell out?


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It was perfect ju-jitsu. After weeks of watching US president Donald Trump pressure Chinese tech company ByteDance to sell its social media app TikTok to Microsoft, Beijing struck back, using one of Mr Trump’s own weapons of choice — export controls. Chinese authorities expanded the Middle Kingdom’s list of controlled exports to include algorithms, which are of course TikTok’s main asset./
As the mother of a teenager who spends too much time watching 15-second bursts of physical comedy on the app, I can tell you that they are very good at keeping you hooked.
The move is in large part political. TikTok is hardly as strategic as, say, the 5G equipment maker Huawei. Yet as one Chinese investor put it to me, it wouldn’t do for Beijing to allow the Trump administration to appear to “force a liquidation sale” of the viral video app, even at a time when Chinese authorities are clearly keen to avoid any build up of tensions between the countries before November elections.
But the use of export controls by Beijing to potentially thwart a deal also underscores that it is not just America, but also China, that is moving to decouple its technology industry. Already, emerging nations represent a larger export market for China than the US, according to Gavekal Dragonomics/Macrobond data. Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative and its trade-based diplomacy in places such as Africa and the Middle East, combined with the rise of the digital renminbi, will make it ever easier for China to grow its exports to places other than the US.


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Internet director, Joe Machens Nissan
Samantha Sonnemaker had the drive to learn what it took to run a dealership's Internet department.
She was familiar with the automotive industry — her father was a dealership general manager. While in college, she worked for one of the Nebraska dealerships for which he was general manager. Her fundamental tasks were to greet customers and follow up with them.
After college, she worked as a horse trainer for a few years. But when she returned home to look for a new job, the automotive industry came calling — in Nebraska was seeking a receptionist. Sonnemaker got the job in 2016 and in a matter of three years moved from that role to working as a service business development center agent to joining the dealership's sales BDC.
Sonnemaker described those three years as the cornerstone of her automotive career. As a result, when she was hired in May 2019 by Joe Machens Nissan, a McLarty Auto Group dealership in Columbia, Mo., she came armed with a plethora of knowledge on how to run an Internet department.
Prior to her arrival, the dealership had "very little" in place as far as lead follow-up processes, she said. That soon changed.
For starters, when new-vehicle shortages intensified in 2020 and 2021, Sonnemaker worked closely with the dealership's new-vehicle manager to make inbound inventory available online for customers.
"It really entailed continuing to follow up with that customer … and just making sure that we are the first people to engage those customers, that we have the best responses for them and that we are able to answer any questions they may have," she told Automotive News.
When it became apparent Joe Machens Nissan needed to switch digital providers, Sonnemaker worked closely with its new provider to execute a seamless website transfer. That also meant making sure the dealership's digital marketing was targeting the right audience.
The switch increased the dealership's impression share — up to 68 percent through mid-June 2023 from an average of 44 percent in 2022, Sonnemaker said.
Incorporating data mining into the department's processes also was fruitful: It resulted in an additional 264 vehicle sales between 2020 and 2022, she said.
"We added AutoAlert to our process which goes really in-depth into a customer's buying cycles, when they may be in the market, when they have equity in their vehicle and ... those different alerts that those customers may have," Sonnemaker said.
Her direction has paid off: In 2019, the dealership's Internet closing percentage averaged 10.3 percent for the year. By the end of 2022, it had grown to 20.4 percent, she said. And within the last six months, she has been asked to provide consultation to three other McLarty Auto Group dealerships as they transition to managed BDC departments.
— C.J. Moore


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COLUMBIA VALLEY, Wash. — Two areas located within the Columbia Valley are officially being recognized as American Viticultural Areas (AVAs); bringing even more credibility to wine grape-growing in Southeastern Washington. According to a release issued by the Washington State…
The biggest city in Brazil justifiably hogs the superlatives -- the biggest this! The most that! The tallest this! The longest that! -- but São Paulo is not only about its headline-stealing concrete jungle of a capital.
Beer is in a bear market.
To say Brexit has divided the UK is something of an understatement.
German food is rich, hearty and diverse. It's comfort eating with high-quality, often locally sourced ingredients.
The restaurant scene in London has been totally transformed in the past 10 years and is now rightly seen as one of the world's great dining capitals, no longer in the shadow of Paris or New York.
A former Napa Valley vineyard owner was sentenced to five months in prison on Friday for his role in the national college admissions scam
Americans will soon pay more for Scotch and Irish whiskies, Parmesan cheese and French wine after the Trump administration said it would impose tariffs on $7.5 billion worth of European goods.
Sarah Jessica Parker and her husband Matthew Broderick are gearing up to act together, which she says hasn't happened since 1996.
As enviable as summer in the Hamptons can be -- stunning weather, beaches, greenery, produce, and yes, people -- autumn is when the east end of Long Island becomes truly magical.
Six thousand years before Christ turned water into wine, the ancestors of modern-day Georgia were turning grapes into it. It's thanks to these imaginative Stone Age sapiens that today we enjoy Gamay from Beaujolais, Chianti from Tuscany, Rioja from Navarro and Cabernet Sauvignon everywhere from France to New Zealand.
A new London restaurant looks set to get cheese and wine lovers all in a spin.
Hold on to your bottles of Bordeaux, Burgundy and Pinot Noir.
US President Donald Trump's threat to tax French wine is
President Donald Trump on Friday floated placing tariffs on French wines and other French products in retaliation for that nation's new tax on large American technology companies, telling reporters in the Oval Office that he "might" impose the tax ahead of the G7 summit in August.
Forget crumbling chateaux in the French countryside. For the ultimate vineyard vacation, try a Bond villain-style lair in the majestic mountains and valleys of South America.
This bubbly rosé is for you? The owner of Budweiser is buying a wine company that's popular with social media-obsessed Millennials.
If you're still deciding where to take your summer vacation, 2019 brings major anniversaries, new flight routes, buzzy museum openings and more.
Whatever it is, you can definitely wine about it today. It's National Wine Day.
Resveratrol, a compound produced in the skin of grapes to defend against insects and bacteria, is present in red wine. Mice that were fed large quantities of this compound experienced a beneficial drop in blood pressure, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Circulation.
A high-powered attorney who said he had no moral issue with the college admissions scam and a Napa Valley vineyard owner who insisted he was not a "moron" both pleaded guilty to conspiracy fraud in federal court Tuesday.
A restaurant diner who ordered a nice bottle of red wine to go with their dinner got something a bit fancier than they were expecting -- a bottle worth $5,800.


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Buying lottery tickets through a website isn’t Internet gambling.
That's the opinion of the Solicitor General for the British Columbia
province of Canada, reports Canada Press.
Solicitor General John Les made the distinction between ticket sales and playing games like poker online, after political opponent Guy Gentner accused the B.C. Liberal government of becoming “gaming crackheads” for plans to expand casinos and lottery revenues.
“Texas Hold ‘em online, the likes of that,” Les said, when asked how he defines online gambling. “Right now we have this PlayNow website and we offer a lottery product online. That in my definition is not gaming, that’s simply buying lottery products. The Internets are a series of Tubes.”
He added that the PlayNow site limits what players can spend, implying that this makes lottery purchases online OK as well.
“If you go to your corner store and gas station and buy lottery products, there’s no limit,” Les said. “You can buy $1 000 worth of 6/49 tickets this afternoon, but on the PlayNow website, the limit is 70 bucks.”
The rather skewed definition shouldn't come as a surprise - B.C. Lottery Corporation’s revenues from lottery ticket sales are expected to top $1 billion this fiscal year, thanks in part to growing sales through the PlayNow website.
With land casino income projected to climb to $1.24 billion this year and plans to expand more casinos along the lines of the River Rock Casino in Richmond, Les denied Gentner’s suggestion that the government is also looking to expand its [exclusive] offerings to the Internet.


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The new congressional committee on deficit reduction that was organized in conjunction with raising the debt ceiling has been given the task of finding ways to reduce government spending and raise revenue. Some speculate that a major tax act could come out of this panel and be enacted in 2012. Not only would new tax legislation give accountants plenty to share with their clients, but changes in the tax laws could potentially wreak havoc with 2012 elections. This week, Ken Berry examined some of the key issues that will likely be discussed behind the closed doors of the Super Panel.
Many of the 2012 presidential hopefuls are choosing to discuss corporate income tax rates and the competitiveness of those rates with other countries. This is one topic that is likely to be on the agenda of the Super Panel. Personally, I don't understand why corporations are required to pay tax at all. Corporate tax is ultimately passed to the consumer in higher prices. Lower the tax (or do away with it), and you get lower prices. Sure, you could argue that if you cut taxes, corporate bigwigs will just keep the money (like the airlines did in the recent aviation tax snafu) and put more in their own profits.
But in a true free market economy, this shouldn't happen. Sure some corporate honchos can keep their profits instead of lowering prices and being more competitive - but it's the competing companies that will keep the playing field level by taking advantage of the situation and slipping in with lower prices. We could argue all day about whether companies would really put their tax savings back into the marketplace through lower prices and spending their earnings on research and development. But there's no argument at all about the fact that when corporate profits are taxed, that tax is incorporated into the price of the company's goods and services.


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For thousands of years, spices and herbs have flavored our food. It wasn’t until the industrial revolution, when food was being produced further from urban centers, that the flavors industry began in the United States. Today, the U.S. flavors market is expected to reach $4.87 billion by 2025, according to a report by Grand View Research Inc.
The Millennial-driven trend of fewer meals and more snacking has increased the consumption of processed and ready-to-eat food, fostering the growth of flavor-enhancing additives to offset tasteless processed ingredients.
The report also emphasized that increased consumer awareness of the health risks associated with synthetic chemicals in artificial food ingredients could increase demand for organic and natural flavors. Jan. 1, 2020, marked the date for most food manufacturers to switch to labels that specify exactly what’s in a product and how much of each ingredient is naturally occurring, and how much is added from non-naturally occurring sources.
These macro trends make it more critical than ever for flavor manufacturers to track and document precisely what’s going into their products. At the 2019 TraceGains annual user conference, industry veteran Penny Marsh, regulatory manager at Sensient Flavors, led a flavor industry standardization discussion, which drew a mix of flavor manufacturers and their suppliers, along with consumer-packaged-goods companies.
The roundtable focused on driving improvements to TraceGains Standard Online Forms that benefit the business. TraceGains bases the forms on best practices from Penny and her flavor-industry peers with the goal of simplifying the flavor supply chain. Each stakeholder’s needs are shared, and the feedback helps to refine the forms further.
The theme that emerged during the discussion is the overwhelming complexity of the flavor industry and the extraordinary amount of documentation required by stakeholders throughout its supply chain.
“There are, on average, 30 required documents per item or ingredient, and most flavor companies purchase anywhere from 1,000 to 2,000 items from hundreds of suppliers around the world,” TraceGains Account Executive Amanda Torbett explained. “They also must manage certifications and many other materials that verify the attributes of their products. It’s staggering how much documentation they need to manage, and it’s impossible for them to do it manually. That’s where TraceGains comes in. The system gives people in the flavor business one platform to collaborate with suppliers, and to digitally track all information exchanges.”
TraceGains Supplier Management allows flavor companies to automate document collection and workflows. The system collects and digitizes questionnaires, letters of guarantee, proof of insurance, country of origin, and certifications, and many other mission-critical documents. It tracks supplier-provided corporate and item-level documentation and sends automatic alerts when necessary documentation is missing, about to expire, or incomplete.
With TraceGains, flavor companies can quickly identify how individual suppliers and raw materials affect product outcomes such as customer satisfaction, profitability, yield, and quality. Suppliers are evaluated continuously and ranked on business-critical KPIs that go beyond traditional measures of cost and on-time delivery.
Find out how TraceGains Supplier Management can help your flavor business today.


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The next Google Nexus 2016 phones might be having quite a number of surprises. In addition to the news that HTC will be trimming the size of the screens on both handsets by 0.2 inches each as well as the fact that both the Marlin and Sailfish will carry the same hardware specs, there is another interesting development showing up.
According to a report coming from Android Police, the low-end Nexus 2016 Sailfish will come with a metal and glass body that will give the phone a desirable look, just like what you see with the Nexus 6P and pretty much the opposite of Nexus 5X. There have been talks of Google coming in with two devices that boast the same premium design and are only differentiated by size and it seems this will actually materialize with the Nexus 2016 phones. Even though a larger part of the body will be covered in metal, the top third will feature glass, probably to give room for wireless charging. This is also where the fingerprint scanner lives, meaning it is on the back of the phone.
The report further adds that Google will for the first time get rid of the “Nexus” logo and instead use a “G” logo, however, Google has not confirmed any of this. In fact, what seems to be confirmed is the fact that HTC will be in charge of making this year’s handsets thanks to FCC documentation that details out information about upcoming Nexus handsets.
If this indeed materializes, it will represent another major shakeup in the Google Nexus 2016 offering. As noted earlier, the rumors point towards a 5-inch Nexus 2016 Sailfish and a 5.5-inch Nexus 2016 Marlin, yet last year’s models had 5.2 inches and 5.7 inches of display. But unlike 2015 where LG and Huawei were in charge of the two phones, this year’s models will only be built by HTC, a company that is currently struggling in the smartphone market, despite the release of the powerful HTC 10.
To keep up with last year’s dates, it is possible that Google could unveil the Nexus 2016 phones this coming month and start selling them towards the same month or in early October. We’ll be here to let you know when this happens, just keep following us.


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Wozniak was the keynote speaker at the Apps World conference in London today where — despite his allegiance to Apple – he stuck the boot into the company’s latest creation.
He admitted that overseas travel had prevented him from seeing the Apple keynote but wasn’t too impressed with what he saw when he learned more on the fifth-generation iPad tablet.
“I am constantly following the gadget world but I was on a plane and missed all of the keynote,” said Wozniak, whose comments were reported by MacWorld and others. “When I finally took a look at the devices, the iPads didn’t hit my needs.”
“Yes it’s thinner, but I wanted storage,” he explained. “I don’t have broadband at home, and you can’t get great broadband connection in hotels, so I carry all my personal media in the iPad. So I was hoping Apple had a 256GB iPad. I was hoping for more storage so I could put every episode of Big Bang Theory on my iPad.”
“So I emailed my wife and said ‘nope, I don’t want one of those’”.
Apple announced the new iPad Air – dubbed earlier by the press as the iPad 5 — and Retina Display iPad mini in San Francisco yesterday. As far as storage is concerned, the iPad Air goes up to 128GB while the new iPad mini only reaches 64GB.
(For more iPad news, reviews and features, subscribe to the free TabTimes for iPad newsletter).


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One of the clear benefits of Microsoft shifting its Edge browser from HTML5 to Chromium was being able to tap into the thousands of Google Chrome web extensions (Addons). That has been the case with all extensions from Chrome available on Chromium Edge.
However, when running an extension from the Chrome Web Store on Edge, Google would warn users. The company placed a warning says, “Google recommends switching to Chrome to use extensions securely”.
It was a crafty move on Google's part that suggested there were inherent risks involved when running an extension on Edge. That was not the case according to most security researchers. Google has now responded and has changed its tactic.
Importantly, starting this week the company will no longer display the message on Chromium Edge. This means users can download Chrome web extensions without being told they may be putting their PC at risk.
Not only has Google removed the controversial message, it has added a new Edge-friendly prompt:
“You can now add extensions from the Chrome Web Store to Microsoft Edge – click on ‘Add to Chrome.'”
Microsoft's Chromium Edge supports its own extensions (called Addons by Microsoft) through the Edge Store. As we reported last week, the store is starting to gain some traction and there are now over 1,200 Addons available.
In other words, this is the number of Addons developers have created to run specifically on Microsoft Edge. Sure, that's still way lower than the extensions on Chrome and Addons on Mozilla Firefox. Although, it shows developers are more interested in developing for Edge than they previously were.


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GM cuts frames to cut costs
Automaker will increase capacity in Brazil, Russia, India and China
DETROIT—General Motors will cut the number of car and truck frames it uses worldwide to help reduce costs.
GM says it will cut the number of frames it uses to 14 from the current 30, saving on engineering, design and manufacturing costs.
The company says it will also increase factory capacity 45 per cent in Brazil, Russia, India and China by 2014 to take advantage of growth.
The Detroit-based automaker says it plans to keep investing in research and development, even when car sales are down. That will save money by ending the practice of stopping and starting projects, the company said.


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Recently, Techtic Solutions has confirmed that they have been constantly working on Magento stores and have identified that the store owners can do much better if they find a way to gain traffic and visibility of the products and brand. Magento developers at Techtic Solutions developed a seamless solution to integrate a Magento Store to Walmart Marketplace.
This will create abundance of opportunities for the Magento store owners since they will be able to display their products on Walmart Marketplace where millions of users visit every month. The official statement of Techtic Solutions also confirmed that the software solution would certainly provide a seamless transition of product information, store inventory, returns, logistics and much more.
Nisarg Mehta, CEO of Techtic Solutions mentioned on Friday September 30, 2016 “We will offer this service to all of our current and prospective clients. The solution that our Magento team has crafted will help store owners increase their visibility and sales by multifolds.”
Techtic Solutions also confirmed that they are have deployed this solution for few of their current customers and have successfully achieved the quality they desired for their solution to work. As a result the Magento store owners have manifolds of increase in the revenues and are able to display and advertise their products to this marketplace.
The Magento development team of Techtic Solutions has been congratulated by the management for being innovative and addressing issues of increasing the visibility of Magento store and increasing the sales numbers. The company is known for innovating solutions and hence the management has also confirmed that they are working on integrating Magento with various marketplaces like Amazon, Jet, Rakuten& eBay and will official announce the launch once the final solution is ready and passes the quality control.
Company is persistent about achieving smart solutions and showcasing impeccable & profitable results to the businesses. Clearly, the company is marching forward with their vision of becoming the leading Web & Mobile app solutions provider globally by offering amazing solutions to their customers.
Contents What is Dropshipping? Advantages of Dropshipping for Online Retailers Requires Less Capital Upfront Enables the Selling of a Wide Variety of Products Infuses Scalability […]
The time is NOW to prepare your store for Holiday Season.
Get your eCommerce platform ready with this actionable checklist!


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By Mary Magana-Ayala
SACRAMENTO, CA–– Garry Hobbs, charged with two counts of being in possession of stolen property, faced a preliminary hearing Friday at Sacramento County Superior Court where Judge Curtis M. Fiorini found there was insufficient evidence for one count because the evidence was predominantly based on assumption and speculation.
However, the judge did find reason to hold Hobbs for trial on other charges.
Hobbs was arrested April 10 for allegedly receiving stolen property after a vehicle was reported missing.
Officer Zachary Yasonia testified that parking control had advised Yasonia that a stolen vehicle was left on the street and that the suspect was loading items into a white Lexus which moved northbound on Arden Way.
Officer Yasonia stated that the subject attempted to flee on foot after officers pulled the vehicle over, but stopped after Yasonia held him at gunpoint. Officer Yasonia that the subject as Hobbs, who was also accompanied by his girlfriend in the white Lexus.
When searching the vehicle, Officer Yasonia said there was a lot of clothing, which included price tags, shoe boxes with shoes inside, tools, male toiletries, and three catalytic converters. Officer Yasonia noted one of the three catalytic converters found one had a U-Haul tag which had a warning that if in possession it constituted theft.
Officer Yasonia stated that one of the shoeboxes had an address to a victim who had had his U-Haul stolen with a value of more than $25,000. The clothing found in the car, included an item exceeding $500 and other shirts with price tags ranging from $5-10.
Deputy District Attorney Brandon Jack asked Yasonia if he learned the value of replacing the U-Haul catalytic converter and Yasonia responded “A tow truck driver said the replacement was $2,000.”
Officer Yasonia also explained he had some experience with catalytic converter theft, and because the U-Haul catalytic converter in this case was larger he could assume that it was worth more.
During the cross-examination, Defense Attorney David Cramer asked if Officer Yasonia had confirmed with U-Haul about the price or investigated if the catalytic converter was stolen and Yasonia replied, “No, sir.”
Cramer also asked, “There was no evidence that the other two catalytic converters were stolen right?” Officer Yasonia replied, “Correct.”
In the closing statements, DDA Jack stated that “there were three catalytic converters, one belonging to U-Haul and also there were other numerous stolen items in the car including clothing… we can make an inference that the two other catalytic converters were also stolen.”
The defense, however, noted, “For the catalytic converter we have zero evidence…the evidence is based on assumption and speculation that it is over $950, the other two there is no evidence that they were stolen. The clothing is again the same argument as Count 1 which is speculation…the officer didn’t add up the items… there is insufficient evidence, both counts should be reduced to a misdemeanor.”
Judge Fiorini agreed, in part, ruling “the issue with regard to Count 1, I am finding that there is insufficient evidence that value was over $950. The officer didn’t contact U-Haul, evidence from tow truck driver lacks foundation, insufficient evidence that value was over $950. There needs to be more than that for a holding order.”
The judge ruled, regarding the allegedly stolen catalytic converters, there was insufficient evidence and decreased the charge to a misdemeanor.
Additionally, Judge Fiorini stated, “I find that there is sufficient evidence and inferences are more reasonable since victim items were stolen, clothing items were marked…the officer testified that there were multiple Nike shoes in new condition, items found in Mr. Hobbs’ cars are attributable to items in U-Haul… inference is reasonable and sufficient to hold him to answer.”
Hobbs will face his next court hearing on Nov. 8.


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Many of us are trying to eat healthier these days and for some, that means eating more salad. But before you pack up the greens for lunch today, you'll want to check your fridge first, we've got an important recall for you.
Dole has issued a recall on 12 ounce bags of pre-mixed, pre-washed salads with these code numbers:
The sell by dates on the affected bags is October 17th.
There have not been any reported illnesses yet, but there may be a link to something called Listeriosis. It is a bacterial infection with symptoms like fever, muscle aches, nausea or even diarrhea.
If you've eaten salad from the recalled bags and are having symptoms, you may want to check it out with your doctor.
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NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- It's not hard to see that M&A has become the new growth strategy in the semiconductor industry -- it's eat or be eaten. And with their survival hanging in the balance, there's no in-between. So it's a bit surprising that chip giant Qualcomm (QCOM) - Get Qualcomm Inc Report has been nothing more than an observer amid all of the wheeling and dealing. However, I don't expect it to stay silent for long.
With Intel's (INTC) - Get Intel Corporation Report$16.7 billion acquisition of Altera (ALTR) - Get Altair Engineering Inc. Class A Report now official after weeks of rumors, the fun continues. That bid follows Avago Technologies' (AVGO) - Get Broadcom Inc. Report $37 billion deal for Broadcomundefined last week, a move that will make them the third-largest U.S. semiconductor maker company (by revenue). Avago's move likely accelerated the talks between Intel and Altera.
The terms Intel and Altera finally agreed on were the same Altera had reportedly rejected previously. Intel didn't budge and Altera, which has struggled with revenue -- missing analysts' average sales targets twice in the last three quarters -- needed the deal.
All of this this brings us to Qualcomm, which remains the second-largest U.S. chipmaker (behind Intel), but is also in desperate need of a shot in the arm. Like Intel/Altera and Avago/Broadcom, Qualcomm could benefit from expanding its product portfolio and diversifying its wireless businesses, which earlier this year lost chip placement in Samsung's (SSNLF) new Galaxy phones.
With shares down more than 6% in 2015 and down some 14% over the past year, Qualcomm, which is experiencing a slowdown in growth, but has tons of cash, needs to do something. This explains why activist investor Jana Partners, which owns roughly $2 billion worth of Qualcomm stock, is circling its headquarters.
While Jana insists Qualcomm could create value by separating its chip business from its licensing business, an acquisition would make more sense. One target that comes to mind isSkyworks Solutions (SWKS) - Get Skyworks Solutions, Inc. Report, which makes high-performance analog chips that connect people, places and things.
Aside from being a well-positioned player in the realm of the Internet of Things, Skyworks -- like Avago -- is key parts supplier to Apple (AAPL) - Get Apple Inc. Report. Skyworks' chips are prominently placed in Apple's iPhones and iPads. Thus, what's good for Apple is good of Skyworks, and with analysts still raising sales estimates for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, Skyworks' growth has just begun -- even without factoring in its strong IoT opportunities.
With roughly $18 billion in cash on the balance sheet (and zero debt), and another $8 billion in operating cash flow, Qualcomm has the financial muscle to make a deal for Skyworks, which has a market cap of $21 billion.
What does Qualcomm get in Skyworks? Aside from a hot company whose shares are up more than 50% on the year, Qualcomm would be able to double-down on its wireless exposure since its mobile chips are already in Apple's iPhones.
At the same time, losing its spot in Samsung's Galaxys may be the wakeup call Qualcomm needs to help it realize it may not want to rely too heavily on a single chip platform. Sure, Qualcomm could win Samsung back. But if/when either Apple or Samsung opt for their own internal designs -- whether for cellular modems or Snapdragon chips -- owning a company like Skyworks would lessen the damage.
In short, Qualcomm should pick off Skyworks now before its shares, up 155% in the past year, get even more expensive.
This article is commentary by an independent contributor. At the time of publication, the author held no positions in the stocks mentioned.


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KATHMANDU, Jan 21: As an indication of growing coffee culture in the country, coffee consumption is on the rise in recent years. This has also contributed to increased coffee production in the country.
MUGU, Nov 24: Chhayanath Rara Municipality that recently announced ban on the sale, distribution and consumption of alcohol has started taking action against rule violators. Officials said they arrest the rule violators and those found guilty are made to pay certain amount in bail and are freed.
KATHMANDU, July 9: Milk consumption has come down by around 30 percent after the government's inspection found presence of coliform bacteria and soda in milk processed by dairy plants, according to food technicians.
KATHMANDU, Dec 29: Market inspection and quality test conducted in the first four months of Fiscal Year 2017/18 has found that 17 percent of food and beverages available in the market are unfit for consumption.


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MediaTek’s Helio X30 has 10 cores and a GPU that’s 2.4 times faster than last year’s X20.
At Mobile World Congress, MediaTek has officially kicked off availability of its high-end SoC for 2017, the Helio X30. The chipset is built on a 10nm node, and will be making its debut in phones next quarter.
Like its predecessor, the Helio X30 offers a tri-cluster CPU design that sees two Cortex A73 cores clocked at 2.5GHz to form the high-performance cluster, complemented by four Cortex A53 cores at 2.2GHz and four Cortex A53 at 1.9GHz. MediaTek is touting its intelligent task switcher, CorePilot 4.0, to deliver up to 25% power savings. CorePilot 4.0 pulls data from the device’s thermals and relies on “user experience monitoring technology” to predict which CPU cores should be used for a particular task. The idea is to maximize battery life while ensuring that users don’t notice a drop in performance.
On the GPU front, the Helio X30 fields Imagination’s PowerVR Series7XT Plus clocked at 800MHz, which according to MediaTek is 2.4 times faster than last year’s Helio X20 while consuming up to 60% less power. The SoC accommodates displays up to 2560×1600 in resolution, up to 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM, and eMMC 5.1 or UFS 2.1 flash memory.
Other improvements include a vision processing unit for processing images that uses 10% of the power a regular CPU would for undertaking the same task. The 14-bit Imagiq 2.0 ISP supports 28MP sensors, dual 16MP+16MP sensors, improved EIS for smooth videos and ultra-fast autofocus.
The SoC is also the first to include a hardware-based 4K 10-bit HDR10 decode for 4K video playback at 30fps. Also included is a Category 10 LTE modem with 3x carrier aggregation that has a theoretical peak of 450Mbps.
MediaTek mentions that the first phones powered by the Helio X30 will be available in the second quarter of 2017. Chinese manufacturer Vernee has already announced that its upcoming Apollo 2 will feature the Helio X30, and we’ll likely hear more about other handsets that will be powered by the SoC in the coming weeks.


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As President Donald Trump contemplates a new trade order, one that puts “America first,” he may be surprised to find he is pushing on an open door. From both a top-down geo-economic level and a bottom-up corporate level, 21st-century trade is in urgent need of a new vision.
If he is serious about offering one, Trump should consider a global growth model based on what could be termed the tripolar world, in which deepening ties within three main regions—the Americas, Asia and Europe—become the next catalyst for economic growth.
Globalization as it has existed since the end of the Cold War seems dead in the water while policies of economic nationalism risk trade conflicts across the globe. Given a fragile global economy coupled with a broad and massive debt overhang, trade wars are the last thing the world economy needs. Closer ties within regions of the world, on the other hand, have the potential to harness the tailwinds of technology and consumer demand to drive the global economy forward.


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Facebook has recently announced that they plan to add its name to both Instagram and WhatsApp due to politicians calling for the social media giant to be broken apart and the Federal Trade Commission investigates Facebook’s acquisition of both companies.
The company plans to rename the apps “Instagram from Facebook” and “WhatsApp from Facebook,” according to The Information, which cites anonymous sources.
“We want to be clearer about the products and services that are part of Facebook,” Facebook spokeswoman Bertie Thompson told The Information after confirming the massive rebranding. The move comes after CEO Mark Zuckerberg expressed frustration that Facebook doesn’t get enough credit for both apps’ success.
The Federal Trade Commission’s ongoing antitrust investigation into Facebook is looking at whether Facebook bought Instagram and WhatsApp before they could become a threat to its business. The social media giant bought Instagram for $1 billion in 2012 and WhatsApp for $19 billion in 2014.
Via Digital Trends


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CreativeTourism at FITUR!
We will be pleased to meet you at FITUR2020 (Madrid). Please feel free to contact us: Email: firstname.lastname@example.org Please, findRead more.
Call for entries for Best Creative Destination 2019
Is your destination a creative one? If the answer is “YES”, do not miss the opportunity to receive theRead more.
Creative Tourism Awards 2019…and the winners are…
The winners of four categories of the Creative Tourism Awards 2019 were revealed last November 6th, within the event organized by the Creative TourismRead more.
Creative Tourism in Colombia
The Creative Tourism Network® was honored to participate in the Cultural Tourism Meeting, which was held from November 13 toRead more.
Valparaíso joins the Creative Tourism Network®
The Municipality of Valparaíso, through its Tourism Department, has joined the CreativeTourismNetwork® to improve and diversify the arrival of touristsRead more.
Barcelos, new CreativeFriendlyDestination!
The CreativeTourismNetwork® is very pleased to welcome the city of Barcelos (Portugal) as new destination certified “CreativeFriendly”. The Committee ofRead more.
Creative Tourism convinces the WTM
A hundred professionals attended the conference organized by the Creative Tourism Network® within the World Travel Market – London lastRead more.
Creative tourism in Argentina
The director of the Creative Tourism Network® had the honor to share a keynote within the prestigious FIT – InternationalRead more.
Tango and creative tourism in Montevideo
The Creative Tourism Network® (CTN) had the honor and pleasure of celebrating World Tourism Day on September 27th, in suchRead more.
Creative Tourism in Portugal
The Creative Tourism Network® had the honor to speak within the Seminar on “Tourism development at regional and municipal level: how toRead more.
6th Creative Tourism Awards: call for entries
The Creative Tourism Network® is pleased to announce the open registration of the 6th Creative Tourism Awards. These trophies aim to reward every yearRead more.
Recife, New CreativeFriendlyDestination
Last August 2d, the Secretary of Tourism, Sports and Leisure of Recife City Council, Mrs. Ana Paula Vilaça, announced officiallyRead more.
The Îles de la Madeleine: from strategy to model to follow
Last June, the Director of the Creative Tourism Network (R) visited the Magdalen Islands (Quebec) where she was impressed, notRead more.
Creative Tourism training: open registrations
The Creative Tourism Network® is conducting classes and workshops on creative tourism management for many academic and professional institutions worldwide (pleaseRead more.
The Laurentides bet on creativity and innovation in tourism
The “Laurentides”. The name sounds like an invitation to travel and dream in this beautiful region, just a few minutesRead more.
Upcoming Creative Tourism events in Quebec
Next June 14th – 21st, the Creative Tourism Network® will participate in a serie of events organized in different creative destinationsRead more.
Loulé Criativo: New headquarters in the Gama Lobo Palace!
On Saturday, 1 June, the new headquarters of Loulé Criativo was inaugurated, in the renovated Gama Lobo Palace. This splendidRead more.
The “Tourism is Cultural” MOOC is open for registration!
The French Ministry of Culture has launched a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) on “Tourism is Cultural”, produced in partnershipRead more.
Creative Tourism in Veneto
It is always a pleasure to conduct a workshop on Creative Tourism within the Master in Economics and Tourism ManagementRead more.
The 2019 Creative Tourism Catalogue is on the way !
The Network is growing, and there’s still time to join us! We are currently working on the newest edition ofRead more.
Creative Tourism taught in La Rochelle (France)
The director of the Creative Tourism Network®, Caroline Couret, delivered a two-days workshop on creative tourism management for the 32Read more.
Creative Tourism in Scotland
The director of the Creative Tourism Network® spoke within the International Tay Cities Conference, that took place last March 26th inRead more.
UNWTO: 2019 Year of Education-Skills and Employment
Last January 24th, the Secretary General of World Tourism Organization , Zurab Pololikashvili, inaugurated the “2019: Year of Education-Skills and Employment“, at theRead more.
Creative Tourism Awards: the winners revealed!
The Creative Tourism Awards for “Best Strategy for Creative Tourism Development” and “Best Creative Destination” were revealed last January 24th,Read more.