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|By Maureen O'Gara||
|January 7, 2013 04:00 AM EST||
The Federal Trade Commission said Thursday that it had come to a couple of so-called "landmark agreements" with Google that end the agency's big, almost two-year investigation into the antitrust complaints made against the search giant.
The deal absolves Google of stacking its search results in favor of its own properties and thereby stifling competition, a winning decision for Google that has Microsoft ticked off. Alas, Redmond hoped Google would be embroiled in a major antitrust case.
One of the two consent decrees forbids Google to seek injunctions from the federal courts or the International Trade Commission against "willing licensees" of the standards-essential patents (SEPs) it acquired in its $12.5 billion takeover of Motorola Mobility, patents that are supposed to be available to all takers on fair, reasonable, non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms.
The wording leaves room for Google to argue that the targets of its attempts at sales and import bans are not willing licensees and - although the consent decree ostensibly holds Google to Motorola's FRAND pledges - apparently the only way to resolve such an impasse is for the would-be licensee to take Google to court to have the FRAND terms set, since Google and Motorola have demanded ridiculously high terms at least from competitors like Apple and Microsoft.
FOSS Patents thinks Apple and Microsoft will benefit from the order because the FTC regards them as willing licensees of the patents on FRAND terms but notes that Commissioner J. Thomas Rosch didn't go along with the deal and would have preferred Google be forbidden to seek any injunctions based on SEP patents unless the "licensee refuses to comply with the decision of a federal court or some other neutral arbitrator defining the FRAND terms."
In his dissent Rosch, who is about to depart the FTC, said, "After promising an elephant more than a year ago, the Commission instead has brought forth a couple of mice."
He reckons letting Google off "creates very bad precedent and may lead to the impression that well-heeled firms such as Google will receive special treatment at the Commission." On the other hand, he also thinks that if Google's rival had a beef they should have lodged private antitrust suits.
However, if she had her way Commissioner Maureen Ohlhausen wouldn't have placed any restrictions on Google and its SEP injunctions.
Separately, Google has agreed to remove restrictions on the use of its AdWords online search advertising platform that make it difficult for advertisers to coordinate online advertising campaigns across multiple platforms. And it also pledged to cut down on its use of snippets of content from other web sites such as posting Yelp reviews next to its maps.
FairSearch, whose members include Microsoft, said the FTC's "inaction on the core question of search bias will only embolden Google to act more aggressively to misuse its monopoly power to harm other innovators."
Google chief legal officer David Drummond blogged that "The conclusion is clear: Google's services are good for users and good for competition."
He also said that Google will seek to resolve SEP disputes through a neutral third party before seeking injunctions. "This agreement establishes clear rules of the road for standards-essential patents going forward," he claimed.
The European Commission's probe, started about the same time and touching the same territory, is still on-going.
Google's stock gained slightly on the pretty much expected news.
SYS-CON Events announced today that BMC will exhibit at SYS-CON's 16th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 9-11, 2015, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. BMC delivers software solutions that help IT transform digital enterprises for the ultimate competitive business advantage. BMC has worked with thousands of leading companies to create and deliver powerful IT management services. From mainframe to cloud to mobile, BMC pairs high-speed digital innovation with robust IT industrialization – allowing customers to provide amazing user experiences with optimized IT per...
May. 27, 2015 03:30 PM EDT Reads: 988
SYS-CON Events announced today that MetraTech, now part of Ericsson, has been named “Silver Sponsor” of SYS-CON's 16th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 9–11, 2015, at the Javits Center in New York, NY. Ericsson is the driving force behind the Networked Society- a world leader in communications infrastructure, software and services. Some 40% of the world’s mobile traffic runs through networks Ericsson has supplied, serving more than 2.5 billion subscribers.
May. 27, 2015 02:00 PM EDT Reads: 2,110
The world is at a tipping point where the technology, the device and global adoption are converging to such a point that we will see an explosion of a world where smartphone devices not only allow us to talk to each other, but allow for communication between everything – serving as a central hub from which we control our world – MediaTek is at the heart of both driving this and allowing the markets to drive this reality forward themselves. The next wave of consumer gadgets is here – smart, connected, and small. If your ambitions are big, so are ours. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Jack Hu, D...
May. 27, 2015 12:49 PM EDT Reads: 688
SYS-CON Events announced today that DragonGlass, an enterprise search platform, will exhibit at SYS-CON's 16th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 9-11, 2015, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. After eleven years of designing and building custom applications, OpenCrowd has launched DragonGlass, a cloud-based platform that enables the development of search-based applications. These are a new breed of applications that utilize a search index as their backbone for data retrieval. They can easily adapt to new data sets and provide access to both structured and unstruc...
May. 27, 2015 12:00 PM EDT Reads: 2,360
The 4th International Internet of @ThingsExpo, co-located with the 17th International Cloud Expo - to be held November 3-5, 2015, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA - announces that its Call for Papers is open. The Internet of Things (IoT) is the biggest idea since the creation of the Worldwide Web more than 20 years ago.
May. 27, 2015 12:00 PM EDT Reads: 2,402
We’re entering a new era of computing technology that many are calling the Internet of Things (IoT). Machine to machine, machine to infrastructure, machine to environment, the Internet of Everything, the Internet of Intelligent Things, intelligent systems – call it what you want, but it’s happening, and its potential is huge. IoT is comprised of smart machines interacting and communicating with other machines, objects, environments and infrastructures. As a result, huge volumes of data are being generated, and that data is being processed into useful actions that can “command and control” thi...
May. 27, 2015 11:51 AM EDT Reads: 648
As the Internet of Things unfolds, mobile and wearable devices are blurring the line between physical and digital, integrating ever more closely with our interests, our routines, our daily lives. Contextual computing and smart, sensor-equipped spaces bring the potential to walk through a world that recognizes us and responds accordingly. We become continuous transmitters and receivers of data. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Andrew Bolwell, Director of Innovation for HP's Printing and Personal Systems Group, discussed how key attributes of mobile technology – touch input, sensors, social, and ...
May. 27, 2015 11:30 AM EDT Reads: 4,367
All major researchers estimate there will be tens of billions devices - computers, smartphones, tablets, and sensors - connected to the Internet by 2020. This number will continue to grow at a rapid pace for the next several decades. With major technology companies and startups seriously embracing IoT strategies, now is the perfect time to attend @ThingsExpo, June 9-11, 2015, at the Javits Center in New York City. Learn what is going on, contribute to the discussions, and ensure that your enterprise is as "IoT-Ready" as it can be
May. 27, 2015 11:15 AM EDT Reads: 2,824
The Internet of Things is not only adding billions of sensors and billions of terabytes to the Internet. It is also forcing a fundamental change in the way we envision Information Technology. For the first time, more data is being created by devices at the edge of the Internet rather than from centralized systems. What does this mean for today's IT professional? In this Power Panel at @ThingsExpo, moderated by Conference Chair Roger Strukhoff, panelists will addresses this very serious issue of profound change in the industry.
May. 27, 2015 10:30 AM EDT Reads: 1,379
WebRTC defines no default signaling protocol, causing fragmentation between WebRTC silos. SIP and XMPP provide possibilities, but come with considerable complexity and are not designed for use in a web environment. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Matthew Hodgson, technical co-founder of the Matrix.org, discussed how Matrix is a new non-profit Open Source Project that defines both a new HTTP-based standard for VoIP & IM signaling and provides reference implementations.
May. 27, 2015 10:30 AM EDT Reads: 5,506
Buzzword alert: Microservices and IoT at a DevOps conference? What could possibly go wrong? In this Power Panel at DevOps Summit, moderated by Jason Bloomberg, the leading expert on architecting agility for the enterprise and president of Intellyx, panelists will peel away the buzz and discuss the important architectural principles behind implementing IoT solutions for the enterprise. As remote IoT devices and sensors become increasingly intelligent, they become part of our distributed cloud environment, and we must architect and code accordingly. At the very least, you'll have no problem fil...
May. 27, 2015 10:00 AM EDT Reads: 2,283
"People are a lot more knowledgeable about APIs now. There are two types of people who work with APIs - IT people who want to use APIs for something internal and the product managers who want to do something outside APIs for people to connect to them," explained Roberto Medrano, Executive Vice President at SOA Software, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at Cloud Expo, held Nov 4–6, 2014, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
May. 27, 2015 09:30 AM EDT Reads: 4,670
Almost everyone sees the potential of Internet of Things but how can businesses truly unlock that potential. The key will be in the ability to discover business insight in the midst of an ocean of Big Data generated from billions of embedded devices via Systems of Discover. Businesses will also need to ensure that they can sustain that insight by leveraging the cloud for global reach, scale and elasticity.
May. 27, 2015 09:30 AM EDT Reads: 7,161
In their session at @ThingsExpo, Shyam Varan Nath, Principal Architect at GE, and Ibrahim Gokcen, who leads GE's advanced IoT analytics, focused on the Internet of Things / Industrial Internet and how to make it operational for business end-users. Learn about the challenges posed by machine and sensor data and how to marry it with enterprise data. They also discussed the tips and tricks to provide the Industrial Internet as an end-user consumable service using Big Data Analytics and Industrial Cloud.
May. 27, 2015 07:30 AM EDT Reads: 5,756
Building low-cost wearable devices can enhance the quality of our lives. In his session at Internet of @ThingsExpo, Sai Yamanoor, Embedded Software Engineer at Altschool, provided an example of putting together a small keychain within a $50 budget that educates the user about the air quality in their surroundings. He also provided examples such as building a wearable device that provides transit or recreational information. He then reviewed the resources available to build wearable devices at home including open source hardware, the raw materials required and the options available to power s...
May. 27, 2015 04:30 AM EDT Reads: 4,366
How do APIs and IoT relate? The answer is not as simple as merely adding an API on top of a dumb device, but rather about understanding the architectural patterns for implementing an IoT fabric. There are typically two or three trends: Exposing the device to a management framework Exposing that management framework to a business centric logic Exposing that business layer and data to end users. This last trend is the IoT stack, which involves a new shift in the separation of what stuff happens, where data lives and where the interface lies. For instance, it's a mix of architectural styles ...
May. 27, 2015 03:00 AM EDT Reads: 6,034
We certainly live in interesting technological times. And no more interesting than the current competing IoT standards for connectivity. Various standards bodies, approaches, and ecosystems are vying for mindshare and positioning for a competitive edge. It is clear that when the dust settles, we will have new protocols, evolved protocols, that will change the way we interact with devices and infrastructure. We will also have evolved web protocols, like HTTP/2, that will be changing the very core of our infrastructures. At the same time, we have old approaches made new again like micro-services...
May. 27, 2015 02:30 AM EDT Reads: 5,701
Connected devices and the Internet of Things are getting significant momentum in 2014. In his session at Internet of @ThingsExpo, Jim Hunter, Chief Scientist & Technology Evangelist at Greenwave Systems, examined three key elements that together will drive mass adoption of the IoT before the end of 2015. The first element is the recent advent of robust open source protocols (like AllJoyn and WebRTC) that facilitate M2M communication. The second is broad availability of flexible, cost-effective storage designed to handle the massive surge in back-end data in a world where timely analytics is e...
May. 27, 2015 02:00 AM EDT Reads: 6,455
Collecting data in the field and configuring multitudes of unique devices is a time-consuming, labor-intensive process that can stretch IT resources. Horan & Bird [H&B], Australia’s fifth-largest Solar Panel Installer, wanted to automate sensor data collection and monitoring from its solar panels and integrate the data with its business and marketing systems. After data was collected and structured, two major areas needed to be addressed: improving developer workflows and extending access to a business application to multiple users (multi-tenancy). Docker, a container technology, was used to ...
May. 27, 2015 01:00 AM EDT Reads: 2,663
The true value of the Internet of Things (IoT) lies not just in the data, but through the services that protect the data, perform the analysis and present findings in a usable way. With many IoT elements rooted in traditional IT components, Big Data and IoT isn’t just a play for enterprise. In fact, the IoT presents SMBs with the prospect of launching entirely new activities and exploring innovative areas. CompTIA research identifies several areas where IoT is expected to have the greatest impact.
May. 26, 2015 09:00 PM EDT Reads: 5,300


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The HTC HD2 has today gone on sale at O2, the first HTC-branded phone to be sold by the operator. The smartphone is available from free on contract and can be purchased in-store and over the phone.
The HD2 comes, which runs off the Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system, comes with HTC Sense. The manufacturer says it is “a mobile experience focussed on putting people at the centre by making your phone work in a more simple and natural way”. HTC Sense revolves around three principles – Make it Mine, Stay Close and Discover the Unexpected.
It comes with a 4.3-inch touchscreen, 1GHZ processor and built-in GPS, Wi-Fi and FM radio. It also has YouTube, Facebook and Twitter integration and a microSD slot for expandable memory, as well as a standard 3.5mm headphone jack and Bluetooth.
O2 UK general manager for devices Steve Adler said: “The HTC HD2 is the first HTC branded phone to be sold on O2. We love the large screen and combination of Windows Mobile 6.5 with HTC Sense. We are proud to be the home of smartphones and the HTC HD2 adds a new dimension to the range of devices we offer to our customers.”
HTC UK and Ireland executive director Jon French said: “The close partnership between HTC and Microsoft means we are able to bring HTC Sense, a customer experience which makes the phone work in a more simple, natural and personal way, to a Windows phone for the first time with the HD2. With one of the largest screens in the market, the powerful and ultra-thin HD2 offers users an amazing mobile experience.”

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PARIS-- Xavier Fouquerand is among the most prolific hosts on Airbnb Inc.
The 48-year-old's firm, ParisAddress, advertises more than 200 apartments for rental on the home-sharing service, generating hundreds of thousands of euros in a boom that is upending European tourism.
But the bonanza is encountering headwinds.
Housing officials in Paris are cracking down on tourist rentals like those Mr. FouqueSHYrand offers, saying their growth is driving out residents. A team of investigators scours the city for unauthorized apartments, threatening fines of EUR25,000 ($28,400) each.
"City Hall should find a way to better balance housing and tourism," said Mr. Fouquerand. "Airbnb has completely changed the market."
Europe's tourist capitals are where Airbnb's promise and problems collide.
The San Francisco-based home-sharing firm now generates more than half its revenue in Europe, after opening a flurry of offices and successfully promoting itself as a peer-to-peer tourism alternative. But it faces opposition from some hotel groups and local authorities, threatening the ambitious profit projections of a firm investors are set to value at $24 billion.
In response, Airbnb has wooed government officials, offering to pay tourism taxes, encouraging new laws that bless its activities and commissioning studies showing it boosts local economies. On Monday it detailed new measures to encourage hosts in Europe to pay income taxes.
While cities including Berlin and Barcelona have cracked down, levying fines and imposing bans, others such as London and Amsterdam have passed laws embracing home-sharing.
"This is how we partner with cities," Airbnb Chief Executive Brian Chesky told French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius during a meeting last week to discuss cooperation. "We're not here to bend the rules."
At the heart of the debate is a question: What is Airbnb?
To competitors in the hotel industry, the company is a crypto-hotel operator, tapping into the residential real-estate market to run a professional business while avoiding tourist taxes and other regulations. Activists argue the company gives owners an incentive to convert residences into tourist apartments, driving up rents.
By contrast, Airbnb says the vast majority of hosts are renting their homes while they are out of town. Executives say Airbnb attracts people to places they would not otherwise visit, generating revenue locals normally would not see.
The stakes are particularly high in Paris. While Airbnb is facing opposition in many cities, including New York and San Francisco, the French capital is now Airbnb's largest market, with 40,000 listings. More than 517,000 people stayed in Paris on Airbnb last summer, Airbnb says, a 20-fold increase compared with 2011.
The company is moving to cement that growth. In March, it struck a deal with the city to automatically collect and pay millions of euros in tourist taxes. In November, Airbnb's second annual hosts' convention will take place in the city, decamping from the company's hometown.
Paris has bragged about its status as the top Airbnb market. But the firm's impact on housing remains a matter of discussion. Paris officials say there are some 30,000 tourist apartments available for rent in the city--about 2% of the total number of units--with as many as two-thirds operating illegally. Airbnb says that it is a fringe issue on its platform; just 17% of hosts in Paris say they rent out apartments other than their primary residences. It isn't clear how many of those might be doing so without city authorizations.
Some hotel owners and other activists argue that full-time tourism apartments likely account for more than that in revenue terms, however. "You can't call this a sharing economy anymore," said Laurent Duc, president of the French Hotel Federation. "This is an underground shadow economy."
Airbnb's growth in Europe has been fast even by Internet standards. It wasn't until 2012 that the company began to aggressively expand in Europe, opening six offices. At the time, Europe was less than 15% of the overall business in terms of revenue, said Olivier Grémillon, Airbnb's top executive for Europe, Middle East and Africa.
The firm was quick to push for more flexible laws that blessed limited peer-to-peer rentals, even if that meant conceding tougher rules on dedicated tourist apartments seen as a threat to housing.
In Amsterdam, which wanted to rein in illegal tourist apartments, Airbnb supported a compromise in 2013 that allowed rentals of individuals' primary residences for up to 60 days a year. It also agreed to collect a 5% tourist tax beginning this year.
"We can be the kind of government that closes its eyes and acts like nothing is changing. Or we can say, 'How can we make this work?' " said Jules van de Ven, an Amsterdam city spokesman.
In London, Airbnb outflanked opposition from local councils that feared the loss of residential apartments by working with the British government. In the spring, the government repealed a provision in an old law that made it illegal to rent a London flat or room for less than 90 days without the city's approval, a change the housing ministry says is "bringing London up to speed with the Internet age."
The approach hit a wall in Barcelona, however.
"Each day, we are losing a neighbor," said Sol Ruiz de Vargas, president of the Old City residents' association, which has organized protests. The Catalan regional government has backed those complaints, fining Airbnb EUR30,000 last year for tourist law violations, and saying it is considering further action.
Berlin went further. Under a new law, residential owners will next year have to give up short-term rentals entirely unless they get special authorization--something officials say they will grant sparingly.
Airbnb says the new Berlin law is "confusing and unclear," adding that it is working with governments in both cities to encourage new rules for the sharing economy and address their concerns on housing.
In Paris, arguments centered on hotel competition and the residential market. When legislators debated a new housing law in 2013, Airbnb lobbied for new rules that would allow an owner to rent a primary residence or a part-time pied-à-terre without restrictions.
But the French government wouldn't go that far, instead allowing cities like Paris to restrict both dedicated short-term rental properties as well as any residence rented out to guests for more than four months a year.
The law "decreased our business a little bit in the short term," admits Mr. Grémillon. But legal blessing for home-sharing is a bigger prize, he said: "In the long run it's a win for us."
Since then, Paris has ramped up inspections to enforce its new rules. During a three-day operation in late May, inspectors made surprise visits to 2,000 apartments in the Marais district. Using tablet computers to compare apartments to online listings on various sites, they turned up about 100 potential violations, said unit chief François Plottin.
"The center of our city is becoming deserted," Mr. Plottin said. "More and more, it's just tourists."
Some Airbnb hosts paint a different picture. Jules Trecco said he started renting out his part-time apartment in Paris's Montmartre district late last year to subsidize his EUR1,700 monthly rent.
He said he couldn't live part-time in Paris otherwise. "If I keep it up for the whole year, I'll be breaking the law," Mr. Trecco said. "But I think it's worth it."
Matthew Moffett and Friedrich Geiger contributed to this article.
Write to Sam Schechner at firstname.lastname@example.org


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CEDIA has announced that Omar Hikal will assume the role of Vice Chair on the Executive Committee of the CEDIA Board until his term ends in January of 2019.
The Vice Chair role was recently vacated by Giles Sutton as part of his transition to becoming a member of the CEDIA staff as Senior Vice President of Industry Engagement. Hikal has previously served on the executive committee as Secretary from 2016-2017.
“Omar has been an incredibly dedicated member of the CEDIA board,” said Dave Humphries, CEDIA chairman. “We are fortunate to have someone with his vast industry experience stepping in to serve in this leadership role for the association.”
Omar entered the home technology industry in 2003 when he co-founded Archimedia, now the Middle East’s largest residential integration company, operating in five countries from Morocco to the UAE. Omar was CEO of Archimedia until 2015 and now sits on Achimedia’s board as Vice Chairman; he remains active in helping to develop the business. Since 2017, Omar has been the CEO and Head of Strategy at The Brand Company, a holistic brand creation firm that aims to “infuse brands with meaning, attitude, and promise.” Omar is also a certified Gazelles business and leadership coach helping companies with strategic planning and execution.
Candidates for the 2019 – 2020 board will be announced in the coming weeks. Voting will open on September 6th and will close on October 19, 2018. All member types, whether integrator, manufacturer, service provider or other, may vote and each company has one vote.


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Web application firewalls are a crucial line of defense keeping databases and their contents at arm’s length from threat actors. A bypass of these security tools could put business and customer information in the hands of hackers, and impact business from a financial and regulatory perspective.
In this episode of the Nexus Podcast, Team82 researcher Noam Moshe joins to discuss his recent research and development of a generic bypass of leading vendors’ web application firewalls.
The attack technique exploits the vendors’ previous lack of support for JSON syntax in their SQL injection processes. WAFs were previously blind to JSON syntax prepended to a SQL injection payload and would not flag these as malicious.
Team82’s research identified five affected vendors: Amazon Web Services, Palo Alto Networks, F5, Cloudflare, and Imperva. Each of the vendors’ WAF products now support JSON syntax, and have negated the impact of this technique.
“What makes this bypass so rare is that we were able to find the generic bypass. Meaning, I don’t care what is between me and the application, I simply bypass almost any WAF between me and it,” Moshe said. “There have been WAF bypasses in the past, however, I don’t know of a generic one working on all major vendors.”
Moshe explained how Team82 came upon this technique almost by accident during an unrelated research project, and why vendors were lagging in adding JSON support in WAF inspection processes.
“We arrived at JSON because it is implemented in all databases by default, so it was a good candidate,” he said. “We tried a few others, but JSON was the one that simply worked out of the box.”
Michael Mimoso is Director of Influencer Marketing at Claroty and Editorial Director of Nexus.


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Marc Bolland’s long awaited review of Marks & Spencer’s business brought with it ambitious plans for every area of the company.
As part of the three-year strategy outlined alongside M&S’s half-year results, Bolland touched upon every area of the business. If executed well, his vision will inject a healthy dose of inspiration to the already well performing retailer and build on existing opportunities.
However, Bolland says his strategic initiatives serve as an “evolution not a revolution” of the business and brand and he highlights the importance of looking at its heritage in order to move forward.
Yesterday (9 November), M&S reported a strong set of results for the six months to 2 October. Profit increased 17% and sales were up 5.6%,which indicates that M&S isn’t in need of a revolution.
One of the key messages from Bolland is that M&S needs to regain some of its “unique and special” positioning to differentiate itself.
M&S sits happily at the mid-point between supermarkets and speciality retailers, but Bolland is keen to re-establish the chain firmly at the “speciality” end of the scale by highlighting its innovative products and services.
The introduction of the “Only at M&S” brand positioning will serve to draw attention to innovations and products that are exclusive to M&S.
“The M&S brand needs to do things that other brands don’t do, not follow the crowd,” he said.
Bolland admits that M&S has fallen down on its customer focus and has perhaps been a little to focused on its product, that said he says its product range is now “best in class”.
He has gone further with its fashion labels than his predecessor and is in the process of appointing brand managers for each fashion label for the first time.
It’s a clear indication of the value Bolland puts on brands and marketing that each of its own label brands is to be transformed into what he calls a “real brand” rather than just another in-house fashion label.
He’s also identified and openly admitted that M&S stores are not what they should be despite a comprehensive modernisation across the estate in recent years – something brand managers will have to work on to bring the brands to life in store.
It’s also been apparent in recent years that the glitzy image that M&S portrays in its advertising with stars such as Twiggy and Dannii Minogue, doesn’t translate terribly well to the store experience shoppers find on the high street.
Bolland is aware of this “lost in translation” issue and will no doubt be tasking the brand managers to address the issue and translate the marketing principles that drive its advertising into stores.
Bolland’s review highlights a number of opportunities that have been there for the taking for some time, but simply haven’t been on the retailer’s radar.
Growing its home furnishings business, which currently attracts only 20% of M&S shoppers is a no-brainer.
As are the opportunities M&S has to cross-promote complementary products in stores. For instance co-locating its fragrances and personal care products with its lingerie department is a natural opportunity.
Likewise, half of M&S’s business is food, so it’s only logical that it should also be a significant player in the kitchenware market.
While its core UK business is set to be the focus for the coming three years, Bolland’s plans for M&S internationally are nothing if not ambitious.
International growth appears to be inextricably linked to the development of M&S’s multi-channel operations.
Bolland plans to transform M&S “from a UK multi-channel retailer to an international multi-channel retailer” by 2015.
For this reason, M&S will sever its relationship with Amazon, which hosts its online platform, in 2013 in favour of building its own more flexible platform to accelerate international growth.
While Bolland’s vision is comprehensive and nothing has been missed over the course of his six-month review, his vision is not a complete departure from what his predecessor Sir Stuart Rose had been building – merely a fresh look at things.
As succinctly put by Neil Saunders, consulting director of Verdict: “If Marc Bolland can build the vision he has set out today, he will firmly but the spark back into Marks.”


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Xiaomi has never shied away from copying Apple, especially when it comes to design. Last year's original Mi Mix was a substantial departure from the company's previous phones, and its edge-to-edge screen (minus the bottom bar) made headlines worldwide. Here we are a year later, and bezel-less phones are a bit more common now, with the iPhone X gaining the most attention.
Xiaomi just released the Mi Mix 2, with roughly the same design as last year's model, and it's a pretty great device (Jordan is in the process of reviewing it). Read More
Sharp hasn't sold phones in North America for a while, but the company is still working on some very interesting devices. Back in 2014, it released the Aquos Crystal, one of the first "bezel-less" phones to hit the market (I use that term loosely, because it had a massive bottom bezel). Now it appears to be working on two similar phones, the Sharp Aquos S1 and S2. Read More
If you're familiar with the history of Android and Google, you likely have heard about Andy Rubin. He co-founded Android, Inc, and when the company was acquired in 2005 by Google, Rubin continued to work at Google until 2014. Bloomberg reports that Rubin is preparing to announce a new consumer hardware company, named 'Essential,' with one of the products being a bezel-less smartphone. Read More
At an event in Beijing today, Xiaomi announced what it called a "concept phone" but that pretty much appears to be real and alive given the price tag, release date, and working prototypes that everyone got to play with. The selling point? No bezels. Well, there are some bezels, technically, but they barely count as such.
The Mi Mix, which is the name of this magical device, has a huge 6.4" screen in a body that seems to be almost the same size as an iPhone 7 Plus. Xiaomi achieved this by using every inch of the front of the device to the maximum, including rounding out the display at the corners to remove the tiniest of borders. Read More


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Saturday, 1 Oct 2022
The purported specs list of the Google Pixel 7 Pro suggests an iterative upgrade over the Pixel 6 Pro.
Wednesday, 4 Nov 2015
When the Aftershock Titan V2.1 came out last year with its SLI'ed NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980Ms, it pretty much shredded every benchmark we put it through. With Aftershock originally saying they might not be planning to refresh the Titan this year, imagine our surprise when they showed us the new Aftershock Titan 2016!
Friday, 23 Jan 2015
If you're having trouble thinking up of ways to scrounge up the $5699 for the GT80 Titan SLI, we have good news! What if we told you that you could get a GT80 Titan at a price just a bit more than a GT72 2QE Dominator Pro? Intrigued?
Wednesday, 21 Jan 2015
If you've been waiting with bated breath for MSI's GT80 notebook, we have good news for you! It's here and in stores right now. Head on in for pricing and other nifty details.
Tuesday, 13 Jan 2015 in Notebooks
Aftershock's back with their latest refresh of the their Titan notebook. We find out if the new Titan with dual GeForce GTX 980M GPUs and its menacing performance is enough to stand up to other gaming notebooks recently released.


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New Delhi [India], Jan 9 : In an escalating trade war triggered by the US President elect Donald Trump with Mexico and China, India may find itself in the cross fire with collateral damage to its economy, particularly to sectors such as information technology and select goods exports to the American market, an ASSOCHAM Paper has said.
"Though China and Mexico are in direct firing line of Donald Trump, India needs to watch out and must build bridges with the upcoming American administration and assuage the concerns about the American jobs," the chamber said.
Those who thought the Trump threat to the American companies against job outsourcing to China and Mexico , particularly in the manufacturing, was only an election rhetoric are in a for a rude shock.
The paper further stated that the Trump threat to protect the US interest in an inward looking manner is for real now.
The manner in which Ford has announced scrapping of its USD 1.68 billion plan to set up a manufacturing plant in Mexico shows that Trump means business when it comes to carrying out the threat of heavy border tax on the US firms which, as he calls it, ship the jobs abroad.
"India should not sit and watch the trade war among the big economies, mainly the US and China from the sidelines.
We must take pro-active steps to ensure that we remain on the right side of the upcoming US administration; or else the impact could be on the Indian services exports to the American firms," added ASSOCHAM.
"With its economy being aggressively export driven, particularly in manufacturing, China would look for alternative export destinations outside the US in Europe and Asia.
In the coming months, after inauguration of Trump to the White House, China would double up dumping of its goods to countries like India as it gets entangled with the US over trade barriers," it said.
The dumping from China has been quite severe in the recent few years in areas like steel aggravating the problems of the Indian industries.
Under the given circumstances, the Indian government along with trade bodies like apex business chambers, influential think tanks, opinion leaders and a large diaspora must work for an effective lobbying to explain to the US policy makers as to how free trade, more so, in services would help both the US and the Indian companies.
"If the US gives jobs to Indians in back-end operations, India gives a huge market to the giants like Google, Microsoft and Intel who are all now looking at the digital expansion in the Indian economy.
So, it is a win-win situation for both the countries," the ASSOCHAM Secretary General said..


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According research Kaspersky Lab and B2B International, Apple computer users face digital threats just as often with other platform users.
Indeed, they may face even more risks with regard to specific types of threats. It is true that security experts have not so far detected so many malicious software for OS X as for other platforms (including Windows). However, this does not mean that Mac devices and data stored in them have some kind of "immunity" against risks.
The survey showed that from 26% of European users who stated that Apple desktops were their primary Internet access device and that 15% of Apple's preferred users said it was experiencing malware over the past year *. The number of affected PC owners in Europe is slightly higher (31%). However, faced with malware, such as ransomware, came 19% of European Mac owners compared to 11% of Windows device users. Both OS X and Windows users reported reporting incidents to their financial data (52% and 54% respectively).
According to the survey, Mac users are generally less aware of Internet threats than Windows device users. For example, 41% of MacBook owners in Europe has never or almost never heard of ransomware programs, and 34% is not aware of the malicious malware that can exploit software vulnerabilities. By comparison, among the respondents overall, 30% knows almost nothing about ransomware and 27% is not aware of the exploits.
Research shows that half of Mac users still neglect the need to install security solutions on their devices. In Europe, only 30% of MacBook and 50% of Apple desktop computers are protected. In addition, when Apple users choose a security solution for their devices, most emphasize the value (40%), while malware detection efficiency is a top priority for 37%. By comparison, Windows users rank 48% as the top priority, with the cost and ability to fight online threats (45% and 32% respectively).
"OS X users have long been" isolated "from the dangers of the Internet, and for this reason they may feel almost invulnerable. However, as today's digital threats are expanding their areas of action more and more, it is important to be prepared for them. In this context, Kaspersky Lab strongly recommends Mac users not only to deploy security solutions but also to remember the rules of safe Internet behavior, said Peter Aleshkin, Kaspersky Lab's Consumer Marketing Group for the Emerging Markets area.
The flagship of Kaspersky Lab solutions for home users, Kaspersky Internet Security - Multi-Device 2015, is designed to protect users of different operating systems, including OS X, from digital threats. The solution offers a reliable "defense" against malware and ransomware as well as protection against financial risks by using Safe Money technology.
Kaspersky Lab: * From now on, it will refer to users who have recorded a laptop or a desktop computer operating on a given platform as their primary device for Internet access. Due to the fact that people can use different devices on different platforms at the same time, they can address the threats listed in the text in any of these.


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Bank of America Sets Its Sights on New Territories
Bank of America Corp (NYSE: BAC) announced on Tuesday its intent to extend its retail operations to four new U.S. states. The move is strategically aimed at matching its competitor JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s (NYSE: JPM) nationwide presence. The expansion involves the establishment of new financial centers in Nebraska, Wisconsin, Alabama, and Louisiana.
Four-Year Expansion Plan Underway
The bank's ambitious four-year plan will see it spread across nine new markets, which include notable cities such as Louisville, Milwaukee, and New Orleans. The new branches will bolster Bank of America's retail footprint in 39 states, inching closer to JPMorgan, the top U.S. lender, which operates in 49 states.
Consumer Banking: A Cornerstone for Growth
Consumer banking played a significant role, accounting for 38% of Bank of America's net income in the first quarter. The planned branches are designed to offer a comprehensive suite of services — banking, lending, and brokerage — under one roof. "By expanding our capabilities in these markets, we are better positioned to serve clients and stimulate local community growth," stated CEO Brian Moynihan.
Transformation of Physical Locations
Over the last decade, Bank of America has streamlined its network from 6,100 to 3,800 branches. In the same timeframe, consumer deposits have nearly doubled to $1 trillion. The bank is adopting a modernized approach, revamping branches with larger waiting areas, private office spaces for client meetings, and downsized teller windows. This aligns with the changing customer habits, marked by a 50% drop in foot traffic for transactions since 2019, and a 90% spike in scheduled appointments.
New Staffing and Improved Outlook
The bank has onboarded approximately 30,000 bankers and specialists to better assist clients with their financial needs, as mentioned by Aron Levine, the president of preferred banking. Meanwhile, Holly O'Neill, Bank of America's president of retail banking, expects a strong performance for the unit in the upcoming second quarter. The bank is set to release its results on July 18.


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The price of cooking and heating with natural gas is going down. National Fuel Gas Distribution Corp. has announced a 5.66 percent decrease in its gas supply charge, which is passed on to consumers.
This decrease will lower the monthly bill from $81.48 to $76.87 for a typical residential customer using 90,000 cubic feet of gas annually.
The price change is effective today.
"This decrease reflects National Fuel's ability to purchase lower cost gas supplies, the majority of which comes from northeast production," said Sandra James, the utility's director of corporate communications.
For consumers who are shopping for alternate sources of natural gas, the rate adjustment brings the rate to compare to 53.16 cents per hundred cubic feet. And the rate decrease lowers the delivered price of gas from $9.60 per 1,000 cubic feet to $8.98.
"The supply is good and we are able to purchase gas at a lower cost," James said.
The new price will remain in effect for at least three months. National Fuel's next opportunity to adjust rates is Nov. 1.
-- Jim Martin


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Hamedan Province (استان همدان) covers an area of 19,546 km² and lies in an elevated…
Italy-based PND maker AvMap, announced last week it closed a deal with the Dutch Citroën branch to provide a dash-integrated PND solution to the Citroën C1 in the Netherlands.
AvMap has designed for Citroën a tailor-made holder which allows integrating in the Citroën C1 dashboard a Geosat 6 portable navigator. “We have pioneered in portable car navigation back in 1994, and today we are offering to car manufacturers hybrid solutions which ensure the best and safest positioning of the PND inside the car without any annoying cable nor suction cup limiting the visibility”, stated Simone Lazzarini, AvMap Managing Director.
This deal follows several similar contracts with leading automotive brands such as Peugeot Automobili Italia and Portugal, Mitsubishi Brazil, and Citroën Italy. To avoid the pitfall of the dropping prices on the PND market sold at retail, AvMap has been concentrating its activities in these automotive deals in order to sustain its margins.


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The move comes at a time when India is vying to get global and local IT hardware players with policy sweeteners and incentive schemes, making a determined push to position itself as a global hub for hi-tech manufacturing.“A total of 27 companies have been approved under theIT hardware PLI scheme. About 95% of these…23 companies are ready to start manufacturing from day-zero,” minister for Electronics and IT Ashwini Vaishnaw said.
“This will set us up for being a big force in manufacturing of PCs, servers, laptops, and tablets,” he added.
These 27 companies will invest Rs 3,000 crore.
The government, which initially had suggested a license scheme for laptop imports before doing away with the plan, is now pushing the companies to increasingly make locally, and also source components from India or other ‘trusted’ locations.
The reason foe the government’s insistence on kickstarting domestic production of laptops remains the heavy reliance of companies on China for both fully-built units, or components. “The government is categorical in its insistence that companies either start manufacturing here, or else start respecting the ‘trusted source’ norm, which means procuring from regions beyond China.”
Currently, more than 80% of laptops are sourced from China, with only some supplies coming from countries like Vietnam. On the components front, a large part of procurement again happens from China, and this causes a lot of unease within the government that has been aggressively pushing the Make in India and ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ (self reliant India) slogan across the world. Such has been the eagerness on this front that the government massively revised incentives under the IT Hardware PLI scheme, raising it from the previously-allocated Rs 7,300 crore to as much as Rs 17,000 crore.


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Volvo Invests in Technology That Could Revolutionize Electric Vehicles
Volvo has invested £150,000 in a company that says it has developed am energy-efficient conductor that could revolutionise hybrid and electric car making.
The conductor is used, among other things, when battery direct current is converted into alternating current in an electric motor. The basis for most semi-conductors in vehicles today is silicon, which has the double disadvantage that it can withstand neither high temperatures nor high electrical voltages.
TranSiC AB, however, has developed a conductor based on silicon carbide, which is as tough as a diamond and has enormous resistance to heat.
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The wheel robots, complete with their own suspension, remove the need for a drive shaft and even the engine block, freeing up designers to make new use of the space in the car.
There are about 30 members in the Florida chapter, and many own several of the vehicles.
Brent's Quadbrid tow-car and electro-dragster is the world's first fully sustainable race outfit. Photo courtesy of Las Vegas Electric Vehicle Association
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Lime an electric scooter and bike rentals company will launch its electric scooter service in Cape Town, South Africa in early 2020.
Limes’s U.S. and Europe model deploys scooters on public sidewalks, however its first fleet of scooters in Cape Town will be deployed at privately owned locations throughout the city.
“Cape Town is helping lead the way forward on technology and innovation in Africa, and we’re excited to be a part of that story,” Lime Global Head of Operations and Strategy, Wayne Ting said.
“Our mission is to improve urban living through sustainable, affordable transportation, and we’re looking forward to extending meaningful mobility access and reduced carbon emissions to South Africans living in and traveling to Cape Town.”
The service comes with an app similar to the Uber app which allows users to hire dock-free bikes, e-assist bikes and electric scooters.
Scooters can be activated when a bar code is scanned from the app and payments can be made via the application.


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The high street could face a further raft of insolvencies in 2020 - Stephen Wainwright
However, since 2008, we have seen several well-known high street stores disappear from the high street, following an insolvency process.
The number of retail businesses entering into either administration or a Company Voluntary Arrangement has increased, and data between 2017/2018 suggests that the number of large retailers that operate ten or more sites and that have entered into administration rose from 17 to 26. Data from the Centre For Retail Research suggests that this year already 36 companies have failed, affecting 1,630 stores and 42,105 jobs.
This year alone, we have seen a raft of insolvencies affecting well-known high street brands such as Thomas Cook, Bonmarche, Karen Millen and its subsidiary Coast, Bath Store and Debenhams, with the latest being Mothercare.
Unfortunately, retailers on the high street are facing a number of issues:restrictions on parking and the rising charges;Brexit has placed an unprecedented uncertainty on to businesses, and the consumer is, therefore, warier;the ongoing costs in relation to minimum wage, rates, etc.
Historically, large retailers were keen to enter into long leases with landlords and would spend considerable amounts of money on fit-outs. Now, many of those retailers are beholden to long contracts and regular rent reviews, while footfall has reduced, therefore leaving them in a weak financial position.
Companies have also had to face rising costs, particularly with business rates and staff costs and pension contributions. And as a consequence, profit margins have been depleted.Consumers now spend in excess of £1 out of every £5 online and therefore, very few businesses can sustain a 20 per cent reduction in sales while fixed costs rise and profit margins reduce. According to the British Retail Consortium, 106,000 jobs were lost in the retail sector from March 2016 to 2019.
In order for a turnaround process to be successful, it has been necessary, particularly in a Company Voluntary Arrangement, to re-negotiate leases, future rents and service charges. Landlords have over the last two years worked with insolvency practitioners and companies to assist with the turnaround process. But I believe that the scope for ongoing reductions in rent cannot last, as landlords themselves will have their own financial position to consider, particularly with banks who themselves will be reluctant to finance commercial landlords if the yield is reduced. A number of the larger outlets have pension companies supporting them, and they too are unlikely to continue to accept a reduction in rent which will have an adverse effect on pension returns.
As an insolvency practitioner, I have some concerns about retail companies that are historically profitable being placed at a disadvantage when a competitor occupying a similar size unit goes through a CVA process and sees their rent and rates reduced. It is crucial for the retail sector to adapt, just like John Lewis, Tesco and, of course, Amazon who have expended considerable sums in the online portal and are seeing increased sales with their online divisions. Other retailers are behind the curve and will have to invest heavily in this market if they are to succeed going forward.
The high street is clearly changing, and there has been a substantial net decline of chain stores on the British high streets.]
We are entering the busiest time on the retail calendar, but even now concerns are being raised about the level of sales over the festive period. Unfortunately, there may be a further raft of insolvencies in the retail sector in the first three months of 2020.
Stephen Wainwright - Partner at Poppleton & Appleby


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Healthtrax Fitness & Wellness Moving to New Location
Numerous changes have been underway along Dartmouth’s Faunce Corner Road in recent years, and one mainstay is ready to move—but only about a half mile down the road.
Healthtrax Fitness & Wellness is moving into a larger facility at 375 Faunce Corner Road in Dartmouth, in the VF Outlet Mall, just minutes from its current location, where it has served the community since 1988.
“The past 31 years at 250 Faunce Corner Road provided so many great memories and success stories, the excitement, and anticipation for the move to our next ‘home’ build with every day. Proudly Debbie Gidley, Vice President of Operations remains at the helm with dozens of our dedicated employees,” CEO Stephen Capezzone said in a release. “The new Center will mirror the best of what the fitness industry and Healthtrax staff have to offer to meet today’s fitness equipment and program expectations of the public.”
The new Healthtrax fitness center will be an expansive 33,000 square feet with more fitness space; a turf and sled track area; studios for Kick, Spin, Zumba, Yoga; basketball and racquetball courts; and much more.
The new location is expected to open in the spring.


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|By Business Wire||
|February 6, 2014 03:05 PM EST||
For more than two decades Sonic the Hedgehog has been one of the world’s biggest gaming icons, with over 70 video game titles, four animated series, and an extensive global merchandising line to his name. This year SEGA® is excited to introduce a new branch of the Sonic universe, entitled Sonic Boom™, that will debut a new look for Sonic and friends and launch their first-ever CG animated television series, new video games for the Wii U™ system and the Nintendo 3DS™ hand-held system and a new toy line. The creative driving forces behind these projects are working together with SEGA to kick-start a global campaign for Sonic Boom™ that will excite and engage new and existing fans across a variety of platforms.
Sonic Boom’s visual identity includes character designs inspired by the abilities and unique personalities of each of the characters while still maintaining the core identity and values of the Sonic brand. The rich worlds of the TV series and videogame will share a common narrative and a number of location and stylistic similarities reflecting full collaboration between videogame, TV series partners and SEGA from the outset.
The Sonic Boom television series, coproduced by SEGA of America Inc. and OuiDO! Productions, will debut on Cartoon Network in the U.S. and on CANAL J and GULLI in France during the 2014/2015 season. The series is an ensemble comedy consisting of 52 x 11-minute standalone episodes packed full of high-adrenaline action. Every episode starts from a small character-driven story and explodes into an epic tale of saving the world, robot battles and more.
Serving as a prequel to the stories revealed in the TV series the Sonic Boom video game will deliver a totally different experience to previous Sonic games with collaborative gameplay at its core. Developed in the U.S by California based Big Red Button Entertainment (Wii U) and Sanzaru Games (Nintendo 3DS) in collaboration with Sonic Team, this is the third title to be released as part of an exclusive deal with Nintendo. Sonic Boom will take advantage of the innovative hardware of both the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS, with traditional elements of Sonic games, such as speed, also featured. The videogame will also introduce exploration, combat and a new Enerbeam tether mechanic that will allow the Sonic Boom world to be discovered in totally unique ways.
Sonic Boom will be supported by a robust global licensing and merchandising program, anchored by new master toy partner TOMY. TOMY’s line will showcase the new character looks, stressing interaction between core characters, and will feature new play patterns based on both the new game and TV series. TOMY will develop a comprehensive toy range across a broad number of categories including plush, action figures, RC, role play, vehicles and novelty. Sonic fans can expect a high-quality, collectible toy line fueled by TOMY innovation and energized with speed, lights, sounds, motion-activation and action-performance. SEGA will launch a broad licensing program across multiple categories including toys, apparel, publishing, accessories, food and beverage, health and more – making this one of the biggest license initiatives SEGA has undertaken in recent years. The company will enlist many of its current partners who have had tremendous success with Sonic over the past years while seeking new licensees to join this exciting new Sonic licensing program.
“We want to ensure that the Sonic brand continues to evolve and appeal to new generations of Sonic fans and this different look introduces a fresh approach that will be at once both familiar and new to consumers,” said John Cheng, President & COO, SEGA of America. “We are committed to supporting this initiative to provide great entertainment to fans for all aspects of their lives.”
Sonic the Hedgehog first appeared as a videogame character in June 1991 and instantly became an icon for a generation of gamers. Defined by his super-fast speed and cool attitude, in the years since he first raced on to videogame consoles Sonic has become a true global phenomenon with over 140 million videogames sold or downloaded worldwide across consoles, PC’s, mobile phones and tablets. SEGA’s iconic blue blur has also gone on to enjoy incredible success in many licensed areas, such as toys, apparel, comics and animation.
The Sonic Boom TV series is a coproduction between SEGA of America, Inc. and OuiDO! Productions. Executive producers on the show are Evan Baily, Donna Friedman Meir and Jane McGregor on behalf of SEGA, and Sandrine Nguyen and Boris Hertzog from OuiDO!. Other partners involved in the TV series include Lagardère Entertainment Rights for distribution and Lagardère Active TV Licensing & New Business for licensing and merchandise in France.
For press assets visit www.sega-press.com
About SEGA® of America, Inc.:
SEGA® of America, Inc. is the American arm of Tokyo, Japan-based SEGA® Corporation, a worldwide leader in interactive entertainment both inside and outside the home. The company develops, publishes and distributes interactive entertainment software products for a variety of hardware platforms including PC, wireless devices, and those manufactured by Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. SEGA® of America’s Web site is located at www.sega.com
About SEGA® Europe Ltd.:
SEGA® Europe Ltd. is the European Distribution arm of Tokyo, Japan-based SEGA® Corporation, and a worldwide leader in interactive entertainment both inside and outside the home. The company develops and distributes interactive entertainment software products for a variety of hardware platforms including PC, wireless devices, and those manufactured by Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. SEGA® Europe’s web site is located at www.sega.com
About OuiDO Productions:
Headed by Sandrine Nguyen and Boris Hertzog, OuiDo Productions produces animation TV Series adapted from national and international well-known licences such as: "Alvinnnn & the Chipmunks" (52 x 13') for M6; co-produced by Bagdasarian Productions ; "Sonic Boom" (52 x 13') for Gulli/Canal J and Cartoon Network (USA), co-produced by SEGA ; "Mini Wolf", season 2 (52 x 7') for France Télévision.
OuiDO Productions also develops with TF1 and Canal J a TV Series based on the comic books published by Editions Delcourt, "The Legendaires" (26 x 22') and intends to keep on acquiring the audiovisual adaptation rights for existing licences and original properties.
About Cartoon Network:
(CartoonNetwork.com) is regularly the #1 U.S. television network in prime among boys 6-11 & 9-14. Currently seen in 99 million U.S. homes and 194 countries around the world, Cartoon Network is Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.’s ad-supported cable service now available in HD offering the best in original, acquired and classic entertainment for kids and families. In addition to Emmy-winning original programming and industry-leading digital apps and online games, Cartoon Network embraces key social issues affecting families with solution-oriented initiatives such asStop Bullying: Speak Up and the Move It Movement.
Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner company, creates and programs branded news, entertainment, animation and young adult media environments on television and other platforms for consumers around the world.
About GULLI/CANAL J:
As France’s leading free youth and family channel, GULLI, operated by Lagardère Active and France Télévisions, draws an audience of both children and parents, with 6 million viewers daily. Since 2010, GULLI is France’s best known channel in its category. Today, in addition to the television channel, GULLI is a true family entertainment platform available on a wide variety of media, including digital (gulli.fr, GULLI Replay, connected TV applications, tablets and mobile phones, iTunes, etc.), with a full audio range, magazines, toys and field events. (Source: Mediamat/Mediametrie, annuel 2012)
CANAL J, the channel aimed at 8 to 12 years old, operated by Lagardère Active, confirms the wealth and diversity of its programming featuring animated series, comedy series and original shows based on the channel’s two mainstays: adventure and humour. CANAL J keeps a close eye on what’s happening on the playground, continues to reflect the key aspects of children’s lives.
About Big Red Button Games:
Based in Los Angeles, CA, BRB was founded in 2009 by Bob Rafei, Jeff Lander, and veterans from leading gaming studios such as Naughty Dog, Heavy Iron, Luxo Flux and High Impact Games, to leverage team’s specialization and prior experience in character action game development.
About Sanzaru Games:
Sanzaru Games is a California based independent videogame developer founded in 2007. The studio has created many award winning games on platforms such as the PS3, PS Vita, Wii, PC, DS, iOS and Android platforms for a variety of publishers including Sony Computer Entertainment, Electronic Arts and Nintendo.
About Lagardere Entertainment Rights:
Lagardère Entertainment Rights - the Lagardère Entertainment distribution arm - managed by Emmanuelle Bouilhaguet, is one of Europe’s largest distributors of television programs. LER’s catalogue of 7,000 hours spans every genre: fiction (‘Transporter – The Series’, ‘Dear Neighbours’, ‘Josephine Guardian Angel, ‘Justice Street, ‘Un Gars, une Fille’); documentary (‘Life Before Life, ‘Les Nouveaux Explorateurs, ‘the Cousteau catalogue’); animation (‘Xiaolin Chronicles’, ‘Mini-Wolf’, ‘Scary Larry’); and feature films (‘Cyrano de Bergerac’, ‘The Horseman on the Roof, ‘Evening Dress’).
About Lagardère Active TV Licensing and New Business:
Created in September 2010, Lagardère Active TV Licensing & New Business is a Division of Lagardère Active, the French Media Group. Its activity is integrated in the core of the Production, Acquisition and Programming Strategy of the 3 main Kids and Youth TV Channels developed by the Group: GULLI, CANAL J and TiJi
About TOMY International:
TOMY International (www.tomy.com) is a leading global designer, producer and marketer of a broad range of innovative, high-quality toys sold to preschoolers, youths and adults under the TOMY®, Ertl®, Johnny Lightning®, Battroborg(tm) and Tomica® brands as well as products for parents, infants and toddlers marketed under its The First Years®, Lamaze, JJ Cole® Collections and Boon® brands. TOMY International also markets its products under popular and classic licensed properties such as Sonic The Hedgehog, Chuggington, Pokémon, Dinosaur Train, John Deere, Disney's Winnie the Pooh, Princesses, Cars, Fairies and Toy Story, and other well-known properties. TOMY International's mission is to inspire and fulfill the dreams of children and parents worldwide. TOMY International reaches its target consumers through multiple channels of distribution supporting more than 25,000 retail outlets throughout North and South America, Europe and Australia. TOMY International is a wholly owned subsidiary of Japan-based TOMY Company, Ltd. (Tokyo Stock Exchange Code No. 7867). © TOMY
SYS-CON Events announced today that Fusion, a leading provider of cloud services, will exhibit at SYS-CON's 18th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 7-9, 2016, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. Fusion, a leading provider of integrated cloud solutions to small, medium and large businesses, is the industry's single source for the cloud. Fusion's advanced, proprietary cloud service platform enables the integration of leading edge solutions in the cloud, including clou...
Feb. 6, 2016 03:30 PM EST Reads: 698
As someone who has been dedicated to automation and Application Release Automation (ARA) technology for almost six years now, one of the most common questions I get asked regards Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS). Specifically, people want to know whether release automation is still needed when a PaaS is in place, and why. Isn't that what a PaaS provides? A solution to the deployment and runtime challenges of an application? Why would anyone using a PaaS then need an automation engine with workflow ...
Feb. 6, 2016 03:30 PM EST
With the Apple Watch making its way onto wrists all over the world, it’s only a matter of time before it becomes a staple in the workplace. In fact, Forrester reported that 68 percent of technology and business decision-makers characterize wearables as a top priority for 2015. Recognizing their business value early on, FinancialForce.com was the first to bring ERP to wearables, helping streamline communication across front and back office functions. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Kevin Roberts...
Feb. 6, 2016 03:15 PM EST Reads: 316
SYS-CON Events announced today that Commvault, a global leader in enterprise data protection and information management, has been named “Bronze Sponsor” of SYS-CON's 18th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 7–9, 2016, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY, and the 19th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on November 1–3, 2016, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. Commvault is a leading provider of data protection and information management...
Feb. 6, 2016 02:30 PM EST Reads: 343
Your business relies on your applications and your employees to stay in business. Whether you develop apps or manage business critical apps that help fuel your business, what happens when users experience sluggish performance? You and all technical teams across the organization – application, network, operations, among others, as well as, those outside the organization, like ISPs and third-party providers – are called in to solve the problem.
Feb. 6, 2016 02:00 PM EST Reads: 674
SYS-CON Events announced today that Alert Logic, Inc., the leading provider of Security-as-a-Service solutions for the cloud, will exhibit at SYS-CON's 18th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 7-9, 2016, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. Alert Logic, Inc., provides Security-as-a-Service for on-premises, cloud, and hybrid infrastructures, delivering deep security insight and continuous protection for customers at a lower cost than traditional security solutions. Ful...
Feb. 6, 2016 01:30 PM EST Reads: 328
@DevOpsSummit taking place June 7-9, 2016 at Javits Center, New York City, and Nov 1-3, 2016, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA, is co-located with the 18th International @CloudExpo and will feature technical sessions from a rock star conference faculty and the leading industry players in the world. @DevOpsSummit at Cloud Expo New York Call for Papers is now open.
Feb. 6, 2016 01:15 PM EST Reads: 505
SYS-CON Events announced today that VAI, a leading ERP software provider, will exhibit at SYS-CON's 18th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 7-9, 2016, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. VAI (Vormittag Associates, Inc.) is a leading independent mid-market ERP software developer renowned for its flexible solutions and ability to automate critical business functions for the distribution, manufacturing, specialty retail and service sectors. An IBM Premier Business Part...
Feb. 6, 2016 01:00 PM EST Reads: 528
SYS-CON Events announced today that Catchpoint Systems, Inc., a provider of innovative web and infrastructure monitoring solutions, has been named “Silver Sponsor” of SYS-CON's DevOps Summit at 18th Cloud Expo New York, which will take place June 7-9, 2016, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. Catchpoint is a leading Digital Performance Analytics company that provides unparalleled insight into customer-critical services to help consistently deliver an amazing customer experience. Designed...
Feb. 6, 2016 12:00 PM EST Reads: 308
Let’s face it, embracing new storage technologies, capabilities and upgrading to new hardware often adds complexity and increases costs. In his session at 18th Cloud Expo, Seth Oxenhorn, Vice President of Business Development & Alliances at FalconStor, will discuss how a truly heterogeneous software-defined storage approach can add value to legacy platforms and heterogeneous environments. The result reduces complexity, significantly lowers cost, and provides IT organizations with improved effi...
Feb. 6, 2016 12:00 PM EST Reads: 193
SYS-CON Events announced today that Pythian, a global IT services company specializing in helping companies adopt disruptive technologies to optimize revenue-generating systems, has been named “Bronze Sponsor” of SYS-CON's 18th Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 7-9, 2015 at the Javits Center in New York, New York. Founded in 1997, Pythian is a global IT services company that helps companies compete by adopting disruptive technologies such as cloud, Big Data, advanced analytics, and DevO...
Feb. 6, 2016 11:15 AM EST Reads: 124
SYS-CON Events announced today that Men & Mice, the leading global provider of DNS, DHCP and IP address management overlay solutions, will exhibit at SYS-CON's 18th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 7-9, 2016, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. The Men & Mice Suite overlay solution is already known for its powerful application in heterogeneous operating environments, enabling enterprises to scale without fuss. Building on a solid range of diverse platform support,...
Feb. 6, 2016 11:15 AM EST Reads: 114
Cognitive Computing is becoming the foundation for a new generation of solutions that have the potential to transform business. Unlike traditional approaches to building solutions, a cognitive computing approach allows the data to help determine the way applications are designed. This contrasts with conventional software development that begins with defining logic based on the current way a business operates. In her session at 18th Cloud Expo, Judith S. Hurwitz, President and CEO of Hurwitz & ...
Feb. 6, 2016 11:00 AM EST Reads: 154
One of the bewildering things about DevOps is integrating the massive toolchain including the dozens of new tools that seem to crop up every year. Part of DevOps is Continuous Delivery and having a complex toolchain can add additional integration and setup to your developer environment. In his session at @DevOpsSummit at 18th Cloud Expo, Miko Matsumura, Chief Marketing Officer of Gradle Inc., will discuss which tools to use in a developer stack, how to provision the toolchain to minimize onboa...
Feb. 6, 2016 11:00 AM EST
The cloud promises new levels of agility and cost-savings for Big Data, data warehousing and analytics. But it’s challenging to understand all the options – from IaaS and PaaS to newer services like HaaS (Hadoop as a Service) and BDaaS (Big Data as a Service). In her session at @BigDataExpo at @ThingsExpo, Hannah Smalltree, a director at Cazena, will provide an educational overview of emerging “as-a-service” options for Big Data in the cloud. This is critical background for IT and data profes...
Feb. 6, 2016 11:00 AM EST Reads: 103


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Lucozade Energy launches cola variant
Lucozade Energy, the GSK-owned sports-drink brand, is launching its first cola-flavoured variant in a limited edition black bottle.
Lucozade aims to drive incremental growth for the sports and energy drinks category with the new product, claiming that "cola is the nation's favourite soft drinks flavour".
The product launches this month and will be supported by a marketing campaign including digital, PR and point of sale activity.
Matt McKie, brand manager at Lucozade Energy, said: "Lucozade is becoming renowned for launching category-changing new product developments and Lucozade Energy Cola is set to strengthen this reputation.
"Consumers truly love cola, drinking 1.7 billion litres last year alone. As the biggest brand in sports and energy we are confident that our new cola flavour is going to be a huge success and a must stock item for retailers."
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This article was first published on marketingmagazine.co.uk
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Transcarpathia have paid to the state budget UAH 1 billion 513 million
During the first half of 2015, taxpayers of Transcarpathian region paid to the Consolidated budget more than UAH 1 billion 513 million 422 thousand. According to the experts of the regional SFS, it is UAH 513 million 705 thousand more than that for the same period last year. In particular, revenues to the state budget are in excess of UAH 735 million 500 thousand, to local budgets - almost UAH 778 million.
For example, taxpayers of the region for six months in 2015 paid to the state budget more than UAH 278 million 33 thousand of VAT, which is UAH 85 million 284 thousand more than that for the corresponding period last year. The revenues of tax on personal income amounted to more than UAH 429 million 190 thousand; single tax - more than UAH 91 million 161 thousand.
Also, revenues from excise tax on retail sale of excisable goods by entities in the first half of this year amounted to UAH 138 million 48 thousand.
Experts of the Main Office of the SFS in Transcarpathian region note that the positive trend of revenues was the result of tax culture and voluntary payment of taxes in the region. This level of revenues to the local treasury gives every reason to expect positive development and well-being of local communities.
20 May 2018 21:09
8 May 2018 13:46


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KKR and CDH Investments have agreed to sell HK$1.87 billion ($241.5 million) worth of shares in China Modern Dairy – which will see them fully exit a position they received when selling part of a greenfield cattle farming joint venture to Modern Dairy in 2015.
China Mengniu Dairy will acquire 965.5 million shares in Modern Dairy from the two PE firms for HK$1.94 apiece, a 3.2% premium to the January 3 closing price, according to a filing. Its stake in the business...
The government of Shenzhen, China has launched a VC fund with an initial corpus of RMB500 million ($79 million) to invest in blockchain start-ups in the city.
Sequoia Capital China and Serica Partners have co-led an $11 million Series A round for US-based molecular diagnostics start-up NuProbe.
Shenzhen Capital has joined a $30 million Series C round for US-based 3D printing company Formlabs that will support an expansion effort in China and Asia.


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FAIRBANKS — The white pages may soon be going black for most Alaska telephone customers.
State regulators have backed a plan to do away with automatic distribution of residential phone directories in four urban areas, agreeing with the argument that printed copies of the white pages have become less necessary in the Internet era. In the future, many Alaskans will only receive copies of the residential directories upon request.
The Regulatory Commission of Alaska ruled Friday that it largely agrees with recommendations made by administrative law judge John P. Wood in October. Wood ruled that information found in residential phone books is typically available on the Internet and that the distribution of printed directories has become a source of customer frustration.
State regulations have previously required automatic distribution of white page directories, but Alaska Communications asked the RCA in June 2011 to reconsider that rule. After postponing its decision for a year, the RCA announced it will back the change to no longer require phone book deliveries in Fairbanks, Anchorage, Juneau and the Kenai Peninsula on a three-year interim basis.
The decision only affects residential white-page directories. Government pages, business white pages and yellow pages aren’t part of the case.
Alaska Communications hailed the decision as a good
development for a customer base that has increasingly complained about a glut of phone book deliveries. The company also touted the environmental benefits of the change — in Fairbanks, nearly 15 million pages of residential listings were printed in 2011 alone, according to Alaska Communications.
“It’s the right thing for our customers and the environment,” company spokeswoman Heather Cavanaugh said.
Cavanaugh said it still hasn’t been determined whether Alaska Communications will immediately opt out of automatic distribution of its white pages or whether another cycle of deliveries will be made. The next batch of Alaska Communications white pages deliveries is scheduled for October 2013 in Fairbanks.
GCI, which is the other major land-line telephone company in Alaska, also testified in support of the change. A company spokesman couldn’t be reached Monday to comment on how GCI’s directory distribution will be affected.
Interior Telephone Company, which provides phone service to 10 areas throughout Alaska, said in a comment to the RCA that it plans to continue automatically distributing the white pages to its customers.
The RCA ruling requires companies opting out of the automatic deliveries let their customers know that only people who request a copy of the printed directories will get one in the future. Now that the ruling has been approved, Alaska Communications will begin planning a campaign to notify its customers about upcoming changes, Cavanaugh said.


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TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – One of the key businessmen involved in the 2014 “gutter oil” scandal saw his prison sentence of 22 years confirmed after the Supreme Court rejected his final appeal Wednesday.
Yeh Wen-hsiang (葉文祥), the chairman of Chang Guann Co., Ltd. (強冠), was found guilty of using lard oil reclaimed from kitchen waste and grease from leather processing plants in products it sold as cooking oil for human consumption.
The case was one of many food safety scandals in 2013 and 2014 centered on the use of oil products of low quality, often unfit for humans, which were being passed off as higher-grade quality products. Yeh’s prison sentence was the longest of all the businessmen on trial in the separate cases, reports said.
The Supreme Court found the Chang Guann chief guilty of a total of 285 violations because he sold his products to 285 clients and ruled he would have to serve at least 17 years in prison, while the remaining five years of the sentence could be replaced by a fine.
The company’s deputy general manager, Tai Chi-chuan (戴啟川), will have to serve 14 years in prison with four years possibly replaced by the payment of a fine, reports said.
Chang Guann will have to pay a separate fine of NT$120 million (US$3.99 million), while NT$81.5 million (US$2.7 million) in illicit income was to be confiscated. reports said.
The raw material for the company’s questionable lard oil products was supplied by Kuo Lieh-cheng (郭烈成), an illegal oil trader whose trial will have to be done over again, according to the latest court ruling. Kuo has since changed his name to Kuo Ying-chih (郭盈志), according to the Chinese-language Apple Daily.
The scandal affected dozens of companies across Taiwan, including prominent producers of edible oils, cakes, dumplings, noodles and dairy products.


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LOS ANGELES — For 75 years, the popular gift shop Bunkado in Little Tokyo has never closed for longer than three days. That is, until COVID-19 hit.
Irene Tsukada Simonian is the third generation in her family to run the shop and, out of an abundance of caution, decided to close right after the holidays. More than anything, she misses seeing her customer’s eyes light up when they find that unique item they want to buy for someone special.
"Being here on any given day is like watching performance art," said Tsukada Simonian. "There is never a dull moment. It never gets boring, and I think especially it’s because it’s a small ethnic community like ours in a great city like L.A. It’s really amazing here."
Bunkado first opened in 1946 right after World War II by Tsukada Simonian's great-aunt and uncle, and quickly became a popular shopping spot for hard-to-find Japanese gifts, decor, housewares, books, music, and toys. Tsukada Simonian started working in the store in 1992 to help her parents manage it, and once her mother died, she took over.
"We have an amazing mix of customers here from local people who live right here in Little Tokyo to people from all over the world," said Tsukada Simonian. "It’s really fun because you hear so many different languages."
After closing for five months in 2020, Bunkado opened for the holidays — only to shut their doors once again. Thankfully, they received a grant from the Little Tokyo Community Council as part of its Small Business Relief Fund. After raising $50,000, the center distributed the funds evenly to 25 legacy businesses.
"We see Little Tokyo as a big family, and of course small businesses are part of that," said Kristin Fukushima, managing director for the Little Tokyo Community Council. "And I think they’ve always supported the community through hard times, and this is a time for the community to support our small businesses."
Little Tokyo businesses receiving the first round of grants include Anshindo, Anzen Hardware, Blooming Art Gallery, Bunkado, Du Japon Hair Club, Elite Graphics, Hair Craft, Kagura, Korea BBQ House, Korean Hibachi BBQ, Kouraku, Kuragami Florist, Little Tokyo Cosmetics, Mako Sushi, Mitsuru Cafe, Mitsuru Sushi & Grill, Mr. Ramen, Nirvana, Oomasa, Rafu Bussan, Suehiro Cafe, Sushi Komasa, T.O.T. (Teishokuya of Tokyo), Vantage Sport Shop, and CRFT by Maki. The first round of grantees included 24 legacy businesses averaging over 39 years of operation.
With an ultimate goal of raising and redistributing $500,000, Fukushima hopes they can assist as many Little Tokyo small businesses as possible. And with all the funds coming directly from the community, Tsukada Simonian is thankful for their support.
"We heard from our customers telling us that they can’t take businesses for granted anymore," said Tsukada Simonian. "They’d rather come here to Little Tokyo because they know they’re supporting businesses like mine that’s been around for 75 years, and they want it around for longer."
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the name of the Little Tokyo Community Council. This has been updated. (February 3, 2021)


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Apple’s Warning Sinks Wall Street
U.S. stocks declined sharply on Thursday after the CEO of Apple told investors the company is grappling with weak China sales. As a result, the iPhone maker slashed its quarterly sales estimate for the first time in 15 years.
Wall Street’s major indexes headed for big losses on Thursday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling as much as 678 points in the early part of the day. The blue-chip average closed down 660.02 points, or 2.8%, at 22,686.22. Twenty-nine of 30 index members recorded losses.
Shares of Apple Inc. (AAPL) bled 9.9%, bringing the company’s total market capitalization to $674.8 billion. The company peaked above $1 trillion last year. Read: Apple Becomes Wall Street’s First Trillion-Dollar Company.
Plunging Apple stock weighed on other technology companies. Intel Corp (INTC) fell 5.3%, Microsoft Corp (MSFT) lost 3.4% and Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) closed down 3.3%.
The broad S&P 500 Index finished down 2.5% at 2,447.89. Nine of 11 primary sectors contributed to the decline, with information technology falling 5.1%.
The technology-focused Nasdaq Composite Index lost 4% to close at 6,463.50.
Apple’s Big China Problem
Apple’s stock began to fall after-hours on Wednesday after CEO Tim Cook told investors to prepare for lower sales during the holiday quarter. The downward revision, Apple’s first in 15 years, was due to weaker demand for iPhones in China, one of Apple’s target markets.
“While we anticipated some challenges in key emerging markets, we did not foresee the magnitude of the economic deceleration, particularly in Greater China,” Cook said in his letter. “In fact, most of our revenue shortfall to our guidance, and over 100 percent of our year-over-year worldwide revenue decline, occurred in Greater China across iPhone, Mac and iPad.”
After decades of explosive growth, the Chinese economy has experienced a noticeable slowdown in recent years. An uncertain trade outlook and runaway debt have made matters worse. Signs of a bottom in China’s GDP growth have yet to emerge, and recent indicators ranging from retail sales to manufacturing suggest more pain is on the way.
Investors sifted through a batch of economic data on Thursday that painted a mixed picture of the U.S. economy.
On the one hand, private-sector job creation rose much faster than expected last month, offering reassurance that the domestic labor market was still on track. ADP’s private payrolls report showed the addition of 271,000 jobs for the month of December, up from a revised 157,000-pace the month before. Analysts had called for a gain of 178,000.
The U.S. Department of Labor will issue the official nonfarm payrolls report Friday at 8:30 a.m. ET.
Meanwhile, the latest manufacturing report from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) showed a sharp slowdown in U.S. factories last month. The ISM manufacturing purchasing managers index (PMI) fell to 54.1 in December from 59.3 the month before. A median estimate of analysts anticipated a fall to 57.9.
Featured image courtesy of Shutterstock.


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U.S. Economy Grew By 5.7% Last Year
Its fastest pace since 1984, rebounding from a sharp but brief coronavirus-induced recession in March 2020. The nation’s gross domestic product, a measure of all goods and services produced, expanded by 5.7% in 2021, the Commerce Department reported on January 27. Growth accelerated even faster during the period from October to December, rising to 6.9% on an annualized basis.
With inflation running hot and COVID-19 cases from the highly contagious omicron variant filling overworked hospitals and keeping workers at home, the economy is expected to grow at a slower rate in 2022. Economists have already slashed their forecasts for the first quarter, due to the impact of Omicron.
To continue reading more articles this month, check out our full O’Neal Steel Market Informer.
You can view each month’s Market Informer, on our blog, The Knowledge Tree.


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[Updated] Google Nest Cam (battery) & Nest Doorbell (battery) unable to stream to TV via Chromecast? Here's what you should know
New updates are being added at the bottom of this story…….
Original story (published on October 18, 2021) follows:
Ever since Google acquired Nest back in 2014 for $3.2 billion, the tech giant made it clear that it wanted to become a serious player in the smart home space.
The Nest ecosystem is still one of the most popular solutions if you are looking to keep an eye out on your property. For years now, people have used the Google Nest Cam and the Nest Doorbell to secure their property.
This year, Google updated the lineup and brought in battery versions of the said products that ensure your home stays safe even if you lose power.
While many were excited to see them in action immediately after they were launched, some reported that the Google Nest Cam (battery) is not compatible with the Nest app while others said it wasn’t reporting some events.
And as if these issues weren’t enough, Google Nest Cam (battery) and Nest Doorbell (battery) users are now reporting that they are unable to stream feed to their TV via Chromecast.
People say that even though they are on the same Wi-Fi network, they are presented with a message telling them that the device “does not support streaming to remote screens.” Many are confused about what is wrong since the wired version of the same devices seems to be working flawlessly.
I’ve just bought 2 new Google cameras, doorbell, and a home display. I also have a Chromecast. I am able to view the kitchen display on Chromecast, but not the doorbell or cameras. I receive the message ‘does not support streaming to remote screans’. They are on the same WiFi network, any ideas on how to fix?
Isn’t it possible to stream nest doorbell live feed on Chromecast? When I say “show doorbell on Living room TV” it responds that “Sorry. It looks like Doorbell doesn’t support streaming to remote screens” Show doorbell on Nest hub works fine though.
As it turns out, Google dropped the support for streaming on TV using Chromecast on the battery version of Nest Cam (battery) and Nest Doorbell (battery). Instead, they can only stream to a smart display screen.
Note: Nest Cam (battery) and Nest Doorbell (battery) can only stream to a smart display screen. Learn how to stream your security camera using your display.
This is not the only feature Google dropped from the battery version of the Nest Cam and Nest Doorbell. The company also removed the Continuous Video Recording feature due to thermal issues.
Instead, users now get up to 3 hours of event video history, which was earlier locked behind the paid “Nest Aware” subscription. The new devices also mark the end of the Nest app with features now available on the Google Home app.
We hope Google gives users the option to stream the Google Nest Cam (battery) and Nest Doorbell (battery) to their TVs using Chromecast, but it seems highly unlikely.
Update 1 (July 28, 2022)
12:33 pm (IST): Google has finally brought back the ability to stream feed from Nest Cams and Nest Doorbells directly onto the TV using Chromecast with Google TV. More on that here.
Note: We have more such stories in our dedicated Google Section so be sure to follow them as well.
PiunikaWeb started as purely an investigative tech journalism website with main focus on ‘breaking’ or ‘exclusive’ news. In no time, our stories got picked up by the likes of Forbes, Foxnews, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Engadget, The Verge, Macrumors, and many others. Want to know more about us? Head here.


text: [RenewableEnergyAccess.com] Electric vehicle manufacturer Zero Air Pollution (ZAP) has cleared the final emissions and safety regulatory hurdles to gain the authorization to sell the Smart Car, manufactured by Smart-Automobile, in 45 states in the U.S. ZAP CEO Steve Schneider formally handed the keys to of the first Americanized Smart Car to the Mayor of Santa Ana, California Miguel Pulido at City Hall, who then took the coupe on a celebratory test drive to the Smart Car conversion facility three miles away. ZAP stated that the company has received more than $750 million in orders from American dealers. Smart Cars are described by the ZAP as high-efficiency gas powered vehicles. Mercedes is currently the exclusive importer and distributor for Smart Cars in the U.S.


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Hungarian budget carrier, Wizz Air, has launched another sale with 20% discount for all on selected routes!EU
Wizzair has put on sale flights from Bulgaria and Poland to Dubai from only €29.70 one way!
The Hungarian budget airline has just shared the news that starting from next spring it will fly again to Kharkiv and launch 12 new routes from Ukraine and Poland.EU
Starting next spring Wizz Air will fly to beautiful Athens from 8 European cities: Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Budapest, Sofia, Kutaisi, Katowice, Vilnius and Chisinau!OT
Ryanair is launching 13 new routes between Athens and many European destinations. What is more, the carrier will reinstate flights to Chania on Crete in the 2018 summer season.EU
Hungarian budget carrier, Wizz Air, has launched another sale with 20% discount on flights across Europe for Wizz Discount Club members! The airline is offering cheap tickets on many different routes!EU
The low cost carrier has just announced that 34 routes will be suspended from November through to March 2018 to eliminate the risk of further flight cancellations.EU
Book cheap flights from many Polish cities to Barcelona from only €10 each way!OT
Good news! Hungary's low cost airline Wizz Air has just anounced that it will fly from Budapest, Vilnius, Katowice and Wroclaw to sunny Agadir, Morocco. These exciting new routes will start already in this winter season!EU
Starting this winter season Wizz air will fly from Eilat (Ovda) to Riga, Katowice, Prague and Bucharest! All these routes will be launched between 29 October and 2 November! Tickets for these new routes are already on sale.


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Viddsee gets $3.3m funding for expansion
Mobile video platform start-up Viddsee has won US$2.3 million (S$3.3 million) in funding for business expansion and taking on more staff.
The funding round was led by Japanese venture capital firm CyberAgent Ventures. Other investors were not disclosed.
Co-founder Derek Tan said he will hire marketers, writers and developers to expand the business to neighbouring countries. The three-year-old start-up employs 13 people. Eight work here, with the other five spread across Malaysia, Indonesia and Taiwan.
Viddsee hosts about 1,000 short movies. The average length is about 10 minutes. It now has about 2.5 million monthly users, dramatically up from 50,000 last year.
Mr Tan said: "We've built an ecosystem where we know the film-makers and our audience. The consumer brands come to us because they want to reach this audience in a short video story. So we introduce them to film-makers."
About 10 of these movies have been made. They pay to get the short films made and this forms a revenue stream for Viddsee.
Former IDA official joins Alpha7 board
Local enterprise software start-up Alpha7 has appointed Mr James Kang to its board of directors. Mr Kang was previously the assistant chief executive of the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA).
He said: "In Singapore's roadmap to building a Smart Nation, the effective use of technology is the cornerstone to achieving the vision."
The start-up is making enterprise technology used by Fortune 500 companies affordable to local and regional businesses, he said in a media statement.
Learn to become a venture capitalist
Here is a chance for would-be venture capitalists to learn the tools of the trade. They can become a management associate with Infocomm Investments (IIPL), the venture arm of the Infocomm Development Authority.
Over 18 months, they learn the ABCs of entrepreneurship, venture capital and innovation. They get an in-depth introduction to the start-up ecosystem, pick up skills such as portfolio management and learn about tools such as lean start-up methodology.
IIPL's executive manager of human resources, Ms Juliana Lim, said: "We're looking for driven candidates with an entrepreneurial mind, willing to embark on an exciting journey down an unbeaten path with us."
IIPL is partnering online recruitment start-up Glints to reach out to final-year university students. Called IIPL's Management Associate Track (iMat), the inaugural intake is from next January. Those interested can apply at https://glints.com/imat/
Start-up engineering for non-technical founders
Many people may have an idea for a mobile app or a business but do not act on them because of a lack of technical skills. They can now learn ways to overcome this at a seminar next Monday. It will provide the basics on what it takes to build an app and a tech team, as well as how to choose a programming language and decide on outsourcing.
• Send news on start-up developments to firstname.lastname@example.org