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Editor‘s note: A brave new world
This year could be the most important year for retail since, well, since all the way back in 2017.
At the outset, it is certainly shaping up that way, especially with a host of major retailers looking to do all they can to compete with Amazon and its growing online presence, not to mention taking a few points away from each other.
Let’s just take a look at some of the recent events. As we discuss in our cover story this month, CVS Health is buying Aetna to become a larger player in the healthcare market. Target is buying Shipt, a same-day delivery service that company officials believe will give them a chance to better compete online, for a cool $550 million. Walmart is buying just about everything in sight to give the company all the ammunition possible to compete digitally.
Expect more of the same this year.
In fact, the merger/acquisition activity should kick up a bit in 2018 as the larger merchants continue to try to solidify their online presence with consumers, and some other players, including Kroger, Macy’s, Bed, Bath & Beyond and Toys ‘R Us, seek ways to stay relevant in this changing world of retail.
Why now? Several reasons, say the experts. One is that as the fear of Amazon taking over all of retail subsides and the reality that it is most definitely a major force in the industry takes hold, other retailers are beginning to make sensible and logical moves to compete. The second, some say, is that the money is available for retailers to make these moves, which means investors are willing to bet that certain smart, well-thought out moves will pay off for these retailers over both the short and long terms.
The road map exists. When Walmart was gobbling up market share in the mass and food retail segments in the 1990s and many industry observers feared the sky was falling for the rest of the industry, sensible operators took the right steps to establish their own niches in the marketplace. The result was mass casualties among the merchants who did not change, and a robust retail environment for those who did.
It is going to happen again, and the next 12 months will go a long way in determining which retailers have the foresight — and the intestinal fortitude — to take the right steps to survive in a new age of retailing.
Walmart, CVS and, perhaps, Target are taking steps to ensure not only their basic survival but their long-term success. Mistakes will happen and some money will be lost, but doing nothing is no longer an alternative in retail merchandising and marketing.
Yes, 2018 has all the makings of being a crucial year for retail. But it will not be any more crucial than 2017 was or 2019 will be. Welcome to a brave new world. Now go out and conquer it.
Enabling patient-facing care: Pharmacists at the top of their licenses
Pharmacists still are waiting for the handcuffs to come off. That’s the consensus of industry leaders who are frustrated with the challenges of getting reimbursements for a wider range of services these professionals can perform. It’s a topic at the center of enabling patient care in community-based pharmacy.
“We talk about pharmacists being able to practice at the top of their license,” said CVS Health executive vice president of retail pharmacy and supply chain Kevin Hourican.
“What’s disappointing is that the regulations sometimes significantly lag [with] what the customers actually want.”
He pointed to point-of-care testing as a key area where pharmacists could rise to their full potential.
“A patient could come to a 24-hour pharmacy when a doctor isn’t available to have tests completed. There would be prescriber authority to be able to write for antibiotics, for example, for a positive strep throat test.”
Further, pharmacists could play bigger roles in helping patients determine if they need cholesterol medications, or hypertension medications, he said.
“We believe the pharmacist can play an even more important role in this space,” he said, especially given the convenient locations for patients.
Hourican emphasized that the industry is collaborating to make progress on this goal.
“We are working with many industry partners and NACDS to help advance forward improvements to select regulations, so we can serve the communities and our patients more appropriately.”


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If you’ve ever tested an Oculus virtual reality headset, you know that the technology is still in its infancy and is far from a realistic experience. However, a recent Tom’s Guide article discussed a new development that could prove to be a giant leap forward for VR. Scientists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne have created wearable skin that deforms and adapts to the wearer’s moving body. The skin gives touch feedback, enabling people to touch and be touched in VR. The ultra-thin material is less than 500 nanometers thick and equipped with pneumatic actuators that give the illusion you’re touching a real object.
The prototype gives touch feedback in real time and won’t inhibit movement. When the actuators are activated, they inflate the membranes to simulate touch but won’t stop you from moving your hands beyond the surface of the object. The team behind the second skin hasn’t specified a timeline for mass production, but you can watch a video demo here in the meantime.

domain: news


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Amazon is rolling out self-driving delivery robots. The internet giant announced Wednesday that six'Scout' robots will deliver packages to customers in a neighborhood in Snohomish County, Washington. Each Scout robot is a squat, bright blue device that gets around on six wheels. The battery-powered devices about the size of a small cooler and can deliver packages autonomously. And city or suburban dwellers don't have to worry about Scout running them over on the street, as Amazon says the robots'roll along sidewalks at a walking pace.'
Earlier this year, Amazon announced its Scout sidewalk delivery robot. At the time, details were sparse, except for the fact that the company had started to make deliveries in a neighborhood in Washington State. Today, at Amazon's re:Mars conference, I sat down with Sean Scott, the VP in charge of Scout, to talk about how his team built the robot, how it finds its way around and what its future looks like. These relatively small blue robots could be roaming a sidewalk near you soon, though as of now, Amazon isn't quite ready to talk about when and where it will expand its network from its single neighborhood to other areas. "For the last decade, we've invested billions of dollars in cargo planes and delivery vans, fulfillment center robots, and last holiday period, we shipped over a billion products with Prime free shipping," Scott told me.
A fleet of Amazon'Scout' delivery robots will roam the streets of Southern California as part of the firm's largest trial of automated'last mile' delivery. Last-mile delivery is the last stage of getting a package from a warehouse to your door, traditionally completed by a van or truck. Retailers and courier firms are racing to automate this process through the use of drones, either by land or by air. Amazon's latest roll-out follows a successful trial conducted in a small neighbourhood in Washington state earlier this year. Each Scout robot is a squat, bright blue device that gets around on six wheels.
Amazon has revealed its latest autonomous delivery project -- a six-wheeled boxy robot named Amazon Scout. The e-commerce giant said the all-electric devices were created in-house at Amazon's research and development lab in Seattle, and are about the size of a small cooler. The bots are meant to travel on sidewalks at an average walking pace, delivering packages "in daylight hours" between Monday and Friday. Only six Scout delivery robots are currently being tested in a single neighborhood in Snohomish County, Washington. According to Amazon, human supervisors will accompany the robots during the early stages of the trial to ensure that the devices can properly navigate around obstacles like people and pets.
Delivery robots incorporating AI are on the march, being deployed more widely on the ground, sometimes crowding sidewalks. Delivery robot providers include Starship Technologies, a startup created by Janus Friis and Ahti Heinla, founders of Skype. The company offers a general-purpose home delivery robot that today is an array of cameras and GPS sensors, but in the future will include microphones, speaker, and the ability via AI-driven natural language processing, to talk to customers. Since 2016, Starship has carried out 50,000 delivers in over 100 cities across 20 countries, according to an account in SingularityHub written by Dr. Peter H. Diamandis, the founder of Singularity University and the founder and executive chairman of the XPrize Foundation. Another startup delivery provider is Nuro, co-founded by Jiajun Zhu, an engineer who helped develop Google's self-driving car.


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Building It Right from the Start—SAS Preps for New National Retailer ProgramAugust 1, 2017
Everyone knows that in-store experience matters—perhaps now more than ever. But what might not be as obvious to the untrained eye is just how big of an impact store layouts and on-shelf merchandising make in creating that experience. Retailers, however, are well aware of that importance—and increasingly turning to retail execution experts to ensure their stores and shelves are in tip-top shape.
Daymon’s retail execution division, SAS Retail Services (SAS), has been experiencing this increased focus first-hand. Just recently, as part of a collaborative effort with Daymon’s Enterprise Growth and Brand Development teams, it was awarded a contract with a large national retailer for what will become one of its larger in-store execution programs, covering 446 stores across the U.S. The retailer has also tapped SAS to complete 10 full store resets in just in just one night each. The sheer size and aggressive of these projects are a challenge to pull together, but SAS continues to prove they have it down to a science.
“The whole transition process is our secret sauce,” says Michael Hankins, Senior Vice President of Operations for SAS. “We involve all departments throughout the business from the beginning. It’s not just a program director leading the launch. We have stakeholders from Operations, HR, Finance and IT all working together to make sure it’s a success.”
As hiring now ramps up, Thea Arnone, Senior Manager of Recruiting for SAS, also points to the importance of teamwork. “On the recruiting side, it’s really a partnership between our corporate HR team and our field teams. We identify and provide resources to get the recruitment process going, then our field teams do the interviewing and hiring,” she explains. If the field teams encounter challenges, the HR team may send in additional support to hold job fairs and work on other recruiting efforts, adds Erin Zeller, Director of HR for SAS.
The training of all of those new associates will become a cross-functional exercise as well, say Zeller and Matt Rank, Vice President of IT for SAS. “Because the retailer is nationwide, we’re looking at using a combination of in-person and online/video training,” explains Rank. This will combine the efforts of HR, IT and the Training Center of Excellence, who have been hard at work creating “Starting Right” guides to formalize and document consistent job processes across the organization.
Rank says his IT team is also coordinating with Operations to understand and prepare for technology-related requirements, including hardware and software needs and reporting expectations. “We’re making sure that everyone who needs a computer or tablet has one, that the system works the way it should and that we can provide support when needed,” he says.
“Things like this are all part of the planning process,” explains Hankins. “As we tell our retailer partners, we try to minimize the unexpected as much as we can, but something will always come up. One of our strengths at SAS is our ability is to work on the fly and handle the unexpected at store level so the work gets done right the first time. I think this transparency and commitment to improving the process is a big part of what makes retailers like this national chain choose us over the competition.”
To learn more about partnering with SAS Retail Services, contact Michael Bellman, President of SAS, at email@example.com.


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From 27th to 30th September, at the Expo Centre in Rimini, the international marketplace on technological innovation for the surfaces sector will reopen. The Casalgrande-based company will present its new ideas for the ceramics sector and for other applications in Stand 021, Hall B4.
TECNA is back. TECNA is back and MecTiles Italia will of course be attending. The international exhibition of technologies and supplies for surfaces will open its doors at the Expo Centre in Rimini from 27th to 30th September to offer everyone, not only industry players, a comprehensive view of technologies linked to the constantly evolving sector of supplies for surfaces.
It will be a marketplace with an international dimension, organised in the heart of the most creative country of all, Italy, in one of the world’s most productive regions, Emilia Romagna. The event will showcase countless technological innovations and will allow the participants to meet, exchange ideas, collaborate and find innovative solutions for many companies.
The international exhibition of technologies and supplies for surfaces is one of the most important trade fairs for this sector, with a specific focus on ceramics, and MecTiles will be attending with its experts in Stand 021, Hall B4. Here, the Casalgrande-based company will present its latest novelties in the technological field and in other sectors, as well as the new business areas into which it is expanding while receiving a positive feedback from the market.
MecTiles is a world leader in the regeneration and repurposing of used ceramics machines, which are redesigned by the study centre and then reintroduced on the market at second-hand prices, but equipped with latest-generation technology. In this context, the Casalgrande-based company also provides qualified assistance for the entire life cycle of the machines, that includes tests and detailed checks, as well as new or regenerated spare parts, in order to guarantee the efficient operation of the system throughout the entire production process.
TECNA 2022 will thus offer MecTiles an excellent opportunity to present its latest novelties, such as the innovative backing application system, so that the ceramics sector can grasp what it really means to make quality-oriented choices.


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Tata Motors has been showing promising results on the sales charts for a long time now. However, experts claim that its plan of becoming debt-free by 2024 is still a bit too ambitious.
Tata Motors is aiming to rid itself of its humungous debt by 2024. However, the experts in the industry are less than satisfied with this claim. At the end of June 2022, the total automotive debt of the company stands at a whopping Rs 60,700 Crore. This is up by 25% from March 2022 when it was Rs 48,700 Crore. What is a bit surprising is that this is despite strong sales in the quarter in the passenger car segment and commercial space in the domestic market. However, the problem lies in its Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) division.
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Tata Motors To Be Debt Free By 2024?
Speaking to Money Control, Ambareesh Baliga, an independent market analyst who previously worked at Karvy Stock Broking, echoed others and said the debt-free target looks a “bit difficult” to achieve. “They (Tata Motors) will have to extend the deadline to FY26 as (cash) flows have been erratic,” he said. Aniket Mhatre, Research Analyst – Automobiles at HDFC Securities, said the company’s target of being net debt-free by FY24 appears “highly ambitious”. “It will be a miracle,” said Sandip Sabharwal, an investment advisor who has previously headed equity investments at SBI Mutual Fund and JM Financial AMC. “It is impossible to understand. The company keeps making statements without giving a path. It shows a lack of credibility of management.”
Tata Motors had bought JLR back in 2008. Now, it accounts for just over 66% of the total revenue of Tata Motors. However, JLR is performing poorly at the global level due to the global chip shortage and the need to transition into EVs. The total debt at the end of June 2022 for JLR was a whopping 7.9 Billion Pounds (Rs 75,887 Crore). In this last quarter itself, the debt stood at Rs 5,055 Crore before taxes. In the case of Tata Motors, the revenue is increasing and the domestic passenger vehicle segment has shown healthy growth. In fact, there is a long waiting for the bookings which shows that the future seems positive.
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However, in the case of JLR, its international luxury carmaker rivals have already invested heavily in EV technology. JLR is struggling to make that jump which requires a lot of working capital. Hence, even the future prospects of the company seem to be meek. This is a serious cause of concern for Tata Motors preventing it to go debt-free anytime soon.
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Finally, some experts say that the only way to concretely strategise to become free of debt is by selling the stake of JLR by going public. The investors buying the stake looks like the only plausible way to return the massive debt that is growing constantly. But the experts also believe that the supply chain disruption and semiconductor chip shortage are largely over and the demand and revenues for the automobile companies are likely to rise in the coming quarters. Hence, it will be interesting to follow the development on this front in years to come.


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The European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) reported Wednesday that new vehicle registrations in the European Union (EU) fell by 5.3% in March compared with those in March of 2017. New registrations for the month totaled 1.79 million units. They rose by 4.3% in February and 7.1% in January and are up a scant 0.7% for the first three months of the year.
Of the Detroit Three, Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) sold 132,765 units in March, down 14.9% year over year for the month. The company’s March market share came to 7.4%, down 0.8 percentage points compared with last year.
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (NYSE: FCAU) saw its market share in the EU dip from 6.8% in March 2017 to 6.6% this year. Unit sales totaled 118,975. Sales of the Fiat brand dropped 12.4%, while Jeep sales jumped 42.4%.
General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) has effectively left the EU market and had sales of just 58 units in March. Last year, before the company sold its European subsidiary to PSA, GM sold more than 128,000 units in the month.
The top-selling maker in the EU is Volkswagen, which sold 405,103 vehicles in March, up 0.3% year over year for the month. VW’s market share for the month totaled 22.6%, up from 21.3% in March 2017.
PSA Group, makers of Peugeot, Citroen and other brands, posted a March sales increase of 59.7% to 285,434 units. The company’s market share rose from 9.4% to 15.9%. The increase includes sales in the Opel/Vauxhall group the company acquired from GM last year.
Renault Group posted a volume decrease of 3.2% to 174,884 units in March, while its year-over-year share rose from 9.5% in March 2017 to 9.8%.
BMW Group’s market share dipped in March from 6.7% a year ago to 6.6%. The company sold 118,746 units last month, down 5.8% compared with year-ago March sales of 126,051.
Daimler posted a slight market share gain, ticking up from 5.9% in March 2017 to 6% last month with sales totaling 108,101 units. On a volume basis, sales fell 3.4%.
Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE: TM) posted market share of 4.7% in March, up from 4.6% a year ago. Sales volume dropped by 4.3% to 83,546 units.
For the month of March, the United Kingdom was the volume leader, with more than 474,000 units sold (down 15.7% year over year for the month), followed by Germany with sales of more than 347,000 (down 3.4%), France with over 231,000 sales (up 2.2%) and Italy nearly 214,000 vehicles sold (down 5.8%).
EU sales totaled 15.14 million units in 2017 compared with 2016 sales for the 27 EU members of 14.64 million, up 3.4% compared with 2016 unit sales.


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But the technology world has high hopes that 2017 will prove to be brighter, as the parent company of Snapchat and other highfliers prepare to go public and venture capitalists amass huge new war chests.About $67.8 billion was invested in start-ups in 2016, according to data from PitchBook, down 15 percent from last year. And just 7,841 deals were struck, down 25% from the period a year ago.
Much of 2016 proved to be a less ebullient time for the once redhot start-up market.
In years past, investors and the industry press alike delighted in anointing new “unicorns,“ the once-ballyhooed term for a start-up valued at more than $1 billion.
This year instead brought a healthy skepticism -while the apocalypse hasn’t arrived, leaner times are ahead.Start-ups have tightened their belts, laying off staff and focusing more on reaching profitability rather than skyrocketing user growth.
Just 12 companies joined the unicorn club, according to the data provider CB Insights, a 70% drop from 2015.
And initial public offerings -one of the pri mary ways that investors in start-ups can harvest their gains -tumbled sharply during 2016 amid uncertainty and tumult in the stock market.
Just 105 offerings priced during the year, according to data from Renaissance Capital, down 38% from 2015.
Those deals raised $18.8 billion, also a 38% drop from the year-ago period. Both hedge funds and big mutual funds, which have been among the most enthusiastic new backers of new private companies, continued to largely show reluctance in venture investing, according to CB Insights.
Moreover, a few of Silicon Valley’s most prominent start-ups suffered signifi cant blows in the past year.
Theranos, the once highly lauded blood-testing company, laid off about 40% of its workers and closed its labora tory operations amid heightened skepticism about its technology.
Zenefits, a business software start-up, replaced its chief executive after BuzzFeed News reported on its use of unlicensed health insurance brokers. Zenefits has since settled investigations with a number of states, and the company has sought to turn itself around.
Of course, heavyweight start-ups had little trouble raising money. Uber alone raised $3.5 billion from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, putting its cash hoard from outside investors at more than $11 billion. Lyft, Palantir and Snap, the parent of Snapchat, all raised enormous sums as well, as did big non-American start-ups like the Chinese ride-hailing service Didi Chuxing.
And some startups sold out to bigger companies for multibillion-dollar valuations.Jet.com, an e-commerce company that began selling goods only within the last two years, sold itself to Walmart for $3.3 billion.
Investors are betting 2017 will be better. Re naissance Capital poin ted out that the average total return of IPOs in 2016 reached 23%, a sharp reversal from the nega tive 2.1% return of 2015 offerings and surpassing the 21% return of two years ago.


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Inyanga Marine Energy Group has appointed Brand Innovation to handle its strategic communications and PR.…
When Lizard Yacht Service was planning to open a new office in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the company turned to Brand Innovation for its international PR expertise.
Managing Director Emlyn Jones said: “This is a really exciting development for us. The superyacht industry is continuing to grow worldwide. Customers have very exacting requirements and we have built our company ethos around delivering the stellar levels of service they expect.”
Brand Innovation devised and managed a PR campaign to communicate this new development to existing and potential customers. Lynn File, MD of Brand Innovation, said:
“The Florida office will service superyacht customers in the USA and the Caribbean. It is the latest business expansion from Lizard Yacht Service, who opened an office in Palma, Mallorca, Spain last year for customers in the Mediterranean.
“We created a tightly targeted campaign to create a buzz around the launch and were able to generate great coverage in leading international titles, including Superyacht News, International Boat Industry News, Marine Business World, Boat International, and Superyacht Times.”
Emlyn Jones adds: “The superyacht industry is driven by ongoing innovation, and we are leading the way in superyacht servicing. Brand Innovation is playing a vital role in helping us get our message across to our core target market.”
To see how Superyacht News reported the story, click here.


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Raffles brand to arrive at Galaxy Macau
Today’s agreement between Accor and Galaxy Entertainment will see the construction of “Raffles at Galaxy Macau”.
China.- The Singapore hotel brand Raffles will arrive at Galaxy Macau after its parent company, Accor SA, signed an agreement with Galaxy Entertainment Group.
The new facility will be known as Raffles at Galaxy Macau. It will feature around 450 suites, a glass-panelled connecting bridge on every floor, a Mediterranean-inspired garden, an infinity pool, a luxury spa and a restaurant led by a Michelin-starred Japanese chef.
The property is scheduled to open in the second half of 2021.
Galaxy Entertainment Group’s Vice Chairman, Francis Lui, said: “The Raffles brand and heritage is perfectly complementary to our strategy of delivering greater, elevated experiences, and true to our ‘World Class, Asian Heart’ mantra.
“This collaboration with Raffles and Accor in the development of Raffles at Galaxy Macau brings yet another differentiated luxury perspective and dimension in GEG’s growing portfolio and estate.
“Aside from offering more diversity in our luxury accommodations at Galaxy Macau, we expect it will also raise the bar to new heights throughout the region.”
CEO of Accor Greater China, Gary Rosen, added: “We are incredibly proud to be collaborating with GEG for the Raffles located at Galaxy Macau, the most ultra-luxurious experience in Macau. As a key destination on the global map, Macau is ideal for our next Raffles.
“The Raffles at Galaxy Macau will invite guests to experience Raffles’ legendary service and impeccable design, offering an oasis of luxury, glamour and adventure in one of the world’s most exciting destinations – it will no doubt become the preferred choice for the most discerning guests.”


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As companies shoot to deliver higher performance devices, the system-on-a-chip (SoC) hopes to deliver. From new chipsets to SoC verification platforms, the industry aims to keep pushing SoCs to new heights.
February 03, 2022 by Abdulwaliy Oyekunle
The use of gallium nitride (GaN) picks up speed as this year draws to a close with new releases from Microchip, Navitas, and Teledyne e2v. Let's see how these new products are leveraging GaN technology.
December 22, 2021 by Kristijan Nelkovski


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A spokesman for Jaguar and Standard-Triumph said the Girling dispute was not affecting their production, but the position was being watched. Three other motor industry strikes ended yesterday. At a lunchtime meeting strikers at the S.U. carburettor factory at Erdington, Birmingham, decided to resume work immediately so that negotiations on their dispute could take place at factory level.
In Coventry strikes which started on Monday at Jaguar and Standard-Triumph International ended. Production returned to normal.
The three strikes that ended yesterday all began on Monday.
- STRIKE no.1 was by 400 Jaguar workers in Coventry.
- STRIKE no.2 involved 100 Standard Triumph workers in Coventry.
- STRIKE no.3 was by 100 workers at the SU Carburettor factory in Birmingham.


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You know those lovely United logos on the Blackhawks’ helmets? Get ready for logos on their iconic jerseys.
On Tuesday, Sportico first reported the National Hockey League will begin having advertisements on its jerseys for the 2022-23 season.
According to the report, the NHL board of governors unanimously voted to approve the new ad policy. Sportico reports clubs are now free to begin negotiating with potential sponsors.
According to ESPN, the placement of the ads on jerseys will be determined by each individual team.
The NHL has allowed ads on practice jerseys dating back to 2010.
The NBA started putting ads on the front of their jerseys for the 2017-18 season. Sportico reports the logos on NHL jerseys will need to fit in a rectangle measuring 3 inches by 3.5 inches, slightly larger than the logos on NBA jerseys.


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Borders Buses has announced plans to merge with Perryman’s, Peeblesshire News reported.
The two firms which, are owned by the same parent company, West Coast Motors, are expected to merge from Monday, July 17. Perryman’s buses will be rebranded in the Borders Buses red and cream livery over the coming months.
Claire Lark, Operations Manager at Perryman’s, said: “It’s exciting times and we look forward to rebranding the business as Borders Buses.
“The move to merge both brands makes perfect sense and will ensure we are being not just operationally efficient, but making full use of our combined resources too.
“It’s also great news for our customers who can now enjoy the benefits of an extensive bus network and the use of transferable tickets on common routes.”
To coincide with the merger, Borders Buses will introduce 10-journey tickets to its range, with four-weekly and annual tickets expected to be added when the company launches its mobile app in September.
Lee Young, Operations Manager of Borders Buses, said: “Since March we have worked closely with our colleagues at Perryman’s Buses and look forward to the opportunities the rebranding creates.
“Over the past few months we have engaged with our customers and the communities we serve.
“I hope this move to extend our operating network and tailor our tickets around their travel requirements demonstrates that we are listening and are committed to delivering a first-class bus service in the Borders and beyond.”


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When Santa Clara, Calif.-based chipmaking giant Intel
began shipping the Centrino chipset add-on with the Pentium-M processor last March, the wireless connection was 2.4GHz 802.11b only, running at 11Mbps. Yet by that time, 802.11g, the faster (54Mbps) and backwards-compatible 2.4GHz standard was already becoming the hot way to connect throughout the WLAN industry.
Today the company said it’s now shipping the Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG, the mini-PCI card solution that will make 802.11g a standard feature of future Centrino notebooks.
“It sometimes takes Intel a while to get it right, but it gets there in the long run,” says Bob Wheeler, a senior analyst with The Linley Group, which tracks the goings-on in the chip industry.
He says one of the important things about this announcement is not only the 11g aspect, but also that the 2200BG (which went by the codename of Calexico 2) is the first Wi-Fi solution from Intel that is completely Intel silicon. The previous 802.11b Centrino used technology from Texas Instruments and Philips.
The 2200BG supports Wi-Fi Protected Access for security and will be upgradable to 802.11i security when that standard is done. Intel had the module Wi-Fi Certified for interoperability by the Wi-Fi Alliance before it shipped. The 2200BG will also support Cisco Compatible Extensions (CCX) and will be upgradable to verion 2.0 of CCX when available later this year.
Intel has made improvements to the MAC/Baseband chipset to reduce power requirements, enough so that Wheeler feels the 2200 will completely supplant anyone looking to sell the 802.11b-only Centrino in the future.
Intel has also announced a dual-band 802.11a/b solution (without 11g). Plans were originally for a dual-band 11a/g/b solution to ship by now, but the company decided to concentrate instead on getting the popular 11g solution out the door. The 802.11a/b/g is now slated for the summer of 2004.
Intel took a long time to come out with 802.11g because it first set its sights on 11b “to match the infrastructure market that was out there,” says Julie Coppernoll, director of marketing for the Wireless Networking Group at Intel.
Intel went then to the 5GHz 802.11a standard figuring it would replace 11b, Wheeler says. But it didn’t. So the time came to work on 11g, but “rather than get a third-party for 11g, it wanted an internal solution.” He says an acquisition of chips — such as Intersil’s sale of its 802.11 chips to GlobespanVirata
last year — wasn’t feasible if Intel wanted to maintain software compatibility between the original Centrino modules and the latest modules.
The price the company paid was in time to market, but Intel didn’t feel the pinch. It is shipping Centrino with 50 percent of all Pentium-M-based laptops sold, and Pentium-M covers about 50 percent of all laptops period — so Intel has a full 25 percent of the market. It’s possible that Centrino Wi-Fi will even be added to the lower-cost Celeron-M processor-based laptops in the future. For now Intel is only talking about the bundle of the 2200 module with Pentium-M processors.
“Bottom line is, by the end of 2004, the vast majority of notebooks will be Centrino capable,” says Wheeler. “It’s going to be a standard feature and Intel will be the primary supplier.” This doesn’t come as a surprise as analysts have predicted this for some time.
Intel is also likely to take the Centrino brand into the handheld market soon. Its purchase of Mobilian last year will allow the company to bring combination 802.11b/Bluetooth wireless to handhelds this year, another area where Intel is a CPU leader.
Pricing on the PRO/Wireless 2200BG for laptop vendors will be $25 in 10,000-unit quantities, which Wheeler says puts it in line with the pricing of the original 11b Centrino 2100 module, so prices on the notebooks should not be radically higher.
Intel will be showing off the new 11g Centrino with a multimedia demonstration at the Sundance Film Festival, broadcasting a film starring Friends star Courteney Cox Arquette to select Sony VAIO laptops for viewing. Coppernoll says “we wanted to show the usage model for movies on wireless is becoming real.” Intel recently announced major investments into the home entertainment area.
Expect laptops from major vendors to ship with the 11g Centrino as soon as the end of March.


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Sunday, April 7 is National Beer Day. Airways Brewing in Kent makes it a breeze to try new beer this spring.
From special releases to creative concoctions, Kent, Washington is your source and destination for holiday libations.
From iconic Northwest drinks and snacks, to space rockets that soar and giant drills that bore, there’s more than you can imagine made in Kent, Washington.
With the holidays ahead stretch your budget and make Kent, Washington your shopping destination for fabulous finds in furniture, household items, jewelry, artwork, clothing and more.
As the days grow shorter, leaves turn to gold and the air takes on that distinct chill, it’s time to tune your taste buds to fall in Kent, Washington.
Kent’s historic Morrill Bank Building is one of just 20 Main Street project sites across the U.S. in the running for preservation funding. Place your votes between Sept. 24 and Oct. 26 at voteyourmainstreet.org/kent to help restore the building to its 1924 glory.
September 27 is World Tourism Day. You don’t have to go far to mark the occasion. Be a tourist in Kent, Washington.


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Ross Stores - All posts tagged Ross Stores
Jan 2, 2014
1:24 PM ET
Specialty retailer American Eagle Outfitters Inc. /quotes/zigman/183513/delayed /quotes/nls/aeo AEO and Urban Outfitters Inc. /quotes/zigman/55244/delayed /quotes/nls/urbn URBN both had a sour 2013, but 2014 may be much kinder.
On Thursday, the shares jumped 2.8% and 3.2% by midday, respectively, after Jefferies & Co. analyst Randal Konik called them out as his top two picks for 2014 and upgraded them to buy.
Oct 31, 2013
3:02 PM ET
It’s Halloween, but there don’t seem to be many treats for retailers as they peer into the holiday season.
On Thursday, Morgan Stanley said this holiday season could shape up to be the worst for apparel retailers since 2008. The firm forecast comparable sales to rise 1.6%, the worst since the 8.2% decline in 2008. The average excludes J.C. Penney Co.
Oct 2, 2013
12:20 PM ET
Burlington Coat Factory may pride itself on selling name brand products at a discount, but on Wednesday, its stock — marking a return to the public arena — was fetching a pretty premium.
Sep 20, 2013
12:20 PM ET
After a failed attempt to sell goods online in 2004 that led it to fold that operation a year later, T.J. Maxx this week quietly rejoins the online race, without any fanfare.
Aug 23, 2013
1:40 PM ET
In a sea of disappointing second-quarter results and lowered-outlooks from major retailers, two chains continued to shine.
Aug 5, 2013
1:40 PM ET
So far this month, consumer discretionary stocks are up an average of 2.2%, making the sector the best performing in the S&P 5oo. The performance of the retail type stocks isn’t surprising, according to brokerage firm Miller Tabak + Co. August, it said, is the third best month of the year for the S&P 500 retail sector, averaging 2.35% gain over the last 10 years, next only to March’s 3.65% increase and April’s 3.78% gain.
Jun 6, 2013
11:07 AM ET
Membership warehouse club chain Costco Wholesale Corp. /quotes/zigman/67728 /quotes/nls/cost COST still led the pack, continuing its streak of outperformance the past four years, according to Retail Metrics. Its comparable sales rose 5%, after rising a combined 17% the prior two years.
May 9, 2013
12:33 PM ET
It’s never just about the weather. As expected, retailer’s April same-store sales did fall victim to the unseasonably cold weather nationwide that dented consumers’ appetite for such goods as shorts, spring dresses and sandals. Sales among the dwindling list of 13 chains still reporting their monthly tallies rose 4.3%, missing the consensus estimate of a 3.7% increase, according to Thomson Reuters data. Gap Inc. is releasing its results after the market. However, it turned out 70% of those chains reporting actually beat expectations.
Apr 22, 2013
4:54 PM ET
T.J. Maxx parent TJX Cos. and Ross Stores Inc. have been apparel industry share gainers, and it looks like they are picking up share not just from struggling chain J.C. Penney Co., said Cowen & Co. analyst John Kernan, who initiated his coverage of both stocks with an outperform rating.
Apr 16, 2013
4:10 PM ET
Men buying colorful socks and underwear are helping to boost industry sales, NPD data showed.
- « Previously in Ross Stores
- Next in Ross Stores »
Behind the Storefront is a blog about all things retail. It’s aimed at investors, shoppers and anyone else with a passion for learning about what drives consumer behavior. Hosted by Andria Cheng, Behind the Storefront will cover the business, brands and shopping behavior that’s behind some of the biggest companies, and largest employers, in the world. You can reach Andria at Acheng@marketwatch.com.
Follow Andria on Twitter: Follow @andriacheng


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Bainbridge Public Safety Officers say 31-year-old Derrick Lambert went into the man's store demanding money he said he was owed.
Officers say when the store owner told Lambert he didn't have the cash, Lambert went out to his car and came back with a baseball bat.
BPS says Lambert chased the man around his store, then went out to the man's truck and smashed it several times.
Witnesses say the owner managed to take the bat from Lambert after getting hit in the ribs repeatedly.
Lambert is charged with aggravated assault and criminal damage to property.


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Metrodome to launch sales agency
UK distributor Metrodome Group has announced its intention to launch an international all-rights film sales agency in 2011.
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Kim Kardashian's New Show Gives Someone The Chance To LITERALLY Work With Her
When you've got Laverne Cox hosting a reality competition series, do you really need any other celebrities to show up? Well, in the case of Lifetime's Glam Masters, the answer is probably, "The more the merrier" — because there's the potential for another icon to appear. Since she executive produced the series, Kim Kardashian could be on Glam Masters. Or, at least, that's what contestants and viewers alike are hoping for. The show premieres on Lifetime on Feb. 28 and, considering that the winner has been promised the chance to become part of Kardashian's "glam empire," it would make sense for her to be on it.
The application page to be a competitor for Glam Masters says, "Want to be part of Kim Kardashian West's glam empire?" How one would actually be involved in her empire wasn't specified, but Kim wrote on Instagram a few days before the premiere that the winner of Glam Masters will get a contract with her beauty line, KKW Beauty. Host Laverne Cox explained it further in the preview of the first episode when she told the contestants, "The ultimate winner will collaborate with Kim Kardashian West to create your very own limited-edition makeup collection for KKW Beauty."
Each episode of Glam Masters will have four beauty bloggers competing in a series of makeup challenges judged by Cox, Kardashian's makeup artist Mario Dedivanovic, YouTube makeup expert Kandee Johnson, and Marie Claire senior fashion editor and co-founder of Milk Makeup Zanna Roberts Rassi. The winner of the individual episodes will move on to the semifinals where they will have the chance to compete in the Tournament of Masters finale.
While the competitors are nowhere near Kardashian-levels of fame, all of them have an Instagram following of their own. Kardashian's fellow executive producer, Diana Madison, has known the Keeping Up With The Kardashian star for 10 years and PEOPLE reported that Madison came up with the idea for Glam Masters. Madison said she was inspired to incorporate Kardashian in a beauty reality competition show because of the number of beauty bloggers who are inspired by Kim.
"I work with so many makeup artists for my beauty tutorial show 'Style Lab' and makeup talk show 'The Lowdown,'" Madison told PEOPLE. "They would all come in to do my makeup and say the same thing: Their goal is to be discovered by Kim Kardashian on Instagram." Madison continued:
"And they would tell me all the lengths they were going to: All these crazy makeup posts. One guy would literally wear a Kim Kardashian wig and make his face look like her, praying that she would discover him. I was like, 'Oh my God. All these people are having a secret kind of competition on Instagram to be discovered by Kim.'"
Since makeup artists' love of Kardashian on Instagram was one of the catalysts for the show — and because the winner will be representing Kardashian's brand — it seemed promising to think that Kim K. herself could appear on the Glam Masters finale. After all, even though she hasn't appeared in any of the promos, she said in the above video with Dedivanovic that she'll be live tweeting the first episode from Japan.
However, Kardashian herself has stated directly that she won't be on Glam Masters. On Feb. 26, she asked fans to send her Glam Masters questions on Twitter and she answered them on her app and website. In response to whether or not she will show up on the series, Kardashian wrote, "Unfortunately, with my filming schedule (10 months straight, six days a week, per season) for my show, I had to make the choice to not be on. But, I watch every edit and get updates daily, so I am really involved."
So, Kim appearance or no, take solace in the fact that this makeup show is most certainly Kim-approved. And hold out hope that perhaps she'll make a surprise finale appearance — kind of like when she surprised a 12-year-old fan while he was doing a makeup tutorial for The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Because the only thing that would make a person more emotional about winning Glam Masters and landing a KKW makeup line is if Kardashian was there to celebrate with them.


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Andrea Bocelli earns his 10th top 10 on Billboard’s Album Sales chart (dated Nov. 28), as his latest release, Believe, bows at No. 5. The set was released on Nov. 13 via Sugar/Decca Records, and sold 20,000 copies in the U.S. in the week ending Nov. 19, according to Nielsen Music/MRC Data.
Also in the top 10, AC/DC’s Power Up launches at No. 1, Chris Stapleton’s Starting Over debuts at No. 2, Pentatonix’s We Need a Little Christmas arrives at No. 8 and a flurry of catalog titles see major gains thanks to sale pricing at Walmart.
Billboard’s Album Sales chart ranks the top-selling albums of the week based only on traditional album sales. The Album Sales chart’s history dates back to May 25, 1991, the first week Billboard began tabulating charts with electronically monitored piece count information from SoundScan, now Nielsen Music/MRC Data. Pure album sales were the measurement solely utilized by the Billboard 200 albums chart through the list dated Dec. 6, 2014, after which that chart switched to a methodology that blends album sales with track equivalent album units and streaming equivalent album units. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.
Bocelli got his first top 10 on the Album Sales chart in 1999 with Sogno, which debuted and peaked at No. 4. He landed his first No. 1 with 2018’s Si.
Through his career, Bocelli has sold 24.3 million albums in the U.S. Believe also gives Bocelli his 20th No. 1 on the Classical Albums chart and his 14th No. 1 on the Classical Crossover Albums tally. He extends his own record for the most No. 1 albums on both charts.
The Classical Albums ranks the most popular classical albums of the week based on multi-metric consumption, combining album sales, track equivalent album units and streaming equivalent album units. The Classical Crossover Albums chart ranks the top-selling classical crossover titles of the week.
Back in the top 10 of the new Album Sales list, AC/DC’s Power Up debuts at No. 1 with 111,000 copies sold. As earlier reported, the album also enters at No. 1 on the multi-metric consumption Billboard 200 chart – the band’s first No. 1 since 2008.
Chris Stapleton’s latest effort Starting Over starts at No. 2 with 75,000 copies sold, while Queen’s Greatest Hits blasts 46-3 (a new peak) with 24,000 sold (up 737%) – its best sales week since 2007. The bulk of the latter’s sales (23,000 in fact) came from vinyl LP sales, thanks in large part to a Walmart sale where all vinyl in-store on Nov. 14 was marked down to $15. Greatest Hits, which was initially released in 1981, also reaches the top 10 of the Billboard 200 for the first time.
Greatest Hits logs its best sales week since the Dec. 8, 2007-dated chart, when it sold 36,000 copies (in the tracking week ending Nov. 25 – which reflected the busy Thanksgiving and Black Friday shopping holidays that year).
Dolly Parton’s A Holly Dolly Christmas returns to its peak of No. 4 on Album Sales, as it rises two spots with 21,000 copies sold (up 90%).
Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours jumps 18-6 with 17,000 sold (up 261%), with vinyl LP sales comprising 16,000 of that sum (up 369%). Rumours was also a beneficiary of Walmart’s $15 sale pricing. Rumours additionally reaches the top 10 on the Album Sales chart (whose history dates to May 25, 1991) for the first time, and marks the band’s first top 10 since the 2003 album Say You Will debuted and peaked at No. 3 (May 3, 2003-dated chart). Rumours also tallies its best sales week since the May 21, 2011-dated chart, when it sold 30,000 copies in the wake of the premiere of the Glee TV episode dedicated to the album (May 3).
Carrie Underwood’s holiday set My Gift is pushed down 3-7 on the new Album Sales chart, but posts a gain, as it sold just under 17,000 copies (up 17%).
Pentatonix’s latest holiday album We Need a Little Christmas bows at No. 8 with 16,000 sold. It’s the 11th top 10 for the vocal group. Of those 11 top 10s, six have been Christmas titles.
Bob Marley and The Wailers’ Legend: The Best Of… vaults 48-9 with 15,500 sold (up 453%). It also was goosed by the Walmart vinyl sale, as the title sold nearly 15,000 on vinyl LP (up 639%).
Legend logs its best overall sales week since the Sept. 20, 2014-dated chart, when the album sold 41,000 copies after it was discounted to 99-cents in the Google Play store.
Closing out the new top 10 on the Album Sales chart is another title that gets a lift from Walmart, as Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Chronicle: The 20 Greatest Hits rises 59-10 with 14,000 copies sold (up 485%). Of that sum, 13,000 are in vinyl LP sales (up 776%). Chronicle nets its best sales week since the Aug. 17, 2013-dated chart, when it moved 15,000 copies.


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Apple, pet food and logistics group Scales Corporation has reported a drop in profit of 35 percent for the full year ended December 2023.
Key numbers for year ended December 31 compared with a year ago:
- Net profit $24.7 million versus $38.2m
- Revenue $565.4m versus $619.2m
- Horticulture underlying profit $14.8m versus $19m
- Global proteins operating earnings $54.5m versus $60.2m
Corporation chair Mike Petersen said: "Our diversified strategy has, once again, proved to be an important factor in our success in what was a disruptive year.
"This, combined with the ability of our divisions to execute their individual strategies during testing times, produced very commendable Group earnings," he said.
"Global Proteins and Logistics performed strongly, with horticulture producing an admirable result, having dealt with the significant effects of Cyclone Gabrielle during the year. This is in no small part due to the skills and resilience of the entire Scales team."
Managing director Andy Borland said Global Proteins delivered a solid result in a year when its pet food ingredient customers were rebalancing their inventories to lower, pre-Covid levels.
"This resulted in lower volumes sold. Despite these new market conditions, the division performed well, adjusting its operations accordingly," Borland said.
"The joint venture with Esro Food Group has provided a strategically important European presence for Scales' Global Proteins division. Significant progress has been made on this operation, with the first processing line commissioned towards the end of the year."
Commenting about the horticulture division, Borland said Apple's own-grown export volumes were down on the year prior.
"Export volume of 2733k TCEs was 18 percent down on the prior year (FY2022: 3324k TCEs). However, Mr Apple experienced a strong finish to the season due, in part, to limited supply in key markets, which in turn contributed to higher in-market pricing," he said.
"Mr Apple continues to focus on the supply of Premium varieties such as DazzleTM and PosyTM to the Asia and Middle East markets, a strategy that is supported by increasing in-market prices.
"Development of these varieties was accelerated during 2023 and we anticipate higher sales volumes as plantings mature."
Petersen said looking ahead the company anticipated a more normal year of trading, particularly for horticulture.
"We anticipate that our petfood customers will continue to rebalance their inventory levels to pre-Covid levels and note that Meateor Australia and Esro Petfood will continue to progress through their transitional and start-up phases respectively.
"We look forward to realising exciting opportunities from these key markets in the long-term.
"Picking and packing has commenced at Mr Apple for the 2024 season and current crop indications are positive. There is also strong initial demand for our early fruit."
Borland has been reappointed for a further five-year term as managing director.


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The SRT® brand kicked-off “The SRT Viper Color Contest,” an online contest that enabled Viper enthusiasts to name the new blue exterior paint color for the 2014 SRT Viper. More than 11,000 names were submitted and the top three finalists have been chosen. Fans can vote online at www.driveSRT.com/colorcontest to help select the winning name. In addition to becoming part of Viper history, the fan who submitted the winning name will win a trip to the 2014 Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona at Daytona International Speedway. Voting for the final round of the “SRT Viper Color Contest” runs through Sunday, Nov. 10.
Tom Burkart is the founder and managing editor of Car-Revs-Daily.com, an innovative and rapidly-expanding automotive news magazine.
He holds a Journalism JBA degree from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Tom currently resides in Charleston, South Carolina with his two amazing dogs, Drake and Tank.
Mr. Burkart is available for all questions and concerns by email Tom(at)car-revs-daily.com.


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Syntech’s Stellar Debut at GITEX 2023
The turnout of Syntech users at the GITEX Trade Show would not let you believe that the company was debuting at the event.
For the first time in seven years, Syntech took part in the GITEX Show in Dubai, where visitors from all parts of the world got the opportunity to test out our products firsthand and experience the tech wonders we have been selling online for years. Our community has mostly remained digital and witnessing the excitement attendees showed towards our products was truly exhilarating.
The event went on from the 16th to the 20th of October, and throughout these four days, the Syntech team got to directly interact with tech and gaming enthusiasts from diverse backgrounds who shared a great passion for tech gadgets.
The Shining Stars at GITEX 2023
At the show this year, some of our classics dominated the stage. Amongst these, our IT accessories gained a lot of praise and were liked by the majority of visitors. They tested the products at our booth to see which product worked the best for them.
The recent release of the Quest 3 added to the popularity of our VR Accessories. The carrying cases, the link cables, and the grip covers were among the top picks. Our entire product line was displayed at our booth for all the virtual reality fanatics.
Syntech Unveils New Category at GITEX Global
A piece of exciting news is that Syntech unveiled its latest product category of ‘Creator Gadgets’ at the GITEX Global 2023.
The products in this line cater to a larger niche of creators that includes not only gamers but also filmmakers, vloggers, and even talk show hosts. The main players in this category are the Shotgun Microphone and the Portable Selfie Light which will help digital creators in enhancing the audio and visual quality of their content.
These products caught the attention of a diverse mix of people ranging from influencers to tech experts. The modern design and the multifunctionality of these products were the key factors in the success of these products.
GITEX 2023: An Overwhelming Experience
GITEX Global 2023 surpassed the expectations of our team. It was an overwhelming experience for everyone present there, representing the company.
Meeting the Syntech community directly and showcasing our products to new users was truly rewarding for the entire team. Syntech has always dedicated itself to increasing user experience for its customers, and it was encouraging to watch them enjoy our products live.
We will continue to commit to our mission and create products that exceed expectations. See you at the next event!


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SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- A day after Ford Motor Co.'s sweeping cost-cutting plans and upbeat earnings report triggered a surge in its ailing stock price, Wall Street on Tuesday injected a dose of harsh reality into the bull party.
Analysts, as a whole, were unconvinced that Ford's "Way Forward" plan is the cure for what ails the automaker. While the plan calls for cutting 30,000 jobs and shutting 14 plants, it offered no news on how to tackle ballooning health-care and pension costs.
Calyon Securities' Joseph Amaturo downgraded the stock to reduce from neutral and slashed his price target to $7 a share from $10. He said that Ford's latest approach to retooling the business looks too much like its 2002 "Revitalization Plan".
"Sadly, we know how that plan worked out and we question whether the results of this new plan will be much different," he added.
Amaturo slashed his earnings targets for 2006 to 16 cents a share, down from $1.25, with "significant" losses on tap from its North American automotive operations.
Merrill Lynch's John Murphy agreed, calling the plan a "mirror image" of the prior restructuring and saying the assumption of Ford maintaining flat market share is extremely ambitious.
"As Ford increases its offerings of small cars and CUVs, and SUV sales fade, margins will come under considerable pressure," Murphy said, pointing out that Ford's better than expected, fourth-quarter earnings will be difficult to repeat. "This is a tough backdrop in which to successfully execute a turnaround plan."
Ford previously pegged sales of CUVs, or crossover utility vehicles, to surpass SUV sales this year, and it's placing bets accordingly.
At the Detroit auto show earlier this month, Ford showcased the Edge crossover, which will go on sale later this year -- basically a smaller, more fuel-efficient version of a profitable SUV. See full story.
Targets, we need targets
Ford rankled Wall Street much like General Motors Corp.
"The company's announcement that it will not provide earnings guidance going forward, however, came as more of a surprise, making it notably more difficult to isolate and gauge the impact of restructuring," said Himanshu Patel of J.P. Morgan, one of the few analysts on Wall Street with an overweight rating on the stock.
Chiming in from the debt side, GimmeCredit analyst Craig Hutson agreed that Ford needs to offer more clarity.
"While Ford provided some long-term goals, including automotive profitability in North America by the end of 2008, the plan was severely lacking in benchmarks of how to measure Ford's success along its road to recovery," he said.
Analysts polled by Thomson First Call currently forecast a 2006 profit of 71 cents a share, on average. Targets, however, range from as low as 10 cents a share to a high of $1.25.
Job cuts contagious
Ford shares soared as much as 9% Monday after the company announced its latest round of job cuts and plant closures in an effort to restore its North America auto operations to profitability by 2008. See full story.
But after the initial buying spree waned and the news began to seep in, the stock gave up a chunk of the day's gains by the closing bell and continued to decline into Tuesday's session.
Ford's detailed restructuring follows a similar plan from rival General Motors late last year, and preceded DaimlerChrysler's
So far, more than 60,000 GM and Ford jobs are on the chopping block in North America. DaimlerChrysler didn't specify where its reductions would take place, but most of its salaried workforce is based in Germany.
Shares of Ford closed up 8 cents at $8.40. GM jumped $1.20, or 5.5%, to $23.05 and DaimlerChrysler advanced 5% to end at $54.84


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10 total posts
Gateline.net Was Key Rogue Pharma Processor
It was mid November 2011. I was shivering on the upper deck of an aging cruise ship docked at the harbor in downtown Rotterdam. Inside, a big-band was jamming at a reception for attendees of the GovCert cybersecurity conference, where I had delivered a presentation earlier that day on a long-running turf war between two of the largest sponsors of spam.
The evening was bracingly frigid and blustery, and I was waiting there to be introduced to investigators from the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB). Several FSB agents who attended the conference told our Dutch hosts that they wanted to meet me, but in a private setting. Stepping out the night air, a woman from the conference approached, formally presented the three men behind her, and then hurried back inside to the warmth of the reception.
A middle-aged stocky fellow introduced as the senior FSB officer spoke in Russian, while a younger gentleman translated into English. They asked did I know anything about a company in Moscow called "Onelia"? I said no, asked them to spell it for me, and inquired as to why they were interested in this firm. The top FSB official said they believed the company was heavily involved in processing payments for a variety of organized cyber criminal enterprises.
Continued : http://krebsonsecurity.com/2012/04/gateline-net-was-key-rogue-pharma-processor/
Active Zeus C&Cs Remain Following Microsoft Takedown
It appears that Microsoft's recent Zeus takedown attempt left some bots behind. Days after the company announced it had sinkholed the troublesome botnet, researchers say that there are still some C&C domains active.
FireEye Malware Intelligence Lab's Atif Mushtaq is reporting that, despite a largely successful takedown, part of the botnet has recovered from the takeover attempt. FireEye claims that this part of the botnet works with a Zeus variant that is well-known for rapidly changing command and control(C&C).
FireEye reports that the operation resulted in Microsoft gaining control of 147 of 156 C&C domains. Of the nine remaining domains, six are either dead or abandoned and present no threat. However, three of those C&C domains evaded the sinkhole and are actively sending and receiving commands.
Mushtaq is not certain how the Microsoft Digital Crime Unit missed some of the C&C domains.
"Their main concern should be the three active domains," Mushtaq wrote. "Without these domains completely destroyed, this botnet can not be officially declared as dead."
Continued : http://threatpost.com/en_us/blogs/active-zeus-ccs-remain-following-microsoft-takedown-040412
Microsoft takedown of Zeus botnets missed a few C&Cs
Botnets Takedowns: A Game of Whack-A-Mole?
Police Themed Ransomware Continues
From the F-Secure Antivirus Research Weblog:
Over the last several weeks, we've been monitoring a rash of ransomware campaigns across Europe, in which messages, supposedly from the local police, are displayed demanding that a fine must be paid in order to unlock the computer. We wrote about a Finnish language variant last month. Attacks are still quite active according to our statistics. [Screenshot]
Even when somebody is savvy enough to recognize the message is a fake, the malware's accusations of offensive materials having been discovered on the user's hard drive creates a chilling effect, which has likely prevented some folks from seeking outside help.
Here's a screenshot we took earlier today using a recent variant: [Screenshot]
To unlock their computer, the user is asked to purchase a Paysafecard from a local convenience store chain (in Finland, it's R-Kioski) in the amount of 100 euros. The technique is effective, as even non-technical people who might not be able to use online payment services such as Webmoney or eGold will be able to walk to the nearest store to part with their money.
In this particular case, the e-mail address email@example.com shown in the screenshot does not belong to the attackers. The domain cybercrime.gov is valid and belongs to the US Department of Justice.
Continued : http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/archives/00002344.html
From TrendLabs Malware Blog: Trojan on the Loose: An In-Depth Analysis of Police Trojan
New Android Malware Variant Can Remotely Root Phone
A new version of Android malware has been tweaked so it doesn't require user interaction for an attacker to own the device, according to research published by Lookout Mobile Security yesterday.
An updated variant of the Legacy Native (LeNa) malware utilizes the GingerBreak exploit to gain root permission on Android phones. LeNa, according to Lookout principal engineer Tim Wyatt, hides its exploit in a functional JPEG file. The exploit communicates with a command and control server to install and launch packages unbeknownst to the phone's user.
Last fall, LeNa - looking like an authentic application - relied on a user to unwittingly utilize the SU utility to gain access and install a native binary file to the phone. LeNa was similar to DroidKungFu, a strain of malware that became popular in alternative Chinese markets last summer and collected various information about whatever phone it infected. While LeNa gained popularity in Chinese markets as well, it also surfaced in the Android Market (Google Play) a few times.
The malware has found a home on alternative mobile application marketplaces which are blocked by default on Android devices. While it doesn't appear to have made the jump to Google's new Play marketplace yet, the new version of LeNa has been seen making the rounds disguised as a version of the popular game Angry Birds Space.
Continued : http://threatpost.com/en_us/blogs/new-android-malware-variant-can-remotely-root-phone-040412
@ The Lookout Mobile Security Blog: Security Alert: New Variants of Legacy Native (LeNa) Identified
Cybercriminals target Google, LinkedIn & Mass Effect 3 users
During March 2012, GFI Labs documented several spam attacks and malware-laden email campaigns infiltrating users' systems under the guise of communications purporting to be from well-known companies and promotions for popular products and services.
Google, LinkedIn, Skype and the video game Mass Effect 3 were among the brands exploited by cybercriminals in order to attract more victims.
"Taking advantage of the notoriety of companies, celebrities and major events is a tactic cybercriminals continue to use because it works," said Christopher Boyd, senior threat researcher at GFI Software.
"They know that Internet users are bombarded with countless emails every day, and these scammers prey on our curiosity and our reflex-like tendency to click on links and open emails that look like they're coming from a company we know and trust," he added.
Continued : http://www.net-security.org/malware_news.php?id=2055
Windows Hacker Tool Creates Word Docs that Can Infect Macs
From The Mac Security Blog:
We recently published information about poisoned Word documents that can infect Macs with a backdoor. These documents look like Word files, but, when double-clicked, after displaying text, they infect Macs with a backdoor.
Intego's Malware Research Team has found samples of a Windows tool called MalHost-Setup.exe which can be used to create this type of infected Word file. (It can also be used to create Excel and PowerPoint files, but Intego has not seen any samples of these files being used to deliver this type of malware yet.) The sample found included an infected Word file with Mac-specific payload.
As we pointed out in our blog post, "the code in these Word documents is not encrypted, so any malware writer who gets copies of them may be able to alter the code and distribute their own versions of these documents." This tool suggests that this type of infected Microsoft Office file will become more common.
Continued : http://www.intego.com/mac-security-blog/windows-hacker-tool-creates-word-documents-that-can-infect-macs/
Mobile 'Wallets' Attract Greater Interest From Thieves,
From McAfee Labs Blog Central:
As mobile phones allow us to carry our money in an electronic "wallet," they will also become a greater target for crooks. Picking a pocket is a risky endeavor for a thieves, but it will be much less so if all they need to do is bump into their victims or brush by them with a mobile phone. Thieves are now more likely to go after both mobile payment software and phones enabled with near-field communications (NFC). However, things are not so bad; security researchers proof-of-concept (PoC) attacks against Google Wallet and Square's credit card readers have prompted improvements in security.
Security researchers have already tested Square's credit card readers, using exploits and keyloggers to intercept credit card numbers as they pass to their mobile phones. Square has now added encryption to new versions of its credit card reader. Does that mean that they're completely secure? Not necessarily. Security researcher Adam Laurie is taking a closer look. Laurie has a large amount of experience in reverse-engineering embedded systems and RFID hardware. His research includes finding vulnerabilities in hotel room safes, RFID passports, and chip and PIN credit cards. As word of the new, more secure Square readers arrived, he posted an open request on Twitter. This can only be good for the security of the mobile payment system.
Bogus Apple gift card offer leads to phishing
An email purportedly sent by Apple and offering to long term customers the possibility of buying a gift card worth a 100 Australian dollars for the price of 9 has been targeting Australian Apple devotees, warns Hoax-Slayer.
Dear Apple Customer, Apple is rewarding its long-term customers," states the email, then continues:
Your loyalty for our products made you eligible for buying an Apple Discount Card. With this only 9 AU$ Discount Card you will have 100 AU$ credit at any Australian Apple Store or on
To acquire your Apple Discount Card please click here
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The offered links take the victims to a website mimicking Apple's and first asks them to input their Apple ID, then to fill out a form with information such as name, address, date of birth, number of driving license, credit card number, expiration date, authorization number and more.
Continued : http://www.net-security.org/secworld.php?id=12697
How to Use Twitter Safely
We've all heard of Twitter accounts getting hacked. It's happened to Ashton Kutcher, Justin Bieber, Steve Wozniak, numerous media outlets. Even we "normal" folks can be compromised, unwittingly. Recently my coworker accidentally clicked a URL-shortened link that resulted in her account spewing Direct Messages with a phishing link.
We were reminded again last week when Twitter took its popular application TweetDeck offline for a day after an Australian user discovered a bug that exposed a number of Twitter accounts.
As incredibly useful as Twitter is, we can't ignore the fact that we share the Twitterverse with spambots, cyber criminals, crazy exes, etc. So how do you stay safe on Twitter? It's a mixture of choosing the right Twitter client and remaining vigilant.
Continued : http://securitywatch.pcmag.com/security/296223-how-to-use-twitter-safely


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A slice of pizza often follows a late night of drinking, but a new spot will offer both while trying to keep the guilt to a minimum.
David Jaffee and Ross Rachlin’s Pure Hospitality Group is launching Visana & Pisa Pizza — including a “secret” back-of-the-house cocktail lounge — on Sept. 9.
The counter-style, 400 square-foot pizza parlor, at 321 First Ave. at 18th Street, will stay open until 4 a.m. and also have a walk-up take-out window for ordering organic and gluten-free items along with fresh juices.
At the same time, craft cocktails will be served at Visana, accessed via a hidden door in the back of the pizzeria. The 1,100 square-foot lounge takes its name from “vita” and “sana,” or “healthy life” in Italian, and will boast local and organic juices and cocktails.
The lounge, designed with non-toxic materials, also has filtered water, purified air, an essential oil diffuser and RGB wallpaper, which changes its imagery and lighting to the beat of the music.
Glaze Teriyaki is opening its fourth New York City location this fall in Williamsburg. The 800 square-foot store will have 25 seats at 145 N. 4th St., with Umami Burger, Sweetgreen and Whole Foods nearby.
Co-founders Paul Krug and Dennis Lake opened the first Glaze in Midtown in 2010, following by outposts in Union Square and Midtown West. A Dumbo outpost is set to open next year.
WE HEAR… celeb chef Marc Murphy is launching his first eatery outside New York — a Mediterranean grill at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tampa — in November. Murphy is behind hot spots Ditch Plains, Landmarc and Kingside.
Puerto Rico Meets NYC, a new food festival, will run from Sept. 30 to Oct. 4. Eight chefs specializing in “cocina criolla” — Puerto Rican cuisine — will make a series of dinners with New York’s finest, including Jose Santaella of Santaella and Eric Ripert of Le Bernardin. Tickets can be purchased via Eventbrite.


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With so many Android devices out there to choose from, it’s not always easy to find one that’s enterprise-friendly. To help alleviate that problem, Google announced the Android Enterprise Recommended program today.
As the name implies, it’s designed to point enterprise IT departments at devices that Google has deemed to be enterprise-ready. This involves a number of criteria, including minimum hardware specifications for Android 7.0 + devices, support for bulk deployment and managed profiles and devices for a consistent application experience across deployed devices. The full list includes all of the minimum app and hardware specifications required to be included in the program.
The program also requires that within 90 days of Google releasing them manufacturers make security updates available for at least three years. Ninety days feels a bit long if there is a serious vulnerability in the wild, but Google indicated this was not a fixed list and the company would update the requirements as needed over time.
As for the devices they are recommending, these include a broad range of usual suspects, such as BlackBerry KEYone and Motion; Google Pixel, Pixel XL, Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL (of course); Huawei Mate 10, Mate 10 Pro, P10, P10 Plus, P10 Lite and P smart; and LG V30 and G6, among others.
Conspicuously missing from this list is anything by Samsung, a company that has programs in place like Knox specifically designed for the enterprise. There are also no HTC phones, but to be fair, the company left the door open for more devices and additional partners to be added over time.
“You can expect more Android Enterprise Recommended devices to be added in the coming weeks and months. Throughout 2018, we will also be applying the Android Enterprise Recommended framework to additional partner types, including OEMs of ‘dedicated’ and rugged devices, mobile carriers, enterprise mobility management (EMM) providers and systems integrators,” Google director of Android Enterprise, David Still wrote in a company blog post announcing the program.
While fewer companies are probably still buying phones for their employees — those kind of programs tended to peak with the old stalwart BlackBerry devices in the days before “Bring Your Own Device” programs popped up — those who do and want to use Android need to have devices that they can manage and deploy in a consistent way. This program is designed to provide a minimum set of specifications to meet that.
Владельцу сайта нужно будет только выбрать желаемые форматы.
Google представила систему автоматизированных объявлений в сети AdSense, которая может самостоятельно размещать рекламу на сайтах, используя машинное обучение. Об этом vc.ru рассказали представители компании.
В Google утверждают, что система сама выбирает оптимальное место и время для показа рекламы, не нарушая внешний вид сайта. Сервис находит рекламные места и использует их для демонстрации объявлений. Новая система учитывает уже размещённые на сайте объявления AdSense.
Чтобы автоматическая система заработала, владельцу сайта нужно:
- выбрать в AdSense форматы объявлений, которые он хочет разместить на своем сайте;
- добавить код для автоматизированных объявлений на страницы сайта.
Facebook’s global director of policy programs says it will start sending postcards by snail mail to verify buyers of ads related to United States elections. Katie Harbath, who described the plan at a conference held by the National Association of Secretaries of State this weekend, didn’t reveal when the program will start, but told Reuters it would be before the congressional midterm elections in November.
The cards will be sent to people who want to purchase ads that mention candidates running for federal offices, but not issue-based political ads, Harbath said, and contain a code that buyers need to enter to verify that they are in the U.S. The program is similar to ones used by Google My Business and Nextdoor when they need to verify business owners or users who want to join closed neighborhood groups, respectively.
Harbath told Reuters that the postcards “won’t solve everything,” but were the most effective method the company came up with to prevent people from using false identities to purchase ads. In October, Facebook vice president of ads Rob Goldman published a blog post saying that the platform planned to create more transparency around ads by taking steps that include a searchable archive of federal-election ads and requiring political advertisers to verify their identity.
Facebook, Twitter and Google executives were called to testify in front of Senate last fall about how Russians used their platforms to spread misinformation intended to sway the outcome of the 2016 U.S. presidential election campaign. The companies have been criticized for not doing enough to prevent false advertising. The issue escalated last week when U.S. special counsel Robert Mueller handed down a set of indictments charging 13 Russian citizens and three Russian organizations, including a bot farm, with interfering in the presidential election through operations including fake social media accounts.
Google Pixel smartphones have had a fair share of problems since its arrival last year. There has been series of complaints which include a burn-in on the OLED panel, voice recording bug in messaging app, screen flash when the phone is unlocked, faulty USB-C to 3.5mm headphone adapter, unresponsive screen edges and a faint buzzing sound during calls. While most of these issues have been handled, a couple of them are still pending and it appears that more issues are still emanating out of nowhere. About a week ago, we reported that the February security patch for Google Pixel smartphones will bring improved photography, well, what we didn’t know is that it will also come with some major issues. Recent reports on Reddit and Google Forums have it that the Pixel smartphones gets really warm (even with normal usage) and battery drains quite fast.
It appears that this issue is not consistent with all units as a few users have also reported that they are not facing these problems. Recall that the shift issue on the Pixel smartphone display is also not consistent. However, a good number of users have reported these issues and some even confirmed the persistence of this problem while the device is in safe mode thus this is probably not associated with third-party apps.
As of now, Google has not said anything with regards to this recent reports. If you have been experiencing similar problems, let us know in the comments.
Компания Google объявила об изменениях в работе поиска картинок. Из поиска по изображениям исчезла кнопка «View image» («Открыть в полном размере» в российской версии), позволяющая открыть картинку отдельно и в полном разрешении.
Теперь пользователи могут перейти на страницу с изображением и найти его там самостоятельно — в Google считают, что это позволит смотреть на результат поиска «в контексте». Кроме того, такое решение стало балансом между удовлетворением потребностей пользователей и издателей, среди которых — крупный фотобанк Getty Images.
Теперь для открытия картинки в полном размере можно воспользоваться одним из двух вариантов:
- В результатах поиска изображений нажать правую кнопку мыши на фото и выбрать «Открыть картинку в новой вкладке»;
- Нажать правую кнопку мыши и выбрать «Скопировать URL картинки», после чего ввести его в адресной строке.
Google has added a notable addition to its line of “Go” edition apps – the lightweight apps designed primarily for emerging markets – with the launch of Gmail Go. The app, like others in the Go line, takes up less storage space on users’ smartphones and makes better use of mobile data compared with the regular version of Gmail.
The app also offers standard Gmail features like multiple account support, conversation view, attachments, and push notifications for new messages. It also prioritizes messages from friends and family first, while categorizing promotional and social emails in separate tabs, as Gmail does.
But like other Go apps, Gmail Go doesn’t consume as much storage space on the device.
In fact, according to numerous reports, Gmail Go clocked in at a 9.51 MB download, and takes up roughly 25 MB of space on a device, compared with Gmail’s 20.66 MB download, and 47 MB storage space.
Google has not made a formal announcement about Gmail Go’s launch, but severalsites have spotted its availability on the Google Play store this week. We’ve asked Google for more information about the app’s feature set, and what exactly is it that Go does to reduce the burden on low-end smartphones. The company declined to comment.
Some early adopters have pointed out that scrolling on Gmail Go is a much more choppy experience than on the standard Gmail. It also syncs fewer days of emails and attachments to use less bandwidth.
But overall, there are not many noticeable differences between Gmail and Gmail Go, in terms of feature set.
That’s not always the case with the Go-branded apps. For example, YouTube Go has several unique features, like the ability to download videos for offline viewing, and sharing videos with friends nearby, for example. In Gmail Go’s case, however, it’s only been designed to meet the size and memory requirements of Android Go.
But we have learned why Google didn’t announce Gmail Go: the app is not going to be available to all users. Instead, Gmail Go will only be available to install from the Play Store, and for update purposes, on devices that already have Gmail Go pre-installed. For now, that means only Android O Go edition devices will have the ability to use the app.
If those users prefer, they can choose to install the regular Gmail app, too, and use both side-by-side.
Gmail Go is joining a growing list of Go edition apps, including YouTube Go, Files Go, Google Go, Google Maps Go, Google and Assistant Go.
Google’s Chrome browser will soon flag every site that doesn’t use HTTPS encryption. Starting in July, with the launch of Chrome 68, Chrome will mark all HTTP sites as ‘not secure’ and prominently highlight this in its URL bar.
Over the course of the last few years, Google has strongly advocated for the use of HTTPS to help keep your browsing data safe from anybody who could be spying on your web traffic while it’s in transit between your browser and a server. With Chrome 62, Google already started marking all HTTP sites that had data entry fields as insecure and even back in 2016, it already started showing the same warning for all sites that asked for passwords and credit cards.
With this upcoming update, every HTTP site will be flagged as ‘not secure,’ whether it includes input fields or not.
Developers have clearly heard the call. Google notes that 81 of the top 100 sites on the web now use HTTPS by default and that 80 percent of Chrome traffic on both Chrome OS and Mac and 70 percent of traffic from Chrome on Windows is now protected. For Chrome traffic on Android, that number is 68 percent.
Still, this means that there are (and probably always will be) plenty of sites that haven’t made the move yet. Thanks to projects like Let’s Encrypt and others, it’s now easier than ever to enable HTTPS for virtually any site. Still, the process of enabling HTTPS for existing sites isn’t always trivial and chances are that some webmasters and developers will simply opt to keep things running as they are, no matter the warnings that Chrome will soon show their visitors.
Самое крупное вознаграждение — $112,5 тысячи — получил специалист, обнаруживший эксплойт в смартфоне Pixel.
В 2017 году Google в рамках программы bug bounty выплатила $2,9 млн 274 различным исследователям в области безопасности за обнаруженные уязвимости. Об этом говорится в официальном блоге компании.
Основную часть этой суммы — $1,1 млн — получили исследователи, обнаружившие уязвимости в Google и Android. Также Google выделила $125 тысяч 50 исследователям по всему миру в рамках своей программы грантов на изучение уязвимостей. Ещё $50 тысяч компания выделила тем, кто улучшает безопасность программного обеспечения с открытым кодом. Оставшуюся сумму получили исследователи, которые нашли недостатки в системе Chrome.
Самое крупное вознаграждение — $112 500 — получил исследователь Гуан Гун (Guang Gong), который в августе 2017 года обнаружил цепочку эксплойтов в смартфонах Pixel.
Пользователь под псевдонимом gzobqq получил $100 тысяч. Он нашёл ошибки, позволяющие удалённо выполнить код в режиме гостя в операционной системе Chrome. Специалисту по кибербезопасности Алексу Бирсану Google выплатила $15 600 — он нашёл ошибку в баг-трекере, через который сотрудники компании отслеживают все сообщения о неисправностях и уязвимостях.
С момента запуска программы bug bounty в ноябре 2010 года Google выплатила пользователям и специалистам почти $12 млн.
Google announced today it’s adding a series of features to Google Search and other products to help users looking for the latest information about the Pyeongchang 2018 Olympic Winter Games.
As the company often does for major events, extra information will begin to appear at the top of Google Search results after being triggered by various keywords and search terms. In addition, Google will connect users to live video, VR video, plus Google Earth and Street View imagery related to the Winter Games.
For example, if you search for Winter Olympics, Google will return a list of the various sports as small thumbnails you can click into to get updates – like which athletes won. It will also use your current location to provide updates about your country’s own ranking in terms of medals count, as well as display the top news stories from the Games, and more.
Also notable is how Google is incorporating YouTube into the search results.
Starting tomorrow, February 8, 2018, the search results will return select Olympic Winter Games video highlights from official Olympic broadcasters on YouTube. This feature will be live in over 80 countries worldwide, and includes participation from a range of broadcast partners, like NBCUniversal (USA), BBC (UK), NHK (Japan), France TV (France), and Eurosport (Rest of Europe), says Google.
In the US, Google’s over-the-top streaming service for cord cutters, YouTube TV, will stream live coverage of the Olympics. And in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Maldives and Nepal, the Winter Games will be aired live for free for the first time on the Olympic Channel on YouTube.
VR coverage is also available for YouTube TV subscribers, who can now use their credentials to log into the NBC Sports VR app. The app will offer the ability to stream over 50 hours of NBC’s live video coverage, including the Opening Ceremony, alpine skiing, ice hockey, figure skating, snowboarding, curling and more.
In Europe, the Eurosport VR app offers similar VR coverage.
Google has integrated Olympics content into Google Earth and Street View, too. In the former, there’s now a “sports” category in the Google Earth Voyager educational feature that will include five stories about the Winter Games, like ski jumping destinations, the Olympic Torch relay, and travel itineraries in South Korea.
Street View, meanwhile, has been updated with new imagery of the stadiums, plus the towns and cities near Pyeongchang.
Google Assistant will answer questions about the Olympics as well – something its rival Alexa is also now offering. And NBC is launching an Olympics-themed trivia game for the Google Assistant platform, too.
For the longest time now, Google Photos has used its machine learning magic to automatically create movies for you based on your recent trips or around special occasions. What you couldn’t do, though, was tell Google Photos to create these movies on demand. That’s changing today, as Google has now launched the ability to create themed movies via the app or web on demand.
Google says it timed this launch around Valentine’s Day, but that’s only one of the options. The others include movies around your cats and dogs (but not both at the same time), your kids (or those of your friends and family members), a selfie movie, “Smiles of 2017,” Mother’s and Father’s Day movies and, on a sadder note, “In Loving Memory.”
For these movies, you simply select the people or animals who should star in them and Google will automatically try to find the best images and videos, set them to the appropriate music and give you the full video a minute or two after you started the process.
Because Google neither knows who is a father, mother or dead, you can obviously create these movies for everybody. I’m sure your friends would love to be featured in your “In Loving Memory” movies.
Indeed, don’t expect too many smarts here, as Google Photos also happily created a “Meow Movie” for people. The only real difference between movies, it seems, is the song that plays in the background. For the “Meow Movie,” for example, that song used the word “meow” way too many times. I’m not sure what I expected when I first tried this, but it was more.


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Remember when you first heard of the term "Wi-Fi"? That is, of course, the more well known trademark for the IEEE 802.11 wireless standardization. W-Fi certified hardware is now inside nearly all notebooks, tablets, smartphones and can even be found in some Japanese vending machines. Its speed has also gotten faster over the years; the current standardization version is 802.11ac, which is expected to become official in early 2014 and in theory can support speeds as fast as 1 gigabit per second.
Now the Wi-Fi Alliance, which certifies all Wi-Fi hardware, has announced a new program to approve products that have the upcoming WiGig standardization. The effort even comes with a new logo, as seen above. WiGig uses the 60 GHz spectrum to deliver data speeds of between 1 Gbps to 6 Gbps. However, the range of WiGig is very short. While a Wi-Fi signal can be detected in an entire house, a WiGig signal is usually confined to the space of a single room.
WiGig products will most likely be used to transfer content from a laptop or tablet to a big screen TV. It could even allow for PCs to connect wirelessly to monitors. The Wi-Fi Alliance has announced partnership with both the USB Implementers Forum and the Video Electronics Standards Association so that their products can work with the WiGig standards.
While WiGig does have the support of the powerful Wi-Fi Alliance, it's not the only such standardization that is looking to offer these kinds of high speed wireless data and video features. WirelessHD has been around for a while, but has yet to catch on in a mainstream way, and support for the Wireless Home Digital Interface, or WIDI, has also not made much headway. In short, it may be a while before the battle between these short range wireless standards has a clear winner.
Source: Wi-Fi Alliance | Image via Wi-Fi Alliance


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CouponsLink.com has expanded their web site to offer free printable grocery coupons from all major grocery coupon providers. Users can now print free grocery coupons at home, to redeem at their local supermarket.
Online PR News – 20-March-2014 – Oakland, California – CouponsLink.com today is proud to announce an expansion of their web site, which now offers free printable grocery coupons from home. Users can now visit CouponsLink.com (http://www.couponslink.com)o browse and print from hundreds of free manufacturers coupons on popular name-brand grocery items.
“Saving at the supermarket has never been easier,” said Sarah Morrissey, founder of CouponsLink.com. “We look forward to expanding our site with even more free grocery coupons and supermarket offers, to hopefully save families money at the checkout stand.”
CouponsLink.com collects and presents free grocery coupons from all major grocery coupon providers such as Coupons.com, Hopster.com, Amazon.com, SmartSource.com, and more, to collectively offer the best free grocery coupons in one single web site. “Our goal is to give users the most grocery coupons available in one place, with supermarket coupons they can quickly and easily print at home for free,” said Morrissey.
According to data from 2011, grocery shoppers who used coupons saved an average of $30-50 dollars a week on groceries, or $1,560-$2,600/year. In 2012, 79.8% of consumers regularly shopped with coupons, resulting in 2.9 billion coupons being redeemed, or a total savings to consumers of $800 million dollars. With food prices rising at a rate higher than household incomes, online printable grocery coupons are a viable option for families that want to save money, but do not have the time to search through newspapers and mailers for coupons. Sites like CouponsLink.com offer a convenient way to quickly browse available grocery coupons, and print them at home. These printable coupons have bar codes for quick scanning at the checkout aisle to make redemption even easier.
Over the past several months, CouponsLink.com has updated both their web site design and coupon offers to make printing grocery coupons as easy as possible for home users. Morrissey states, “Extreme couponing may not be ideal for some, but a considerable amount of money can be saved by everyone from printing grocery coupons at home. Whether someone is looking for free Walmart coupons, free Target coupons, or just name-brand grocery coupons to use at their local supermarket, CouponsLink.com has them all in one convenient place.”
CouponsLink.com (http://www.couponslink.com)s an online web site specializing in free printable grocery coupons for home users. Headquartered in Oakland, California, CouponsLink.com saves families money on their grocery bill by offering hundreds of free grocery coupons users can print at home and redeem at the local supermarket. For more information, please visit www.CouponsLink.com.
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'Your papers, please' must never be heard in America
Independent voices from the TWT Communities
Singer Dionne Warwick claims in a recent bankruptcy filing that she owes nearly $10 million in back taxes and her monthly expenses exceed $20,000.
Abound Solar, propped up by tens of millions of dollars in federal loans that remain unpaid, acknowledged defects in the solar panels it was selling before the Colorado company went bankrupt, according to a customer.
The prospect of Massachusetts-based high-tech battery-maker A123 Systems landing in the hands of a Chinese competitor has angered some lawmakers, but a group of highly paid lawyers — including a former Senate staffer who earned more than $1,000 per-hour — kept the sale from falling apart amid mounting criticism on Capitol Hill.
Lobbyists are swarming on both sides of the pending sale of a U.S. battery-maker backed by more than $100 million in federal grants that soon could be in the hands of a Chinese competitor.
An independent trustee must be appointed to oversee the bankruptcy of a Massachusetts pharmacy linked to a meningitis outbreak because of the firm's "gross mismanagement," among other reasons, a Justice Department official argued Tuesday.
Creditors of a bankrupt U.S. battery maker that went broke after winning a multimillion-dollar federal grant want permission to hire a lobbying firm to keep the proposed sale of the company to a Chinese competitor on track.
A pharmacy connected to a deadly nationwide meningitis outbreak filed for bankruptcy protection on Friday and said it was seeking to set up a fund to pay victims.
Hasbro says it soon will reveal a gender-neutral Easy-Bake Oven after meeting with a New Jersey girl who started a campaign calling on the toymaker to create one that appeals to all children.
An American company that lost out in its bid for the assets of a failed, federally backed battery maker is appealing a judge's decision last week selling the company to a Chinese competitor.
A judge approved a deal Tuesday for a Chinese company to buy the assets of a bankrupt U.S. battery maker that won a quarter-billion-dollar grant from the federal government just three years ago.