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International Paper to acquire packaging producer Envases Grau in Spain
5 January 2019
International Paper is in the process of taking over Envases Grau in Spain, a company with four packaging plants and capacities of around 15,000 tpy.
International Paper continues to grow on the Spanish market. The company, which is currently in talks to take over a plant in Spain from the Rossmann Group, announced at the end of 2018 that it would acquire the Spanish packaging manufacturer Envases Grau. The transaciton value was not disclosed.
Envases Grau is a family-run manufacturer of corrugated board and wooden packaging, especially for fruit and vegetables. The company operates four sites, one each in Tavernes de Valldigna near Valencia and Fraga in Catalonia and two in the province of Huelva not far from Seville. The second plant in Huelva was opened about a year ago. According to International Paper, Envases Grau has a capacity of 15,000 tpy of corrugated board and wooden packaging and employs 70 people.
With the acquisition, International Paper is pursuing its strategy of investing in the corrugated packaging business in the EMEA region. The company is currently in the process of acquiring another packaging plant - the Kadem plant near Barcelona - from the Rossmann Group. Strictly speaking, the transaction is an exchange of assets, with International Paper ceding in return its Creil mill in France to Rossmann. The Kadem plant produces corrugated board packaging with an annual capacity of 100 million m².
International Paper currently operates a total of seven packaging plants in Spain. Since the summer of last year, the company has also been producing corrugated case material in Spain at the former newsprint mill in Madrid.


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Soneri Bank Limited (SNBL) has signed an agreement with internationally renowned company M/s S&P Global Market Intelligence (formerly IHS Markit) for implementation of IHS Trade Product Solution for ‘Price Verification of Commodities’ and ‘Identification of Dual Usage of Goods’. The signing ceremony was held on 20-April-2022 at SNBL Head Office, Karachi.
SNBL President & CEO Muhtashim Ahmad Ashai shook hands with Khalid Hussain CEO of M/s Khalid Associates Global (local representative of IHS Markit, Singapore) to mark the occasion. The Bank’s other Senior Management present at the occasion were Deputy CEO Amin A. Feerasta, Chief Compliance Officer Tariq Yar Khan, Head of Operations Ali Hasan Shah, Chief Information Officer Muhammad Salman Ali, Chief Anti Money Laundering Officer – Muhammad Aman Yaqoob, Head Centralized Trade Operations Syed Zia Habib and Unit Head Trade Based
Money Laundering Muhammad Adeel Ahmed Jafri.
Speaking at the occasion, President & CEO Muhtashim Ahmad Ashai and Deputy CEO –Amin A. Feerasta showed great satisfaction over this partnership and the benefit it brought to the Bank in effectively mitigating the risk of Trade Based Money Laundering, Terrorist and Proliferation Financing and complying with the Regulatory requirements set forth by State Bank of Pakistan.
Khalid Hussain CEO of Khalid Associates Global and Local representative of S&P Global thanked the Bank’s Management for taking this initiative and setting a market trend by being one of the Lead Banks in Pakistan to acquire the Compliance Solution of ‘Price related Due Diligence’ and ‘Identification of Dual Use of Goods’.
He also briefed about the background of IHS Markit, Singapore, its recent merger with the largest market intelligence company – M/s S&P Global.
He also mentioned that the implementation of this technology-based solution will bring more effectiveness
in Trade monitoring processes of SNBL and will
further augment the Bank’s business and growth in Trade Business.

domain: news


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AOC is no idiot. First of all she doesn’t have the brains for it. Amazon has announced that they have rented 35,000 square feet of office space in Manhattan and will hire 1,500 employees. That’s a far cry from the 25,000 jobs they were originally create in New York City.
AOC claims it is a victory because the city and state will not have to give Amazon tax breaks amounting to billions. But, what she doesn’t say is those tax breaks would be to help cover the cost of building a huge complex and giving the breaks for other taxes.
However, it would have cost the city and state not even a thin dime because it was allowing them to avoid taxes for a few years. But that tax revenue doesn’t exist because they didn’t build the campus they originally planned.
Imagine the income tax revenue for 25,000 employees making an average of $150,000 a year. That’s 3.750 billion a year that the state and city cannot collect taxes on every year. We’re talking somewhere in the neighborhood of 225 million dollars a year. That does not include the ancillary financial gain for hotels, taxis, office supply companies and other benefits gained from the move.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) claimed victory after Amazon announced its intention to lease office space in Manhattan, news which followed the lawmaker’s efforts to prevent the company from putting its second headquarters in New York City, which would have created 25,000 jobs.
Ocasio-Cortez celebrated the reports indicating that Amazon agreed to lease a 335,000-square-foot office space in Manhattan opening in 2021, which will bring an estimated 1,500 jobs to the area.
The news follows Amazon’s decision to back out of a deal to move its HQ2 project to Long Island City, which “could have created between 25,000 and 40,000 jobs with an average salary of $150,000,” as Breitbart News reported. Ocasio-Cortez opposed the idea due to the agreement’s “tax breaks and financial incentives” and celebrated Amazon’s decision to ditch the plan as a victory over “corporate greed.”
“Won’t you look at that: Amazon is coming to NYC anyway – *without* requiring the public to finance shady deals, helipad handouts for Jeff Bezos, & corporate giveaways,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted following Friday’s announcement.
“Maybe the Trump admin should focus more on cutting public assistance to billionaires instead of poor families,” she added.
Another day, another viral misleading tweet from AOC. Amazon is leasing office space in Manhattan for 1,500 employees, which is 6% of the 25,000 jobs its HQ2 in Queens (her district) was supposed to add. https://t.co/aQM6Uv77Qx
— Peter J. Hasson (@peterjhasson) December 6, 2019
The Amazon HQ deal you destroyed in Queens would’ve employed 25,000+ people. The new space will employ 1,500. 25,000+ good jobs and increased economic activity at a growing headquarters is far > than 1,500 jobs at a non-HQ. You have an embarrassing lack of business knowledge.
— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) December 7, 2019
It’s incredible how dumb your followers are and how they’re praising you for this.
Amazon was initially offering 25,000 jobs in YOUR DISTRICT to now only offering 1,500 jobs OUTSIDE your district.
Meaning you caused 94% job loss in NYC.
— Caleb Hull 🎅🏻🎁 (@CalebJHull) December 7, 2019


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Eelco is the Country Head of the Netherlands at Raisin, the pan-European marketplace for financial products. Eelco launched the Dutch Raisin platform in the summer of 2018 and is responsible for Raisin’s activities in the Netherlands. Before he joined Raisin, he built and scaled the Dutch market presence for Savedo/Deposit Solutions and worked at Credit Suisse and Deloitte. Eelco holds an MScBA degree (cum laude) from the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, and a BSc degree from the Maastricht University School of Business & Economics.
Flanker brands are a side business, run by a bigger companies, often banks. Olivier said ING's flanker company Yolt has gained 500,000 users in a year.
The purpose of flanker brands is not to encourage cross-selling but to learn and access more data to continue growing.
Francesco said there is an opportunity for TrueLayer to expand abroad but he is focusing on "riding the Open Banking wave" for now.


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WAUSAU – Wausau East High School will host its annual Cultural Arts Festival, or CAFE, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. May 11, to showcase students’ visual and performing artworks.
There will be art displays, musical performances by the band,
choir and orchestra, a fashion show, authentic Hmong dances and culinary delights created by students.
Additionally, Wausau East’s greenhouse crew will host a plant sale and
Technology Education hosts an open house with an auto show, live demonstrations and Lumberjack merchandise for sale.


text: The news has just broken that the Swatch Group has agreed to buy the watch and jewellery operations of Harry Winston for US$750 million, and will assume up to US$250 million of debt. This only covers the watch and jewellery retail business, which includes 535 employees worldwide and the Harry Winston manufacturing facility in Geneva. The sale does not include the mining division of the Toronto-based Harry Winston Diamond Corp, which will be renamed Dominion Diamond Corp after the sale. Dominion will then become a pure play mining concern and should eliminate some of the conglomerate discount on its shares. This is the first purchase by the Swatch Group in nearly 10 years and Harry Winston fills a hole in the Swatch Group’s portofolio. Now Swatch has a storied, high-end jewellery brand; Richemont has Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels while LVMH has Bulgari. Swatch has more experience running a luxury retailer than its former parent, which should help unlock some of the jeweller’s potential. But importantly, how the Swatch Group will continue or maintain Harry Winston’s Opus series and cooperation with independent watchmakers will be interesting. – SJXBack to top.


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At the ripe old age of 20, Google is synonymous with internet search. The famous Silicon Valley brand long ago became a verb.
Google Chrome remains the most popular web browser, leading on most mobile and desktop devices with more than 60 percent share across both platforms. It’s four times more popular than rival browsers.
In the U.S. alone, Google raked in about $34 billion in ad dollars tied to its dominant internet search business, per eMarketer.
With all its success and R&D spent to improve its search capabilities, it is surprising what a poor job Google and its core video offering, YouTube, do in two key areas of top importance to advertisers around the globe: search personalization and brand safety.
Just this week, YouTube once again became a shining example of what advertisers are desperately trying to fix: avoiding ad placements next to brand-inappropriate or dangerous content.
Google’s brand safety assurance is not fully baked yet
YouTube’s latest brand-safety debacle was sparked by a 20-minute video that has been viewed nearly 2.5 million times since Sunday.
Blogger Matt Watson said the comments sections on some YouTube posts that featured videos of girls performing things like gymnastics and yoga were being exploited by a “soft-core pedophilia ring.”
The videos were being time-stamped with minors in compromising positions and ads from companies like Disney and Nestle were being served up next to them. Unfortunately, YouTube’s recommendation engine was collecting and serving up more similar videos with associated ads being viewed and interacted with by pedophiles.
The outrage and furor over Watson’s discovery has caused major advertisers like AT&T, Disney, Epic Games and Nestle to pull advertising from YouTube as a result.
In response, earlier this week, YouTube has removed more than 400 channels amidst its latest child exploitation crisis.
However, significant brand damage and revenue loss for YouTube has been inflicted. A lack of faith in Google’s search algorithms and its brand-safety assurance is in the spotlight again following similar incidents that have occurred since 2017.
Brand safety concerns on YouTube
Following these well-publicized crises like YouTube’s most recent one, advertisers have grown increasingly concerned about ads appearing in brand-safe environments, especially on social-media platforms such as Google’s YouTube and Facebook.
A survey of more than 300 advertising decision-makers conducted by Oath, a Verizon company, last spring found that 99 percent of advertisers are concerned with their ads appearing in brand-safe environments. And 58 percent of them were more concerned than previous year.
A more recent study conducted by Teads found that “brand safety is keeping CMOs up at night.” Eight in 10 said that they’re more concerned with avoiding placement of ads next to brand-inappropriate content than ever before. It’s an issue that’s weighing heavily on the global digital ad industry that is now valued at more than $628 billion.
Ad platforms’ responses to protect brands
In response to advertisers’ concerns, major ad platforms have been adding more safeguards to avoid embarrassing and ineffective ad placements next to inappropriate content.
For example, Facebook rolled out new capabilities to exclude advertisements from predetermined categories such as conflict, gambling, guns, immigration, religion and tragedy. Google Ads offers some limiting functionality, but it is not as granular as what Facebook offers advertisers today.
Last month, new third-party software solutions from Integral Ad Science (IAS) and DoubleVerify were released to give YouTube advertisers more assurance that their video ads will appear next to brand-suitable content. This type of software is designed to reduce incidents of ads from tech giants, retailers, government agencies and media companies running alongside YouTube channels promoting controversial topics such as conspiracy theories, Nazis, North Korean propaganda and white nationalists, a trend reported on by CNN last April.
Tech giants like Google turn to artificial intelligence to improve ad effectiveness
The new software from IAS and DoubleVerify to improve brand-safety assurance on YouTube incorporates machine learning to create models for determining ad appropriateness.
Similarly, last year, Google launched new features with machine-learning technology – including a new service called AdSense auto ads that helps publishers improve monetization and ad placement. Google claims the relatively new feature ensures that ads will be displayed when they’re likely to perform and provide a good user experience.
Publishers who participated in the beta saw and average lift of 10 percent with revenue increasing ranging between five to 15 percent.
However, the personalization capabilities from Google to improve ad efficiency are not as good as they should be for publishers or advertisers.
How does current Google Ads personalization stack up?
As an example for the latter, I’ll cite a story about a good friend’s recent experience with Google Ads. A small business owner, he runs a local plumbing business in Milwaukee. He spent hundreds of dollars on an ad campaign a few months back to increase incoming business leads using Google Ads.
Google’s auto-generated keywords for the campaign it scraped from his landing page were not relevant, especially in terms of geo-targeting for a local plumbing business. His website traffic went way up, but he did not gain one qualified sales lead as a result of the campaign. It was a dismal failure for him.
How much will deep learning improve it?
Many industry experts view deep learning as the Holy Grail for “changing the game for both advertisers and consumers.” According to a ClickZ story by Daniel Surmacz: “Deep learning is changing the way we think about effectiveness. It’s the most promising field of AI-based research found in Google Translate and Tesla self-driving cars.”
Without an ability for machine learning AI-powered platforms to “think on their feet” like human neural networks, many don’t have the same speed and efficiency-drivers that deep learning provides. It’s simply not possible for machine-learning AI engines to act like personal shoppers and cross-sell relevant items to consumers without deep learning’s more highly advanced algorithms.
Unless Google improves its personalization and brand-safety capabilities, it stands to lose more market share to others, most notably Amazon.
The share of new ad dollars has been on the decline for the longtime duopoly of Google and Facebook compared to two years ago. Amazon, a master of personalization and controller of its own walled garden, has emerged as a search advertising powerhouse and it’s on track to generate more than $10 billion in ad revenues over the next year.
Gary Burtka is vice president of US operations at RTB House, a global company that provides retargeting technology for global brands worldwide. Its North American headquarters are based in New York City.
Over 600 million users visit FB business pages every day. 52% of consumers have discovered a brand there. Why and how to optimize for Facebook local search.
(According to experienced SEOs.) We asked SEO experts which plugins and extensions they use for easier, more productive work. Here are their top 17 answers.
Gillette’s “The Best a Man Can Be” ad sparked lots of coverage. The real question is, “What impact did that video have on search traffic?” The trends since.
Four predictions on the SERP of tomorrow from the VP of Industry Insights at Yext. What we can expect, and what to do today to prepare.


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Consignment shop offers high end fashion at affordable prices
Consignment shop in Mesilla offers high end fashion at affordable prices
LAS CRUCES - From designer purses to vintage gowns and a new boutique line, My Rich Sister’s Closet & Boutique, 2226B Calle de Guadalupe in Mesilla, has something for women of all fashion tastes and styles.
The shop, which offers high quality fashions through resale at affordable prices, recently expanded to include a separate area for the store's new boutique line, as well as a Vintage Vibe section and bridal suite. In celebration of this expansion, a fourth anniversary party and re-grand opening, featuring live music, a fashion show, food and wine, will take place from 5 to 8 p.m. Thursday.
“We look for that unique, one of a kind thing,” shop owner Donna Rosati said. “We like the higher end and the better quality clothes, not the yard sale kind of stuff or thrift store — we’re a little above the thrift store.”
Rosati, 61, a former teacher at Mayfield High School, said she opened My Rich Sister’s Closet with her sister Lisa Bryant in 2012. Rosati was looking for a business to run after she retired and her sister was looking for employment. The two researched business opportunities online and eventually decided to open a consignment shop.
They came up with the name My Rich Sister’s Closet after deciding to focus on high-end fashions, Rosati said.
“Everybody has that sister whose got money that has nice things and you just want to go shopping in her closet,” she said.
Rosati, who began running the shop on her own after her sister moved to Tennessee to be closer to family two years ago, said people from Las Cruces, Silver City, Alamogordo, Deming, Truth or Consequences and El Paso bring in a wide range of designer purses, clothing, shoes, jewelry and accessories to sell at the store. Consignees receive 40 percent of the selling price, according to the shop's website.
Rosati said purses are the best sellers at the shop and that they frequently carry a wide range of popular high-end brands such as Michael Kors, Dooney & Bourke, Kate Spade, Gucci and Coach.
Prices for secondhand items are usually sold at about 50 to 70 percent off the retail price, depending on model and style, Rosati said.
“We had a Gucci bag and that sold for $400,” she said. A brand new Gucci bag can be priced at more than $1,000.
Those who love vintage, can also search the many items available in the store’s new Vintage Vibe section, including party dresses from the mid 50s and early 60s. The new bridal suite offers a selection of secondhand and sample wedding dresses, along with a quinceañera dress.
My Rich Sister’s Closet also offers a selection of brand new boutique fashions, including dresses, tops, skirts and other clothing items and accessories from places such as Australia and Mexico, Rosati said.
“We started carrying boutique-type clothes about a year ago and it just took off,” she said.
Certain items at the store can always be found on sale, ranging from 25 to 50 percent off. During the re-grand opening, all items at the store will be 15 percent off, Rosati said.
Rosati said she enjoys running the consignment store because of all the people she gets to meet.
“The people are so much fun,” she said. “Just the clients that bring their stuff to us and then the ladies who shop here.”
The fashions are also, of course, another perk.
“In the four years that I’ve been here, I think I’ve recycled my closet about five times,” she said.
Outside of the office
Outside of running My Rich Sister’s Closet, Rosati said she enjoys going to the gym and spending time with her family.
“We love to travel in the motor home, have fun,” she said.
Rosati said she also volunteers with the Las Cruces Gospel Rescue Mission and hosts a fundraiser called the Little Black Dress Swap in November each year at My Rich Sister’s Closet to benefit certain charities, such as the Gospel Rescue Mission and CARE (Cancer Aid Resources and Education, Inc.).
“This year, we’re looking for a different charity to raise money for,” she said.
For information about My Rich Sister’s Closet, upcoming events at the store or to learn more about bringing in fashion items for resale, call 575-639-4642 or visit myrichsisterscloset.com. Items the store is looking for are listed on the shop's website.
If you go
What: My Rich Sister’s Closet & Boutique
Where: 2226B Calle de Guadalupe in Mesilla
Hours: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday; closed Monday and Tuesday
Anniversary and re-grand opening: 5 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 18
Info: 575-639-4642 or visit myrichsisterscloset.com
Social media: facebook.com/MyRichSistersCloset


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A recent report on security threats per industry revealed that the retail industry is the top target for SQL attacks. In fact, the Imperva Web Application Attack Report (WAAR) also noted that the retail industry tends to suffer twice the amount of SQL injection attacks compared to the other industries.
The Imperva report released last month covered 70 web application across industries and geographies. The report is part of Imperva’s ongoing Hacker Intelligence Initiative, which covered a six-month period. Imperva offers business security solutions for critical applications and high-value data in the data centre.
The report said retailers suffered not only the most number of attacks, but also the most in terms of duration on the attack – averaging 26 times per minute. The report explained that frequency and duration of attacks depend on the size and design of the web application. In the case of retailers, one possible explanation is that they’re getting HTTP requests frequently because of their online catalogues.
“It is plausible to assume that retail applications contain a relatively large number of pages in the form of online catalogs, and that this factor may have contributed to the length and the intensity of SQL injection attacks,” the Imperva report stated.
Most web applications receive four or more web attacks per month, though some websites are also “constantly under attack.” The report cited one website which was attacked 98 percent of the time during the period in review. Imperva also noted that a single website received as much as 94,000 SQL injection attacks in a day or an average of 26 attack requests per minute, on average.
A “typical attack incident” usually lasts around five minutes. But the report noted that a worst case attack could last about 100 times longer, or approximately more than 15 hours.
“While most of the 70 web applications monitored were attacked a significant amount, some received an astounding number of attacks – with one application receiving up to an average of 26 per minute,” said Stree Naidu, vice president, Imperva, Asia Pacific and Japan. “While these findings undeniably demonstrate that web application attacks are far from consistently distributed, the takeaway is that organisations should base security measures on the worst case scenario, not on the average case.”
The study identified US as the top source of attacks, but other top sources of attacks included Western European countries, China and Brazil.
“We believe that, with the current threat landscape, organisations can no longer afford to take an every-man-for-himself approach to security,” said Naidu. “This report demonstrates that the automation and scale of attacks leave a large footprint that can be better addressed by looking at data gathered from a large set of potential victims. Thus it is important to rely on one’s peers to acquire intelligence on malicious sources and apply this intelligence in real time.”
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Sorry for the long time between blog posts, but we are back with a new post on Princess Iman’s recent outfit at her younger sister, Princess Salma’s Sandhurst graduation!
For the event in late November 2018, Princess Salma dressed in a light blue Miu Miu coat with a mink collar. She also carried a Saint Laurent leather bag in gray and wore a pair of burgundy Jennifer Chamandi leather pumps. Sadly, the other pieces of her outfit have not been ID’d.
Queen Rania’s outfit has more pieces discovered, as her Press Office released a statement on the Jordanian and Arab designers she’d worn over the past several weeks. The Queen makes it a point to highlight Arab and Jordanian designers.
Her office explained, “wore a coat by Saudi Arabian designer Abadia. The white coat featured a modern red and black collar design, adding a Jordanian spin to the outfit. The Queen completed the look with a handbag by Egyptian label Okhtein, designed by sister duo Aya and Mounaz Abdelraouf.”
Fashion finders also saw that she wore a white pair of Jimmy Choo pumps, black Burberry gloves, an Anita Ko 18-karat white gold diamond earring, and a pair of Maria Tash diamond stud earrings.
Salma, 18, just recently graduated from the International Academy Amman in May. Her time at Sandhurst was shorter than that of her brother, Crown Prince Hussein. Salma’s training was part of a Short Commissioning Course.
In attendance was her proud family (minus little brother Prince Hashem): King Abdullah, Queen Rania, Crown Prince Hussein, and Princess Iman.
Both Rania and Hussein posted on their Instagrams that day to praise Salma.
Royal Central did an entire post on the graduation, which you can read here.


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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – There are plenty of options to tempt the taste buds of fans at The Players who need to fill a hole in their bellies.
Each year, Taco Lu always pleases the crowds with its food stand Tacos on 12. There, it's serving up some of its best dishes, including the Bangin Shrimp Taco -- Taco Lu's best seller.
Another option that also sits behind the 11th and 12th greens is the Taste of Jax, where fans will find all sorts of local flavors including barbecue, pasta and pizza.
It was Richard Singleton's first time going to The Players and his taste buds took him far east.
"My first stop was the Thai for the curry chicken and rice -- it's awesome. And then the thai iced tea with whipped cream. I have never had that touch," Singleton said.
Heading on to the 10th hole, fans will find Trucks on 10, which is full of local food trucks serving barbecue, seafood, kabobs and burgers.


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WA boom brings in $120m a day
Almost $120 million a day is invested in WA as companies race to profit in a mining boom that experts are starting to believe could accelerate.
As fresh figures show a lift in retail sales is needed, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported companies splurging on buildings, machinery and engineering equipment.
The figures suggest the economy grew in the June quarter, ensuring the nation avoids two quarters of negative growth.
Private expenditure grew 4.9 per cent in the June quarter to a record of $33.9 billion.
Mining firms spent 14.4 per cent more in the quarter, led by a 22 per cent jump in plant and machinery purchases. WA investment reached $10.2 billion or $113 million daily.
However, miners plan to spend even more. Capital spending in the sector is estimated at $82 billion out of $149 billion across the economy.
It is now almost 50 per cent higher than a year ago.
Outside mining, there are signs of other businesses, particularly manufacturers, paring back investment plans because of the soft global and local outlook.
However, there were finally positives for retailers with sales up 0.5 per cent in July.
WA retail sales lifted 0.7 per cent, 7.8 per cent higher for the year. West Australians spent more on alcohol, electrical goods, hardware, clothing and in cafes, where sales rose 5.5 per cent.
Capital spending is an important contributor to the gross domestic product result out next week.
Economists estimate the economy grew at least 0.6 per cent in the June quarter, erasing some of the 1.2 per cent contraction in the March quarter after a summer of natural disasters.
UBS senior economist Scott Haslem said the retail figures suggested life in the sector.
"We continue to see the RBA as on hold until the second half of 2012, though the recent run of mixed data is building a case for it to modestly trim rates this year, if the September quarter CPI shows some moderation and unemployment rises," he said.
The figures on capital spending come after comments this week by iron ore miner London Mining that it expects prices to remain above $US150 a tonne for the next four years. Spot prices this week were about $US182 a tonne, including cost and freight.
There are also signs that iron ore supply will remain tight, with India saying yesterday it expects exports to fall 28 per cent because local mines had closed.
The Reserve Bank's measure of commodity prices lifted again yesterday, up 0.4 per cent in July, to an all-time high.
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According to a trademark filing spotted earlier this year, Samsung is working on several new handsets, one of which is alleged the Samsung Galaxy A9. Given that we have seen Samsung launch several A-series handsets in the past, we suppose it doesn’t really come as a surprise to learn that a Galaxy A9 could also be in the works.
If you’re curious as to what kind of hardware the Galaxy A9 could be packing under the hood, you might be interested to learn that the specs of the handset might have potentially been leaked thanks to an AnTuTu benchmark. According to the benchmarks, the Galaxy A9 is said to feature a 5.5-inch display with a Full HD resolution.
That’s pretty standard as far as display resolutions are concerned, although with QHD gaining more traction, this could signify that the Galaxy A9 might be a mid-range handset. The benchmarks also reveal a Qualcomm Snapdragon 620 chipset with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of onboard storage.
The phone also appears to be running on Android 5.1.1 Lollipop, but perhaps we might see it upgraded to Android 6.0 Marshmallow upon its release, which right now is anyone’s guess. Camera configuration and battery size remain a mystery for now as well, but hopefully we will have the official details soon.


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By Jenn Jacques
In March 2016, we reported on the story of Min Kim, the Spanaway, Washington convenience store owner who was arrested after he shot and killed a suspected robber just weeks after his wife had been shot in the stomach during an attempted armed robbery in their family-owned store.
“I am scared. I’m scared of everybody who is walking actually right now. Whoever just walks by I am frightened,” Min Kim said at the time.
Min was working at Kim’s Pacific Quick Shop as his wife recovered from the gunshot wound when 21-year-old Jakeel Mason entered the store and allegedly took pepperoni and cigarettes.
“As soon as I see him I pulled out my gun out and he stopped everything and he raised both hands,” said Min Kim. “As soon as I see he is no threat I put my pistol back.”
Surveillance video from the store did confirm that after he put the gun away, a brief scuffle occurred between the two men.
“I was down and he was on top of me and he was trying to reach my gun,” Min Kim said.
But the video also confirmed Mason was leaving the store when Kim shot him twice in the back with …Read the Rest
Source:: Bearing Arms


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Move over Buc'ees
New mega-convenience store parks in San Antonio with first location
If QuikTrip has any say in it, 7-Eleven may have to take a big gulp and Buc-ee’s may soon be roadkill. The convenience store giant is making a big splash in South Texas with a planned 22 San Antonio stores.
According to a release, the first is set to open on 7500 block of N. Loop 1604 E. on October 4 in Live Oak. Locations in Leon Valley and Kirby are expected to follow by the end of the year.
The Tulsa-based company is known for friendly customer service, clean shops, and QT Kitchens — a restaurant within the market that serves a variety of made-to-order foods like breakfast bowls, pizza, and croissant sandwiches along with custom coffee drinks and milkshakes.
For the San Antonio market, the company will also bring a little local flavor with exclusive menu items like tacos, barbecue sandwiches, and kolaches that reflect the spirt of the city.
The new location, like all QuikTrip stores, will also be a Safe Place, a designated location where runaways and at-risk youth can receive food and drink and be connected to crisis professionals. The convenience store also partners with United Way and military nonprofit Folds of Honor.
“We look forward to serving our new customers in San Antonio and showing them what our company and culture are all about: quality food, fuel, and convenience,” said San Antonio and Austin division manager Dan Balenti in a statement. “San Antonio is a vibrant and growing city and we are excited to integrate into the community bringing our extraordinary service with a smile.”
Locals can see for themselves during the grand opening celebration on October 6. The day of fun includes an inflatable slide, face painting, a balloon artist, free food samples, giveaways, a DJ, and a photo op with the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile.


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This might be the best news you read all day (and it will make you wish you could rewind and redo your breakfast). According to a recent study highlighted in Body+Soul, eating ice cream for breakfast can actually make you smarter.
That's right—consuming your favorite dessert first thing in the morning is showing some surprising (and promising) results. Professor Yoshihiko Koga from Kyorin University in Tokyo had half the study's subjects eat three spoonfuls of ice cream immediately after waking up. The less lucky half did not. After breakfast, participants completed mental exercises on a computer while researchers monitored their results. It turns out, those who ate the ice cream for breakfast were more relaxed, better at concentrating, and had superior mental processing. While there could be a number of outlying factors influencing the result, we're rooting for the ice cream.
Head to the comments to share your thoughts on the study.


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"With the release last week of the feature list for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, the security world is buzzing about some extremely important updates that should, if they work as expected, significantly improve Mac security and will make me less nervous about connecting to wireless networks in Internet cafes."The big ticket security features mentioned in the article are:
- Address Space Layout Randomization
- Time Machine a la Backup and Restore
- Application Sandboxing
- Firewall Improvements
- Application Signing
- Guest Account that purges itself
Turns out that most all these features already exist in Vista, and though people on the web can claim that the Windows implementation isn't perfect, thanks to the SDL and the Windows Security Team, Windows is the pioneer when it comes to security technologies available in Consumer Operating Systems. The fact that there is no mention of the existence of all these features in Vista points to a double standard in the Technology Press. No one is calling out the fact that Apple has copied Microsoft, which is just egregious.
This round definitely goes to Vista.


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Alfalfa industry experts say demand for Monsanto’s Genuity Roundup Ready alfalfa seed has been strong this year as growers welcome back a technology that had been off the market for nearly four years. Following a round of court battles and the conclusion of an environmental impact statement, Monsanto reintroduced Genuity Roundup Ready alfalfa to the market in 2011.
The first Roundup Ready alfalfa varieties received USDA approval and were introduced to U.S. alfalfa growers in 2005. In early 2006, the Center for Food Safety filed a federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California claiming that the USDA had not completed an Environmental Impact Statement for Roundup Ready alfalfa.
The district court subsequently ruled that the sale and planting of Roundup Ready alfalfa seed needed to be stopped until the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services (APHIS) could complete the Environmental Impact Statement to determine if the new technology posed a threat to the environment.
Where was it in the meantime?
Farmers who had already planted Roundup Ready alfalfa prior to the 2007 injunction were allowed to continue to grow and harvest their existing stands as long as they followed strict guidelines. The Roundup Ready hay had to be clearly labeled as such before it could be moved or sold by commercial hay producers.
Seed companies placed unplanted Roundup Ready alfalfa seed into secure storage while the product was off the market. New seed that was produced also went into storage. APHIS completed the Environmental Impact Statement in December 2010, and Roundup Ready alfalfa was deregulated without conditions in January 2011. The USDA then allowed sales and planting of Roundup Ready alfalfa to resume as of February 2011.
Plenty of seed available
Now that Roundup Ready alfalfa has been deregulated without conditions, Monsanto expects to have enough seed to meet the growing demand, according to Steve Welker, product manager for Genuity Roundup Ready alfalfa. He says that even though U.S. alfalfa acres are somewhat reduced because of the wet spring weather and acres being devoted to corn and other crops this year, demand for Roundup Ready alfalfa has been strong.
“There is plenty of product available in all dormancy ratings throughout the country,” Welker says. Roundup Ready technology is available in a range of dormancies.
East of the Rocky Mountains, producers will pay a one-time technology fee of $125/50-lb. bag when they purchase Roundup Ready alfalfa seed. The technology fee is $150/bag west of the Rocky Mountains. The technology fee is assessed in addition to the cost of the seed. It is paid at the time of planting and covers the acres seeded for the life of the stand. A 50-lb. bag of seed typically covers approximately three acres. Average stand life is expected to be four to five years, according to Welker.
Monsanto and Forage Genetics International developed Roundup Ready alfalfa; Monsanto in turn licenses the technology to other seed companies. Each company has worked to develop alfalfa varieties containing the Roundup Ready trait. Matt Fanta, vice president of sales and marketing for Forage Genetics International, says he has been getting a lot of questions about Roundup Ready alfalfa from growers who are considering applying the technology on their farms.
“Every grower looks at their operation differently,” Fanta explains. “The people who may be most likely to benefit from Roundup Ready alfalfa are those who are looking for better weed control and a purer stand of alfalfa.” Hay producers who sell to a market that prioritizes weed-free hay may find the product particularly beneficial. Roundup Ready alfalfa also can be a good choice for fields where alfalfa stand establishment can be difficult due to heavy weed pressure.
“People who planted Roundup Ready alfalfa when it was introduced in 2005 report seeing an increased yield of about 1 ton/acre, which means more than a $110/acre advantage in the Roundup Ready stands compared to conventional alfalfa stands,” Fanta says.
According to Monsanto, prior to the 2007 planting injunction, approximately 5,485 growers in 48 states planted more than 263,000 acres of Roundup Ready alfalfa.
Fanta says there is strong demand for seed for next year. Roundup Ready alfalfa seed is only legally available from authorized seed companies for use in the U.S.
When growers purchase Roundup Ready seed, they need to agree to read and follow a Technology Use Guide, which outlines the requirements for using the seed. Seed suppliers are required by the USDA to identify and list all Roundup Ready alfalfa field locations, which means all growers must provide their seed supplier with the GPS coordinates of all of their Roundup Ready alfalfa fields.
Growers must follow USDA guidelines when selling hay and may only export Roundup Ready hay to countries where regulatory approval has been granted.


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Yaar, the Nordic-style quark snack sensation, has been growing at quite a rate. Despite having only launched earlier this year – with the UK based hand-held dairy company securing new retail partnerships with Morrisons and Spinneys in Dubai, as well as releasing two new flavours of their coated quark bars.
Winners of the Best New Brand award at the World Dairy Innovation Awards in the summer, Yaar claims to have created a new sub-category all of its own, opening up the concept of dairy-on-the-go to the UK consumer.
Their entrepreneurial founder and CEO, Andrei Garbuz, created Yaar bars after spotting a gap in the market for a new snack concept. He says the dairy industry needs a revamp in the face of the plant-based movement and insists that continued innovation will see off competition from vegan and flexitarian trends, with what a consumer wants and what a consumer will pay for two very different things.
Here, Garbuz discusses the various trends in snacking and on-the-go, as well as sharing his views on the dairy and vegan industries.
How has consumer behaviour affected the dairy industry?
There’s been an evident decline in general sales of dairy categories, especially yogurts. But while this can partly be attributed to the rise of vegan and flexi diets, I feel that the biggest contribution to that drop is a lack of innovation in dairy.
Consumer behaviour is cyclical. Consumers have fallen out of love with things like Muller Corner for an in-between the meal snack. This has coincided with a huge rise generally in snacking as a category in the UK.
Stats show that the UK is one of the biggest snacking nations in the world. There are so many products in ambient, chilled, frozen – anyone can pop out for a coffee or a tea and get an ambient snack bar, olives or a healthy dessert for in-between meals.
The yoghurt industry has traditionally been a large contributor for UK healthy snack options, but a lack of innovation has seen a decrease in total sales of yoghurts.
We have seen Greek yoghurts come in to revive the category, but we are now looking to go beyond the Greek yoghurt sub-category. That’s where we’ve seen success for kefir and quark. British consumers have been learning about quark and I saw that there was a gap in the market for a hand-held, fresh dairy snack – to take back market share from biscuits, ambient snacks, olives and light desserts.
British consumers are ready for innovation in on-the-go and snacking, for sure. Now, whether its quark or kefir or yoghurt – it’s all about product quality, positioning and innovation. I don’t think people pick up Yaar just because its quark. Quark becomes almost secondary. It’s about the taste, the format, the accessibility.
At the start, Yaar needed some explanation to convert and educate consumers because it’s a new concept. Importantly, we’re not pushing them towards radical limits. No crazy territories. Hand-held snacking has been around for a long time and there’s no reason not to do it with a chilled product.
How different was Yaar at the start and what changes did you have to make to enter Whole Foods?
Whole Foods have a prohibitive ingredient list. For example, we had to start using a certain type of vanilla flavouring instead of another. But it didn’t seriously affect taste. It helped to be able to say all the ingredients are natural and we had no synthetics. That little pivot repositioned the product to become better and more accessible.
It’s small margins and Whole Foods, especially in the US, are amazing at doing this. They change how people eat and it’s a good testing ground for innovative brands. If you use their platform, you must be high quality. And once it’s there, why would you change it for anyone else as you break into mass national retail?
We have a versatile product with a mainstream identity rather than niche. Age isn’t a factor – I have a two-year-old and he has a Yaar bar in the morning! A 60- to 70-year-old, meanwhile, might have Yaar instead of cheesecake which is just fat and sugar, for example.
What are the benefits in terms of nutrition?
Yaar is reasonably sweet, the sugar content is the same is two digestive biscuits, but it’s not naughty enough to be a dessert. It’s a healthier indulgent snack. Its consistency and texture are similar to the cheesecake, which is the most popular dessert in this country.
We’ve just launched a double chocolate product which has 130 calories, 10g sugar and 4g protein. That’s compared to the 600 calories and 40g sugar you might find in a slice of mainstream cheesecake!
Anyone who understands the benefits of dairy will know it’s great for things like recovery, the calcium and certain probiotics cultures. Quark is a pure form of casein and anyone into fitness will know that casein is the best form of protein for recovery.
Down the road, once Yaar is established as a mainstream, household brand (at the rate of growth, hopefully in a year or two) – we’ll look at reduced sugar NPD for less indulgence and more functionality. And we’ll think about being appealing to plant-based/vegans so certain households can have it. We might have line extensions into sport nutrition, too, and the sleep-well space. There are loads of opportunities.
What do you make of the vegan movement as a mainstream trend? Is it a serious problem for the dairy industry?
I don’t think veganism is a huge threat to the dairy category as long as people keep innovating. It takes a lot of discipline to keep a proper nutritious vegan diet and I don’t think it’s a mainstream proposition in any way. Frankly speaking, if we have to grow more veg and adapt out agriculture supply chain to meet, say, a 5-10% more demand of the total vegan market, I don’t think it would be healthy to the environment. Think of all the damage that will be done with the re-cropping.
I don’t want to sound like a cynic or a non-believer, but, generally, the way we want to live and our habits are often different. I don’t think the vegan and flexitarian movements are radical enough to take out all the animal-based products. Sure, it’s a strong trend and we should respect it. People are learning about themselves and are deciding not to eat as much dairy. That’s why you have lactose-free versions of things – we have a lactose-free Yaar.
But humans have been eating dairy since the agricultural revolution. That was thousands of years ago. What happened!?
In reality, more people are deciding they shouldn’t be eating as much of dairy, and that’s fine. I don’t want to disrespect vegans. My wife is a flexitarian and she just makes more of a choice with what dairy products she wants to consume.
I don’t believe, 5-10 years down the road that we won’t have fresh dairy.
What are your views on free-from?
With increased tech and innovation, society has a better understanding of who should be gluten-free. Science has proven that there aren’t that many gluten-intolerant people, but there are more people who stick to that label for whatever reason. Whether they say it and whether they stick to it are different propositions.
I attended a lecture recently given by a high-tech entrepreneur and they said: “When your consumer says they want less of this and more of that, they might not vote with their wallets.”
This really struck me. And an example of this (without mentioning any names) is one of the food delivery companies – a company that delivers ingredients to make a meal. Their consumers said they wanted more healthy options, more quinoa vegan salad ingredients and things. So, the company invested heavily, and their sales dropped. They went through a liquidity crisis. And then, when asked consumers again, they said, “Please bring back your meat things, your chicken biriyani and the usual suspects!”
What’s the future for Yaar?
We have four flavours with two to three in NPD that I can’t talk about yet. None too peculiar or radical. The whole concept is still new and exotic, and so we need to take it slow with developing formats. But we do have a few ideas about new formats, shapes and flavours.
More niche markets are there but it is quite crowded. And I think mainstream is a much bigger problem to solve.
The British consumer is educated and picky. To appeal, and be a national household brand, you have to win hearts and the respect of consumers. We have the right recipe and we are in the right time too as consumers want snacking.
Now our lives are busier and more hectic, we don’t always have time to open our Greek-style yoghurt, grab a spoon and peacefully and slowly eat it. Now we want to have it on a train, or while typing an email, or pushing a pram.
I want consumers to say, “Yoghurt is so much better than all this other snacking stuff – I’ll take it in a different format!”
Get inspiration & support for your NPD and menu development. The original version of this article was published on Food Spark, which supports busy food professionals, marketing and insight teams who work in retail, foodservice and manufacturing.
Food Spark will offer immediate access to the emerging trends, ingredients, personalities and headwinds defining the future of food. Explore more content by visiting foodspark.com.


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Xiaomi today launched its Redmi Note 7 and Note 7 Pro smartphones in India, which will be available to buy in about a week’s time. As it has time and again proved, Xiaomi however, is more than just a smartphone maker. To that effect, the company also launched the Mi LED TV 4A Pro, and a pair of Mi Sports Bluetooth Earphones Basic.
With its smartphone business booming, Xiaomi seems to be looking beyond and towards India’s trillion dollar consumer durables space. Having already launched a slew of smart TVs, air purifier and security cameras, the company is now looking at introducing other products in India.
Speaking to the Mint, Xiaomi India Managing Director Manu Kumar Jain said, “This year we will probably enter big categories such as water purifiers, laptops, and washing machines. Additional launches will include two to three small categories as well.”
Xiaomi’s clear intent
On the back of strong smartphone business, Xiaomi is hoping that this new space will boost the overall market share. “We now have nearly 30 percent market share in smartphones, which was till now our fastest-growing business,” Jain said. “However, if we launch categories such as washing machines, fridges, and water purifiers, we can disproportionately grow that and capture a bigger market share.”
Xiaomi already has a vast portfolio of smart home peripherals in China, which include products ranging from smart rice cookers, water purifiers, air conditioners and drones to smart scooters. Many have been hoping for them to come to our country.
About a year back, Xiaomi opened its first Mi Home Experience Store in Chennai to showcase some of its smart ecosystem products. Buyers couldn’t really get their hands on the products, and only register their interest. Based on the interest levels, Xiaomi then decides what products to bring to India. This was the clearest sign yet that the company was quite serious in wanting to bring some of these products to India.
Watch: Xiaomi Redmi Note 6 Pro First Look
A tentative timeline
The report adds that some of these consumer durables could be launched by Xiaomi before December this year. “We are working on each one of them but I do not know which one will be ready first,” Jain was quoted as saying.
As we have seen with its current portfolio, Xiaomi’s upcoming products too will be sold via both online and offline channels. “We may think of importing a small quantity in the beginning and then move to local manufacturing soon. Or we can start local manufacturing from day one,” Jain said.


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A Kmart store manager has filed a discrimination lawsuit after she was terminated for alleged misappropriation of company property.
Sheila A. Clayborne filed suit against Sears Holding Co. doing
business as Kmart on Aug. 4 in federal court in New Orleans.
Clayborne, a 49-year-old black woman, accuses her former employer of racial and gender motivated discharge after losing her position for allegedly discounting a flat screen television by 90 percent and then buying it herself.
She claims she did provide a 90 percent discount to a customer for a damaged flat screen television in November 2009. She states store managers and assistant store managers are allowed to sell damaged merchandise at various discounts.
In January, Clayborne was questioned about the sale and she replied that she sold it to a customer and did not personally buy the television.
A month later, Clayborne was terminated for personally buying a 42" undamaged television. She claims she called the associate who rang up the customer and it was confirmed that Clayborne was not the individual who bought the product.
However, Clayborne claims the District Loss Prevention Manager ignored this clerk and failed to provide proof that Clayborne bought the television.
Clayborne claims her termination was an act of discrimination by the District Loss Prevention Manager. She cites racial remarks and anti-female remarks he allegedly made more than 12 years ago.
Clayborne is seeking damages for back pay, front pay, lost fringe benefits, medications, emotional distress, punitive damages, attorney fees and costs.
Clayborne is represented by Metairie attorney J. Courtney Wilson. A jury trial is requested.
U.S. District Judge Sarah S. Vance is assigned to the case.
Case No. 2:10cv02459


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Estonia clamps down on cheap drink imports
Estonian drinkers who have long enjoyed trips to neighbouring Latvia to buy beer and vodka at lower prices face a New Year shock, as the government is making it harder to claim back cash deposits on imported drink bottles.
The Eesti Pandipakend recycling authority has announced that from 1 January it will only accept bottles and cans marked with special barcodes and deposit stamps proving that the containers and their contents were not sold outside Estonia, the ERR public broadcaster reports.
Peeter Eek, the head of waste disposal at the environment ministry, says the move is prompted by a "sharp rise" in drink imports from Latvia, where customers pay far less in alcohol duties. "The Estonian system has hitherto been very open. If you bought something in Latvia you didn't pay our recycling fee, but we still returned the deposit to you as the stamp was one and the same. For the consumer, it was like winning the lottery," he told ERR.
Pandipakend chief executive Rauno Raal says that Estonia had "tried to be flexible" in recycling containers, but the sheer volume produced by booze tours, including duty-free cruises, is causing "irreparable harm" to his organisation's ability to do its job. In the first half of 2016 alone 25-30 million units of alcoholic drinks were imported from Latvia in reusable or recyclable containers, so the new barcode system will play an "important part in maintaining the sustainability of the Estonian environment", he said earlier.
And it's not only drinkers who are unhappy with the decision. Alcohol producers are complaining that this restricts their trade, as before they could choose whether to sell their stock from warehouses in Estonia, Latvia or even Finland, but now all imported goods will have to be stamped separately.
Use #NewsfromElsewhere to stay up-to-date with our reports via Twitter.


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I’ll be the first person to admit when I am wrong, and I have been critical of the decision to hype up the Ford C-Max hybrid for months in advance of actual sales. But the tactic seems to have worked, as in the first two months of sales the Ford C-Max Hybrid has become the fastest-selling hybrid car ever.
With 8,030 C-Max Hybrids sold in its first two full months on sale, Ford has surpassed the Toyota Camry Hybrid, which sold around 7,300 units when it first went on sale in the spring of 2006. Granted, the buying public is more open to purchasing a hybrid vehicle these days, but Ford’s constant barrage of press releases and comparisons no doubt helped push C-Max sales higher.
With a 47/47/47 rating, the Ford C-Max hybrid joins the 2013 Ford Fusion hybrid as among the highest-rated cars for sale in the U.S. But not all is well with the Ford C-Max Hybrid; Consumer Reports recently noted that both the C-Max and Fusion failed to live up to their mpg claims by a margin of 20%.
But that doesn’t seem to have slowed down sales so far. But one has to wonder; if the mpg ratings are forced downwards by the EPA, will sales stay strong? Or will buyers look to other options?


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MarketJoy, Inc. Press releases
Jul 18, 2018
MarketJoy has announced a Webinar that features Larry Reeves, CEO AAISP, and Curtis Bendt, VP of customer success, Marketjoy.
Mar 29, 2018
Market Joy will host a lunch and learn at The Vault on April 12, 2018, in San Francisco. The one-hour session from 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM PDT invites major sales and marketing enthusiasts to gather insights on Sales Development.


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Startups in the Asia-Pacific region will be competing for a prize money of up to $87000 (AUD$100,000) in the ozAPP Awards, a competition for innovative online apps.
Slated for February 2015, the ozAPP Awards seek to find the region’s best mobile, web and cloud app concepts.The competition also aims to foster dialogue and collaboration between innovators, researchers, investors and industry, and to further stimulate innovative business culture around Australia.
The ozAPP Awards is an initiative by Curtain University and global venture capitalist Bill Tai, a regular investor in Australian startups.
Opened last August, the deadline for submissions is on December 5. The final judging will be held in Perth, Western Australia, where the top five finalists will be able to pitch their products to the leading VC’s, tech judges and industry heavyweights from across the globe.


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New Delhi: Government raised a record Rs 109,874 crore in the country's biggest and the fiercest auction of telecom spectrum that ended on Wednesday, triggering fears of hike in call and data rates. Incumbents Airtel and Vodafone bid aggressively ... Manorama Online, 1 week ago
Tariff hike buzz in spectrum show - Calcutta Telegraph, 1 week ago
Rs 1.09 lakh crore in govt coffers - Deccan Herald, 1 week ago
Mobile tariffs have to go up to meet high cost of spectrum following the aggressive bidding in the just concluded auction that fetched a record Rs. 1.09 lakh crores to the government, industry bodies said today. The spectrum auction , which came to ...NDTV, 6 days ago 'Telecom tariffs set to rise as spectrum price hikes' Moneycontrol.com, 1 week ago Telecom tariffs to go up as spectrum price shoots up: Industry Business Standard India, 1 week ago Mobile Tariff to Go Up Along With Spectrum Prices: Industry Outlook India, 1 week ago
India's mobile operators have dialed telecom secretary Rakesh Garg for extending delivery of prepaid mobile services in Jammu & Kashmir, Assam and Northeast circles till April 2017, failing which millions could be left without connections from April ...Communications Today, 1 week ago
News and Rumors on Samsung 14 nm, Atoptech, IC Compiler II, Qualcomm, TSMC 20 nm, ARM, Itel Atom, Imgtec Warrior I6400, Mentor, Flexras, Tektronix, Certus, Auspy, FPGA partitions, prototyping, ChipEstimate.com, Adam Traidman, Anton Domic, FineSim Pro, CusDeep Chip, 1 month ago
The radiation from cell phone towers are `non-ionizing and are completely harmless to the avian population, according to A Siva Prakash Rao, Circle CEO- Tamil Nadu, Indus Towers Ltd (ITL). He said the three key promoters of the company- Bharti ...Hindu Business Line, 1 month ago
on your WebpageAdd Widget >Get your members hooked!


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MDF sector is on the climb
14:10 | 04/09/2012 Print Article
Foreign enterprises are chopping into local wood supplies to set up their own medium density fiberboard (MDF) manufacturing plants in Vietnam.
Tran Ngoc Thuan, general director of Vietnam Rubber Group, said Vietnam used around one million cubic metres of MDF annually, 70 per cent of which had to be imported.
To serve the local potential market, MDF VRG Dongwha’s $125 million MDF manufacturing plant, Asia’s biggest, has just kicked into gear in southern Binh Phuoc province’s Minh Hung III Industrial Park.
Work on the 38.46 hectare plant started in June 2010 and it has a designed capacity of 35,000 tonnes of formaline, 54,000 tonnes UF resin and 300,000 cubic metres of MDF.
“This is the biggest MDF plant in Asia with equipment and production lines imported from Europe,” said Le Minh Chau, chairman of MDF VRG Dongwha, whose 49 per cent is owned by Vietnam Rubber Group and 51 per cent by Korea-based Dongwha Group.
The plant’s main products are a series type of MDF, especially thin MDF products which have not been manufactured in any other MDF plants in Vietnam yet, said Chau.
After two months of production testing, the plant reached 80 per cent of its full capacity of 300,000 cubic metres of MDF. Moreover, the plant’s products are also exported to the US, Japan, India and Middle East.
MDF VRG Dongwha plant utilises abundant sources of rubber trees, as well as acacia, eucalyptus, pine in Vietnam.
Most raw materials for production were domestically supplied from southern and Central Highland areas, except methanol for formaline production, said Tran Ngoc Thanh, vice director of MDF VRG Dongwha.
According to MDF VRG Dongwha, its revenue in 2012 is expected to achieve VND900 billion ($43 million) and around VND1.5 trillion ($72 million) annually.
Veco, a joint venture between Japan’s Sumitomo Forestry and Sumitomo Forestry Singapore, also started commercial production of its $110 particle board plant in Vietnam in May, 2012.
This facility applies an integrated particleboard line capable of producing 250,000 cubic metres of particleboard from low value wood annually, covering 20 hectares in southern Long An province’s Phu An Thanh Industrial Park.
Long An, particularly, has a abundant forested melaleuca, the main material for our plant’s production, said Soichiro Kitamura, CEO of Veco.
Vietnam Rubber Group has set up a wood production and processing development strategy aiming to raise its MDF manufacturing capacity up to 500,000 cubic metres by 2015 to meet the local demand and for export.


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Apple Stock News: iPhone 14 Pro With Dynamic Island
Apple Stock News: According to MacRumors, on September 7th, Apple unveiled the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max, which include a new “Dynamic Island” to surface alerts and activity, a brighter display with always-on functionality, the A16 Bionic chip, a more advanced camera system, new color options, and more. The Dynamic Island changes shape in real time to display important alerts, notifications, and activities. The improved Super Retina XDR display is up to two times brighter than the iPhone 13 Pro. The A16 chip has a new 16-core Neural Engine and an enhanced 5-core GPU with 50% higher memory bandwidth. The rear camera system includes a 48-megapixel Wide camera with a new 2x telephoto view and the ability to record 4K video with no digital zoom, as well as an improved front-facing camera with a ƒ/1.9 aperture.
Second-Generation Apple Watch SE With S8 Chip
According to MacRumors, Apple unveiled the S8 chip-equipped Apple Watch SE. The Apple Watch SE is now 20% faster, with Crash Detection, international roaming, and Low Power Mode.
New AirPods Pro With H2 Chip
According to MacRumors, Apple announced the second-generation AirPods Pro, which features an upgraded H2 chip with up to twice the active noise cancellation and other improvements. Also, the new AirPods Pro has a longer battery life, lasting up to six hours per charge. Furthermore, the charging case now offers up to 30 hours of total listening time.
Chips for MacBook Pro
According to MacRumors, Apple’s M2 Pro and M2 Max chips are expected to be used in the new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models, but Apple has reduced its fourth-quarter MacBook Pro shipment forecast by 20% to 30%, because of signs of a recession, fewer people working from home and limited new selling points. New iPad and Mac models are likely to be the centerpiece of an Apple event in October, although it’s unclear if the new MacBook Pro models will be unveiled at that event or later.


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BlackBerry shares plunge 25% on disappointing earnings
Hold off on that comeback talk.
Shares of BlackBerry plunged 25% after its first-quarter earnings failed to impress Wall Street.
The Canadian smartphone maker posted revenue of $3.1 billion, up 15% from the previous quarter and 9% compared to last year. BlackBerry also narrowed its losses to $84 million, from $510 million during the same time in fiscal 2013.
BlackBerry says it shipped 6.8 million smartphones during the quarter. About 40% of those shipments were for BlackBerry 10 devices, which amounts to roughly 2.7 million.
"We are still in the early stages of this launch, but already, the BlackBerry 10 platform and BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 are proving themselves to customers to be very secure, flexible and dynamic mobile computing solutions," says BlackBerry President and CEO Thorsten Heins in a statement.
In a quarterly earnings conference call, Heins stressed BlackBerry 10 is still in the early phase of its cycle, having been on the market for five months. "We don't plan to run the company with a short-term, device-only strategy," he says.
The success of BlackBerry 10 is crucial for the company, as it attempts to vault back into the increasingly competitive smartphone race. Apple, Google and Samsung currently dominate the market, while Microsoft continues to press forward with its line of Windows 8 mobile devices.
In March, BlackBerry launched the Z10 smartphone, which boasts a full touchscreen, followed by the Q10 with a combination of touchscreen and physical QWERTY keyboard.
Colin Gillis, an analyst at BGC Partners, said it's tough for BlackBerry because it's hard to make money on handsets now.
"There are a lot of people that haven't been able to make it happen. For all the talk about Apple and Samsung, there are companies like Nokia and HTC," Gillis said.
Contributing: Associated Press
Follow Brett Molina on Twitter: @bam923.


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We don’t need Charles Dickens to tell us we are all living through the “worst of times” but equally we can only do what is possible in our own personal and business lives to make the most of this extraordinary situation we all find ourselves in. It’s an approach, that typically, Robin Copestick is taking as he and the rest of the Freixenet Copestick team are using this moment to get on the front foot, be creative, act differently and actually turn what we can into the “best of times” when it comes to new product development, ideas and team building.
Robin Copestick, managing director of Freixenet Copestick, talks to Richard Siddle about the new innovations it is bringing to market including a new SuperHeroes initiative for its i Heart brand and a new wine brand launch to help African wildlife.
The only time you are ever going to see Robin Copestick in what you might a call mood or down in the dumps is when he has shanked a golf ball into the deep rough, or, in particular, his beloved Stoke City have lost (another) game.
When it comes to his business life then you are not going to find any better candidates for having a ‘glass half full’ attitude to getting things done. Only in Copestick’s case it rarely gets below three-quarters in the first place.
Not that everything in the world of Freixenet Copestick or his own business, Copestick Murray, before it has been completely plain sailing. For all the record sales growth, awards and high praise from across the wine industry, there have been dark days too.
But rather than sit back and moan, Copestick’s approach has always been how do we think and get ourselves out of this situation. Even arguably the business’ biggest success – the launch of i Heart wine in 2010 that is now in over 45 countries around the world and the UK’s 10th largest wine brand – came out of adversity.
What had been Copestick Murray’s almost unique position in the industry at the time, acting as a matchmaker, for both the major supermarket chains and big producers around the world, suddenly got into trouble when the major multiples worked out they could cut the middleman out of the chain and go and buy direct.
Copestick had to find a way to box the business out of a corner. The answer was to get everyone in the company into one room, pull the blinds down and say we are not leaving until we come up with a Plan B. That’s when the idea for i Heart, that started out as a simple doodle (thanks to Rachel Archer now at Off Piste Wine), was born.
At a crossroads
All these years later and the wine industry as a whole now finds itself at a similar crossroads to the one the Copestick Murray business faced back then. Its response has been to get its collective creative hats on and look at what it can do to think differently and work even more pro-actively than normal, he told The Buyer this week.
“You would think keeping that creativity going would be a challenge with everyone working from home, but it’s actually made us a lot more pro-active,” he explained.
It’s certainly helped him in his own role, which is focused on developing NPD with its retail customers and keeping on top of key supplier relations. “I am able to get their attention a lot more and have been a lot more productive over the last three weeks,” he added.
“We have decided to go for it. We are in a fortunate position in that we have good owners (the German sparkling wine giant Henkell Freixenet) who want us to carry on being entrepreneurial and not stop the flow of new product development.”
A time to create
Its front foot approach has seen the launch of a new brand under the i Heart label which truly captures the spirit of the times. It has developed I Heart Superheroes Prosecco with the tagline: “Not all superheroes wear capes!”
The usual iconic distinctive red heart logo has been replaced with a rainbow heart design, in keeping with the emblem of our times and the way households and families have been able to show their support for all NHS and essential workers by placing rainbow designs in their front windows.
As with the rest of the i Heart brand, the concept is clear and simple. Anyone can send in nominations for people they know, members of their family, or workers on the front line that they think deserve being sent a bottle of Superheroes Prosecco – that Freixenet Copestick has developed in partnership with specialist gifting business, Intervino.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the Superheroes idea has really captured the imagination of the public. Within 48 hours of launching the iHeart Facebook page had received over 1,500 comments and nominations with hundreds more on its Instagram page. Its Facebook engagement is up over 70% and Instagram by 53% with a total campaign reach of around 35,000 on social media alone.
Initially the idea was to concentrate just on NHS staff, but the Freixenet Copestick team felt it was an opportunity to recognise everyone in our daily lives going the extra mile be it postal workers, delivery drivers, farmers, shop workers, or just your mum, dad or grandparents. An initial 2,500 personalised iHeart Superheroes bottles have been produced from which the winners will each be sent out a bottle.
The challenge for the team, said Copestick, was deciding who to recognise as it had been inundated with so many amazing stories.
Now the brand has caught the attention of the major retailers and talks are in place to expand production to 100,000 bottles and sell them in-store with Tesco and Sainsbury’s on board, along with a number of the major symbol group convenience chains.
“The margin for 100,000 bottles will be offset by the 2,500 bottles that will be given away as prizes. Meaning in effect there will be zero margin for Freixenet Copestick on the project,” he explained.
“The idea for the brand was to be less about donation, but how we do help people feel good about themselves,” he added. “We’ve had an amazing response to it.”
Care for Wild launch
Freixenet Copestick is about to introduce another new major brand which Copestick also believes is ideally suited to the time we are living in, and has the potential to go on and be a global brand and a big boost to the South African wine category.
It has forged a partnership with the Care for Wild Rhino Sanctuary NPC to create a new wine brand, and hopefully raise a lot of much needed money for this vital charity.
The Care for Wild Rhino Sanctuary NPC looks to provide care and rehabilitation for not just rhinos, but a number of wildlife animals that are being caught up in poaching in South Africa. Founded by Petronel Nieuwoudt the sanctuary provides a safe place for what are now a large number of orphaned rhinos, where they can be cared for and eventually released back into the wild.
Copestick became aware of the charity when he sat next to the former England cricketer, Darren Gough, at Sainsbury’s 150 year anniversary dinner in December. Gough is also one of the supporters of the Care for Wild Rhino scheme.
“I was immediately captivated by the story and wanted to help,” he said. “The fact that Care for Wild is based in South Africa made it obvious for us to launch with a range of South African wines. It has happened really quite quickly.
“From a wine point of view I could see there was a big gap in the market. South Africa is making brilliant wine, but there is nothing really engaging the consumer from a brand point of view. This is an opportunity to create a good brand and donate to this important charity at the same time. It will also hopefully appeal to the modern generation of wine drinkers who like brands that have something more behind it.”
Freixenet Copestick will donate around 20% of all margin to the Care for Wild charity and will also be encouraging the retailers it works with to do support it as well. It is working on a number of fundraising ideas to help raise both money and also awareness of the initiative.
Talks are underway with “number of grocery retailers” and the brand will be launched in Slurp during the summer.
The label for the bottle was easy enough to come by as it is the same as the charity’s logo, added Copestick.
“This will not only support the brilliant work done by Care For Wild but also put some much needed life into the South African wine category which is in -6.4% decline in the UK.”
The range will initially include a value selection with a red blend, a white Sauvignon Blanc and pale rosé, with a RRP of £7 and a pair of premium wines with an RRP of £12 that will include a Sauvignon Blanc from a specific region and a Bordeaux blend from Stellenbosch.
Gough has been signed up as an ambassador for the wine and had dived right into his role, said Copestick, even hosting video meetings with interested supermarket groups. England cricket team mate Kevin Pietersen introduced the charity to Gough as he is also heavily involved in supporting its work.
As with the Superheroes launch Copestick said it was important to find ways in which the initiative went beyond just raising and donating money. “We hope we can help build and create something with this, rather than just put money into a pot. It’s hopefully good for South African wine as well.
“This is such an important charity in that is looking to get to the route of the problem and the people involved in poaching.There are so many poor people in townships who can think poaching is a good way to make money. So they invest a lot of time with education programmes in the townships.” …as well as saving baby rhino
Looking to its own future Freixenet Copestick is in a much stronger position than others in the wine and drinks industry as 85% of its business is through the off-trade, and in particularly the major multiples and symbol group convenience chains.
It also has a majority stake in Slurp, the online wine and retail business, that has really come into its own during the crisis with record sales, said Copestick, every week. “It’s gone completely bonkers.The last two weeks have been bigger than Christmas.”
It has, though, had to furlough around 5% of its staff, but only in situations where they would otherwise have had to be made redundant due to the on-trade “completely collapsing,” stressed Copestick. Where possible it has looked to relocate and re-position staff in other strong trading areas – like Slurp.
“We want to use the Job Retention Scheme in an ethical way and only for those jobs that would have been made redundant. I want to be in a position where I can bring them back as quickly as possible.
“Overall we are probably flat in terms of volumes, value and profitability,” said Copestick.
Like the rest of the wine industry meetings are now held via video conference, but it means, he said, rather than just fire emails to each other around an office, people want to break the routine of being at home and are quite happy arranging face to face catch-ups and creative sessions online.
“Our senior team meets up online at least twice a week (via GoTo meeting) and all the teams are at least daily on a video call. We even have a lunchtime fitness session that anyone can join in.”
Looking further ahead Copestick can see a picture emerging in the UK wine market that was similar to when we came out of the big recession in 2009.
“We saw a lot of interest in wine at that time, but it was very much at the entry level and there is a lot of focus on heavy discounting as people had less money to spend.”
As to the future of Freixenet Copestick? “We are constantly monitoring what is happening in the market. But we are determined that we are going to be here when we come through all this having been loyal to our staff and our suppliers and will be looking to keep things going as best as we possibly can.”
Right back on the front foot where he belongs. Darren Gough – and Geoffrey Boycott – would be proud of him.


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Sports Platform Sorare Unveils 3D Digital Football Player Cards with AR Integration, Launches Virtual Treasure Hunt
The 2023–24 Sorare Football season will see the inaugural launch of the 3D digital player cards across the Sorare Football universe, the platform said.
They will go live in Sorare’s web and mobile apps, first available on iOS. Users, so-called Managers, will be able to interact with the cards in the real world through the app.
Sorare decided to make a bespoke frame for each of Europe’s top leagues: Premier League, Bundesliga, LaLiga, and Serie A – each to be announced in the coming weeks.
Cards featuring Premier League players will go out on the marketplace on September 13.
Premier League tweeted that the “cards will be 3D, interactive and tangible in real life.”
This season, @Sorare is taking your manager career to the next dimension 🤩— Premier League (@premierleague) September 5, 2023
The 2023/24 Premier League cards will be 3D, interactive and tangible in real life
Get ready for the drop later this month and start your journey to the 🔝 pic.twitter.com/5WgyrgMTSn
‘New Designs for Years to Come’
Sorare wants to “redefine the boundaries between physical and digital fandom by reinventing the act of collecting football cards.”
The team designed the cards’ backgrounds to make them “pop” in 3D and “shine,” thanks to the dynamic reflections and lighting.
Furthermore, there is a frame connecting the front and the back of the card to provide the 3D aspect depth, which, combined with the lighting element, creates a tangible quality, the post stated.
According to the team,
“This new step in our card design evolution into 3D invites progression. With an added depth with the frame, via textures and shapes, we have the ingredients to evolve Sorare digital player cards and create new and exciting designs for years to come.”
The card information has been structured in two parts: league and season data at the top, and player data at the bottom.
“A key element of the card design is player photography,” according to the platform. This is where scalability comes into play as thousands of cards are minted each season.
For future iterations, the team aims to test special edition cards with different photography but emphasizes that this is “a complicated project to scale.”
Treasure Hunt Begins
Meanwhile, ahead of the 3D digital player cards launch, Sorare unveiled its 3D Card Virtual Treasure Hunt spread across three cities
The words need to be arranged in the correct order to unlock the wallet, withdraw the cards, and transfer them to the winner’s own wallet.
3D cards call for a special treasure hunt! 🧐💰— Sorare (@Sorare) September 5, 2023
Chase down clues and a series of 12 code words to unlock a special wallet on Sorare, and with it a once-in-a-lifetime reward. 🔐
The first word is hidden in this video! 👀
How to enter: https://t.co/tbGYp7FKhR#Sorare3DHunt https://t.co/D01fKSpgGu
The first person to complete the hunt before October 10 will win the AC Milan prize package: they will fly with the team to attend one of its Europe matches with VIP tickets in hand.
– Beginner’s Guide to Sorare Fantasy Football
– Premier League Backs Sorare’s NFT Fantasy Football Game in a Bold Move
– Soccer Premier League Lines Up £30 Million Deal with Sorare NFT Platform
– Breaking NFT News Today


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Cupertino (California) - Apple has announced that its fitness subscription service called Apple Fitness+ is set to launch on December 14, that can be shared with up to six family members at no extra cost.
To begin with, the service will be available in the US, the UK, Australia, Canada, Ireland and New Zealand, before rolling out to other countries.
Fitness+ intelligently incorporates metrics from Apple Watch for users to visualise right on their iPhone, iPad or Apple TV, offering a first-of-its-kind personalised workout experience.
"We are excited for Apple Fitness+ to bring together the metrics from Apple Watch, great music, and a diverse and inspiring trainer team — in a uniquely simple, easy-to-access way across Apple devices — to encourage our users to get fit and stay healthy," Jay Blahnik, Apple's senior director of Fitness Technologies, said in a statement late on Tuesday.
The service costs $9.99 per month or $79.99 per year as a standalone service.
Alternatively, it is also included in the Apple One Premier plan, along with Apple's music, TV, gaming, news and cloud storage services.
The service aims to deliver personalised recommendations to help customers quickly get to their next workout, and uses Apple Watch to provide an engaging experience to help them stay motivated throughout.
At launch, customers can conveniently find Fitness+ in the tab located in the new Fitness app on the iPhone, which will also arrive on iPad and Apple TV, the company said.
Fitness+ will launch with the most popular workout types, including Cycling, Treadmill, Rowing, HIIT, Strength, Yoga, Dance, Core, and Mindful Cooldown.
Each week, the team of Fitness+ trainers will deliver fresh workouts from the studio across a range of lengths, disciplines, and music genres so there are always new workouts to explore.
In addition, when using Fitness+, all workout data will be saved in the Health app on iPhone, and neither calories nor the workouts and trainers users choose will be stored along with their Apple ID, Apple informed. (IANS)


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The Ford Bronco is a throwback to an earlier time when the World was better. The combination of retro styling with go-anywhere capability has proven alluring for drivers across the country - but it hasn't gone unnoticed by critics either! With too much demand coming from loyal customers who want their cars now instead of later (or ever), problems are inevitable at this rate.
The wait for the 2023 Ford Bronco may be over soon! Our sources have told us that orders will open on August 15th, 2022. This is good news indeed and we look forward to sharing more details with you as they become available.
It's great to know that there are still plenty of opportunities out in this world for people with drive! With strong demand and industry issues such as the chip crisis, bronco production has been plagued by problems. In February 2022 Ford had suspension on their Broncos, alongside F-150 trucks due to supply chain constraints; but don't worry because they're back now - I hope you saved enough money so when these happen again next year won’t have any problem getting one before everyone else does.
What's going on? Well, it turns out that the demand for these sleek off-roaders has been unusual. In some cases, owners were waiting months before receiving their vehicles while others report delays of more than two Bronco models!
A recent news story uncovered an interesting trend - Bronco's popularity seems to be increasing yet many cars are sitting in Ford factory lots with no plans on when they'll pour into circulation as well increased production can't seem to meet all want fast enough ̶ one owner reported his arrival date pushed back by over three months.
The production of the 2023 Ford Broncos is set to begin in Michigan on November 14 with an expected output of approximately 10 vehicles per day. This has not been confirmed by either party and could change at any time before or during launch week.
This information was obtained through anonymous sources so we cannot guarantee its accuracy, but it seems reasonable based on their past performance.
The most exciting thing about the new model year is that it will bring a whole range of different products to Ford's line-up. models like their inline-four and V6 should remain unchanged, but we hope for more accessories as well as color choices from these cars in order to make them even better than before! The real treat comes with the Bronco raptor though; thanks to its 418 horsepower twin-turbo engine - this vehicle set out to be an incredible desert-destroying machine while still being able to drive smoothly around town or on curvy roads without getting stuck at any point during your day.
Jim Farley, the CEO of America's largest car dealership has warned dealers not to charge exorbitant prices for SUVs in 2022. He says that there were some instances where companies charged more than $20k over their MSRP last year and he wants this to never happen again!


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to start seeing some news next week. I would like to see if there's any updates on the additional credit facilities for future growth needs, new orders or customers, etc. Also I would think the "ambulance chasers" would be responding soon to the rebuttal letter. It is going to be some exciting times.
well at least we can expect the press release announcing the earnings date and time about one week before, so on March 21st prob.. sure would be nice if they drop a nice press release before hand though.. they might, but might not. Look how little buying pressure it takes to raise this stock now that I bought all those flippers shares.. hahah, no more shares to flip, it will go straight up when good news hits


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Three very different startups presented at NJ Tech Meetup on May 15, 2013. One pitched a mouthwatering, subscription-based, how-to-cook video magazine app, the second an innovative e-commerce site and the third an app for professional DJs.
As always, the meeting took place on the beautiful Stevens Institute of Technology Hoboken campus and featured networking to spark connections and inspire ideas.
NJ Tech Meetup gatherings are regularly attended by at least 160 tech developers, startup entrepreneurs, investors, consultants and other friends of the N.J. tech community. The group has nearly 3,000 members.
After the meeting convened and participants were given the opportunity to ask for help from other audience members (in finding a developer, a technical cofounder, a marketer, specialists and website testers), three startups pitched.
First up, and the winner of the Audience Choice award for the evening, was David Ellner, CEO and founder of Hoboken-based Panna, who was substituting for a presenter who became ill. “Panna is a New Jersey company and we will always be in New Jersey, and I’m proud of that,” he told the audience. Ellner and his employees are based at the coworking space Mission Fifty (Hoboken), which he said is a great place to work.
Ellner started Panna to solve a personal pain point — he likes to cook at home using cookbooks by famous chefs, but “I found myself consistently wondering if I am doing this right,” he said. When the iPad came out, it was clear to Ellner that there was an opportunity to present recipes along with video to transform how cooks follow recipes. “I left my job, followed my passion and not one day has felt like work,” he told the group.
Launched in November 2012, Panna is an iOS-based cooking video magazine app featuring well-known chefs. It offers a unique experience to support users while they cook. Because it is difficult to prepare food and watch a video at the same time, Ellner said, his videos provide a deep dive so users can see the texture of a sauce or the exact angle of a knife cut, for example. The company has signed a number of acclaimed and master chefs to create the videos.
There are 13 recipes in each of the six issues published per year. Cooks can buy a single issue ($5) or a subscription ($15 a year), Ellner said.
Apple had picked the iPad version of the launch as an editor’s choice, which created some buzz for the app in the store. In addition, when the iPhone app launched in December 2012, Apple chose to feature it, Ellner said. The app has also appeared on a number of top 10 lists. It has had more than a half million downloads, Ellner told the NJ Tech Meetup crowd.
Ellner said he closed a Series A round for the app in early May after having bootstrapped the business, raised funds from friends and family and launched a Kickstarter campaign. NJTechWeekly.com later learned that the $1.35 million round was led by Anthem Ventures. Other investors include Lerer Ventures, Crosslink Ventures, Howard Schultz’s Maveron and Shari Redstone’s Advancit Capital, according to Peter Kafka in AllThingsD.com.
Next up at the podium was N.Y.-based Howndog founder and Warren, N.J. native Benjamin Zimmerman, a Founder Institute graduate. His website, which marries how-to with e-commerce, will feature user-submitted how-to videos curated by a community of experts, then allow users to purchase the products used in the videos.
To illustrate the value of his site, Zimmerman contrasted it with the example of a Web video that teaches viewers about fishing. “Most of the people who watch a how-to video on fishing want to look like the guys in the video,” he told the group. “If all you are offering is a how-to video, you are convincing a viewer they need a fishing pole without giving them the capability to purchase it,” he said. You are leaving value on the table, he asserted.
As NJTechWeekly.com was preparing this story in June 2013, we reached out to Zimmerman, who told us via email that he had pretty much shut down the Howndog operation. “Google launched a YouTube service that closely resembled what I was trying to put together,” he said. As a result, he “figured it was best to stay out of their way and move on to the next project.”
The final presenter of the evening was Hungarian entrepreneur Gábor Szántó, who had come to N.J. two weeks earlier to determine how to bring Hungarian companies to the area because “going global starts here,” he said.
Szántó is CTO of Imect, the maker of the app DJ Player, which is designed for professional DJs. “Four years ago I decided to bring the professional DJ experience to mobile devices,” he said. The app store was full of toylike DJ apps, but nothing out there was for the DJs who work at bars, private parties and other venues.
“We developed a unique core technology that delivers desktop performance on a mobile device,” Szántó told the group. The app can be used on any ARM-based device. Its tech doesn’t drain the handheld device’s battery, he said. DJ Player has had 160,000 downloads so far, he noted, so it is quite strong in the DJ business.
Szántó said the core technology can accelerate both audio and image processing and be used for voice recognition.


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They're part of what makes the city run. Rain or shine. Now, they're getting a raise.
"This is going to give us a sense of stability. It's going to turn this into a dignified job," said delivery driver Joshua Wood.
A judge ruled that city regulators can raise the minimum wage for app-based food delivery workers.
This city said delivery workers have been making an average of $11 per hour. That rises to $17.96 now, and to $19.96 by 2025 after adjustments for inflation.
"That's the difference between taking home $100 after a full day of work, maybe a little bit more, to taking home something you can survive off of," said Wood.
"Our delivery workers have consistently delivered for us, and now we can finally deliver for them," said Mayor Eric Adams.
The city announced the new minimum wage in June, but Uber, DoorDash and Grubhub.
The big three delivery companies said paying workers higher wages will mean higher prices for businesses and consumers at home.
"What they are trying to do is come up with an excuse not to pay their workers," said Wood.
"They can't keep profiting off the backs of immigrant workers while paying them pennies in New York City and get away with it," said Ligia Guallpa, executive director of Workers Justice Project.
In a statement to CBS New York, a DoorDash spokesperson said the ruling "will reduce opportunity and increase costs for all New Yorkers."
That premise was rejected in the state supreme court ruling.
for more features.


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First published in the Worcester News on 15.06.2018
I would like to make businesses aware of an exciting brand new tech accelerator in the heart of Worcestershire’s Cyber Valley, BETADEN. This was launched exclusively at Info Security Europe 2018.
BETADEN, opening autumn 2018, will be Worcestershire’s first dedicated tech accelerator for entrepreneurs and scale up tech businesses. It provides the location and environment for both entrepreneurs in residence and technology businesses to develop alongside the Worcestershire 5G team as we position new and existing companies to be at the forefront of future technology.
BETADEN will develop a specialist cohort of eight to ten entrepreneurs the opportunity to join the team launching this Autumn. The onsite offer will provide unique benefits to support each business and individual’s growth.
It’s worth pointing out some of these advantages that BETADEN can offer entrepreneurs such as, access to leading technologists, special business support and funding guidance. One extra advantage is being located in a place that can offer an environment for the next stage of growth. This flexible work space, with access to lab facilities and meeting rooms are all located within the new Worcestershire LEP office with a network of technology and cyber businesses nearby, known as “Cyber Valley” including the global technology giant QinetiQ.
I believe that entrepreneurs and small tech businesses will be able to thrive in this new supportive platform which is enhanced with a range of specialist business support through our regional and national stakeholder network and local partners.
As BETADEN develops its reputation it will provide the ideal launch pad for interested parties to base their technology business in a stunning location with plenty of good clean air to let those ideas flow.


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Ice cream vans set to return to Ipswich after lockdown amid warm weather
PUBLISHED: 18:15 30 May 2020 | UPDATED: 14:54 31 May 2020
An Ipswich-based ice cream company says it is looking forward to seeing smiling faces again as it prepares to return to the county next month following the Covid-19 lockdown.
Long-term partners Adam Alexander and Amanda Page, who run Alexander’s Ices, said they cannot wait to get back on the road after prime minister Boris Johnson announced non-essential retail businesses can reopen on June 15.
They have spent the last two months without work, due to the restrictions put in place to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
Miss Page said: “We decided to coincide restarting again with the non-essential shops reopening. There are no laws stopping us from trading beforehand, but to us it didn’t feel ethically right to do so.
“We’re really hoping to see more people come and see us – with everything going on I think everyone wants an ice cream.”
Miss Page said the couple were inspired to start the business as a bid to get involved in the community and make people smile.
She added: “For a lot of people, we are the only people they see every week – it is such a happy job for us.
“We’ve got to know hundreds of people doing this job and seeing people’s smiling faces is one of the main reason why we do it.”
Set up in 2014, the pair now have two vans, covering Kesgrave, Martlesham, Rushmere, Grundisburgh, Hollesley and other surrounding villages.
Mr Alexander runs the business full-time, while Miss Page helps out in the peak summer season - but both admitted they have been hit hard by the economic impacts of the coronavirus lockdown.
Miss Page said: “It has been an absolutely dire year for us, with all our events throughout the year being cancelled because of the virus.
“We’ll be available for small weddings and school events for the rest of the year though and can’t wait to get going again.”
Those interested in booking one of the vans for small events should contact Miss Page here.
If you value what this story gives you, please consider supporting the Ipswich Star. Click the link in the orange box above for details.