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We have no physiological need for refined sugar: before the 16th century we managed with tiny amounts of it. In fact, all the glories of Renaissance art and thought were created on just a teaspoonful of sugar per head per year. But by the 20th century sugar had become ubiquitous. And its industry had become so powerful that it had penetrated the heart of governments. The sort of access sugar barons enjoy was exposed when Bill Clinton famously interrupted an Oval Office assignation with Monica Lewinsky in 1996 to take a phone call — the call was from one of the Fanjul family who control much of sugar production in the electorally key swing state of Florida. (The Fanjuls have played it both ways: another brother was one of George Bush's top fundraisers.)
The Action on Sugar initiative, launched in Britain and the US this week, is recognition that different weapons are needed in the battle against the promoters of this vector of disease. A distinguished posse of professors has signed up to the campaign to cut sugar consumption by 30% by naming and shaming big companies that sell us these empty calories.
The evidence that excess consumption of refined sugars is damaging our health is now as clear as the case against tobacco. Nutritionally bankrupt products loaded with sugars have displaced the whole foods our bodies need. To tackle the preventable diet-related diseases that have reached epidemic proportions around the globe – obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancers – we simply need to eat less of them. But the vested economic interests of the food, drink and farming industries are blocking change. They lobby ferociously against attempts to set lower targets for consumption or restrict marketing or recalibrate subsidies. They have captured regulators so successfully that a guerrilla campaign is needed to speak directly to consumers. Leading the charge with Action on Sugar is cardiovascular expert Graham MacGregor, veteran of the successful campaign to force the food industry to reduce blood-pressure inducing levels of salt in its products. The fight against sugar will be much tougher and dirtier.
Cutting sugars represents an existential threat to large parts of the food and drink industry. Take salt out and they are left with a problem that their products are short of good ingredients and don't taste of much. Take sugars out and they are left with not much at all. Sugars give them their bulk. In theory, they could use proper whole foods instead, but then their economic model starts falling apart. Their businesses are built on taking the cheapest of cheap commodity ingredients, deconstructing them, and turning them into "added value" goods – not in lightly processing real unrefined foods.
Consumption of sugars is a function of price, availability and production, and has been for centuries. The price of refined sugar dropped dramatically at the beginning of the 18th century as the English, Dutch and French Caribbean colonies were established. A mass market developed, with the amount eaten in Britain increasing over the next hundred years from about 2kg per person per year to about 8kg. Sugar, and cheap bread, became the fuel of the industrial revolution; it fed the factory workers of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Governments have long subsidised sugars and protected their domestic markets in them, fostering the interests of a handful of transnational corporations. As a result, sugar comes at us from every quarter. The fundamental problem is a mismatch between supply and our biology.
By the age of 15, 21st-century British boys typically have a 40kg-a-year sugar habit, according to the official National Diet and Nutrition Survey, the equivalent of 1,000 cans of cola or 11,800 sugar cubes – they are matching or exceeding the consumption of impoverished 19th-century manual workers doing up to 14 hours of physical labour a day. Action on Sugar cannot change the trade system that makes this profitable, but as the health costs of diet-related disease soar, it may at least awaken a new audience to its madnesses.


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Last week tech blog Droid-Life leaked information on an upcoming Moto G6 family, a Moto 5X smartphone and more. The latest leak spill has revealed information about Motorola’s Z line of devices, which in 2018 could contain only a Moto Z3 and Moto Z3 Play. We’ve also received word on the possibility of a new moto mod that will work with these devices, a 5G Moto Mod.
Earlier this week, Motorola, owned by Lenovo, surprised everyone with its release of a new application. Moto Z Market is now available on Android, and allows one to purchase Moto Z accessories such as Moto Mods.
Motorola has been cranking out some super cool Moto Mods, and the latest is thanks to a partnership with Polaroid. By combining the two elements of analog and digital, the all-new Insta-Share Printer mod for Moto Z smartphones does something incredible. It creates a physical memory in a world of digital uploads.
Lenovo’s Motorola brand doubled its US market share in the third quarter to 5%, but despite this, market researcher BayStreet Research has estimated that AT&T sold 10,000 units.
Lenovo-owned Motorola has debuted its follow-up to the Moto Z Force, the Moto Z2 Force, as of last month, with the device containing the same ShatterShield technology seen on the previous generation.
A few weeks back, Lenovo’s Motorola held an event to announce upcoming hardware. The most enticing new product showed off during the event was Moto Z2 Force, a new flagship smartphone for 2017. Today, the Moto Z2 Force has begun shipping, and it as well as its compatible 360 Camera Moto Mod are now available in the US.
Another summer week has gone and went, but not without something cool and interesting. In case you’ve been living under a rock, a new flagship smartphone was announced this week, the Lenovo Moto Z2 Force, and it’s now up for pre-order at many locations around the globe. The Moto Z2 Force is the successor to last year’s Moto Z and Moto Z Force, making it the second generation installment in Motorola’s new high-end series, the Moto Z line.
Two carriers in the United States are actively running a big promotion for those who pre-order Moto Z2 Force. Unlike Verizon who is offering a discount and free Instashare projector mod between now and the point of release, T-Mobile and Sprint have put their own spin on things.

domain: news


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Belleville, IL (PRWEB) December 16, 2005
After a year of tremendous growth and success, MonsterCommerce is rounding out 2005 on another high note – as one of Greater St. Louis’ Top 50 Businesses. MonsterCommerce, an industry leading ecommerce storefront provider, was chosen by the St. Louis Regional Chamber & Growth Association (RCGA) for their contributions to the St. Louis region and positive impact on the St. Louis business community.
“MonsterCommerce is proud to be recognized among some of St. Louis’s most prominent companies. The award celebrates our contributions to the St. Louis region. We are dedicated to growing our operations in the metro area, offering 170 new technical jobs in 2006,” said Ryan Noble, MonsterCommerce president.
The 2005 Greater St. Louis Top 50 Awards were presented by the St. Louis RCGA and Deloitte & Touche USA, LLP on Tuesday, December 13 at the Hyatt Regency St. Louis. All nominees were measured on a variety of standards, including growth in number of employees, enhancement of the community, revenue growth, acquisitions and the expansion and/or development of facilities. The Greater St. Louis Top 50 awardees were announced in the December issue of St. Louis Commerce Magazine.
About the St. Louis RCGA
St. Louis Commerce is the region’s definitive source for business news, and a publication of the St. Louis RCGA, the chamber of commerce and economic development organization for the bi-state St. Louis region. Formed in 1973, RCGA is the result of the merger of three separate organizations: the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan St. Louis, the St. Louis Regional Industrial Development Corporation, and the St. Louis Research Council.
More than 5,500 businesses have discovered why MonsterCommerce is the best way to build and manage a successful online store. Since 1998, companies of all sizes – from small businesses to nationally recognized names like John Deere, Kodak Polychrome, Winn-Dixie and NASA – have chosen MonsterCommerce to power their e-commerce success.
The company’s intuitive, web-based administration panel gives online store owners the power to control every aspect of their online business: Storefront layout and design; Inventory management and pricing; Discounts and coupons; Order processing and shipping; Promotions and SEO; Customer service and CRM; Customer newsletters; Customer traffic and behavior analytics; Advanced SSL security and more.


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The idea is to showcase CA’s capability to market in a brave new age built of buzzwords and management statements which need quote marks like “digital transformation”.
According to the company the strategy behind this marketing roll-out is businesses today face near constant “digital disruption” which harms all “business decision makers” at all levels.
According to CA, its Modern Software Factory campaign reflects “new insights” on the challenges to build better apps, faster and securely and gain insight from data, which are important to the “application economy”.
Businesses need to recognise that software is “core to creating competitive advantage.” CA shows how they can start with a single CA solution, or a combination of solutions across the areas of Agile, DevOps and Security.
CA Technologies is furthering its cloud watching strategy and offering through several new alliances that will see the New York-based vendor produce “more agile infrastructure solutions”.
CA also released changes to its Managed Service Provider (MSP) licensing programme for ARCserve. With this release, CA is trying to further simplify its licensing structure to encourage new partner enablement.
“We’re laying out a blueprint that’s designed to help guide customers as they leverage software to win in the market,” the firm added.


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European stock markets gave up the previous session’s gains on Friday despite news of the French, Spanish and Swedish economies beating growth expectations.
In London, the FTSE 100 (^FTSE) ended 1.1% lower, with financials, real estate firms, and consumer non-cyclicals all down, while the French CAC (^FCHI) also tumbled 1.1% and the DAX (^GDAXI) was 1.5% lower in Frankfurt.
It came as France’s economy grew at its fastest pace in more than five decades, since 1969, last year as the country bounced back from the coronavirus pandemic quicker than expected.
GDP growth hit 7% in 2021 compared with an 8% contraction in 2020, when lockdowns hampered economic growth. Consumers helped the recovery, with household spending rising by 0.4% in the quarter following the relaxation of restrictions earlier in 2021.
Finance minister Brune Le Maire told French radio: “The French economy has rebounded spectacularly and that's erased the economic crisis. There are still some sectors that are still having trouble, like tourism and hotels, but most are recovering very strongly and that's creating jobs.”
Meanwhile, Spanish GDP grew by 2% in the last quarter of 2021, better than the 1.4% growth expected, and the Swedish economy saw a growth of 1.4% during the final three months, also beating forecasts.
Germany, however, contracted 0.7% in the fourth quarter, worse than the 0.3% contraction feared, thanks to a wave of COVID cases in the last quarter, which led to a lockdown of unvaccinated citizens in early December.
Read more: COVID drags down UK retail sales for January
Across the pond, the S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose 0.9% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq (^IXIC) gained 1.5% after the bell in New York, reversing losses once again. The Dow Jones (^DJI) edged 0.1% higher by the time of the European close.
It came as US wages and salaries rose by 1.1% in the last quarter of 2021, according to new data from the Bureau of Labour Statistics.
"The employment cost index shows that overall compensation costs increased by 1.0% in the fourth quarter, which pushed the annual growth rate up to 4.0%, from 3.7%," Paul Ashworth of Capital Economics said.
"We’re more interested in wages & salaries for private workers, however, which increased by 1.2%, with the annual growth rate hitting a 40-year high of 5.0%, from 4.6%.
"Even with the unexpectedly strong fourth-quarter GDP gain indicating that productivity growth was a little stronger than we had anticipated, 5% wage growth is nowhere near consistent with a 2% price inflation target."
Watch: Rising wages, weak trading hurt banks
AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould said: "While everything looks good with Apple at present, and it certainly had a bumper Christmas, you still must ask if it can sustain such strong levels of product sales growth. Has the pandemic simply brought forward a lot of growth for the business?
“A key sales driver over the years has been product innovation – customers seemingly eager to always upgrade to the latest device. But it feels as if Apple hasn’t been as creative in recent years."
Asian markets were mixed on Friday, at the end of a broadly damaging week for global investors as the Federal Reserve gave notice that the days of ultra-cheap cash were coming to an end quicker than initially thought.
Some bargain-buying provided support in Japan after Thursday's steep drops, with the Nikkei (^N225) climbing 2% on the day.
Watch: What are SPACs?


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Trade union SIPTU has thrown down the gauntlet to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Covid-19 this morning, Thursday, August 13, by asking the question: “Do we cherish the quality of our food more than the safety of our people?”
Speaking to the committee this morning, which is taking place in the Seanad, Greg Ennis, manufacturing division organiser with SIPTU, said:
“It is now beyond doubt that the meat processing industry contains unrivalled vectors for the transmission of Covid-19, which had previously caused 1,115 meat plant workers to be infected in 20 clusters, as of early July.
These vectors include: close proximity working; bottlenecks in canteens/toilets; noise pollution causing workers to shout to communicate, which create droplets with these droplets being circulated through the industrial air cooling systems; relatively low wages causing workers to car pool, share accommodation and in many cases share rooms within that accommodation.
“It is notable that circa 90% of workers within the industry do not have sick pay, forcing vulnerable workers to go to work, even if they are feeling unwell with possible Covid symptoms.”
The SIPTU official said, in mid-June, the trade union had predicted that if a second wave of Covid-19 was to arise, it would manifest itself through the meat processing industry.
“This opinion was predicated on the experiences of other countries such as the US and Canada and the example in Germany, wherein two months after Germany announced looser Covid-19 controls, an outbreak in a meat processing plant triggered a return to lockdown in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
“This meat plant was closed after 1,500 workers tested positive for Covid-19,” he added.
In the Republic of Ireland, we now have circa 1,450 meat plant workers with confirmed Covid cases – circa 10% of the workforce – with clusters of more than 100 cases in five separate meat plants, following the recent resurgence in the midlands.
Ennis queried why Ireland has not followed the example of other EU countries in setting up “national outbreak control teams with the voice of meat processing workers represented”.
He highlighted that workers would “have greater knowledge of the situation on the ground”, adding that workers and their families “are vulnerable and most at risk”.
“Why did the HSA [Health and Safety Authority] not commence inspections at meat plants until late in May and why do we still have very few, if any, unannounced inspections at meat plants?
The Food Safety Authority of Ireland [FSAI] carries out an excellent public duty through its unannounced inspections – do we cherish the quality of our food more than the safety of our people?
Ennis also highlighted the relatively low wages in meat processing, questioning how this reconciles with the “essential” nature of the industry and the labour-intensive and physically demanding role played by meat workers.
He pointed to the issue of shared accommodation among workers and the threat this poses in transmission of the virus, as well as the need to ban “both sub-contracting and bogus self-employment within the Irish meat processing industry, similar to that announced in Germany”.
Finally, the call for rapid turnaround times for Covid-19 testing of workers – within 24 hours – was reiterated by the SIPTU official.


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According to new reports from Bloomberg and other outlets, Apple has partnered with Visa, MasterCard and American Express to create a mobile payment platform, allowing users to pay with their iPhones in brick and mortar stores.
Last week Wired reported that the next iPhone will likely include a near field communication chip (NFC), which would make these types of mobile payments possible.
With an NFC chip, a small amount of data can be transferred between devices held near each other. Google Wallet is an NFC-enabled mobile payment platform that has been around for a while now but just hasn't quite caught on. Retailers could be partly to blame as some have been slow to adopt the new technology.
However, Visa and MasterCard have set an October 2015 deadline for U.S. retailers to make the switch from reading cards via magnetic strips to using newer embedded chips.
So it seems like the timing is perfect for Apple to start implementing a mobile payment feature.
And despite Google getting lackluster results with its efforts, a market analyst told Bloomberg things look better for Apple. "Love it or hate it, Apple drives a lot of standards in the industry. They are the mover in these markets. When they do something, the industry seems to follow."
If the reports are true, Apple is likely to announce the feature at its product event Sept. 9, when the iPhone 6 is expected to be unveiled.


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CAPE TOWN - Pick n Pay, in an effort to move away from single-use plastic carrier bags, has piloted a compostable bag at its V&A Waterfront store, which will determine further industry discussions on alternatives to plastic bags.
Pick n Pay became the first South African retailer to trial compostable bags as an environmentally friendly alternative to plastic bags during a one-day only trial at its V&A Waterfront store in Cape Town yesterday.
The customer trial replaced all plastic carrier bags, barrier bags and fruit and vegetable bags with compostable bags which were given to customers free yesterday.
Cardboard boxes were also piloted with customers, at a cost of R5 a box, as another alternative to plastic carrier bags. Pick n Pay chairperson Gareth Ackerman said that while much progress had been made since 2003 to encourage customers to move away from single-use plastic carrier bags, much more still needed to be done. Suzanne Ackerman-Berman said the new bags would break down after three to six months, depending on the composting system, as opposed to the reported 500 to 1 000 years for plastic bags.
Last month, the retailer committed to remove all plastic straws from checkouts and make only paper straws available at their cold-drink kiosks, while store branded earbuds with paper inners would also be introduced.
- BUSINESS REPORT


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Local families with SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits now have a local grocery store where they can access the Double Up Food Bucks (DUFB) program.
The DUFB program "matches" SNAP benefits spent at participating farmers markets, like the La Grande Farmers Market, allowing families to earn up to $20 a day to spend on fresh produce. Now, as part of a pilot program this benefit is also available at Market Place Fresh Foods, a grocery store in La Grande.
Shoppers can get more fruits and vegetables when they spend their Oregon Trail Card (SNAP) dollars at Market Place Fresh Foods and the La Grande Farmers Market. For example, if $10 of SNAP dollars are used to purchase fruits and vegetables at these locations, that person will earn $10 in Double Up Food Bucks incentives to redeem on fruits and vegetables.
SNAP is a federal food assistance program formerly called Food Stamps. The benefits are issued monthly on the Oregon Trail Card and can be used to buy eligible foods at most grocery stores and farmers markets. The DUFB program is currently only available at one La Grande grocery story and the La Grande Farmers Market. To earn more about eligibility for SNAP and how to apply, go to www.oregon.gov/dhs/assistance/food-benefits.
If you have SNAP:
GO to La Grande's participating grocery store (Market Place Fresh Foods)
BRING your SNAP (Oregon Trail) card
BUY fresh fruits and vegetables with your SNAP card
GET up to $20 with Double Up Food Bucks for free fresh fruits and vegetables
GO to the La Grande Farmers Market information tent (opens May 21st)
SWIPE your SNAP (Oregon Trail) card for tokens to buy SNAP eligible foods
MATCH up to $20 a day with Double Up Food Bucks for fruits and vegetables
SHOP for fresh fruits and vegetables at the market
For more information go to doubleuporegon.org.


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World Animal Protection UK
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Industrial meat chicken farming is one of the biggest causes of animal suffering globally. Yet most people have...
We are calling on all supermarkets to publish details of antibiotic use in their supply chains after our...
More than 500,000 people from 10 countries have signed our petition calling on KFC to give its chickens...
Shocking facts about chicken farming and why we need to change the industry now.
Check out this new film of why cows belong on grass!
All cows graze in fields? Think again...
Our partner Nestlé, the world’s largest food company, have announced a ground breaking commitment to source only cage-free...
World Animal Protection has expressed its dismay that a controversial factory dairy farm application will go ahead.
WSPA challenge Welsh Minister’s decision to build factory dairy farm


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Nokia (NYSE: NOK) this week caused excitement and dismay in equal amounts when it showed off its first (and possibly only) MeeGo-based device, the N9. It’s beautiful, so why is Nokia doing something completely different with Microsoft? (NSDQ: MSFT) Well, today, a video has surfaced that appears to be Nokia’s response. It’s a “leaked” presentation by CEO Stephen Elop showing off the device maker’s much-anticipated first Windows Phone, code-named “Sea Ray”.
The video, posted on the blog Technet (in Hungarian) and then picked up by Engadget, is rather high quality for a stealth recording. It looks like it is of a presentation being made to Nokia employees this week.
“This is something that is super confidential and we do not want to see this out in the blogosphere,” Elop says, as he asks people to turn off their devices.
But in actual fact, his answers are very much to the questions that have been swirling around the blogosphere. “We think it’s important for you to understand how this innovation [from the N9] lives on and how well we as a company are executing,” he says.
He then proceeds to show the audience a device which he points out looks a lot like the N9 in terms of the screen and casing, except that it is running Windows Phone 7 “Mango,” and, unlike the N9, has a home key at the bottom (perhaps because of the constraints of Mango).
Elop says that the device shows how Nokia will carry on its legacy in both user experience and “beautiful” industrial design — which is to say that whatever you liked about the N9, you can expect to see in other new devices, regardless of the platform.
That’s a promising sign, if Nokia can follow through.
The video is embedded below, but as I wrote this post and watched it to pick up more details, I noticed the playback getting jumpier and jumpier, as Technet’s site might just be crashing under the weight of traffic to view it…


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Global technology analyst, Canalys, has leaked what are supposedly internal training documents online. The PowerPoint doc is aimed at the company’s partners and suggests that the channel should “anticipate the possibility of AMD surpassing Intel on CPU performance in 2019.”
That’s a somewhat bold prediction, and suggests that anyone recommending purchasing decisions to their customers ought to seriously consider AMD as a genuine alternative to Intel in both the professional and consumer space. The leaked document has seemingly been taken down, but some slides from the presentation have been saved online.
It’s not clear from the slides which of Intel’s chips it’s talking about when it references a performance lead next year, but it can be assumed Canalys is talking about the 7nm AMD Zen 2 processors which are set to launch at some point in 2019. AMD’s high-end, server-grade 7nm Zen 2 Epyc chips should already be sampling, as announced earlier this year, and are set for launch in the first half of 2019, so it’s a good bet that’s where the Canalys prediction is aimed.
Canalys has quite a list of influential clients, including Amazon, Acer, Apple, Samsung, Lenovo, and HP. And its recommendations to those customers could hold some sway.
Pages from the leaked document can be seen on Expreview and it contains some interesting recommendations outside of the server environment too. While it says that AMD is a serious contender in the commercial space, it also recommends channel partners push AMD CPUs for a number of different people, including “progressive companies with young workers (who may appreciate the ability to do gaming on the side).”
Basically Canalys is recommending AMD chips are a good fit for startups filled with gamers wanting to play Fortnite, PUBG, or SCUM at lunchtime. Honestly, if they’re recommending companies start buying office machines with AMD Ryzen 5 2400G chips inside them, that’s some analysis I can get behind.
These are trying times for Intel, with the company reportedly having to outsource 14nm chip production to rival fab, TSMC, because it can’t manufacture enough CPUs itself. That and some Intel partners, such as Hewlett Packard, are recommending its customers switch from Xeon to Epyc because of those 14nm supply constraints.
Coupled with the fact Intel will only be switching to 10nm silicon (if it sticks to its already heavily delayed timeline) in the second half of next year – possibly well after AMD has already filled our desktops and the cloud’s servers with 7nm Zen 2 processors – it’s not looking too pretty.
It must have something up its sleeve, however, as Intel has a habit of coming back up off the canvas with stellar product. And with industry darling, Jim Keller, potentially looking to reinvigorate Intel’s processor lineup there’s no point writing off the $60bn chip maker just yet…


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EMV Credit Cards Interview with CBS News Radio
CreditCards.com Senior Industry Analyst Matt Schulz spoke on Thursday, October 1, 2015 with Peter King of CBS News Radio about the September 2015 EMV Credit Cards survey. The interview and transcript are below.
Peter King: More than 6 in ten credit cardholders are still waiting for the chip cards, but retailers are much further behind when it comes to the card readers.
Matt Schulz: It’s going to take a year or more, probably.
King: CreditCards.com Senior Analyst Matt Schulz says more will have them by the end of the year, but –
Schulz: We’re seeing estimates of 10 to maybe 20% of retailers have upgraded their terminals to this point.
King: Schulz says it could be a year or longer before it’s close to 100%. He says most consumers should have their cards by year’s end. Why the delay? Schulz says it’s the expense and a lot of other moving parts. Peter King CBS News.


text: The Fulcrum Energy Capital Funds rebrand came as part of the firm’s natural evolution and rapid growth. Previously named after the firm’s President and Founder, the client needed a new brand that it could grow into and would not only communicate that they are a sophisticated team of experts in the energy industry, but remove the personal name association the client felt confined the brand. The next steps after the name change included a fully new logo design, website rebrand, and a full suite of branded stationery to communicate the firm’s new face to all its stakeholders. The new Fulcrum colors transformed the entire look and feel of the once dark website and brought a much-needed lightness to the brand. EnerCom marketing consultants led the development of a “News” blog page on the site to host a series of press releases written by EnerCom’s media arm used for inbound marketing. The creation of templated email campaigns that align with Fulcrum’s leadership and are released on a monthly basis are another key practice that have solidified Fulcrum’s brand awareness and lead generation efforts.


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Modern Internet artist Guo O Dong sells a laptop with six of the most dangerous viruses in the world, the total damage from which could reach $95 billion.
The artist Guo O Dong put his 10.2-inch blue laptop Samsung NC10-14GB (2008) up for auction, which will end on Monday, May 27th. In order to sell and demonstrate the work of a laptop, he created the website “Persistence of Chaos”, where he broadcasts live.
The device is allegedly infected with WannaCry, ILOVEYOU, MyDoom, SoBig, DarkTequila and BlackEnergy viruses. The program WannaCry is an extremely poisonous virus for cryptocurrency extortion. More than 200 thousand users in 150 countries were attacked. The ILOVEYOU, MyDoom, and SoBig viruses spread via email and file sharing. More than 500 thousand computer systems were hacked in the first week of mailing. The DarkTequila program can steal personal data and user bank accounts. BlackEnergy was used in the cyber attack, which caused a massive power outage in Ukraine in December 2015.
The essence of this work of art, according to Guo o Dong, is to demonstrate the real danger posed by computer viruses.
“We have this fantasy that things that happen in computers can’t actually affect us, but this is absurd, weaponized viruses that affect power grids or public infrastructure can cause direct harm.” - he stated.
The last bid for a dangerous laptop was more than $1.2 million. Physically, the device is located in New York.


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Apple’s Steve Jobs has long predicted the death of Flash on mobile and now it is coming true.
Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen previously took a jab at Apple by saying: “Anyone who wants to design for a multi-platform world is our customer. Apple would like to keep it closed and proprietary. Well, let the games begin.”
Can’t he see HTML5 will dominate web animation in the future? … and the death of Flash is now here. Adobe has stopped development of Flash Player for mobile browsers. The main issue for Adobe is that, smartphone makers are going towards HTML5.


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How Flexible Parking Requirements Spur Economic Development
It’s hard to imagine today, but Santa Monica’s commercial areas – now home to Silicon Beach, tourism and bustling retail – were sleepy, underperforming and shabby just a few decades ago. In an effort to revive its commercial heart in particular, the city approved millions in funding for municipal parking structures in the heart of downtown and implemented new, more flexible parking requirements.
The flexible parking requirements gave developers the ability to opt out of providing the required on-site parking by paying an annual fee of $1.50 per square foot of floor area added for which there was no parking provided. Further, it allowed for intensifying the use in a given building without having to provide the additional parking that would otherwise be required.
A study by UCLA urban planning graduate student Carter Rubin and Professor Don Shoup found that a group of parcels subject to the flexible requirements produces eight times more sales tax revenue per parcel square foot than a similar group of parcels just outside this flexible parking district. Further, significantly more street frontage on the flexible-requirement side has active uses, and much less area dedicated to dead parking space.


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Guinness owner Diageo could sell its beer business for more than £7bn, analysts have estimated, amid mounting speculation about the next major deal to shake-up the brewery industry.
Anheuser-Busch InBev, the beer giant behind Stella Artois and Budweiser, kicked off the latest round of brewery consolidation with its £68bn takeover of Peroni and Foster’s owner SABMiller. The acquisition is expected to trigger a series of deals to satisfy regulators, with SAB’s stake in its MillerCoors US joint venture, worth about $10bn, and its interest in Snow, the Chinese lager that is the world’s biggest-selling beer, both likely to be sold.
Diageo, the FTSE 100 drinks giant that makes most of its profits from spirits, could also join the fray by offloading its beer assets, which include Ireland’s famous Guinness, Smithwick’s ale, Kilkenny and a range of brands that are popular across Africa, Bernstein analyst Trevor Stirling said today.
“Every asset has its price if there is a purchaser willing to pay a premium to fair value for the assets (including the tax benefits), which we estimate could be worth up to £7.4bn,” he said.
Given the differences in production and distribution, “beer and spirits do not mix in mature markets”, according to Mr Stirling. Furthermore beer businesses in emerging markets are attractive in their own right “especially given the long-term growth potential in Africa”, the analyst added. One of the main drivers of AB InBev’s acquisition of SAB is to take control of the Peroni brewer’s extensive African operations, and Guinness also has a huge following on the continent.
Mr Stirling does not believe that a sale of Diageo’s brewing business is likely in the “near-medium term”, and Ivan Menezes, boss of the drinks company, said in July that "beer is core to the company". However, the analyst suggested that Heineken was a possible buyer for the brewery operations further into the future, although it is likely to face competition hurdles in Ireland.
AB InBev is another potential suitor and could acquire the assets once it has “digested” SAB. It is possible that Diageo was eyeing a sale of its beer businesses to SAB before AB InBev “intervened” with its takeover of the Peroni brewer, the analyst added.
Diageo has already embarked on a spate of disposals. Earlier this week it sold the majority of its wine business to Australia’s Treasury Wine Estates for about £320m and in July it offloaded the Gleneagles Hotel.
The drinks company has also struck a series of beer deals with Heineken recently. It ended its joint ventures with the Dutch brewer in Namibia and South Africa two months ago, and last week swapped beer assets, in a transaction that resulted in Diageo selling out of Desnoes & Geddes, the Jamaican brewer behind Red Stripe.


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10 November 2015, 05:00
Despite Steve Jobs talking often about how Apple lives on the intersection of art and technology, there’s no Art category in the App Store. Apps are filed away in patronising categories like Education, or Photo and Video.
When I’m viewing artworks on my phone, I’m not doing so for education purposes. I’m doing so for… well, because it’s art!
Additionally, some artists like to create apps that are simply interactive works of art, but at the moment risk getting filed away in the Games category.
The +ArtApp petition hopes to change this. Seth Indigo Carnes, Serkan Ozkaya and Paulina Bebecka, New York City artists and a gallerist, are behind +ArtApp and explain:
There has been no Art category since the App Store’s launch in 2008. Currently, some of the world’s largest museums, such as the Louvre and MoMA, are stuck in categories like Lifestyle or Education. Artists are creating app artworks in this new medium, with no appropriate category.
Art is Art.
We feel there is no category that better captures the vast creative spark within human culture. And we request that Apple recognize and remedy the situation, celebrating creativity worldwide with the addition of an Art category.
You can sign the petition here:
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CUPERTINO, Calif., Feb. 16 (UPI) -- Apple previously blocked a marijuana-based app from the app store, but the company has now changed its position.
Massroots is a social network for marijuana users, and Apple claimed it couldn't be included in the app store because it went against their policy blocking apps that encourage drug use. Now, the company is partially changing the policy.
Massroots announced Friday in a blog post that Apple has decided users can download the app from the app store if they live in one of 23 states that have a medical marijuana law or have legalized marijuana. The users will have to be identified by a geolocation check to confirm they are in one of these states.
The change comes after cannabis advocates sent over 10,000 emails encouraging the company to change its mind.


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Claire Bernish – July 13, 2017
A war on cash has surreptitiously and duplicitously come to pass, as Big Banks and Big Credit attempt to convince their millions of oft-captive customers to make the leap away from currency and into plastic — a surefire means of gaining access to more of your funds through repressive policies and monstrous fees.
Writing a check as payment has been difficult for years, but the move away from currency to digitally-tracked plastic and online pay options has recently taken off — despite reluctance from customers and smaller businesses already wary of being bilked by guileless banks and slithery credit institutions.
Given the sizable snub to the cashless utopia, touted as such by those who stand to profit handily, some credit card companies have opted to amplify pressure on merchants.
Reports the Wall Street Journal,
“Visa Inc. has a new offer for small merchants: take thousands of dollars from the card giant to upgrade their payment technology. In return, the businesses must stop accepting cash.


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Posted by Huawei
Huawei released the Smart Logistics Solution during MWC 2019, aiming to help enterprises improve efficiency in fields such as transportation, distribution, and warehousing, facilitate agile innovation in the logistics industry, and achieve digital, information-based, and intelligent management.
Digital transformation is accelerating, and e-commerce is growing fast around the world. These changes are driving rapid growth throughout the logistics industry. It is expected that the annual revenue of the logistics industry will exceed trillions of dollars by 2025. The development of big data, AI, IoT, and other technologies is ushering the logistics industry into a new round of industrial revolution. They are critical for the logistics industry to reduce costs and improve efficiency.
The Huawei Smart Logistics Solution is built on the Huawei OceanConnect IoT Platform, NB-IoT, and RFID technologies. The whole process of goods transportation is managed in a visualized manner, and cold chain transportation monitoring improves safety and quality. In the last-mile delivery, intelligent scheduling of docks in the yard and sharing of transportation containers improve utilization of logistics resources. Digital management of warehouses makes warehouse management more intuitive and efficient.
Huawei’s Smart Logistics Solution has been deployed in multiple factories and yards. The solution enables enterprises to digitally manage the arrival time, waiting time, and loading/unloading time of suppliers’ vehicles, and intelligently schedule docks. The unloading efficiency in the yard and the on-time delivery rate of suppliers are greatly improved. Intelligent scheduling and management lower costs and improve logistics efficiency.
Huawei will continue to explore and apply new technologies, to meet the increase in more logistics application scenarios, and help logistics industry achieve digital transformation.
Huawei Enterprise is committed to bringing digital to every organization for a fully connected, intelligent world, including government and public sectors, financial services, energy, transportation, manufacturing, and other sectors. Currently, 211 of Fortune Global 500, including 48 of the top 100, and a total of more than 700 cities all over the world, have chosen Huawei as their partner in digital transformation.
Huawei Enterprise debuts the MWC2019 held from February 25 to February 28 in Barcelona, Spain, under the theme of “Building a Fully Connected, Intelligent World”, bringing four latest flagship products and solutions. ―CT Bureau


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There’s no question that the coronavirus pandemic is forcing investors to challenge their views on where to invest in the future.
While many investors are searching for opportunities on new ground, others are sticking with the tried and tested markets, confident they’ll keep delivering solid, reliable returns well into the future.
“One of the traditional favourites is real estate. And commercial has long been a popular sector,” said Scott Kuru a property investing mentor and co-founder of Freedom Property Investors, an educational community for people seeking to build wealth through property.
According to the Association of Foreign Investors In Real Estate (AFIRE)), the USA is the world leader in commercial property investing, ahead of Germany, Canada, the UK and Australia.
However, the commercial real estate market should be treated with caution as an investment vehicle, Kuru said.
“The reason for this is the rapidly changing business landscape. And while COVID-19 has caused turmoil in the commercial real estate sector, the reality is it has only hastened a trend which has been quietly underway for years now,” he added.
Retail investing, for example, is suffering the effects of COVID-19 faster than other sectors. Most shops in Australia have been closed for months, with others having remained open yet deserted.
Many massive chains have closed in the last few months, some of which admittedly were in trouble before the pandemic. Brands like Tigerlily, Harris Scarfe, Bardot, Jeans West, Kikki K and Ishka have either closed forever, or are on the brink of collapse.
And of course, Target recently announced sweeping store closures as well.
Flight Centre is also close to collapse with virtually no holiday flights being booked through the chain at the moment. And while some of these chains may fight back as stores re-open, others will disappear forever.
The other elephant in the room for retail real estate of course is the continued growth of online shopping. More and more consumers are choosing to shop online instead of in stores. According to analysts IBISWorld, online shopping is growing at 15.5% per annum in Australia alone.
Companies such as Amazon and eBay continue to enjoy record growth, with major retailers such as the Myer and David Jones chain have expanded their online presence, and accelerating their efforts as COVID-19 took hold.
Of course, it is not just major retailers expanding their online presence. Smaller retailers are also expanding their eCommerce capability, also as a direct response to COVID-19.
The future of office space as an investment appears shaky as well. And COVID-19 again is playing a significant role.
At the beginning of the pandemic, workers were forced to work from home. And surprisingly, many workforces have found it beneficial and efficient. Today’s technology has made it a more seamless experience. And it is now far more acceptable for small businesses to work from home instead of leased offices.
One of these benefits for companies, of course, is saving money on office expenses. And as a result, we are likely to see smaller offices and potentially higher office vacancies.
The industrial sector is possibly the least affected.
However, it’s still tough being a manufacturer in Australia. Cheap goods from China continue to flood the local market, making it tougher for local manufacturers to compete.
However, service-related factories will continue to provide some stability. Warehousing and distribution, construction and automotive-related industries continue to be in demand.
Unfortunately, as more and more factories and sheds become vacant, it’s the tenants who have the upper hand in driving rents down as excess supply puts the ball firmly in their court.
Is there a better option?
Residential real estate could still be a very attractive option for investors who crave solid returns and stability.
The rows of empty shops and factories are a good reason to consider residential over commercial. Particularly when so many old warehouses are being converted into apartments and offices.
Residential real estate continues to be fuelled by our population growth rate of 1.8% and record low interest rates. And despite predictions of a massive crash, it has defied the expert predictions time and time again.
In 2011, prominent economists predicted residential price falls of up to 40%. Instead, Sydney’s median price climbed from $600,000 to smash the $1,000,000 ceiling just six years later. People need a house to live in, and this is a constant force in the market.
It’s no surprise then that Corelogic recorded a very slight 0.03% increase in house prices in April.
Of course, don’t expect prices to rise every month in the short term. With record high unemployment, a slight decrease is almost inevitable. However, with high demand for property along with low interest rates it’s unlikely we will see a significant drop in prices.
This makes now an excellent time to pick up well priced properties in excellent areas. Houses in popular suburbs close to transport, shopping, schools and work centres make excellent investments.
However, you should be cautious about searching for bargains. This can be counterproductive since bargains only typically appear in suburbs which aren’t popular with buyers and renters. And while you could grab a big saving, it’s unlikely to deliver the returns you want in the long term.
While opportunities may continue to present themselves in the commercial sector, they are unlikely to perform as well or as reliably as residential property in popular suburbs, Kuru said.
“And, a high population growth combined with low interest rates are likely to drive residential property prices to new highs once the coronavirus is truly over,” he said.


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NEW YORK - Volkswagon has created quite a buzz for their new Super Bowl ad - but none of it is about their cars. It features a white Midwesterner with a fake Jamaican accent.
Some people are now calling it racist.
New York Times op-ed columnist Charles Blow told CNN "it's like blackface, but with voices."
VW's chief marketing officer says despite the criticism, there are no plans to pull the ad.
Jamaica's minister of tourism and entertainment calls the ad a "compliment," and is saying he's even negotiating with VW for possible co-branding.
The actor at the center of all of this says people are entitled to their opinions, but adds that his brother-in-law - who's from Kingston, Jamaica - loves it.
(Copyright © 2013 USA TODAY)


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The truth behind fashion’s most recent word-of-the-day.
By Cyrus Jarvis.
There’s no denying that fashion is having a sustainability moment right now.
The environmental impact of fast fashion has been widely acknowledged for a long time, and unfortunately many fast fashion retailers have no intention of trying to change. Until recently, high fashion brands were no better, and collectively destroyed billions of dollars’ worth of clothing every year. Although brands like Burberry have stopped this practice, it is not known how many others continue.
Despite the word ‘sustainability’ becoming a major theme during fashion weeks all over the world, many would say it has become a buzzword, and from the perspective of a climate activist, I can confirm that it feels like the word has lost all meaning. Brands are rushing to polish their green credentials in an attempt to keep themselves relevant as demand for sustainable fashion grows rapidly, with many not doing enough and some blatantly greenwashing. Last summer, French President Emmanuel Macron brought together 150 brands under the ownership of 32 companies to sign a pact aiming to bring just 20% of the fashion industry to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, despite that fact that we have only until 2030 to achieve net-zero across the developed world. To add to this, among some of the pact’s most notable signatories (brands like Zara and H&M, as well as fashion houses like Chanel, Burberry, and Kering, the parent company for Gucci, Balenciaga, and Saint Laurent), one seems to be missing. Kering’s biggest competitor, LVMH (the parent company for Louis Vuitton, Dior, and many others), is absent from the pact, even though during a climate emergency, collaboration should take precedence over the anti-collaboration mentality that hinders sustainable innovation.
Collage via @fash_revusa
The truth is, at today’s pace, the textile economy is projected to release over 20 million tons of plastic microfibers into the ocean by 2050. By 2030, it is predicted that we will be using two Earths’ worth of resources, and the demand for clothing is expected to rise by 63%. The fashion industry already produces 100 to 150 billion items per year (there are about 7.8 billion people in the world), leaving charity shops, textile warehouses, and developing countries’ marketplaces overflowing with cheap, low-quality castoffs.
There is a very long way to go for brands to truly become environmentally friendly, and it can’t be done by simply claiming sustainability while continuing to excessively manufacture new items in a linear production line that ends with clothes being burnt or dumped in landfill. The solution here is a slower, circular economy, where products and materials are recovered, regenerated, and reused. Until the industry decides to take the steps to achieve that, we will be stuck in a never-ending cycle of destroying the earth (not to mention committing countless human rights violations), not for beautiful and well-crafted pieces, but for disposable trash that was arguably pointless to produce anyway.
Our wardrobes are an extension of ourselves. Just as how one’s bookshelf says a lot about their character and interests, so do one’s clothes; they’re instrumental tools of self-expression. Perhaps at some point in the coming decades, we will lose touch with our clothes and give in entirely to the low prices of fast fashion. Maybe social media and marketing have conditioned us to keep buying these low-priced items so that we have a constant selection of new clothes. In reality, however, this destroys us and our planet. Even luxury fashion houses failed us by making their items no less disposable than fast fashion. It’s now up to fashion brands to gather the courage to revolutionize their industry or be forced by governments to do so.
Homepage collage by @fash_rev


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Apple’s iPhone X, which hits stores in November, took five years to develop, Apple Chief Design Officer Jony Ive said on Friday.
The device’s new design, which eliminates the home button in favour of a screen that takes up nearly the entire front of the phone, was the result of a development process full of failures, Ive said during an onstage interview at the New Yorker TechFest conference.
“I mean, the phone we just announced a couple of weeks ago, the iPhone X, that technology is something we’d been working on for five years. And we had prototypes,” Ive said, either referring to the iPhone X design or its new facial recognition feature, Face ID.
“There’s a tendency, and of course there is, and I understand it, with the benefit of hindsight, all of it seems inevitable,” Ive said. “But for 99% of the time, it didn’t work for us. For the vast majority of the development cycle, all we had were things that failed. By definition, if they didn’t fail halfway through, then we’d be done.”
Technology of Ive’s dreams
One question that Ive was asked by interviewer David Remnick was about new technologies he dreams about.
But Ive didn’t take the bait, and did not reveal any details about upcoming Apple products, or even its interest in technologies like augmented reality.
“There are so many opportunities around displays, opportunities as silicon has become smaller and more efficient, computational power is extraordinary, some of the allowances, some of the opportunities are extraordinary,” Ive said.
He did, however, at one point during the interview give a shoutout to Apple’s silicon department, which recently produced chips that outperform similar products from companies like Qualcomm and Intel.
“If I get to sit down for 2 hours with one of the world’s best silicon chip designers, I could not be happier,” Ive said.
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UltraViolet (UVVU) was announced in 2010, launched in late 2011, and will cease operations on July 31, 2019. ABI Research covered UVVU in its earlier days, but expressed a healthy level of skepticism throughout most of that coverage. First impressions were not positive, and even with some things going UVVU’s way (e.g. Tesco joining UVVU) the platform couldn’t overcome the fragmentations and--perhaps most critically--the lack of support from Disneyand other key video services like iTunes, Amazon Video, and Google Play.
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An Alfred University researcher claims to have developed a process for making super-strong glass that is nearly unbreakable.
Glassware based on the new glass is to be produced by Santanoni Glass and Ceramics of Alfred Station, New York, as a result of a royalty agreement signed between the two parties.
The deal will allow Santanoni to produce ‘unbreakable’ glassware such as wine glasses, canning jars, bottles, tumblers, goblets and mugs at a cost competitive with normal, unstrengthened glassware.
Dr William LacCourse, a professor of glass science at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, and the founder of Santanoni, has researched processes for strengthening glass for more than 30 years.
He said: ‘No glass is unbreakable, but our process produces the highest-strength glassware available today, and at price that makes it affordable.
‘It has the potential to save restaurants, catering services and families up to 80 per cent, and perhaps more, on their glassware costs. We have dropped glass bottles from 10ft high onto a concrete floor, and the glass simply bounces.’
Over the years, the research was partially funded by Alfred’s Center for Advanced Ceramic Technology (CACT), as well as Santanoni.
Santanoni’s so-called Ultra-HS glass products are now available in limited quantities as the company prepares to ramp-up production levels.


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European auto makers face massive fines if they haven’t slashed the fuel consumption of their vehicles by 2021, and a couple of reports published this week suggest some of the biggest manufacturers will be caught out in a big way.
Investment bank UBS, in a report entitled “CO2 compliance in EU – a disaster in the making?” said PSA Group of France faces a 25% hit to its profits and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) will lose 20%. BMW, Mercedes parent Daimler and Renault of France are less vulnerable. The EU regulations express fuel consumption in terms of grams of carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted per kilometer.
Moody’s Investors Service said Volkswagen, Europe’s biggest auto maker, will be hit hard and adds Hyundai/Kia of Korea and Ford Motor to the list. Moody’s also said Toyota leads the way in compliance in Europe. Toyota never fully embraced Europe’s love affair with diesel, and has pioneered gasoline electric hybrids.
The trouble is, the EU’s regulations to curb fuel consumption assume electric cars will be available to take up the slack. That is not a foregone conclusion. Manufacturers worry that after spending massive amounts of money investing in electric cars, buyers will shun them on grounds of price and utility.
The EU has mandated average fuel economy across manufacturer’s fleets the equivalent of about 57 U.S. miles per gallon mpg in 2021, up from 41.9 miles per U.S. gallon in 2015, and 92 miles per U.S. gallon by 2030. This can only be achieved by a huge, and maybe impossible, contribution from expensive electric cars. The EU now insists on a 37.5% cut in carbon dioxide (CO2) by 2030 to 59 g/km from 2021’s 95 g/km.
The European Car Manufacturers Association is angry, saying the target for 2030 is totally unrealistic, and is driven purely by political motives, without taking technological and socio-economic realities into account. It hasn’t got quite so excited about the 2020/21 targets, but perhaps it should.
Diesel engines were supposed to provide much of the fuel efficiency to meet the targets, but following the VW dieselgate scandal, and mounting evidence that at least older diesel engines are spewing out health-damaging poisons, diesels have fallen out of favor. In 2018, diesel powered cars and SUV's market share in Europe fell to 36% from 44% in 2017, and compared with a peak of 56% in 2011.
UBS, in its report, said in 2018 emissions of CO2 were 25% above target on average. It expects EU regulators to show no mercy if the industry lags.
“We expect the EU to stand firmly behind the regulation and to strictly enforce fines for non-compliance. Complying means about 7.4 billion euros ($8.7 billion) additional EBIT (earnings before interest and tax) headwinds for EU (manufacturers), 14% of sector 2018 EBIT, a burden still under-estimated by consensus,” UBS analyst Patrick Hummel said.
Moody’s estimates fines for non-compliance could range from 2 billion euros ($2.3 billion) across the industry to 11 billion euros ($12.9 billion) depending on the severity of the failure. This will also provide an incentive for carmakers to launch new electric or hybrid vehicles.
“The potential for large fines is acting as a big incentive to launch unprecedented numbers of new electric or hybrid models over the next year,” said James Leaton, analyst at Moody’s.
“Some manufacturers may fall short and have to pay fines or lose market share as they forego sales of high-emission models. Volkswagen, Fiat Chrysler, Ford, Hyundai and Kia are most exposed, based on their current gap to 2020/21 targets,” Leaton said.
Leaton said half of large European manufacturers need to take drastic action over the next two years.
Reuters’ Breaking Views column has also pointed to this potential financial black-hole for European car makers.
“New standards for fuel economy and tailpipe emissions are pushing carmakers to engineer ever-cleaner machines, and regulators are becoming more ambitious. A ban on conventional engines looms in parts of Europe, and beyond. That means frequent investment, and occasional fines. European Union rules are so exacting that Nomura estimates the industry faces almost 30 billion euros ($35 billion) of fines over the next three years,” Breaking Views columnist Katrina Hamlin said.
As manufacturers grapple with meeting the ever-tightening rules, they face a dilemma. Electric cars and hybrids are much more expensive than the cars they are replacing. Even if they succeed in producing enough high-tech cars and SUVs to meet demand, it is likely that prices will be too high and consumers will shy away.
“As many (manufacturers) executives say “we’re developing cars for the regulator, not for consumers” . The big hope is that consumer demand for electric vehicles will suddenly surge. But if that doesn’t happen, there is a huge risk of surplus electric vehicle capacity and weak pricing – as soon as 2021,” said Bernstein Research analyst Max Warburton in a recent report.
“At that point, either regulators will need to back off on their targets, or manufacturers will need to take an axe to costs,” Warburton said.
UBS said in its report that manufacturers will bring forward a mix of 48 volt mild-hybrid, plug-in hybrids and all-electric cars. It said VW, its top investment pick, has aggressively pursued a battery-electric policy. BMW and PSA will have to increase spending on battery electric vehicles after 2021 when their plug-in hybrids don’t do enough to meet the regulations.
Companies like VW have a target for global battery electric vehicle (BEV) sales of 25% by 2025, although for Europe this is between 15 and 18%. But many independent forecasts are much lower. Bernstein Research’s latest estimate sees BEVs accounting for 8.2% of global sales in 2025, and 3.4% for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.


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Even Gary Oldman’s dramatic gravitas can’t save this film’s meandering plot and worshipful techno-babble.
While never particularly deep, and somewhat predictable, ‘Jack Ryan’ has everything a television spy series should.
The game was a smart, brutally unforgiving shooter in a 1990s era headlined by the likes of ‘Doom’ and ‘Goldeneye.’
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- Why CNN’s Normalizing Of A White Nationalist MattersNo one does more to normalize white supremacists than ocontinue reading >


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In a boost to the Victorian tech sector, French cloud infrastructure unicorn OVH is setting up an Asia-Pacific region headquarters in Melbourne to take on the likes of Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure, and it intends to employ up to 80 locals within three years.
The infrastructure-as-a-service company, which has more than 20 data centres in Europe, Canada and the US, has also built centres in Sydney and Singapore, as part of the company's expansion to the region.
OVH vice-chairman Laurent Allard told The Australian Financial Review while in Australia for the launch of the Asia-Pacific hub that the company's expansion into the region and the US was part of a bigger vision to become the global leader in cloud infrastructure-as-a-service.
"I'm not from this type of company background where the focus is on small and medium-sized businesses. I'm used to dealing with large enterprises and big transformation projects," he said.
"It was clear to me that the OVH model worked well … but it was important to become the global leader, whereas at the time [in 2015] it was the European leader. We started out with no account manager for large accounts and had a very tech-driven company with gaps in terms of how to drive the company's strategy, but I had that expertise to bring and I'm very pleased with our complementary skill sets."
Until February 2015, Mr Allard had been the group chief technology officer of global IT and business process services provider CGI and until 2008 he was chief information officer of AXA Tech.
OVH, which already has 5000 customers in the Asia-Pacific region that are predominantly Australian businesses, was founded in 1999 by Octave Klaba with only $4000 and has remained a family-owned business in Roubaix, France.
Mr Klaba and his family still own 80 per cent of the business, which was valued at more than €1 billion in 2016.
The milestone valuation came after a €250 million capital raising led by New York-based private equity firms KKR & Co and TowerBrook Capital Partners.
State government's open arms
OVH provides businesses with either public or hosted private cloud infrastructure, as well as bare metal cloud servers, But it considers its point of difference to be its ability to provide businesses with a hosted private cloud that works like a public one, and can be scaled up within 10 minutes to provide additional capacity during expected – or unexpected – busy periods.
The company said it selected Melbourne to be its Asia-Pacific region hub because of its talent pool and liveability, and OVH APAC expansion adviser Emmanuel Goutallier said the state government had actively engaged with the company ahead of the move.
"The state government has been extremely supportive. We started to engage with them mid last year and they have helped us understand the benefits of being in Melbourne and they've exposed us to something important – the education community here in Melbourne, since we want to hire locally," he said.
"We have a strong in-house education program, but it needs to be complemented by external programs."
As well as establishing a presence in Australia, OVH will bring with it its Digital Launch Pad program. This is expected to be up and running by the end of June 2017 and will provide a range of free resources to start-ups on application, including up to $100,000 of cloud infrastructure support.
It is also in discussions with LaunchVic on how to support the local start-up ecosystem.
OVH joins a growing list of international tech companies which have set up offices in Melbourne, including Hired, Square, Slack and Zendesk.
Part of its decision to set up shop in Australia was to provide a local service to its customers here, fitting with the company's decision to create a wholly owned subsidiary for its US operations earlier this year, allowing it to operate in a way best suited to the US market.
"Our business is global, but we have to have a global-local approach. Technology can be a great generic asset, but the business solutions require proximity," Mr Allard said.
"We believe cloud is the way to build business solutions, but at the end of the day you need people on the ground and you need that proximity."
OVH is also in discussions with major telecommunications providers and cloud application businesses about establishing local partnerships in the Asia-Pacific region.
In the 2016 fiscal year OVH reported revenue of €320 million and by 2020 the company wants to hit €1 billion in revenue. By the end of 2017, the company also expects to have grown to 27 data centres, which will likely include more centres in the Asia-Pacific region.
The company has also pledged to invest €1.5 billion in its services over the next five years.
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Commentary: Will 2021 Be A Better Year For Vehicle Content?
In the meantime, the automotive retail business has been working overtime to reinvent itself. They are hungry for inventory, while production is ramping up under safer conditions along the assembly lines. Used cars are becoming scarce, with some auction facilities laying off personnel. However, the rental car companies are trying to reduce excess fleet in the pall of financial issues due to a reduction in travel.


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Pharmaceutical companies are increasing looking to branded apps to inform patients about medicines, and potential help increase medication adherence. Pharmaceutical giant, Eli Lilly, launched a free-to-download app in March for their type 2 diabetes drug, Trulicity.
Approved in 2014, Trulicity saw a 70 percent increase in sales in the third quarter of 2016 – bringing in $243.6 million in revenue – compared to the same quarter in 2015. Now, Eli Lilly is looking to continue this upward trend by marketing their Trulicity app alongside sample packs of the drug, during sales visits with physicians.
Since Trulicity is a weekly diabetes treatment, patients used to taking a daily medication for disease management could forget to take their dose. While the app was initially built to address this issue of medication adherence, Eli Lilly decided that the experience of using the app would need to be further improved for its users.
“That’s when we started building in a bunch of additional functionalities to try to connect our patients to some of our other resources,” Juan Granados-Zuniga, Eli Lilly’s associate brand manager of consumer marketing in diabetes, told Medical Marketing & Media. Everything from FAQs to answering real-time questions they might have, to getting them a savings card, to watching videos on what to expect when getting them started.”
As Trulicity is administered via an injection pen, Eli Lilly is especially focused on helping patients use the medical device correctly. Their branded app includes a demo of how the pen functions, along with the sound it makes when it is used. According to Eli Lilly, this is one of their app’s most used feature.
“It’s used in some cases as a training tool and is essentially augmented reality,” said Granados-Zuniga. “It gives you the sense of how to use the pen if you don’t have the pen on you or if you’re trying to learn how to use it, it’s interactive.”
Eli Lilly currently has two branded apps available for user download, the second of which is for their other diabetes drug, Glucagon. According to Granados-Zuniga, the Trulicity app has been downloaded 2,500 times with around 46,000 total logged sessions.
Despite their success, Granados-Zuniga says that branded apps aren’t appropriate for all pharmaceutical products and medical devices. He goes on to say that working with a partner company with an established app can be the best way to engage consumers.
“Ideally, it would be wonderful for branded apps to live within the umbrella of a CVS or Walgreens app because my goal is not to have somebody overwhelmed by 75 different health-related apps on their phone,” said Granados-Zuniga. “We try to talk about innovative ways to integrate them into different workflows for people because we do think that it’s the right thing to do, to create a better experience ultimately.”


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Egypt’s E-commerce startup MaxAB gets $40 Million pre-Series B Funding while Kenzz gets $3.3 Million.
Last year, MaxAB, the food and grocery B2B e-commerce and distribution platform serving a network of traditional retailers across Egypt and Morocco, raised its $55 million Series A in two tranches; the latter accompanied its acquisition of the Morocco-based and YC-backed WaystoCap. The moves signaled MaxAB’s ambition to dominate Egypt’s and North Africa’s B2B retail and e-commerce market, which includes Cartona and the troubled Capiter, other players that have raised significant capital to compete within the past year.
To continue growth due to the rising demand for food and groceries and fuel its expansion across the MENAP region, MaxAB has raised more money, this time a pre-Series B to the tune of $40 million.
Although smaller than last year’s prized round, CEO Belal El-Megharbel told TechCrunch that the pre-Series B was neither a down round nor a flat round in terms of valuation. He also noted that the company raised new capital, not because it needed the money but because “there are many opportunities that we believe we can tap into quicker the more capitalized we are.” The asset-heavy MaxAB has raised over $100 million in total.
Small traditional retailers serve as the backbone of the FMCG industry across Africa. For most B2B e-commerce platforms across the continent, groceries are one of the many consumer goods they help retailers source from suppliers. For MaxAB, that’s its sweet spot. And since its launch in 2018, MaxAB has connected suppliers with over 150,000 unique traditional retailers in this food and grocery supply chain across Egypt and Casablanca, Morocco, delivering over 2.5 million orders within this timeframe.
MaxAB’s perspective of going deep rather than wide with its product offerings also extends to how it regards geographical expansion. After scaling its B2B grocery delivery across Egypt for over three years, it intends to utilize its network and relationships with local and multinational suppliers and advance full distribution into Morocco, which now accounts for 10% of MaxAB’s business, and entry into Saudi Arabia by the end of 2023.
The company estimates that more than 750,000 mom-and-pop businesses require its services in Egypt and Morocco alone. At the same time, Saudi Arabia is appealing due to the government’s drive to digitize the informal sector and the FMCG’s willingness to explore new business models.
“We’re trying to offer more services to the grocery stores since they are the foundation of the economy we operate in before jumping into these other supply chains. Think about Amazon; they kept selling books for eight years before adding another category. And that’s the school of thought we like to go with,” said the CEO who founded MaxAB with Mohamed Ben Halim. “In Egypt, we focused on launching the grocery supply chain and we’ll use the learnings that have come from that to launch across multiple markets. It’s easier to launch the grocery supply chain in various markets than launch, for example, electronics in our core market because it’s just a completely different business model that we have to relearn from scratch.”
Another growth stream for MaxAB is the fintech business launched last year, which leverages its large pool of merchants and operational capacity to carry out cash collections. And its entry approach to offering financial services differs from the competition; it launched a bill aggregation product — which has grown 5x in transaction value since the start of the year — rather than a BNPL product that many B2B e-commerce platforms introduce to merchants first.
It didn’t take long for MaxAB to delve into the popular B2B fintech category, though; last month, the platform launched a working capital product to its merchant base. However, like Wasoko, another B2B e-commerce platform based in sub-Saharan Africa, MaxAB opted not to raise debt financing to scale that part of its operations. According to El-Megharbel, who was an ex-general manager at Careem, MaxAB currently gets a lot of supplier credit that helps it finance the working capital without raising debt, at least for now. “And because the buy now, pay later product is still early, we can still do some financing with equity without having to pay for debt that we won’t be utilizing in the short term,” the CEO added.
MaxAB’s equity round includes an impressive list of new investors: DisruptAD, ADQ’s venture capital platform; the British International Investment (BII); and the Menlo Park–headquartered private equity firm Silver Lake — its first check of any form in an African startup. Silver Lake invested through its Long-Term Capital strategy with Mubadala Investment Company.
“We’re always proud of our ability to attract top-tier investors to the region. Historically, since our seed round, we’ve always had at least one VC that has invested in Egypt, North Africa or Africa for the first time,” said El-Megharbel on the investment, referencing firms such as 4DX Ventures and Flourish Ventures. They participated in this round alongside other existing investors, Beco Capital and Africa Platform Capital.
Kenzz gets $3.3 Million
Kenzz, an e-commerce platform bringing shopping to the mass market in Egypt and MENA, is announcing that it has raised $3.5 million in seed funding. U.S.-based and MENA-focused venture capital firm Outliers Venture Capital led the round. Some of the participating investors include HOF Capital, Foundation Ventures, and Samurai Incubate.
The company, founded this February by Ahmed Atef, Mahmoud Al Silk and Moataz Sami, said it will use the seed round to grow its product categories, widen the product categories on its platform, hire talent and invest in tech as it launches its app.
You can compare the e-commerce landscape in Egypt to fintech across Africa in that there are more startups in that sector than others; reports say 20% of tech startups in Egypt are in the e-commerce and retail sectors. Several factors drive the creation of such startups in the country, including a young and urban population that has increased in tandem with internet and mobile penetration rates rising over the years. About 40% of Egyptians purchase consumer goods online weekly, according to data.
However, some, like Kenzz’s founders, believe that internet penetration levels and shopping numbers in Egypt mask the reality that e-commerce is yet to be fully realized and optimized in the North African country and, more widely, across the MENA region. Chief executive officer Atef told TechCrunch that they launched Kenzz for this purpose: to deepen e-commerce adoption in Egypt.
Online shoppers in Egypt mainly purchase items on big e-commerce platforms such as Souq, which rebranded as Amazon Egypt in 2021; Jumia; and Noon or social commerce platforms that utilize Facebook pages and groups in a B2B2C manner. Atef argues that while both models have managed to increase e-commerce activities in Egypt, the big e-commerce players neglect the mass market and instead focus more on the three largest cities Cairo, Alexandria and Giza — while smaller social platforms tend to provide unreliable and unorganized service. Thus, Kenzz was built to fill in the lapses from the two models: make products available to the mass market and offer them in an organized manner.
“We’re going after a completely different segment that Amazon and the big platforms are not looking at as they are centralized in big cities and towards the people who are comfortable buying online,” said Atef. “What we’re doing is bringing that experience much closer to the masses and building a reliable, trustworthy e-commerce platform that caters specifically for the mass market, solving for the barriers to buying, whether it’s trust, affordability and relevance while capitalizing on social engagement and social interaction aspects of e-commerce.”
Kenzz’s model is akin to players like Taagerbecause it’s social. However, the mass e-commerce solution is taking a B2C approach as it removes the middleman/resellers, sources products directly from local manufacturers and offers them to consumers. Therefore, consumers know the exact brand selling to them, Atef said. The platform also gives consumers discounts of up to 65% when they make collective purchases with friends and family. According to the CEO, sourcing directly from manufacturers and importers enables it to secure the best deals for consumers — and the group buying feature facilitates more referrals, bringing down its customer acquisition costs. Group orders can also be sent to single locations to reduce consumer delivery fees and logistics costs for Kenzz.
“Most users didn’t see the need to pay for deliveries as they could buy offline and get the product themselves. However, they are finding out that they pay more for transportation. So what was interesting in the pilot is that we’ve seen that people want to share this burden as it became a major pain point when we talked with consumers,” the chief executive said. “So when you’re buying with your friends, we can deliver the order to one place. They get to unlock more savings when they choose this approach.”
Atef also stated that Kenzz’s model helps stakeholders on the other end — local manufacturers and SMEs — by providing data on what consumers want and access to such consumers among additional insights.
Kenzz is yet to launch fully into the market as it is fine-tuning offerings to meet consumers’ demand, which, according to Atef, was grand when the platform soft-launched for two months. He said thousands of customers used the platform within this timeframe, with 50% ordering from outside Egypt’s big cities. “Those numbers help prove this vast potential outside the big cities where people were not comfortable buying online. But when you’re so relevant to them, in terms of brand products, prices and experiences, you unlock this huge potential.”
In a statement, Sarah AlSaleh, a partner at Outliers Venture Capital, said the asset-light Kenzz is solving two key issues that current e-commerce incumbents are not addressing: affordable and reliable last-mile logistics and an uncompromising customer trust philosophy. She references Kenzz’s founding team — with years of experience from Vodafone, Google, Amazon and Jumia — as one of the reasons Outliers invested. “The diversity and depth of Kenzz’s founding team strongly positions them to combine a multitude of experiences and expertise into creating a category-defining company and e-commerce champion for Egypt,” said the partner.
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Renowned crypto-powered sportsbook and online casino operator Cloudbet has announced a new partnership with Authentic Gaming which is known for its highly-acclaimed roulette products. The roulette provider’s games are live-streamed from the floors of a number of gambling locations which makes the new partnership pretty exciting for Cloudbet customers.
Already, Cloudbet boast of a pretty lucrative portfolio of games but the new additions will certainly shake things up. Authentic Gaming has recently unveiled 16 Authentic Gaming products and these will be among the live games that will be on offer on Cloudbet. Some of the most notable roulette games that are now available to Cloudbet customers include 24/7 Roulette, Grand Roulette as well as Blaze Roulette, the service provider’s flagship product. All of these will be leveraging the immense power of the Authentic Gaming’s state-of-the-art Live Arena Studio.
According to a statement from Cloudbet, the company’s prime objective is to “help customers take their gaming experience to the next level. The partnership with Authentic Gaming fits right in with this objective and will be very important for the gaming operator’s plans for the future.
“It’s yet another milestone for us, and a sign of more exciting features and products to come.”
About four months ago, Cloudbet launched its new online gambling website and since then it has followed through with tons of great developments for both its online casino and sports betting products.
Zero-Margin Odds for the US Open
One of the other developments that Cloudbet has recently announced is the relaunch of its signature zero margin odds campaign for the September US Open grand slam tennis tournament. The zero-margin offer was first rolled out for the English Premier League football season. This amazing offer allowed the operator’s customers to access the fairest prices and consequently the highest returns in the gaming market.
“Offering the best mathematical prices is another clear advantage that our technology brings to players, alongside more widely-touted benefits around transaction times, secure fund storage, and privacy protection.”
Needless to say, the move also ties in quite well with the gaming operator’s goal to make sports betting more engaging for the platform’s users. They have done this pretty well by leveraging the power of the blockchain which has made significant savings possible for both the customers and the players themselves.
Moreover, the move is certainly very timely as it will help Cloudbet to take advantage of the sports betting market that is slowly trying to get back up following months of no activity. Customers are quite starved which makes the company’s offers pretty enticing, to say the least.


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Displaying items by tag: google adwords
The news cycle never stops, especially for big tech. The larger US tech companies are constantly evolving, and they may be on the verge of another monumental change. Government probes into the business practices of those tech companies may have huge implications for the future of online advertising. More specifically, these probes may have ripple effects on Google Ads marketing near Denver. As an Adwords agency in Denver, we wanted to examine these investigations and how they may impact Adwords marketing near Denver.
It seems like the tech giant, Google, is always changing or updating parts and features of their search engine. One day it may be a large document relevancy reveal and the next they are merging features together for a better user experience. FiG Advertising + Marketing is constantly researching to stay up-to-date on Google news, so today, we’ll discuss some recent feature updates to Google Ads, along with its associated products, and how they may impact your search engine marketing efforts.
The month of October brought about many new projects to the FiG team, but one in particular was starting an entirely new Google AdWords campaign from the bottom-up for Denver Community Credit Union.


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Body Type:flat bed
Exterior Color: Yellow
Number of Cylinders: 8
Drive Type: rear wheel drive!
Porter, Texas, United States
Edmunds has worked up a piece that tries to figure out just how much the global Chevrolet Corvette economy is worth, a spitballed guesstimate putting the number at more than $2.5 billion with the proviso that the number is probably low. It starts by taking Corvette's new car sales of 14,132 units last year, which would equate to $714,725,900 (including destination) assuming ever car sold was a base coupe with no options. In the final tally, a little extra padding gets that number up to $750,000,000.
But that's not all. Consider this: Many of the almost 1.4 million Corvettes produced over the model's history are still on the road. There are new parts being produced and aftermarket companies like Mid-America Motorworks deaing business, that single Illinois company doing more than $40 million a year in sales. There are the Corvette events large and small, restorers who do nothing but Corvettes, salvage yards that deal only in used Corvette parts and the Corvette magazines where owners find all this stuff.
And then there are the Corvette-themed tchotchkes, every single one of which provides a tiny contribution to the huge licensing royalties that General Motors collects every year. The article admits there's no way to come to an accurate number, but it just goes to show how valuable one specific model can be to a company.
We recently drove the brand-new 2014 Chevrolet Silverado and found it to be vastly improved compared to the outgoing model. And now that The General's pickup trucks have been squared away, it's time to focus our attention onto their passenger-friendly companions, the Chevrolet Tahoe and GMC Yukon (above).
Our spy photographers have passed along a huge smattering of photos (and a video), showing the new SUVs out testing. Both the short- and long-wheelbase models were spied, and while the overall shape of the vehicles hasn't changed all that much, we expect the updates to be substantial. In addition to new powertrain options, like GM's new small-block V8, we expect the interiors of both SUVs to get massive makeovers, providing better materials throughout their cabins and quieter, more refined environments. We even hear that some trick new suspension developments may be in store for upper-end models.
Visually, these spy shots allow us to see a couple of new details on the SUVs' front and rear fascias, including LED running lamps on the Yukon and some interesting LED taillamp treatments. Of course, the obvious third party missing from this set of photos is the Cadillac Escalade, but as we reported earlier, GM is working to further differentiate the 'Slade from the rest of the fullsize SUV lineup, and is working to make the new model "much less ostentatious."
If the 2013 Indy 500 were a movie it would be the one expected to win all the little statues come awards season, and if it were an athlete it would have made spectators watch in awe as it broke record after record. And this kind of talk comes after last year's race was considered one of the best ever - the last lap hijinks in 2012 and Takuma Sato's crash leading to a podium ceremony straight out of a Golden Globes tearjerker.
But this year's race delivered more than anyone expected, from the 250,000 fans to the commentators to the IndyCar series itself and, finally, to the guy who hopped through a two-mile window on Lap 197 to take the lead and keep it until the end.


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US – Open Spaces is encouraging people to tidy their homes – using its storage solutions – as a new form of wellbeing.
Post-Marie Kondo, the brand is highlighting how burnout from work and daily demands can be manifest in the home as clutter and untidiness. In response, Open Spaces is positioning tidying as a mindful part of domestic living with a series of home storage units, shelves and storage sets for kitchens and bedrooms.
The direct-to-consumer range is supported by a series of online tidying guides curated to suit a variety of personality types. Tapping into people’s desire for a sense of control in the home, while also giving them time to focus on friends, loved ones, hobbies and rest, Open Spaces wants its storage products to help make the home a haven. ‘When a rising sensation of burnout began to encroach on our wellbeing, home became a counterpoint to our busy world – a sacred space to focus on the most fulfilling aspects of our daily lives,’ reads its website.
As we explore in our Home Cleaning Market, glossy domestic influencers and design-led, eco-friendly start-ups are increasingly positioning tidying up as an act of wellbeing.


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With the Chevrolet Volt starting to arrive at dealerships, GM has released a new video which attempts to explain the complicated fuel economy rating.
With the Chevrolet Volt starting to arrive at dealerships, GM has released a new video which attempts to explain the car's complicated fuel economy rating.
While the EPA sticker can be a tad overwhelming, it's best to break the information into multiple parts. For the first 35 miles (or so), a fully charged Volt operates like a traditional electric vehicle and doesn't use gasoline. That's simple enough, but the EPA decided to calculate the electrical energy equivalent of a gallon of gasoline to give the Volt a 93 MPGe (notice the little 'e') rating. This was done in good faith, but the figure has caused some confusion as no gasoline is actually consumed in the process.
Of course, when the battery is depleted, the car has to rely on the petrol engine to power the electric motor. When this occurs, the Volt averages a respectable 37 mpg. However, to get the best fuel efficiency, the Volt should be recharged whenever possible.


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Indian rough diamond demand lifts Alrosa's sales in May
Russian group of diamond mining companies Alrosa attributed its sales of rough and polished diamonds reaching $365 million (Rs 2,428 crore) in May to steady Indian midstream demand.
Although Alrosa’s May sales total was a 9% month-on-month decrease compared to its April 2021 sales, the total was a marked year-on-year increase compared to May last year when sales had totalled $40.1 million. Alrosa’s May sales consisted of rough diamond sales totalling $346 million and polished diamond sales totalling $19 million.
“Our May sales results demonstrate strong demand coming from Indian midstream,” said Alrosa’s deputy CEO Evgeny Agureev, the Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council reported. “Despite the epidemiological situation in April and early May, which demonstrates substantial improvement since then, cutters and polishers fully (adapted) and are able to process all available volumes of rough diamonds. End-demand for diamond jewellery remains robust in all key regions. For the first four months of the year jewellery sales exceeded pre-Covid levels of 2019 by 30% in the U.S., and by 10% in China.”
As lockdown restrictions in many areas of India are beginning to ease, jewellery businesses are reopening and jewellery manufacturing is gaining momentum again. Should this trend continue, Indian diamond demand could remain steady or increase further.
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The Boston Business Journal has honored a 96-year old Boston-based contract glazing company by including it on its annual list of the Largest Family-Owned Businesses in Massachusetts.
Karas and Karas, which has 150 employees, ranked 21st with total 2019 revenue of $104 million. Joey Karas, president of Karas & Karas, says the business has been family-owned since it opened in 1924 with two employees.
Karas’ grandfather, Elia, who was a Russian immigrant, and his grandfather’s cousin traveled to West End in Boston looking to salvage parts from burnt buildings prior to 1924. They realized they could salvage and resell glass, which eventually led to installing window glass in residential applications. Later, Elia’s three sons, Arthur, Leo and David, ran the business. Since then, four generations of the Karas family have worked for the company, which now focuses on wholesale distribution, fabrication and unitization of glass and glazing products. The company distributes its products throughout New England.
“Who doesn’t want to own a family-owned business? We’ve carried on a great tradition and we’re good at what we do. We’re able to make quick decisions since we’re not corporate. We’re the same family that’s run it forever,” says Karas, who adds that company also employs more than ten people from the Argus family. “We’re able to treat employees, customers and vendors like family. It’s important to carry on that tradition.”
Karas’ son, Benjamin, also works for the company now in addition to several other young employees.
The company is preparing for its first move to a new building. It currently operates in an old brick building in Boston, according to Karas. The company plans to renovate an existing 110,000-square-foot building outside the city so that all of its operations can exist under one roof in what Karas calls “a building for the 22nd century.”


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Finalists for the Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington’s 2019 awards, known as the Rammys, were announced Monday and there are five from Montgomery County establishments. Silver Spring’s Quarry House Tavern has nominees in two categories.
The nominees from Montgomery County and the categories:
• Republic in Takoma Park – Beer Program of the Year
• Chef Javier Fernandez of Kuya Ja’s Lechon Belly in Rockville – Rising Culinary Star of the Year
• Quarry House Tavern in Silver Spring – Favorite Gathering Place of the Year
• Quarry House Tavern owners Jackie Greenbaum and Gordon Banks – Restaurateur of the Year
• Sabrine Marques of PassionFish Bethesda – Manager of the Year
There are five finalists selected in each category.
Any RAMW member meeting the category requirements is eligible to receive the regional honors, selected by the public and an anonymous panel of judges.
Winners will be announced at a June 30 gala.
Urban Plates opens in Westfield Montgomery mall
The fast-casual restaurant debuted its third East Coast location with a ribbon-cutting and is now open for business.
Urban Plates is expected to open restaurants in Chevy Chase and Gaithersburg later this year.
St. Patrick’s Day specials at Caddies
The Bethesda bar and grill will have food and drink deals all weekend long. Customers can enjoy green bar, Jameson whiskey and Reuben sandwiches to celebrate the shamrock season.
Caddies will also have a green eggs and ham brunch from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, with bottomless Irish coffee and mimosas.
The restaurant will be giving away samples of Jameson, Guinness and Bud Light for patrons wearing the most festive outfits.
All-day breakfast, new items at Modern Market Eatery
The restaurant has added a Mediterranean Bowl, seasonal vegetables and breakfast options including avocado toast and dessert waffles, available anytime.
The menu will be updated March 27.
The new bowl uses 100 percent grass-fed beef, which is not only delicious but better for the environment, Chef Nate Weir said in a statement.
There are Modern Market restaurants in Bethesda and Rockville.
Matchbox celebrates Pi Day
The pizza bistro will have its Marchbox IPA for $3.14 all day at every location in honor of March 14.
The restaurant has a Rockville location and one coming to Bethesda this summer.


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In recent years, Fossil has been the largest Wear OS manufacturer given how different brands use the same underlying platform. In an interview today, Fossil revealed that a premium Gen 6 device was made that took advantage of the new Wear OS this autumn.
An interview with CNET this morning includes an explicit reference to a “Gen 6 watch” when leaders from Fossil revealed that they would start with a flagship this fall that has a “great brand design” as well as a “premium price”. Fitbit also used the word “premium” last month to describe its upcoming smartwatches based on Wear OS.
Other brands from Fossil Group will follow variations, but Fossil says curiously that existing watches will be discounted to serve as the affordable alternative instead of cheaper Gen 6 units right outside the gate.
“Some pretty big hardware upgrades”
“We believe the integration of Fitbit into our product will be a huge improvement and something our customers will love.”
Fossil Commercial Manager Greg McKelvey
Another big tent pole that is mentioned is how Fossil plans to collaborate with carriers globally to offer LTE mobile connectivity and as a means of getting portable devices in front of more people. The only other hardware detail was when CNET asked about button configurations. For Fossil, side buttons and spinning crowns seem to remain, while touch remains the most important method of interaction.
When it comes to software, Fossil said, “All the software benefits that Google is talking about and launching with the unified platform are something we also want to build on.” Google reiterated at I / O that there is no change in the possibility for OEMs to build with Wear OS.
Finally, CNET writes that “Existing fossil Google Wear watches cannot be upgraded to the new Wear OS software platform.” There are no other details, and it is unclear whether this is a technical limitation of old chipsets, or whether Fossil will not use technical resources on existing units.
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