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Datto is looking to disrupt a highly commoditized market, attract a significant number of new prospects for its channel, and provide upgrade options to better monetize the offering.
Backup and business continuity provider Datto has entered the sync and share market. Its Datto Drive solution, aimed at Datto’s traditional SMB market, is intended to disrupt that market, by being priced lower than incumbent vendors, and being offered for free for a year to the first million subscribers. The free offer in particular is also intended to bring in a flock of new leads that Datto can then turn over to its partners.
“We want to flood the market with this to generate leads we can bring to our MSPs,” said Pete Rawlinson, Datto’s CMO.
Datto Drive has already been released to Datto partners in a closed environment, so they can invite their clients in.
“Today is the day that it gets announced to the world,” Rawlinson said. “Customers can now register with us even if they don’t use an MSP. This isn’t a direct play however. After the free year, they then have to have an MSP. This will be a door opener to SMBs that haven’t used an MSP before.”
Datto anticipates customers will stay after the free year because the price is lower than current market norms, and because the product is a quality one.
“Datto Drive will have an MSRP for customers of $10 dollars per terabyte, in comparison with the $15 that Dropbox charges,” Rawlinson said. This covers an unlimited number of users in an organization, and comes with a free TB of storage per domain, which Rawlinson said should be fine for most small businesses. Beyond the free year, there is no core freemium element to the offering, however.
“98 per cent of Dropbox is free, but for commercial accounts, this is a mixed blessing, because people create multiple accounts to take advantage of the free model to save the 15 per month, and add to their administrative costs as a result,” he indicated.
Datto Drive does have two premium tiers of its own beyond the basic $10 a month, and that, Rawlinson acknowledged, will be the main profit source for their partners.
“The differential between the price the MSP pays to us for Datto Drive and the $10 they resell it for is not where they are going to make most of their money from this,” he said. “The money comes from the additional conversations this will generate. This includes two premium tiers with additional capabilities like geolocation of data, to monetize file sync and share.”
Rawlinson said that they expect that customers will be more likely to upgrade from a pay-a-little model to a pay-a-little-more model than they have been to upgrade from the free to pay offerings of the freemium vendors, whose conversion rates remain in the low single digits.
“We absolutely expect a decent percentage to upgrade to the premium model,” he said. “We are already seeing an interest in upgrading.”
Datto is able to charge less for the service, and give away a million TB of storage for free for a year, because they make their own hardware for their private cloud, in their production facility in Monroe CT.
“We are able to control our costs and quality,” Rawlinson said. “Our competitors have to pay a third party for storage, while we create our own. That’s how we can offer an Exabyte for free for a year.” Rawlinson said that customers don’t have to use the Datto Cloud to use the service, if they don’t want to move data, or are familiar with something else, but said that longer-term it’s in the customer’s best interest to do so.
The file sync and share technology itself comes from ownCloud, an open source, self-hosted file sync and share app platform.
“We’ve been working with the ownCloud open source community for file sync and share, and we built Datto Drive based on the ownCloud platform, under license,” Rawlinson said. “It’s tried and tested, and completely cloud based, and because its open source, there are additional extensions for additional security or collaboration.”


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Brands need new stories to tell that connect with the next generation’s values and mindset
In a recent Adweek article about five trends shaping the future of retail, Christopher Brace, CEO at Syntegrate Consulting, made it crystal clear:
Brands need to tell new stories to capture the next generation customers.
On the need for effective story telling to revive flagging brands and retailers, Brace said:
Retailers that can figure this out — telling the brand stories — will be filling a big white space. Millennials are especially influencing this area because they don’t buy things, they buy stories.
Providing insights and strategies to fill that ‘white space’ is what Unity Marketing’s new trend report is all about.
Brand Stories that Sell to HENRYs: Marketing Luxury in a Brand New Style for High-Earners-Not-Rich-Yet Consumers, reveals how to link brands with the new psychology of today’s largest and most profitable consumer segment: The HENRYs – high-earners-not-rich-yet.
Luxury is a mindset, not a brand or a price point
Luxury brands are challenged reaching the next generation of luxury customers, the young HENRYs, not by tactics to connect – internet marketing is a given – but rather by how to create new and compelling reasons why their brands are meaningful and important to this digitally-empowered generation.
This new report will show how. It delves into the values of HENRYs and the kind of brand storytelling that will sell to the next generation’s affluents. It examines 19 new stories of luxury that connect with the psychology of young HENRYs and shows how different brands use each story to achieve marketing success; stories like:
- Luxury for the Moment: Access not Ownership
- Luxury of Discovery: Spread the Word to Go Viral
- Luxury of Nostalgia: What’s Old is New Again
- Luxury for Me: Anti-Status
It draws examples from many of the new luxury style brands that are finding success with HENRY, such as Shinola, Warby Parker, Apple, FitBit, Everlane, Suitsupply, Canada Goose, Toms and many others that deliver a luxury experience to a new generation of affluents.
Get a copy of this report today and start plotting new stories for your most profitable new customers.

domain: news


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Ripple, a leader in blockchain and cryptocurrency answers, has joined forces with Onafriq, a number one bills fintech, to revolutionize virtual asset-enabled cross-border bills connecting Africa with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), the United Kingdom, and Australia.
The partnership marks a brand new generation of potency for remittances and industry bills throughout those areas, as Onafriq integrates Ripple’s crypto-enabled fee generation to determine new fee corridors. This collaboration is ready to handle the longstanding hurdles in cross-border bills, reminiscent of prime prices, sluggish switch occasions, and reliability problems, thereby accelerating monetary inclusion around the African continent.
Using Ripple’s tough blockchain generation, Onafriq is poised to dismantle the limitations that experience traditionally plagued cross-border monetary transactions. The collaboration will attach PayAngel in the United Kingdom, Pyypl within the GCC, and Zazi Switch in Australia with Onafriq’s intensive pan-African community, encompassing 27 nations. This transfer is predicted to massively beef up the rate and affordability of sending remittances and engaging in industry bills to Africa.
Onafriq boasts the most important cellular cash footprint throughout Africa, a continent the place cellular cash has been transformative in bettering monetary products and services get admission to. The fintech’s fee hub unites over 500 million cellular wallets throughout 40 nations, working in additional than 1300 fee corridors. This degree of connectivity is pivotal for fostering regional fee interoperability and facilitating seamless cross-border transactions.
The announcement coincides with the semblance of Dare Okoudjou, Onafriq’s Founder & CEO, at Swell World 2023 in Dubai. This tournament, Ripple’s annual buyer convention, supplies a platform to show off the partnership’s doable to leverage blockchain applied sciences to enlarge Onafriq’s have an effect on at the African continent.
Aaron Sears, SVP of World Buyer Luck at Ripple, expressed pleasure over increasing their answers into Africa. In the meantime, Dare Okoudjou highlighted the partnership’s alignment with Onafriq’s challenge to decrease the relevance of borders in African bills. Spouse CEOs from PayAngel, Pyypl, and Zazi Switch additionally shared their views at the transformative doable of the collaboration for remittances and financial expansion in Africa.
Symbol supply: Shutterstock


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From a special promotion at Bluemercury, to a new (but familiar) restaurant joining the Central West End Streatery — here are five things to do this weekend in the Central West End!
From the grand opening of Lazy Tiger, to special sales and promotions at Bluemercury and Kendra Scott — here are five things to do this weekend in the Central West End.
St. Louis’ Central West End neighborhood is getting a new cocktail bar this weekend.
Now more than ever, Central West end businesses appreciate your support. Shopping and dining locally can make a world of difference for our small businesses and that’s why we are introducing Central West End Tic-Tac-Toe.
From a Kendra Scott Give Back Party, to a Frank Sinatra Inspired Pop-Up Dinner — here are five things to do this weekend in the Central West End.
From a special outdoor giveaway at Patty Long Catering, to the reopening of the Chase Park Plaza Cinemas — here are five things to do this weekend in the Central West End.
Last summer came news that after almost a decade in Chesterfield, Balaban’s would be returning to its longtime home in the Central West End under new ownership. Although guests will have to wait to dine in the new restaurant, located upstairs at 412 N. Euclid, just across the street from the original […]
Tex-Mex favorites and authentic Mexican dishes like tacos, burritos and quesadillas – all ebulliently “galore,” according to the menu – await hungry customers to El Burro Loco in St. Louis’ Central West End and Downtown West neighborhoods.
From a summer sale at Centro, to pinball games and pizza at Up-Down STL — here are five things to do this weekend in the Central West End.
Sauce Magazine recently unveiled the winners of its 2020 Readers’ Choice Poll, and thanks to YOU, several CWE restaurants took home top honors.


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Consumers spent more this Black Friday, lured by earlier store openings and discounts, according to First Data Corp.’s SpendTrend report.
The privately held Sandy Springs, Ga.-based electronic payments company said retail year-over-year dollar volume growth on Thursday-Friday was 6.3 percent and transaction growth was 7.3 percent. Merchant categories that saw a boost in dollar volume growth were electronic/appliances, clothing and accessory stores, and nonstore retailers. E-Commerce year-over-year dollar volume jumped nearly 20 percent.
However, heavy discounting led to lower average ticket values, First Data noted. Overall year-over-year average ticket growth was 0.7 percent, while average ticket growth at retailers dipped 0.9 percent.
“The holiday spending season is off to a good solid start. Consumers definitely responded to the early openings and discount prices on Black Friday,” said Silvio Tavares, senior vice president and division manager of First Data Information and Analytics Solutions. “We continued to see strong momentum through Cyber Monday.”


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May 12, 2011
Fiscal Year 2010 Full-year Financial Results
Carlos Ghosn, President and CEO, Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
Fiscal year 2010 was a record year for Nissan in terms of sales and growth. Coming out of the global financial crisis, Nissan again demonstrated its ability to respond decisively in the face of adversity: overcoming the immediate challenges without sacrificing any strategic priorities.
As a result of the natural catastrophe that struck Japan on March 11, Nissan and the rest of the Japanese auto industry ended the fiscal year back in recovery mode.
I also want to recognize the human side of this tragedy. Like so many families in Japan, Nissan suffered the loss of five employees and associates. Please join me in remembering them, their contributions, and reflecting on the tremendous losses experienced by so many in Japan.
As in the past, Nissan has benefitted from its unique and proven ability to successfully manage through a crisis. We have a healthy balance sheet, an experienced management team and a strong foundation from which we will be resuming our growth.
Today I will report on Nissan's full-year financial performance in fiscal year 2010 and provide an update on Nissan's status since the earthquake.
For the full year, Nissan's consolidated net revenues reached 8.773 trillion yen. Operating profits reached 537.5 billion yen, and net income amounted to 319.2 billion yen. Automotive free cash flow resulted in a positive 459.3 billion yen. Net debt for the auto business was eliminated; we had a net cash position of 293.3 billion yen at the close of fiscal 2010.
FY10 business update
Throughout fiscal year 2010, we did not allow short-term pressures to compromise Nissan's long-term priorities. Let me give you an update on two of our main priorities: the launch of affordable zero-emission cars and our ongoing expansion in China.
2010 was the year we delivered on our commitment to launch the first zero-emission, affordable car, the Nissan LEAF. After years of research and development, we launched our first affordable, all-electric car in the United States, Japan and Europe, and it was well received by consumers, environmentalists and society in general. Our vision of sustainable mobility was validated by Nissan LEAF's many accolades, including its recognition as "European Car of the Year 2011" and, most recently, "The 2011 World Car of the Year."
I could make many positive statements about what Nissan LEAF means to consumers and to our environment, but I will focus on two points:
One: Nissan was the first automaker with a mass-market affordable electric car, and being first brings a competitive advantage. Currently, we have more than 5,000 Nissan LEAFs on the road, making it by far the biggest fleet of cars built from the ground-up to be fully electric. In fact, we have more than double the number of purpose-built EVs than any automaker has ever delivered. With this first-mover advantage, we are rapidly building a wealth of data and customer feedback. By the time other automakers have their own production versions of electric cars ready for mass marketing, the Nissan LEAF will have accumulated years of real-world experience and constant innovative development. The performance gap that has already been created between Nissan and its competitors is an advantage we intend to protect.
Two: The Nissan LEAF is creating a critical brand advantage. Nissan LEAF and the other all-electric models coming to both Nissan and Renault will face very few zero-emission competitors until at least 2016. Apart from the incremental sales gains, Nissan LEAF is creating a brand halo, highlighting Nissan's technological strength and commitment to the environment. In the U.S. alone, more than 345,000 hand-raisers have expressed interest in buying a Nissan LEAF, and more than 20,000 have placed a sales reservation. Nissan LEAF is a magnet, drawing new and existing consumers closer to our brand.
Across the Alliance, we will launch eight all-electric vehicles by 2014. Through our investment in battery technology and production we are building a further competitive advantage for both Renault and Nissan. In fiscal 2010, we started construction of battery plants in Sunderland in the United Kingdom... in Smyrna, Tennessee, in the United States... and in Cacia, Portugal. By 2015, the Alliance will have the capacity to produce 500,000 batteries globally. As the zero-emission leader, the Alliance is already better placed than its competitors to compete in both mature and emerging markets, such as China, where environmental and regulatory realities and consumer demand are expected to dramatically increase the market share of electric cars.
Nissan's expansion in China has been another priority for our company in fiscal 2010. Our significant investments in China began eight years ago with our partnership with Dongfeng Motor, and our growth has been fast and strong. In 2003, we sold 94,000 cars in China. Today our annual sales exceed 1 million units, representing nearly a quarter of Nissan's total global sales and making China our largest single market.
We know that the rapidly growing number of middle-class Chinese consumers will make a car purchase one of their highest priorities as soon as they can afford to buy. So we are expanding to keep up with market demand. We just opened our Design Center in Beijing and we have invested to nearly double Nissan's production capacity in China by 2012, increasing our two-shift capacity to 1.2 million units.
Reviewing our other business highlights in fiscal 2010, we continued our investments in very affordable transportation.
In India, through our joint venture with Ashok Leyland, we announced our first price-entry commercial vehicle - the DOST - with production to begin in the second quarter of fiscal year 2011. And, taking big strides forward in our strategy to offer mobility for all, we launched localized production and sales of our global compact car in Thailand, India, China and Mexico.
In fiscal 2010, we extended our low-carbon, low-emission PURE DRIVE technologies across a range of vehicles - from high-end models, such as the advanced Infiniti M Hybrid system, to compact cars with a new 1.2-liter super-charged engine achieving 95 grams of CO2 per kilometer. PURE DRIVE allows Nissan to bring right-sized, low-emission technology to each vehicle class, making it accessible to everyone in perfect harmony with zero-emission leadership.
Nissan LEAF was one of 10 new models we launched in fiscal 2010, including:
- Juke in Japan, United States and Europe
- Elgrand, Serena and Moco in Japan
- Infiniti QX in the United States, Middle East and Russia;
- Murano CrossCabriolet and the NV Van series in the United States;
- Quest minivan in the United States and Canada; and
- Our new affordable compact sedan, launching first as the Sunny in China.
In the U.S., Nissan's NV Van was selected as the "Taxi of Tomorrow" in New York City, where it will be the exclusive vehicle of the United States's largest taxi fleet beginning in late 2013.
Other important actions taken in this fiscal year include signing a strategic cooperation with Daimler and expanding the scope of cooperation with Mitsubishi, such as the creation of our new mini car JV. With these new agreements, the Alliance is showing its ability to evolve and realize benefits from a wide range of projects and the sharing of best practices with multiple and diversified partnerships.
FY10 sales performance
In fiscal year 2010, Nissan's global sales reached a record-high level.
In a year when the total industry volume was up 12.6% - from 64.5 million units in fiscal 2009 to 72.6 million worldwide in fiscal 2010 - Nissan's global sales increased 19.1%. Our sales grew from 3.5 million in the prior year to 4 million 185 thousand units.
For the full year, our overall market share was 5.8%.
Reviewing our sales by region...starting in our home market, in Japan, Nissan sales decreased 4.7% to 600,000 units, but our market share improved one-tenth of a percent to 13%, driven by new models such as the Juke, Serena and Elgrand.
In China, our biggest market, sales outpaced the overall market growth. The total industry volume in passenger cars and light commercial vehicles grew 31.6% in calendar 2010, to 16.6 million units. Our sales grew 35.5% to 1.024 million units and market share for the full year increased to 6.2%. Our sales offensive was driven by sales of Sylphy, Teana and QASHQAI.
In the United States, the TIV increased 12.4% to 12.1 million units. Our sales increased 17.3% to 966,000 units, and we achieved a record-level 8% market share. In Mexico, sales were up 20.2%, and our share reached a market leading 23.1%. Fuel-efficient models such as Rogue and Sentra and steadily increasing sales of Infiniti models contributed to our results across the North American region.
In Europe, where the TIV was stagnant, decreasing half a percentage point, our sales increased 19.3% to 607,000 units, and our market share increased to 3.3%. Sales in Russia were nearly double the prior-year level, up to 102,500 units. In Western Europe, our sales were up 10.6%, supported by sales of Juke and the QASHQAI series of compact crossovers.
As for other markets, our sales in Latin America rose 65.7% to 169,000 units. In Thailand, our sales were up 87.6% to 64,900 units. In Indonesia, our sales increased 65.4% to 42,600 units. And our Middle East sales increased slightly, to 180,000 units.
FY10 financial performance
Our financial performance in fiscal year 2010 reflects our systematic efforts to grow and create value in all the markets where we do business. We delivered a profitable year with significant free cash flow.
Consolidated net revenues increased 16.7%, to 8.773 trillion yen.
Consolidated operating profit totaled 537.5 billion yen, compared to 311.6 billion yen in the prior year. Net income reached 319.2 billion yen, compared to 42.4 billion yen in fiscal 2009.
Explaining the operating profit variance:
- The 147.5 billion yen negative impact from foreign exchange came mainly from the appreciation of the yen against the U.S. dollar.
- The net impact from purchasing cost reduction was a positive 105.8 billion yen. This amount included a negative impact from an increase in raw materials and energy costs by 85.2 billion yen.
- Volume and mix produced a positive impact of 433.1 billion yen as a result of the increase in global sales volume.
- Selling expenses had a negative impact of 191.5 billion yen due primarily to the increase in volume.
- R&D costs increased 18.5 billion yen.
- Sales financing contributed a positive 29.5 billion yen.
- The remaining variance was a positive 15 billion yen, due mainly to the increase in profit from affiliated companies.
At the end of the fiscal year, our net automotive debt improved significantly from last year to a net cash position of 293.3 billion yen. If the yen had remained at the exchange rates that existed at the start of this fiscal year, our cash position would have come to 391.1 billion yen.
We continue to maintain a close focus on our inventory of new vehicles. Inventory stood at 610,000 units at the end of fiscal year 2010, equaling 50 days supply.
Activities since March 11 earthquake
Earlier I mentioned that the March 11 natural catastrophe had a significant effect on our business, causing Nissan to remain in recovery mode for the short term. Let me now talk about actions we have taken and countermeasures we continue to take to mitigate risks to our business.
Immediately after the earthquake, several Nissan plants and facilities reported damage, and, due to their proximity to the epicenter, Nissan's Iwaki and Tochigi plants were the hardest hit among Nissan facilities nationwide. Nissan's Earthquake Crisis Committee, led by COO, Shiga-san, has overseen the restoration of each facility. We restarted vehicle production at all our plants in Japan based on normal operations with the delivery of parts from available suppliers on April 11 - one month after the earthquake.
The Iwaki engine Plant restarted production on the VQ assembly line on April 18, and remaining lines will resume operations this month.
While the disaster left many Nissan suppliers too severely damaged to restore production and we still face supply constraints, the situation is improving. On a daily basis, we are working closely with suppliers to confirm parts availability.
Nissan is known for reacting effectively in crisis situations, but it bears repeating that the power to respond comes from inside our company. Our employees make our company strong and able to respond to adversity, demonstrating the mindsets and actions of the Nissan Way.
Our focus continues to be on delivering our products to customers as soon as possible, and our work is not yet finished. We continue to face three main challenges.
First is the disrupted supply chain. We continue to give support to key suppliers in order for them to recover as soon as possible. As a countermeasure, we are securing alternative sourcing for parts and components where we see continued risk in the supply chain.
Second, the demand for electricity in Japan may exceed supply in the upcoming summer months. To counter anticipated shortages, we will implement company-wide conservation efforts. We will consider more nighttime operations and in-house electricity generation. We will also study a policy proposed by the Japanese Automotive Manufacturers Association to change the days of operations by industry, as a countermeasure for the total shortage of electricity.
Third, we continue to address harmful rumors about radioactive contamination from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant. We began conducting radiation testing on our products in March and continue to confirm the safety of all Nissan exports through proactive screening measures.
Implications on FY 2011 performance
Based on the most recent updates from our suppliers, we expect to resume full and unrestricted production, at all our plants in Japan and overseas in October.
Since the earthquake on March 11, circumstances affecting our operating environment have been changing daily. We are constantly reevaluating the impacts and adjusting our management accordingly. For these reasons, we have decided that it would be premature to provide a forecast for fiscal year 2011 at this time. But we will be targeting our shareholders meeting in June to give you our forecast for the full year.
As we enter fiscal year 2011, our priority is to take the actions and countermeasures necessary to recover from the earthquake's effects and to serve our customers as effectively as possible. Although the parts supply situation in Japan is not yet stable, we expect to restore Nissan operations and recover lost performance in October.
The earthquake has also thrown up questions concerning the future of Japan as a global manufacturing and export base.
Let me be clear: we will continue our commitment to produce 1 million cars in Japan. Nissan is growing and needs the capacity of our Japanese plants, and we believe it is important to maintain a strong and competitive manufacturing base in our home market.
Soon, we will detail our vision for the coming mid-term period. All the strategies relating to our new midterm plan have been made, and our performance in fiscal 2010 prepared a firm foundation for its launch. The new plan will be announced before our next Annual General Shareholders Meeting.
In summary.... 2010 was an unprecedented year. Nissan became the auto industry's biggest success story in the world's largest automobile market, China - and we have equally ambitious goals for other emerging markets. And thanks to the early success of the Nissan LEAF, Nissan has become the undisputed leader in sustainability, propelling the entire automobile industry toward a future that no longer relies on a single, non-renewable resource. The tragic earthquake and tsunami tested our company's resolve - but our dedicated teams have worked around the clock and have risen to the occasion. Our recovery is advancing smoothly...robustly...and Nissan is well positioned in all regions of the world for sustainable, profitable growth.
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According to the latest report by Ovum, the IT spending on big data analytics is set to increase in the coming years. Almost 50% of enterprise IT investment decision makers surveyed plan to spend on big data analytics. The Ovum survey covers IT decision makers from organizations in APAC, North America, and Europe.
Forty four percent of organizations admitted that big data analytics projects will be an important part of their IT budgets in the forthcoming years while almost 15% of them said they intended to implement big data analytics projects immediately, that is, in 2012.
What drives these investments
With skyrocketing data volumes, big data analytics has helped organizations manage this sheer volume of data and extract business value from their networks. A key benefit is the technology’s ability to interpret information on customer trends.
Interestingly, it is not just the big-wigs flocking towards big data analytics. 38% of respondents sustaining terabyte range data warehouses have revenues of less than $50 million.
According to Ovum, many enterprises foresee the data volume in their warehouses to expand by 10-20% next year. Early adopters’ cases have been more common but the drive towards big data analytics will soon have a widespread impact.
Tony Baer, Ovum analyst and author of report, comments, “The need for the technology crosses industry boundaries, with use ranging from classic customer segmentation analyses, to customer churn prevention, managing smart utility grids, public transportation networks, to anti-terrorism initiatives. Enterprises should look to existing business issues such as maximizing customer retention or improving operational efficiency, and determine if expanding and deepening the scope of their analytics will deliver tangible business value.”
Contrary to popular belief, business goals such as improved competitive positioning, business agility and regulatory compliance were not ranked as the key benefits of organizations implementing big data analytics in the Ovum report. Only 30% of respondents felt so, compared to approximately 67, 57 and 49% of respondents who indicated improved operational processes, strategic decision-making processes and better customer services as the biggest business benefits of big data analytics, respectively.
Big data platforms
Skills and understanding of new platforms seems to be inadequate as versions of the more advanced SQL have been found implemented by 2-10% of the survey respondents vis-a-vis the less than 5% of enterprises who implemented the emerging NoSQL (not only SQL) platforms. A corrective measure for this suggested by Ovum is the introduction of tooling, besides the supply-demand laws.
With the trend tipping towards new data types, such as social media analysis and well-known IT brand entrants, the market will be inclined towards new platforms for big data analytics by 2013, concludes Ovum.


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by Forgiven, Thu Jul 05, 2007 at 06:19:36 AM EDT
I remember when I was a kid we were poor, we use to have to shop in the discount stores before Wal-Mart. Usually they were mom and pop dime stores as they were called back then. Nothing ever cost a dime, but the name let you know that the merchandise was cheap and usually not very good. Most of the merchandise was made overseas in places like Korea, Japan, and China and at the time they seemed like exotic and mysterious places. We use to buy our toys there and they wouldn't last very long, sometimes they would break as soon as you unpacked them. But again they were cheap and as a child it was always the getting that was important.
As I grew up those exotic names were replaced by others like Indonesia, Honduras, and the Philippines. The names changed, but the quality of the merchandise didn't. Fortunately, my economic status improved to the point where I didn't have to buy those items any longer and I could afford a little better quality merchandise. As the world has grown to embrace the global economy and the corporate pariah continue their race to the bottom, it appears that China is becoming the epicenter of the free trade showdown. In the past few months we had story after story and multiple investigations into how the Chinese do business. In their effort to secure access to the billion consumer market that is China, many businesses and governments have allowed themselves to be seduced into ignoring basic safety and inspection practices. The results of course have been a series of poisonings, deaths, and slave labor reports, not just here in America but the world as well. How is it possible that we can be exposed to these dangers in this century? Where are the safeguards that should be in place to protect us from exposure to these hazards? Eating food from another country should not carry with it a possible death sentence.
by stormbear, Thu Jul 05, 2007 at 05:59:57 AM EDT
by stormbear, Wed Jul 04, 2007 at 07:31:18 AM EDT
by alexbhill, Sun Apr 15, 2007 at 09:31:31 PM EDT
Previously posted on the Young People For Blog.
Genocide continues, people continue to be murdered, lives continue to be lost. The next month will mark the anniversary of the Darfur Peace Agreement. The crisis in Sudan's western region of Darfur is only getting worse. The Sudanese government claims to be making it easier for aid groups to provide humanitarian support, yet aid groups are at times allowed to work and later denied. Under-staffed and under-supported African Union troops are being threatened and killed. The US deputy secretary, John Negroponte, sees this as the last opportunity to bring in a hybrid UN-AU peacekeeping force as hope seems to be running out for a solution. As Negroponte travels to Sudan he will be bringing the message that Washington's patience has run out. Ban Ki-moon says that he thinks a misunderstanding with the Sudanese government is holding up the peacekeeping force.
by BuckeyeStateBlog, Fri Mar 09, 2007 at 03:23:56 AM EST
I wanted to spread the word that Congress Tim Ryan showed up at the Buckeye State Blog this morning for a guest post. Congressman Ryan is currently pushing the Ryan-Hunter bill that attacks China's currency manipulation which has adversely affected our trade deficit. It's a complicated subject which has contributed to the type of job loss states like Ohio have experienced in the last 7 years. With over 200,000 jobs lost in the buckeye state since 2000, and countless more nationally, folks like Tim Ryan are promising results. The Congressman was on the network circuit last week explaining his legislation, but now he's making his way around the 'sphere reaching out so that people understand this bill and see that we can fix some of our trade problems and save some of our jobs.
If you've got a second, check it out


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Hackers Have Successfully Hidden Malware In Popular PC Cleanup ToolSecurity experts say the Trojan horse-style attack hackers launched affected over two million CCleaner customers who downloaded the product in August.
FBI: Chinese Man Supplied Rare, Malicious MalwareYu, a native of Shanghai, was arrested Monday night at Los Angeles International Airport and is due back in court next month.
Victims Of Ransomware Attacks Have Paid $25 Million Last Two Years, Report SaysRansomware has generated more than $25 million in payments from infected computers' owners in the last two years, researchers found.
American Mac Computers Hacked With 'FruitFly' Surveillance MalwareSome Mac computers have been hacked by invasive and stealthy FruitFly malware, which can tap into webcams and take screenshots.
Malware Found In Hyatt Customer Payment SystemHyatt Hotels Corp. says it found malicious software on the computer system that processes customer payments, raising the possibility that hackers may have obtained credit card numbers or other sensitive information.
Musicians Armin Van Buuren, Luke Bryan Most Dangerous OnlineIf you're planning to look up Usher, Luke Bryan or producer Armin van Buuren on the Web, take heed.
Impostor Facebook Pages Designed To Dupe Friends And Family Impostors have recently weaseled their way into the world of social media, making communication confusing for many users.
Calif. Top Target In US For Foreign CybercriminalsCalifornia is the top target in the U.S. for international criminal enterprises that operate from safe havens in Eastern Europe, Africa and China, according to a report released Thursday.
FBI Warns Public About Computer Virus That Will Knock Thousands Off The InternetThe FBI is warning the public about a malicious computer virus that is set to knock thousands of unsuspecting people off the Internet in several days.
Scammers Target Twitter, Google Searches For Bin Laden Death If you're looking for images of the al-Qaida leader's gory death, don't bother: not only do they not exist, but the search could hurt infect your computer.
Santa Ana Man Admits To Hacking Computers, Extorting Victims For PornA Mexican national pleaded guilty in Los Angeles Monday to charges he hacked into hundreds of computers to extort victims into making sexually explicit videos for him.


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AMAZON CORPORATE HOLDINGS PRIVATE LIMITED
High valuations may not spoil the market party. Sunil Subramaniam explains why
“Do not look at current valuations in terms of trailing but put your eyes forward in terms of the new dynamic that the market is moving towards.”
Amazon, Microsoft swoop in on India's $24 billion farming data trove
With the project, Modi is seeking to usher in long-due reforms to make o...
Corporations want to retain large office spaces, data shows
Several large deals that were concluded recently point to the fact that corporati...
Amazon writes to Sebi on Future-Reliance; CCI meets sellers for ecomm probe
Amazon, which won a huge victory against Future Retail in the Supreme Court in early August, is doing everything in its power to thwart its takeover by Reliance. It has now written to Sebi, asking the regulator to withdraw the conditional approval.
Rising debt led promoters to dilute holding: Sunil Bharti Mittal
Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal said promoters don’t like reducing holdings by choice, but the telco's founders were forced to lower their stake as the company needed capital with its debt surging, stung by a mix of adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues and the need to
Blackstone to acquire 36-acre land parcel in Delhi for Rs 295 crore
Embassy Industrial Parks, the entity acquired by the institutional investor recently, will be developing a 1 million sq ft warehousing space on this land parcel 60km away from Delhi Airport.
Tatas to realign private equity business, close flagship Tata Opportunities Fund
The Tata Group is understood to be realigning its private equity business and is consolidating all its future limited partner commitments under a separate entity, even as it is closing its flagship Tata Opportunities Fund.
A Bajaj JV, one of India's oldest tie-ups, will get unstuck this week
Sources close to both families say the separation has been in the works for several months now. Mukand has been languishing for years and became the smallest Bajaj group company, hamstrung with high debt that went as high as Rs 3,100 crores in June last year and rising losses till December 2020, following bad business calls.
JSPL accepts Rs 7,401 cr revised offer for Jindal Power from Worldone
In a statement, Jindal Steel & Power Limited (JSPL) said its "Board has accepted the revised binding offer from Worldone Private Limited to divest its 96.42 per cent stake in JPL".
Amazon, Reliance and the fight for Future
We look back at one of the most momentous battles in the history of Indian business.
OMERS Infrastructure to acquire 19.4% stake in Azure Power
Green channel is an automatic approval system, whereby a combination is deemed to have been approved by the CCI upon receiving the filing of the notice for the combination by the parties concerned.
We are holding on to Zomato, there is still tremendous potential: Sanjeev Bikhchandani
'It is a mistaken belief that Indian startups need to list overseas to succeed'
Reliance Infra raises Rs 550.56 cr via preferential allotment of securities
New Delhi, Jul 19 () Reliance Infrastructure Ltd on Monday said it has raised Rs 550.56 crore through issuance of securities on preferential basis. Post allotment, the holding of the promoter group in Reliance Infra would increase to 22.
Upstox ropes in Thippesha Dyamappa from Amazon as CTO
The high-profile appointment is targeted to help Upstox, backed by industrialist Ratan Tata and private equity firm Tiger Global, foray into global markets.
Amazon, Tata say Indian govt e-commerce rules will hit businesses
At a meeting organised by the consumer affairs ministry and the government's investment promotion arm, Invest India, many executives expressed concerns and confusion over the proposed rules and asked that the July 6 deadline for submitting comments be extended, said the sources.
Flipkart, Amazon seen hit by proposed ban on flash sales, stricter rules
According to newly proposed e-commerce rules, online retailers would be barred from offering 'flash sales' and also face difficulty in scaling up private brands, especially those that synonymous with the name of the firm.
Amazon, Flipkart challenge court order
From Amazon and Flipkart challenging HC order on CCI's antitrust probe to Twitter's standoff with govt and Satya Nadella elected as board chairman, here's a quick look at the top tech news today.
Delisting Regulations: Time to ease take-private rules for corporate India.
Delisting of listed companies have met with limited success in India mainly on account of stringent pricing rules under the Delisting Regulations.
Top US corporates sending aid; ventilators reach India
While some of the ventilators have arrived, the full consignment will be in place within the first week of June, with the timeline for concentrators set to arrive by the end of this month. The US chambers will work with the Indian government to ensure the resources are deployed to the most critical areas.


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Leeds-based Imagco has partnered with renewable energy company Planet-U Energy to implement a range of sustainable solutions to help it reduce the carbon output of its Holbeck site by more than 30,000 tonnes per year.
Fujifilm is increasing the price of its inks, offset printing plates, processing chemicals and PWB films by a double-digit percentage as of 1 May.
Xaar has launched the Xaar Nitrox inkjet printhead, for printing speeds of up to 100m/min.
The next Esma Academy ‘Industrial Digital Print’ course will run online, on 8-10 June.
Trade show organiser Fespa is launching a series of online events to help printers plan for business recovery. The new ‘FIT - Fespa Innovations and Trends’ programme kicks off with a wide-format orientated event on 26-27 May, followed by a printed clothing event on 9-10 June.
CGS Oris has partnered with China’s HanGlobal Group for the next three years. Initially, CGS Oris colour management solutions will be applied to HanGlobal inkjet digital label and book presses. In a second phase, other digital printing presses of the HanGlory division - such as large format UV printers, digital corrugated packaging printers and textile printers - will follow.
The numbers are out for the first virtual.drupa (20- 23 April).
HP and Papergraphics will host a webinar at 10.30am on 27 April exploring the opportunities in decorative inkjet printing for commercial and residential interiors.
Global Inkjet Systems (GIS) has launched its next generation Atlas Image Quality (IQ) toolset - intelligent software for image management and compensation for inkjet printheads.
FM Future - organiser of FuturePrint virtual events - is launching FuturePrint Tech Fest this summer.
UK retail and shopper marketing agency Impact Retail has upgraded its Onset X1 printer to the higher-speed, automated Onset X1 HS in a world first.
Sappi has brought uncoated, bleached and completely recyclable virgin fibre liner Fusion Nature Plus to market. It can be used with digital, flexo and offset processes.
Forty-seven ‘Rising Stars’ are celebrating receiving grants of up to £1,500 each from The Printing Charity to invest in their personal and professional career development in the print, paper, publishing or packaging sector.
A quarter (23%) of small businesses think it is unlikely they will be in business beyond the end of the year as a result of the pandemic, reveals the latest Small Business Monitor from employee benefits platform WorkLife by OpenMoney.


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'IoT'-When looked through Cognitive Computing Systems
The Internet of Things term was first coined in 1999, but it is only in recent past that IoT has picked up amongst the industry. IoT has the potential to create massive disruptions and is garnering intense interest in the press as start-ups and established IT firms hasten to jump aboard this bandwagon. A lot of mergers & acquisitions are also taking place in this sector with the likes of Google’s acquisition of Nest and Jasper’s acquisition by Cisco.
The main reason what we think for sluggish development and limited commercialization is that IoT is not the transformative disruption at the moment as lot of folk imagine- there are simply too many missing pieces that industry needs to work on. Devices & sensors capturing the data and algorithms to handle the front and back ends of the IoT is taking too much of importance and the middle bit of infrastructural gaps that lie between the sensors in things and the data analysis performed by servers in the cloud at the centre is not getting the attention that it seeks. These less focused middleware issues of standards, interoperability, integration and data management- especially privacy and protection from malicious attack along with product liability, intellectual property rights and regulatory compliance are going to take a long time.
All these hurdles are falling quickly and the industry is rapidly adapting to this Disruptive innovation. Just like smart phones, which picked up massively in the last 5 years despite being present before, we believe the future holds good for IoT even if the present looks tough.
The whole IoT story is about creating value by connecting physical devices and sensors, analyse the data to understand the patterns and trends. The data driven decisions have the potential to drive business and industries to new heights.
Currently much of the residual or edge data created by IoT is not used but holds great value. By bringing cognition to the internet of things i.e. by combining data from devices with information from other sources such as weather and news events, we can use the resulting analysis to drive decisions on everything from predictive maintenance to everything. In summary we need the Internet of Things to be smarter than it is by getting more value from the data it produces and this can be achieved by cognitive computing systems.
U.S. Federal Trade Commission chairwoman, Edith Ramirez, addressed the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this year, warning that embedding sensors into everyday devices and letting them record what we do could pose massive security risk. The small size and limited processing power of many connected devices could inhibit encryption and other robust security measures. Some connected devices are low-cost and essentially disposable, if vulnerability is discovered on that type of device, it may be difficult to update the software or apply a patch.
IoT companies have to enhance privacy and build secure IoT devices by adopting a security focused approach, reducing the amount of data collected by IoT devices and increasing transparency and providing consumers with a choice to opt out of data collection. The Internet went through a similar phase two decades ago. The Internet is still not fully secure, so we can’t expect IoT to be secure, either. However, security is constantly evolving to meet new challenges, we’ve seen it before, and we’ll see it again, with IoT and subsequent connected technologies. Technology always advances. New manufacturing processes generally result in faster and more efficient processors, and sooner or later, the gap will close, thus providing developers with enough processing power to implement better security features.
Companies need to take an integrated and holistic view of IoT, understand the opportunities it offers and build strong business cases for enhancing revenue, increasing efficiencies and improving asset management. One also needs to identify initial business areas and operations where IoT can deliver significant business values which could be enriched client experience or faster growth. Developing robust data management and analytics capabilities will be crucial for organizations to mine valuable insights from the data generated by the transactions and interactions that occur within the IoT ecosystem.
Connected world- whether it is home, your car, your physician, health care providers, retail etc is not a fiction anymore. The IoT opens up a whole world of unlimited possibilities creating new conveniences for consumers and new opportunities for businesses.


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Community Beer Co. is aging its latest Barrel-Aged Legion in a very different type of barrel than it has used before.
In an email, Jamie Fulton, brewmaster at Community, told Tenemu that the newest incarnation of the Dallas, Texas-based brewery’s barrel-aged Russian imperial stout will have aged in Jamaican rum barrels for six months. The base beer is Community’s Legion, a 10 percent ABV Russian imperial stout that incorporates 12 different malts, including English Maris Otter, dark crystal and highly roasted black malts.
This will mark the sixth time that Barrel-Aged Legion has been released in bottles:
- Barrel-Aged Legion — December 2014 — Aged in Heaven Hill Distillery barrels
- Barrel-Aged Legion — January 2015 — Aged in a variety of bourbon barrels
- Barrel-Aged Legion — February 2015 — Aged in a variety of bourbon barrels
- Barrel-Aged Legion — November 2015 — Aged in Woodford Reserve barrels for five months
- Barrel-Aged Legion — November 2016 — Aged in 5-year-old scotch barrels from The Macallan distillery for over 12 months
- Barrel-Aged Legion — November 2017 — Aged in Jamaican rum barrels for six months
According to Fulton, this incarnation of Barrel-Aged Legion will include “slightly more” bottles than last year’s release and will be packaged in four-packs of 12-ounce bottles that are scheduled to begin shipping to retailers “around November.” In addition, each bottle will be date coded with Rum Barrel on the bottom to differentiate them from previous releases.


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Wall Street’s on-again, off-again love affair with Netflix looks like it’s back on.
Shares of the streaming video service surged 13.4 percent to close at $81.72 yesterday. That’s on top of a 6-percent gain on Tuesday before the Fourth of July break.
Bolstering enthusiasm was a Facebook post by CEO Reed Hastings, saying that the company delivered a record 1 billion streams in June. By comparison, the company delivered 2 billion streams during the entire fourth quarter of last year.
“Congrats to Ted Sarandos and his amazing licensing team. Netflix monthly viewing exceeded 1 billion for the first time in June,” he wrote. “When ‘House of Cards’ and ‘Arrested Development,’ debut, we’ll blow these records away. Keep going Ted, we need even more.”
Netflix could also be benefitting from the lull in between the end of the regular broadcast TV season and the start of the summer season for the cable networks.
Netflix hit a 52-week low of $62.66 on June 14 after a string of missteps, including a deeply unpopular price hike and an ill-fated decision to split off the company’s DVD delivery service from its streaming business. A little less than a year ago, the stock hit a 52-week high of $298.73.
In the first quarter, the company recorded a $5 million loss — its first in seven years. Netflix ended the quarter with 26.5 million customers, after adding 1.7 million streamers and losing 1.1 million DVD subs.
The company forecast anywhere from a loss of $8 million to a profit of $6 million when it reports second-quarter results on July 24.


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Investors on Thursday piled into shares of the special-purpose acquisition company taking former President
new social-media platform public, igniting a buying frenzy reminiscent of the SPAC craze from early this year.
Digital World Acquisition Corp.
more than quadrupled to $45.50 in the first trading session following the deal announcement. Trump Media & Technology Group said late Wednesday it would combine with the SPAC and soon launch a new social network called Truth Social. The deal values the Trump media company at about $875 million, including debt.
The unveiling of the new company comes after Mr. Trump’s access to several social-media platforms including
was restricted following the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol. He held discussions with a number of different platforms throughout the year to find a new online megaphone. Mr. Trump had nearly 89 million followers on Twitter.
Digital World Acquisition and its stock ticker, DWAC, were trending on some social-media platforms Thursday, with traders rushing to buy the shares.
Such sharp share-price increases for companies going public with SPACs were common early this year, when such stocks were popular among day traders. The big gains have become less common in recent months with many companies that go public this way struggling to meet their growth targets.
Also called a blank-check company, a SPAC such as Digital World Acquisition is a shell company that raises money and trades on a stock exchange to merge with a private firm such as Mr. Trump’s and take it public. The private company then replaces the SPAC in the stock market. SPAC mergers have become popular alternatives to traditional initial public offerings, especially for startups that can make business projections. Those aren’t allowed in typical IPOs.
Still, many stocks that soared after deals were announced or even completed have since tumbled, sticking individual investors with losses while many company insiders are protected through unique incentives.
Many other social-media sites catering to conservatives have emerged in recent years, including Parler, Gab and Gettr, a free-speech-focused platform launched by former Trump adviser
earlier this year.
Some of them have struggled to balance their free-speech ambitions with abiding by their technology partners’ terms of service.
Parler, which was founded in 2018, built a big following after the 2020 election, but was stopped in its tracks in the wake of the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol.
removed Parler from its app store and cloud-computing giant Amazon Web Services booted it from its servers amid concerns that Parler wasn’t able to effectively moderate threats of violence on its platform. Parler has since returned to Apple’s app Store.
Gab, which was founded in 2016 with the explicit aim of being a haven for free commentary, went offline for more than a week in the fall of 2018 after a man opened fire at a Pittsburgh synagogue shortly after posting anti-Semitic messages on Gab. The company was quickly dropped by its web-hosting firm, domain registrar and payment processors. Gab eventually found a new digital home, and said at the time it prohibited calling for acts of violence against others.
Gab said Thursday in a statement that it supports Mr. Trump’s new network and that users can still follow the former president on his reserved Gab account.
Parler didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Write to Amrith Ramkumar at [email protected]
Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Appeared in the October 22, 2021, print edition as ‘Trump-Tied SPAC Quadruples in Price.’


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The European Commission has given unconditional approval last Friday to the proposed acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent by Nokia, under the EU Merger Regulation. The 15.6 billion-euro merger with the French-American global telecommunications equipment company was announced by Nokia around 1 pm, last Friday, and later on by the European Commission through an official press release.
No competition concerns
The Nokia-Alcatel-Lucent case is quite an interesting one indeed, as we got used in past to see a more “resolute” approach by the EU’s watchdog to prevent the risks of unfair competition in the European market. Google, for instance, is just one of the famous EU-antitrust cases, but for many reasons, this time nothing to be worthy of noting happened. With its go-ahead, the European Commission formally said that there was enough difference between the two firms to not raise major competition concerns, despite the combined market shares around or above 30% in some sectors of radio access networks and core networks. So, why is this case so different?
“Not close competitors”
First of all, the European Commission officially concluded that “the transaction would not raise competition concerns”, in particular “because the parties are not close competitors. The European Commission declared indeed that there was no real risk also because of market share differences between the two. “Nokia has a strong presence in the European Economic Area, where Alcatel-Lucent is a small player”, the European Commission said, “and conversely Alcatel-Lucent has a strong presence in North America, where Nokia’s activities are rather limited”.
The European Commission began investigating when the transaction was first announced, on 19 June 2015, and it was registered under the case number M.7632. After a few months, the Commission found, in a few words, that the overlaps between the two companies’ activities are effectively limited, despite the enormous power Nokia would eventually gain through this merge. Indeed as of Saturday morning, Nokia’s biggest acquisition so far would result in a supplier that surpasses Ericsson and Huawei in wireless-infrastructure revenue anyway, as specified by many business media outlets like Bloomberg. The Commission specified that it doesn’t see any reason why the merger should make it harder for smaller players to enter the market though.
A number of active competitors around
Moreover, the Commission saw that the transaction to create the biggest maker of equipment for mobile-phone networks won’t prevent anyway fair competition in the bloc since “a number of strong global competitors will remain active after the transaction”. The main players that would compete against the combined firm in the European region are Ericsson and Huawei, the Commission observed, with Samsung and ZTE also occupying a small share of the market.
The Commission sees Samsung in particular as a player on the rise. “Samsung is expected to play a more significant role in the near future, in relation to the newest generation mobile telecommunications equipment (so-called 4G, currently being deployed, and 5G),” the Commission said in the press release.
“Finally, the Commission’s investigation did not find that the transaction would make it harder for new or small players to enter and expand in the market”
Next stop China
Last week Nokia confirmed via official press release that the merger has also received antitrust clearance by antitrust authorities in Albania, Canada, Colombia and Russia, following earlier approval in Brazil and Serbia. US regulators have already approved the deal in June. The deal will also have to go through an approval process in China, the asian market that this home of 1.3 billion mobile subscribers, Nokia’s biggest obstacle now. The company had indeed faced an investigation by Chinese authorities during the acquisition of its handset business by Microsoft.
Large market shares
All in all, this deal, which remains to be approved by Nokia’s shareholders as specified by the company, represents a milestone for Nokia’s future. The Finnish company, once probably the biggest player in the mobile phone and telecommunications industry could eventually gain a 35 percent market share in the telecoms equipment industry through Alcatel-Lucent acquisition, replacing China’s Huawei as the world’s second largest equipment maker, just behind Ericsson.
The case could also represent a major landmark in EU’s antitrust history and also a strong message that the Commission is perhaps trying to send to the world, after a few significant antitrust cases that have recently hit large firms in the 28-nation bloc.


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FRANKFORT – American Fuji Seal will expand operations in Bardstown, creating new 45 jobs and making a $10 million investment at its plant. “Here’s another shining example of a Japanese-owned business that has found success by locating its North American headquarters in Kentucky,” Gov. Steve Beshear said in a news release from his office. “We’re thrilled to see American Fuji Seal succeed, expand its footprint in the Commonwealth, invest millions of dollars here and create dozens of full-time jobs for Kentuckians.”
Japanese-owned companies already operate more than 150 facilities in Kentucky and provide more than 34,000 full-time jobs. Additionally, Kentucky has the country’s second-highest Japanese foreign direct investment on a per capita basis.
American Fuji Seal is part of the Fuji Seal International packaging company based in Osaka, Japan. Its North American corporate headquarters is in Bardstown. The company prints and manufactures sleeve, molding and insulating labels for product packaging. More than 460 employees currently work at the Bardstown facility.
“Fuji Seal is very excited and pleased to expand its manufacturing operations in Bardstown,” said Fuji Seal Vice President of Operations Bruce Atcher.
To encourage the investment and job growth in Bardstown, the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority preliminarily approved the company for tax incentives up to $1.5 million through the Kentucky Business Investment program.
“We are proud to have a company like American Fuji Seal continually making substantial investments in our community,” Bardstown Mayor Bill Sheckles said in the news release.


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At the moment when it comes to mobile, Microsoft has been rather quiet on that front, although rumors of a Surface Phone have been popping up every now and then. However over the years we’ve seen the Redmond company make various attempts, such as releasing apps for both iOS and Android in an attempt to get users to use their products and services.
That strategy appears to be ongoing and Microsoft’s latest effort comes in the form of the Samsung Galaxy S8 Microsoft Edition. Basically this is the Samsung Galaxy S8 except that it will come with certain Microsoft customizations and apps that will not be available on the “regular” Galaxy S8 handsets.
Note that the Galaxy S8 and S8+ will come with Microsoft’s basic apps, like their Office suite of productivity apps as per their partnership from a couple of years ago. However the Microsoft Edition will come with additional Microsoft apps, such as Cortana, OneDrive, Outlook, Skype, MSN News, and more.


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Gov. Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 250 — authored by state Sen. Lois Wolk, D-Davis — on Tuesday to establish a state commission to help coordinate efforts by state olive growers and oil manufacturers to strengthen the competitiveness of California’s olive oil industry.
“Establishing this commission is a vital first step toward protecting consumers and providing California’s olive oil industry a fair playing field where they can grow and thrive. That’s why this bill received bipartisan support from day one,” said Wolk, who chairs the Agriculture Subcommittee on Olive Oil Production and Emerging Products.
“I applaud the governor’s decision to sign this measure into law, and look forward to continuing to work with the state’s olive growers and olive oil producers to help ensure that Californians can be confident about the products they’re serving to their families.”
SB 250 would create the Olive Oil Commission of California within the Department of Food and Agriculture to allow the industry to conduct research and establish product grades and standards through the secretary of food and agriculture.
There are 16 active, industry-funded agricultural commissions in California created to enhance their industries competitiveness through promotion, advertising, education, marketing research, scientific research and the creation and regulation of quality standards.
SB 250 is part of Wolk’s ongoing effort to address challenges facing state’s expanding olive oil industry, including competitors selling fraudulent and low-quality olive oil. A study conducted by the UC Davis Olive Center found that 65 percent of imported extra-virgin olive oils bought off the shelves of California supermarkets failed to meet international standards for olive oil quality — concluding that many of the imported olive oils tested were falsely labeled as extra virgin grade.
“Similar commissions have been very effective in advancing research and quality standards. SB 250 is an important step for the industry,” said Dan Flynn, executive director of the UCD Olive Center.


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Oculus Rift News
After leaving Xiaomi, Hugo Barra joins Facebook to lead VR business
Thu, Jan 26, 2017
Just three day after resigning as the Global VP of Xiaomi, Hugo Barra now joins Facebook to lead its virtual reality business.
Indian brands are waking up to augmented, virtual realities
Wed, Sep 28, 2016
Slowly, the number of brands using AR, VR to reach consumers is only increasing. The Asia-Pacific region is the fastest-growing market.
Sony sets target of nearly $5 billion for next financial year on hopes of new VR headset
Wed, Jun 29, 2016
The diverging fortunes for the two businesses resulted in the electronics giant maintaining its operating profit target of 500 billion yen ($4.9 billion) for the year beginning next April.
Launch of virtual reality video games brings E3 expo to life
Fri, Jun 17, 2016
Virtual reality games got very real at E3 this year as studios showed off titles tailored for Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, PlayStation VR and Galaxy Gear VR headsets.
Indian virtual reality makers target masses with low-cost gear
Wed, Apr 20, 2016
While VR technology offers huge growth potential in India with the ever-expanding smartphone market, affordability will be key to encourage mass adoption of the VR experience


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Lucid Motors made its first-ever auto show appearance at the New York International Auto Show held at the Jacob Javits Convention Center.
MC² collaborated closely with Lucid on the design and build of the exhibit, which combines custom finishes with rented structural components.
A press conference held in and around the exhibit space garnered significant press attention, announcing a test run just days earlier of their prototype electric sedan that exceeded 217 miles per hour.
We will be in touch with you very shortly.


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What happened to Tim Dehm in Vegas won’t stay in Vegas.
The fourth-year packaging science student from RIT brought home a $2,500 scholarship from this year’s Pack Expo and Conference, an annual industry event that took place on Sept. 26–28 in Las Vegas. The scholarship, given by the Association of Visual Packaging Manufacturers, is awarded based on the student’s essay about current challenges in the packaging field and possible solutions.
In his essay, Dehm noted that communication between the interconnected sections of the business—marketing, the supply chain, manufacturing and distribution, for example—is essential and “the key to solving this problem is to have well-educated packaging engineers who can help the different branches of the business work together more fluidly.”
Dehm, who grew up in Geneseo, Livingston County, completed a co-op with Unilever last winter and spring quarters. After graduation, he expects to use his experiences in packaging as a way to help people—most likely in fields like food preservation and geriatrics, he adds.
Pack Expo is one of the packaging industry’s largest national conferences and trade shows. It brings together professionals from industry and academia, as well as students in university packaging programs, to participate in design challenges and learn about the latest trends in the business. Fifteen RIT students attended this year’s event, along with faculty from the program.
“It’s great that industry professionals are willing to offer scholarships to students and show their support,” says Dehm. “It was also a great opportunity to meet members of the association and have their support behind me as I look for co-ops and jobs after graduation.”


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WeedWorthy News Network
Cannabis bill in Nepal would help hemp, but THC limit questioned
Long-known as a cannabis mecca, Nepal would establish a formal program to develop medical cannabis and the hemp sector under a bill that has been proposed in the country’s parliament.
The Cannabis Cultivation Act, put forth by MP Sher Bahadur Tamang and signed by 40 legislators, would require no license for growers of hemp destined for foods, including but not limited to seeds, honey, oil and drinks, and use of the hemp stalk for industrial purposes. Sales and distribution of those products also would not require special license under the proposal.
Research and production of CBD would presumably be licensed under medical cannabis provisions in the bill, but the measure is intended primarily to advance that compound for Ayurvedic and allopathic healing, according to Nivedita Bansal Shah, COO and a co-founder at Janakpur-based Shah Hemp Inno-Ventures (SHIV), Nepal’s leading hemp company.
THC limit is troublesome
However the bill’s recommended THC limit of 0.2% – which follows the current European standard – would challenge those who want to farm hemp, likely requiring years of breeding to develop cultivars that would come in under that benchmark.
“Setting THC limits is not relevant in Nepal unless and until we study our genetic landraces,” said Dhiraj K. Shah, SHIV’s CEO and co-founder. “This law would lead to the import of certified 0.2% THC seeds, destroying our genetics even before we could discover their potential,” Shah said. “This is what happens when underdeveloped countries make laws under the influence of developed countries.”
The global, informal definition of hemp is cannabis with less than 0.3% THC, but some countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America have set their THC limits at a full 1.0%; and even Europe is expected to push its THC barrier from 0.2% to 0.3% soon.
What’s in ‘wildcrop’?
Plants that grow in nature in Nepal – “wildcrop” – which have never really been tested for THC, have been harvested and turned into products for ages, but the hemp industry has remained in a primitive stage because of lack of proper technical infrastructure and unclear laws, said Nivedita Shah.
Despite the doubts over the proposed measure’s treatment of THC, “It is very encouraging that there is a bill presented to government for legalization of both medical cannabis and hemp,” she said. “We hope it still remains on government’s priority even in face of this pandemic because holistic use of the cannabis plant can be a long term solution to Nepal’s economic vulnerabilities.”
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Mazda has confirmed that its recent Minagi concept will debut in production form as the 2012 CX-5 at September's Frankfurt Motor Show.
The news comes after speculation stretching back to early last year, following the time of Mitsubishi's ASX compact SUV and the updated Nissan Dualis Series II.
The first of Mazda's new models to feature the new 'Kodo' design language, the CX-5 will also utilise the the company's new Skyactiv petrol and diesel engines, transmissions and construction methods.
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The CX-5 will come to the Mazda line-up as the smallest of its three SUVs, joining the CX-7 and the larger CX-9 - both of which will likely benefit from Kodo-inspired updates in the near future.
There is also growing speculation that Mazda is considering a three-door version of the CX-5, inspired by the three- and five-door variants of the upcoming Range Rover Evoque.
Scheduled for a 2012 launch, the CX-5 will face off against the Nissan Dualis, the Subaru Forester, Toyota's RAV4 and the Volkswagen Tiguan - all selling over 1000 units each in March.


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Coachella has announced their line-up for the 2017 installment of the festival, with big names like Radiohead, Beyonce, Kendrick Lamar headlining the annual desert fest. Bon Iver, DJ Snake, Lorde, Gucci Mane, Future top the bill of nearly 150 acts. The Capital District’s Phantogram is making an appearance on the bill as well.
The festival will take place over two weekends: the first weekend on April 14-16, and the second, on April 21-24 at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California.
Coachella offers a variety of experiences to supplement the music experience, including a wide range of over 100 food vendors to choose from, large-art installations to appreciate, and ample on-site campground amenities like free showers, free Wi-Fi, farmers markets and cell-phone charging stations.
Tickets are on sale today at 11 a.m. P.T. For tickets and more information, please visit here.
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Prada has announced this week that it will ban fur from its womenswear products by February 2020, in response to years of urging to do so by animal rights activists.
The Prada Group, the umbrella organisation that owns Prada, Miu Miu and Church's, confirmed on Wednesday that it will begin phasing out fur from its designs and new products, with current stocks sold until versions made with mink, fox and rabbit fur are sold out.
The company also stated that it will join the Fur Free Alliance (FFA), a group of more than 50 animal protection organizations from over 40 countries, and that it is "committed to innovation and social responsibility".
As part of the #PradaGroup, #Prada has announced, in collaboration with the @FurFreeAlliance, that it will no longer use animal fur in its designs or new products, starting with #PradaSS20 Women’s collections. #PradaGroupFurFree#FurFreeRetailer#FutureofFashion#FurFree pic.twitter.com/Np6HCL0w2d— PRADA (@Prada) May 22, 2019
Miuccia Prada spoke about the move, saying in a statement that "Our fur-free policy – reached following a positive dialogue with the Fur Free Alliance, in particular with LAV and the Humane Society of the United States – is an extension of that engagement".
"Focusing on innovative materials will allow the company to explore new boundaries of creative design while meeting the demand for ethical products."
The move is a significant one for the fashion industry, as the esteemed Italian luxury brand has long been considered one of the most influential and desired fashion houses in the world. While a number of totally vegan fashion houses have existed for a number of years - not least among them Stella McCartney, who led the way when she started her label in 2001 - Prada joins such labels as Victoria Beckham, Chanel and Versace in moving away from animal products.
PJ Smith, director of fashion policy at the Humane Society of the United States, commented on the move, saying: "With Prada’s fur-free announcement, one of the biggest names in fashion just became a leader in animal welfare and innovation for generations to come."
The tide has definitively turned when it comes to fashion and fur, with greater pressure being placed on designers to respond to the wishes of consumers, who are becoming increasingly aware of sustainability and animal rights in fashion.
In September 2018, London Fashion Week announced that all official participating designers and brands would have to forgo fur to take part in the show.


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Prism managers bid to take firm private
is it enough to halt slide?
Managers at Enfield-based Prism Leisure plc have offered to buy back the company in a cash deal worth £6.25 million. The offer by Linkwell -- the vehicle created by Prism's management for the takeover -- is for 75 pence a share. Turnover has fallen from a high of £33.5 million two years ago to 31.1 million last year. Profit fell sharply last year to £830,000 from £2.7 million. The CD and computer games wholesaler is highly dependent on the Christmas trade. ®


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Asia markets mostly rose on Thursday after US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell signalled overnight that the US central bank could be cutting interest rates soon, reports CNBC.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan added 0.72 per cent.
Chinese stocks were mixed on the day. The Shanghai composite rose fractionally to 2,917.76, while the Shenzhen component declined 0.15 per cent to 9,152.77 and the Shenzhen composite fell 0.125 per cent to 1,548.93.Hong Kong's Hang Seng index gained 0.75 per cent, as of 3:15 pm HK/SIN.
The Nikkei 225 rose 0.51 per cent to close at 21,643.53, while the Topix gained 0.47 per cent to finish its trading day in Tokyo at 1,578.63. Shares of game maker Nintendo jumped 4.15 per cent a day after the company announced a cheaper version of its Switch video game console.
In South Korea, the Kospi added 1.06 per cent to close at 2,080.58.
Relations between Tokyo and Seoul remain frosty, with Japan saying last week it would tighten restrictions on exports of three materials used in smartphone displays and chips, over a dispute with Seoul on South Koreans being forced to work for Japanese firms during World War Two.
On Thursday, South Korea announced that up to 300 billion won (approx. $256 million) would be set aside to cope with Japan's export curbs.
Shares of companies potentially affected by the export curbs, such as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, rose 1.43 per cent and 3.57 per cent respectively on Thursday.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.39 per cent to close at 6,716.10, as the sectors advanced. Banks were under the spotlight, with Australia's corporate regulator threatening on Thursday to prosecute some of the country's largest lenders over their sales of consumer insurance products in the past decade.
Meanwhile, European stocks traded slightly higher on Thursday afternoon.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 was up 0.1 per cent, cutting earlier gains. Oil and gas stocks were the standout performers, the sector posting a 0.9 per cent rise while chemicals led losses, shedding 0.6 per cent.


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Singaporean solar manufacturer launches new line of rooftop solar panels featuring a unique cell design and circuitry and "cradle to cradle" certification.
Australian households could save $9.3 billion on energy bills each year by investing in the 46 GW of untapped solar potential of residential rooftops across the nation, new report finds.
One of the world’s largest PV module manufacturers produces the first of its Neo Green panels – made in “Zero Carbon Factory” certified facilities.
Firm behind Yellow Tail wine and Yenda Brewing Co completes $10 million solar farm that will supply one-third of the energy needs of its biggest winery.
Victorian government announcing extension to hugely popular $16 million Solar for Apartments program.
Australia's rooftop PV market is still in the process of ramping up in the new year, with the early Easter break putting an extra dampener on growth.
German regulators have simplified the registration of plug-in balcony solar PV units or 'balcony power plants' in the face of huge demand.
Singaporean PV manufacturer sets another efficiency rating record – and takes legal action against a solar giant over alleged patent infringement.
Two completely off-grid solar, battery and diesel generator systems have gone live in New South Wales, owned and operated by a network company. Is this the new norm?
Three regional towns are being considered for battery backed stand-alone microgrids that would "island" the communities in the event of a major power outage.
AEMC says a draft determination on rules governing 100% smart meter uptake will be published within weeks following a decision to fast-track the process.
Advocates of super-charged solar-for-renters scheme say rental households could save more than $700 annually on power bills with grants of up to $3500 for the installation of rooftop PV.
After years of grit, determination and collaboration, construction is underway on one of Australia's pioneering community solar and battery storage projects.
A rooftop solar installer has been banned from access to Australia's rooftop solar rebate for a year after failing to meet strict requirements of attending installations.
Rooftop solar installers are on notice against taking short-cuts on safety, with the launch of a new safe work "compliance blitz."
The Clean Energy Council suggests a $6500 incentive for households to encourage home battery take up.


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As the poet Yogi Berra once quipped, “Nobody ever goes there anymore – it’s too crowded.”
While Berra was talking about a popular Florida restaurant in the early 1960s, he could have easily been talking about WallStreeBets in the summer of 2021, as many of the very retail investors that made the message board into a financial phenomenon are now abandoning it for newer subreddits, saying WallStreetBets has been compromised by mainstream finance’s improved grasp of the power that social media has on the movement of markets.
WallStreetBets became a household name in January as GameStop
and other meme stocks announced their arrival in the form of wild short squeezes that put Wall Street on its heels, and hedge funds in hot water.
The irreverent and insidery tone of the message board gave users a platform to share stock tips and rage against what they saw as unfair market structure rigged to benefit big banks and funds. It also gave birth to retail investors uniquely risqué way of communicating, calling each other “Apes,” encouraging each other to hold onto short squeeze stocks with “Diamond hands” and lusting after trading profits in the form of chicken tenders, or “tendies.”
Users also began to share detailed investment theses in the form of “DDs” or deep dives, using their own analysis to promote a new stock ticker for the movement to jump in on.
But since January, the success of WallStreetBets has become an albatross, with the board’s moderators coming under fire for what many of the board’s 10.6 million users saw as inconsistent enforcement of the rules and a growing sense that the moderators were playing it too safe in fear of angering Wall Street and regulators.
There is also rampant speculation that the size and popularity of WallStreetBets has made it susceptible to bad actors trying to create pump and dump schemes by spamming old conversation threads with ticker-specific posts that give the appearance of new social media interest in that stock.
Among Redditors who have moved on, WallStreetBets is often referred to as “the melted sub.”
The shift is reminiscent of how retail investors turned on Robinhood after the popular trading app froze activity on GameStop and other stocks at the peak of January’s short squeeze. That decision set off a firestorm of rage against Robinhood with many in the retail crowd alleging on social media that the app was in cahoots with the hedge funds and market makers on the other side of the squeeze.
Like the Robinhood exodus, the WallStreetBets schism has led retail investors onto new platforms and other subreddits more intensely focused on investing, options and individual stocks. It has even given them the opportunity to create their own boards like r/Superstonk, a subreddit for GameStop investors that started in March with a flurry of anti-WallStreetBets posts and already has 485,000 members.
“WSB is the Robinhood of Reddit,” one user posted on Superstonk this week.
AMC and other meme stocks have their own increasingly popular subreddits, and they appear to be the next iteration of the retail investing movement that is showing little sign of losing steam.
While the mania of January has ebbed, a recent survey by financial advisory firm Betterment indicated that the majority of retail investors are committed to trading in the foreseeable future, and it stands to reason that the evolution of their trading will happen on smaller and more focused subreddits like Superstonk.
As that online migration continues, WallStreetBets — the mothership of the Reddit rally — will have that empty nest feeling.
Meanwhile, after good news on the progress of an infrastructure bill in Congress sent the U.S. stock market climbing again this week, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average
having its best week since March, the tech-heavy Nasdaq
closing one point shy of a record, and the S&P 500
closing at an all-time high, investors will be awaiting the monthly jobs report for June from the U.S. Labor Department next Friday.


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China continues to be an important seafood import market, given that the worlds most populous country has an increasing presence of upper and middle classes who are keen on healthy food, experts said at the 22nd India International Seafood Show (IISS) here.
The marine food industry, though, must wake up to the fact that 'new retail' is the trend fast replacing 'online', where Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba is building a retail ecosystem,innovatively blending online and offline channels in a unified way featuring the consumer at the centre in unexpected ways, a technical session of the February 7-9 summit here noted.
All the same, one should be wary of over reliance on China as a partner in seafood trade, the speakers pointed out while deliberating on the topic "Prospective Markets & Regulatory Environment".
Carson Roper, Seafood Industry Consultant, France, in his talk on 'China and Farm-Raised Shrimp', said that the East Asian country is a major marine products market that remains largely untapped.
Projections say that China will continue to feature among the worlds top 11 seafood markets, he observed in the presentation that focused on how China impacts global seafood trade and consumption.
Roper spoke earlier as well, starting the session with a presentation on 'Country and Brand Loyalty: An exploration of successful (and not successful) national and corporate seafood marketing initiatives.
The other speakers were Lee Chee Wee of Singapores Aquaculture Innovation Center (on 'Live shrimp transportation), Christopher Priddy, International Relations Specialist, USFDA, India (Overview of FDA regulations for seafood) and R M Mandlik, Deputy Director-Marketing, MPEDA (Importing country regulations and its impact on trade).
The session was moderated by C N Ravisankar, Director of Central Institute of Fisheries.
Mandlik, to a query on how MPEDA ensures flow of seafood standard regulations to the countrys aqua farmers, said the mechanisms on information dissemination are in place.
"The farmers do get the message well in time; only that we need to give them a push to act on it. We are working on it," he said.
The three-day biennial meet, with 'Blue Revolution: Beyond Production to Value Addition' as the focal theme, has been jointly organised by MPEDA (the 1972-founded nodal agency of the Union Ministry of Commerce & Industry) and the Seafood Export Association of India (SEAI).
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)


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It’s about time! There will soon an official Facebook iPad app in the App Store. The story first broke by New York Times blogger Nick Bilton today who has confirmed a free iPad application that has been designed to take full advantage of the large tablet screen. The iPad app has reportedly been in testing and production cycles for the past 12 months and should be ready in the coming weeks.
New features in the Facebook iPad app are first and foremost photo and video uploading capabilities, a full resolution interactive media viewing experience, as well as a fully optimized chat experience for the iPad the you haven’t seen anywhere yet.
Those 3rd party iPad apps for Facebook that have been trying to provide Facebook users some sanity (My Pad, iFace, Friendly) will be facing some stiff competition.
Finally, the Facebook web portal is also going to be getting a facelift when viewing it from your Safari browser on the iPad. It will be interesting to see how much HTML 5 goodness gets pimped out there.


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The Australian Energy Regulator (AER) calls on Australian energy businesses to have consideration for their customers doing it tough during the Coronavirus outbreak.
The AER’s “Statement of Expectations of energy businesses: Protecting consumers and the energy market during COVID-19“, is a call for the energy market to assume the full gravity of its important role in this time of crisis.
In this crisis we often fall to the cliche – “uncertain times,” but remember what we are uncertain about, not the crisis itself but the duration. Now, ‘duration’ here is not a matter of discussing Bergson, it is a matter of survival. And that is what the AER is trying to reiterate in its call upon the energy market. In this time of crisis, we need to help each other survive for the duration.
The AER makes a host of key expectations upon the energy market. Some are quite ready-made, such as the waiving of fees for small businesses, but others are more substantial and require the energy industry to take responsibility.
For instance, energy retailers should offer payment plans or hardship arrangements to all residential and small business customers who have the courage or desperation to admit they’re doing it tough. Usually, for such consideration, a customer would need to meet eclectic criteria, the applicant needs to have validated victimhood, an X-factor sob story and a written-note from their mother. The AER is calling on a more lenient approach.
Moreover, AER is asking that no disconnections occur to any residential or small business customers experiencing hardship before 31 July 2020, at least. Similarly, the AER also calls on the suspension of referrals of customers to debt collection agencies.
AER Chair Clare Savage said that energy retailers are expected to act according to the magnitude of a crisis that has already created significant unemployment and loss of income for consumers.
“We understand the significant impact the COVID-19 pandemic is having on the Australia community and our stakeholders,” said Savage. “Many people are or will be affected by dramatic changes to their lives, businesses, income and working arrangements, and those of their friends, families and communities. As a result, their energy use and ability to pay their bills could be affected.”
Savage and the AER believe that in much the same way a customer enters into a contract with an energy retailer, businesses have a social contract with the community in which they operate. They have, in short, a responsibility.
“When people have lost their jobs or business through no fault of their own, it is only fair to expect that they be given any and all help possible, and that includes from their energy providers,” continued Savage.
Savage called on any residential or small business customer worried about managing their energy bills to get in touch with their retailer immediately and seek their support.
To do its part, the AER has set out its own priorities. The AER sees it as a priority to ensure retailers proactively meet the needs of customers, especially vulnerable ones. Of course, to this end, the AER also prioritises the safety and reliability of the energy supply as well as getting ahead of the pandemic by organising our recovery.
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Long-term, the dream of medical additive manufacturing is to be able to bioprint fully functional 3D-printed organs. That doesn’t mean that 3D printing doesn’t have anything concrete to offer the medical world in the meantime, however.
Full-color 3D-printing giant WhiteCloud has launched a new medical 3D printing service called 3DyourSCAN: offering personalized full color pre-surgery educational models based on a patient’s CT/MRI scans. Most impressively of all, these individual models can be turned around as quickly as 24 hours.
“There is still a really big barrier when it comes to communicating and understand what is going on inside the body,” Braden Ellis, WhiteCloud’s chief revenue officer, told Digital Trends. “This process really changes people’s perspective on what personalized healthcare can be. It’s now possible to give people a truly visible interaction with what’s going on inside themselves, prior to surgery. It provides the patient — who doesn’t have training to read MRIs or CAT scans — an understanding of what they’re facing, and why surgery may be the right route for them.”
3DyourSCAN involves a proprietary “Hinge & Slice” system, able to provide a cross-section — connected by a hinge — to show what’s going on inside a particular body part. The technology is a partnership with advanced visualization software company TeraRecon.
“It’s mind-blowing to see what can come out of these printers,” Ellis continued. “Color is a really big aspect. Single color prints don’t really highlight the areas of interest. TeraRecon has incredibly incredible algorithms for color shading. It gives a sense of true realistic color; much like what a surgeon would be seeing. It makes it much more relatable for people.”
He explained that, while other companies have previously offered custom models of organs, these can take three to five weeks to create due to the manual processes involved. That is something that 3D printing — and a company with the resources of WhiteCloud — can help change.
“The turnaround time is really important,” he said. “With instant gratification services like Amazon Prime setting the bar of expectations for what people expect with delivery, we knew that this was key. With the capacity and technology that we have, our factories are able to handle thousands of objects every day — personalized and customized for individuals.”
And while services like Amazon Prime will rush the latest Game of Thrones boxset to our door, Ellis noted that in the medical world this takes on added importance.
“We see the need for this to be quick, because surgery often can’t wait,” he noted. “If it’s a knee surgery there may not be a huge rush, but if you look at children’s heart surgery or [operations to remove] brain tumors, these are things which are needed to be handled rapidly.”
In all, it’s just another way that 3D printing — and the industry leaders within it — are changing the world for the better.
- AMD’s revolutionary 3D V-Cache chip could launch very soon
- AMD’s 3D-stacked Ryzen 7 5800X3D is ‘world’s fastest gaming processor’
- The best 3D printers under $500
- The future of making stuff: Inside the evolution of 3D printing with Formlabs
- Qualcomm’s long-awaited second-gen 3D Sonic fingerprint sensor is 50% faster


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Sir Jony Ive, who once headed up the design of all Apple hardware and software, is now working on future Airbnb products. His design company, LoveFrom, will collaborate over the next several years with the vacation rental service.
“Today, I’m thrilled to announce that Jony and his partners at LoveFrom will be engaging in a special collaboration with me and the Airbnb team,” said Brian Chesky, CEO and co-founder of Airbnb, on Wednesday. “We have made the decision to work together through a multi-year relationship to design the next generation of Airbnb products and services.”
Chesky did not elaborate on what Ive will help design. But it’s almost certainly software. The company makes applications for a variety of platforms, including iOS.
But Chesky did say Ive has been brought in as more than a designer. “Jony will also help us continue to develop our internal design team,” noted the executive. Ive helped build up and manage Apple’s vaunted Industrial Design team over decades.
Before his departure from Apple‘s leadership team in 2019, Ive was responsible for the design of all products. He led the company’s design team from 1996, and is credited for helping rescue it from the brink of bankruptcy with iconic designs, including the iMac and iPod, but also the iPhone and iPad. And while Ive is no longer an exec, LoveFrom still contracts with Apple.
Jony Ive and Airbnb together again
Apparently, Apple’s former chief design officer and the CEO of Airbnb go way back. “Jony and I have been good friends for many years,” Chesky said Wednesday, “and he has been gracious enough to provide me with guidance and advice.”
When Chesky was named one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People in 2015, Ive praised him and his company. “Bringing people together is something of a passion for Brian, and with Airbnb he’s helped create millions of personal connections,” Ive said at the time.
And Ive might have played a role in putting Angela Ahrendts on Airbnb’s board of directors. This was shortly after she stepped down as Apple’s retail boss in 2019.


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Johnson & Johnson Recalls 12 Million Bottles of Motrin That May Not Dissolve
Published: Dec 22, 2011
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), the health-care company beset by product recalls the last two years, said it was asking retailers to return about 12 million bottles of Motrin over concerns the painkiller may dissolve too slowly. Tests of product samples showed some caplets may not dissolve as quickly as intended when near their expiration date, J&J’s McNeil Consumer Healthcare unit said in a statement on its website today. While consumers don’t have to return any bottles, it’s possible there may be “a delay in relief” after taking the drug, Bonnie Jacobs, a spokeswoman, said in a telephone interview. J&J is based in New Brunswick, New Jersey.


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Shakeup of marginalized booking sites in Europe and Asia
Two struggling online travel agencies, Sabre’s LastMinute.com and TUI Group’s AsiaRooms.com, have met their disparate fates.
Sabre announced today that it closed on its previously announced sale of UK-headquartered LastMinute.com to Switzerland-based Bravofly Rumbo Group for a transaction value of $120 million.
However, Sabre, which acquired LastMinute.com in 2005 for nearly $1.2 billion, essentially sold LastMinute.com to Bravofly Rumbo Group by transferring liabilities and winning a long-term commitment for Bravofly’s brands to continue using the Sabre global distribution system.
LastMinute.com had been part of Sabre’s Travelocity unit and had been for sale for an extended period as Sabre dismantled Travelocity, selling its North America operations to Expedia Inc. and now its European operations to Bravofly Rumbo Group.