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One of the ways HP went wrong was telling retailers it was not liable for refunds or replacements unless the transaction received prior authorisation.
making it hard for consumers to obtain refund/replacement
In the event of a major failure of a product, the customer is entitled to return the goods for replacement or a refund, and HP only offered replacement after repeated repairs.
They also ran into trouble for making representations that “remedies” for consumers were limited
to the express warranty period, and for requiring consumers to pay for repairs outside that period. There was also a problem over the representation that products purchased online could only be returned to HP at the company’s discretion.
Australian Consumer Law provisions as – with some exceptions – goods or services costing up to $40,000 are deemed to be consumer transactions.
suppliers cannot limit, restrict or exclude consumer guarantees; avoid their obligations by getting the consumer to agree that the law of another country applies to the contract or to any dispute; or tell a consumer that they are required to pay for any rights equivalent to a consumer guarantee (eg, an extended warranty).
more information about this in this guide for businesses and legal practitioners.
a crack down on mobile and GPS jammers has resulted in the seizure of almost 100 of the devices over seven months
The Australian Customs and Border Protection Service, mail carriers including Australia Post, and the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) have worked together on a campaign to restrict the importation of prohibited jammers into Australia
Nearly 100 items have been seized from international shipments since the start of the year. ACMA had previously singled out the devices as a priority area for compliance over 2012-13.
The operation, possession or supply of the illegal devices could result in jail time of up to two years, and penalties of up to $255,000 for companies.
Further, a five-year jail sentence and penalties of up to $850,000 could result if the device was found to have caused substantial interference to radiocommunications used by emergency services.
The technology has been granted an exemption to legislation for use in atrial in NSW prisons, specifically Lithgow jail.
The trial, to commence in July, forms part of an effort to clamp down on illegal mobile phone use in Australian prisons
The trial is expected to last 12 months.
Gnosis Superfund is a self-managed fund created by Daniel Brown, the founder of SharePoint consultancy Archon Gnosis. The consultancy’s sole employees are Daniel and his partner.
five servers mining the LiteCoin currency and his fund has around five percent of its portfolio in Litecoin, with the remaining 95 percent in traditional stock such as housing and cash.
Litecoin is the silver to Bitcoin’s gold – worth less and accepted by less physical businesses as a form of payment. A Bitcoin is currently worth around $72 while Litecoins are valued at approximately $2.40.
“Bitcoin is no more anonymous than physical cash and the ATO has experience in working with earlier forms of anonymous electronic money systems, and with physical cash, which are relevant for responding to new and emerging systems,” ATO senior assistant commissioner for the cash economy Michael Hardy told The Australian Financial Review.
Microsoft said that it will require developers to fix security vulnerabilities in their apps, and it will enable Microsoft to remove an app from sale if the developer does not provide an effective fix.
Microsoft also said that if an application is being exploited, it will work with a developer to have an update available as soon as possible, and it may remove the app from the store earlier if required.
Microsoft said that this is a new effort to help ensure users have confidence in the security of the software that is available in its online stores, including that developers will respond ‘appropriately’ when a vulnerability is discovered.
To date, no apps have come close to exceeding this deadline. However, Microsoft may make exceptions, such as when issues affect multiple developers or are architectural in nature, where such action is prohibited by law, or at Microsoft’s discretion.”
The network was switched on today for new customers across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth in addition to the regional hubs of Wollongong, Gold Coast and Newcastle. Last month the network was switched on for existing Vodafone customers in select pockets of these locations.
claimed the network’s 20MHz spectrum meant the company was able to offer among the fastest speeds available across mainland Australia.
Vodafone is currently the only carrier that has this spectrum band in all five major mainland state capital cities,” he said in a statement.
“We are now officially the third [mobile] ecosystem,” Tami Reller, Microsoft CFO and CMO of Windows, said in a keynote Monday at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference in Houston
For the three-month period from March to May, Android accounted for 52 percent of smartphone sales, compared to 41.9 percent for iOS and 4.6 percent for Windows Phone, according to market research firm Kantar Worldpanel ComTech.
Microsoft passed Blackberry for the No. 3 spot in global smartphone market shipments in the first quarter for the first time, by a margin of 3.2 percent to 2.9 percent
Apple and Amazon.com have ended their lawsuit over who has the right to use the “app store” name, clearing the way for both companies to use it.
Apple began selling applications for mobile devices via its App Store service in July 2008. Amazon launched Amazon Appstore for Android in March 2011. Apple began the lawsuit that month.
“We no longer see a need to pursue our case,” Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet said. “With more than 900,000 apps and 50 billion downloads, customers know where they can purchase their favourite apps.”
Amazon countered that the term “app store” had become so generic that using it would not mislead customers.
It said in a court filing that even Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook had used the term generically, in discussing “the number of app stores out there,” while his predecessor Steve Jobs had talked about the “four app stores on Android.”
Almost a fifth of the 2012 population, or just over 3.3 million people had replaced their fixed-line home phones with mobiles by the end of last year, according to Australian Communications and Media Authority
A Devon man claims to have set a new record by “riding” a jet engine-propelled shopping trolley at 44mph (70km/h) on a race track.
Mr McKeown, who runs Plymouth Karting, stabilised the trolley by using go-kart wheels. The existing record is 42mph (67km/h).
“This is a new record although it’s not official,” he said.
A team at North Carolina State University used an alloy of two metals – gallium and indium – that are liquid at room temperature but form a “skin” when exposed to air.
When printed, the shapes can be stretched without reverting to blobs.
The technology could be used for micro-circuits and wearable electronics.
“The metal forms a very thin layer of oxide and because of it, you can actually shape it into interesting shapes that would not be possible with normal liquids like water,” said the lead author, Michael Dickey.
He explained that the printer used a syringe to stack the droplets on top of one another.
The droplets retained their shape without merging into a single big droplet, which allowed the scientists to then shape the metal.
Designers in Hong Kong from the company Robugtix have built the Spiderbot, a remote control robotic spider.
It’s created using a 3D printer and has 26 motors hidden inside. The shoebox-sized robot is even covered in fake spider “skin” for added creep-factor.
Bad news if you want to buy one to scare your siblings with though: prices start at around £900!
After promising for ages, then delaying it and killing it off on other phones like the One S, HTC’s finally come through with an Android 4.2.2 update for themuch-loved HTC One. What a cracking point update it is too, because HTC’s finally fixed one of the One’s biggest gripes.
The free update is available now OTA, although you might have to download a small bug fix first that actually allows you to, you know, update (I shan’t ask).
For those of you who haven’t seen it yet, here’s the pre-install changelog.
If you work for a company that depends on advertising revenue, you won’t hear people talk that often about using Adblock Plus, but it’s something that millions of consumers probably can’t imagine their Internet browsing without at this point. It manages to block out most ads on websites, providing a relatively clean experience that’s sometimes night and day from the standard web.
The thing is, some ads do get through, and Google at least appears to be paying to make that happen, according to a new report that’s prompting a lot of discussion on Hacker News. Adblock Plus has an “acceptable ads” filter that allows certain content by default, and the company makes no secret that it charges big companies for whitelisting services – it mentions it right in its FAQ.
Google provides search and advertising services, which together aim to organize and monetize the world’s information. In addition to its dominant search engine, it offers a plethora of online tools and platforms including: Gmail, Maps, YouTube, and Google+, the company’s extension into the social space. Most of its Web-based products are free, funded by Google’s highly integrated online advertising platforms AdWords and AdSense. Google promotes the idea that advertising should be highly targeted and relevant to users thus providing…
Troubled smartphone vendor HTC has released its latest unaudited quarterly results, and they’re not good – profits are down 83 per cent when compared with the same period last year.
The last two years haven’t been kind to HTC shareholders
In the second quarter of 2013, HTCreported profits of 1.25 billion New Taiwan dollars ($41.6 million), down from NT$7.40 billion the year before and well below analysts’ pessimistic expectations. Revenues fell 22 per cent to NT$70.7 billion ($2.33bn) and HTC’s shares fell on late trading after the figures were released.
COMPUTER maker Hewlett-Packard has been fined $3 million for giving its overseas call-centre staff scripts designed to dud customers of their consumer rights
In a contrite statement, HP, which has annual turnover of more than $120 billion, said: “We deeply regret that in the instances identified by the ACCC, HP fell short of our core commitment to high standards of service for Australian consumers who purchased our HP-branded desktop computers … laptops and printers and of our duties under Australian consumer laws.”


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Open a Honda car factory in Mexico
Honda de Mexico, SA de CV, (HDM), the business of manufacture and sale of Honda in Mexico, today announced that it will build a manufacturing plant economic subcompact vehicles intended to Mexican markets and North -American. Honda will invest about 800 million U.S. dollars in this plant whose operations are expected to start in 2014.
The plant is expected to employ 3,200 associates and has a maximum capacity of 200,000 units will occupy an area of 5.66 million square meters in Guanajuato, a suburb of Celaya, approximately 340 km to the east of the two plants already existing HDM El Salto, Jalisco, which manufactures automobiles, motorcycles and auto parts.
The new Honda plant will apply the same advanced manufacturing systems and highly efficient Honda to manufacture vehicles and engines. Thanks to the increased use of parts and materials locally produced and a local supply of parts, the new plant will provide customers with products of high quality at affordable price.
This plant will be the eighth Honda automobile in North America and its 10th assembly line. It will inflate in capital expenditures of Honda in North America to nearly 21 billion U.S. dollars. Honda employs more than 33,000 associates in North America. The production operations that relate to the automotive include two auto plants and an auto engine plant in Canada, four auto plants, two plants manufacturing automotive engines and two manufacturing plants in the United gearboxes States as well as the auto El Salto plant.
The new plant in Mexico will increase the capacity of Honda automobile production in North America 1.63 million units was 1.83 million units in 2014. In 2010, more than 94 percent of Honda and Acura vehicles and light trucks sold in Canada were manufactured in North America as it was the case for 87 percent of vehicles sold in the United States.
"With a growing demand for economical vehicle, the Honda plant will have better meet the needs of customers in North America who are looking for this type of vehicle" Tetsuo Iwamura stated sir, president of American Honda Motor Co., Inc. Chief Main operations for Honda North America.
"This new facility will consolidate the business affairs of Honda in North America by allowing it to respond more flexibly from the same area to changing market conditions. "
In North America, Honda produces general models like the Civic, Accord and CR-V even intended as light trucks to a region particularly as Odyssey and Pilot. The smallest automobile currently produced by Honda in North America is the compact Honda Civic manufactured in Honda assembly plants in Ontario and Indiana.
In addition to the new car plant in Mexico, Honda recently unveiled its plans to increase its production has several of its plants in Canada and the United States:
The factory Honda one of Canada manufactures the Civic Sedan, Civic cutting, cutting the Civic Si and Civic Si sedan return in September has operations in two shifts. In May, the plant includes its two shifts into one to face a supply problem to pieces as a result of the earthquake in Japan.
In the United States, the Honda plant in Greensburg, Indiana, which makes the Civic sedan and the Civic Natural Gas vehicle, will add a second shift in October of this year.
The auto plant in Marysville, Ohio, that manufactures the Accord sedans and cuts Agreement even the Acura TL, introduce new production has two shifts on its chain number 1 at the end of 2011, returning to the the first time since January 2009 has two full production shifts.
Honda is committed significant way to reduce the environmental impact of its plant in Mexico. The plant will employ methods HDM peak emission reduction and its power consumption with the goal of becoming a plant has "no set discharge." Honda already owns 10 factories with no formatting discharge in North America, four others, including two existing plants in Mexico, working with virtually no set discharge.
In addition, each of the major Honda plants in North America complies with international environmental standards ISO 14001 except the new auto plant in Indiana currently working to obtain this certification.

domain: news


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April 2, 2018—An auto repair shop in Dayton, Ohio, that generated some neighborhood complaints has operated for years without the proper permit, according to the Dayton Daily News.
In December, the city of Dayton issued the auto mechanic’s business at 515 Warren St. a legal notice of violation for storing inoperable motor vehicles and auto parts outdoors in a fenced-off lot.
The business was once called Matt’s Auto Repair. Business owner Matt Gregory appealed the violation, arguing the property has been used for motor vehicle repairs for many decades and should be “grandfathered in.”
But Dayton Zoning Administrator Carl Daugherty said staff research found that the business does not have a certificate of occupancy for automobile repair.
He said the property’s occupancy certificate was modified in the 1980s to automobile clean up and sales, which is not the same as auto repair or a junkyard. Auto clean up could mean detailing and other services.
“It stopped being a legal auto repair around 1987,” Daugherty said.
It’s unclear what may happen to Gregory’s shop, but he’s worried he’ll be put out of business.
“I’ve run a business and I’m trying to continue to run a business,” Gregory said. “I’ve put nine years of blood, sweat and tears into the property.”


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More consumers enrolling in narrow network health insurance plans
As more insurers offer plans with narrow networks, consumers are increasingly willing to give up a broader selection of providers to save money on their healthcare costs.
This year, almost 50 percent of all plans offered on health insurance exchanges have narrow networks, and almost 20 percent are considered "ultra-narrow networks," which give consumers even fewer doctor and hospital choices. Meanwhile, more employers are choosing narrow network plans, according to a report from the McKinsey Center for U.S. Health System Reform.
Despite the prevalence of narrow networks today, insurers were initially leery of consumer backlash. "There was a lot of trepidation right around the launch of the public exchanges and the narrow networks," Colin Drozdowski, an executive with Anthem, told the New York Times.
Anthem was one insurer that came under fire last year for allegedly misleading consumers about its networks and making it too difficult for members to find treatment. There was also widespread criticism and actions taken to block narrow networks last year, including a lawsuit against Cigna and Blue Shield of California, FierceHealthPayer previously reported.
But much of the initial concern appears to have waned. "The noise and clamor from the regulators, from employers and employees, has lessened significantly," Drozdowski said. In fact, McKinsey found that only 17 percent of consumers switched from a narrow network plan to one with a broader network.
Meanwhile, some insurers are getting creative with their narrow network plans. For example, Land of Lincoln Health, a consumer oriented and operated plan, partnered with just eight providers to offer new narrow network plans this year. Because of its small size, the insurer lowered its prices by 20 percent from its plans last year, which helped boost enrollment from 3,800 to more than 50,000 consumers.
"Are [consumers] willing to trade choice and access for price? There's no question about that," Mark Newton, CEO of Chicago-based Swedish Covenant Hospital, which is one of Land of Lincoln Health's providers, told the Times.
Former HHS official calls for smarter narrow networks
Cigna, Blue Shield of Calif. sued for 'bait and switch' scheme
Proposal in California would require insurers to update provider lists
Narrow networks don't always mean lower premiums


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Humane Inc, a Silicon Valley startup developing consumer AI technology, offered a sneak peek of its first product today - a sleek new AI-powered accessory called the AI Pin. The device was showcased at Coperni's 2024 Spring/Summer fashion show during Paris Fashion Week.
Supermodel Naomi Campbell wore the small black pin on the runway, giving the first public glimpse of Humane's new form factor. The subtle, minimalist design features no screen and no buttons. It aims to seamlessly weave AI capabilities into everyday fashion.
Humane is keeping full details of the Ai Pin under wraps until a November 9 unveiling. Earlier this year, Imran Chaudhri, Co-Founder, Chairman, and President of Humane previewed the AI Pin at TED2023 in Vancouver.
The AI Pin uses a range of built-in sensors for natural interaction powered by a Snapdragon chip. It has no wake word and does not require a paired smartphone. Optical recognition, a laser-projected display, and other features will be announced at next month's launch.
"Our relationship with technology is becoming more personal as devices morph into extensions of our bodies and minds," said Humane's founders Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno in a statement. "We believe the Ai Pin will usher in a new paradigm of ambient, AI-driven computing."
The science fiction-esque gadget aligns with Coperni's experimental, future-focused fashion aesthetic. The brands paired up based on a shared passion for design and technological innovation.
"To us, the Ai Pin is a beacon of the future," said Coperni co-founders Sébastien Meyer and Arnaud Vaillant.
Humane is not the only company looking to rethink the personal computing paradigm for the age of AI. Earlier this week, Maginative covered reports that OpenAI's CEO, Sam Altman, has been in discussions with LoveFrom to explore building an AI-centric consumer device that offers a seamless, intuitive user experience.
For now, the public will have to wait until November for full details on the AI Pin's functionality. But the striking sneak preview of Humane's first AI device suggests the novel form factor could captivate consumers when it hits the market.


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After a disasterous year that prompted the CEO of Square Enix to proclaim that Final Fantasy, the publisher's signature franchise, had been "greatly damaged," things are looking up for the Japanese gaming giant. Final Fantasy XIII-2 is a major success, having garnered a perfect score from Famitsu, and massive sales in Japan.
But Square Enix's reputation isn't built on Final Fantasy alone. Since the first Kingdom Hearts game released in 2002, that series -- and along with it, the influence of creator Tetsuya Nomura -- has rivaled Final Fantasy in popularity, if not in number of releases.Though it's anyone's guess when we'll finally see another proper console installment of the series, Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance is on the way to Nintendo's 3DS. Appropriately enough, it'll debut in Japan just in time for the tenth anniversary of the first game.To continue building hype for the new game, Square Enix has released an extensive new trailer. Get ready for eight full minutes of spiky hair, giant Keyblades, and Mickey Mouse speaking Japanese in the brand new trailer for Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance. Keep your eyes open for the game's new characters and locations.
Did you catch it all? Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance will take players to all new lands, based as always on a mix of classic and contemporary Disney films. The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Three Musketeers, Pinocchio, and Tron: Legacy all make appearances in the trailer. Exciting as the new stages are, Normura's fans are probably focused on another aspect of the game: its characters.
Neku Sakuraba, Shiki Misaki, Rhyme, Beat, and Joshua from Nomura's cult classic, Shibuya-based DS RPG The World Ends With You all show up in the trailer. Nomura hasn't exactly been shy about voicing his wish to develop The World Ends With You 2 -- perhaps including those characters in Kingdom Hearts 3D will get him one step closer to the goal. Or maybe it means that modern day Shibuya will be a stage in the game. Either way, fans of both series have a lot to look forward to. Plus, just like Metal Gear Solid 3D Snake Eater and Resident Evil: Revelations, Kingdom Hearts 3D will support the battery-efficient Circle Pad Pro.
Update: what a difference a day makes! Just this morning, Square Enix officially announced Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance for North America and Europe. The release date is a vague "2012" for now, but in honor of the announcement, Tetsuya Nomura spoke a bit about the game, and Square Enix released a new screenshot. Check them both out below.
“With the tenth anniversary of the series on the horizon, the current KINDGOM HEARTS saga is approaching its climactic conclusion. The story of this game will serve as the opening chapter of the final conflict, and, as always, will be full of surprises. In order to best implement this element of surprise and discover new realms of possibility, we have chosen Nintendo 3DS as our platform. With its revolutionary new game system, this title will not only be a bold, exhilarating tale of adventure, but also a first look into the future form of the KINGDOM HEARTS series.”
Ranters, what do you think of the new Kingdom Hearts 3D trailer? What other Disney films do you hope are represented in the game?
Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance releases March 2012 for the 3DS in Japan, and sometime in 2012 for North America and Europe.
Follow me on Twitter @HakenGaken


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Official: PH eyed as ‘cash-lite society’
MANILA -- An executive of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said it is targeting for the Philippines to become a “cash-lite society” but would take time to do so.
In an interview with the Philippine News Agency (PNA) on Tuesday, Melchor Plabasan, officer in charge, BSP Technology Risk and Innovation Supervision Department,
commented that there is still a lot to be done before most Filipinos would do epayments.
“We target that 20 percent of retail transactions would be electronics by 2020. Our goal is a ‘cashlite society’, not totally ‘cashless’ for now,” he said.
Plabasan explained that the BSP’s goal is to minimize transactions using banknotes and coins, thus the term “cash-lite”.
“(Going electronics) result to savings, and it is more convenient. You’d just use your mobile phone to pay for transactions,” he said, adding that people could save time and money as they would not need to withdraw money from the bank, for instance.
For the country to be “cashless” like China, there must be a strong push for digital literacy, as well as preparations in terms of safety and security.
Many people could use the internet, Facebook, but are not well-informed with regard to other necessary details like security, he added.
Plabasan clarified that when a country goes “cashless”, it does not mean it stops producing money.
“Someone’s mobile account has to come from somewhere. Meaning, bills and coins still exist in the bank. Someone wouldn’t get PHP 1 million (e-payment) if there is no PHP 1 million deposited in the bank,” he clarified.
“Unless we (BSP) would issue a digital currency, there would always be physical money. Even if we go digital,” he continued.
Security Meanwhile, Plabasan bared that these days, many still fall victim to malware and phishing scams.
These are strategies that attackers use to get the target’s sensitive information like account details, passwords.
“That was why the BSP has instructed banks to implement multifunction identification. For example, a code would be sent to your phone so that banks could assure that it is really you they are talking to,” he said.
The use of EMV chips on ATM cards is also BSP’s way to prevent fraud, Plabasan added.
In the old ATM cards, fraudsters could copy the data from the card’s magnetic strip.
“There has been no documented case that a fraudster was able to copy data from the EMV chip,”
Plabasan also clarified that when someone becomes a victim of fraudsters, it is the bank’s responsibility to investigate and solve the case, and not the BSP’s.
“The person needs to prove that (the incident) wasn’t his or her fault. The bank replaces the lost money if the victim proves he or she was not at fault,” he noted.
Plabasan explained that banks need to investigate such instances, so they wouldn’t be abused as well since they would replace the money.
“How did the fraudsters get their customers’ account details. They (banks) are the ones responsible for that (details), so they are the ones to do investigations when fraud or scams take place,” he said. (PNA)


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The International Criminal Police Organisation (INTERPOL) has warned against purchasing COVID-19 vaccines online, noting that fake versions of the medication are being sold.
INTERPOL issued the warning in a statement on its website.
The warning comes after the police organisation dismantled criminal associations selling fake vaccines in China and South Africa, which led to the arrest of 80 people.
According to INTERPOL, such fake vaccines are at risk of serious health hazards.
The statement read: “With criminal groups producing, distributing and selling fake vaccines, the risks to the public are clear: these can include buying a product which not only does not protect against COVID-19, but poses a serious health hazard if ingested or injected. Such products are not tested, regulated or safety-checked.
“Legitimate vaccines are not for sale. They are strictly administered and distributed by national healthcare regulators.
“Anyone buying these products online also runs the risk of potentially giving their money to organized criminals.”
Jürgen Stock, INTERPOL Secretary-General, emphasised that “anyone who orders an ‘online vaccine’ instead of getting it from their national supplier is buying a fake product”.
He said: “From the very beginning of the pandemic, criminals have preyed on people’s fears in order to make fast cash. Fake vaccines are the latest in these scams, which is why INTERPOL and HSI are warning the public to be extra vigilant,” he said.
“Anyone ordering a vaccine online rather than obtaining it from their national provider will be buying a fake product.
“The networks behind these crimes have global ambitions. No country or region can fight this type of crime alone. INTERPOL is assisting law enforcement around the world to both identify criminal networks and to dismantle them.”
Discussion about this post


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Ajith Jaya-Wickrema, who stepped down from Las Iguanas last year having launched the business with Eren Ali in 1991, is to take a seat on the board in a non-executive capacity.
It is thought that he will also participate in the group’s latest fundraising, committing a “significant” sum to the process. Tampopo, which is led by David Fox and Nick Jeffries, aims to raise just under £2m.
Jaya-Wickrema has a number of other projects in hand – he recently launched a new Caribbean restaurant concept Turtle Bay in Milton Keynes.
The group intends to secure the lion’s share of the money from existing shareholders. It has raised money in the past to fund store growth via the government’s Enterprise Investment Scheme.
It is thought that the latest round of fundraising will pave the way for the opening of two or three more outlets to add to its existing six. It currently operates three restaurants in Manchester plus venues in Bristol, Reading and Leeds.
The group is to look for new locations in the South East of England, primarily in high footfall locations such as shopping centres and retail parks.
Tampopo is actually a girl’s name in Japanese meaning “dandelion”.
Mark Stretton is editor of BigHospitality's sister publication, M&C Report.


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Put down your phone and get a 10% discount at this restaurant
Think you can go an entire meal without Instagramming your food? What about checking in on Foursquare? Or compulsively Googling yourself? Well, one restaurant in Sioux City, IA is offering diners a 10% discount if they're able to throw their phone in a bin and refrain from using it for the entire meal. That means no texting descriptions of the food, either.
The offer is only available on Wednesday evenings, but Dave Ferris, the owner of Sneaky's Chicken and institutor of the policy, says that it's been a huge hit with customers and that nearly everyone who has eaten there on a Wednesday has participated, meaning the restaurant is filled with actual conversation instead of the sound of unlocking screens. Sometimes, folks even forget that they left them in the bin and walk out without them. So much for the "digital generation", huh?!


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04 March, 2019
Ride-hailing giant Lyft is releasing financial details about the company in a federal filing before it begins selling its stock to the public. The ride-hailing business is inherently expensive because companies typically pay incentives to recruit drivers and offer discounts to riders.
In its IPO prospectus registered with the SEC, Lyft said it had 2.2 billion US dollars in revenue in 2018, an increase from 1.1 billion dollars in the previous year. As executives and advisers hit the road to market shares to possible investors in the next few weeks, they're likely to be pitching to a group that's no stranger to money-losing tech listings.
However, losses have widened from $682.8m in 2016 to $688.3m the year after and $911.3m in the last 12 months. In replacement, Lyft is giving out cash bonuses to some drivers with "good standing", which can be (but doesn't have to be) spent on shares. Both Uber and Lyft have started offering bikes and scooters as alternatives to auto rides for short trips, hopeful that a transportation option that does not involve paying drivers will prove more profitable.
At the moment, Lyft is in control of 34 percent of the ride-hailing market in the USA, a number that it has worked very hard to improve over the years. Uber posted revenue $11.3 billion and losses of $1.8 billion previous year.
"We're woke", co-founder John Zimmer declared in a widely mocked interview with Time magazine in 2017.
Both Uber and Lyft are now locked in a two-way battle for achieving market dominance in the ride-hailing segment of the US.
Pakistan closes airspace as India tensions rise: aviation authority
The latest wave of tensions erupted after a pre-dawn strike by Indian aircraft Tuesday on Pakistani territory. He appeared in good health as he was questioned about his hometown, his aircraft and his mission.
Yusuf Azhar bombed in Balakot air strike was Kandahar hijacker
Shelling across the Line of Control has occurred frequently over the past few years but airspace incidents are extremely rare. Islamabad has said it had nothing to do with the attack, and warned it will retaliate if India launches any strike.
SEC asks judge to hold Elon Musk in contempt
Musk sent a follow-up tweet a few hours later indicating that the company will actually deliver just 400,000 cars this year. It asked the court to enter an order to show why Musk should not be held in contempt of the court's 2018 judgment.
"Lyft is dwarfed by Uber, but it's clearly growing and edging into Uber's customer base", Kennedy said.
A high valuation for Lyft would bode well for Uber's prospects.
Lyft had 30.7 million riders and 1.9 million drivers in 2018, racking up US$8.1 billion in total bookings, the filing shows.
Lyft warned that it may have trouble achieving and maintaining profitability as it is now investing in shared bikes, scooters and financial support for drivers. Its 2016 bookings were $1.9 billion.
"The growth rate in Revenue per Active Rider increased significantly in the first and second quarters of 2017 as our brand and values continued to resonate with riders and they increased their usage of Lyft instead of competing offerings."
It also sets a precedent for rival Uber, which is also expected to go public this year. The company is expected to go public this year as well with a reported market capitalization of up to $120 billion. Uber and Lyft have been subject to similar attacks on their business model, which classifies drivers as contractors and not employees.


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© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A view shows the logo of Stellantis at the entrance of the company’s factory in Hordain, France, July 7, 2021. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Stellantis NV and Samsung (KS:) SDI said on Tuesday they will invest more than $2.5 billion to build a new joint venture battery plant in Kokomo, Indiana as the Chrysler-parent ramps up electric vehicle production plans.
Targeted to start in 2025, the plant aims to have an initial annual production capacity of 23 gigawatt hours (GWh), with an aim to increase to 33 GWh in the next few years.
The joint venture will create 1,400 new jobs and could gradually increase to up to $3.1 billion.


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Sunderland soft drinks manufacturer Clearly Drinks has expanded after snapping up flavoured water brand Revolution Waves.
Revolution Waves was founded two years ago by entrepreneur and former international rugby player Charlie Simpson-Daniel and Dan Norton, alongside his successful Kings Elite Snacks company, based near York.
The drinks, which have a core range of flavours of raspberry, cherry, cranberry and lemon and lime in 500ml bottles, aim to to promote a healthier lifestyle with sugar-free, low calorie recipes and they are listed in more than schools across the UK as well as regional Tesco and Asda stores.
With every purchase, 2p is donated to catering departments in schools to support managers with the task of educating students on the importance of diet and exercise.
Mr Simpson-Daniel, who originally comes from Stockton, Teesside, got a professional contract when he left school and was drafted into the England national rugby sevens team and he travelled the world for two years before leaving to enter the food and drinks industry.
He said: “I’m absolutely delighted with the investment Cleary Drinks has made in Revolution Waves. The firm has an incredibly passionate team and we have a shared vision to take the brand to the next level.”
The acquisition comes as Clearly Drinks continues to expand its national portfolio of successful and differentiated brands in the water segment following private-equity firm NorthEdge Capital’s investment in 2017.
Mick Howard, CEO of Clearly Drinks, said: “We’re extremely pleased to welcome Revolution Waves to the Clearly Drinks brand having worked with them for three years.
“Charlie and the team have done a fantastic job in promoting the brand in the UK and its dedication to giving back to education is something that we really admire. We intend to continue the hard work over the coming months and expand the product reach even further than before.”
Lloyd Williams, director at NorthEdge Capital, said: “Revolution Waves is a great fit for Clearly Drinks and complements the existing brand base well.
“NorthEdge are keen to continue to back the strategic vision of the team at Clearly Drinks and remain committed to investing further in acquiring brands which fit with the culture, ethos and unique proposition that the company has developed.”
Over the past 12 months, Clearly Drinks has created 37 new jobs, bringing the firm’s headcount to 113. As a result, production has increased by 25%. with the plant now producing over one million litres per week.


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Drastic decline in the value of Bitcoin
The value of Bitcoin dropped over the weekend to $ 34,000 (27 27,630), according to the Coinbase cryptocurrency exchange.
The world's largest cryptocurrency has seen a 50% drop in value since its peak in November last year.
The decline in the value of digital assets comes as stock markets around the world also fell in recent days.
Bitcoin accounts for about a third of the cryptocurrency market with a total value of about $ 640 billion.
Ethereum, the world's second largest cryptocurrency, has also fallen in value, by more than 10% in the last week.


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OPOSSUM BREAKS INTO FLORIDA LIQUOR STORE
A marsupial involved in a liquor heist? Incredible but true! It was an unusual day just after Thanksgiving. An opossum who lost its trail and landed at a liquor store in Florida was discovered drunk on bourbon whiskey by the store employee on Nov. 24, 2017. Lying sloshed next to an empty and broken bourbon bottle, the opossum seemed pale, disoriented, and salivating.
This amusing incident also highlights the popularity of this American spirit from Kentucky. Its dry, nutty, and spicy flavour profile along with the elegant smoothness surely seems to have a fan in not just the whiskey connoisseurs but also an animal.
The liquor store owner Cash Moore was bemused and said he never had an opossum breaking in before. He further added, “She came in from the outside and was up in the rafters, and when she came through she knocked a bottle of liquor off the shelf. When she got down on the floor she drank the whole damn bottle. But it just goes to show that even the animals are impressed with Cash’s.”
The opossum who was safely rescued was sobered up at a wildlife rescue center. Michelle Pettis, a technician at the wildlife refuge said, “The opossum was brought in by a Fort Walton Beach police officer on Nov. 24. A worker there found the opossum up on a shelf next to a cracked open bottle of liquor with nothing in it. She definitely wasn’t fully acting normal.”
The opossum didn’t have a hangover, was provided with medical treatment and loaded with fluids to eliminate the alcohol toxins from her system.
The unique creature recovered well in a few days and was released unharmed back into the wild landscape-- just goes to show that the good old American bourbon whiskey club has people and possum cheering alike.
New Straight Rye Launched by the Limestone Branch Distillery
The Kentucky-based Limestone Branch Distillery has launched a new product – the Minor Case Straight Rye Whiskey. Bottled at 90 proof, the whiskey has a distinctive sherry cask finish.Read More
China Distribution Fillip for Scotch Major
A Scottish distiller has secured a major distribution deal with a Chinese corporation, in an effort to increase sales in the country.Read More
US Rare Whisky Sale at an All Time High
Whisky lovers are all praise for scotch in a barrel-- the older the better. This year has seen a 100 percent rise in rare whisky sales in just three months. A whisky business analyst recently reported the sales of rare malts over the first half of 2017. He found that between April and June, UK auctioneers sold collectible whisky worth £6.18 million. This marks a 121 percent jump from last year’s £2.8 million over the same sale period.Read More


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With warmer weather expected to arrive eventually, Mainstreet Waynesboro is busy planning its spring and summer activities.
Kicking off the season is the tailgating themed “Hotdogs and Mainstreet” on Wednesday, April 18, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the parking lot between Main Street Diner and Christine’s Café. Hot dogs, chips, beer and soft drinks will be available for purchase.
The baseball classic "Field of Dreams" starring Kevin Costner will be shown at the Waynesboro Theatre following the party at 7:45 p.m Admission is $4.
“We wanted this event to be not just an event for Mainstreet Waynesboro, but an event for all of downtown that everyone can benefit from,” said Bill Kohler, director of economic development. “We are here to serve the people and the businesses.”
As Mainstreet Waynesboro continues to create bigger and better events each year, Kohler is eager to collaborate with downtown businesses.
“We are continuously working with our partners and trying to always think outside the box, and keep things new and fresh,” said Kohler. “It’s always about getting more and more people to come downtown and see all that is has to offer.”
For example, a farmers market will be held for 20 Saturdays in the Main Street Park beginning Memorial Day weekend.
“We have 14 confirmed vendors selling everything from fresh crabs to doughnuts as well as fresh produce,” Kohler said.
For more information visit www.mainstreetwaynesboro.org or call 717-762-0397.


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The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that Volvo failed to issue recalls on six of their automobiles within five days after discovering there was a safety issue with the cars. The NHTSA launched an investigation in January of 2011 into seven instances of automobile recalls issued by Volvo and found that for five of them the company knew there was a problem and failed to issue a recall within five days of that knowledge.
This is a big “ouch” for Volvo which has not only agreed to pay the fine, but also the re-evaluate their method for making a decision regarding a vehicle recall.
NHTSA Administrator David Strickland told reporters, “It’s critical to the safety of everyone on our roadways that automakers promptly report safety defects – and take immediate action to resolve the issue. NHTSA expects all manufacturers to obey the law and address automotive safety concerns without delay.”
According to The Detroit News, the seven recalls involved about 32,000 vehicles altogether. The largest recall evaluated involved 11,168 2012 model Volvo S60, XC60, S80 and XC70 models over potentially improperly attached front seat wiring harnesses.
Volvo XC70s built in 2008-10 had problems with tire pressure labels. But there were other problems with other Volvo vehicles including the 2010-11 C30s, 2010 S40s and V50s; a tie pressure monitoring system problem in 2007, 2010 S80s, faulty airbag wiring in 2010-11 S80s, 2010V70s, 2011XC60s, 2011 S60s, S80s, XC60s, XC70s were all recalled to address engine stalling.
The most recent recall of Volvo cars was just earlier this year and involved 2012 S60, S80, and XC70.
For Volvo the entire ordeal has been a publicity nightmare. Paying the fine surely seemed a simpler way to resolve the issue and allow it pass beyond the water cooler chatter stage into distant memory for consumers who no doubt were confused about exactly just the problems were and whether or not it was even safe to buy and drive a Volvo.


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updated 04:00 pm EDT, Thu July 26, 2012
Insists 'for Android' deliberately removed from marketing
As a part of an ongoing lawsuit, Apple is demanding that Amazon provide an executive to testify about the removal of the word "for Android" from some Amazon Appstore marketing, court documents show. In March 2011 Apple sued Amazon, claiming that the latter was intentionally trying to confuse people by using a name similar to Apple's own App Store. The Apple legal team says that "evidence suggesting that the name of Amazon's Service is actually 'Amazon Appstore,' or at least that Amazon has consciously chosen to cease or minimize the use of 'for Android' with its mark, is highly relevant to Apple's offensive case."
"Amazon has steadfastly refused to produce documents and information regarding the use of 'for Android' in connection with its service," Apple writes. "Amazon has failed to produce a witness who can testify regarding the decision not to use 'for Android' with the Amazon Appstore Service outside the context of the Kindle Fire, despite clear evidence that Amazon frequently does not use 'for Android' in conjunction with its Service..."
Amazon's main defense has been that the term "app store" is generic. The inclusion of "for Android" in some cases could theoretically imply, however, that Amazon has to make it clear to people that its storefront has nothing to do with Apple's. Alternately, it may just be indicating which mobile platform the Appstore is intended for.
Apple's case is believed to be in a weak position. The company has for example been stalled by Microsoft, HTC, Sony, and Nokia in its attempt to trademark the term "app store." Amazon and others have noted that "app" was a word of the year in 2010, and that even former Apple CEO Steve Jobs used the term "app store" generically to refer to options from competitors.


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Today is obviously the day for popular applications to add QVGA support. As Rovio did only hours ago, Skype have added support for the increasingly-common 320x240 resolution in their application. That's good news for owners of the HTC Wildfire, Motorola Charm, Huawei IDEOS and LG Optimus T/S, who were left out in the cold until now. Skype for Android has had some nice bug fixes and improvements added, too:
- 320*240 and 240*400 screen resolutions are now supported.
- Hardware back key is now supported.
- Reduced power consumption in idle mode.
- Signing out from Skype now exits Skype.
- Improved login stability and behavior.
- Improved performance with large contact lists.
- Reduced application size.
- General bug fixes.
Check it out in the Android market and let us know how you're finding this latest version.


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The ASUS Chromebook Flip released last year was met with relatively positive reactions from consumers, so it isn't outrageous to presume that the Taiwanese tech giant is working on a follow-up to it. According to latest reports, that's exactly what's happening at the moment. After several rumors claiming that a Chromebook device codenamed "Cave" is the ASUS Chromebook Flip 2 proved to be false, new information emerged suggesting that the next ASUS-made computer running the Chrome OS is actually codenamed "Bob."
For starters, Bob is certainly an ASUS device as its commits are connected to an email issued by the Taiwanese company. Speaking of which, the said email address is the very same one related to the original ASUS Chromebook Flip, as Chrome Unboxed recently pointed out. Furthermore, latest reports confirmed that Bob is powered by a Rockchip processor and in all likelihood sounds like a convertible computer. Now, for the best part. If you follow the source link below, you'll end up looking at a DTS file hosted by Google's Chromium Code Review website. Among other things, DTS files are capable of representing data structures used to describe particular hardware, which is what this one in particular does. Now, inside it, there's a reference to Bob and another one related to Bob's display, which the DTS file in question labels as the AUO B101EAN01. There are nine variations of this particular display in total, so there's no way to know how bright the display will actually be, but all variants feature the same size and resolution. More specifically, the AUO B101EAN01 is a 10.1-inch display boasting a resolution of 1280 by 800 pixels, i.e. the same one featured by the ASUS Chromebook Flip.
Now, while these repositories are definitely legitimate, you should take this report with a grain of salt nonetheless, as there's still no confirmation that ASUS will ever launch a follow-up to its Chromebook from last year. However, if we presume that the ASUS Chromebook Flip 2 is in the works, it's fair to assume that the device will probably hit the market shortly. Namely, as Chrome Unboxed points out, all integral parts of Bob's base are built on a board whose development started more than four months ago.


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MCA Article Feed.
The announcement of Xbox One made this a very exciting week for tech enthusiasts. Xbox One will no doubt change the way we think about gaming and entertainment, and I’m eagerly awaiting my opportunity to experience this new technology first-hand.
Today more exciting news was shared related to the new generation of Kinect: next year we’ll see a new Kinect for Windows sensor and corresponding Kinect for Windows SDK. The next generation Kinect for Windows sensor will have enhanced capabilities compared to its predecessor, and it will power some exciting new Windows PC experiences!
Here are some highlights of the new generation of Kinect for Windows hardware and software:


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Author: Gunther Schnabl, University of Leipzig
Inflation has risen well beyond the targets of many central banks around the world, reaching 9.1% in the US and 8.6% in the Eurozone in June 2022. It will be 2.4% in June 2022.
Over the years, Japan’s inflation has lagged far behind other advanced economies, even though the Bank of Japan’s balance sheet is growing much faster than most other central bank balance sheets.
Inflation is generally caused by central banks printing excess banknotes, but that is not the case in Japan. Since the collapse of Japan’s bubble economy in December 1989, the money supply has grown much faster than the volume of goods and services, but consumer prices have not risen significantly. Japan’s low inflation conundrum three cause.
The Bank of Japan’s increasingly expansionary monetary policy is gradually lowering corporate funding costs. This allowed us to keep our prices low. Massive purchases of government bonds by the Bank of Japan allowed the Japanese government to heavily subsidize goods and services. Estimates suggest that about 50% of the goods and services in Japan’s consumer basket (used to measure consumer price inflation) are subsidized. Since 1990, Japanese government subsidies have been about 4 timesto reach ¥130 trillion (US$98 billion) in 2021.
The Bank of Japan’s expansionary policy has kept Japanese interest rates steadily below those in the United States. This has led to continued capital outflows to the United States and other countries. Individual households are investing part of their savings in US dollars, life insurance companies are buying US government bonds, and Japanese banks are lending to Southeast Asia. This outflow of purchasing power has reduced inflationary pressure on goods and services, as well as the Japanese asset market.
Government subsidies to businesses and continued capital outflows have kept domestic inflation low, but falling interest rates on bank deposits have increased incentives to maintain savings in cash or bank deposits. increase. Since most Japanese no longer distinguish between investment and savings, the money supply has been able to increase without subsequent inflation, especially since the financial crisis in Japan in 1998, when low inflation led to wage increases. We have curbed demand.
Governments in the US and Europe face increasing political pressure from inflation spikes and may consider copying Japan’s low inflation policy. But they should bear in mind that massive central bank-financed government spending has paralyzed the Japanese economy, driving inflation-adjusted wages down steadily since 1998. Abenomics, Japan’s standard of living continues to decline. This trend is shifting the huge burden of government debt to the younger generation.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s “new capitalismIt is unlikely to change Japan’s declining standard of living. More investment in human capital, greater support for innovation and start-ups, and a deliberate commitment to decarbonization and digitalization could provide short-term growth stimulus for the Japanese economy. at the expense of rising government debt.
They also fail to address core issues. In other words, over 30 years of massive subsidies and excess funds have turned Japanese companies into zombies and hindered structural reforms. Kishida’s strong interest in inequality only encourages price controls through subsidies.
A decisive rate hike announcement in the US would put pressure on Kishida’s new capitalism. The US Federal Reserve is forced to raise interest rates to combat inflation. This response was required of the U.S. Federal Reserve Board because, unlike Japan, there are few subsidies to control prices, capital inflows are brisk, and wages are rising rapidly in response to price increases. rice field.
The Bank of Japan’s attempt to keep interest rates on Japanese government bonds low could help keep the government budget sustainable, as rising U.S. interest rates are likely to attract more capital inflows from Japan.But the Japanese yen depreciate further Rising prices of imported goods will accelerate the rise in consumer prices. Kishida’s new capitalism may not be as robust as Abenomics.
Kishida was able to stem the yen’s depreciation by introducing capital controls, but this would accelerate the decline of Japan’s welfare. We should start a comprehensive reform like the Meiji period.
Gunther Schnabl is Professor of Economic Policy and International Economics at the University of Leipzig.


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World economic growth is slowing and the prospects for a quick recovery are gloomy, the International Monetary Fund said Tuesday.
The IMF said it expects growth to slow from last year’s 6.1% advance across the globe to 3.2% this year, four-tenths of a percentage point lower than it forecast in April.
“A tentative recovery in 2021 has been followed by increasingly gloomy developments in 2022 as risks began to materialize,” the IMF said. “Global output contracted in the second quarter of this year, owing to downturns in China and Russia, while U.S. consumer spending undershot expectations.”
The Washington-based international finance agency said that “several shocks have hit a world economy already weakened by the pandemic: higher-than-expected inflation worldwide - especially in the United States and major European economies - triggering tighter financial conditions; a worse-than-anticipated slowdown in China, reflecting COVID-19 outbreaks and lockdowns; and further negative spillovers from [Russia’s] war in Ukraine.”
The IMF said the price of consumer goods, especially for food and energy, is increasing throughout the world. The cost is expected to rise by 6.6% in advanced economies this year and by 9.5% in emerging market and developing economies, with both figures up nearly a percentage point from the IMF’s earlier projection.
“The risks to the outlook are overwhelmingly tilted to the downside,” the IMF said.
It said the war in Ukraine “could lead to a sudden stop” of Russia’s export of natural gas to European countries and that “inflation could be harder to bring down than anticipated” if employers cannot find enough workers to meet their labor demands or inflation increases at a faster pace than expected.
The IMF said that a “plausible alternative scenario” to its already diminished forecast would be a world economy “in which risks materialize, inflation rises further, and global growth declines” to about 2.6% and 2% percent in 2022 and 2023, respectively, figures that would put growth in the bottom 10% of outcomes since 1970.
“With increasing prices continuing to squeeze living standards worldwide, taming inflation should be the first priority for policymakers,” the IMF said.
The IMF forecast came as policy makers at the U.S. central bank, the Federal Reserve, began two days of meetings in Washington with the expectation they will announce another three-quarters of a percentage point increase in the Fed’s benchmark percentage rate on Wednesday, an effort to curb rampant inflation in the U.S., the world’s biggest economy.
With June’s 9.1% year-over-year surge in consumer prices in the U.S. – the fastest pace in four decades – the Fed has already boosted its prime lending rate this year from near zero percent to 1.6% and expects to end 2022 at 3.4%.
Increases in the Fed’s interest rate reverberate through the U.S. economy, with higher borrowing costs for car loans and consumer goods. By making it costlier to borrow money, the Fed’s expectation is that consumers and businesses will cut their spending and thus help curb inflation.


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GetApp, a recommendation engine that helps entrepreneurs make informed software purchasing decisions, released findings from its latest survey of startups. The marketing technology study reveals that 68 percent of startups use marketing technology tools, but only 59 percent of them have a plan for how to use them. This poses a significant business challenge as entrepreneurs without a marketing technology plan are four times more likely to say their marketing technology does not meet their business needs.
“Martech tools improve engagement, targeting, and campaigns—but can be overwhelming,” said Zach Capers, Senior Specialist Analyst at GetApp and the survey’s lead analyst. “Problems with overall complexity could result from a lack of training or expertise, and companies without sufficient planning are generally less satisfied with their technology—possibly because they end up with tools that are too complex or have too many features.”
Key findings of the Startup Martech Adoption Report include:
- Despite economic shock waves from a global pandemic, 63 percent of startups increased spending on marketing technology during the past 12 months.
- Sixty-five percent of startups that devote more than a quarter of their marketing budget to marketing technology say their stack meets business objectives, while only 46 percent of those spending a quarter or less said the same.
- Respondents say that investing in marketing technology allows them to improve customer engagement, target audiences precisely, and create effective campaigns. The top two challenges were too many unused features (35 percent) and too many overlapping features (30 percent).
Martech adoption is on the rise as startups and business leaders understand the importance of increasing operational efficiencies across their organizations—and recognize the value of Martech software in meeting crucial business goals. Based on the survey, startups with a plan for technology use will see the biggest impact for their investment.
GetApp’s 2021 Marketing Technology Survey was conducted February 18-25, 2021 among 238 respondents to learn more about the use of marketing technology tools by startups. Respondents were screened for leadership positions at startups in healthcare, IT services, marketing/CRM, retail/eCommerce, software/web development, or AI/ML.
GetApp is the recommendation engine small and midsize businesses (SMBs) need to make the right software choice. GetApp enables SMBs to achieve their mission by delivering the tailored, data-driven recommendations and insights needed to make informed software purchasing decisions. GetApp is a Gartner company. For more information, visit www.getapp.com.
Courtney Palms, GetApp, a Gartner Company


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Picked by the FindMe campaign on MikuBook, Crypton Future Media has just announced the United States as the country for the second Hatsune Miku Expo! The event will take place in two cities: Los Angeles from October 11th~12th at the Nokia Theatre, and New York from October 17th~18th at the Hammerstein Ballroom.
Just like with Miku Expo in Jakarta Indonesia, Miku Expo in the U.S. will bring famous creations, exhibitors, and also a live concert event. Ticket purchaes will open starting June 13th at 10:00 AM PDT for LA, and 10:00 AM EST for NY. Here is the Live Concert and ticketing info, with more expo details to come later:
Los Angeles – Nokia Theatre
Ticket Page: http://mikuexpo.com/la_ticket
Oct. 11, 2014
START : 7:00pm (DOORS OPEN : 6:00pm)
Oct. 12, 2014
START : 12:30pm (DOORS OPEN : 11:30am)
New York – Hammerstein Ballroom
Ticket Page: http://mikuexpo.com/ny_ticket
Oct. 17, 2014
START : 8:30pm (DOORS OPEN : 7:00pm)
Oct. 18, 2014
START : 6:30pm (DOORS OPEN : 5:00pm)
What is Hatsune Miku Expo in Los Angles/New York?
HATSUNE MIKU EXPO is a festival that presents multiple contents featuring Hatsune Miku, including an artwork exhibition focused on the virtual singer and the cultural movement that was inspired by her, fan gathering activities and as absolute highlight the Hatsune Miku concert show using cutting-edge projection technology and live band. HATSUNE MIKU EXPO in the U.S. will be held in Los Angeles and New York.
We’re excited to announce that Nokia Theatre will be the HATSUNE MIKU live concert venue for the Los Angeles show, and the Hammerstein Ballroom for the New York show!! The HATSUNE MIKU exhibition and related events will be held in nearby locations TBA. More details coming soon!
If you would like to see an official event in YOUR area, make sure to cast your vote at http://www.mikubook.com/findme! One more location can still be decided.
Official Announcement Video


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Blog Tags: National Marine Fisheries Service
Let's start with the good news: As of yesterday, July 1, California's shark fin ban (passed in 2011) officially came into effect! California grocers that stocked shark fins and restaurants that offered shark fin soup on the menu had 18 months to move their product. During the 18 month interim, the Los Angeles Times reports that one San Gabriel Valley restaurant specializing in the delicacy shut down, while several retailers in Chinatown bemoaned the large stock of shark fins still at hand.
- Will EU Member States Live Up To Their Common Fisheries Policy Commitments? Posted Thu, September 25, 2014
- Ocean Roundup: Crabs Found to Look Out for Corals, 35,000 Walruses Gather on Alaskan Beach, and More Posted Thu, October 2, 2014
- Ocean Roundup: Sand Tiger Shark Embryos Found to Eat Each Other, Wind Turbines Could Weaken Hurricane Intensity, and More Posted Mon, September 29, 2014
- Arctic Sea Ice Found to Play Bigger Role in Global Carbon Cycle Than Assumed, Study Says Posted Tue, September 30, 2014
- Ocean Roundup: Gulf Businesses Won’t Return BP Payouts, Whales May Have More than One Spleen, and More Posted Fri, September 26, 2014


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So Christmas has come and gone, and with the new year fast approaching, our thoughts turn to the next 12 months and whether it can match the hurly-burly of 2011.
The most powerful computers on the planet fed with all the data created in 2011 could not predict with any accuracy what's going to happen next year, such is the speed of change in the technology world.
So, instead, we sat around the table with some tea and biscuits and chatted a bit about some of the things we'd like to see happen next year. Let us know what you hope to see come true in 2012 in the comments box below.
10. Someone to finally buy Yahoo
Someone please buy Yahoo and put it out of its misery. We've all watched the once powerful search firm struggle against Google for the past decade, and its on-off engagements with Microsoft led to sharp turns in share prices and very upset investors.
Microsoft made a $44.6bn bid for Yahoo in 2008 before the economic markets collapsed and, as Yahoo continues to post disappointing results year on year, Microsoft has said how pleased it is that Yahoo refused the offer.
Furthermore, Yahoo put ex-Autodesk chief Carol Bartz in charge of turning the business around two years ago, and then promptly sacked her in September as the firm's advertising business failed to keep pace with its rivals'.
Still, rumours abound that the firm may yet be bought by Microsoft or a series of venture capitalists, and it would be nice for the tired old firm if it could find a warm, cosy place to retire next year.
And, yep, it'll run Android rather than RiscOS
US engineering giant's cost-cutting outsourcing plan is on the rocks, according to insiders
HP Envy X2 laptop only affordable if you've got loadsamoney
Counterfeit code-signing certificates enabling hackers to hide malware being sold by cyber criminals
Certificates can be used as part of layered obfuscation to evade detection by anti-virus software


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PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — After months of discussion, the Commerce Corporation Monday revealed Rhode Island’s new slogan – “Rhode Island: Cooler and Warmer.”
The slogan is part of a $4.5 million campaign aimed at marketing Rhode Island to tourists.
“Cooler and warmer means our cities are cool and hip and in the summer it’s warm and our beaches are great. But also, our culture is warm. Rhode Island is inviting. It’s a warm place. It’s a place everybody wants to be,” said Gov. Gina Raimondo. “This is an exciting opportunity. For the first time, we’re going to have a statewide, coordinated approach to tourism and attracting tourists and tourists to spend in Rhode Island.”
Back in September, Raimondo announced the state hired three companies to give the state a new brand. One company will develop the brand, another will promote it through advertising, and the third will plan events that distinguish Rhode Island from other states. In fact, one of the companies hired came up with the famous “I Love New York” campaign.
“We want everyone to have the same love for Rhode Island as we do,” Raimondo said.
According to a Providence Journal article last year, Rhode Island is losing millions of tax dollars and thousands of jobs because the state isn’t doing enough to promote itself.


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One in every five cigarettes smoked in Malta last year was counterfeit or contraband, a new study has found.
A report released by auditing firm KPMG said Malta had one of the highest rates of contraband cigarettes in Europe and grew by 70 per cent over 2015.
The black market cigarette trade was estimated to have cost the public coffers some €19 million in uncollected tax revenue in 2016, the report said.
Malta was also highlighted as being a transit country through which large quantities of illegal cigarettes passed.
Last week, Customs announced an extensive crackdown on the black market for contraband cigarettes, with anything from shops to band clubs and even private residences in officials’ sights.
In a statement announcing the anti-contraband operation, Customs singled out four brands of cigarettes commonly smuggled into the country: Business Royals, American Legend, Manchester and Tradition.
Anything from shops to band clubs and private residences are in officials’ sights
Two weeks ago, a court sent a smuggler to jail for six months and fined him €13,082 as part of an anti-smuggling operation.
And earlier last month, airport security officials seized 120 cartons (24,000 cigarettes) from a passenger arriving from Istanbul.
The KPMG report said that contraband cigarettes are genuine tobacco products that get illegally diverted into a market for which they are not originally intended, while counterfeit cigarettes are tobacco products manufactured without the permission of the trademark holder.
‘Illicit whites’ – cigarettes manufactured for the purpose of being smuggled and sold illegally elsewhere – were the main source of irregular cigarettes across Europe, the report says.
The KPMG report also highlights Malta as a major point of entry to other EU markets and says this could explain the increase in irregular cigarettes discovered on the island.
The brands targeted by local Customs officials were also mentioned in the report. It said they had no country-specific labelling and passed through Malta before being exported to countries with slightly more expensive tobacco.
The countries in question were mainly the UK and France, where the average price for a packet of 20 cigarettes stands at €8.86 and €6.76, respectively.
The local average price for a packet of cigarettes is €5.25.
The sale of counterfeit cigarettes is a criminal offence that carries with it harsh penalties from the confiscation of carrying vehicles to hefty fines and even imprisonment. The consumption of one single counterfeit or contraband cigarette carries a minimum fine of €250.
“Every euro in excise that is lost on contraband cigarettes is a euro stolen from government coffers that would otherwise have been spent on health, education, pensions and childcare,” the Customs Department said.
Independent journalism costs money. Support Times of Malta for the price of a coffee.Support Us


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BrandSource creates new TRIB marketing division
With the company set to meet in Orlando in a few days for its annual Summit & Expo, BrandSource announced that it has created a new marketing program within its TRIB division. BrandSource CEO Jim Ristow initiated the idea as a way to enhance the competitive edge of TRIB in the RTO industry and create “new synergy among company resources,” BrandSource explained in a statement.
“TRIB and the RTO channel are very important to BrandSource,” Ristow said in the statement. “We wanted to make sure TRIB members have all the tools necessary to make their business profitable. By leveraging the BrandSource Marketing infrastructure with dedicated RTO assets we can give TRIB members the marketing tools they need that are specific to RTO.”
The company said that the move to expand TRIB’s marketing resources is necessary for its incursion into the burgeoning RTO industry. The hope is that TRIB can attain the same level of success as BrandSource’s own retail marketing program through a combination of “affordable websites, point of purchase, Google ads, Facebook ads, SEO, social media, TV production, and tabloids and direct mail.”
BrandSource has tapped Kristina Smallwood to manage the new TRIB initiative. Smallwood is a seven-year RTO veteran with a background in marketing and design. She’s been a member of the TRIB board for over a year and had been in discussions with Ristow for some time about the institution of a separate marketing program, BrandSource said.
“Having the right marketing message targeted at the right audience is very important,” Dennis Shields, Executive Director of the TRIB Group, said in the statement. “We are excited that BrandSource has taken the initiative to elevate TRIB by hiring a proven rent to own marketing individual such as Kristina.”


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- Men's big and tall apparel retailer Casual Male has opened a new DestinationXL in The Court at Oxford Valley shopping center in Fairless Hills. The superstore offers more than 2,000 styles from Casual Male's four existing apparel businesses, Casual Male XL, Rochester Big & Tall, Shoes XL and B&T Direct. Sizes range from XL-7XL, tall sizes LT-6XLT and waist sizes 38-64. The Fairless Hills store is the company's eighth DestinationXL nationwide and first in Pennsylvania; Casual Male expects to open another 13 DXL stores in 2011, 20-30 in 2012 and 100 stores over the next four or five years.
- 1-800-Mattress recently opened at Warminster Towne Center on Street Road. The mattress retailer occupies a 4,500-square-foot store in the center, which is owned by Centro Properties Group.
- Ice cream maker oWowCow Creamery will host a fundraiser at its new store in Wrightstown's Carousel Village from 6 to 9 p.m. Aug. 31. A portion of sales during that time will be donated to the Bucks County Foodshed Alliance, a nonprofit whose mission is to foster and expand a local, sustainable food supply in Bucks County and to connect producers and consumers. oWowCow also has a store in Ottsville.
- The New Britain Township Business Alliance will host its first 5K race to support the expansion of Veterans Park in New Britain Township. The race will be held in conjunction with the township's annual fall festival Sept. 24. For entry forms, visit NBTBA.com, call event chairman Dr. Craig Hall at 267-664-0308 or alliance president Leslie Bilotta, 267-337-0132.
- Network Now, a networking group for women business owners in the Greater Philadelphia region, is hosting a community-wide donation drive in Buckingham on Aug. 30 to benefit Impact Thrift Store. The store, which has locations in Montgomery Township, Hatboro and Norristown, will have a truck at 3664 Hancock Lane to pick up donations of furniture, appliances, clothing, shoes, movies, books, household items, holiday decorations and more. Donations can be dropped off on the front lawn Aug. 30 for pickup. For a list of excluded items, visit www.ImpactThrift.org. For more information on the dropoff, email Jamie@NetworkNowConnections.com.
Crissa Shoemaker DeBree: 215-345-3186; email, firstname.lastname@example.org; Twitter: @bucksmontbiz


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A Sydney-based digital production company has highlighted the importance of creating a narrative for time-sensitive games, after launching Christmas-inspired iPhone game Santa Panic!
The Project Factory, founded in 2005 by Annette Parry, Guy Gadney and Jennifer Wilson, creates transmedia entertainment across web, mobile, social media and games platforms.
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With offices in Sydney and London, it produces interactive entertainment for movie, television, brands and digital media companies.
The company has launched a festive and interactive iPhone game called Santa Panic!, which allows players to alter the game’s storyline via Facebook.
Every time a user players the game, they are presented with a new version of the story, crowdsourced from other players. This allows the player to add their own creativity to the game.
Santa Panic! was devised and created in-house by The Project Factory’s Australian hub of gaming developers. The company intends to release the game internationally.
Parry describes Santa Panic! as a fast-paced puzzle game where players must pass through 30 levels of gameplay to ensure all of Santa’s presents are delivered in time for Christmas.
“As well as the game itself, Santa Panic! features a series of storylines which can be personalised by players via the game’s Facebook page,” she says.
“These stories are all then fed back into the game, allowing a different narrative to be presented each time the game is played.
“While Santa Panic! is the first title we are launching with the personalised narrative engine, we see this technology as hugely valuable for parents wanting to customise app experiences for their children, or for businesses wanting to move their fans and community from Facebook to mobile platforms.”
The launch of Santa Panic! comes on the back of an announcement by the Australian Retailers Association, which is expecting a 4% rise in Christmas-related spending compared to last year.
According to Gadney, there are several points to keep in mind when developing a game centred on a particular event such as Christmas.
“Part of the way we approach this is to put a narrative around it,” he says.
“Where [other developers] might get a simple, casual game that is branded as Christmas-y, our approach is to think about the characters – Santa and his elves.
“It’s not just a game… that has characters and you do stuff with them. There’s a bit of a relationship built up.”
Gadney is confident the game could have a lifespan beyond Christmas because “if there is quite a good game, people will run with it at any point in the year”.
“I think a lot of it is about testing approaches around narratives and technology, and seeing if they hold together as a really good game,” he says.
According to Gadney, the biggest mistake app developers make is when they assume they will make lots of money from the get-go.
“There’s a huge amount of expectation around revenue coming in on the first weekend… You have to have a slightly longer term approach to it,” he says.
“Some things, and some companies especially, have been around for a long time. With Halfbrick or any other games company, that has been the case – they’ve been around for a while.”


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AO World has hailed "green shoots of profitable growth" in its UK business, but revealed plans to scale back its European arm.
Peter Jones has reportedly extended a notice of intention to appoint administrators for Jessops by two weeks.
Next has partnered with mobile operator O2 to trial a new shop-in-shop format in 4 Next stores.
Travis Perkins Q3 sales rise 15% thanks to Wickes, Co-op launch initiative to improve night shift workers’ sleep quality.
Gear4Music has reported that its sales have reached almost £50 million in the six months to September 30.
OnBuy is set to introduce a dedicated department for refurbished electronics for the first time.
Jessops is reportedly set to call in administrators as its owner, Peter Jones, makes a last-ditch attempt to save it.
The chief executive of Sainsbury's owned chain Argos, John Rogers is stepping down to become WPP's chief financial officer.
Vodafone announces ambitious plans to open another 24 stores in 2019 after already opening 50 since the start of the year.
Dixons Carphone has said it will consult with shareholders after facing a shareholder rebellion over its leadership team


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Dec 31, 2019
Year 2019 will finish, in this year, Angel Special Enzyme Division sticks to the concept of "Innovative healthy life", gives full play to the advantages of enzyme in green and high efficiency, and helps modern industry achieve green environmental protection, energy conservation & emission reduction, and industrial upgrading.
Dec 30, 2019
From December 19th to 28th, the Algerian National Product Exhibition(Foire de la Production Algérienne-FPA) 2019 was held at the Algiers Exhibition Center. Angel's Algerian distributor participated in this exhibition, focusing on promoting the yeast products of our company. The new President of Algeria, Mr. Tebboune, attended the opening ceremony of the exhibition and visited the distributor’s booth.
Dec 30, 2019
From December 5th to 6th, after two days of strict audit, Chongzuo Company passed the GMP+B2 (Feed Raw material production Safety and Security) audit.
Dec 27, 2019
During the exhibition, Angel showed Angel and Bright brewer yeast series. Lager and Wheat brewer was welcomed by local beer market, which attracted many microbreweries and brewer lovers.
Dec 19, 2019
Angel Yeast is glad to welcome you at IPPE 2020 at the Georgia World Congress Center, Atlanta, USA from January 28th to 30th.
Dec 18, 2019
The year of 2019 will be over soon, Angel microbial nutrition division appreciates and treasures the support and effort from every partners, customers and staffs for our collaboration.
Dec 16, 2019
During November 5 to November 7, and November 26 to November 28, 2019, CPHI were held separately at Congress Center Messe, Frankfurt, Germany and the India Expo Center, New Delhi, India. The international business team of Angel’s Microbial Nutrition division participated in this two exhibitions.
Dec 5, 2019
Fi Europe is now being held in France from December 3rd to 5th 2019. Angel YE division and Special Enzyme Division took part in the event jointly.
Dec 2, 2019
Through a three-days BRC certification audit, Intertek Turkey audit expert SELIME believes that the food safety management system established by Angel Russia operates effectively in accordance with BRC global food standards and he will propose to the Intertek headquarters to issue a B-level certificate to Angel Russia.
Nov 29, 2019
During November 5 to November 7, and November 26 to November 28, 2019, CPHI worldwide and CPHI India were held separately at Congress Center Messe Frankfurt, Germany and the India Expo Center in New Delhi, India.
Nov 28, 2019
November 27th, Poultry India 2019 was held in HITEX Exhibition Center, Hyderabad, India. Animal Nutrition Division participate in the exhibition and a series of solutions such as immunity enhancement and growth promotion were presented to Indian users, especially the leading product GroPro which attracted users' attention in the field of poultry.
Nov 27, 2019
Nov 27, 2019The 28th SIMEI International Trade Fair for Winemaking and Bottling Machinery was held in Milan, Italy from November 19th to 2...
Nov 16, 2019
Angel Brewing team was invited to the conference and gave a report on Application of New Saison Style in Beer Brewing and shared the newest achievement of Angle beer yeast on R&D, which provide application solutions for craft brewing.
Nov 15, 2019
November 11th-12th, two ruminant seminars were held by Fubon at Grodno Agricultural University. More than 50 people from the dairy farms near the university participated in the seminars.
Nov 14, 2019
November 7th, invited by Russian ruminant industry association, Angel Yeast participated in the first Russian ruminant industry conference and made a speech as a representative of outstanding companies.
Nov 14, 2019
In 2019, Angel Yeast will launch the new products with his partner Renaissance BioScience Corp. At this time, such as new series of H2S-Preventing wine yeast, Mannoproteins, high GSH of yeast extract and inactive yeast and bring enology technological solutions with our experts.
Nov 14, 2019
Angel Animal Nutrition will be featured at a new location and will have a new booth this year at Poultry India 2019. Come to learn about the new products and solutions we are developing in helping animals perform at their best.
Nov 8, 2019
Angel Yeast will attend BrauBeviale with strategic partners Renaissance BioScience together, with new products, such as a wide variety of brewer's yeast and technical solutions shown at exhibition, bringing new vitality to the beer yeast market.
Nov 4, 2019
On the morning of October 29, with the roar of mechanical equipments, the company's R & D complex project officially broke ground.


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A new generation of the Amarok pickup is in the works. It is a product of the partnership between VW and Ford, and as such, shares its platform with the current-generation Ranger that debuted last year. We’re still waiting for the new Amarok to debut, but in the meantime, the Ranger Raptor also debuted in February worldwide. For some, this raised a question: is a Raptor version of the Amarok in the pipeline?
The very short answer to that question is no, according to the CarsGuide website. The Australian news outlet cites a Ford spokesperson speaking to the media last month as definitively burying the possibility of a high-performance Amarok sharing Ranger Raptor parts. The report claims that the Ranger Raptor technology will remain exclusive to it, although apparently VW has at least raised the possibility of creating an Amarok Raptor with Ford. If a high-performance Amarok emerges in VW’s future, it will be developed by the automaker itself.
For now, the new standard Amarok needs to arrive before we can ponder a high-performance version. The news about the new generation of Amarok was even discreet this year, with the last concrete news of the pickup being in February when it appeared camouflaged. A few days earlier, VW released some sketches of the pickup truck that advanced a bit of its final design. As might be expected, there is a strong resemblance to the Ranger, especially when viewed from the side. VW will change the sheet metal in some parts and obviously will use a new face. Engine options are not known, but we believe it will use VW’s diesel engines.
Another question is whether the new Amarok will eventually reach the North American market. The answer is also a strong no, at least at launch and likely for many years to come. That could change, however, only if the small and midsize pickup segment continues to grow in the United States.
Recently, VW CEO Herbert Diess was quoted in 60 Minutes as saying that the manufacturer had to become relevant again in the United States. With pickup trucks being the best-selling vehicle in the US by a significant margin, one can’t help but wonder why VW wouldn’t market a pickup truck in a country where there’s so much demand for one.


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India is slowly emerging from a deadly second wave of COVID-19 and the economic indicators are only beginning to capture the scale of the impact.
The economy contracted 7.3 percent in the last financial year, its first full-year contraction in the past four decades. This, even as fourth quarter saw the economy grow by 1.6 percent aided by higher government expenditure and some pick-up in the manufacturing sector.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its paper on the state of the economy has projected that the second wave may leave a dent of as much as Rs 2 lakh crore on economic output.
Amid all this, skyrocketing fuel prices and higher food prices have propelled India's retail inflation race to 6.3 percent in May, breaching the upper limit of the RBI's inflation target.
However as COVID cases have started to plateau, the economy is slowly opening up. More than 21 crore people have received their first vaccine dose and close to 5 crore people have received both doses. The pace remains a bit slow, but it is expected to pick up in the next few weeks.
To understand where the economy is headed from here and what the recovery timeline is, CNBC-TV18's Shereen Bhan spoke to Chief Economic Advisor Krishnamurthy Subramanian; CP Gurnani, MD and CEO of Tech Mahindra; and Prashant Kumar, MD and CEO of Yes Bank.
The panel also discussed whether it is time for the government to loosen its purse strings further in order to finance more welfare schemes.For the full discussion, watch the video.


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The ProLiant m710 is designed for application delivery and video transcoding read more »
The Topcoder developer community has 3,700 Swift developers on its platform nine weeks after the language became available. read more »
The big data analytics firm unveils its 'Connection Analytics' solution read more »
Data recovery times cut by 90 percent claim read more »
Both companies stand to gain if network functions virtualization upends traditional carrier systems read more »
Some 40 percent of finance chiefs adopt the ostrich position read more »more news ..
Removing friction from the AppDev process read more »
You will often require help from the professionals read more »
Multivendor, mixed hardware/software environment requires testing coordination and risk management of a high order read more »
The buzzwords they are a changin'... read more »more blogs ..
Watch this on demand webinar which explores IT innovation, managed print services and business agility.
Check out our latest articles on Microsoft's next-generation operating system.
Join ComputerworldUK's editor in chief, Mike Simons, and Dell executives in a series of video discussions on how to respond to cyver criminals.
Following HP's dispute with Autonomy, we look back at other HP acquisitions in this Computerworld UK slideshow.
HP In Depth
Gartner analyst Gayla Sullivan provides advice for dealing with 'new guard' of suppliers read more »
Veeam Software's CEO Ratmir Timashev is out to revolutionise disaster recovery as a service read more »
Nadella's plan to put services, software on all platforms means the Apple-IBM deal will have little impact on the enterprise-centric Microsoft read more »
Insecure by design and trusted by default, embedded systems present security concerns that could prove crippling read more »
SMEs face a new era of mandatory security certification read more »
ComputerworldUK meets the new head of UK and Ireland for HP read more »more in depth ..
Some of these technology innovations sound like science fiction, but they may land in your data centre sooner than you'd imagine read more »
Microsoft leads the way, but has plenty of company on jobs cut front read more »
Female presence at a board and executive level is on the up read more »
Don't miss SAP's big announcements from its flagship annual conference read more »more slideshows ..


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Pacific Crest initiated coverage on Fitbit Inc.'s stock Tuesday morning at overweight. Analyst Brad Erickson set a 12-month price target of $47, which represents 47% upside from Monday's closing price. "The business is growing ridiculously fast, margin expectations are depressed, and we like Fitbit's opportunities beyond consumer in corporate wellness channels," he said. The analyst also called Apple Inc.'s competitive concerns overdone and said there could be further upside to growth forecasts if Fitbit ramps up marketing spend. Shares of Fitbit have fallen 28.3% over the last month, compared with a 6.6% decline for the broader S&P 500. Its shares climbed 3.3% in premarket trade.
Copyright © 2015 MarketWatch, Inc.


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High number of scam cases recorded: FCCC
May 7, 2018 12:13 am
The Fijian Competition and Consumer Commission is concerned with the high number of scam related complaints.
Acting chief executive, Seymour Singh says the Commission will be introducing new mechanisms to address this growing issue.
Singh says in 2014/2015 scam related cases were taken directly to court.
But in 2016 the Commission introduced mediation, however, this saw very few cases resolved.
“Scam cases we received was around 28 for 2018, for 2017 was 35 cases and 2016, there were about 21. So these cases that we had received were actually accepting money and not delivering goods to the people.”
Singh says to date this year the Commission has received twenty-eight complaints.
He says majority of these cases are related to land sales, construction companies not completing buildings, travel agents and online scams.


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Labor Day is Sept. 6 which, for many of us, we get to kick back and enjoy a three-day holiday weekend thanks to the holiday on Monday. It also means that many businesses are closed for the holiday which can make it difficult to determine who will or won’t be open on the holiday including the post office.
While it’s generally easier to keep track of when the post office will be closed on some of the bigger holidays such as Christmas and Thanksgiving, the same isn’t always the case for smaller holidays such as Labor Day.
In fact, it’s likely the mystery surrounding the U.S. Postal Service office hours for Labor Day that brought you here today. So let’s not waste any time and dive right on into the burning question on your mind: is the post office open today?
Is USPS open on Labor Day? (2021)
Because Labor Day is a federal holiday, the U.S. Postal Service will not be open on Monday, Sept. 6, 2021, as the post office does not do business on federal holidays. As such, local U.S. Postal Service branches will be closed for the day in observance of the holiday.
Will mail and package delivery run on Labor Day? (2021)
Because the U.S. Postal Service does not do business on federal holidays and is not open for the holiday, there will be no regular mail delivery on Labor Day. In other words, no need to head out to check your mailbox on Sept. 6.
There will, however, be Priority Mail Express delivery as the service is said to operate 365 days of the year. You can also turn to self-service kiosks which are also expected to remain open for the Labor Day holiday, though it doesn’t hurt to check the U.S. Postal Service locator for complete location and service information.


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Orchestra plans more job cuts and shop closures
Children's clothing chain Orchestra-Prémaman is planning more store closures and job cuts than first planned, with only 12 of its 53 Belgian shops staying open.
The French retailer, which is restructuring its operations in several European countries, now plans to shed 162 jobs in Belgium.
The group initially announced 12 Belgian store closures at the end of last year, before increasing the total to 34 last month - and now 41.
Orchestra-Prémaman is also aiming to achieve 159 net job losses in France, 108 in Spain, about 20 in Germany and others in Greece and Switzerland, the group said.
The retailer specialises in clothing and accessories for babies and children and announced last September that it was encountering financial difficulties.
In other retail news, Blokker has been sold to Dutch Retail Groep and all 123 of its Belgian stores will be rebranded Mega World.
"Because of the losses incurred, it was not possible to continue on this path without taking drastic measures," Blokker's parent company Mirage Retail Group said in a statement.
According to De Tijd, only a quarter of Blokker's 123 Belgian outlets are profitable. The losses date back to 2014 and turnover was down 31% last year. Under the terms of the acquisition, no stores will close and no jobs will be lost.
Dutch Retail Groep director Dirk Bron said he was "very happy" with the acquisition and "convinced that the discount formula has a great future in Belgium".
"As of tomorrow, we will start to convert these points of sale to the new discount brand Mega World," he said.
"No store will close, and I am sure that this new formula will allow us to ensure the development and profitability of this business."


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He also teased that it will be “seriously next level” and briefly discussed the upcoming Tesla pickup truck and next-gen Roadster… Musk congratulated the Tesla Semi team for doing “an amazing job”. Musk put Tesla’s Vice President of Vehicle Programs, Jerome Guillen, in charge of Tesla’s all electric heavy truck program.
Guillen had previously been in charge of Daimler’s Cascadia semi truck program, which makes him qualified to lead an electric truck program since he not only has experience with trucks, but he was also more recently the program director of Tesla’s Model S. Now we at Iepieleaks are curious to see who else from the Daimler clan pops up in the comming years at Tesla..
After taking a break in 2015, Guillen came back to Tesla in January 2016 and has been working with his team on the truck program since, which means that they would be about 2 years into the program at the time of the planned reveal in September 2017. Musk also revealed today that the previously announced Tesla pickup truck will be unveiled within “18 to 24 months:


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Nintendo's upcoming Wii replacement the Nintendo Wii U has been showcased at CES 2012 with new panoramic controller modes enhancing game views
Nintendo has shown off a new and previously unseen party piece of its upcoming Nintendo Wii U console with the device's tech filled controller to allow gamers to take in panoramic views of their virtual worlds.
Following the official Nintendo Wii U unveiling at E3 last June, the console which left many gaming fans confused as to its overall abilities has been showcased again with Ninty taking to CES 2012 to officially demo it's Wii U panoramic controller features.
Nintendo Wii U Features
The latest in a long yet cloudy line of Nintendo Wii U features the new flagship console from the Japanese gaming giant will see the 5-inch display touting controller offer panoramic views in selected games whilst the user's TV setup provides the standard front-facing static view.
Capable of 1080p Full HD gaming the Nintendo Wii U is to expand the motion gaming market pioneered with the original Wii with just a single tech filled and presumably pricey controller able to pair with the online store hosting console at a time.
Is the Nintendo Wii U the next big console or a confusing collaboration of dated and unnecessary features? Let us know what you think via the comments box below.


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- Marjorie van Elven |
Net-a-Porter is venturing into kidswear. The luxury e-tailer has announced a pop-up kidswear store in partnership with Gucci, set to launch on July 16 and operate for six weeks. The store will feature items for boys and girls aged 0-12, as well as some unisex options.
”The kidswear pop-up on Net-a-Porter is such an exciting moment for us. It’s our first foray into the category, and we’ve found the perfect partner in Gucci. With Mr Porter’s kidswear project also underway, this really marks the beginning of something special”, said Alison Loehnis, president of Net-a-Porter, in a statement sent to FashionUnited by email.
The pieces include smocks, dresses, babygros, hoodies and playsuits featuring Gucci’s signature animal print motifs, green and red stripes, floral patterns and embroidery. Prices will range between 100 pounds and 2122 pounds.
Pictures: courtesy of Net-a-Porter