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Because of the negative events of the "coin circle", many technology giants registered with suspected digital currency trademarks have denied the issue of money, and only Facebook "winds the crime". This is the world's first "testing water" for digital money, and a "big adventure" for Facebook's transformation.
1. Global Coin of 2.7 billion potential users
Just as Chinese e-commerce was in full swing for 618, Facebook on the other side of the ocean released a white paper on digital currency Libra. This is a white paper that is not surprising. As early as June last year, Zuckerberg and his core staff, who were still plagued by the “data leak scandal”, have roughly defined the new strategy of encrypting digital currency as a breakthrough. And a team of 150 people has begun to advance substantially.
The white paper shows that Facebook expects to release Libra in the first half of 2020 and set up a new company, Calibra, to be responsible for related services. It's a “global monetary and financial infrastructure that benefits billions of people,” and Libra was created to create “a new decentralized blockchain, a low-volatility cryptocurrency and a Smart contract platform.” At the same time, Facebook will also create a new e-wallet that can be used on Facebook Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp, as well as stand-alone iOS and Android apps. From the user experience, this is more like the digital currency version of "Alipay + WeChat payment."
But unlike other common digital currencies, Libra is more like a product based on a coalition chain (only for members of a particular group and limited third parties, which internally specify multiple pre-selected nodes as bookkeepers), and its nature is stable. The currency, that is, the fluctuation of the currency price is not large, and the possibility of people's speculation is greatly reduced.
The reason why “stable coins” are stable is that there is a corresponding reserve of legal currency behind each coin to prevent its price fluctuations. The dollar price has been linked to gold for a long time, and the Q coin has a constant value because it is converted to a 1:1 ratio. In the currency circle, the USDT issued by Tether is a “stable currency” that is strongly linked to the single currency of the US dollar.
However, Libra's situation is more complicated than the "currency" mentioned above. The first is that the anchor currency is not single. Users with Libra can exchange their own Libra for local currency according to the exchange rate. In other words, Libra is not “linked” to a single currency. “As the value of the underlying asset fluctuates, the Libra value, which is denominated in any local currency, may also fluctuate.” Second, the form of the reserve currency is not just the bank. Deposits also include short-term government bonds.
But compared to the innumerable air currency, Libra is the obvious "regular army." From the participation camp, Mastercard, PayPal, Visa in the payment industry, Booking, Lyft, Uber in the travel industry, eBay, Farfetch in the electric business, and of course, Spotify and Facebook in the social field of entertainment are all important participants of Libra. By. According to the white paper, Facebook hopes to recruit 100 cooperative alliance nodes in the first half of 2020 for joint management. In other words, Libra is likely to be used in these applications, just as Alipay can be used outside of the Ali ecosystem.
Second, Facebook is the currency, who is the real beneficiary?
At least from the current point of view, those who are good at "touching porcelain" in the currency circle have not missed this opportunity. Behind the promotion of "giant admission", the price of bitcoin and other digital currencies is also rising, and some analysts said that bitcoin will rise above the $10,000 mark at the end of June this year.
For Facebook, this is also a good opportunity to “unlock” new sources of income. Social products have inherent cyclicality, and the profit model of relying solely on advertising is not sustainable. The birth of Libra not only increased the user stickiness of Facebook social products, but also contributed to the growth of its advertising revenue, and also enabled Facebook to expand a "cash cow" business unit.
Because of the early release of the "coin", SunTrust, a Wall Street institution, gave Facebook a "buy" rating with a target price of $215. According to the research report: "(Digital currency project) is a major initiative of Facebook. It is possible to place the company outside of advertising, including business and financial services, making the company one of the major players in the digital currency development center. Although digital currency has existed for many years, no other company can bring a combination of user size, brand support and balance sheet. In our view, Facebook has these capabilities."
At the same time, stock market feedback is not bad. On the 17th before the white paper was released, Facebook shares rose 4.24% to 189 dollars, and then broke through 194 dollars on the 18th. Before the deadline for publication, Facebook closed slightly down to $188.47.
And returning to the revenue generated by the business itself, with China's mobile payment market to make a simple comparison, in 2018, China's third-party payment mobile payment users in the scale of 1 billion, and the market transaction size reached 171 trillion (about 25 trillion US dollars). After several years of operation, Libra, with 2.6 billion users, has a transaction size of 50 trillion US dollars. It is not a problem. With a handling fee of two-thousandths of a percent, Facebook’s revenue potential in the payment field can reach hundreds of billions of dollars. It is Facebook’s total revenue of $55.84 billion in 2018.
The market's report to investors also showed that Facebook's cryptocurrency plan will bring in $3 billion to $19 billion in additional revenue by 2021.
For 100 node participants, although they need to pay a $10 million "franchise fee", they exchanged a "flow ticket" with 2.6 billion potential users, which is obviously a cost-effective business, not to mention this. The cost is not worth mentioning in the face of the huge profits of these participants.
For users, lower-cost cross-border payment fees and more convenient payment methods are the reasons for their use of Libra, although the question of user transaction data leakage may still be in the minds of people.
Third, Facebook's next ambition
This is not the first time Zuckerberg has tried to enter the payment field.
As early as 2011, Facebook began to get involved in digital currency and created Facebook Credits. Like the Apple App Store, Facebook will take 30% of the amount of each transaction as a commission, but the project is only used in the Facebook domain, and announced that it will give up after only 2 years of operation, and “passed the WeChat payment just established”. ". Subsequently, Facebook also tried Gifts and Messenger Payments, but the operation and promotion of “small play” made these applications fail to escape the fate of death.
This Facebook issue is not an isolated incident. Since 2018, despite the declining currency, all major institutions have taken a fancy to the opportunity of the blockchain and began to prepare for it and seize the opportunities in their respective fields. In February, JPMorgan Chase released the digital currency Morgancoin for inter-agency clearing; in March, IBM announced the cross-border payment blockchain World Wire; in June, Visa announced B2B Connect, a cross-border payment blockchain network.
But these companies either provide technology or are only small-scale inter-agency transactions, and Libra's C-side influence is not the same. This time, Xiaozha "want to play a big ticket."
Although Libra's prospects are still unknown, it is more than just a product that Facebook has entered the field of financial technology. There are already many mature businesses in the field of financial technology that have been proven to be positive cash flow, but Libra is clearly different from them. Its “global currency” and “financial infrastructure” are positioned internally for Libra’s “Global Coin”. Explain that Facebook wants to be the ambition of the global Internet financial center.
The smuggling of blockchain technology, linked to a basket of currencies, high-frequency cross-border transactions, a large number of users and lower trading thresholds, has made Libra a "world currency" element.
To wear the crown, it must bear the brunt. Libra's application will bring huge income to Facebook, but its global currency positioning will make it have to bear more expenses.
Taking WeChat payment as an example, WeChat with a total number of 1.112 billion users will generate up to 500 million red envelope transactions per day. These are “empty left-handed right-handed accounts in the account system” and cannot bring any income to Tencent. Pay the biggest cost pressure. In 2016, when WeChat paid to announce the withdrawal of fees, Ma Huateng once said that “the monthly subsidy was 300 million yuan”. Similarly, Libra deals face similar problems and costs are much higher than WeChat.
Applying to Libra, cash withdrawal is one of Libra's important revenue sources, because if users pay through Libra transfer, then obviously the free bank transfer business will be the first choice. However, if the user withdraws too much, the entire ecosystem built by Libra will cease to exist, which is Libra's development paradox in the cash withdrawal business. On the other hand, in the handling fee of the third-party payment, there are not a few companies in the 100 node managers, and the handling rate is further lowered.
Similarly, the collapse of public power is also a problem that Facebook has to consider. If the Cambridge analysis event is the first time that Facebook's business model is facing the suppression of public power, then the threat of Facebook may be even greater when the digital currency Libra is available. The strong dollar, the already-aligned euro, and the impenetrable renminbi market, Facebook is difficult to enter in a short period of time, but some countries with small or poor stability may be Libra's main market. For example, the Venezuelan government, which is unstable in the political situation, vigorously promotes blockchains and digital currencies for the launch of “oil coins”, while the public does not buy oil coins, but instead buys bitcoin to hedge.
In addition, the issue of tax ownership after the profit, the transaction speed of the public chain and technical issues are also the biggest problems that are difficult to solve at present. The 12-page white paper is still unresolved and depends on the performance of Facebook's digital currency team for the next 12 months.
Text | Sohu Technology Yin Lina


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Shares of Yelp (YELP) have mostly treaded water the past few months, but that may be about to change. Yelp stock spiked by 11% to $42.71 per share on Friday, a day after the company released its latest quarterly earnings.
So, let’s go over the results. Revenues jumped by 52% to $257.2 million and exceeded Wall Street expectations, which called for $246 million. The growth rate was actually the highest since 2015.
In terms of the bottom line, Yelp posted earnings of five cents a share, while the analysts’ consensus was for a loss of nine cents a share. Last year, the company reported a loss of 33 cents a share. (See Yelp stock charts on TipRanks)
The cash flow from operating activities was $50 million in the quarter, bringing the cash balance to $558 million. Yelp has also continued with its share buybacks. Since the fourth quarter of 2020, the purchases have totaled about $174 million.
Yelp believes that this growth is likely to continue. For the full year, the forecast is for revenues of $1.01 billion to $1.03 billion and adjusted EBITDA of $200 million to $220 million. This compares to the prior guidance of $1 billion to $1.02 billion and adjusted EBITDA of $175 million to $195 million.
A Different Yelp
In 2019, Yelp launched a major strategic initiative to improve innovation and lower costs. COVID-19 only accelerated the efforts.
The good news is that the endeavors are starting to pay off. For example, Yelp’s Request-A-Quote product has been a nice driver for monetization. There was 30% growth quarter-over-quarter.
Then there is the Yelp Audiences platform, which makes it possible for advertisers to get leads from high-purchase intent customers in real time. The platform is still in the early stages, but the annual run-rate for advertising is already over $15 million.
Investments in AI (Artificial Intelligence) and ML (Machine Learning) have also been critical. These technologies have proven effective in improving the bidding and personalization of the user experience.
According to the Yelp shareholder letter, “These investments have led to lower Average CPCs (cost-per-clicks) and improvements in retention rates in turn, which has positively impacted both the top and bottom lines.” In the latest quarter, the average CPC dropped by 20% and ad clicks jumped by 87% on a year-over-year basis.
Bottom Line On Yelp Stock
No doubt, Yelp has a powerful platform. There are 5.4 million claimed local business locations, 224 million cumulative reviews and 528,000 paying advertising locations.
However, there is a wild card: the spread of the Delta variant of COVID-19. Even if there are no lockdowns, consumers may still hold back – and this could pressure the growth.
So for now, it may be best to be cautious with Yelp stock.
Wall Street’s Take
According to TipRanks’ analyst rating consensus, Yelp comes in at a Hold. Out of six analyst ratings, the stock has one Buy, four Holds and one Sell. At $42, the average Yelp price target implies 8.16% upside potential.
Disclosure: Tom Taulli does not have a position in Yelp stock.
Disclaimer: The information contained herein is for informational purposes only. Nothing in this article should be taken as a solicitation to purchase or sell securities.

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With Mother’s Day right around the corner on Sunday, May 12, Walt Disney World Resort is a great place to take mom for a special day out.[Read more…]
The most wonderful time of the year is already headed our way, as tickets are now on sale for Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom.
Guests visiting Walt Disney World Resort for the Fourth of July can celebrate the holiday at Disney’s Contemporary Resort with Woody’s Roundup Barbecue Buffet from July 4-6!
Today just got a little sweeter, as April 3 is National Boysenberry Day, and Knott’s Berry Farm is celebrating in a big way!


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iPhone tethering to come soon?11
Now at the Web 2.0 summit, AT&T's CEO confirmed that the iPhone 3G could be utilized as a modem in the near future. The iPhone 3G was speculated to have affected AT&T's 3G network because of the sudden increase in users browsing the internet which resulted in slower speeds for browsing and poor stability for voice calls on the phone itself. Thus, the recent announcement on the issue of tethering was made after the 3G network was improved and made capable of handling such a burden; so as the rumor goes.
AT&T is notorious to charge a higher access fee for tethering and with the jailbreak option on the iPhone 3G, one is able to keep their current data plan and install free programs such as PDANet through Cydia which in return allows the user to use the device as a modem.
Could it be that the new 2.2 firmware will carry the tethering option? Only time will tell.
The recurring monthly charge for the feature and release date were not announced.
source:MobileCrunch via MacRumors


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Dolce & Gabbana canceled a Shanghai fashion show hours before it was scheduled after an outcry over promotional videos that many people complained were racist.
“For the moment, please consider this event as suspended until further notice from Dolce&Gabbana,” the Italian luxury label said in an email to HuffPost on Friday. The company said on Instagram it had “nothing but respect for China and the people of China,” and attributed some of the controversy to a hacked Instagram account.
Dolce & Gabbana angered Chinese authorities, celebrities and others this week with videos posted on social media featuring an Asian model attempting to eat various Italian foods with chopsticks.
The videos, meant to promote what the company called “The Great Show,” are narrated by a male voice who tells the model things like, “don’t use the chopsticks as knives” and “just use your chopsticks like pliers,” according to CNN. The narrator also seemingly mispronounces the brand’s name, which some reportedly interpreted as mocking the Chinese.
People on the Chinese social media platform Weibo accused Dolce & Gabbana of trivializing China’s culture and presenting a racist view of Chinese women, according to The Guardian. Within 24 hours, at least one of the videos was removed from the fashion label’s Weibo account and the hashtag #BoycottDolce began circulating, The Guardian reported.
Diet Prada, one of the first outlets to cover the controversy, shared what looked to be a screenshot of a conversation between Dolce & Gabbana co-founder Stefano Gabbana and an Instagram user. Gabbana appears to insult China and claims his promotional videos were deleted from Chinese social media “because my office is stupid as the superiority of the Chinese.”
Gabbana later wrote on Instagram that his account had been hacked.
Dolce & Gabbana posted a statement echoing Gabbana’s hacking claim and apologizing for “any distress caused by these unauthorized posts.” The company later posted a second statement lamenting “what happened today” as “very unfortunate.”
“Our dream was to bring Shanghai a tribute event dedicated to China which tells our history and vision,” it said. “It was not simply a fashion show, but something that we created especially with love and passion for China and all the people around the world who loves Dolce & Gabbana.”
Diet Prada reported that 24 models from the China Bently Modeling Agency refused to attend the planned show. Business of Fashion reported a number of Chinese celebrities, including Zhang Ziyi, Li Bingbing, Chen Kun and Wang Xiaoming, also opted out.
This isn’t the first time Dolce & Gabbana has courted controversy. Gabbana, in particular, found himself in hot water this year, when he criticized Selena Gomez’s looks, drawing anger from plenty of the singer’s fans (including Miley Cyrus).


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Google and Samsung had said they planned to have a major announcement on October 11, widely rumored to be the unveiling of the third-generation Nexus smartphone. Today, the companies announced -- without much explanation -- that they would delay the announcement. Here's the official statement:
Samsung and Google decide to postpone the new product announcement at CTIA Fall. We agree that it is just not the right time to announce a new product. New date and venue will be shortly announced.
-Quoted on Thisismynext, October 7, 2011 (via Techmeme)
So is that sensitivity over Steve Jobs death? Problems with demo hardware? Software glitches in the upcoming "Ice Cream" update of Android? We don't know.
I'll note for Apple fans who seem to have a hard time with these sorts of things that Google has never specified or confirmed exactly what they planned to announce on the 11th and that the rumored date for actual delivery of the next Nexus phone was in November, which may not be changing.
UPDATE: Event back on for next week, October 19 in Hong Kong.


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Qatari investors should take advantage of the lucrative investment opportunities in various economic sectors of Bosnia, Chairman of the Council of Ministries of Bosnia and Herzegovina Denis Zvizdic said on Tuesday.
Addressing a meeting of a large trade delegation from Bosnia and Qatari businessmen at the headquarters of the Qatar Chamber (QC) in Doha, Zvizdic said his government would ensure that Qatari investments in Bosnia are hassle-free and profitable.
Terming Bosnia as an ideal place for foreign investments, Zvizdic said that Qatari investors can benefit a lot from their investments in his country, especially in the sectors of agriculture, food, renewable energy, medicine, tourism, banks and finances.
He said the Bosnian government has introduced several tax incentives for foreign investors in many economic sectors.
Zvizdic called upon Qatari businessmen to visit Bosnia and study the ready-to-invest projects on the ground.
Given the strengthening ties between Qatar and Bosnia, Zvizdic said there was an immense potential to increase trade volume between the two countries.
According a data provided by Qatar Chamber, trade volume between the two countries stood at $4 billion in 2017. While Qatar exports to Bosnia amounted to $2.2 million, the imports from Bosnia were worth $1.8 million.
Qatar mainly imports instruments of purring liquids or gases, textiles and apparels, equipment for medical, dental and surgery, electric motors, stationeries, and steel products. Qatar’s main export to Bosnia in 2017 was unwrought aluminum.
Qatar Chamber Board Member Ali bin Abdulatif al Misnad, who led the Qatari side during the meeting, said that relations between Qatar and Bosnia and Herzegovina have witnessed remarkable progress in recent years, especially following the visit of the Emir His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al Thani to Sarajevo in early 2016.
The visit opened the door for a new phase of cooperation aimed at achieving economic and trade partnership between the two friendly countries.
The volume of trade between the two countries is still modest, he said, adding it was necessary to work to raise the level of economic and trade cooperation between the two countries.
Bosnia and Herzegovina has many elements that make it an attractive investment destination for Qatari investors, he said, adding that Qatar Chamber would urge Qatari businessmen to channel their investments to Bosnia and Herzegovina.
He said there is a real desire on the part of the Qatari private sector to channel its investments to Sarajevo.
“I hope this meeting will be a real start for further economic and investment cooperation between the two countries,” Misnad said.


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Revcontent Launches Zip Code and DMA Targeting — A Powerful Way for Advertisers to Connect Users in Local Markets With the Most Relevant Offers and Products
Revcontent, leading content discovery platform, announced the release of Zip Code and DMA Targeting for advertisers, the latest in a series of product upgrades. With Zip Code Targeting, advertisers now have the unique and timely opportunity to connect users in hyper-local markets with the most relevant content, offers and products.
With local news consumption on the rise and users consuming more content about the regions they live in, advertisers are able to effectively reach consumers in specific metros and postal codes. Local businesses and brick-and-mortar stores are now able to effectively utilize native traffic to reach users within a certain distance from their locations. For brands with geo-specific offers, they can target large metro regions, helping them spend their budget wisely and attract relevant customers.
“As Comscore reports an 89 percent increase in the consumption of local news, we know it’s more important than ever to offer this level of granular targeting within our platform. We’re thrilled to launch Zip Code and DMA Targeting and help brands make intelligent, relevant buying decisions,” said Richard Marques, CEO of Revcontent.
“Advertisers have access to a whole new level of granularity with hyperlocal targeting capabilities, said Sharon Lyon, Vice President of Sales and Operations at Revcontent. “They’re able to capitalize on markets worth more to their brand and adjust costs accordingly.”
As the company becomes one of the biggest players in local news with hundreds of specific markets under the world’s largest media conglomerates, Revcontent advertisers have access to over 13 billion monthly impressions on premium publishers such as History.com, Nasdaq, Salem Media Group, Patch, Salon, Boston.com, Washington Examiner, Frankly Media, and more.
Recommended AI News: Help Stop the Spread of COVID-19 at TrackMyTemp


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Global SVOD revenues likely will top $35.04 billion in 2018, an increase of more than 40% since 2017’s $24.87 billion and 214% since the $11.16 billion in SVOD revenue during 2015, a new report says. The biggest gains have come in China, where SVOD revenues are projected to increase 708% to $3.709 billion in 2018, compared to $459 million in 2015.
While European pay-TV operators haven’t seen the same cord cutting trend as in North America, over-the-top video – both subscription based (SVOD) and advertising based (AVOD) – continues to gain traction on the continent.
A new report from Dataxis said the European pay-TV market grew by just 0.3% in Q1 2018 over Q4 2017, the lowest quarter/quarter net adds on record, ending the quarter with 185 million subscribers. Since Q 1 2017, pay-TV has seen its subscriber base grow 3.3%.
Revenue from subscription video on demand (SVOD) services now makes up 74% of the 1.1 billion euro video on demand (VOD) market in Germany, with the VOD market expected to more than double to 2.5 billion euros by 2023, a CAGR of some 14.5%. SVOD’s share is expected to rise to 80%, according to a new report.
Despite increasing competition from over-the-top players and from satellite providers, and declining subscriber numbers, the cable industry in the European Union has continued to grow with gross cable revenues topping €22.4 billion ($23.34 billion) in 2015, a 5.7% increase year-over-year.
More than half of cable revenues in 2015 (53%) came from Internet and phone services, according to a report from IHS Markit, with Internet revenues up nearly 10% to €7.2 billion.
There were more video views on mobile devices in Q3 than on any other device, continuing a growth trend that began with the earliest iterations of Ooyala’s Global Video Index. But it’s the kind of video that viewers are watching on mobile devices that we found most interesting in Ooyala’s Q3 2016 Global Video Index.
Spanish subscribers to Amazon Prime are getting a sneak peak of Amazon’s Prime Instant Video SVOD service.
The U.K. government is planning to spend more than $1.24 billion (£1.0 billion) to modernize the country’s digital infrastructure with the goal of full-fiber broadband and 5G wireless technology nationwide by 2020-21.
A new report from British telecom regulator Ofcom says that – for the first time ever – kids are spending more time online than watching television weekly.
The report said five- to 15-year-olds in the past year have increased their Internet time by some 79 minutes to 15 hours a week. Almost all of that time came at the expense of television. Young viewers in the past year spent 72 minutes less time with the television, and now average 13 hours and 36 minutes.
Next year, for the first time, adults in Germany will spend more time with online digital media than viewing TV, a shift in viewing patterns that are even showing up with older consumers.
eMarketer forecasts that German adults will spend 3 hours and 44 minutes per day online compared to 3 hours and 38 minutes watching television; in all, digital media consumption will be up by 5.8% among consumers 18 and older, while daily TV viewing time is forecast to decline 0.3%.
Live sports have always been seen as a major edge for pay-TV operators, as its been the slowest to transition to operating over-the-top on a game-by-game basis, and hasn’t been beset by the disruption experienced by traditional operators and broadcasters.
European cable giant Liberty Global expects to more than double the take rate its mobile service has among its 17 million broadband subscribers in Europe, dramatic growth that CEO Mike Fries says will deliver “huge benefits” to the companies base of customers and delivering higher ARPU, lower churn, and happier customers.


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On the Google Play Store, 11 antivirus apps were discovered that actually installed malware on the smartphone: here are which ones and how to defend yourself
Another eleven dangerous apps have been removed from the Play Store. As in the past, these are fake antivirus apps that were actually hiding malware that infected the device and were able to block its functionality. This is nothing new: in the past month, Google has had to delete about a hundred apps from its online store.
Instead of removing viruses, these apps were simply installing adware. That is, malicious code that displays unwanted advertisements to users. The only functionality vaguely resembling that of an antivirus was the presence of a list of notoriously infected apps. La segnalazione di queste app a Google, che ha poi proceduto a rimuoverle dal suo store, è stata fatta da Quick Heal Technologies, società che sviluppa antivirus veri ed efficaci. Non è affatto la prima volta che una società di sicurezza rintraccia sul Play Store delle applicazioni infette, fake o pericolose che Google aveva lasciato passare, approvandole per la pubblicazione.
Quali sono le false app antivirus pericolose
Tutte le undici applicazioni fake scoperte da Quick Heal si spacciavano per antivirus, come si può già intuire dai nomi:
- Virus Remover
- Fast Antivirus and Security
- Smart Antivirus & Security
- Protector Security Antivirus Accelerator Cleaning
- Mobile Security- Antivirus Applock Cleaner
- Free Smart Antivirus – Mobile Booster
- NPC Antivirus and Security: Mobile Virus Cleaner
- Ultra Speed Bluster and Junk Cleaner 2018
- Antivirus Security
- Antivirus for Mobile 2019
- Mobile Antivirus Security.
Chiunque abbia già installato una di queste applicazioni, quindi, farebbe bere a rimuoverla dal proprio smartphone Android prima possibile, a scaricare un antivirus vero e a lanciare una scansione approfondita. La prima della lista di queste, forse anche grazie al nome molto esplicito e facile da ricordare, è anche quella che è stata scaricata più volte: oltre centomila download. The rating of these apps on Google's store was also quite high, between 3.8 and 4.5 stars, suggesting a heavy activity of posting fake reviews.
The pains of Google Play Store
Not a week goes by lately without hearing that Google has been forced to remove one or more dangerous apps for users, after a thorough report by some cybersecurity company. The most recent and most striking case is that of the CamScanner app, which turns our smartphone into a document scanner and which, after years of honorable service and over 100 million downloads, has been infected by a virus. The report came from Kaspersky.
All this does is fuel the controversy and increase the fears of users who, when they download an app from the Play Store, expect it to be "clean" and controlled. While in the past Google was able to ensure adequate control over the apps that were published on the Play Store, it seems that now it can do so much less, despite the fact that in the last period it has created ad hoc tools, such as Play Protect, which should scan the online store precisely to find infected and dangerous apps.


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Daniel Shepherd, Deputy Editor, Tahawultech sat down with Mike Brooks, Global Director for Asset Performance Management (APM), AspenTech, to discuss disruptive technologies, digital transformation, their APM 4.0 solution and how they distinguish themselves from the competition.
Sandeep Bhagtani, CEO, Newcom, takes the time to discuss lessons learnt from 2021, standing out from the competition and channel partner ecosystem highlights.
Is providing additional value to vendors and partners the only way to get ahead?
Symantec today reported the results of its first quarter of fiscal year 2014, ended June 28, 2013. GAAP revenue for the fiscal first quarter was $1.71 billion, up 2 percent year-over-year and up 3 percent after adjusting for currency.
Apple reported a drop in profits on roughly flat revenue for the April to June quarter, though the results were ahead of analysts’ expectations, providing something of a silver lining for the company.
Intel has updated its road map with a new, low-power server chip to help it ward off competition from Calxeda and other makers of low-power chips.
Oracle has quietly cut the list price of its flagship BI (business intelligence) Foundation Suite significantly, possibly in response to increased market competition.
Intel hasn’t signaled a change in strategy with the appointment of Brian Krzanich to CEO, but it is likely that …
Ericsson’s Middle East President, Anders Lindblad, is adamant the telecoms giant will hold off the rising force of Huawei to …
Patent trolls are increasingly becoming a weapon some companies can use to harm or harass their competitors, according to public …


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article PORSCHE, Germany — PORSCA — The future is here, the company that makes the Porsche 911 is getting into autonomous driving.
The company that’s best known for its supercars, is getting involved with what looks like an entirely new business: self-driving cars.
Porsche, founded in 1925, has been working with the company behind Tesla and Alphabet’s Waymo to develop autonomous driving systems that are built from scratch.
The autonomous car program is currently at the pilot stage, but the company says it will roll out a new version of the software later this year.
It’s unclear whether the autonomous cars will be sold to automakers or private companies.
Porsches CEO Michael Schmidt has previously said he expects autonomous cars to replace drivers in the near future.
It also seems likely that the company will work with some auto manufacturers to help them make self-drive cars.
Porsche is the largest carmaker in the world and has long been considered a pioneer in the technology of autonomous driving, which allows vehicles to travel more safely on highways.
Schmidt has repeatedly said that his company’s self-learning technology is not designed to be used by manufacturers.
He recently said that Porsches cars are not ready for full autonomy yet, and that they’re in the “very early stages.”
The company is making an initial push into autonomous vehicle technology by developing its own driverless car software.
Porsche has teamed up with Ford to develop a software called Autonomous Driving System (AIS) for Ford’s F-Series cars, as well as the Mercedes-Benz S-Class and Lexus ES 300, according to a patent filing obtained by Bloomberg.
The software uses a wide variety of hardware, including sensors, cameras, radar, radar systems, radar actuators, radar processing units, and more.
It could also potentially be used in a car like the Tesla Model S, though the company declined to comment on that.
Porschys software is being developed for a range of different kinds of vehicles.
It might be used to help automakers make autonomous vehicles more comfortable for the drivers, like the car that Porches CEO Schmidt rides in, as part of a self-driven test ride.
Porchys also recently launched a new vehicle-assistance app called P-Link, which helps people learn to drive themselves by taking over for a human on the highway.
The app is now available for free on the Apple App Store.


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A perfect storm of regulatory changes and card brand rule changes has left many merchants wondering to whom, exactly, they are beholden and what, exactly, they must do to comply.
To add complication to complexity, changes that many see as regional, such as the second payment services directive (PSD2) in Europe, will have ripple effects across the global regulatory landscape, impacting business, cross-border commerce and fraud mitigation the world over.
According to Ethoca’s SVP Industry Solutions Julie Fergerson and CMO Keith Briscoe, merchants can’t afford to “wait and see” what happens. There can be serious penalties for any business that touches a payment and fails to comply.
Whether it’s PSD2, Strong Customer Authentication (SCA), the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) or new chargeback rules, global and regional regulations and mandates affect every business — so merchants would do well to prepare now rather than later.
Fergerson, Briscoe and a panel of industry experts will address these challenges and field questions in a webinar on April 25 at 1:00 p.m. EST. Register now to participate. Here’s a sneak peek at what to expect.
The Bottom Line
Regulations can feel a bit abstract and overwhelming on paper, especially when so many changes are happening at once.
In the upcoming webinar, Fergerson and the panel will thread the needle between these regulations and the closer-to-home reality of how merchants can authenticate consumers and protect their data, comply with regulations to share certain data and do it all while avoiding giving bad guys the advantage of anonymity by affording too much privacy.
Bracing for Bad Guys
Criminals always seem to be five steps ahead, so there’s no doubt they’re preparing for these shifts in their own way. The good guys are doing their best to anticipate and brace against the nefarious attempts that are sure to come.
For example, Fergerson noted that, under GDPR, data may be held in quarantine as long as necessary, even after a request for erasure. The quarantined data is removed from the merchant’s records and can only be accessed or used if a customer issues a chargeback — which must be done within 180 days — and then the data is removed from quarantine as well.
Fergerson explained that this can help protect merchants and consumers from the possibility of a fraudster calling in and asking for a user’s data to be erased so he can go about his nefarious business pretending to be the customer.
In light of Facebook’s current woes, data privacy issues are hovering near the top of everyone’s mind. Fergerson said even the biggest merchants in the industry are worried about how to handle this. They’re uncertain how long they should retain customer data and how they’re supposed to track criminals with new limitations on data use and sharing.
These are relatively new concerns for merchants, Fergerson said, not because criminals didn’t exist before, but because prior regulations didn’t place as much emphasis on data security. Now that card-not-present transactions have become more prevalent, card-not-present fraud has grown accordingly and must be regulated, giving merchants a whole lot of new worries to keep them up at night.
It doesn’t help that many merchants may lack confidence in how 3D Secure 2.0 will be rolled out due to how the first 3D Secure protocol was handled. Both security standards aim to prevent fraudsters from using stolen financials online, with the newer protocol adding support for mobile, in-app and digital wallet payments, as well as much less invasive risk-based authentication to address abandonment rate issues.
Merchants, however, may be concerned over the extent of data being shared to get the liability shift under 3DS 2.0, Briscoe said, since the required data elements are much more extensive than the original 3DS. The current data privacy landscape serves to potentially intensify this concern, and this will need to be balanced against the potential for increased approval rates from card issuers.
Some are talking about biometrics. Others are saying they’d rather do SCA or something else that works across the globe. About half of merchants haven’t even thought about it — which is a problem all its own, said Briscoe. September 2019 sounds far away, but today is definitely not too soon for merchants to map out their game plan for when the time arrives.
Every major change, good or bad, has a domino effect on the structures around it, and Briscoe said these regulations will be no different. The panel will discuss Ethoca’s insights and predictions around these unintended consequences to help merchants prepare for what’s to come.
For instance, there will likely be chargeback cases where elements are missing in terms of “compelling evidence” due to the GDPR shift in what qualifies as “compelling” and how data may be used or stored under the new rules. That will impact the chargeback and dispute cycle.
There will also be a struggle for consistency across trading markets. Whatever solutions are concocted to meet rising regulatory requirements must be universal, as today’s world is a global one and merchants can’t afford to only be compliant within their own environment.
Register now to hear these insights and more on the April 25 webinar.


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Otter Media, the joint venture between AT&T Inc and The Chernin Group, has partnered with Reese Witherspoon to form a new multimedia company, Hello Sunshine, aimed at telling female-driven stories.
Witherspoon’s involvement in Hello Sunshine will come via her production company Pacific Standard, which counts films “Wild,” “Gone Girl,” and the upcoming HBO series “Big Little Lies” among its credits. As a subsidiary of Hello Sunshine, Pacific Standard will continue to make TV shows and films, but now will also branch out to include shorter-run digital content tailored for social media.
AT&T partnered with longtime media executive Peter Chernin to form Otter Media in 2014 as a way to capitalize on the booming streaming video industry, committing more than $500 million to buy and or launch new companies.
The new company could give AT&T an early stake hold in a marketplace currently light on content made both for and by women. A study by USC-Annenberg found that female characters made up only 28.7 percent of all speaking roles in film, while women accounted for just 15 percent of directors.
Witherspoon launched Pacific Standard with her producing partner Bruna Papandrea in 2012 as a means to get more women both behind and in front of the camera in more prominent roles. Papandrea recently left to start her own venture.
Otter Media’s portfolio includes digital media company Fullscreen Media (which owns digital studio Rooster Teeth), social marketing agency McBeard, and Gunpowder & Sky, the digital studio launched by former Viacom executive Van Toffler. Otter Media also has invested in the Japanese anime and gaming space with two streaming video services in Crunchyroll and VRV. Earlier this year, Chernin Group also acquired sports media company Barstool Sports.
AT&T has been in the process of acquiring Time Warner Inc, a deal expected to close next year should it pass regularly hurdles. Last week, Time Warner’s studio Warner Bros. agreed to acquire all of digital media company Machinima, a competitor to Fullscreen.
Kerry Tucker will serve as chief executive of Hello Sunshine. Tucker most recently engineered the sale of The Video Genome Project, a content-recommendation start-up, to Hulu.
Seth Rodsky, founding partner of Strand Equity Partners, is partnered with Witherspoon on the deal and will join the Hello Sunshine board.


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The chairman of the Alliance Group says merging it and the other big meat co-operative, Silver Fern Farms, isn't going to solve the issue of falling stock supply and the industry's processing over-capacity.
Silver Fern has sent an open letter to the farmer shareholders of both co-operatives, asking them for their view on whether a merger should be investigated again.
Alliance chairman Owen Poole says his company's shareholders overwhelmingly rejected Silver Fern's last attempt to initiate merger talks two years ago and he doesn't doesn't think re-opening those discussions would achieve anything.
He says heavy losses in the recent spring storms will worsen the over-capacity problem that the meat industry already has, because of declining stock numbers.
He says Alliance has spent a lot of money removing excess capacity. More needs to be taken out, he says, and the industry view is that rests with Silver Fern Farms.


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We just have hours to go until the first official Xbox One backwards compatibility game list is revealed by Microsoft. Everyone wants to know what time will the game list be released, but you may not be aware that the games could have been revealed early in advance.
Just to make it clear, Microsoft will be adding support for over 100 games – not just 100. We have seen some gamers under the impression that 100 is the final number, but we can remind you that it is only the first batch that is releasing this week.
Now with that said and done, an image has been published recently by German site DrWindows. It shows some very nice games included on that list – although no Crackdown yet which we know was confirmed recently.
We know that Fallout 3 is on the list as it was highlighted with the Xbox One version of Fallout 4, while other games that make the cut are Madden NFL 16, Crysis 3 and Halo: Reach.
Unfortunately it looks like titles such as Red Dead Redemption and Skyrim are not in the first batch, but hopefully they are already being worked on for the next update – these are easily two of the most requested Xbox One backwards compatibility games from the community.
Take a look at the early list above and let us know what you think about it. Once the official list is live later on Monday, we will let you know if it turns out to be true.
Are you happy with the first batch of games above, or not?
Update: The official list is LIVE. Games mentioned in the leak were incorrect – read the list and give us reaction below.
*Identifying Monetised Links - outgoing links that we monetise are marked with an '*' symbol.


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Mr Moran Birger, British Airways Commercial Manager for Ghana says the airline will focus on building on its performance in 2014 and has began by offering special discounts on its flights to celebrate the New Year.
The airline, in a statement to the GNA, has announced fares starting from $1,000 from Accra to London, and $1,491 to New York in economy class, both including taxes and other charges, via the award-winning London Heathrow Terminal 5 airport as well as special discounts to other worldwide destinations, a move it says is just a taste of things to come in 2015.
The special fares are on sale from now till 6th February, 2015 for travel up until 30 March 2015.
Mr. Birger noted: “Our passengers choose us because we offer good value. We thought, ‘what better way would there be to start the year than to demonstrate this,’ especially coming so closely after a holiday of even greater giving.”
British Airways is the only airline offering a First class service to Ghana and with benefits such as the comfort of a personal on-board suite, traditional afternoon tea, formal dining on white linen with fine bone china, mood lighting in the cabin, and access to the exquisite Concorde Room airport lounge, the service is popular among passengers.
“Even though Ghana has experienced some difficulties in the past couple of years as a nation, the prospects are still very high, particularly in the area of small and medium business. One of the things we are looking forward to doing this year is to strengthen our relationships in these sectors” he stated.
British Airways is a full service global airline with a worldwide route network that covers more than 150 destinations in 75 countries, carrying approximately 36 million passengers around the world every year. GNA


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Polytec, the top Austrian listed car supplier, made more sales after nine months, but still posted a loss at the end of the day. Compared to the same period last year, sales rose by 12.7 percent to 485.2 million euros. The result after taxes was minus 8.7 million euros, after minus 1.9 million euros the previous year.
In the summer, the company initiated measures to improve operational efficiency. This had a positive impact in some cases, but significant additional costs due to additional shifts, higher staff levels and other special expenses had a negative impact on the company’s profits, according to the statement.
Earnings before taxes, interest, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) amounted to €22.3 million in the first nine months of 2023, after €25.0 million in the previous year. The EBITDA margin decreased from 5.8% to 4.6%. The operating result (EBIT) was minus 2.7 million euros, and in the previous year there was a small increase of 0.24 million euros.
Management slightly lowered its forecast for the year as a whole and now expects sales of €630 million. Annual sales are expected to reach approximately 650 million euros in the first half of the year. There were short-term reductions in call volumes in the third quarter. This led to a decline in sales revenues in the last quarter. Positive full-year EBIT is “challenging”.
“Total coffee aficionado. Travel buff. Music ninja. Bacon nerd. Beeraholic.”


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UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA AT THE HEART OF “SODA SCIENCE SCANDAL”
|| By FITSNEWS || For the record, we think Coca-Cola is delicious. Especially when you drink it from a glass bottle.
Stuff’s the bomb.
John Pemberton‘s legendary concoction is also an American original, tracing its lineage all the way back to 1886 and a small Atlanta, Georgia pharmacy. There, Pemberton sold his first bottles of the formula – which he claimed was a cure for morphine addiction, dyspepsia, neurasthenia, headaches … even impotence.
Anyway, Coca-Cola is the most popular soft drink in the world and the best-known brand in the world (thank you, Don Draper). But with growing numbers of Americans watching their growing waistlines, it’s also under siege as calorie counters look to cut where they can from their diets.
In fact consumption of carbonated beverages is down nearly 14 percent over the last decade.
According to the company, each twelve ounce serving of Coca-Cola contains 140 calories (along with 39 grams of sugar, 45 milligrams of sodium and 34 milligrams of caffeine).
In lieu of changing those numbers, Coca-Cola has a “plan B.”
From The New York Times …
Coca-Cola, the world’s largest producer of sugary beverages, is backing a new “science-based” solution to the obesity crisis: To maintain a healthy weight, get more exercise and worry less about cutting calories.
The beverage giant has teamed up with influential scientists who are advancing this message in medical journals, at conferences and through social media. To help the scientists get the word out, Coke has provided financial and logistical support to a new nonprofit organization called the Global Energy Balance Network, which promotes the argument that weight-conscious Americans are overly fixated on how much they eat and drink while not paying enough attention to exercise.
Leading this charge? University of South Carolina “exercise scientist” Steven N. Blair (bio here) and former USC professor Gregory A. Hand (bio here).
“Most of the focus in the popular media and in the scientific press is, ‘Oh they’re eating too much, eating too much, eating too much’ – blaming fast food, blaming sugary drinks and so on,” Blair says in a video announcing the group. “And there’s really virtually no compelling evidence that that, in fact, is the cause.”
Umm … hmmm.
Blair’s statements were ridiculed recently by the editorial board of USA Today.
“They’ve got to be kidding,” the paper wrote. “The message is contrary to mountains of research and flies in the face of simple logic. Someone would have to jog at a pretty good clip for two hours to work off the calories from a Big Mac, large fries and a small Coke Classic. Not too many people are going to do that after every stop at McDonald’s.”
True that …
So why would Blair say such a thing?
Well, according to USC’s response to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request submitted by the Times, Coca-Cola has provided Blair with more than $3.5 million in funding for various research projects since 2008. Hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional funding also came to Hand during his tenure at South Carolina.
Oh, and there’s this …
It is unclear how much of the money, if any, ended up as personal income for the professors.
Look, we have no problem with companies purchasing “science.” Like everything else in the marketplace, it’s for sale. But USC is a government-run institution which receives hundreds of millions of dollars in tax money, too.
Which is problematic …
We’ve said it before, we’ll say it again: Higher education (especially the way it’s done in South Carolina) is not a core function of government. Accordingly, each and every one of the institutions associated with the Palmetto State’s system must be set free to pursue its destiny in the private sector.
There, Coca-Cola can buy all the “science” it wants …
You can partially thank the University of Florida for “Gatorade
Thank God it was them instead of Florida State. Otherwise, atheletes would be drinking, “Seminole Fluid”.
That’s good comedy, that.
ALDI – the worlds greatest grocery store – carries a product called ‘la croix’ and i think also ‘la vie’. its basically carbonated water with just a hint of flavor added – lemon, grapefruit, cranberry, etc. no sugar of any kind. no disgusting artificial sweeteners or that stevia shit. delicious and has basically no calories. i don’t know how sane people drink coke unless its a few drops in a glass full of rum and ice.
publix, bi-lo, Kroger, all have ‘la croix’ as well
And only good if you enjoy the taste of club soda.
Clearly Canadian is supposedly making a come back too, I know it has sugar in it, but I’ve missed the old blackberry flavor.
To keep all that sugar down and avoid having people vomit every time they ‘engage in the free market’ and drink coke ‘ our of a glass bootle’ they added phosphoric acid to cut the taste – drop a toddler tooth in a jar a look for it the next morning !
How many people hold Coke in their mouth for hours? The whole it’ll dissolve a nail bullshit is just that because drinking a 12 ounce Coke will likely spend less than a minute in your mouth.
“..Palmetto State’s system must be set free to pursue its destiny in the private sector.”
I am all for that. The price of an education would probably go down. And getting your “learn on” would probably result in a smarter graduate.
And you could still have your Coke to drink or whatever…
Hmm……..interesting that this article runs the same day that science is being bought and on tour…..
History is repeating itself. Instead of tobacco, it’s junk food. I knew it would eventually happen.
Multiple industries have paid to keep lies like this going, including fast food, junk food, juice, the sugar industry, and many others. This is just another bogus study paid for by self-interested corporations trying to protect their profits.
Yeah it’s not like Governments buy their “Science” with taxpayer grants. When Coke does it I’m not forced to subsidize it at threat of arrest or finacial ruin.
Coke is one of the most popular soft drinks bottled and sold in Mexico. How’s Donald going to fix that – that’s what I want to know.
This would be really hot news if this was the first instance of “science” being sold to corporate America (or tweaked to fit a political agenda). Small “s” science is, of course, the key to understanding the world. Scientists, however, are people, and as such are not worthy of the worship bestowed upon them. Science, by definition, evolves as hypotheses and theories are tested and refined, but we should always look for motivation when “new” findings are unveiled, at least until humans are somehow removed from that mix.
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I think we can assume–without much fear of error–that the rules of evidence are likely not nearly as strict as, say, physics.
Judging from Blair’s physique I would say the evidence disproves the hypothesis!
At USC any company ( Boeing, IBM, Coke) that drags a 20$ bill through the Osborne administration building or a Dean’s office will become a’friend with benefits’ – total sellout of academic integrity and if the tobacco industry would drop by we’d find somebody the swear that smoking has nothing to do with lung cancer.
Looking at Sancho Blair I can see why he needs to hypothesize that ‘fat but fit’ is the way to go – that’s how the man rolls! Could supplement the income by ‘eatin mor tchikin’ another USC supporter.
Personally, I’d be glad if they’d just put cocaine back in and shut up. I’m a Sugar Free TruAde drinker.
Where is The State in this international blockbuster of a story featuring two USC professors in the School of Public Health?


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- The iPhone X reviews are in, and most are positive.
- See what people are saying about the new iPhone X.
IPhone X reviews are out, and there's a lot of chatter about Apple's hot new smartphone.
If you missed it, CNBC's iPhone X review dubbed it the "best smartphone you can buy." Highlights include the new OLED display, Face ID that can unlock the phone when you look at it, stereo speakers and an incredible new design. This reviewer also noted the phone can get a bit hot and that some apps aren't yet formatted to fit the new unique display.
The Verge said the iPhone X is "polished and tight and clean." Its reviewer isn't that happy that Apple ditched the headphone jack and said he still thinks the iPhone 4 is the most beautiful phone Apple has ever built, not the iPhone X. Still, The Verge said the iPhone X is the best iPhone ever made, and said folks who preordered it will be happy.
TechCrunch spent a week with the new iPhone and took it to Disneyland. It highlights how easy Face ID is to set up and how well it works at identifying a face. Highlights included the camera performance and display, the latter of which the reviewer said is so good it makes the iPhone 8 screen "look like butt." It took TechCrunch six days to get used to not having a home button. "It really is like using the future of smartphones, today," the review concludes.
Wired Backchannel's Steven Levy, who reviewed the first iPhone, also shared his first impressions of the iPhone X this week. "Yes, this is the one — the iPhone that will hasten millions of upgrades, the one that's made you ignore the hardly-knew-ye iPhone 8, announced on the same day as this one," the review begins. It highlights fun new features like Animoji, but calls attention to the black bar at the top of the screen, which Levy calls "Area 51." While Levy liked the new gesture controls, he said it took some getting used to not having them when he switched back to an iPad. Levy is more excited for the future of the iPhone X, too. "The real payoff of the iPhone X might come when we figure out what it can do tomorrow," he concluded.
Forbes described the iPhone X as having an "opulent, high-end feel to it." It calls out the notch at the top of the screen, though the reviewer says after time it "vanishes" and that after a couple of days it became "unintrusive" to the user experience. Forbes saw a blue tint when tilting the phone, noting it's something that's relatively common with OLED displays. The reviewer also called out the lack of supported apps for the new display.
CNET also posted its thoughts after 18 hours with the iPhone X. Reviewer Scott Stein tested Face ID recognition in all sorts of scenarios, even shaving his beard for the shot. It failed, however, when he wore goggles, a wig, a top-hat and scarf and a mask. CNET said Apple "nailed the size and feel" and is going to continue testing (as CNBC is) until it gives its final word.
Mashable's review says the iPhone X "changes everything" and that "the future is in good hands." Reviewer Lance Ulanoff tried to trick Face ID using a photo and a video, and the iPhone X remained secure. Ulanoff did, however, trick Face ID using identical twins. Ultimately, Mashable liked the design and materials, Face ID and the screen, but didn't dig the notch and noted it's an expensive phone.


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Higher cotton prices to come
Cotton prices have increased drastically due to a series of events in Asia. Three of the world’s top cotton producers reduced supply to the U.S. A drought in China damaged crops, India restricted exports to protect its domestic market and flooding in Pakistan made it worse. Florida’s 89.1 WUFT-FM reporter Denise Burgess spoke with University of Florida economist Dave Denslow about the issue.
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More Stories in Business
Four years after it closed, Steamers restaurant is back again with a new location. Owner Artie Guy is bringing the restaurant back to Gainesville in Bo Diddley Plaza. Set for an opening in May, the dining place will be in a central hub amid plaza renovations.
The City of Gainesville’s Equal Opportunity Committee met last Tuesday to continue to discuss a report card that indicated minorities are underrepresented in the city government.
Manuel Zelaya, his brother Daniel and their longtime friend Marc Charbel are in their mid-twenties and co-founders of Lazy Delivery, a business that delivers groceries and other items from physical stores to area residents. They are expanding their business to Tallahassee later this month.
Two couples combine four businesses to make one large hangout for High Springs. The opening of The Corner is scheduled for next month.
Swamp Head Brewery has moved to a new location and installed solar panels, becoming the first solar-powered brewery in Florida. Their goal has always been to become more sustainable, and they have taken other initiatives such as buying land for preservation and aiding in conservation efforts to do so.


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International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) said on Wednesday its Pakistani subsidiary has forged a partnership agreement with a Singaporean shipping line to establish a direct service between Pakistan and Australia.
ICTSI said Pakistan International Container Terminal Ltd. (PICT) and SeaLead will launch the Pakistan-Australia services that will also call on regional ports across Malaysia and Australia.
According to PICT CEO Khurram Aziz Khan, the service “enables easy and efficient connection between markets in South Asia and Australia,” noting that this will help strengthen “strengthen trade patronage with global customers and cater to growing trade demands.”
“We look to provide unmatched supply chain solutions to local and global trade stakeholders. Through our partnership with SeaLead, customers in both Pakistani and Australian markets will benefit through direct port linkages that enable economies to grow,” he said in a statement.
Khan noted that the service will “substantially benefit importers and exporters” through the faster and more cost-efficient route. He added that this will “eventually allow new businesses and growth areas to emerge within the associated economies.”
The service, which handles both shipper-owned and carrier-owned containers, is also expected to provide PICT’s trade allies with a competitive edge within the industry.
With Pakistan as a commercial hub connecting several geographical regions, the partnership is expected to boost Pakistan’s foreign trade through the enhanced and efficient access to and from Australian markets.
“PICT will remain resilient in its efforts to make this collaboration a successful venture for all stakeholders,” Khan said.
PICT operates Berths 6 to 9 at the East Wharf of the Karachi Port.
Image credits: www.ictsi.com


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Please Adjust Your Seatback
Sometimes small adjustments yield big results.
That’s the case with the technology developed by former Ventures intern Christopher Meyer and the team at Comfort Motion Global, an Indianapolis-based company that is making getting from here to there a more pleasant – and safer – experience.
Comfort Motion has developed software compatible with motorized car, truck or airplane seats that makes tiny, almost imperceptible, adjustments in seat position during a trip. Tests have shown those small adjustments mean less discomfort, reduced fatigue, better blood flow and improved driver alertness.
The result is a safer, less taxing travel experience.
While still an intern, Meyer started working with Comfort Motion in 2006, soon after graduating from Rose-Hulman with a degree in computer engineering but while still working on his master’s degree in engineering management. Back then, using members of a local service club as test drivers in a rented car, Ventures technicians conducted some of the company’s earliest tests. In those days, Comfort Motion was creating hardware to attach to existing auto seats. Soon, however, the team working on the project realized that approach needed to change.
“Fortunately, while still at Ventures, we came to the realization that we were not a hardware company,” Meyer recalls. “Our product was simply software. Existing seat control units could already do most of what was needed to implement the algorithm.”
Today, Comfort Motion licenses its clients intellectual property, patents and specialized knowledge, says Meyer, who went to work for the company full time in 2008. Meanwhile, years of hard work and determination are paying off. Mercedes Benz is installing the Comfort Motion system into its new cars this year and long-haul trucking and even aircraft makers are considering getting on board.
“Ventures gives students a chance to work on multidisciplinary, real-world projects that can benefit a lot of people,” Meyer says. “It’s much better than a senior project.”


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DayZ has been in the early Alpha testing phase since December 2013 so it’s safe to say that development for the game is progressing rather slowly. Sure, Bohemia Interactive has released plenty of updates since launch and a bunch of interesting features have been already added, with more promised to arrive soon. So what’s taking so long? Gamespot recently caught up with Dean “Rocket” Hall, project lead and creator of the original DayZ mod for Arma 2 and asked about future plans for the game. Hall revealed that development is taking so long because the team has encountered some technical difficulties while implementing the new features.
The first goal for Bohemia is a new engine with support for either DirectX 10 or DirectX 11. DayZ currently runs on DirectX 9, which has limited capabilities when it comes to graphics rendering. “We lose a lot of time,” Hall said. “But implementing DirectX 10 or 11 will have a dramatic, instant visual difference and quite a significant performance difference.” We all like good looking games so I guess the wait will be worth while. A DirectX 11 engine will come with many benefits including better lighting effects.
“The big benefit we get is being able to implement dynamic lighting so we can have dynamic shadows,” Hall explained. “If you’ve got a good computer, you’ll be able to play with more lights. If there’s a lot of people using torches in the distance, you’ll be able to see their lights.” DayZ’s nighttime phase was originally rendered using DirectX 7, which results in it being incredibly dark and barely playable. DirectX 11 offers the option of keeping the pitch black darkness while also making the game playable during the night. “It really just gives us options to play with. “Once we’ve got that, we’ll then experiment and say, ‘How can we change the lighting at night so that we still achieve that pitch blackness, but at the same time actually allow you to play it?'”
Bohemia also has other plans for DayZ besides a new and improved engine. The company is currently working on implementing new server technology, a new loot system, new hunting mechanics, and a redesigned control scheme. That all sounds very good in my book so let’s hope we get to see these features sooner rather than later. DayZ has already sold over 2 million copies since its alpha release and it doesn’t look to be slowing down any time soon. The game will enter the beta phase sometime during Q4 of this year according to the devs. Stay tuned for more news and updates.


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On the off chance you’ve been living under a rock for the past year or so, Leadwerks is a game engine which had a very successful Kickstarter campaign. Not only was its $20’000 goal hit, they raised yet another $22,358 on top of it bringing the total up to $42,358 wet stinky cashes. Their pitch was a simple one; bring Linux game development to Linux. Sounds like something that should already exist, right!? Indeed but even Unity3D, with all their claims of multi-platform support, only supports Windows and MacOS when it comes to its editor. In fact, before all these talks of Unreal Engine 4 having a native Linux editor and the possibility of CryTek releasing one of their own, Leadwerks was the sole hope looming on the horizon for Linux game developers looking for a centralized game SDK.
Josh Klint, founder of Leadworks Software, had this to say about the Engine’s new home:
The PC platform plays to the company’s strengths in graphics and development tools. Linux is where the really exciting developments are happening, on the desktop and in the living room. Leadwerks for Linux is designed to bring user-friendly game development to desktop Linux,
No longer shall we pine for native development or reprieve from the un-optimized mess that non-native engines create!
Keep your eyes peeled, kids. The new sensation sweeping across the nation in full OpenGL 4 attire is coming and with promises of “strong support for C++ and LUA programming”, it looks like it’s going to be one hell of a ride!


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Internet commentators were eager to congratulate a woman who followed a car dealer’s instructions. also right.
In a viral Reddit post posted to r/MaliciousCompliance, Reddit user u/dumpster_fire_15 (also known as the original poster or OP) said she has been in the market for a new car for months and explained how a pushy CFO extended the purchase. even longer process.
Entitled, ‘I don’t like it, go away’. the post received almost 29,000 upvotes and 2,000 comments in the last day.
“My husband and I have been shopping for cars since I was in a car accident earlier in the summer,” OP began. “Our car was totaled in the accident and it’s been a loooong process.”
Continuing the explanation that the couple finally decided on the car they wanted, the original poster said that they took their children to the dealership, 90 minutes from home.
The original poster also said that after a final test drive, the safe purchase of the car turned out to be anything but guaranteed.
“We did one more test drive and were ready to sign everything off. Then the games started,” OP wrote. “After a wait of almost 2 hours… the person from finance started trying to sell us all the plugins that the distributors try.
“We told him we didn’t want anything extra…[and] Suddenly there’s a dealer fee to sell us a car this time of year. Almost $1K for this nonsense,” OP continued. “Then he says if we don’t like the fee we can leave as they have people begging to buy cars from them.
“So my husband and I got up to leave… I laughed at her and told her to go out and find one of those beggars to buy [the car]OP added. “So far the finance person has called twice and the salesperson has called 4 times. I guess they didn’t expect someone to come this far and then walk away.”
Although buying a car has never been cheap, record inflation rates have made it nearly impossible for many in the United States to purchase a new set of wheels.
In June, data published by Kelley Blue Book revealed that the median sales price for a new car in the US was $48,043, an increase of 12 percent from 2021.
Used cars, long seen as a much cheaper alternative to new vehicles, aren’t much better, with CoPilot reporting an average sale price of $33,341 in June.
Unsurprisingly, astronomical price tags have slowed car purchases tremendously.
From January to July, new car sales in the US were down sharply from last year, according to auto market forecaster Marklines. And while more cars were sold this August than last, the 4.3 per cent increase in sales was smaller, especially after July which saw an 11 per cent decline from 2021.
However, in her viral Reddit post, the original poster said that the car dealership claimed there were people clamoring for new cars who just didn’t need OP’s business, until she and her husband walked out the door.
Throughout the comments section of the viral post, Reddit users praised the original author for exposing the dealership’s scam and getting herself and her family out of a predatory financial situation.
“Good for you for not falling in love with their [bulls**t]commented the Reddit/PeorgieTirebiter user.
“Play stupid games, lose a sale,” Redditor u/Howard_James_Dudy wrote.
“Whenever someone wastes time on a high-value transaction, the best course [of action] is to leave,” chimed in Redditor u/BluehibiscusEmpire. “Because if they’re like this before the sale, it’s going to be much worse after you’ve given them the money.”
Amid a sea of similar comments, Redditor u/ModingusKhan shifted focus to the human element associated with an aborted deal, inspiring a response from the original poster.
“I bet the look on his face was priceless,” u/ModingusKhan commented.
“It was amazing,” OP assured.


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Reporters Without Borders today deplored the "irresponsible" policies of major US Internet firms Yahoo! and Google in bowing directly and indirectly to Chinese government demands for censorship and called for a code of conduct to be imposed.
Yahoo! has been censoring its Chinese-language search-engine for several years and rival firm Google, which recently took a share in Baidu, a Chinese search-engine that filters a user's findings, seems ready to go the same way. In their efforts to conquer the Chinese market, the two firms are "making compromises that directly threaten freedom of expression," Reporters Without Borders said.
"The US government is supposed to be at the cutting-edge of the fight for online freedom, especially since passage of the Global Internet Freedom Act," the organisation noted in letters to two top US officials. "Yet it places no restrictions on private-sector activity even when firms work with some of the world's most repressive regimes. We condemn this hypocrisy and demand that companies such as Yahoo! and Google drop their irresponsible policies and pledge to respect freedom of information, including abroad."
Reporters Without Borders wrote to Yahoo chairman and chief executive Terry Semel last December asking him to respect the rights of China's Internet users but got no reply. It has now written to Lorne Crane, US assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor, and Earl Wayne, assistant secretary of state for economic and business affairs, urging them to establish a code of conduct for US Internet firms selling products abroad.
Yahoo! several years ago launched a Chinese version (http://cn.yahoo.com) of its Internet portal and announced in late June this year a new Chinese search-engine called Yisou. Yahoo China and Yisou censor search results as directed by the government.
Some combined key-word searches, such as "Free Tibet," do not display any results. For others, only official sites appear. The top results of a search for 'Falungong" produces only sites critical of the Chinese spiritual movement in line with the regime's position. The same search using a non-censored search-engine turns up material supporting Falungong and about the government's repression of its followers.
Google has so far refused to censor its search-engine and access to it was blocked for a week in September 2002 by the Chinese authorities, who are currently obliged to filter its search results by themselves, which is more difficult and less effective.
Google now seems to have changed tack. In June this year, it acquired a substantial share in one of China's biggest search-engines, Baidu, which carefully filters out all "subversive" content. When Google was blocked in 2002, Chinese Internet users were redirected to baidu.com. A search in Baidu for "Huang Qi," a cyber-dissident imprisoned for posting criticism of the government online, produced: "This document contains no data," even though hundreds of articles in Chinese have been posted about him.
A search for "independence Taiwan" shows only sites critical of the island's government, while Google's Chinese version (www.google.com/intl/zh-CN), which is not censored, comes up with pro-Taiwan sites.
Censorship of search-engines is a core issue for freedom of expression. The latest survey by the official China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) says 80% of Chinese Internet users get online data by using them. Access to some, such as Altavista, have already been blocked inside China.
Other US firms would also be directly concerned by a code of ethics. Cisco Systems has sold several thousand routers - costing more than 16,000 euros each - to enable the regime to build an online spying system and the firm's engineers have helped set it to spot "subversive" key-words in messages. The system also enables police to know who has looked at banned sites or sent "dangerous" e-mails.
The Global Internet Freedom Act, introduced in the US Congress by Rep. Christopher Cox and passed by the House of Representatives in July 2003, aims to combat online censorship imposed by repressive regimes such as China, Burma, Syria, Cuba and Saudi Arabia.
For more on Internet censorship in China, see "The Internet under Surveillance 2004" from Reporters Without Borders, on its website, www.internet.rsf.org. A total of 61 Internet users are currently in prison in China for posting online criticism of their government.


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Customer experience vendor Qualtrics has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire omnichannel conversational analytics provider Clarabridge in a stock transaction valued at US$1.125 billion.
Global digital experience management software provider Sitecore has entered into definitive agreements to acquire SaaS-based Customer Data Platform (CDP) Boxever and Four51, a company delivering B2B and B2C experiences for enterprise brands.
Motorola Solution has acquired IndigoVision, a UK-based provider of video security systems, management software, encoders and storage devices, taking its video and software engineering workforce in APAC to almost 2,000.
Australia’s competition watchdog, the ACCC, has raised serious concerns over Google’s proposed acquisition of American digital health and fitness company Fitbit, and the potential for the deal to adversely affect market competition.
Call recording software company Dubber is to acquire Australian call recording company CallN in a deal valued at $1,175,000.
Online marketplace Gumtree has been given the green light by Australia’s competition regulator to acquire online automotive advertising classifieds services company Cox Media Solutions, allowing Gumtree Cars to be combined with Cox’s Carsguide and Autotrader sites.
Global IT solutions vendor BMC is set to acquire mainframe application development, delivery, and support solutions provider Compuware.
Management consulting and professional services firm Accenture is set to acquire Symantec’s Cyber Security Services business from its enterprise division Broadcom.
Cloud integration and workflow automation vendor Boomi is acquiring Unifi Sofware in a move it says will expand its integration and data management platform to accelerate successful data-driven insights for customers.
American companies remained the most active investors in the cyber security technology space during the five years between 2014 and 2018, according to a newly published analyst report.
Data and analytics provider Servian has acquired automation and DevOps specialist Vibrato in a multi-million dollar deal, as it sets itself to expand to overseas markets.
Jamf, an Apple-only implementation and management company, has acquired endpoint protection solutions for Mac vendor Digita Security.
Private investment firm Bain CapitalBain Capital has announced the merger of ChinData, a leading Chinese operator of campus-style, hyperscale data centres, and Bridge Data Centres, a wholesale and custom build data centre company,
Internet service provider Spirit Telecom has paid $2.6 million to acquire Arinda IT in a move it says will expand its service offerings to the managed service provider sector.
Global communications giant Motorola Solutions has paid US$445 million to acquired VaaS International Holdings, a data and image analytics company based in Livermore, California and Fort Worth, Texas.
Sydney-based start-up incubator Lakeba has announced the $20 million sale of its Paid by Coins venture to Australian-listed customer engagement technology provider Mobecom only seven months after launching the platform in early 2018.
Virtualisation and cloud computing vendor Citrix has acquired global micro app platform Sapho in a deal the company says will enhance the guided work capabilities within Citrix Workspace, enabling people to work with even greater speed, intelligence and simplicity.
New Zealand accounting software company Xero has lifted revenue by 37% to NZ$265.5 million for the first half of the 2019 financial year, but suffered a net loss for the six months of NZ$28.6 million.
IBM’s acquisition of Red Hat for US$34 billion is a win-win for both companies, according to analyst firm GlobalData, and will give IBM a solid bridge between its existing on-premise hardware and its global cloud platform.
A month after establishing its official Australian presence through acquisition, global cyber security firm Bitdefender has acquired Netherlands-based behaviour and network security analytics company, RedSocks Security.
What about all the customers they turned away and refused to fix their phones due to 'water damage'. I had[…]
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Exactly. And the source document makes it clear that Assange is being pursued for his alleged involvement in the hacking,[…]
You can believe whatever you want. The source document is there for people to see the facts.
But Sam, you’ve just proved my point. The indictment “stems from” the publication of the material but it includes a[…]


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Evaluate, Calculate, and Get to Know your Supply Chain
Whether the relationship is rooted in chemistry, circularity or consumer awareness, experts believe the best course of action in the era of sustainability is to know your supply chain. Understanding that it takes an interrelated system to improve the sustainability of product, the livelihood of workers, and ultimately the state of the planet, was a main takeaway from discussions held during the winter trade show season.
An OR Winter Online talk on chemicals and circularity hosted by bluesign serves as a good example of today’s emphasis on connecting the dots, from product to materials to chemistry, so that organizations can improve their environmental footprint across their entire network.
Consider this: only 10 percent of chemicals used in making materials remains in bulk fabric; 90 percent is going out the smokestack and into the waste stream. “It's important to think about that,” said Kevin Myette, director of global brand services, bluesign technologies AG. So, too, is the extraordinary amount of emissions related to the textile/apparel industry (about 2 to percent of the 1.2B to 3.3B tons calculated as total global emissions). Myette’s OR presentation focused on the multi-layered role chemistry plays in where emissions come from. “Choosing the best chemistry holds the key to making improvements right now,” said Myette, who made the point that chemistry is often not part of the circularity conversation and you need to have the whole picture in mind.
A Texworld NYC talk on Fair Trade also highlighted the importance of forging a deep understanding of the supply chain. But in this case the discussion focused on how that relationship between brand and factory can also enhance consumer relations.
In a presentation titled, “Journey to Fair Trade and Sustainability,” Paul Rice, founder and CEO, Fair Trade USA, noted that while Fair Trade certification with the apparel segment has been a slow but steady climb over the past decade, it is now the organization’s fastest growing program. According to Rice, Fair Trade’s shared value model is good for workers, good for factories — with a higher employee retention rate and safer environment — and a good way to talk to consumers about ethical manufacturing.
Fair Trade partners, retailer Madewell and denim maker Saitex International, praised the relationship. Liz Hershfield, sourcing manager for Madewell said her company kicked off a Fair Trade partnership with Saitex two years ago that “supports safer, more sustainable factories where workers have a voice.” Madewell’s first Fair Trade denim collection with Saitex debuted in 2019.
Hershfield and Sanjeev Bahl, CEO, Saitex agree that communicating Fair Trade partnerships through product labels and corporate messaging has proved positive with consumers. “Transparency is key to driving change and building consumer support,” said Bahl.
“Fair Trade partnerships collapse the walls between workers and consumers,” said Rice, who explained that traditional silos between brand and consumer and between brand and factory are coming down. “Fair Trade should be thought of as a tool to empower businesses to enable consumers to ask who made this product,” Rice added.


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MOSCOW -- It was a strange spectacle for the evening news: Russian investigators unceremoniously flinging boxes of fatback "presumably from the European Union" into the inferno inside a commercial incinerator.
"The first batch of sanctioned products has been destroyed in Russia," a news anchor said Tuesday evening on state television, announcing that 35 tons of pork had been eradicated under a law signed last week by President Vladimir V. Putin. "The operation to liquidate tens of tons of contraband pork suspected to be from the European Union took place today in Samara region."
To some, the decision to incinerate sanctioned goods smacked of the inquisition. But Russian officials claim that smuggling has decreased tenfold under the tough new regulations.
It marked a fiery new chapter in Russia's sanctions on fruits, vegetables, meats and other foods from the European Union in response to economic sanctions levied over Russia's annexation of Crimea last year. Russia's countersanctions have hurt farmers across Europe, but they've also harmed Russian consumers, who saw double-digit monthly inflation earlier this year.
The economic pain has not prompted political criticism at home, however, and Russians have largely blamed the West for rising costs and the economic slowdown. Domestic opponents of the countersanctions were trivialized as hipsters who feast on jamon and pecorino and are out of touch with the Russian mainstream.
The decision to destroy sanctioned food, which was proposed, drafted into law, and enforced in less than two weeks, recognized a crucial oversight of the sanctions regime: once smugglers had brought sanctioned goods into Russia, it was legal to sell them.
So the Russian market continued to take in sanctioned European goods as smugglers sought to "replace" $9 billion in banned products from Europe alone.
One method of smuggling was to print false labels indicating that foods from Europe were produced elsewhere, spawning jokes about oysters and salmon from Belarus, a landlocked country. Another was to "deliver" sanctioned goods by truck from Belarus to Kazakhstan, a route that crosses through Russia, and then unloads them along the way.
Under the new law, the destruction of sanctioned goods must be photographed and videotaped, lest the food be stolen instead.
Lovers of jamon and pecorino soon had their revenge, flocking to the Internet to lampoon the new policy. One online wit proposed the new coat of arms of the Russian Federal Customs Service be St. George spearing a sausage (instead of the dragon on Moscow's coat of arms).
But there has been serious dissent too: more than 218,000 people have signed a change.org petition to stop destroying the sanctioned goods, saying "if you can eat it, then why destroy it?"
"Why should we destroy food that we can use to feed veterans, pensioners, invalids, those with many children, victims of natural disasters and others in need?" wrote Olga Savelieva, the author of the petition. Dmitry Peskov, Putin's press secretary, told a Russian radio station that he was aware of the petition, though he was suspicious of how quickly it had gathered supporters.
Meanwhile, the agency that oversees the Russian agriculture industry said it would destroy a larger batch of sanctioned goods on Thursday.
"I don't think we're talking about a large amount," said Sergei Dankvert, the head of the agency. "I think that no more than a few hundred tons (of food) will be destroyed. Everyone understands what the situation has driven us to."
"Illegal imports have already decreased by ten times" since the decision was signed into law, he added.


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Square Inc., Twitter co-found Jack Dorsey’s latest venture, has really taken off lately. Just about six months ago, the company reached a milestone of 1 million users. Today, they reached another milestone and now have over 2 million users.
Annually they are processing $6 billion in mobile payments and are being used by over 20,000 retailers. Square’s biggest threat comes from other payment providers like PayPal and possibly even Apple’s recently introduced Passbook application.
While it is unclear whether the new Apple software brings anything imposing to the table, PayPal is a very real and immediate threat as it is well established, constantly forming new partnerships, and requires no additional equipment to take advantage of.
Most recently, PayPal announced a new project collaborating with TiVo and Comcast cable to work on adding payment options to home television sets. The technology would allow consumers to make charitable donations and pay for products right from the comfort of their living rooms using their remote control.
While there is plenty of room for competition in the mobile payments market, it seems like the giants are making progress fast and the little guys may get overlooked in the commotion. I suspect we’ll be seeing more aggressive action from Square in the very near future.
Take a look at one hour of Square payment activity:


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Whistleblower Leaks Included Information on 75,735 Current and Former Employees
Tesla says it is suing two former employees for perpetrating a May data breach that exposed personal information for 75,735 current and former employees.
The Austin, Texas-based electric car manufacturer began notifying affected individuals Friday, as part of its ongoing probe into a May data breach it blamed on “insider wrongdoing.”
The company said it had learned of the breach on May 10, when German business newspaper Handelsblatt informed Tesla that it had received 100 gigabytes of leaked data from a whistleblower that included employee information, including Social Security numbers.
Tesla said Handelsblatt had told the carmaker it would not – and legally could not – publish the employee information. On May 25, the paper published a report based on the leaked information, which included internal communications revealing over 3,000 customer complaints concerning Autopilot that the company appeared to have tried to minimize.
The Handelsblatt report also said Tesla was failing to adequately protect access to customer and employee data, The Guardian reported. Handelsblatt quoted a Tesla attorney blaming the 100 gigabyte data leak on a “disgruntled former employee” who worked as a service technician, according to The Guardian.
The carmaker’s subsequent probe of the breach “revealed that two former Tesla employees misappropriated the information in violation of Tesla’s IT security and data protection policies and shared it with the media outlet,” according to the data breach notification sent to affected individuals from Tesla Data Privacy Officer Steven Elentukh.
Exposed information included each individual’s name and contact information, including email addresses and phone numbers as well as Social Security numbers.
After the breach came to light, “Tesla immediately took steps to contain the incident, understand the scope, and protect your information,” in part by identifying the two employees and filing lawsuits against them, the notification says.
“These lawsuits resulted in the seizure of the former employees’ electronic devices that were believed to have contained the Tesla information,” the notification reads. “Tesla also obtained court orders that prohibit the former employees from further use, access or dissemination of the data, subject to criminal penalties.”
Tesla said it is also working with law enforcement agencies. Whether or not the former employees might face criminal charges remains unclear.
Tesla Faces Multiple US Probes
The leaks occurred as Tesla is facing numerous government investigations, and many of them focus on the driver-assistance features the company builds into its vehicles as well as how it has marketed that functionality to drivers.
In October 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice announced the launch of a criminal investigation into the automaker triggered by 16 Tesla cars being involved in crashes – some fatal – with stationary emergency vehicles. All of the crashes apparently occurred when driver-assistance features had been enabled at least 30 seconds or more before the crash, Reuters reported.
In a February filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Tesla said it had received a request from Justice pertaining to information about its Autopilot as well as full self-driving features. The latter is a beta option available as a $15,000 add-on.
“To our knowledge no government agency in any ongoing investigation has concluded that any wrongdoing occurred,” Tesla said in its filing.
America’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has also been probing Tesla. One of its multiple investigations was launched in 2021 and centers on the Autopilot driver-assistance feature present in 830,000 Tesla vehicles. In June 2022, the NHTSA expanded its probe into an engineering analysis, which could lead the regulator to require that vehicles be recalled.


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A look at business events during the week
TODAY: The National Association of Realtors issues its pending home-sales index for September. ... Local earnings reports: HomeStreet, Plum Creek Timber, Symetra, T-Mobile US.
TUESDAY: The annual British American Business Council aerospace conference is held at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, with sessions by Airbus on its A320neo jet family, Boeing on industry trends, NASA on future airplane concepts and the UW on composite technologies. ... Standard & Poor’s releases the S&P/Case-Shiller index of August home prices for 20 cities, including Seattle. ... Earnings report: Paccar. ... The Conference Board releases the Consumer Confidence Index for October.
WEDNESDAY: Federal Reserve policymakers conclude their two-day monetary-policy meeting. ... Earnings reports: F5 Networks, CTI BioPharma
THURSDAY: Starbucks reports its fiscal fourth-quarter results. Analysts will be looking for forecasts about the holiday season, an important moneymaker for the coffee company as millions of Americans load up on gift cards. Analysts expect the company to post quarterly earnings of 74 cents a share on $4.23 billion in revenue. ... Other earnings reports: Expedia, Blue Nile, Outerwall, Trupanion, Seattle Genetics. ... The Commerce Department reports on third-quarter gross domestic product.
FRIDAY: Earnings report: Weyerhaeuser. ... The Commerce Department releases personal income and spending data for September.


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The Jolly Moosers’ annual Craft Show and Bake Sale will be held on Saturday, July 9 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Big Moose Fire Hall.
Crafters from Old Forge, Boonville and Big Moose will have a variety of handcrafted items including: baskets, rag rugs, scarves, wooden items, lawn ornaments, American Doll Clothes, knit and crochet items, floral arrangements and more for the public to purchase.
Members of the Jolly Moosers organization will be donating delicious homemade baked goods to sell at the bake sale table.
The Jolly Moosers have also been busy making woodsy items to sell including handmade soap, cookbooks, soy candles, cutlery, dishtowels, craft items, etc.
The Jolly Moosers 2011 Raffle is a “Lottery Tree” comprised of New York State lottery tickets. Raffle tickets are $1 each or 6 for $5 and will available for purchase the day of the show or from any Jolly Moosers member.
The drawing will be held on Tuesday, July 26 at the Jolly Mooser annual summer dinner. The winner does not need to be present to win.
Proceeds of the sale will be allocated to numerous local groups, food banks, fire and rescue companies.
The Jolly Moosers has been supporting the local community since 1956.
Over 80 women are members of the group. Information on becoming a member will be available during the show.
A few craft stand spaces are still available. If you are a crafter interested in participating, or would like more information about the show, call (315) 357-2047.
The Big Moose Fire Hall is located approximately five miles from Rt. 28 in Eagle Bay on the Big Moose Road.