text:
A new brewery near Farnham is set to launch its first beer brewed using 100 per cent solar power generated on site.
One Planet Brewing will brew all its beer in this way, using the latest photovoltaic solar panels, which will generate enough electricity to power all its brewing.
One Planet Brewing is a 15-hectolitre, electric brewery which has been launched with an initial investment of £250,000 from Hogs Back Brewery and will be based on the same site in Tongham, near Farnham.
It will be run semi-autonomously, with an ambition to work with new investors and collaborative partners once trial brewing and marketing are completed.
The first beer from One Planet Brewing is a 5.5 per cent full-bodied Hazy IPA, with a creamy mouthfeel and intense citrus and berry fruit notes. Initially available in keg, some cans of Hazy IPA will be available in October.
The brewing team, led by head brewer Miles Chesterman, is developing a series of craft styles, likely to include New England IPAs, pale ales, helles, roasted ales and fruit beers.
One Planet Brewing will also use home-grown hops wherever possible. These are grown adjacent to the brewery, so travel less than one food mile before being added to the brew. They are dried, vacuum packed and stored chilled within 24 hours of picking, to maintain maximum freshness.
Most of the beer will be sold in fully reusable kegs, mini kegs or glass flagons, with some going into 440ml aluminium cans – the ‘one trip’ pack with the lowest carbon footprint.
Beers will be sold through the Brewery Tap and on site shop, and website, at a price which is currently about 20 per cent higher than other beers.
A pint in the Tap room will retail at around £6.50, while beers to take away from the shop will be circa-£3.60 a pint.
One Planet Brewing will be looking to distribute its beers through selected partner pubs and retail outlets, where this can be done in a sustainable way, by using reusable packaging and as soon as possible, an electric dray.
Distribution will offered only to customers within a 30-mile radius of the brewery.
Hogs Back Brewery managing director Rupert Thompson said: “Our investment to launch One Planet Brewing is an evolution of the ambitious sustainability agenda that has been fundamental to Hogs Back from the outset, and we are proud to have been the founding investor behind this new venture.
“It is, we believe, the first UK brewery to make the commitment to brew using only solar power generated on site.
“We are working hard on the next steps to take One Planet Brewing beers as close to zero carbon as we practically can for all the elements that we can control and with the minimum of offsetting, ideally within the next year.”
One Planet Brewing’s mission is to ‘only take out what we put in’, and its brewing capacity will be limited by the amount of solar energy it can generate.
The brewery has three 5.2 kilowatt batteries.
It expects to produce more solar energy than it needs during sunny months, so will sell its excess to the grid, and buy back what it needs over the winter months when its solar production is limited.
Initially, this means just four or five brews per month.


text:
Apple’s Kevin Lynch explains a little of the behind the scenes thinking that feeds into the Sleep app on the Apple Watch we’ll all be able to test from next month…
Apple is opening up new opportunity for manufacturers who want to put tracking devices in their products, the Find My Network.
Apple has made a huge range of improvements to Mac Catalyst which mean those iPad apps will deliver far more Mac-native user experiences. Here’s the list of change.
Apple had a lot to say at WWDC 2020, here’s a short selection of some news you may (or may not) have missed.
Apple has chosen 350 Swift Student Challenge winners from across 41 countries, including three young developers who it has decided to highlight: Sofia Ongele, Palash Taneja, and Devin Green.

domain: news


text:
Seagate has recently launched its first hybrid hard drive (HHD) to OEMs. No exact pricing was given, but a spokesmen has explicitly stated that they will be charging around a 25-30% premium.
The Momentus 5400 line will ship in 80, 120, and 160-GB capacity points with the standard five-year warranty. It also boasts 8MB of cache and 256MB of flash memory to buffer cached write requests to disk.
Although the hybrid drive technology is promising reduced boot time (average boot time will be decreased from 40 seconds to 32 seconds) and reduced power consumption (average power consumption will be cut from 0.78 watts to 0.45 watts), they don’t seem to be performing as such and apparently, Vista is to be blamed: “… they don’t know how to utilize the flash,” Melissa Johnson, a product manager for the company, said.


text:
4 Ways Uber Movement Data Can Be Used
Smart city planners rejoiced last week when Uber announced it would share trip data gathered from vehicles in its ridesharing fleet through its new Uber Movement offering. Besides helping to spot traffic bottlenecks in congested city cores, Uber Movement stands to bring benefits in other areas, too.
Uber last week committed to releasing anonymized vehicle trip data for 2 billion Uber trips through its Uber Movement project. The data currently covers just a fraction of the 450 cities that the ridesharing company operates in. But Uber is expected to release trip data for more cities in the months ahead.
Here are four potential uses of the Uber Movement Data:
Smart City Planning
Uber has already aggregated its trip data into Census Tracts and Traffic Analysis Zones (TAZs), which are data types that transportation planners use to evaluate how traffic flows through cities. That makes traffic optimization the most obvious use case for the Uber Movement data.
Traffic planning may seem like a relatively simple problem to solve. But it’s actually quite complex, combining physical elements of thermodynamics and psychological elements of human behavior. Having a solid corpus of time-series and geospatial data, as Uber intends to provide the public, could be a boon for smart city traffic planners as they seek to design roadways that optimize the flow of traffic.
For example, the data could help traffic planners to answer questions, such as whether a bridge or a tunnel is the solution for optimizing traffic flow, or if the accident-reducing benefit of a traffic circle outweighs the speed benefits of a traffic light in a given situation.
Optimized Food Delivery
The food-delivery business is booming in the United States, where it drives an estimated $30 billion annually, and has the potential to reach $210 billion, according to a recent Morgan Stanley study. Pizza delivery still dominates the fresh-food delivery niche, but urbanites are now getting other types of food delivered to them through outfits like GrubHub and PostMates.
The Uber Movement data could provide a competitive advantage to food delivery companies that can find ways to deliver food faster than their competitors, says Harry Glaser, CEO of San Francisco data visualization startup Periscope Data.
“I’m very hungry and I like pizza,” Glaser says. “If one of these companies can leverage this routing data to get me the pizza 10 minutes sooner, that company is going to win more business over time.”
It may seem odd for a pizza company to employ a data scientist. (They presumably would want to hire good pizza cooks, too). But the notion serves to demonstrate how far data has infiltrated many aspects of our lives.
Public Transportation Planning
Public transportation also stands to benefit from the Uber Movement data. By analyzing how long it takes for Uber vehicles to get from point A to point Z, public transportation planners could not only tweak their schedules to adapt to traffic planners. Because they’re so ubiquitous, Uber vehicles are reasonable proxies for the average commuter vehicle.
Public transportation planners could also use the data to tout the advantages of using public transportation that does not utilize congested roadways. While Ubers and private coaches sit in debilitating traffic, commuters riding light rail and ferry experience no delays.
There are some big gains to be made here. America’s drivers wasted 6.9 billion hours stuck in traffic in 2014, or about 42 hours per year per commuter, according to a study by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) and INRIX. It’s no wonder that ridership on public transportation hit a 58-year high in 2014, when Americans took 10.8 billion trips using public transportation, according to the According to the American Public Transportation Association, Americans.
Retail Store Placement
Retailers are already savvy users of geospatial data, which they gather directly from customers who use their apps, or via third-parties that have deals with cellular phone companies. But the new Uber Movement data can provide another data layer to add to their analysis.
The data could alert retailers to potential store locations that might have been under-appreciated before, Glaser says. “Where it gets interesting is in store places, especially if there are traditionally poorly seen areas that we would traditionally think are bad, that actually get a fair amount of traffic,” he says. “I’m going to put a store here because lots of people are going by, and there’s plenty of parking. Even if it’s not traditionally considered a high-traffic downtown spot, that can be pretty cool.”
What are some other uses of the Uber Movement data? We may have to wait for Uber Movement data to be released to the public to find out. But Glaser is convinced there are likely some other informational gems in there that are just waiting to get unearthed.
“People think of data science as answering questions all day long, and data scientists certainly do a lot of that,” he says. “But some of the best data work comes in the free time…where you’re poking around the data set and trying to figure out what might be interesting here. I think people will want to load it up into their data visualizer of choice and just start to play with it, and see what shakes out. And I think we’ll all be surprised by what the trends are.”


text:
AI is popping out to be surprisingly good at viral advertising and marketing.
The fast-evolving expertise has helped folks from outdoors the business rating a few of the largest style moments over the previous a number of weeks, together with the video mashups of Balenciaga with Harry Potter and varied different movie and TV sequence, and the picture of the Pope in a powerful white cocoon of a puffer jacket, additionally impressed by Balenciaga.
The preliminary Harry Potter video posted by YouTube consumer demonflyingfox three weeks in the past, which options digital lookalikes of the actors within the film franchise with out an oz of buccal fats and carrying Balenciaga-esque appears, is at 5.9 million views and counting. By comparability, the video of Balenciaga’s Autumn/Winter 2023 present on the model’s YouTube channel has simply 2.6 million views after a month.
In idea, this type of AI content material is nice for the model. It will get it in entrance of tens of millions of individuals and affirms its transcendence past style’s restricted circle into popular culture. It would even be tempting for different manufacturers to attempt to create their very own AI stunts.
However as AI content material will get simpler to create, it’s debatable whether or not an ocean of memes and mashups stuffed with model signifiers might be useful or dangerous.
The state of affairs is arguably analogous to the one manufacturers confronted when social media first appeared. Many feared ceding some measure of management over their photographs to bloggers and customers who may put on their merchandise and publish their logos nonetheless they selected. In fact, in the long run, social media became one among style’s most valued channels for speaking with its viewers. (Some early client considerations, then again, have proved warranted as proof of social media’s harms piles up.)
AI might end up in another way for manufacturers. Michael Miraflor, who labored at media companies previous to his present position as chief model officer at enterprise capital agency Hannah Gray, described it as “new territory.” For one factor, many customers are distrusting or petrified of AI, and their expectations across the expertise are being set on the similar time manufacturers and others are experimenting with the instruments in public.
“Keep in mind when Balenciaga did a content material collab with The Simpsons, and the way huge of a deal that was? Probably took months of negotiation and inventive work,” Miraflor tweeted recently. “It was wild on the time, however AI has made this type of mashup really feel… fundamental? Regular? Anticipated? The goalposts have shifted.”
One query to be answered is whether or not the Harry Potter video and Balenciaga’s most up-to-date runway video ought to even be handled as equivalents. The previous doesn’t truly characteristic any Balenciaga merchandise, simply clothes harking back to its look, and plenty of of its viewers are solely there to gawk at its AI-powered weirdness. The latter contains a present that attempted to serve repute rehab for the model after final 12 months’s scandal involving a marketing campaign displaying youngsters alongside S&M-inspired merchandise and has possible been watched by many present and potential clients.
However in Miraflor’s view, the AI video might not change into so completely different from an influencer posting a couple of model with out its involvement. The present prime feedback on Balenciaga’s Autumn/Winter 2023 runway video are actually all references to the Harry Potter mashup, suggesting the AI pastiche is driving site visitors again to the model’s official channels.
“I must assume that many individuals who noticed the Balenciaga Harry Potter mashup ended up doing additional searches about Balenciaga,” Miraflor stated.
Viral stunts in style have develop into extra frequent in latest seasons, leading to moments resembling Sam Smith on the Brit Awards in inflatable Harri pants, or the celebrities at Schiaparelli carrying its trophy-like faux animal heads. Designers use them to generate buzz by taking part in into social media’s algorithmic churn. There’s incentive for manufacturers to now use AI for the job.
It was already getting more durable for manufacturers to face out with these efforts, nonetheless, prompting some to focus extra on the standard of engagement moderately than the amount weighed in likes and views. Ultimately, AI might develop into a software like another, outlined by the ability of the individual wielding it. There are many Balenciaga-fied movies out there now, however not all are good.
Miraflor is now watching to see if we’re getting into a “post-authentic” period, the place it doesn’t matter to viewers whether or not content material is “actual” or not. Lately, for example, Jacquemus posted a video to Instagram of car-sized variations of its purses driving via Paris — the antithesis of its tiny Chiquito baggage. They turned out to be digital 3D renderings, however many customers couldn’t inform. And it didn’t a lot appear to matter. The video obtained 1.2 million likes, a number of occasions the variety of the posts surrounding it.


text:
It seems obvious that you want to work with a Florida fence company you can count on. I mean does anyone intentionally try to find an unreliable company to do business with? Probably not.
However, there are things going on in the fencing industry that make working with a reliable fencing contractor more important than ever! Here are a few reasons you might want to take an EXTRA hard look at the Florida fence companies you may be considering for your next fencing project.
The Florida Fence Market is in Crisis!
Did you know that the entire fencing industry is scrambling right now? This is not just a Florida fence company problem. The fencing crisis is across the entire country!
Florida Fencing Shortage
There is a severe shortage of every type of fencing right now. This can have a profound impact on your fence project. To learn more about what is happening and why it is happening read our previous article about the Florida Fencing Shortage.
Price Increases on Florida Fencing
Somewhat related to the fencing shortage is the fact that prices on fencing in Florida have increased dramatically. Read our recent article about Rising Prices on Florida Fences.
Why Choosing a Solid Fence Company In Florida Is More Important Than Ever
Stated simply, we believe over one-third of all fence companies in Florida will be out of business within the year. You do not want to buy your fence from one of them! Between the fencing shortage and the price increases, the smaller and weaker fence companies are going to have a much harder time getting the materials they need to work.
The larger fence companies in Florida (like Mr Fence) have the stability and foresight to stock-up on large quantities of premium fencing materials so we can serve our customers through these difficult times.
We believe as this fencing materials shortage continues on and the prices continue to climb, that more and more fence companies are going to have to close their doors. That is bad news for the Florida homeowners who used these companies. Here are just a few of the reasons:
Fence Workmanship Warranty
At Mr Fence, we back each of our fences with a workmanship warranty that protects you in case something goes wrong. Well, these workmanship warranties are only as good as the company offering them. If a small Florida fence company goes out of business after installing your fence … you have NO warranty anymore!
Money Disappears on Unfinished Fence Projects
Unfortunately, we have seen first-hand unscrupulous companies working in the fencing industry that take your deposit on a new fence only to close up their doors the very next week – leaving you without a fence and with no way to get your money back.
Use a Proven Florida Fence Company Like Mr. Fence for Your Peace of Mind
Mr Fence is a strong professional fencing company with years of great service. We have taken the steps to ensure we will make it through the toughest of times so we are here for you now and into the future. Contact one of our fence experts for a consultation. Don’t wait!


text:
Beta Glass to consolidate market leadership with $30m capacity expansion
Beta Glass is set to consolidate its position as the market leader in the glass bottles making industry with the completion of $30 million expansion in its Agbara plant in Ogun State, South West Nigeria. The new investment, which was first announced in December 2018, will take its annual productive capacity to 35,000 tons as well as allow the firm to pioneer the Narrow Neck Press and Blow (NNPB) technology in West African sub region.
Operating in both the local and export markets, Beta Glass made N14.5 billion as gross earnings at half year 2019, representing an increase of 10 percent over N13.14 billion the company made in similar period in 2018. It was the earnings from the export market that showed higher growth during the comparable period. As against N516 million earnings made from the export market at half year 2018, the first six months of 2019 saw its revenue from the export market grow by 102 percent to N1.042 billion, implying that the current expansion drive, which is set to be completed by 2020, may not be unconnected with the desire to tap the emerging opportunities in the export market, especially as African countries continue to look for ways to bolster intra-African trade. Sales within the country rose by 6.4 percent from N12.62 billion in the first half of 2018 to N13.43 billion in the first half of 2019.
The new furnace, according to the release from the company, will have a productive life of more than 12 years and will replace the existing furnace which will end its productive life by next year, the company said.
“The new furnace will enable us to leverage the latest technology and our technical expertise to make glass packaging products in Nigeria, whilst promoting sustainability and improving our environmental footprint. This investment will enable growth and create long term value for both our shareholders and society”, Abimbola Ogunbanjo, Chairman, Beta Glass Plc, said.
The demand for glass bottles has grown in Nigeria due to the rising population who need products from pharmaceutical, food conservation, cosmetics firms and for domestic purposes.
“We are delighted by the progress we have made so far on the expansion project. Our investment in this state-of-the-art facility reaffirms our deep faith in Nigeria and the high growth potential of West Africa. The new furnace will significantly enhance our ability to meet the growing demand for glass bottles and jars in Nigeria and across West Africa, as well as create a number of new jobs, both direct and indirect. I would like to thank our stakeholders for the invaluable support since inception of the project”, Darren Bennett-Voci, managing director, Beta Glass, said.
Meanwhile, the notice sent to stakeholders by the company did not state if the fund was through borrowings. This becomes important because as at the end of the second quarter of 2019, the company had N14.824 billion as total liabilities and N31.957 billion as equity, which brought the total equity plus liabilities to N46.782 billion. In other words, the gearing ratio at half year 2019 was 43 percent. That was different from 56 percent gearing ratio at half year 2018. At the exchange rate of N306/$, the $30 million investment will amount to N9.18 billion which could raise its total liabilities to N24 billion.
Total comprehensive income as at half year 2019 was N2.33 billion compared with N2.39 billion same period in 2018. Investors traded 460 units of Beta Glass shares last Friday to close at N53.80 per share. Year to date, its share price has declined by 21.2 percent.


text:
COMET will begin accepting gift vouchers again today — after a U-turn by administrators at the bust electricals chain.
Shoppers were last night told that stores would be accepting “gift cards purchased and paid for in full by members of the public”.
It comes after a store refused a £500 card donated by a charity to four-year-old cerebral palsy sufferer Samuel Horton, of Plymouth, Devon, so he could buy an iPad.
The move by administrators Deloitte follows a public outcry and growing concerns about staff safety — with angry customers unable to redeem vouchers.
Deloitte partner Neville Kahn said: “We recognise that the temporary suspension of gift cards has caused concern to those customers affected.”
Comet crashed last week, risking 6,611 jobs.


text:
Victoria’s Secret has revealed where its next fashion show will be held. The lingerie brand will host its highly anticipated 20th anniversary fashion show in New York later this year. The runway extravaganza will return to the city where its first fashion show was held in 1995, according to People.
“The 2015 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show will be held in New York City,” said Sharen Jester Turney, the brand’s chief executive officer, adding that the Big Apple is particularly special for the models and the brand. The brand witnessed a hectic few months after it was revealed that angels Doutzen Kroes and Karlie Kloss had quit the brand.
At last year’s runway show in London, Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, Ariana Grande and Hozier took to the stage for a musical extravaganza. The star-studded event saw fashionistas like Olivia Palermo, Ellie Goulding sitting in the front row. Models from Kloss to Candice Swanepoel stormed the runway.
The catwalk presentation also marked another first for Victoria's Secret, as the brand unveiled two fantasy bras. Angels Adriana Lima and Alessandra Ambrosia modeled the two $4 million bras, made up of 16,000 gems, including rubies, sapphires and diamonds. The roster of Angels has jumped from five to 15. The new Angel lineup includes Kate Grigorieva, Taylor Hill, Elsa Hosk, Martha Hunt, Jac Jagaciak, Stella Maxwell, Lais Ribeiro, Sara Sampaio, Romee Strijd and Jasmine Tookes. They will be joined by the pros like Swanepoel, Adriana Lima, Alessandra Ambrosio, Behati Prinsloo, Lily Aldridge and Lindsay Ellingson. It has been rumored that Lima and Ambrosio are retiring.
This year the brand's fans will miss some familiar faces, like Kloss and Kroes. Since its inception two decades ago, the Victoria’s Secret runway extravaganza has been held in various cities -- like Los Angeles, Miami and Cannes -- in addition to London and New York.


text:
Cox & Kings eyes acquisitions; in talks with two intl cos
In a bid to acquire a larger footprint and grow its business, travel and tours operator Cox & Kings is eyeing acquisitions and is in talks with two international players, a top company official said.business Updated: Oct 31, 2010 11:31 IST
In a bid to acquire a larger footprint and grow its business, travel and tours operator Cox & Kings is eyeing acquisitions and is in talks with two international players, a top company official said.
"We are looking at acquisitions, both domestic and international, to expand our business. We are in talks with a couple of international players for investment," Cox & Kings CFO Anil Khandelwal said in Mumbai.
Khandelwal, however, declined to give further details of the talks or the identities of the parties.
Domestically, the company, which caters to the top-end market, is betting big on Tier II and III markets for its growth. "There is a huge potential inherent in these destinations and we intend to tap this potential," he said.
The company's performance so far has been good and "in line with our expectations", he said.
Going forward, the company hopes to continue its growth in margin as well as in topline, he said.
Meanwhile, the company has seen an increased foreign investment participation since its listing in 2009 to 24.6 per cent from 18.77 per cent.
Recently, the company has passed a resolution to increase FII stake in it from 24 per cent to 74 per cent for which the Reserve Bank has given its nod.
First Published: Oct 31, 2010 11:24 IST


text:
- All Media
- Blogging & Social Media
- Graphic Design
- Industrial Design
- Online Marketing
- Print Media
- Public Relations
- Web Design
View Releases by:
August 06, 2013 -- This August, NICOLI is all set to tempt its customers’ toes into something fashionably fabulous with their superb Love to Sparkle? competition on Facebook. The competition is open to shoe and handbag...
August 06, 2013 -- Original public artworks receive top spot in first-ever list of “50 Genius Inventions”
August 06, 2013 -- Armodilo announced it will be an exhibitor at the Customer Engagement Technology World (CETW) event, November 6-7, 2013, at the Javits Convention Center in New York.
August 06, 2013 -- Adrienne Maloof Launches Beverly Hills Gyspy Collection, A Jewelry Collection In Partnership With Giantto Watch & Jewlery Group; Sold Exclusively At Bloomingdale’s Century City
August 06, 2013 -- As the extension of minimalism in design, Jane European style sheds the luxury and sophistication of the classic European style; but infuses modern elements with simplicity. Ivory tone, simple...
August 05, 2013 -- The ten best PSD to HTML conversion agencies for the month of August 2013 disclosed by bestwebdesignagencies.com.
August 05, 2013 -- australia.bestwebdesignagencies.com proclaims monthly listings of best flash design agencies in Australia for August 2013.
August 05, 2013 -- World Volkswagen of Neptune announced that it is offering specials on everything it has available: vehicles, parts, service. Shoppers may just find specials everywhere.
August 05, 2013 -- Studio Rendering has been announced the top 3D illustration and animation service by bestwebdesignagencies.com for August 2013.
August 05, 2013 -- With new dance, electronic and techno music, Royalty-free music website RoyaltyFreeKings.com continues a significant expansion of their catalog of tracks and albums. The latest album is royalty free...
August 05, 2013 -- 93% of employees say career pathing is their responsibility. Skills training leads to career advancement.
August 05, 2013 -- Dress shirts to cool quilts: Haynes takes time to get creative with AccuQuilt.
August 05, 2013 -- 10 Best Design has been providing some of the most visited awards for web design firms available online. Over the last year, this organization has been expanding the scope of their awards by releasing...
August 05, 2013 -- Creating Movements, Evoking Passion, Inspiring Change
August 04, 2013 -- Following an article published June 19, 2013, from OnlineAthens, entitled "Tips for making seating arrangements at your wedding reception," TheBrideDesign.com is giving brides and wedding...
August 04, 2013 -- A' Design Award and Competitions are proud to inform that the design Kinderfeets by Oscar Mulder wins the famous Golden A' Design Award in Toy, Games and Hobby Products Design Category.
August 04, 2013 -- bestwebdesignagencies.in declares the listings of the best hosting agencies in India for the month of August 2013.
August 04, 2013 -- bestwebdesignagencies.in issues the ratings of the top PSD to HTML consultants in India for the month of August 2013.
August 04, 2013 -- Founded in Dubai, famed for fashionable, luxurious and exclusive limited edition crystal embellished shoe and handbag collections, NICOLI’s iridescent shoe collection has now become an ultra-glamorous...
August 03, 2013 -- Following an article published July 10, 2013, from ABC News, entitled “Wedding Weight Loss: 10 Tips Every Bride Should Know,” TheBrideDesign.com is giving brides tips on taking control of their health...
August 03, 2013 -- A' Design Award and Competitions are pleased to announce that the work Jordan Apotheke by Conceptlicht Gmbh has been granted the notable Golden A' Design Award in Lighting Products and...
August 03, 2013 -- The ten top flash development firms for the month of August 2013 released by bestwebdesignagencies.com.
August 03, 2013 -- Huntington Mazda is bringing clearance specials to its shoppers on its certified models. Bronx Mazda shoppers are welcome to come by and test drive what is available.
August 03, 2013 -- The independent authority on merchant services, topcreditcardprocessors.com, discloses the ratings of the best fraud detection companies for the month of August 2013.
August 03, 2013 -- The 10 best pay per click management consultants in China have been ranked by topseos.cn for August 2013.


text:
- 12:19 pm Monday, June 16th, 2014 by M.M. Cloutier
It may seem a bit early to be thinking about September’s Flavor Palm Beach—the month-long countywide dining-deals promotion at participating restaurants—but already, it appears it could be a banner year for the program, founded seven years ago by a South Florida hospitality-industry veteran.
Thirty five restaurants around the county thus far have signed on to participate in Flavor—offering value-priced lunch and/or dinner prix-fixe menus Sept. 1-30 at participating restaurants—and in Palm Beach in particular, they currently include 13, an uptick from last year’s 11 island-based participants.
And according to Flavor founder and organizer Briana Beaty, two more island restaurants are poised to [More]
- 5:33 pm Friday, April 18th, 2014 by M.M. Cloutier
If you’ve dined at Renato’s in Palm Beach for many years, you may remember when exceedingly handsome and raven-haired Carlos Farias was a wait captain there.
Well, it’s hardly news that he and his wife, Lanie, have had their own successful restaurant—consistent-quality Continental fare, simple-but-polished décor—for the past 14 years, but now may be the time to check it out if you haven’t yet done so.
This Monday (April 21), Maison Carlos (3010 S. Dixie Highway in West Palm Beach; www.maisoncarlos.com) is launching value-priced dinner promotions available through the summer.
Of the three specials—they cannot be combined and are for dine-in only—two are perhaps [More]
- 6:37 pm Monday, February 10th, 2014 by M.M. Cloutier
On Valentine’s Day—it’s this Friday—couples typically go out for dinner, which is a fine idea so don’t be dissuaded if you’ve made such plans, but here’s another thought: Stay in, cozy up, let someone else cook dinner and then conclude the meal with a “desire” cake.
First, consider dessert: Patrick Lézé Patisserie features several Valentine’s Day specials, including the aforementioned cake called “Desire,” an oversized chocolate macaroon with light rose-petal cream, lychees and fresh raspberries.
Choose from heart-shaped cookies—$1 for small, $2.75 for large—to individual specialties such as “Cupid’s Napoleon” ($6), featuring crispy puff pastry with crème patisserie and pink sugar icing.
- 6:08 pm Sunday, September 29th, 2013 by M.M. Cloutier
After Monday night, the gears of Sept. 1-30 Flavor Palm Beach—the Palm Beach County-wide dining promotion with value-priced menus at dozens of participating restaurants—slip into neutral.
Then it’ll be up to Flavor-aligned restaurants, including several in Palm Beach, to decide whether or not they want to continue offering the deals on their own—without the collective organizational-and-marketing engine of Flavor’s annual September-long run, which now is in its 6th year with founder Briana Beaty at the helm.
In Palm Beach, participating Flavor restaurants offering three-course lunch menus for $20 and/or three-course dinner menus for $30 or $35 include Bice, Café Boulud, Charley’s Crab, [More]


text:
On August 25, 2016 the National Park Service celebrated 100 years of service with a host of special events held across the U.S. Over the past century, the NPS has served as the steward for America’s public lands, finding ways to protect those iconic places while simultaneously opening them up for access by the general public as well. Now, Yakima has joined forces with the National Park Foundation to keep the celebration rolling by offering fans an opportunity to win one of ten custom made, limited edition Centennial Showcase rooftop cargo boxes complete with unique custom graphics.
In designing these products Yakima worked closely with Oregon-based artist Adam Haynes to create original artwork to adorn the outside of the cargo boxes. That artwork comes in the form of a wrap-around image that Haynes created with inspirations from ten different national parks across the U.S. Those parks include Crater Lake, Redwood National and State Parks, Mount Rainier, Yosemite, Glacier, Joshua Tree, Everglades, Arches and Great Smoky Mountains.
With only ten of these cargo boxes being made, you can bet that they’ll be in high demand with national park lovers. However, you can’t simply buy these boxes just anywhere but instead must try to win one in Yakima’s Centennial Contest. In order to claim one of these cargo haulers for yourself, you’ll have to engage with the company on social media. To do that, post a photo that you took in any national park to your social media outlets while using the hashtag #YakimaNPContest. Finally, follow the brand on Twitter at @Yakimaracks.
Once entered, your photo could win you a number of daily prizes, including a signed national park poster created by Haynes himself. And during each week of the contest – which runs through September 9 – Yakima will be giving away three Centennial Showcase cargo boxes to lucky winners.
The first stage of the contest got underway last week on August 24, but there is still a chance to enter if you hurry. Over the next couple of weeks the remaining limited edition cargo boxes will be given away as well, so be sure to enter early and often.
Throughout the course of 2016, Yakima is supporting the National Park Foundation in launching some critical programs and initiatives as well. The company has parterned with a number of organizations over the years with some impressive results.


text:
T-Mobile has officially announced its new Sidekick 4G by Samsung that comes with support for HSPA+ 4G mobile network and offers up to 21Mbps peak download speeds. Like the previous Sidekick Smartphone, the Sidekick 4G also features a five-row QWERTY keyboard that can be tilted for a more comfortable use when messaging, the handset also comes with Sidekick Group Text and Cloud Text that according to the company will redefine messaging. It gets a 3.5-inch touchscreen display, there are dual-cameras: a main 3-megapixel camera and a VGA camera on the front for video chats, there is WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity.
It is powered by a 1GHz Cortex A8 Hummingbird processor, it runs the Android 2.2 OS and also comes with an integrated Media Room that offers users a place to enjoy music, videos, T-Mobile TV, Movies, Slacker Radio, Youtube and other content. The new T-mobile Sidekick will be released this spring in the colors of matte black or pearl magenta.


text:
Nationwide has welcomed the government's decision to give consumers advance warning of cash machine charges.
The building society, which has been campaigning against hidden cash machine charges, celebrated the news that members of LINK, the organisation that runs the UK's cash machine network, has finally agreed to recommend giving customers early warning of charges.
Though details have yet to be finalised, the industry plans to have early warnings in place by April 2004. The warnings will either be in the form of stickers or early on-screen messages before the transaction begins.
Nationwide executive director Stuart Bernau says: “This is a victory for the consumer and for common sense. Consumers currently face a monthly cost of £6m in fees for withdrawing their own money from Britain's 11,000 convenience cash machines.
“Our research shows that 95% of people want advance warning if they will be charged to withdraw their own money from cash machines. I'm delighted though that banks and building societies have at last seen sense and increasing numbers have come round to our way of thinking over the past few weeks.”
11,000 ATMs in the UK charge a fee – some 25% of the LINK network – and 3.83 million transactions each month through machines incur a charge, typically between £1.25 and £1.50.


text:
Fans of PUBG Mobile India are eagerly waiting for the game launch but PUBG Mobile India has not yet revealed the exact date when the game will be available to download in the Google Play Store and Apple Store.The teaser of the game was released on the social media accounts on 12th November 2020 featuring Dynamo, Kronten, and Jonathan.
All New PUBG MOBILE coming to India
Today again positive news came about the launch of the game. In a tweet, Maxtern claimed that PUBG Mobile India might be announced some news about the release of the game this Christmas according to Maxtern internal sources. PUBG Mobile has earlier announced the game is specially designed for the Indian market after the Government of India banned 118 apps including PUBG Mobile due to security reasons.Now PUBG India is also a registered company in India and registration was already competed on 21st November 2020.
Maxtern tweeted that“According to some internal source: There might be an announcement related to PUBG Mobile India officials on this Christmas. Hope they are true!SOURCE: People in touch with the internal team.” Hope this will news will be true and bring a smile to the faces of PUBG Lovers


text:
The news that Niantic is developing Harry Potter: Wizards Unite made many, many fans of the franchise very happy but also made Pokemon GO (Free) players nervous. Many Pokemon GO players started complaining that the game is still lacking many of the promised features (trading, etc) and felt that the Wizards Unite announcement meant that Pokemon GO would be pretty much left as is, with no new features added. Niantic listened to all those complains and responded in an attempt to allay all those fears. After expressing their excitement about the Harry Potter news, the Pokemon GO developers stated that they are 100% committed to creating an ever-changing and growing game that helps players deepen their connection to the Pokemon universe and with each other.
In fact, they are in the process of expanding the Pokemon GO team in an effort to bring more features to the game in 2018, with more details on that coming next week. And to prove that point, the announcement ends with a list of job openings across all Niantic’s games. So, it looks like the Pokemon GO cash cow will continue to grow, although we’ll have to see in action how substantially. Head over here for the whole announcement.


text:
Our vision is to help our partners in the retail, health and home improvement sectors offer flexible sales financing solutions and enable them to sell more, develop and grow, while helping consumers enjoy the things they need and want sooner
Brim Financial contends there's an innovation gap for installment lending that favors larger lenders.
U.S. tech platform CURO Group Holdings Corp. (NYSE: CURO) announced on Thursday it has completed the acquisition of Flexiti Financial. Inc., a Canadian point-of-sale (POS) …
Flexiti Financial, POS financing and payment technology provider for retailers, announced that Diane J. Brisebois, President and CEO of the Retail Council


text:
A heat-seeking camera hit its target last week when U.K. police used thermal imaging to pinpoint an expansive cannabis farm. The location? Authorities found the cannabis growing inside a closed-down pub in Willenhall.
The special cameras were attached to a drone by police when they suspected a grow-op in the area, according to Birmingham Mail. Inside the pub, they found approximately 600 marijuana plants.
tap here to see other videos from our team.
U.K. man jailed for building massive underground cannabis farm concealed under barn
Suspiciously big compost deliveries to U.K. farm unearth cannabis find worth £6 million a year
Operation Candy Crush: Police raided 23 stores looking for illegal cannabis. Instead, they got a lawsuit
This part of the U.K. is becoming notorious of late for cannabis farms. Nothing as exciting as a heat-seeking camera on a drone, but on the same day last week, the West Midlands Police found a £600,000 cannabis factory in a former Lloyds Bank building.
Back in Canada, it seems more popular to use drones to get weed into prison, although law enforcement types on this side of the pond are also looking to the value that drones can provide for investigative purposes.
Want to keep up to date on what’s happening in the world of cannabis? Subscribe to the Cannabis Post newsletter for weekly insights into the industry, what insiders will be talking about and content from across the Postmedia Network.


text:
Inditex has reported an increase in profit and sales that the group said is a result of a “very robust operating performance”.
In the six months to July 31, the Spanish fashion giant saw its gross profit increase by 14.1% to €9.8bn (£8.4bn) and a 15.7% rise in EBITDA to €4.7bn (£4bn).
Inditex sales across all of its brands – Zara, Pull & Bear, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Stradivarius and Oysho – grew 13.5% overall to total €16.9bn (£14.5bn) in this period.
Please sign in now if you have a subscription or are already registered with us.
Retail-Week.com provides premium, in-depth intelligence that helps retailers judge risks, spot opportunities and identify what they need to do to win in the digital economy.
Register today for a taste of our high-quality intelligence and enjoy:
Discover Retail Week register now
Please note, if you have recently purchased a subscription, it may take a few moments before your account is updated.


text:
Despite high access to affordable fruits and vegetables, Americans reported less healthy eating habits in 2011, reinforcing the idea that they make poor lifestyle choices when it comes to food.
Americans’ healthy eating habits declined last year, which may have been a result of slightly less access to affordable fresh fruits and vegetables, according to a Gallup poll.
The poll showed that in 2011, 66.1% reported eating healthy “yesterday” and only 56% had five or more servings of fruits and vegetables in at least four of the last seven days. These figures are down from 67.7% and 57.1%, respectively.
So far in 2012, Americans have been reporting slightly healthier eating when comparing the first three months of this year to the same time last year. Also, Americans reported slightly more exercise for January, February and March.
The unusually warm winter weather, the fourth warmest on U.S. record, could be a contributing factor to the increased level of produce consumption and exercise,” Gallup reported.
However, while less Americans reported access to affordable fresh fruits and vegetables, an overwhelming majority do have access. In 2011, 90.8% reported it was easy to get affordable fresh fruits and vegetables, compared to 92.3% in 2010.
Unsurprisingly, the high access only reinforces the fact that Americans’ poor health related to healthy eating
— such as obesity, type-2 diabetes and coronary heart disease
is a result of poor lifestyle choices more than anythingn else.
These lifestyle choices might only get worse as less Americans reported easy access to affordable fruits and vegetables in the beginning of 2012 when compared to the beginning of 2011.


text:
Kicking off their runs as Apple’s newest generation products, the iPad mini and 4th generation iPad combined for 3 million sales during their opening weekend of availability.
That information comes directly from Apple on Monday morning. This weekend’s sales doubled the number of third-generation iPads sold in March when that particular device was launched.
“Customers around the world love the new iPad mini and fourth generation iPad,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said this morning. “We set a new launch weekend record and practically sold out of iPad minis. We’re working hard to build more quickly to meet the incredible demand.”
Apple also confirmed today that a huge number of consumers have already ordered their new iPads, which won’t ship for several more days yet as the models with cellular connectivity are yet to launch.
Apple’s most popular iPad model over the weekend was the iPad mini 16-gigabyte white and silver model.


text:
Pomerdoge has attracted a score of investors with its promising business roadmap. Therefore, its presale has attracted hoards of investors in no time. Experts have forecasted that this new project can soon become the leader of the meme coin industry, leaving Pepe (PEPE) and Floki (FLOKI) behind.
- A Pepe whale sold over 2.5 trillion PEPE tokens due to its declining value.
- Floki Inu’s (FLOKI) price plummeted by more than 16%.
- Pomerdoge’s presale can record a growth of 1,700%.
Whales Lose Interest In Pepe (PEPE)
The latest on-chain data suggests that whales are shedding their Pepe (PEPE) holdings. Recently, a whale sold more than 2.5 trillion Pepe (PEPE) tokens due to their declining value. Pepe’s (PEPE) current market performance has come as a surprise to many crypto enthusiasts.
Pepe (PEPE) touched its all-time high, and reached a market capitalization of over $1 billion soon after its launch in April this year. However, since then, it has been a downward journey for Pepe (PEPE). There has been a continuous drop in the price of Pepe (PEPE) for the past many weeks.
Subsequently, on the monthly price chart, Pepe (PEPE) is down by 16%. The trading price of Pepe (PEPE) has now come down to $0.00000110. Some experts predict that Pepe’s (PEPE) value can go up to $0.0000043 by the end of 2023.
Floki (FLOKI) Drops Despite Expanding Its Ecosystem
Floki (FLOKI) has been on a roll to forge new partnerships to increase its network growth. A few weeks ago, Floki (FLOKI) joined hands with BitGo, a renowned digital asset financial services provider.
According to the Floki community, this new partnership will increase the use of FLOKI tokens. Moreover, BitGo boasts a portfolio of assets that are over $64 billion. However, the price trajectory of Floki (FLOKI) has been discouraging for investors. The price of Floki (FLOKI) has dipped by 16% in the past 30 days. Thus, the current trading price of Floki (FLOKI) has come down to $0.00001839. Meanwhile, experts have predicted that its price can go up to $0.0001 by the end of 2024.
Pomerdoge (POMD) Emerges As The Next Big Player
Pomerdoge is ready to bring a new P2E (play-to-earn) meme coin that aims to disrupt the blockchain gaming industry. As per the latest market data, the global P2E (play-to-earn) NFT Games industry can grow at a CAGR of more than 21% by 2028.
The new game that Pomerdoge will soon launch will be called Pomergame. In this P2E game, players will get an opportunity to win rewards, and earn money by battling against other members. Players can also build and improve their characters through customized in-game assets. If they own a gold status Pomer, gamers will be allowed to trade or sell their in-game assets with other members.
Pomerdoge has also chalked out a roadmap to launch 7,777 unique non-fungible tokens. To get a chance to purchase these NFTs, one needs to be a POMD owner. POMD, the platform’s native crypto, has been designed on Ethereum.
As per the whitepaper of the project, there will be only four stages of the presale round. At present, the presale phase is undergoing stage 1. The market value of a token has increased to $0.009 from $0.007.
However, the token’s market value can soar by 1,700% before the culmination of the presale round. Besides, the project developers will give a mega Pomer prize worth $50,000, and weekly giveaways worth $100,000.
Visit the links below for more information about Pomerdoge (POMD):
Telegram Community: https://t.me/pomerdoge
Disclaimer: This is a paid release. The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the content provider and do not necessarily represent those of NewsBTC. NewsBTC does not guarantee the accuracy or timeliness of information available in such content. Do your research and invest at your own risk.


text:
Led Zeppelin's music is now available on Spotify. The band appeared on the streaming service shortly before CEO Daniel Ek announced the major deal on stage at today's press event. "I can't wait to get the Led out," he said. Led Zeppelin I and Led Zeppelin II are available now, and the rest of Zeppelin's discography will become available throughout the remainder of the week. Spotify says this is the first time Zeppelin's iconic catalog can be streamed on demand.
The band's songs can already be purchased from iTunes, Google Music, and Amazon, but the group has proven hesitant in adopting the streaming model until now. Curiously, Eddy Cue used Led Zeppelin as an example when he demonstrated iTunes Radio back at WWDC, but the band's catalog cannot be streamed using Apple's free radio service. Nor is it available via Google Play Music All Access. Pandora stands as the lone exception; Zeppelin's music is already part of the radio service's broad catalog.
According to The New York Times, Zeppelin's management has been negotiating with various streaming services since January. Clearly Spotify has emerged the winner, netting itself a huge exclusive as it looks to ward off existing competition and future music-focused offerings from YouTube and Beats.


text:
His education technology company Udacity is now preparing to introduce a course on flying cars next year. Its course on driverless cars has the largest number of students from India, after the US, Thrun said in a phone interview discussing the future of mobility with ET's J Vignesh.
Thrun, a research professor at Stanford University, is also the chief executive of Kitty Hawk, a startup building personal aircraft. Excerpts:
Dubai is testing driverless flying cars, Hyperloop is catching steam, as are driverless cars. What is their potential to transform mobility?
There is a lot of space for innovation in transportation.Urban transportation is a huge sector. We saw a huge change in transportation a hundred years ago when we moved from horses to cars. There is an opportunity to reiterate that transition now.
The world's biggest tech companies as well as carmakers are building driverless cars. How do you view the competition shaping up?
There are three different stakeholders - tech companies like Nvidia and Google; automotive carmakers; and ridesharing companies like Didi, Lyft and Uber. The most fundamental business disruption will likely be in ridesharing.
In the United States, about two-thirds of the cost (of ridesharing) is the driver. In China, it is about half. If the car can drive itself, that would lower the cost of ridesharing and car ownership. That is a fundamental disruption because it will be more economical to not invest in owning a car when you can share them.
If driverless cars are the future, is there a sufficient pool of talent to work on them?
By and large, universities cannot move fast enough. Education lags behind what the industry needs.
(Udacity) prepares courses with industry partners. We have the only self-driving car curriculum in the world. India has the largest number of students in the programme, other than the US.
Can driverless cars work in markets like India and China, where roads are congested?
The software has to be modified for different rules in different circumstances. However, driverless cars have enormous precision... humans do not have the same level of precision. I am glad that so many students from India have enrolled (in Udacity's course on self-driving cars).
I would love to see companies in India pick this up and make it into a reality. All of the action is presently in the US, China or Europe. Even if these companies are successful, it would take a long time for India to see the benefits of this technology. It would be a great time for a young person to build a startup for the Indian market.
What mobility innovation do you see working for India?
From my limited experience of being in India, I think getting stuff off the road and into the air could be brilliant for India. If I were to bet my money in India I would bet on drones and flying cars or anything in the air, because that space is completely unused right now.
Tell us about the flying cars course you are planning to start in Udacity.
The key of the flying cars course is the way (artificial intelligence) works for drones and other flying things so that they can fly by themselves. It is relative to the self-driving car. But the problems are different.
You are dealing with 3D structure, the controls problems are different. You have to address landing site selection, and the operation of many flying cars at the same time so they do not bump into each other.


text:
A Virginia firm is accusing Durham LED maker Cree of infringing on four patents, and is asking for “a reasonable royalty” to be awarded in court. But this time it’s not a competitor filing suit in federal court, it’s Bluestone Innovations LLC, a patent licensing and enforcement company often categorized as a “patent troll.”
In the five years since it began its work — a result of the America Invents Act of 2011 — the Patent Trial and Appeal Board has saved companies more than $2 billion in legal fees alone, according to Joshua Landau, patent counsel at the Computer and Communications Industry Association, offering an expeditious and relatively cheap avenue to challenge patents of doubtful validity.
The benefits of stopping bad patents from snaking their way through the economy have been even greater.
As seen on Medium
Our nation’s patent system has been in need of serious reform for many years. So-called “patent trolls” — entities that don’t actually make or sell anything but that instead buy patent licenses merely to extort settlements — have become a serious drain on our economy. According to one study, patent trolls and their frivolous lawsuits cost our country nearly $80 billion per year.
When you buy a house, it’s nice to know where the local schools are, where the closest park is, where a nearby grocery is. So realtors commonly embed tools on their websites to show you a map of these “points of interest” in the area around a house for sale.
Unsurprisingly, using technology leads to non-practicing entities suing the realtors. In this case, a pair of Texas-based realtors.


text:
NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Media conglomerate Viacom Inc VIAb.N is not in talks to buy video game maker Take-Two Interactive Software Inc TTWO.O, a source familiar with the matter said on Thursday, disputing reports of an offer.
Reports on the Web and a video games trade publication Web site said Viacom had offered $1.5 billion for the maker of the popular “Grand Theft Auto” games franchise, citing unnamed sources.
Shares of Take-Two rose as much as 12 percent on Thursday on the rumor.
Viacom declined to comment. A Take-Two representative said the company does not comment on rumors.
“This is very unlikely,” Pacific Crest Securities analyst Evan Wilson said of the speculation. “Video games are a hot space and media companies are interested in participating in the growth, but for Viacom, they are pursuing a completely separate strategy.”
Viacom was seen as an obvious target for speculation as the company and its founder have invested in the games sector.
Viacom, owner of MTV Networks and movie studio Paramount, last year earmarked $500 million to invest in video games. MTV’s $175 million purchase of Harmonix, maker of music video game “Guitar Hero”, has begun to pay off as Harmonix-developed “Rock Band” was a holiday shopping season hit.
But Viacom Chief Executive Philippe Dauman has said on several occasions recently that the company had no appetite for high-priced acquisitions, preferring smaller purchases or developing products and services internally.
“I don’t think any of those media companies has the appetite to get into a new business,” said Michael Pachter, an analyst with Wedbush Morgan.
Viacom founder and Executive Chairman Sumner Redstone separately holds a majority stake in game publisher Midway Games Inc MWY.N.
Take-Two shares were up 52 cents, or 3.3 percent, at $16.12 on the Nasdaq after briefing entering negative territory. (Additional reporting by Doris Frankel in Chicago; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Braden Reddall)
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.


text:
The imminent implementation of the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has been hailed as a victory for global privacy advocates; since the regulation severely limits the collection of data on Europeans — even when they're communicating with non-Europeans — services like Facebook would risk running afoul of the GDPR if they collected data on anyone in a way that violated EU rules, and since the penalties for violating the GDPR are incredibly draconian, the benefits of such surveillance would surely be outweighed by the risk of getting it wrong.
Apparently, Mark Zuckerberg disagrees. In an interview with Reuters' David Ingram and Joseph Menn, Facebook's founder signaled that Americans waiting to have the GDPR applied to them shouldn't hold their breath.
The EU's privacy rules are an interesting inversion of the usual problem of the close interconnectedness of our social networks when it comes to privacy. In the USA, the NSA is only supposed to spy on communications that involve foreigners (the NSA is theoretically prohibited from conducting domestic surveillance), but since virtually everything we do online crosses at least one border, the NSA ends up spying on Americans with approximately the same ardor that it approaches the rest of the world with.
The GDPR flips this dynamic on its head. If you're operating a platform on the scale of Facebook or Google, it's nearly impossible to be sure that the people you're spying on aren't in the EU, or aren't EU citizens (for example, I hold an EU passport, but I'm writing these words in my home in California). Almost any social interaction you spy on has a moderate likelihood of including at least one person who is covered by the GDPR.
In that way, EU privacy rules should end up being world privacy rules. This has led Clay Shirky to quip that Germany is playing the same role in global privacy that California plays in global emissions standards: a source of extremely stringent consumer protection regulations, in a market that no global business can afford to skip, meaning that nearly every car sold nearly everywhere benefits from California emissions standards, and (in theory) nearly every internet user nearly everywhere gets to be treated like a German internet user when it comes to privacy.
But apparently not. Zuck apparently has some plan to sort the surveillable from the protected, and is confident enough that he'll get it right that he's willing to bet billions of dollars on it — this being the scale of the fines that Facebook could pay under the GDPR if they slip up.
It's a characteristically arrogant move: Zuck is betting that he can do something that is technically impossible, and also betting that Americans won't mind that he's decided to treat them worse than Europeans. I'm betting he's wrong on both counts. He usually is, and honestly, he always has been.
GDPR is likely to hurt profit at Facebook because it could reduce the value of ads if the company cannot use personal information as freely and the added expense of hiring lawyers to ensure compliance with the new law.
Data is central to Facebook's advertising business, and it has not yet sketched out a satisfying plan for how it plans to comply, said Pivotal Research analyst Brian Wieser.
"I haven't heard any solutions from Facebook to get ahead of the problem yet," Wieser said.
Failure to comply with the law carries a maximum penalty of up to 4 percent of annual revenue.
It should not be difficult for companies to extend EU practices and policies elsewhere because they already have systems in place, said Nicole Ozer, director of technology and civil liberties at the American Civil Liberties Union of California.
Exclusive: Facebook CEO stops short of extending European privacy globally [David Ingram and Joseph Menn/Reuters]


text:
Roadchef, one of the country’s leading motorway service area providers, has been voted one of the top 25 best big companies to work for in the UK in the best companies awards. The organisation was placed 22nd on the overall
Articles in category: Retailer News
Find out which retailers are innovating in the on and offline retail space and what they are doing to keep ahead of the curve in this dynamic and highly competitive sector. Read the financials and analysis of the large multiples, the smaller chains to independent retailers, wholesalers and suppliers
Alibaba has partnered with Hugo Boss, Balenciaga, Alexander McQueen, Net-A-Porter and Michael Kors to give consumers the opportunity to virtually dress the ‘Taobao Avatar’ in designs from the brands in celebration of Valentine's Day - the 20th May in China
Foot Locker Europe has announced the opening of its new store in Plaza Catalunya, Barcelona. The new 550 square metre space offers an elevated retail experience, including technology-driven experiences for its customers, a focus on sustainability, with recycled materials such
With just over two months until the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Aldi is running a nationwide competition with Team GB, calling on budding child artists to submit a design for its latest lorry.
Holland & Barrett launches Forest of Hope – eco-egg that protects endangered animals and gives children sustainable options
Today, Forest of Hope – the new eco-friendly, Fairtrade-accredited chocolate brand – is launching with Holland & Barrett.
Do you know someone who works in retail and deserves recognition for their tireless effort during Covid? Do you work for a store and want to shout about how proud you are of your team?
Over the next 48 hours, Poundland will open the first two stores in the pilot of its new Poundland Local format – with no convenience price premium.
Wickes sees benefit of social proof messaging by Taggstar, giving customers the confidence to make informed buying decisions
DIY retailer Wickes has improved its customer experience online by partnering with Taggstar to help customers make better buying decisions with customised messaging. Having opened its first store in 1972, Wickes now operates from over 233 sites across the UK.
The UK’s retailers commit to #BeatTheReceipt’s Paperless Pledge, to reduce the amount of paper wasted in retail. The campaign is being supported by the British Retail Consortium, British Independent Retailers Association and the Association of Convenience Stores, who are encouraging
A total of £37,951 was split between Fareshare - a UK charity network aimed at relieving food poverty and reducing food waste and the Neighbourly Community Fund - providing micro-grants of up to £400 to good causes supporting people affected
Footwear retailer, Shoe Zone, will be expanding its branded offering by transforming its Oldbury store (Unit 5 Oldbury Green Retail Park, Oldbury Ringway, Oldbury, West Midlands, B69 3DD) with a revamp to boost its branded offering to customers.
Pricer’s Norwegian partner StrongPoint AS has today signed a new agreement with a Norwegian specialty chain to supply and install Pricer Electronic Shelf Labels (ESL) in 50 to 90 of the chain’s stores.
Puzzel, the leading innovator of cloud-based contact centre solutions, has today announced the launch of two key new features of its contact centre solution; Live Share and Screen Share.
Central England Co-op is continuing its support for cyclists with a five-figure investment to install public bicycle repair stations at 21 sites following a successful trial.
TK Maxx has today launched its new brand campaign - ‘Big Wins, Small Prices’ - with three new TV ads, celebrating the feeling of pride you get when you find great quality products and big brands at amazing prices. The
Amazon is opening an Amazon Fresh store in Wood Wharf, the fourth convenience grocery store to offer Just Walk Out Shopping in the UK.
Fast-growing Danish fashion brand GANNI has selected the Nedap iD Cloud platform to achieve full inventory visibility. The first step of this deployment is to achieve full stock visibility in store, which leads to optimized item availability and efficiency gains.
Dreams announces two new ParalympicGB ambassadors, Ali Jawad and Jordanne Whiley, as part of a wider brand partnership with team ParalympicGB
Today, the UK’s number one specialist bed retailer announces two new ParalympicGB ambassadors, Ali Jawad and Jordanne Whiley, as part of a wider brand partnership with team ParalympicGB.
Global business collective, The Valuable 500, announces it has reached its goal of 500 international organisations committing to put disability inclusion on their board agenda, making it the world’s biggest CEO collective for disability inclusion.
Cegid, a leading European software vendor has now opened a new cloud point of delivery (POD) in Shanghai to help retailers with stores locally to adhere to strict data privacy laws introduced across mainland China. The Chinese authorities are constantly
Central England Co-op has revealed that it has reduced its food waste by 40% during the past three years.
Following today’s release of Topps Tiles figures for H1 FY2020/21; Jonathan Rock, associate retail analyst at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers his view: “Topps Tiles’ retail l-f-l sales grew 16.8% in the five weeks since stores reopened
WalkOut, developer of an autonomous end-to-end checkout platform, bolsters retail chains with a frictionless alternative checkout system that mounts on top of existing carts and baskets, transforming them into smart points of sale. By utilizing machine vision to identify each
The world’s largest food retail voluntary chain, Spar International, has reported sales of €39.8 billion for the year ending December 31st 2020, representing a 7.4% increase in revenue at constant currency values.
Planteria Group, the UK’s leading experts in corporate planting for over 45 years, has announced its business expansion with the launch of its consumer arm, foli8, a new online shopping destination that offers houseplants to create living interiors. foli8 is


text:
Shares of legacy shares are beating their disruptors this 12 months
Guests watch fireworks explode over the Shanghai Disneyland fort at an occasion to mark the primary anniversary of the opening of the park.
STR | AFP | Getty Pictures
Legacy corporations are having the final snicker in opposition to their disruptor counterparts to this point in 2021. But, Wall Road expects the innovation shares will retake the lead once more ultimately.
After getting trounced in latest market historical past, incumbent shares like Ford, Disney and Goldman Sachs are beating their rivals Tesla, Netflix and PayPal, respectively, to this point this 12 months. Huge field retailer Walmart is even neck and neck with e-commerce juggernaut Amazon in 2021.
Turkey to banish 10 Western ambassadors, Erdogan says
Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan holds a news conference during the NATO summit at the Alliance’s headquarters in Brussels, Belgium June…
Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey says ‘hyperinflation’ will happen soon in the U.S. and the world
Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter and co-founder & CEO of Square, speaks during the crypto-currency conference Bitcoin 2021 Convention at…


text:
Here in Australia, lockdown is pretty tough but can you still manage a fast food fix via the drive-thru if your self-isolating belly so desires.
Not so in Belgium, where the country has shut all its fast-food restaurants down completely.
Enter a witty new social media campaign for the burger chain via acclaimed Parisian agency Buzzman.
To celebrate the re-opening of Burger King drive-thrus in the country tomorrow, the agency has released a series of images that censor its Whoppers so hungry customers don’t get too excited pre the re-opening.
Burger King commenting in a statement: “While waiting for this date, the brand decided to censor its most iconic burgers on its website and social networks. Yes, we want to avoid any frustration before the great day!
“So be patient and stay home until you find the unique taste of your favourite hamburgers in a few days!”
Check out the campaign below:
Clemenger Group communications agency Porter Novelli has started 2022 with a new leadership structure, to reflect its growing consulting team and practice areas for its strong national client base. The structure will strengthen its footprint in Australia’s critical industry sectors while continuing to build deep specialisation in strategic communications, media, content and creative services. The […]
Just in time for his upcoming first title defence, Ultimate Fighting Championship’s Heavyweight Champion Francis Ngannou, the “Baddest Man on the Planet” becomes the first partner to join Jellysmack’s new Marquee Program. With this deal, brokered by CAA’s Justin Castillo and Marquel Martin with Jellysmack’s VP of Marquee Business, Aaron Godfred, Jellysmack will help the […]


text:
Don't-Miss Windows Tablet Stories
The shift toward smaller tablets will accelerate in the second half of the year when a slew of tablet makers, including Apple, introduce new models with screens 8-in. or smaller, said Richard Shim, an analyst with DisplaySearch.
In a bid to encourage educators to adopt its tablet, Microsoft will offer a $199 Surface RT special to K-12 schools.
New MacBook Airs unveiled by Apple Monday feature better battery life and faster graphics.
New Windows PCs have always been the main attraction at Computex, the annual trade show in Taipei. But notable on the show floor this year is the growing presence of Google's Android OS, which is creeping into more and more tablets, televisions, set-top boxes and even PCs.
Gigabyte is more widely known for making motherboards and components, but a pair of laptop-tablet hybrids on display at Computex this week caught our eye.
Between Outlook, and the rest of the new features with Windows 8.1, Windows RT tablets will be much more attractive to both businesses and consumers.
The trusty old laptop is being kicked to the curb, with PC makers trying to spice up their offerings by pushing a variety of hybrids, tablets and smaller-screen devices at the Computex trade show in Taipei this week.
Intel's bid for mobile relevance became a whole lot stronger at Computex, starting with the news of an x86-based Samsung Galaxy Tab.
Dell offers something for everyone with the release of Intel's fourth-generation Core processor. Here's a rundown of the hardware to be on the lookout for.
After months on the market, Windows 8 tablets have yet to rack up the sales Microsoft and PC vendors were originally hoping for. But on Monday Taiwanese PC maker Acer showed off what could be the first of many Windows 8 tablets to come in smaller screen sizes, following the success of Apple's iPad mini and Google's Nexus 7.
Intel finally takes the wraps off its highly anticipated, all-new 4th-generation Core microarchitecture, codenamed Haswell.
Intel's most powerful new mobile CPUs will feature Intel's best new integrated graphics processor. But you might not find them in Ultrabooks.
One analyst claims that PC buyers are simply waiting around for a better PC experience - AKA Windows Blue - before they invest in a new Windows 8 PC.
The new Opera Next 15 beta is the re-imagined and slimmed-down version of Opera's desktop browser. Its release comes on the heels of the company's revamp of Opera 14 for Android.
Small-screen Windows slates are poised to flood store shelves, but they aren't a magic pill for Microsoft's struggling tablet OS.


text:
Canadian potash producers have reached a deal to sell product to China. Through the marketing company Canpotex Ltd., they will sell 70,000 tonnes of potash to state-owned Sinofert for US$26-million.
That works out to about US$370 a tonne, which is far below 2008 prices. However, it is a slight improvement on the US$350-a-tonne price that Belarusian Potash Co. negotiated with China in a sale early this year.
Paul D’Amico, an analyst at TD Newcrest, called the Canpotex sale a neutral or slight positive for potash producers. He wrote that he does not expect a material price increase to China in 2010, given that recent sales to India have also been in the US$370 range.
This Canpotex sale is not a large one by any means, and Mr. D’Amico pointed out that its sales to China remain very weak as China has been able to secure potash supply from other sources at attractive prices. Over the past decade, Canpotex has typically exported between one million and 2.4 million tonnes to China a year.
Mr. D’Amico does think that Canpotex may announce a “meaningful” sale to China in the third quarter. However, the transaction price will likely not be disclosed.
“Given the relatively small Canpotex sale of only 70,000 tonnes to China in [Q2], we speculate Canpotex sales volume for [Q3] to China of about 400,000-500,000 tonnes,” he wrote.


text:
Soda consumption and its effect on health has been discussed greatly since New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg proposed a soda ban for the city of New York. Sugary drinks larger than 16 ounces at restaurants and concession stands are no longer allowed within New York City. Although sugary beverages are still widely available in the city and nationwide, few consider the environmental toll products like soda take on the planet.
Insurancequotes.org made the following video about the hidden costs of soda considering not only its cost on health but also the environmental and economic weight of the soda industry.
Will the information contain in the video change you soda consumption?


text:
There were a number of great speeches made at DICE 2013 by some of the industry’s most talented developers; many of whom are dedicated to creating unique gaming experiences that challenge the typical “take this, shoot that” approach the industry seems so obsessed with. One such creator is David Cage, the founder of Heavy Rain developer Quantic Dream. We’ve already covered thatgamecompany’s Jenova Chen and his stance on art games, but David Cage’s speech covered another aspect of the gaming industry: storytelling. Thanks to an extensive Q&A courtesy of Wired’s Game Life, Cage got the opportunity to discuss why he hopes games learn to grow up, and what obstacles are currently in the way of achieving that dream.
During his speech, Cage discussed his affinity for home consoles and why they’re the superior platform for creating games with meaning. In the interview, he got the chance to take his thoughts one step further. “…I think the most sophisticated experiences remain on game consoles,” he said. “When you look at what’s available on mobile and tablets, there are some fantastic games, but at the same time they are much more casual games. They’re games where you have fun quickly and that’s fine, that’s great, they do a great job at that. But at the same time, there’s nothing meaningful.” Furthering his point, Cage added that, “Very few titles are really meaningful in the matter of experience. And I believe, that’s my totally subjective point of view, that it would be a step forward for the industry if we could make these people play our games on consoles, because it’s the most sophisticated platform, and we can create quite unique experiences for them.”
Cage goes on to explain that while he appreciates the casual gaming experience mobile platforms provide, it’s still a relatively new space. According to him, that unfamiliarity makes it difficult to create meaningful experiences similar to those the team can create on high-end home consoles. “First of all, we love the tech. We have so much to learn from it, and we still need to understand what it takes to have a realistic character. So for [us] to achieve this and to learn this we want to work on high-end systems. And the best hardware right now is the PlayStation. We also have an exclusivity deal with Sony that makes us work exclusively on PlayStation systems. But that’s really a choice, it’s not a constraint.”
He hopes for an industry that sees the value in taking a chance on unconventional game mechanics, a common viewpoint among visionaries within the community. To that end, Cage has a deep appreciation for the indie game scene. “Indie is for me the real lab where all these things can happen first, because they have less pressure — or, I would say, not the same pressure — as triple-A titles where a lot of money is put on the table and there’s a lot of pressure to get this money back,” he said. “So you have less creative freedom sometimes, and you prefer to give people what you know they want, rather than take the risk of something they don’t expect.” But Cage understands that giving the people what they want all the time won’t lead to innovation. “But at the same time, you know the famous quote from Henry Ford about the horse: If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse. No one would have said a car. This is exactly the position we’re in right now: Do we give people what they expect, faster horses? Or can we imagine what they want without knowing they want it? And indie development is definitely the right place for this sort of thing to happen first.”
One of the obstacles in creating an emotionally-driven experience that can reach a wide audience turns out to be an issue of practicality. When questioned on whether or not putting a console controller in people’s hands creates a certain anxiety for those only used to casual games, Cage admitted that, “controllers are still a major issue.” “We try to simplify the games but the controller itself is so impressive by itself, there are buttons all over the place and most people don’t even know how to hold it,” he continued. “For us it sounds so obvious, we were born with a Dual Shock in our hands. But that’s not the case for everyone. And it’s not a matter of being dumb or being clever, it’s just a matter of culture, and being used to it or not. And yeah, I definitely think that our industry needs to find answers, and there are different interesting experiments going on or products being released like Move, Kinect, so the industry is definitely aware that this is a very significant issue. But I still think we can go further, and we work at Quantic Dream towards finding different answers to that question.”
But what will happen if the industry refuses to mature? Cage appears far from dramatic in his response, dismissing the idea of any cataclysmic breakdown within the development process. “The world won’t collapse, and we’ll keep making games. And there will be some fantastic games coming,” he admits. “But they will be more of the same. They will be Call of Duty 200. And that’s fine, I mean, I guess that this is what most people expect out there — for nothing to change. The videogame industry is really weird, because it’s an industry that’s highly conservative. People see the technology evolving every month, but when we talk about concepts, what people really want is for things to remain the same. So I wouldn’t be surprised if nothing from what I described on stage ever happens.”
He likens the industry’s mindset to that of another form of media with intense fan loyalty. “Look at comics. Comics is a very interesting example of another industry that has a very active, hardcore fanbase and they can be very successful and they can sell their IPs to Hollywood and they can make a lot of money.” “But at the same time, comics don’t evolve much,” Cage said. “There’s some great stuff, but when you think of superheroes, that’s what they keep doing. And they’re very successful, and that’s great. And I think this is possible with games, that we could get more of the same, but that it’ll get better, and still have an intense fanbase, and still make people happy. But my personal wish is that we can in some way expand our market and reach out with more diverse content.”
For the full interview, including Cage’s approach to storytelling, design process, and his thoughts about collaborating with actors to create emotional connections with audiences, be sure to head over to Wired for the full Q&A.
I have to agree with most of what the developers spoke about during the DICE summit. I think this industry has a lot of room for growth in regards to storytelling and game mechanics. I have a hard time playing shooters, especially FPS’s because after a certain point, if you’ve played one, you’ve played them all. Unless there’s some aspect of innovation, there’s little to gain from running and gunning. I would love to live in a world where games aren’t afraid to put away the guns, address mature themes and connect to players on an emotional level just by telling great stories with memorable characters. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not adamantly opposed to violence; there’s certainly a place for violence in games. But I am adamantly in favor of games that keep me glued to my seat for more than the adrenaline rush of an intense action sequence; games that resonate with the player emotionally even after the credits roll and invoke meaningful conversations months, if not years after release.
But what are your thoughts on the subject? Should games take on the responsibility of being more than just cheap entertainment? (Please say yes.) How would you change game mechanics or storytelling in games to create a more meaningful experience? Share your ideas in the comments.


text:
It’s no surprise to anyone that has been paying attention to the Leaf’s sales figures, but Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn has confirmed that his company will not meet the sales target for its all-electric vehicle.
The Leaf endured a frustrating year of sales after moving 9,679 units last year. October was the Leaf’s best selling month at 1,579 units, though for the entire year Nissan has only sold 6,791 Leafs total.
The admittance by CEO Carlos Ghosn is a tough one to swallow, as he held steady even in April that the Leaf would meet its sales target of 20,000 units. Still, the Japanese automaker is staying committed to electric vehicles, aiming to move 1.5 million EVs cumulatively by 2016.
For the 2013 model year, Nissan is improving the Leaf, with a longer range and a lower price tag.
GALLERY: Nissan Leaf
[Source: Detroit News]


text:
is recalling around three million Opel and Vauxhall-badged Corsa hatchbacks, Tigra
coupes and Corsa and Combi vans that may have faulty seats and seatbelts.
The front seat rails may allow the seat to shoot forward if the vehicle stops
suddenly and faulty seat belt buckles could break.
Owners should contact their dealers for further information, GM said.
Corsas, Tigras and Corsa-based Combo vans built between 1993 and 2000 are affected,
though not the latest Corsa, which went on sale in the autumn.
A GM spokesman said there were cases where the parts had broken but no injuries
About three million cars and vans are affected, including 900,000 in Germany
and 586,000 in the U.K., GM said, while declining to name suppliers involved
or estimate the cost of the recall.
However, a source said it should be less than the cost of an Astra recall about
two years ago.


text:
In the summer of 2022, a monumental shift happened. For the first time ever, streaming services overtook cable and broadcast TV figures. More generally, live streaming as a content medium also brings in eye-watering figures and has had an enormous impact on internet culture. There’s a stark generational divide in how we find and consume media now and today we’re looking at some of the reasons why.
NEW: Streaming surpassed cable for the first time ever with 34.8% share of U.S. TV viewership in July. ?
— Nielsen (@nielsen) August 18, 2022
Streaming & Live Content On The Rise
Streaming services like Netflix and their ever-expanding rogue’s gallery of competitors are eating up watch time all over the world, to the detriment of cable and broadcast TV. On-demand entertainment is easier on our schedules, requires no downloads, and is available on handheld devices like tablets and smartphones.
Then there’s live streaming, the wilder cousin of streaming services but make no mistake, it brings in millions of viewers and even more dollars every year. Live content is as varied as it is abundant – where there are streamers hosting gameshows out of their garage, there are also sophisticated industries that have grasped streaming with both hands. Online casinos are a popular example of an industry leveraging the benefits of online entertainment. Through websites, online casinos allow customers to play live casino games online, think blackjack, poker, and roulette. It offers a level of interactivity that better mimics the casino experience, and that interactivity is also why live content is on the rise across the board.
Streaming services have given life to many projects that wouldn’t have gotten interest from traditional TV. Meanwhile, live streaming has created a new generation of celebrities from mostly ordinary people and the technology behind it has also changed the way we engage with modern entertainment, leading to the shift we saw in 2022.
Streaming Interest By The Numbers
By the numbers, there are two main trends in on-demand video streaming and live streaming. While it may be tempting to label them young adult entertainment, older customers have a bigger part to play. That is, older people have made up the majority of streaming service audience growth over the past few years. In Nielsen figures from 2022, the 50-64 and 65+ demographics contributed most to Netflix, Hulu, and Disney+ subscriptions. In more recent figures, Bain reports a 60% increase in 55+ demo streaming interest between 2022 and 2023.
Now, this seems to be a late adoption growth spurt. This could mean that other demographics bought into streaming services a while back, and now the older ones are joining in. Still, in an increasingly competitive space where posting subscriber growth figures wow investors, they want as many people as possible to buy in. In fact, you can see this with services that are packing their platforms with older content that appeals to nostalgic rewatches. This seems to be working, as they abandon cable and broadcast TV to follow people who never watched traditional TV much to start with.
When it comes to social media, there’s much more variation. The longer a service has been around (and mainstream) then the more evenly distributed the age demographics will be.
The equalizer here is live streams that are built into other kinds of entertainment. Our online casino example fits here, along with online sports live streams where older fans will tune in via desktop or tablet. It should be noted that on-demand streaming for sports is also very popular in South America and other continents where cable access may be diminished. Many countries outside of the US have leapfrogged over cable and broadcast TV, becoming BBOs – broadband-only homes.
It remains to be seen if older demographics will pour into other kinds of streamed content – namely live streaming and newer forms of social media. Historically, any age differences tend to smooth out as more people adopt a service. However, with the media landscape changing so fast, it’s just as likely that by the time older demos take up live content, the younger demos will have moved on to the next big thing.


text:
Making sure you get the best package on broadband, TV and phones can be well worth it, writes Mark Channing.
Dubliner Tony Burtenshaw, 46, believes his family saves a bundle with a bundle. They used to pay €80 a month fora package of broadband, television and landline services from UPC Ireland, now known as Virgin Media. Now they have added mobile phones to the mix, becoming one of Virgin's first quad-play customers.
The upgrade brought their bill to €110 a month- an extra C30 - for which Burtenshaw and his wife, Marita, each get 250 minutes of calls, 250 texts and 1GB of data.
Burtenshaw likes the convenience of the quad-play bundle, which Virgin opened to all of its Irish customers last week. “It keeps it simple,” he said. “I am paying less and I have one less bill to worry about, and one less login to remember.”
Burtenshaw previously paid €40 a month on a plan that included the cost of a phone. Virgin's Sim-only deal suited himbecausehewasoutofcon tract, and was happy with his existing handset. “I don't see the point of chasing shiny new phones all the time. My current handset does everything I need it to do,” he said.
Convincing existing customers such as Burtenshaw to add mobile to their existing broadband, TV and landline bundles will be a key pillar of Virgin's strategy to secure a bigger slice of Ireland's fast-growing communications market.
Virgin aims to get a toe hold in the quad-play market which up to now has had a single provider - Eir, the new incarnation of Eircom. One in four households subscribes to triple- or quad-play deals, according to telecommunications regulator ComReg., more than double the level of two years ago.
Pros and Cons
Tying yourself to a single provider can save money but limits your freedom to switch.
Simon Moynihan of price comparison site Bonkers.ie said: “The benefit of a bundle is the single bill. If you want all of the services in a bundle, having a single point of contact and a single bill is useful because it cuts down on admin."
Experts warn that, the more services you buy from a single supplier, the less likely you are to switch. Changing one element in a bundle may lock you into a new contract, tying you to the provider for another 18-24 months, even for the services you have not changed.
Virgin launched two mobile plans last week, which existing customers can add onto their bundles. One gives unlimited calls, texts and data for €25 a month, with no charge for the first three months; the other gives 250 minutes of calls, 250 texts and 1GB of data for €15 a month.
The plans are offered on 30-day rolling contracts and are “Sim-only", so you need a network-unlocked handset to use the service.
Virgin has bucked the trend of keeping the best deals for new customers: they pay €5 more a month than existing customers, with no free period.
Existing customers who add mobile to their packages will lock themselves into a new 12-month contract for all components of their plans. They can subsequently drop the mobile service, though, without having to restart the contract.
Eir offers a range of quad play deals Sim-only and 24-month plans where you get a subsidised handset. Its entry-level includes a Sim-only mobile plan with 100 minutes, unlimited texts and 1GB of data a month bundled with home phone, TV and broadband.
Existing customers get the entry level plan free for the first six months. As with Virgin, Eir customers can drop the Sim-only mobile without restarting their contracts.
In terms of price, Eir has the edge.
Its Power Small quad-play bundle, which includes the entry-level mobile plan, costs €82 per month com pared with €95 a month for new customers at Virgin, according to a comparison by Bonkers.
Price should not be the only consideration, however.
Virgin gives more mobile minutes and texts, although its 3G network is slower than Eir's 4G alternative. When it comes to broadband, the situation is reversed.
At 240MB/s Virgin's fibre broadband is faster than Eir, which has standard speed of 100MB/s. However experts say this won't make a difference for most consumers.
Another factor to consider is that Eir requires an 18-month contract compared with 12 months for Virgin.
The choice of TV channels also differs along with other extra features such as On Demand services.
Is stand-alone mobile cheaper?
Despite the convenience of bundling, it's cheaper to buy your mobile phone service separately.
Bart Lehane, founder of KillBiller, a smartphone app that helps pick the best plan based on usage, said: “The quad-play mobile add-ons are competitive, but you can do better by buying a separate mobile plan."
Lehane's pick of mobile plans is a pre-pay offering from Tesco Mobile. It gives unlimited calls to all mobiles and landlines for a €15 top-up. The deal allows you to keep the €15 credit to spend on add-ons so you can buy unlimited texts or 5GB of data for €10 each.
Triple Play Deals
For triple play - broadband, TV and landline Eir has the lowest standard tariff. Eir's Play Small package, which costs €25 a month for the first four months and €77 a month there after on an 18-month contract.
This compares with Sky's Original Bundle & Fibre Unlimited & Talk Freetime. It costs €60 a month for the first six months and €79 a month there after on a 12-month contract for unlimited 100MB's fibre broadband, off-peak calls to Irish landlines, more than 50 TV channels, 300 box sets and On Demand TV.
Virgin's Anytime World plan costs €70 a month, with 240MB's broadband, on a 12-month contract.
Ditching bundled TV altogether and consuming content online is another hot trend, as shown by the rise of online streaming services such as Netflix. A basic subscription to Netflix costs €7.99 a month with the first month free. This leaves you just needing a fast broadband connection to view content online.
So-called “cord cutters", who only watch TV online, would need at least a 50MB/s broad band connection. Pure Telecom currently have the best value deal. Both cost €36 a month for unlimited 100MB's fibre broadband on an 18-month contract.
Next generation broadband
Eir and Virgin are expanding their networks, with the next generation broadband services delivering speeds of up to 1000MB/s.
Siro, a joint venture between Vodafone and ESB, plans to bring faster broad band to 50 towns. It is currently live in Dundalk, Carrigaline and Sligo with Letterkenny, Tralee and Cavan to follow by December.
Eir launched 1,000MB's fibre broadband last month. Currently available to 23,000 homes and businesses, it costs €87a month in a bundle. Experts, however, have questioned the need for households to have such fast broadband. “It will be a bit like having a Ferrari,” said Moynihan. “You know it can reach 220mph but you are never going to need to use it."


text:
The dream of charging insurance based on the mile has been a reality for a while. The thinking behind this is that the more miles you drive, the more chance there is that you will be involved in a collision and have to pay for things like part … [Read more...]
Hardware doesn’t have to matter as much as you think
In an era of smart homes, connected cars and subscription everything, how do you think about hardware? In my very first newsletter, I argued that hardware was just a Trojan Horse that would deliver a company's service to consumers, and it's becoming … [Read more...]
Internet of Things News of the Week, July 14, 2017
Voice startup gets $11 million: Jstar, the company behind Josh.ai, got $11 million to build a higher-end connected home hub that has voice as its primary user interface. The system, which is sold through dealers, isn't exactly flying off the shelves … [Read more...]
What is the right metric for carsharing?
The idea of sharing a car has become a reality thanks to connectivity, cheap sensors, and platforms to foster trust. A highly influential and tested stat notes that private cars sit idle 95% of the time. It makes sense to figure out a way to … [Read more...]


text:
Sony Electronics introduced its Bravia brand, short for "Best Resolution Audio Video Integrated Architecture," a new sub-brand for its line of high-definition (HD) LCD TVs.
According to the company, Sony HD flat-panel LCD TVs in North America will carry the Bravia logo. The first models to carry this new sub-brand will be five LCD TVs ranging in screen sizes from 26 to 40 inches.
"I'm confident that Bravia will become as important and recognized as Sony's Trinitron brand," said Dick Komiyama, president and chief operating officer for Sony Electronics. "Consumers look to Sony for leadership in television and Bravia signals a completely new tradition -- it is the culmination of 36 years of innovation and expertise in TV."
With the launch of the new sub-brand, Sony is commencing a comprehensive advertising/promotion campaign that reinforces Sony's HDTV leadership and advanced technology. Additionally, Sony recently launched the www.sony.com/HDTV Web site that aims to educate consumers about HD technology.
Back to Breaking News