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GST rate to lower prices of most products, boost consumption: Experts decode the big move
As the council takes up branded products today, experts say it would be better to have a uniform rate on a particular product, irrespective of it being branded or unbranded
Making further progress on rolling out the Goods and Services Tax (GST) by 1 July, the GST Council on Thursday decided the tax rates for 1,211 items, a majority kept at 18 percent, though the rates on gold and beedi remained undecided.
The development is significant given this has been much awaited and has a bearing on inflation. Experts have hailed the rate fitment decision taken but have also raised a few concerns.
Here is how they decode the decision:
Saugata Gupta, MD and CEO, Marico Ltd
We understand that the GST rate structure is extremely positive, encouraging and augurs well for the industry. It is anti-inflationary in nature and will help drive consumption as well as long-term economic growth.
Harishanker Subramaniam, National Leader, Indirect Tax, EY India
The fact that GST Council has agreed on rates on 1200 plus goods except a few categories like gold, branded goods etc is very positive. Also the news that coal, edible oil, coffee, tea will be at 5% is a good news, though I expect some carve out from this at a higher rate in some categories. Mass consumption goods like hair oil, soaps, toothpaste at 18 percent is also welcome news as the rates will come down and drive consumption. Capital goods at 18 percent is another welcome move, a good impetus for capex spending. What we need to watch out for is the fact that 19 percent of goods will be in 28 percent category, which is a significant number goods. Services will be debated tomorrow which again could be 3 rate structure. Some key rules like transition is also expected to be finalised tomorrow and this will have a bearing on now stocking/ de-stocking will behave in the coming weeks. All in all positive developments and another key step in the direction of July implementation.
Pratik Jain, Partner and Leader – Indirect Tax, PwC
It seems that GST council has cleared all Rules which have also been put up in public domain now. One will have to see to what extent the concerns of the industry have been addressed as several representations were made on the draft rules, specifically on those relating to transition and E permits for transportation of goods.
On rates, categorisation of several consumer products like soaps, tooth paste and hair oil under 18% is good news and should see price drop for consumers. Similarly, several food items such as edible oil, tea, coffee sugar etc have been kept at 5%, with exemption for milk and food grains, which would also bring cheers for industry.
The only concern is that 19% items (over 200) would be kept under 28%, which was initially meant for only few commodities such as luxury cars, aerated beverages etc. One would hope that Government would continue to make efforts to bring the rates down on most of these products as we go along. Further, it seems that for branded and packaged food items, rate has not yet been decided. From a policy standpoint, it would be better to have a uniform rate on a particular product, irrespective of it being branded or unbranded.
Sarika Goel, Tax Partner, EY India
While the GST Council debated GST rates for vehicles, no consensus was reached on the same during today’s meeting. While the taxation of luxury vehicles is widely being expected at 28 percent plus a cess of 15 percent, what is interesting to note, that as per the media reports, the Council seems to be considering levy of a cess even on small cars in addition to GST at 28 percent, albeit at a much lower rate compared to luxury vehicles. Definition of what would classify as small cars and luxury cars respectively is also awaited – it appears likely that the same would be based on engine capacity, length etc rather than the retail price. The FM, during the press conference post today’s meeting, mentioned industrial intermediates being taxed at 18% GST; however, it is not yet clear whether auto components would fall under this category.
V.S Datey, Senior Consultant, Taxmann.com
The rates announced are along the expected lines. As government had already stated that they will not disturb the existing tax structure & they have kept their words, however it seems a lot of work is yet to be done, exemptions & issues related to reverse charge mechanism have not been finalised & looks doubtful it will be done in a day, thus the chances of introducing GST by 1st July appears doubtful.
Bipin Sapra, Tax Partner, EY India
The broad rate structure of GST has become clear with very few items being exempted, most of them being in the 18% category and a large chunk under the 28% category. Accordingly, while food stuff and unprocessed basic items like tea, coffee and edible oil may become cheaper, a large number of items which will be under 28% bracket would become costlier.
Harpreet Singh, Partner - Indirect Tax, KPMG in India
Finalization of the tax rates on most products by GST Council and its release in public domain is a welcome move. Companies would now quickly want to compute/ re-compute the impact of rate change, if any, on their products and consequential change in their related margins. For appropriate GST preparedness, the need of the hour is to do a comparison of the effective tax rate today (consisting of central taxes like excise and state taxes such as entry tax, vat etc.) with the prospective GST rate to compute the difference and then take a considered call on the pricing strategy”
Suresh Nair, Tax Partner, EY India
The GST Council has done a commendable job to have the rate fitment for 81 percent of the commodities within and up to the 18 percent GST rate slab. This would definitely boost positive sentiments around GST. Outcome of tomorrow's session will be critical for nailing down on the GST Go Live date.
Archit Gupta, Founder and CEO ClearTax.com
The GST Council, after its last meeting, had shared rules around composition scheme, valuation principal, and input tax credit to name a few. In all, nine GST rules were issued in and were open for public commentary. After receiving suggestions from trade bodies, professional bodies, and large enterprises, these rules have now finally been approved by the Council in their current meeting in Srinagar. Most of these rules have been borrowed from the current tax laws such as VAT and Services Tax and revised to integrate with Goods and Services Tax. The primary intention of these rules is to avoid any type of business disruption due to a change in tax regime and a smooth transition for the business community with minimal change management. These nine rules address some of the most critical issues under GST, such as the Valuation of Supply. One such rule says that 110 percent of the cost of manufacturing or cost of provision of goods or services shall be considered for the purpose of the valuation and Goods and Services Tax will be charged accordingly on such amount.
Find latest and upcoming tech gadgets online on Tech2 Gadgets. Get technology news, gadgets reviews & ratings. Popular gadgets including laptop, tablet and mobile specifications, features, prices, comparison.
Addressing the valedictory function of the second National Youth Parliament Festival, Modi urged youths to join politics, saying the 'poison of dynastic politics' will continue to weaken democracy unless they join the fray
Banerjee refused to speak at an event on Saturday attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to observe Subhas Chandra Bose's 125th birth anniversary after being greeted by chants of 'Jai Shri Ram'
Addressing meetings in Tamil Nadu's Tirupur and Erode, Rahul also accused the BJP of trying to impose one culture and one language on people and relegate Tamil to a 'second class place'


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Changes to the iOS version of Pokemon GO finally show what South Africans can expect to pay for in-app purchases, reports htxt.
Of course all of these purchases are optional and if you are anything like us, you haven’t put any money into the game despite playing it non-stop for the last two weeks.
Browsing the iOS version of the game, players should immediately notice from the screenshot below what has been added/changed. That’s right – the PokeCoins’ prices are all displayed in South African Rands.
For those who installed Pokemon GO using their US iTunes accounts, these prices used to be displayed in dollar. On Android, prices have been listed in South African rand since the APK first became available on APKMirror.
Perhaps what’s most exciting is that these changes could be indicative of a local launch sometime in the near future.
With the release of the Pokemon GO Plus accessory on 29 July, it wouldn’t be too far-fetched to expect a local release in the next week or so.

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Precision Eye Care in Mt. Juliet has announced a recall of their eclipse glasses.
They posted on social media about the "Vision Source" eclipse glasses.
Anyone who purchased this brand of glasses from their office has been asked to please return them for a full refund and a free replacement from American Paper Optics.
Only the "Vision Source" branded glasses were affected.


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Royal Enfield has filed a new patent, Shotgun, at the Indian Intellectual Property Office. The new patent has been filed under the Nice Class 12, which means it will be a motorised vehicle. We suspect Royal Enfield could be planning to bring a new iteration based on either the new J1D Platform or the Royal Enfield Twin platform. But as of now, nothing can be ascertained.
Royal Enfield’s Plans for the Future
The brand in the recent past revealed that it would be introducing one new motorcycle every quarter in the next few years. Royal Enfield also filed patents for the Hunter, Flying Flea, Roadster, Sherpa, which leads us to believe that multiple iterations of the 350cc or the 650cc are in order. The brand also revealed in the past that it would be spending large amounts of money to gain new capabilities and expand in both Indian and international markets.
Royal Enfield Shotgun
While details of the motorcycle are unknown, we speculate that the Shotgun could be based on the Meteor 350 engine and Platform. The brand could be planning a low-stance cruiser motorcycle. The design could be a relaxed, feet-forward riding stance, similar to the Royal Enfield Cruiser 650. The engine is also likely to be the same J-series 350cc single-cylinder air-cooled motor that powers the Meteor 350. The engine comes with a chain-driven valve distribution system and oil cooling channels engineered into the head. The motor produces 20.2 Bhp of power and 27 Nm of torque on the Meteor 350.
Royal Enfield Hunter 350
The brand is currently testing a new motorcycle in India. The roadster is likely to launch with the Hunter moniker and feature classic naked styling. The test mule of the bike appears to feature a rounded headlamp and an almond-shaped fuel tank. The motorcycle also gets an upswept exhaust pipe. Features include a single bench seat, a wide handlebar, telescopic forks with rubber boots, alloy wheels etc. The Hunter is likely to come with a Tripper navigation system, single-pod instruments and LED taillamps.


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iGaming has long been dubious about outsourcing its most sensitive player data to third parties, thus far missing out on the cloud computing revolution. Industry innovators tell Betting Business why it’s high time operators took the plunge.
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he iGaming industry is not often accused of being slow on the uptake. While other sectors nervously adopt a wait-and-see strategy, online gaming firms play both guinea pig and lab technician, experimenting with digital currencies and online security, and all the regulatory innovations needed to make them work.
This has not been so for cloud computing. For a 24/7 real-time industry, subsumed in player data, online gaming could benefit more than most from outsourcing computer capacity and analytics to third parties. Since its boom around 2010, other sectors have moulded their operations around the advantages of cloud technology, making huge savings and innovations in the process, yet until now online gaming has been uncharacteristically skeptical.
“The betting industry has always been inherently data driven but, with social and mobile activity growing in dominance, success largely lies in being able to crunch big data at real-time speeds,” says Dave Shuman, consumer products and retail at Cloudera – an innovative cloud computing firm that recently signed up SkyBet to its services.
“But to deliver quantitative value and gain a competitive advantage they need to be able to decipher that data and quickly put its insights to work.”
More than most, iGaming companies would benefit from flexible and scalable IT solutions, “largely because of the speed and volume of data they need to process and interpret each day,” Shuman adds. Cloud infrastructure caters for both: betting companies can ‘provision and deprovision’ services on demand, and scale up and scale down when it suits.
The betting industry has always been inherently data driven but, with social and mobile activity growing in dominance, success largely lies in being able to crunch big data at real-time speeds
SkyBet, for example, offloads its transactional data into Cloudera’s Enterprise platform, which is then shared with ‘downstream management systems’ that saves it time, space and manpower. Cloudera’s platform also ‘ingests’ SkyBet’s behavioural data, such as web analytics, and third-party data sets like market pricing, to improve machine learning and produce richer data.
But according to Shuman, strict industry regulations have thus far restricted companies in the betting and gaming industries from exploring cloud computing. “These restrictions mean sensitivity is heightened around any new data storage-related IT solution,” he adds, “and companies need the assurance that the solution, particularly cloud, offers a level of security that helps them uphold their data management compliance.”
With so much money at stake, a little trust can go a long way. For Vasilije Skoro, head of product at betting tech innovator, BtoBet, concerns about security should be outmoded by now, and far outweighed by the benefits.
“There is a common misconception that when iGaming and betting companies choose a cloud system, they are sacrificing their firm’s security,” says Skoro. “On the contrary, however, apart from being cheaper to operate, Cloud servers offer a higher level of security compared to their physical counterparts. When using a cloud server, the iGaming business won’t have to worry that its data is going to get mixed up as every operator is installed on its own independent frame.”
Indeed Skoro sees cloud computing as imperative for online gaming firms going forward. As technology will continue to rapidly change both the markets and their consumers, operators must have the freedom to evolve their approach just as fast. He gives the example of sites adding sportsbooks or land-based operators moving online. For Skoro, it’s do or die.
“With its scalability and flexibility, a Cloud operating system facilitates these choices with great efficiency,” he presses. “This way, companies can focus more on the important things; such as getting to know their players and actually running their businesses.”


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Imports of polypropylene, propylene copolymers and polyisobutylene into the geographic region of Eastern Europe increased from 3.3 million tons in 2015 to 4.3 million tons projected for 2021.
Western Europe supplied 54% of the total in 2015 and is projected to supply 50%, a volume of 2.1 million tons, in 2021. Imports from the Middle East were 27% of the total in both 2015 and 2021, the volume in 2021 projected at 1.2 million tons. Imports from Asia-Pacific rose from 12% of the 2015 total to 16% projected for 2021, to 673,000 tons.
Grupa Azoty’s Polimery Police complex was 71.55% complete by August 27th, 2021 according to company reports. The complex will bring on stream 437,000 tons of polypropylene and is expected to significantly impact imports into the region.
From International Trader Publication’s World Trade Analyses of PP homopolymer, copolymers and PIB, and ITP’s new Archive of trade history.


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by Tyler Royle
Two Machias men have banded together to bring a new kind of shop to Main Street. Aaron Ackley and Brendon Sohre opened the doors on Bad Little Boards earlier this year, building on their shared love of skateboarding. Ackley has been working with skateboards for the last twenty years and is responsible for building and fixing skateboards. Sohre runs the merchandising side of the company by selling different types of branding, from clothes to gemstones.


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There was a time when practically any automaker could earn a few brownie points by proclaiming that they too would be transitioning toward becoming an electric-only manufacturer by [insert year here]. But times have changed and EVs have been around long enough for consumers to expect more than a promise that there would someday be more of them. There’s also a sense that regulations (stemming largely from Europe and China) are forcing the issue to a point where practically all automakers will eventually have to totally seize electrification or be forced to hand over vast amounts of money to governments or their chief rivals as a way to “offset” carbon emissions — making corporate promises far less impressive than they otherwise could have been.
Volvo, which was at the forefront of novel combustion powertrain solutions a few years ago, has since committed itself toward wholly embracing electrification under the tutelage of Geely Automotive. The Swedish-Chinese brand has made repeated announcements suggesting just how important EVs are for its future. On Tuesday, the company announced that it had officially committed itself to going fully electric by 2030 and showcased a new model while also vowing to make future sales online only.
Making good on its promise that the future will be electric, Volvo has readied the XC40 Recharge P8 compact crossover for a spring debut. Though it doesn’t seem to have secured an idyllic price tag. The electrified XC40 starts at $54,985, including a $995 destination fee, which makes it around $20,000 dearer than the gasoline model. That’s a lot of dough for such a small vehicle, even after federal (and potentially state) tax incentives shave a few thousand off the top. Surely customers will be getting a top-shelf automobile on par with the Tesla Model 3 Performance, if not better, to help that MSRP make some sense. But the math just isn’t working out in Volvo’s favor based on the specs given. Model 3 destroys it in every metric that isn’t headroom because it is not a crossover.
While the XC40 Recharge comes in below its larger European counterparts on price, and often by a fairly narrow margin, its maximum range is an EPA-estimated 208 miles. That places it within striking distance of the bigger electrics manufactured by Audi or Jaguar. But Tesla will happily sell customers a Model Y boasting 326 miles of range for about $10,000 less than the XC40. The only downside is that the American brand’s sales success has already exhausted its allotted federal tax credits, meaning you’ll get more money from the government if you buy something Swedish-Chinese.
Volvo Cars’ new electric crossover has a name, and it just happens to be something people hate doing. The XC40 is the brand’s new EV, crafted out of the compact XC40 crossover and helped in its mission by the model’s versatile modular platform. To make it work, Volvo first carried out some alterations. See details here.
“Recharge” isn’t just the name applied to the brand’s new EV — it’s a new sub-brand under which all upcoming EVs and plug-in hybrids will reside. An invitation to confusion or buried psychological disdain? Possibly.
Volvo, the brand TTAC commenters can’t get enough of (when they’re not talking Infiniti), will soon enter a fledgling segment no automaker seems capable of steering clear of: electric vehicles.
The new model, due for an October unveiling, won’t be an unfamiliar, futuristic blob that leaves viewers feeling cold and scared. Like many of its rivals, Volvo has opted to fully electrify an existing model. And what model has a longer-term viability than a compact crossover?
Lynk & Co, the Geely-owned sister brand to Volvo, is rounding out its product lineup with the announcement of a new sport utility vehicle. For clarification, it’s not really an SUV, as Lynk only builds car-based crossovers — and it’s also not entirely new, because it appears to be a squished-down version of the existing 01, itself based on the Volvo XC40. But this recipe may still have produced something novel for the fledgling automaker.
Based on claims from the manufacturer, what we have here is a shortened, lowered, and girthed-up sporting version of its existing crossover. Called the “02,” it’s an even more wagon-like CUV (that stops short of being a full-blown car). This makes sense, as the brand is already planning an “03” sedan. Spy shots of the sedan prototype reveals it more or less resembles an 01 “SUV” with a lowered ride height and different roof.
In fact, all of these vehicles look so similar that it almost feels like Lynk & Co is trying to pull a fast one on us. However, a critical eye reveals subtle styling cues that differentiate the models, even if it’s only slightly.
When the majority of the buying public thinks of Volvo, three things generally come to mind: safety, boxy wagons, and professors in tweed sport coats with those weird elbow patches. This is understandable, given that the company made hay selling safe and boxy wagons to professors in tweed sport coats with weird elbow patches.
Volvo has long since de-weirded itself but still marches to a slightly different Swedish beat. It’s currently under the stewardship of a Chinese company that gives the brand enough leash to generally do its own thing. Starting at $35,200, the automaker’s least-expensive car, the XC40, should help bring new buyers to the brand. Let’s see how it stacks up in base form.
Fresh-faced automotive brand Lynk & CO began selling its first vehicle in China about two months ago. But it has bigger aspirations than procuring a place in Asia’s largest market — it wants to achieve global domination through westerly expansion and is now preparing to take its first steps.
While the goal seems unrealistic for a fledgeling automaker producing only one model, the brand has friends in high places. Volvo Cars, which is also owned by Geely Automotive, may be tapped to assist Lynk in Europe by offering its factory in Belgium and opening up its servicing infrastructure. If so, that would set a precedent for a Volvo-based support network that could eventually extend to North America.
Though its debut will lag that of Chevrolet’s Bolt and the Tesla Model 3, Volvo’s first entry into the world of all-electric vehicles looks to be right on par with the current generation’s maximum range and requisite financial investment. Starting between $35,000 and $40,000 when it debuts in 2019, the Swedish EV should be capable of at least 250 miles between charges.
Away from the main stage of the Geneva International Motor Show, CEO of Volvo America Lex Kerssemakers indicated to journalists that the standards set by the Bolt would be the benchmark. “That’s what I put in as the prerequisite for the United States,” Kerssemakers said. “If I want to make a point in the United States, if I want to make volumes, that’s what I believe I need.”
Automotive News Europe reported that Volvo will offer a new compact crossover, based on a new architecture, in 2018 that will likely be called the XC40.
The crossover will be built in Ghent, Belgium and possibly in China, using the same platform being developed for compact cars in Europe.
The crossover will get Volvo power plants that include a hybrid variant. It would also likely get some sort of semi-autonomous driving feature as the Swedish automaker further develops its technology.
Volvo will bring its smaller, compact-sized V40 wagon, its related crossover and long-wheelbase, Chinese-built S60 sedan to America, Autoblog is reporting.
The newest generation of the Volkswagen Golf-sized V40 wagon is being built with the U.S. in mind, Volvo senior vice president Alan Visser told media in the Netherlands. The earliest it could reach the United States would be 2017.
Visser also said the XC40, a compact crossover based on the V40 Cross Country, would make its way to the States shortly after the V40.
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- Bloke Wow, this should make a big difference, to those catalytic converter thieves who don't have tools like 'angle grinders' with them.
- Carlson Fan The way the truck drops in the rear and the bed/tailgate become a ramp is genius! I'd buy it just for that alone!!! It would be awesome for loading snowmobiles and garden tractors in the back. However, my trucks need to be able to regularly tow heavy loads long distance, summer & winter. Sorry folks, current battery tech. isn't even close to what it needs to be for me to think even one second that a battery truck could replace my current ICE powered truck. An EV for a DD makes sense , but for truck you need a MUCH better battery.
- Inside Looking Out For midsize sedan it is too small. It basically is a compact car.
- Stodge I test drove the 200S and damn, its suspension was so firm, I was convinced it didn't actually include suspension at all. It hurt my spine and hip, it was that firm.
- MRF 95 T-Bird If Mopar had only offered sport hatch versions of the 200 and or Dart they might have sold more of them for folks who wanted some more versatility without having to go for a small utility Compass Patriot or new at the time Renegade or Cherokee.


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Today we speak to an industry veteran with close to two decades of raw delivery management experience. Liam O’Sullivan has earned matchless following and adulation in his career. He is the Director of Operations at International Post Corporation (IPC), Brussels, Belgium.
We are now well past the 1st April enforcement date for electronic logging device (ELD) implementation. Now if your trucks are stopped for a roadside inspection, how do you prepare to get through that without any violations? Here’s what you need to know to be violation free.
With technology, innovation is always around the corner. Some more than others. We have all seen the hikes in interest and following for tech innovations to have them fizzle out. We are at the start of such an upswing. Take a step further back, and you will get to the topic, Blockchain.
The World Bank has said logistical costs swallow up around a quarter of Indonesia’s gross domestic product, citing bottlenecks in supply chains, long dwelling times in ports and lengthy trade clearances. Indonesia’s e-commerce sales are set to rise from 3 percent of retail activity now to 19 percent by 2027, Morgan Stanley estimates.
We have seen the Walmart acquiring Jet, Bonobos, Modcloth, and Shoebuy while planning to set up around 1000 pickup locations for online grocery shoppers. Racing Walmart to the front is Amazon with its grand acquisition of Wholefoods to enable faster deliveries with multiple pickup options.
Traditional trade occupies close to 90% in key developing markets. By leveraging cloud-based technology, last mile delivery can be optimized for such distribution networks, bringing in organized patterns within the industry and generate more value for all the stakeholders involved namely the retailers, the distributors, the manufacturers, and the end-customers.
Polar Vortex can disrupt logistics movement pushing up freight rates due to a shortage of trucks and drivers. Shipments may be delayed either due to rerouting away from snow-blocked highways or, being detained due to traffic bottlenecks. Multi-modal transport via railroads and ports are also affected.
We saw last mile delivery being used as the key input in all omnichannel strategies. We saw localization in distribution strategies centered around making last mile delivery more effective. We also saw machine learning being implemented successfully in logistics and field workforce planning. These trends would be the greatest influencers in 2018 for logistics and field workforce management.
Amazon opened its first brick and mortar retail store in Seattle, Washington, United States. The novelty of this store is that customers can just pick up whatever they want and just walk out of the store. Amazon would just charge the price of the items taken to their Amazon account. They call it the ‘Just Walk Out’ technology. Would it become a game-changer or disruptor in retail?
The U.S. government shut down at midnight on Friday, 19th January, 2018, after Democrats and Republicans, locked in a bitter dispute over immigration and border security, failed to agree on a last-minute deal to fund its operations. Democratic leaders wanted to include protections from deportation for about 700,000 undocumented immigrants who arrived in the United States as children.


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Global Kids Fashion Week will showcase some of the best trends in fashion for the under 12s this spring thanks to organiser, children's retailer AlexandAlexa.
Global Kids Fashion Week kicks off in London on March 19.
The very first two-day showcase of junior fashion - organised by children's retailer alexandalexa.com - will feature two catwalk shows including a press-only event for the autumn/winter 2013-14 trends from labels like Paul Smith Junior and Little Marc Jacobs, and a show for the public featuring spring/summer 2013 looks from AlexandAlexa's portfolio of brands.
Alex Theophanous, founder and CEO of alexandalexa.com, said in a statement: ''Kids' fashion is playful, fun and innovative - we all believe it deserves its own dedicated platform.
''This is why we are so proud to be supporting the very first Global Kids' Fashion Week. With this event, we aim to put children's fashion on the map worldwide.''
The event will showcase lesser-known names like Rachel Riley and Munster Kid alongside established brands like Junior Gaultier and Tommy Hilfiger.
Fun activities for children and their parents, in collaboration with the Victoria and Albert Museum of Childhood, will be available to help celebrate the evolution of childrenswear over the last five years.
Angelina Jolie has been appointed as a visiting professor at the London School of Economics...
Sony and Universal are apparently both desperate to keep/take on Harry Styles.
Former child actor and Lord of the Rings star Elijah Wood has claimed that Hollywood has an extensive...
Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton brought their love to the Billboard Music Awards on Sunday...
The album is the first in history to chart without selling a single copy.


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Several PlayStation 3 games have been reportedly spotted on the PlayStation 5 PSN service causing speculation that the system could be seeing further backward compatibility than just the PlayStation 4 games the system can currently run. This news shortly follows that of a patent filed by Sony, listing PS5 lead designer Mark Cerny, that further suggests that the system will be getting more backward compatibility.
Being reported by VGC, the PS3 Team Ninja fighting game Dead or Alive 5 was recently spotted on the store being listed at £7.99 instead of directing players to the PlayStation Now service as it had previously done. Other users have also seen noted similar listings for the PS3 Bejewelled, as well as Prince of Persia, games The Forgotten Sands and The Two Thrones, each having their own listing price.
At the time of reporting this, the listing is no longer up, with this listing potentially a mistake on the part of Sony. However, there is reason to suspect that something more is going on here.
Uhhh. Not to panic anyone, but a PS3 game shouldn't have a price when viewed on a PS5.
— Jordan Middler (@JordanMiddler) January 16, 2022
In that patent filed by Cerny, it was stated they could achieve “backward compatibility through the use of spoof clock and fine grain frequency control.” Rumors and speculation among fans are that Sony has finally solved the compatibility issues with PlayStation 3 titles, something that was an issue for the company when moving into the PlayStation 4.
On top of this, there are rumors suggesting that PlayStation is working on a competitor to Xbox’s Game Pass. While not a one-to-one competitor, with day one, releases not something Sony plans to do according to this, it would replace the PlayStation Now service and be included with a monthly subscription on PlayStations Online service. According to rumors, the service will have 3 tiers with the highest gain access to a list of older games from across all generations of PlayStation Consoles.
If this is to believe, it is possible that Sony plans to integrate PlayStation 3 games into PSN alongside this service, codenamed Sparticus. Only time will tell if all of this is connected in some way, but it should be interesting to see what Sony has in store for the future.


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South Korean tech corporate Samsung has added complete toughen for bitcoin via its Blockchain Keystore software.
The most important company within the nation, Samsung has been making piecemeal strikes within the blockchain and crypto industries during the last yr. In February 2019, the corporate introduced that its latest telephone, the Samsung Galaxy S10, would come with baked-in cryptocurrency pockets toughen for customers to retailer their personal keys. With its best actual competition within the crypto-enabled smartphone industry being a lot smaller firms, this drew a good deal of fanfare from the crypto group.
When this telephone first hit the marketplace, on the other hand, the wind used to be just a little deflated from the crypto international’s sails as some restrictions changed into obvious. At release, it best supported Ethereum and a handful of tokens constructed on its infrastructure. This supposed that CryptoKitties and the gaming-focused enjin token have been totally supported, however there used to be no love for bitcoin itself.
A number of months later, Samsung started making public plans for its blockchain and cryptocurrency tool construction package (SDK). Despite the fact that it claimed that a much broader free up for the Blockchain Keystore SDK would no longer happen till the tip of 2019, customers have been nonetheless ready to use for a pilot program, which once more integrated wallets just like the baked-in wallets on Samsung Galaxy telephones.
On August 13, 2019, Samsung published its long run toughen for Bitcoin capability. At the developer web page for early-access customers of the Keystore, a desk detailing supported cryptocurrencies used to be surreptitiously modified to reference toughen for the Bitcoin and Klaytn blockchains, together with the present toughen for Ethereum. This toughen is proscribed to the Galaxy S10e, S10, S10+, S10 5G, Be aware10 and the Be aware10+, and it’s only to be had to Samsung customers in Canada, Germany, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, the U.S. and the U.Ok.
Despite the fact that this addition of Bitcoin toughen turns out reasonably tepid in this day and age, it’s value preserving in thoughts that every one of those plans are nonetheless within the beta degree. Then again, with Samsung making an investment thousands and thousands into offsite pockets builders in April 2019, it kind of feels transparent that there are concrete steps in movement to imbue Samsung merchandise with better blockchain and cryptocurrency toughen.
The put up Samsung Provides Bitcoin Make stronger to Smartphone Pockets Utility gave the impression first on Bitcoin Mag.


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Phil Spencer explains why Xbox one heavy-hitters Scalebound, Crackdown 3 and Quantum Break have yet to be confirmed for Windows PCs
In recent years Microsoft has largely been absent from the PC gaming arena, choosing instead to focus t heir efforts on the Xbox brand. However, with the release of Windows 10 it seems this trend is likely to change.
In a recent interview with PC Gamer at Gamescom’s Xbox Conference, Xbox boss Phil Spencer elaborated on why the upcoming Xbox One releases Scalebound, Crackdown 3 and Quantum Break haven’t been scheduled to release for Windows PCs.
“In the case of things like Scalebound or Crackdown or Quantum Break, you know, just to be completely honest with you, we started those games before we really looked at expanding into Windows in the way that I wanted to bring as part of becoming head of Xbox.”
While Spencer stopped short of saying these games will eventually be released on PC, he didn’t rule out the chance of it happening sometime down the road.
“Going to those teams mid-cycle and saying: ‘Hey, by the way, I want to add a platform,’ didn’t really feel like necessarily the best way to end up with the best result for the game. They had a path that they were on. It’s not to say those games could never come to Windows, but right now we’re on the path to finish the great games that they’ve started, and I want that to be the case.”
He went on to compare these games to the recently announced Halo Wars 2, which was recently announced for both the Xbox One and PC saying, “These games are on a path, whereas with, like, Halo Wars 2 I had the opportunity from the beginning, when we’re sitting down with the studio, to say, ‘Here’s the target. Here’s what we wanna go do.’”
This is far from a confirmation that we’ll see these titles make their way to PCs, but it definitely seems like Microsoft is showing a renewed interest in bringing more titles to the PC market.
Here’s hoping whatever they choose to do with Windows 10 fares better than Games For Windows Live.


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AN AUSTRALIAN first study has revealed free range chickens spend more time outside when there are fewer hens per hectare...
30th June 2016 5:06 AM
RSPCA inspector says the Port Curtis pig shot by arrows five times could not be classified as a humane killing.
08th June 2016 12:06 PM
This coop takes up minimal space and can house more than enough birds to ensure you'll have plenty of eggs
29th May 2016 6:05 AM
THE neighbours will not be happy, but the Kybong free range poultry and pig plan comes back to Gympie Regional Council in...
04th May 2016 6:05 AM
KATE O’Neill profile of organic free range egg producers at Nashua.
03rd April 2016 4:04 AM
PORK producers misusing the “free range” label on their products have admitted to the problem and promised not to do it...
03rd Sept. 2015 7:09 PM


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2016 was a big year for VR with the release of the Sony Playstation VR, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and more filling consumers Christmas wish lists for Santa. While the quality of games has been a bit polarising, I can see it gaining more consistency next year as developers gain more experience in the field and issues are ironed out. Financially it will be interesting to see how VR progresses as many indie devs have mentioned how difficult it is to make money from VR games at the moment during a time where the market is so young and lots of gamers don’t own a VR device yet.
Price is one thing that has restricted a lot of consumers from purchasing a VR device as headsets like the HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and Playstation VR are quite expensive. Luckily there has been cheaper headsets like the Google Cardboard VR, Google Daydream VR and the Samsung Gear VR to fill that entry level pocket. The big brands are aware of this and are working on ways to bring the costs down.
0:00 – Arktika.1 [ Oculus Rift / Touch ]
1:00 – Lone Echo [Oculus Rift / Touch]
2:16 – Robo Recall [ Oculus Rift / Touch ]
3:38 – Farpoint [ Playstation VR ]
5:36 – Golem [ PS VR ]
7:03 – Robinson: The Journey [ PS VR ]
8:59 – Loading Human [ Oculus Rift / PlayStation VR / HTC Vive ]
10:50 – Resident Evil 7: Biohazard [ PS VR ]
14:03 – ESSENCE [ HTC Vive ]
17:17 – How We Soar [ PS VR ]
As well as other games for the Playstation 4 releasing early 2017:
- Megaton Rainfall


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Taylor Hill, a 20 year old fashion model and Victoria’s Secret Angel, has been appointed as a Lancôme ambassadress. Hill has participated in campaigns and runway shows, where her charm has won over fashion photographers like Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott, the duo in charge of Lancôme’s photography for the past three years. She also has earned her place on the covers of fashion magazines and recently premiered on the big screen in The Neon Demon.
Hill is an energetic free spirit, making her a role model for women, according to the brand. With the help of social media, she shares her adventures with the world, giving audience members inspiration to be confident.
“We are delighted about this new collaboration with Taylor, who represents a modern Lancôme, in harmony with its time, with a subtle mix of sensuality, ingenuousness and sweet yet striking beauty,” said Françoise Lehmann, Lancôme's international general manager. “She is a very inspiring young woman for her generation: she is immensely curious, open-minded and has a positive outlook on life.”


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Tax-free weekend is here, and other ways to help Abilene kids get back to school
With most Abilene students starting a new school year in less than two weeks, parents are flocking to stores for back-to-school shopping, and many this year are feeling the pinch of higher prices.
To the rescue is the annual sales tax-free weekend, which begins its three-day run Friday.
A variety of school-related items, including clothing and shoes, purchased from retailers in Texas will be exempt from sales tax, saving buyers about 8% of the purchase price.
Exempt items include many types of clothing, footwear, school supplies and backpacks. Each item must be priced at less than $100 to qualify for the exemption.
More:Save on back-to-school shopping during upcoming sales tax holiday
Online and catalog purchases qualify as long as the seller is based in Texas. Layaway purchases also may be exempt, either by placing an item on layaway, or by making a final payment on an item already on layaway.
For information about what is tax exempt and what isn't, go to the Texas Comptroller website: comptroller.texas.gov.
Free is even better
More financial relief for parents and guardians can comes through a host of local programs providing free school supplies, clothes and other services, with additional savings available during this weekend's state sales tax holiday.
"I believe that a lot of people just don't realize they have resources out there that they're eligible to get," said Darrin Cox, liaison for the Abilene ISD McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Program, which acts as a one-stop shop for children's basic school needs.
Cox's office primarily serves students classified as homeless or in foster care, he said, assisting about 1,300 students annually, or between 5% and 10% of all students in Abilene ISD, with the need on the rise.
"We felt that last year after COVID. People losing their jobs and not getting all the hours that they needed," Cox said. "We've lost several different low-income housing places around town, people are struggling to pay the rent."
Additionally, Cox said, he's been seeing more people who don't have transportation, possibly due either to higher gas prices or because they don't own a car.
Back-to-school shopping isn't immune to rising costs either, with the backpacks filled with school supplies often provided by his office costing close to $100, up from about $75 previously.
"When you start talking about coming back to school, with new school supplies, new school clothes, new backpacks, it can add up really quick," Cox said, estimating that it can easily cost $300 or more to make sure a child has what they need for school, even with buying generic options.
That need has led to Cox's office doing more school supply and clothing drives than ever before, he said, such one this Friday asking Walmart customers to purchase and donate supplies listed on cards at the front door.
"The community has really gotten behind us," said Cox.
For those seeking assistance, his office − in partnership with 2INgage − will be conducting a school resource fair and family fun day Aug. 13 at the Abilene Convention Center.
From 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., representatives of more than 50 agencies that provide services to children will be present, and free backpacks and school supplies will be given out to participating families.
To request additional assistance, or for volunteering and donation opportunities, appointments with Cox's office can be made by calling 325-677-1444 Ext. 8641, and other upcoming events can be found on its Facebook page, facebook.com/homelessLiaison.
Operation Blue Jeans
Through mid-September, children entering elementary or middle school can receive free clothes through the annual Operation Blue Jeans back-to-school drive at the Christian Service Center, 3185 N. 10th St.
Appointments are available 9 a.m.-noon and 1-4 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, as well as Saturday and Sept. 10.
Despite higher demand anticipated this year due to rising inflation, executive director Jim Clark gave assurances that there will still be enough to go around.
"We're ordering plenty to help the families," Clark said.
All students will receive five pairs of socks, five pairs of underwear and a new pair of shoes. Additionally, elementary school students will receive two pairs of jeans, while middle school students will receive two pairs of khaki pants and two polo shirts. Children's Bibles also will be available.
Additionally, backpacks will be available courtesy of local Kiwanians.
Parents are asked to donate one can of fruit for each child receiving clothes.
Appointments are required and can be made by calling 325-673-7531. Masks are encouraged. For information, go to cscabilene.org.
School supply drives
- As a part of this month's ArtWalk presented by the Center for Contemporary Arts, a "Fill the Bus" school supply drive will be open from 5:30-8 p.m. Aug. 11 at Minter Park. ArtWalk's theme will be "Back to School Bash," with other events including music, art demonstrations and vendors.
- Through Aug. 15, donations of new tennis shoes to benefit Abilene-area homeless students will be accepted at several locations: Pioneer Drive Baptist Church, 701 S. Pioneer Drive; First Baptist Church, 1333 N. Third St.; Aldersgate United Methodist Church, 1741 Sayles Blvd; DFPS, 3610 Vine St.; Foot Locker in the Mall of Abilene, 4310 Buffalo Gap Road; and Janice Howell with the 7th Medical Group, 697 Louisiana Road at Dyess AFB.
- Through Aug. 31, Perkins Insurance is accepting donations for a backpack and school supply drive to benefit Abilene ISD. For information, call 325-673-9300 or go to facebook.com/perkinsinsurance.
- The Just Between Friends family needs sale will be open to the public from 5-9 p.m. Aug. Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Aug. Saturday and 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Aug. Sunday. Ticketed presale events will be available Thursday through Saturday. For tickets or information, go to abilene.jbfsale.com.
- A back-to-school bash will be open from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at Express ER, 4157 Buffalo Gap Road. Vendors, snow cones, a bounce house and games will be available. Admission is free.
- Free backpacks will be available for children in pre-K through high school from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at Drug Emporium, 2550 Barrow St. Free hot dogs and snow cones will be served.
- A back-to-school giveaway will be open for all children from 2-5 p.m. Aug. 14 at Tequilas Night Club, 133 Eplens Court. Free school supplies and hair cuts will be provided, and hot dogs will be served. For information, call 325-721-1208.
The Abilene/Big Country Hunger Coalition is coordinating free meal services at the following locations around Abilene:
- Bethel United Methodist Church, 1102 N. Willis St.; 6-7 p.m. Wednesdays
- Breakfast on Beech Street (B.O.B.S.), 1423 N. Third St.; 6:30-7:15 a.m. weekdays
- Church on the Rock, 1228 Grape St.; 6 p.m. Wednesdays
- City Lights Ministries, 336 Hickory St.; 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays
- Freedom Fellowship, 941 Chestnut St.; 6-7 p.m. Wednesdays
- Grace Fellowship, 910 Cypress St.; 6-7 p.m. Wednesdays
- Grace United Methodist Church, 1434 Grape St.; 6-8 p.m. first Wednesday of the month
- Love & Care Ministries, 233 Fannin St.; 7-8:30 a.m. weekdays; 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays
- Salvation Army, 1726 Butternut St.; 6 a.m., 12:30 p.m. and 5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays; 5:30 p.m. weekdays
Nathaniel Ellsworth is a general assignments reporter for the Abilene Reporter-News. If you appreciate locally driven news, you can support local journalists with a digital subscription to ReporterNews.com.


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May 18, 2018
The OTA battlefield: Legislation to loyalty
The struggle to persuade guests to book direct instead of through an online travel agency is ongoing, but hoteliers have a number of factors working in their favor.Read more
A Forrester report found two-thirds of marketers now feel the need to integrate social media and other outreach efforts into their search strategies, while more than half say they're struggling to stay abreast of algorithm changes and other technological shifts.
According to the study, 65 percent of respondents said integrating other channels into a search strategy is major concern. Social media marketing and website content play important roles in a company’s presence within on Google, Bing and others, and marketers struggle to align their efforts with an integrated strategy.
Moreover, 51 percent said keeping SEO and other elements of search marketing updated in response to new developments, namely algorithm changes, is a major concern. Other prominent issues brands face include measuring ROI (47 percent), staffing (41 percent) and budgetary restraints (31 percent).
While none of these are particularly unique problems, there are ways marketers and companies of all sizes can succeed with search. Thirty-four percent said creating and managing content is a major challenge for their SEO or PPC marketing efforts. Developing high-quality website content is necessary for SEO. It helps brands keep sites fresh and offer prospects relevant information. Each of these benefits speaks to satisfying users with regularly published content. As Google’s search algorithms continue to change in the name of finding optimum user experience, this is ultimately the most important part of any search strategy.
Get the full story at Brafton
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text: Suspect caused suspicion immediately upon arrival to store due to religious clothing. LP officer immediately observed the suspect. Under surveillance, the suspect was then caught hiding merchandise within the Hijab. The suspect was apprehended and questioned. Lost merchandise was recovered after a strip search. The suspect was shown leniency and released on their own recognizance. Evidence logged July 5, 2017.


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IKEA Expands on Iconic Meatball Offer
BURLINGTON, ON, April 8, 2015 /CNW/ - IKEA announced today that customers will be able to enjoy a new twist to the iconic Swedish meatball. On April 27th IKEA Canada will start selling a vegan friendly veggie ball in all its restaurants.The launch of the veggie ball is the first step to include a wider variety of healthier and more sustainable food choices. The veggie ball consists of only vegetables and therefore has a lower environmental impact, such as a lower carbon footprint. This is a natural step for IKEA, building on the vision of creating a better everyday life for the many through the company's People & Planet Positive strategy.
"At IKEA, we recognize the key role food plays in bringing people together for the important moments in life." says Stefan Sjöstrand, President, IKEA Canada. "We know that our customers have an increasing interest in responsible practices when it comes to food so we will now be adding a wider variety of healthier options that are produced in a responsible manner."
The new veggie ball, GRÖNSAKSBULLAR, is a good alternative to the loved meatball, which was re-launched in 2014 with a new hormone and antibiotic free recipe. The veggie ball derives its rich taste from hearty pieces of vegetables. The recipe is vegan friendly, made without gluten and will cost $5.99 for an eight piece meal. A new delicious menu of seasonal side dish options will be offered for the veggie ball meal.
"We will continue to serve delicious food, offering a taste of Sweden at affordable prices, while increasing our focus on the aspects of food that are really important to people; which include health and sustainability along with taste and variety. I am proud that we are now serving veggie balls." says Michael La Cour, Managing Director of IKEA Food Services AB.
IKEA's ongoing commitment to offering good quality food at affordable prices includes:
About IKEA Canada:
IKEA is a leading home furnishings retailer with 315 stores in 27 countries worldwide, which are visited by 716 million people every year. IKEA Canada has 12 stores which are visited by over 25 million people every year. Last year the IKEA.com websites attracted 1.5 billion visitors. Founded in 1943, IKEA's business philosophy is to offer a wide range of products of good design and function at prices so low, the majority of people can afford them. For more information on IKEA, please visit: www.IKEA.ca.
SOURCE IKEA Canada
Image with caption: "IKEA’s new veggie balls with organic marinara sauce, rice, black beans and steamed broccoli. (CNW Group/IKEA Canada)". Image available at: http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20150408_C7139_PHOTO_EN_14196.jpg
For further information: Madeleine Löwenborg-Frick, National Corporate Public Relations Manager, IKEA Canada, [email protected]
ABOUT IKEA CANADA Founded in 1943 in Sweden, IKEA is a leading home furnishing retailer, offering a wide range of well-designed, functional home furnishing products at prices so low that as many people as possible can afford them. IKEA Canada is part of Ingka Group which...


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We reopened our doors on Wednesday 13th May and were delighted to be visited by BBC News correspondent, Emma Simpson.
Our garden centre at Coolings, Rushmore Hill in Knockholt featured on the national evening news and was a great profile for us. Our team have been working very hard to get the site ready for reopening, as for the last few weeks, we had been operating as a delivery service, with much of our site being changed around! We are very happy to be open and were pleased to see so many of our loyal customers coming back to visit us. If you haven’t seen the video yet, click below to watch.


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Cloud computing has become one of the most popular – and disruptive – technologies to emerge in recent years. But even as the cloud continues its rapid ascent, concerns over its data protection and privacy implications have risen seemingly in step.
Research firm Gartner recently predicted that worldwide IT spending would reach $2.7 trillion next year, a 3.9 percent increase from 2011. Though the overall increase is relatively slight, spending on cloud computing will far surpass that percentage, growing at an annual rate of 19 percent through 2015.
"What supply chain models did to manufacturing is what cloud computing is doing to in-house data centers. It is allowing people to optimize around where they have differentiated capabilities," said Peter Sondergaard, senior vice president and head of global research at Gartner.
The most widely reported benefit of moving to the cloud is cost savings. Businesses of all sizes are finding they can reduce spending on other IT operations by deploying solutions, such as software, storage and even infrastructure, in the cloud. Many also cite greater accessibility as a key advantage of the cloud. By offering these solutions in a cloud-based environment, employees can access their business programs and data from virtually anywhere with an Internet connection.
But with that greater accessibility come data security and privacy concerns. Chiefly, businesses have to sacrifice some degree of control by moving solutions to a third-party server. For many companies, this is not a major issue, as most data produced and accessed in the cloud is not especially sensitive. Heavily regulated industries, such as healthcare and financial, however, have taken greater issue with this.
These benefits of greater accessibility and cost reduction are still the same, but by hosting data in the cloud, businesses in these industries must rely on the vendor to ensure data is adequately protected and remains inaccessible to unauthorized parties. This can cause anxiety for many IT managers, as they are not always afforded the same level of oversight as they would be in their own IT infrastructure. Unsure of how the cloud vendor plans to protect sensitive information, a business in a heavily regulated industry may be understandably hesitant to trust the cloud.
This is an issue that has become a point of contention for many IT experts and industry observers. For example, Davide Perille, of the European Privacy Association, recently asserted that the cloud is not compatible with current European data protection systems, according to an H-Online report. Speaking to a group of European Union (EU) officials, Perille suggested that cloud vendors may not have the customer's best interest in mind in their data monitoring practices. Especially in the EU, where data protection standards may differ from country to country, storing data in a cloud data center located in a separate country could violate overarching EU privacy laws.
Additionally, cloud computing failures, such as the ones that befell Sony and Amazon this year, only exacerbate concerns. When a major cloud vendor suffers an outage, those already hesitant about the cloud are more likely to adopt an "I told you so" mentality.
But this doesn't tell the whole story. Other experts say concerns over cloud security are overblown, and cloud providers can actually provide better data protection than most companies can in house. This is the sentiment taken by Francis O'Haire, technical director at DataSolutions, according to a recent SiliconRepublic report.
O'Haire asserted that cloud crashes are simply more likely to garner more attention than other data security issues because headlines tend to focus on incidents that affect a large group of companies or people.
"You will hear about a plane crash because it’s such a rare event and it has a bigger impact, but it’s still the safest way to travel, statistically," O'Haire said, according to the news provider.
"The first thing to do is acknowledge that for some businesses – certainly the small to medium businesses – the type of security available in the cloud is much, much greater than they could potentially ever afford themselves," he added.
It is also important to note that many issues with the cloud can also affect traditional technology. The Amazon outage, for example, was the result of a human error, which could affect any IT system, whether in the cloud or hosted on premise.
Nevertheless, it is ultimately up to the company to decide if it is ready for the cloud. Some companies will choose to host less sensitive data in the cloud, while reserving more critical information on systems with which they are most comfortable. Others are diving in head first, confident that the cloud vendor can provide the necessary levels of protection to safeguard their IT systems. Or a company may choose to abstain for the time being, waiting until security and privacy issues in the cloud are resolved.
What does seem apparent is that the cloud is becoming the future of enterprise IT, and sooner or later, these issues will need to be confronted.
Cloud Computing News from SimplySecurity.com by Trend Micro


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One year ago today, the Newspaper Association of America became the News Media Alliance. As I look back on the year, I am very happy about the continuing evolution and growth of the association – and more optimistic than ever about the industry.
The decision to rebrand didn’t come from any desire to run away from the term “newspaper”. It came from an understanding that “newspaper” simply wasn’t big enough to describe the business anymore.
Yes, many of the businesses that I represent can still deliver a wonderful print product to your doorstep everything morning. But they also have massive digital sites and engagement, OTT broadcasts, Facebook feeds, events, VR experiences and so much more. Our mission is to be a voice for the news media industry in all of its forms.
Adam Thomas sums it up best in his Medium piece when he says:
“What is a rebrand? A rebrand is not a new logo, nor a new website. A rebrand is a critical look at ourselves, our audience and our future. It starts with this team and ends up with the question “does this reflect who we are?” If the answer is yes, then we’ve been successful.”
I firmly believe we were successful. The News Media Alliance was the right name at the right time, as the news industry is defined much more by the product — high quality journalism — than how it is delivered.
The last year has been a whirlwind. Since we became the Alliance, we have launched a series of products to better serve our membership. Our members now have access to the latest research in the industry, as well as an exclusive online job board called careerXchange; ideaXchange, a members-only online discussion forum for sharing best practices; and regular webinars and daily email newsletters with information on the latest technology, big stories and advice from experts. They also have access to exclusive events like adXchange, where members can engage directly with a range of major advertisers, and innovationXchange, an elite forum where members share learning and obstacles they face.
Our newest member tool, metricsXchange, offers digital benchmarking with real-time comparisons between markets and publications.
We also actively recruit and welcom digital-only publications to our membership and started conversations with Facebook and Google, advocating for the industry as a whole.
There are continued challenges ahead, but we are optimistic about attracting support from throughout the news media industry as we take on the fights necessary to ensure continued investments in and success for high-quality journalism.
David Chavern is former President & CEO of the News/Media Alliance. Chavern has 30 years of experience in executive strategic and operational roles. Prior to the Alliance, he completed a decade-long tenure at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.


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With Less Than One Month to Go, Fall Toy Preview Registration Climbs
September 3, 2013 | In less than a month, mass market retailers will visit Dallas, TX from around the world to attend Fall Toy Preview 2013, where they will preview the hottest toys, games and youth entertainment products slated for release in Q4 2014. Registration for all attendees is still open for the Oct. 1-3, 2013 show; exhibitor space applications are also now being accepted.
“Fall Toy Preview is an integral event for the entire toy industry – it allows buyers to gain insight into emerging toy trends and be among the first to scoop up new product lines,” said Marian Bossard, vice president of meetings and events at the Toy Industry Association (TIA), operator of Fall Toy Preview. “With a quarter of the show’s buyers hailing from international retail outlets, Fall Toy Preview allows toy companies to showcase their innovative playthings and strike lucrative deals with global mass market accounts.”
Approximately 630 buyers from 26 countries are already registered – recent companies that have signed on include Dollar Tree Stores, Party City (Singapore and USA), Saks 5th Avenue, Wayfair, Global Discovery (Australia) and Burlington Coat Factory. To date, about 320 companies are registered to exhibit, including Blue Orange Games, Ceaco/Gamewright, Cloud B, CRA-Z-ART, KidKraft LP, Mag-Nif, Oregon Scientific, Melissa & Doug, LLC, Mental Floss, and Manhattan Toy.
In addition to business opportunities, Fall Toy Preview will host an Opening Night Party on Tuesday, October 1 at the Dallas Market Center – proceeds from the $25 per person tickets will benefit the Toy Industry Foundation (TIF). All exhibitors will receive 2 complimentary tickets to the party; additional tickets may be purchased on-site or during the show registration process. A Toy Industry Next Generation (TING) happy hour for young professionals will be held on October 1 following the Opening Night Party; details on this event will be announced in the coming days (follow TIA on Facebook and Twitter for updates).
TIF will also hold its annual Toy Bank collection at the close of the show on Thursday, October 3, which will benefit Dallas-area children in need.
“Companies interested in donating their toys, games and youth entertainment products are invited to simply let us know via email that they would like to make a contribution. At the end of the show, our volunteer staff will collect the donated product,” said Marisa Medina, Toy Industry Foundation manager.
Fall Toy Preview is an annual, by-appointment event where toy manufacturers privately show their newest product lines to long-lead buyers. Exhibitors must currently sell to mass market accounts, and they must show products for 4th quarter sales in the following year. Visit www.FallToyPreview.org for complete show details, including Hotel, Travel and Dining Information.


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It seems like automakers believe in the Internet potentials to increase brand awareness and indirectly to generate more sales.
In these days I've found two articles talking about Ford and General Motors efforts to take advantage of the Web to regain market share.
On iMediaConnection Sara Wilson talks about "All new 2003 Ford Expedition" a new campaign created to draw attention and make people interact with the brand. The campaign has been run with different ads and features on the three world's main portals: Yahoo! Msn.com and Aol.com because, as Kristen Bergmann, Digital Media Director and Senior Partner at J. Walter Thompson explains:
"We felt that we would reach most of the Internet population if we were to choose these three [portals], and they all happened to be existing partners of ours that we knew could deliver".
On the other side we have General Motors who has just launched an online banner campaign to drive qualified traffic to the newly relaunched GMBuyPower.com. As DMNews reports, Flash-enabled banners have been developed by Zentropy Partners, with skyscrapers, horizontals and standard formats in different sizes and 120 creative executions. And Steve Woolford, executive vice president and worldwide managing director at Zentropy explains:
"The beauty of this advertising is that it links up that part of the BuyPower site that most people are interested in. If someone's not considering a GM vehicle, it's silly to give them the tool to shop. If they're not aware, we must make them aware. If someone's not considering, we must make them."


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Businesses across Scotland are benefiting from fairer water charges as a result of the full business water metering initiative.
In 2004, the Scottish Government and the Water Industry Commission for Scotland decided to change the way businesses are charged for water and waste water.
In the years that followed, water meters were fitted free of charge in thousands of Scottish businesses, ensuring they’ll pay only for the water they use.
The scheme is now complete. April 2009 saw the end of the meter installations. Metered charging has been phased in for the businesses who took part. Full metered charging is due to take effect from April 2011.


text: Much to the chagrin of iPhone owners, market researcher iSuppli predicted last week that Apple will extend AT&T's iPhone exclusivity contract past the current deal's June 2010 expiration date rather than open up the iPhone to other carriers such as Verizon."The main reason Apple is likely to stick with AT&T beyond 2010 is the relatively wide usage and growth expected for the HSPA (high-speed packet access) air standard used by the carrier for 3G data," says iSuppli analyst Francis Sideco.According to iSuppli, global subscribers of HSPA wireless services, which includes high speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) and high-speed uplink packet access, are expected to rise to 1.4 billion in 2012 from 269 million this year. The rise of EVDO, or evolution data only, a high-speed wireless broadband standard used by Verizon, isn't nearly as sharp. The number of EVDO subscribers should double from 145 million this year to 304 million in 2013, iSuppli says.[ Amid cheers, three iPhone 3GS concerns surface, reports CIO. ]Yet not everyone takes the same point of view. iSuppli's prediction that Apple will extend AT&T's iPhone exclusivity deal stands in stark contrast to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster's research note late last month. Munster wrote, "We expect Apple to add new iPhone carriers in the U.S. within the next year (likely with a new product launch)."Munster cites Apple's move away from French wireless carrier Orange's exclusive iPhone deal to a multi-carrier model as proof that Apple will do the same in the U.S. "We're seeing the increased unit sell-through more than offset the slightly deteriorated economics per unit involved in non-exclusive agreements," Munster wrote.AT&T's iPhone exclusivity deal has been both a blessing and a curse for the wireless carrier.On the AT&T upside, the wireless carrier has some 9 million iPhone customers who can't go to another carrier. These customers pay on average $100 a month - a higher revenue per user than is typical with other mobile devices. Of course, AT&T reportedly pays Apple a subsidy of $400 per phone. All tallied, an iPhone customer generates almost $2,000 in revenue for AT&T during a two-year subscription.But the iPhone has wreaked havoc on AT&T's network and image. Forrester reports that working iPhone owners are more than twice as likely to access the Internet from their phone as working BlackBerry, Palm, or Windows Mobile device owners. The pressure that the iPhone has put on AT&T's data network has led to spotty coverage and slow connections in major cities.AT&T has been busily making network improvements, but the work is far from complete. The iPhone 3GS works on the fast HSDPA network, yet AT&T will only begin rolling out this network technology later this year. AT&T delayed supporting iPhone capabilities such as MMS and tethering, due mainly to concerns about the additional load they'll out on the network, although MMS is expected to be delivered\u2014finally\u2014on September 25. Meanwhile, tethering is expected later this year, as AT&T works out a way to price the service.All of this has led to an AT&T backlash. According to a survey by RBC\/IQ ChangeWave, 99 percent of 200 respondents were either satisfied or very satisfied with their iPhone 3GS, yet the number one gripe is the AT&T network. The FCC is also looking into the relationship between AT&T and Apple and their deal to block the Google Voice iPhone app.Should Apple extend the iPhone exclusivity deal with AT&T? Send me an email at email@example.com. Or follow me on Twitter @kaneshige. Follow everything from CIO.com on Twitter @CIOonline.


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Smartphones can do a lot of things, but you can’t yet buy one that folds. Samsung plans to change that soon.
The world’s biggest smartphone maker is aiming to release a device with a foldable display in 2018, its head of mobile Koh Dong-jin said in Seoul on Tuesday.
Koh added that the company still has “hurdles to overcome” before making the phones a reality.
“We are digging thoroughly into several issues,” he said, without elaborating.
Rumors of a foldable phone have been swirling around Samsung (showcased a flexible display at the Consumer Electronics Show in 2013.) ever since the company
It has already incorporated elements of the technology in its curved Galaxy Edge smartphones, and one industry analyst described Samsung’s goal of releasing a foldable device next year as “quite realistic.”
“It’s been known that Samsung has been working on the foldable display for many years,” said IHS Market analyst Jusy Hong.
A little-known Chinese startup called Moxi said in May 2016 it would launch wraparound black-and-white phones made of graphene by the end the year. There have been no signs since of those phones actually hitting the market.
Samsung says it is on track to produce a full-fledged folding smartphone.
“Foldable phones are on our roadmap,” Koh said Tuesday.
SOURCE: Rishi Iyengar


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TECHNOLOGYONE (ASX: TNE) has surpassed market expectations to achieve a half-year profit after tax of $8.1 million, up 10 per cent on its previous result.
The Brisbane-based enterprise software company also posted an increased revenue of $113.9 million for the period, up 13 per cent on HY16.
Aside from brass tacks profit, TechnologyOne has gone the extra mile to invest $23.6 million in research and development (R&D) activity, as well as increasing its operating cash flow by 177 per cent to $2.6 million.
R&D spend for the half amounted to 21 per cent of total revenue, which, according to the company, outstrips its competitors' average spend of 12 per cent.
But for the financial impact of its tri-yearly Evolve customer conference, which welcomed 2,220 delegates to Brisbane in October last year, TechnologyOne estimates its profit would have surged a further 31 per cent during the half.
The company credits its results to the emerging strength of its TechnologyOne Cloud, which contributed more than $930,000 in profits during the latest half, as opposed to its performance last year which resulted in a $922,000 loss.
Its cloud capabilities have been improved by the mass production Software as a Service model, which according to TechnologyOne is "starting to deliver significant economies of scale".
"TechnologyOne Cloud has now been independently audited and recommended to be certified for the Federal Government IRAP security standard, making us the first SaaS vendor to achieve this high level of security accreditation in Australia which gives us a significant competitive
advantage," said the company in a release to the market.
"An important goal for TechnologyOne was to move away from perpetual licenses and to move new business to subscription licenses to create a strong longer term annuity business."
In the latest half, 80 per cent of all new businesses which enlisted TechnologyOne's services were brought in on subscription licenses.
Considering its strong half-yearly results, the company has raised its interim dividend by 10 per cent to 2.6 cents per share.
This year TechnologyOne made it to number 12 on Business News Australia's exclusive Brisbane Top Companies List.
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Domestic sales for most of the Automobile OEMs have continued to maintain their recovery in the month of September 2017 following the growth in the month of August 2017. Demand for trucks grew on stricter implementation of load restrictions and expected rollout of e-way bill under the Goods and Services Tax. The festive season is likely to witness further ramp up in sales of Passenger vehicles and Two Wheelers.
The industry produced a total 14,675,828 vehicles including passenger vehicles, commercial vehicles, three wheelers, two wheelers and quadricycle in April-September 2017 as against 13,441,520 in April-September 2016, registering a growth of 9.18 percent over the same period last year.
The sale of Passenger Vehicles grew by 9.16 percent in April-September 2017 over the same period last year. Within the Passenger Vehicles, Passenger Cars, Utility Vehicle and Vans grew by 6.63 percent, 17.81 percent and 2.52 percent respectively in April-September 2017 over the same period last year.
Maruti Suzuki India sold 150,521 units (+9.64%) in the month of September 2017. Demand for the five compact cars (Swift, Celerio, Ignis, Baleno and Dzire) rose smartly by 44.7% year on year to 72,804 units (September 2016: 50,324), reflective of the surging demand for the premium Baleno hatchback and the new Dzire sedan.
Mahindra & Mahindra registered sales of 25,327 units in September (+23%), compared to the 20,537 units sold in September 2016. While UVs, including the Scorpio, Bolero, XUV500, TUV300 and KUV100 accounted for the chunk of the volumes selling 24,109 units (September 2016: 19,206), cars and vans sold 1,218 units (September 2016: 1,331).
Tata Motors has reported sales of 17,286 passenger vehicles, a YoY growth of 5.71 percent (September 2016: 16,351) and mainly driven by demand for the Tiago, Tigor and Hexa. The recently launched Nexon compact SUV has also received a strong response in the market. Tata Motors says its cumulative PV sales for the April-September 2017 period are 81,417 units, a growth of 12 percent compared to 72,665 units, in the same period last fiscal.
The overall Commercial Vehicles segment grew by 5.96 percent in April-September 2017 as compared to the same period last year. Medium & Heavy Commercial Vehicles (M&HCVs) declined by (-) 6.56 percent, however, Light Commercial Vehicles grew by 14.76 percent in April-September 2017 over the same period last year.
Ashok Leyland Ltd.’s sales rose at the fastest pace in a year as demand for trucks grew on stricter implementation of load restrictions and expected rollout of e-way bill under the Goods and Services Tax. Sales increased for the fourth straight month in September 2017 as the company sold 15,370 units, 28 percent higher compared to the same month last year. Medium and heavy commercial vehicle sales increased 32 percent year-on-year, the highest in 12 months. Volumes of light commercial vehicles rose 15 percent on a yearly basis.
Tata Motors overall commercial vehicles sales in September 2017, in the domestic market were at 36679 nos. higher by 29% over September 2016. The M&HCV trucks segment grew by 25%, at 12259 nos., in September 2017. This segment witnessed strong growth in demand on the back of continuously increasing acceptance of Tata Motors’ SCR technology, infrastructure development led by government funding and restrictions on overloading creating greater demand for new high tonnage vehicles, especially for the company’s new launches of 37T multiaxle trucks and 49T tractor trailers.
Three Wheelers sales declined by (-) 9.89 percent in April-September 2017 over the same period last year. Within the Three Wheelers, Passenger Carrier sales registered a de-growth of (-) 13.18 percent, however, Goods Carrier grew by 5.18 percent in April-September 2017 over April-September 2016.
Two Wheelers sales registered a growth at 10.14 percent in April-September 2017 over April-September 2016. Within the Two Wheelers segment, Scooters and Motorcycles grew by 17.26 percent and 7.71 percent respectively, while Mopeds declined by (-) 5.63 percent in April-September 2017 over April-September 2016.
In April-September 2017, overall automobile exports grew by 10.71 percent. Two and Three-Wheeler Segments registered a growth of 15.22 percent, and 19.42 percent respectively while Passenger Vehicles and Commercial Vehicles declined by (-) 1.34 percent and (-) 28.53 percent respectively in April-September 2017 over the same period last year.


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Why Blockchain Market is Thriving in Singapore
The blockchain technology, which was being viewed as skeptical in the past, is now beginning to move past cryptocurrencies to the companies in diverse sectors
Blockchain, which is also known as digital ledger technology (DLT), was first implemented by a bitcoin company to mark transactions digitally about 10 years ago. The DLT is a public ledger of activity that stores information about all the transactions taking place on the network. It cannot be hacked or tampered with and it is not owned by any central authority. Instead, a group of participants uphold the network. From music to gaming to fintech, today the technology is being used by the players across the sectors.
The Asia Pacific region is currently the fastest growing market for blockchain in the world, according to a recent report by Genesis Market Insights. Another report by the consulting firm PwC highlights that 82 percent of executives in Singapore have reported that blockchain initiatives are underway in their organizations. Out of which, 13 percent have brought the initiatives live to the market.
Entrepreneur took a deep dive to understand why Singapore is the leading example of blockchain in the Asia Pacific region, and what exactly is driving the growth of blockchain market.
The world's best blockchain researcher along with the government that supports innovation is giving Singapore an edge over other countries in leading the blockchain revolution. The more you get into its tech circle, the more you hear the news of 21st century fundraising programme – Initial Coin Offering (ICOs) launching in the city. The start-ups in Singapore are not just confined to cryptocurrencies, but are moving far beyond it to explore new markets. As Singapore has become a hot spot for crypto and blockchain enthusiasts, a lot of entrepreneurs are carving the niche with their regional offices.
David Wachsman is one such entrepreneur. His company based in New York recently opened its Asia Pacific headquarters in Singapore. The company provides public relations, event management, and strategic advisory services to some of the most indispensable companies and projects in the blockchain ecosystem. Wachsman says, "Singapore, along with a number of other countries in the region, is wellknown as an innovation hub and has a favorable environment for business and technological disruption. Many of our clients are headquartered or have regional offices in Singapore. These were some of the factors that made Singapore a clear choice for our own Asia-Pacific HQ."
Another blockchain-based startup, MusicLife is Singapore's music blockchain trading channel, which is using the combination of blockchain technology and artificial intelligence (AI) in its operations. In August, the company raised a $5 million funding round led by Metropolis VC. The startup aims to bring transparency in the cluttered music sharing market through the blockchain technology, so that the artists and songwriters get their due in the industry. "The music industry is currently dominated by giants, burdened by copyright restrictions, and lacking fairness and transparency for artists. MusicLife will funnel more profit to artists while giving fans the opportunity to become song owners," says Kaiming Lu, founder and chair of MusicLife.
Another duo forayed into the blockchain market of Singapore. Pavel Bains from Silicon Valley chose Singapore to start its blockchain company in 2014. An alternative to cloud database services, Bluzelle is building a decentralized database service that businesses can use to store their data. The company's vision is to disrupt the cloud database services such as those offered by Oracle and Amazon. It is providing its blockchain-based storage network, called "Bluzelle" network, which will provide storage resources to people in exchange for Bluzelle tokens (BLZ). The company closed its Initial Coin Offering (ICO) having raised $19.5 million in order to develop its decentralized database technology and fill the missing piece in the decentralized internet.
The growing dominance of blockchain technology can also be attributed to the Singapore government's policies. A recent report by Global Market Insights also points out the same. From 2016, the Monetary Authority of Singapore is working in a partnership with R3, a blockchain technology company, and a consortium of financial institutions on a proof-of-concept project to conduct inter-bank payments using blockchain technology. The country is also exploring the use of blockchain to link the National Trade Platforms to the trade platforms of other countries.
Blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies still remain a grey area for many countries, which is not regulated by any authority. Wachsman says, "Although at present regulation surrounding blockchain and cryptocurrencies is rudimentary in the majority of jurisdictions, I believe that this will change quickly as we enter 2019 and 2020. As regulation matures across the globe, we are going to see an increase in the number of companies utilizing the technology and far more capital allocated to the blockchain space. The number of industry-focused attorneys will multiply correspondingly. I believe that more precise regulation will lend clarity, not confusion, to the space."
(This article was first published in the September issue of Entrepreneur Magazine. To subscribe, click here)


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MarTech Today: Autopilot’s collaborative customer journey, Twilio buys SendGrid & Facebook’s Project Ripley
Here’s our daily recap of what happened in marketing technology, as reported on MarTech Today, MarTech and other places across the web. From MarTech Today: Autopilot debuts real-time collaborative customer journey map Oct 16, 2018 by Barry Levine The Google Docs-like feature lets remote users work in real-time on a customer journey map, as well as […]
Barry Levine on October 17, 2018 at 9:00 am | Reading time: 2 minutes
From MarTech Today:
- Autopilot debuts real-time collaborative customer journey map
Oct 16, 2018 by Barry Levine
The Google Docs-like feature lets remote users work in real-time on a customer journey map, as well as add annotations or manage campaign functions.
- Twilio to acquire SendGrid for $2 billion, expanding its developer-focused communication platform
Oct 16, 2018 by Robin Kurzer
The company says the move will bring together two developer-focused, API-based communications platforms that have worked together for years.
From Marketing Land:
- The Open Marketing Cloud: A no-BS demo of Mautic’s marketing automation platform
Oct 16, 2018 by Digital Marketing Depot
Are you unhappy with your experience or results using one of the legacy marketing automation products? Does your marketing tool or process limit your ability to take action on all of your valuable customer data?
- Facebook: Coming to a TV near you?
Oct 16, 2018 by Amy Gesenhues
The company is rumored to be working on a device under the name Project Ripley to launch next spring.
- Last call! Secure your seat at SMX East now
Oct 15, 2018 by Marketing Land
Actionable SEO and SEM tactics that deliver amazing results: That’s what you’ll get by joining us next week for SMX® East, October 24-25 in New York City. Grab your All Access pass by October 23 and save $100 off on-site rates.
From Around The Web:
- 3 Reasons Why Now is the Time to Bring Your Martech Stack Into the Visual Era, Movable Ink Blog
- It turns out that Facebook could in fact use data collected from its Portal in-home video device to target you with ads, Recode
- The end of ad fraud and the promise of the blockchain, Marketing Tech
- Clarifai’s AI can detect ‘unsavory’ content in images and videos, VentureBeat
Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily MarTech. Staff authors are listed here.


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VSO seeks shop for brand activity
VSO, the development charity that helps people volunteer to relieve poverty abroad, is speaking to integrated and media agencies ahead of its first brand campaign since 2011.
VSO: wants a brand campaign to attract more volunteers
The organisation is looking for an agency or agencies to work on marketing strategy and media planning and buying. VSO does not currently have a dedicated shop for marketing strategy but works with OptiComm Media and MSA on media duties.
Google searches for VSO and related terms fell by 40 per cent between August 2012 and August 2013. The charity claims in the tender that this decline in awareness has impacted its ability to find volunteers.
The brand campaign will be designed to attract potential new donors and volunteers. VSO, which creates its own campaigns in house, currently focuses almost entirely on direct response marketing.
The appointed agency will also help with the strategy for campaigns aimed at recruiting long-term professional volunteers for the charity. They will target people working in the health and education sectors who could volunteer for VSO positions.
Other new activity will also be aimed at attracting youth volunteers through the International Citizen Service, a government-funded development programme that is led by VSO.
This article was first published on campaignlive.co.uk
Latest jobs Jobs web feed
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The 2020 Ford GT supercar is getting a few noteworthy updates and changes, one of which is the introduction of the Liquid Carbon package. First announced last week at the 2020 Chicago Auto Show, the 2020 Ford GT Liquid Carbon features fully-exposed carbon fiber body panels completely free of body paint, with a special clearcoat. Our live photo gallery shows the new limited-edition appearance option as it sat in Chicago.
The Liquid Carbon appearance package also features carbon fiber wheels as standard equipment, with owners able to select titanium lugnuts and five caliper colors.
Inside, the 2020 Ford GT Liquid Carbon features a choice of five interior options and six-point racing harness colors.
The 2020 Ford GT also gains various mechanical enhancements, starting with more power. Horsepower is now at 660 horsepower, up from 647 for prior model years. There’s also improved cooling and airflow, thanks to new buttress air ducts designed to increase air flow by 50 percent. Larger aircoolers keep charge air temperatures cooler, preserving peak power for the most strenuous, high-temperature sessions at the track.
Meanwhile, suspension damping is increased in track mode to further enhance handling and body control, particularly for the high-speed transient sections of closed-course circuits.
Rounding out the mechanical updates is a new titanium exhaust from Akrapovič. Included as standard equipment for the 2020 Ford GT, the exhaust provides a nine-pound weight savings over the previous system while delivering a deeply resonant sound from the more powerful 3.5L EcoBoost V6 engine.
The Liquid Carbon package joins the updated Gulf Racing Heritage Livery for the 2020 Ford GT. So, for those who have wanted to drive a sinister-looking supercar with panels made entirely of carbon fiber, this is the one
to get to apply for. Just don’t crash it, as fixing that carbon fiber could cost a pretty penny or two.


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Amazon says drones will be making deliveries in 'months'
Amazon has said that it plans to use self-piloted drones to deliver packages to shoppers' homes in the coming months.The online shopping giant did not give an exact timing or say where the drones would be making deliveries.
The online retailer said its new drones use computer vision and machine learning to detect and avoid people or clotheslines in backyards when landing.
"From paragliders to power lines to a corgi in the backyard, the brain of the drone has safety covered," said Jeff Wilke, who oversees Amazon's retail business.
Wilke said the drones are fully electric, can fly up to 24 km, deliver in 30 minutes, and carry goods that weigh up to 5 pounds (2.3 kg), like a paperback or toothpaste.
Amazon has been working on drone delivery for years. In December 2013, Amazon CEO and Founder Jeff Bezos told the 60 Minutes news show that drones would be flying to customers' homes within five years. But that deadline passed due to regulatory hurdles.
The Federal Aviation Administration, which regulates commercial use of drones in the US, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.
In April, a subsidiary of search giant Google won approval from the FAA to make drone deliveries in parts of Virginia.
Wilke said that the company was working with several regulatory agencies to get approval. "We expect to do it within months," he said.
On Monday, ecommerce major Amazon also announced its plans to expand its 'packaging-free shipment' (PFS) programme, an India-first initiative, to nine cities, including Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, and Nagpur.
The programme, under which orders are shipped in their original packaging without any secondary or additional packaging, will also be available in Bengaluru, Gurugram, Noida, Chennai, and Hyderabad.
"This is an India-first initiative and ties into Amazon's global 'Shipment Zero' vision... The pilot began in July last year in Bengaluru when we delivered the relevant customer orders packaging-free and received positive feedback," an Amazon India spokesperson said.


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p2pnet news | P2P:- If your site carries song lyrics, you could be in facing a major difficulty or two sometime in the fairly near future.
And the Music Publishers Association won’t necessarily be behind your troubles.
The corporate world sees the Net as a golden goose laying fat copyright eggs from a huge nest of lovely, expensive, potential infringements.
Lawyers benefit the most, as always, but also cashing in are the many remora-like hangers-on such as online spoofer MediaSentry which, speaking of eggs, is responsible for having a large amounts splashed on the faces of the entertainment cartels. [Warning - this link leads to a p2pnet counter-spoof post.]
Now, “Publish with confidence,” declares Attributor, a California start-up which not only promises it has a way to identify online copyright infringements, but also says it’ll automatically send out nasty letters when it finds one.
It says in its site:
Google, Yahoo and MSN all profit from ads placed on unauthorized copies of original works – revenue that never reaches newspapers, magazines or individual writers.
Our recent study on music lyrics illustrates the magnitude of this issue very well. First some background – last April, Yahoo Music partnered with Gracenote and became the first site to publish ‘official’ song lyrics. The USA Today reported that Yahoo shares with the copyright holders the revenue from the ads that will be displayed alongside the lyrics. Just last week, MTV and AOL announced that they would also promote official lyrics on their web sites.
Why so much attention to song lyrics? It all comes down to Search. According to an Ask.com study, the term ‘song lyrics’ was the 6th most popular search query last year.
So, “Request a link back to your original improving your search engine ranking,” says the company, then, “Ask the site to deposit a % of the revenue they make from your content into your AdSense account.” And then, “Send a formal DMCA takedown notice – we will ensure that it gets taken down from search engines.”
To would-be users, “At any time, view your dashboard to see who is copying your content – including a host of insightful reports that include contextual factors like ads, links, amount copied and estimated site traffic – factors that allow you to focus on the matches that matter. We’ll even send you regular alerts to tell you when your content has been copied.”
And Attributor has already signed up one corporate media biggie.
Reuters has just started using it and Chris Ahearn, president of Reuters Media, “said that first he wants to learn how his company’s thousands of customers are using the vast stream of information it sends their way,” says the New York Times, going on:
“But finding unauthorized use ‘clearly is a big opportunity for us,’ Mr. Ahearn said, both to drive traffic to the Reuters site and to turn cheaters into customers. He added, ‘Our attitude is there are enough lawyers in the world, so why don’t we turn this over to our sales people’?”
That dry, rasping sound you hear in the background is the legal community rubbing its collective hands in eager anticipation ……
Music Publishers Association – Lyric sites and jail time, December 14, 2005
p2pnet – MediaDefender boss Randy Saaf arrested, September 22, 2007
New York Times – Publishers See a Way to Track Their Content Across the Net, November 5, 2007
Net access blocked by government restrictions? Use Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto. Go here for the download, and here for details. Click here or here to learn how to by-pass censorship in your area.


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One of the UK’s biggest travel companies has said it is currently unable to plan holidays to Croatia and Bulgaria because of government advice.
Both countries will be added to the UK’s green list from 04:00 BST on Monday, meaning people can travel there without isolating on return.
However the government’s travel advice pages for both countries advises against “all but essential travel’.
Industry body Airlines UK said it was causing huge confusion for carriers.
Government travel advice affects operators’ and passengers’ insurance and so many are unable to offer holidays there unless this advice changes.
When previous UK green lists have been announced, the travel advice to newly listed “green” countries has been updated to allow non-essential travel.
‘Causing huge confusion’
The travel advice issued by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) is independent from the government’s traffic light system.
Tim Alderslade, chief executive of Airlines UK, said the “refusal” to align FCDO advice with international travel policies was causing huge problems.
“Carriers… have no idea if they are able to operate, despite the fact that in this case both Bulgaria and Croatia are now on the green list and the change comes into effect in four days.
“We still have little idea if the advice will change or not, which just isn’t tenable when you’re trying to provide clarity and transparency to passengers,” Mr Alderslade added.
The FCDO says travel advice pages remain under constant review to ensure they reflect the most up-to-date information and advice, and the travel advice for a number of countries has changed over the last week.
FCDO added this is an ongoing process and further changes to other amber and green list countries may take place before 19th of July.