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The recent gun-related tragedies in the U.S., particularly the Newtown massacre in December 2012, has had a profound impact on the firearms industry. Putting politics aside on this issue, historically, in times of higher public interest in gun control legislation, sales and profits of these companies have soared. This is because gun enthusiasts are afraid of new laws being enacted that will restrict certain types of gun sales or will require more extensive or lengthy background checks.
These fears cause a rapid short-term increase in sales for gun companies. Smith & Wesson Holding Corporation (SWHC) is no stranger to these dynamics, and in the past six months the company has seen huge growth in both sales and margins. For the third quarter 2013 results reported in March, the company reported quarterly sales of $106 million to the consumer channel, which was an increase of 35% year over year. Gross margins also increased an impressive 600 basis points to above 36%.
Despite the recent financial success of the company, the headline risk in the industry with the fear of pending legislation has kept the stock price relatively flat and the P/E is now just over 9, which is very low for a company with this level of growth. On a relative basis the company is trading considerably cheaper than a major competitor, and seems to be beaten down unfairly. I think the stock is worth between $12 and $16 per share and could even double over the next year, assuming continued strong execution and a realization by the market that the risk of game-changing legislation is low.
Note: Unless otherwise noted, financials are sourced from the latest annual report or third quarter 2013 conference call.
Smith & Wesson-branded firearms have been around since 1852. Not many brand names can boast such a long, well-established reputation for quality. The major product categories include: handguns, Walther, modern sporting rifles, hunting firearms, and parts and accessories. Handguns are sold under the S&W and M&P brands. Walther firearms are imported and distributed from Carl Walther GmbH in Germany through an exclusive agreement which expires at the end of 2013. A separate manufacturing agreement expires at the end of fiscal 2015. The company has already stated that these agreements will not be renewed. Sporting rifles are sold under the M&P brand, and hunting firearms under the Thompson/Center brand. The breakdown in terms of sales as of the end of fiscal 2012 is as follows:
|Segment||Sales (m)||% of Sales|
|Modern Sporting Rifles||$75||18.2|
|Parts & Accessories||$21||5|
In terms of margins, the company has had relatively steady margins for more than a decade, which is a sign of a stable competitive advantage in the market. Gross margin has been between 29% - 32% for most of the decade, with the exception of the recent spike to 36%. Operating margins have been between 4% and 11%, with a recent spike to around 20%.
Recent Headline Risk in the industry
As stated above, S&W has seen recent growth well over 30%, as many would-be gun buyers have rushed to make purchases in fears of pending legislation. After all, anger from the Newtown massacre in December led many to believe that the U.S. Congress would come together to enact tougher gun control laws and also reinstate a ban on assault weapons. S&W’s stock is still down about 20% since Newtown. Now, nearly five months on, and not much has happened in terms of legislative changes. The U.S. Senate defeated the gun control bill, and that is before it even reached the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. Looking at how gridlocked the politics continues to be in Washington these days, I think the risk of any serious gun control legislation is very low. Even if assault weapons were to be banned again like they were under the Clinton Administration, this makes up less than 10% of the business of S&W and should not be seen as a major threat to the company.
Another development that has occurred is the general public distaste for the industry as a result of the increased appetite for gun control. This has lead to less demand for the stocks and certainly has contributed to downward pressure. For example, pension funds have been dumping the stocks the past few months.
The firearm industry seems to continue to always do well over the long term, despite short periods of headline risk. In the past decade many events have occurred having some impact on the industry, e.g., the great recession, the election of a Democrat to the White House, and several school shootings. However, through all of this, Smith & Wesson has still managed to grow revenues at a CAGR of more than 10%. In the most recent quarterly results, revenues were up more than 35% in the consumer channel. Interesting to note I think is that even in the professional sales channel, which includes law enforcement agencies and international sales, sales were up more than 50%. This only constitutes about $16 million, so much smaller than the $106 million from the consumer side, but it shows that the growth was strong in law enforcement as well, which is less impacted by the headline risks in the industry. The growth here was primarily attributed to the success of the M&P polymer pistol line which has continued to gain market share. Overall the company reported in its latest annual report that it had a market share of 18%, 5%, and 15% for the handgun, hunting firearms, and sporting rifle markets respectively. From 2005 to 2010, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms reported a CAGR of 11% in unit growth of firearms sold. It is hard to predict the rate of growth going forward; however, with recent strong growth, and continued market share gains I wouldn’t be surprised to see a similar rate.
In the next year or so the growth will be offset somewhat by the loss in business from the Walther line, as this currently makes up almost 8% of sales but will be close to zero going forward after the termination of the distribution agreement. However, despite this negative, there are several positive factors which should contribute to further growth, including the huge sales backlog of $667 million. This is now greater than one year of sales, and the company stated very clearly on the recent conference call that fourth quarter estimates were based on capacity not demand, as it has been unable to add capacity fast enough to keep up with orders. It should be noted that a large percentage of this backlog might never translate to real sales, but even if only 50% of it materializes, it should still bode very well for near-term strength in revenues and earnings.
The CEO of Smith & Wesson Holding Corporation is James Debney. The 44-year-old joined the company in 2009 as president of the firearms division, and was promoted to CEO in September 2011. He currently owns less than 1% of outstanding shares. All insiders combined hold about 2% of the company. Debney was an industry outsider, having come to S&W from a background in plastics manufacturing from an Alcoa Inc. (NYSE:AA) unit. What he has brought to SWHC is an increased focus on product marketing to grow market share in underserved markets. The company was traditionally strong on engineering and known for product excellence, but seen as weaker on the marketing front. The current strategy to push M&P polymer pistols hard seems to be gaining momentum. This is evident by the recent 50% sales growth in the professional channel, including some recent big deals such as the San Antonio Police Department which ordered 2,600 M&P guns recently.
Although Debney does not have years of deep experience in this industry, his outsider credentials and marketing prowess don’t seem to be hurting the company. Although I don’t see any huge positives to be excited about here, I also don’t see any major negatives with executive management. Overall, the company has very loyal employees, with 22% of them having worked for 25 years or more at the company.
The balance sheet of SWHC is sound. The company has a debt to equity ratio of about 0.30, and has a debt balance of less than $50 million. The current ratio is almost 3, and the interest coverage ratio is more than 20. I don’t see any near term risks in terms of the balance sheet. During the most recent quarter the company purchased $20 million of stock, which is about 3% of the shares outstanding. That is an impressive amount in a short period, and shows that the company is ratcheting up buybacks at a time when the stock is undervalued.
Other than the current headline risk in the firearm industry due to potential new gun control legislation, there are a few other points to know about Smith & Wesson.
Heavy dependence of consumer sporting goods channel makes business cyclical.
The company is trying to increase law enforcement and military contracts over time, as sales in the professional channel are much more stable and less susceptible to legislative risks. To date the company does have contracts with more than 1,000 law enforcement agencies. However, it has not been able to get any major military contracts, which would be far more substantial. As a result, nearly 90% of sales are still to individual consumers and this makes the business unpredictable over the short term.
The recent sales boom has created a bubble that is ready to pop.
Many industry analysts have become wary of gun stocks because of the huge run-up in sales. Obviously, this growth momentum cannot continue forever, and is likely to slow considerably in the next year or two, and some industry pundits and analysts have stated that for this reason investors should stay away. Personally, I think this risk is not as big as its made out to be, simply because everyone is already expecting it to happen and it’s priced in. Trading well below historical averages with an EV/EBITDA of 4.5, the market clearly expects a near-term decrease in earnings from current levels. However, with long-term historical valuation averages of nearly double the current level, I think the stock has significant upside because earnings are not likely to fall that quickly, especially with a strong order backlog.
Over the past year, Smith & Wesson has gotten downright cheap on an EV/EBITDA basis, where it now trades at a multiple below five, the lowest in the past five years.
Interestingly, the stock has not dropped in this period. In fact it is trading higher today than it was one year ago, $8.86 per share vs. $7.65 a year ago. What has been happening is that sales and earnings have increased substantially the past six months, mostly after the Newtown massacre and with fear among gun buyers that increased gun restrictions will be put in place in the U.S. The market clearly does not think that this growth is sustainable, which is probably a good assumption, as not many companies maintain sales growth of 35% plus for very long. However, the question we have to ask ourselves is simply whether this very low multiple is fair, or whether Smith & Wesson has been unfairly punished by the market. Looking at a DCF valuation I think it is exceedingly difficult to make a good judgement on this based on cash flow growth alone, as the cyclical nature of the industry has proven in the past decade that EPS and FCF per share tend to fluctuate substantially. Full year EPS for 2013 is expected to be above $1.17, but looking at the company historically there is no telling where it will be the few years beyond that.
What I think is very useful here is to realize that the gun business seems to always prove itself quite resilient over the long term even in times of short-term troubles like the present. The bottom line is that revenues have increased more than 10% per year in the past decade, and the long-term prospects seem to be fine. The polarizing political nature of the gun debate will mean very minimal or incremental changes to laws and regulations, nothing too drastic will ever pass the U.S. Congress. I think from a valuation perspective, it’s most useful to compare Smith & Wesson relatively to competitors. Sturm, Ruger & Company (NYSE:RGR), the best, comparable, publicly-traded company, is trading well over seven times EBITDA. Interestingly, if you look at these two companies over the past five years, generally they trend close together on EBITDA multiples, and whenever SWHC has dipped lower, it typically bounces back:
This difference doesn’t seem to really make sense currently, as both companies have recently reported similar performance in terms of sales and earnings growth. Both also have long-standing brand names and competitive positions. A bounce back to eight times EBITDA for Smith & Wesson seems like a distinct possibility in the near term, which would be a share price of close to $16. Even if you take a more conservative view and assume that earnings fall quickly back to historical averages, fueled by a drop in consumer demand and helped by the pending loss of Walther sales, a multiple of six to seven times EBITDA would still be quite justifiable.
The Bottom Line
In summary, I think the shares of SWHC are fairly valued in the $12 - $16 range, and it wouldn’t be at all surprising to see the stock double in the coming year if some of the headline risks of stricter legislation turn out to be unfounded. Even considering the likely drop in sales and earnings from the current elevated levels the stock is likely to trend back towards historical multiples. If this doesn’t happen, I see minimal downside for the stock at the present time as much of the industry negativity is already well priced in. Therefore, I see an attractive risk/reward profile on Smith&Wesson, and the small cap seems like a good contrarian value play today.
Disclosure: I may initiate a long position in SWHC in the next 72 hours.


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Indian car conglomerate Tata Motors is known for making the Nano, the world’s cheapest car, as well as owning Jaguar and Land Rover. The Tata Nano costs only $2,500 brand new and the bare-bones box on tiny wheels is getting redesigned before going on sale in more European countries and the United States in a few years.
Tato Nano moving up to the big leagues
The Tata Nano got famous for following a similar formula to the Volkswagen Beetle, albeit the original not the gaudy hipster-mobile currently wearing the badge. It’s bare-bones simple, consisting of little more than a small engine, four seats, a steering wheel and not much else. It’s also, like the original Beetle, cheap as all get out, in fact the cheapest car in the world.
It isn’t as if anyone needs auto refinancing on a car that costs $2,500 new.
Some people have been wondering if it will ever get exported anywhere else, say to Europe or the United States, where few new cars are attainable by people of modest means. It turns out that yes, according to USA Today, the Nano is indeed getting redesigned to get sold in those areas.
Redesign to fit regulations
In order to get sold in the United States and European countries, the Tata Nano has to get a whole bunch of stuff to meet emissions and safety regulations. To get a Tata Nano U.S.A. approved, it needs to have a traction control system and airbags, among a few other things.
[To Get The Leading Discount For A New Or Used Car, Van, Truck or SUV Pay A Visit To Sandy Springs Scion Atlanta Ga Now.]
The redesigned version is going to be quite a bit different than the current version. The current Nano has a 37-horsepower, two-cylinder engine. The Nano that will eventually go on sale in Europe and the U.S., however, is going to get a much more powerful motor. It will also get power steering and traction control.
Along with the new equipment comes a higher price tag, which is slated to at least triple. Nano is shooting to keep the car at or under $10,000 for the base model. As far as selling it, according to AutoGuide, Tata is looking into what to do about establishing a dealership network. It could be the cars get sold at Land Rover or Jaguar dealerships, since Tata owns both, but it could also not be the case. It’s projected to be on-sale in three years.
Still dirt cheap
Assuming the Tato Nano comes in at $10,000, that still makes it about the cheapest new car a person can buy. One of the closest is the Nissan Sentra, which starts at $11,990 before destination charge.
However, the car has had some teething problems In December 2011, according to Inside Line, Tata recalled about 140,000 Nanos to replace faulty starter motors. Some pictures went around the web of some Nanos that had caught fire, but according to Car Advice, an Australian car review site, the company found in 2010 that the fires were caused by aftermarket electrical and exhaust components installed by owners. However, Tata did start offering a “safety package” free to owners that would reduce fire risks.
Car Advice: http://www.caradvice.com.au/91263/tata-nano-gets-free-safety-option-no-recall-after-investigation-into-fires/

domain: news


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The global supply of LCD panels used in PC monitors and TVs will exceed demand next year and the situation will deteriorate further in 2015 as Chinese makers are boosting their capacities at full speed, local market researcher Topology Research Institute (拓墣產業) forecast yesterday.
Shipments from China are expected to grow 27 percent to 124.6 million units next year, primarily from BOE Technology Group Co (京東方) and China Star Optoelectronics Technology Co (華星光電), compared with 98 million units this year, Topology analyst Harrison Po (柏德葳) said.
China Star is expected to make 20 million units this year with its plants operating at full capacity, Po said.
Next year, PC and TV flat panels made in Chinese plants will account for 17 percent of global shipments, up from 13 percent this year, according to Po’s forecast.
The figure is to rise to 22 percent in 2015, after Chinese companies expand their total capacity to 159.7 million units, Po said.
However, overall demand for monitor and TV flat panels is expected to increase just 1.4 percent to 164.4 million square meters next year, from 162.1 million square meters this year, Po said.
“There will be no supply crunch [as happened this year],” Po said. “The supply glut will worsen in 2014 and panel makers have to offer cost-saving or innovative products to maintain their competitiveness.”
Oversupply will drive down panel prices and lower global revenue of PC and TV panels by 5 percent to US$87 billion next year from US$92 billion this year, according to Po’s projection.
To cope with growing competition from Chinese rivals and to avoid price erosion through oversupply, Taiwanese flat-panel makers are changing to making higher-margin ultra-high-resolution TV panels, or 4K panels, Po said.
“The 4K panel is one of the major products Taiwanese companies developed to survive and to make profits,” Po said.
Shipments of 4K TV panels are forecast to soar to 13.5 million units next year from this year’s 3 million units, mostly from Taiwan’s top LCD panel manufacturer, Innolux Corp (群創光電), he said.
That would boost the penetration rate of 4K TV sets to 5.7 percent next year from 1.3 percent this year, he said. Most 4K TVs would be 50-inch and bigger models, he added.
Po also warned that Chinese firms are catching up rapidly in developing touch panels and would cause a supply glut.
“In Shenzen alone, the number of small-and-medium-sized touch companies can go up to 200,” Po said.
The stock prices of Innolux and the nation’s No. 2 panel maker, AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), rose 0.38 percent and 1.41 percent to NT$13.35 and NT$10.8 respectively.


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U.S. social game developer Zynga has partnered with one of China’s largest Internet companies, Tencent, to bring its popular CityVille game to the country.
The two companies announced on Tuesday that a Chinese version of CityVille, named Zynga City in English, is being launched as a beta version on a Tencent social networking site.
Tencent is best known as the operator of QQ, China’s most popular instant messenger, which has 647.6 million active accounts. But the company also attracts a vast number of users through its online games and social networking sites.
Zynga City will first be launched on Tencent’s Pengyou platform, a social networking sites with 101 million active monthly users. Zynga City will then be launched on other Tencent platforms, including another social networking site known as QZone.
Zynga, a company based in San Francisco, has made a name for itself building games on Facebook. The company has 232 million monthly active users, with CityVille its most popular game.
The release of Zynga City comes as other foreign gaming companies are also working to localize versions of their hit games for the Chinese market.
PopCap Games is developing its Plants vs. Zombies game for the Chinese Facebook-like site Renren. The Finnish company Rovio plans to create localized versions of its Angry Birds game for mobile phones and PCs in China.
U.S. company Razer also plans to release a small portable PC in China with games developed by Tencent. The netbook-like device, called the Razer Switchblade, features a programmable keyboard that can be customized for gaming.
The companies are targeting a vast market. China has 485 million Internet users and more than 900 million mobile phone users, according to government statistics.
Zynga developed its Zynga City game through its own China studio based in Beijing, which hired local game developers and artists. The game features designs and in-game events linked to the Chinese culture.


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Ford Motor Company announced today that it will be cutting 3,800 jobs in Europe in an effort to revamp its electric vehicle production. This is part of a larger effort to reduce staff by one in nine jobs in Europe, as well as one in five jobs in the UK.
Ford’s Chief Executive Officer, Jim Farley, said in a statement that the company is “taking decisive action to transform the Ford business in Europe.” He added, “We are building a strong and sustainable Ford business in Europe and this requires us to make some difficult decisions, including the need to reduce our workforce.”
The job cuts are expected to be completed by the end of this year, and will affect both white-collar and blue-collar workers. Ford is offering a voluntary separation program to those affected, as well as a severance package and outplacement services.
The move comes as Ford is shifting its focus to electric vehicles in an effort to meet the European Union’s goals for reducing carbon emissions. The company is investing heavily in electric vehicle production, and expects to launch its first all-electric model in 2023.
The job cuts will have an impact on the European economy, as many of the affected workers are based in the UK, Germany, and Spain. However, Ford is hoping that the shift to electric vehicles will create new jobs in the long run.
Ford’s announcement has sparked debate, with some arguing that the job cuts are necessary for the company to remain competitive, while others are concerned about the impact on workers.


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Nothing can put a person in a bad mood faster than hunger. It’s essentially a fact of life at this point, so it’s not as if anyone needs a reminder. But Snickers decided to play that role anyway, as part of its latest advertising campaign — and now the minds behind it are taking the campaign to a whole new level, much to the delight of those looking for a snack.
Snickers — or Mars, Incorporated, the company behind it — has put out the “You’re not you when you’re hungry” commercials for a while now. As a result, the bars’ wrappers are taking advantage of the slogan; it’s possible to find Snickers labeled grouchy, whiny, goofball, princess, and more. The idea behind it, according to brand director Allison Miazga-Bedrick, is to let willing customers identify with their hunger symptoms; after that, they can tease friends and family by forcing them to do the same.
Even though insulting customers sounds like a bad idea, plenty of people have gotten mileage out passing the bars and their messages to their pals. Based on the buzz and tweets surrounding them, Miazga-Bedrick made a good move — assuming that no one comes to blows over a candy bar.


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Petrol prices won’t stop their journey northwards, and many car buyers have switched to CNG\LPG with a substantial number of buyers going for diesel cars.
With the demand for diesel cars going up especially the hot favourite diesel budget cars being the Maruti Swift, Swift Dzire, Ritz their waiting period is a ranging from one month to four months. This waiting period is further extended by a month or more thanks to the workers’ strike happening at Maruti’s Gurgaon plant for over ten days now. Maruti has incurred losses to the tune of Rs 500 crore owing to the stalled production.
Being helpless without the man power in the manufacturing plant, Maruti has extended the waiting periods by a month or more. The strike has also affected the delivery period of the SX4 Diesel which was two months earlier has become three months or more.
Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) Managing Executive Officer (Marketing and Sales) Mayank Pareek said: “Of course, strike has increased the waiting period of the diesel versions of the three cars. We usually do not produce more cars than the market demand. So, whatever loss in production we are witnessing, that will be the impact on sales in this month.” He, however, said the waiting period has gone up by only one to one-and-a-half week.
These waiting periods range from place to place depending on the stock they get but this strike has surely managed to put Maruti in deep waters. If these waiting periods do not end, the buyers are surely going to cancel their booking and opt for other manufacturers. Recently VW India has come up with ads in the leading Daily which says minimum waiting period. Finally one man’s loss is other man’s profit.
Source : FE


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Three top mobile phone operators -- Grameenphone, Banglalink and Robi -- paid Tk 87.44 billion (Tk 8744.19 crore) to search engine Google and social media platform Facebook for online advertisements in the last five years.
The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) said this in a report submitted to the High Court bench of Justice Moyeenul Islam Chowdhury and Justice Ashraful Kamal on Thursday.
AKM Alamgir, a lawyer for the BTRC, submitted the report signed by the Deputy Director of System and Services Department of BTRC, Md Nahidul Hasan.
Earlier on April 18, 2018, the High Court issued an order to probe tax evasion by all Internet-based brands including Google and Facebook and submit a report following a writ petition.
Secretaries of the finance, law and information ministries, Bangladesh Bank governor, NBR chairman and BTRC Chairman were asked to constitute the probe committee.
At the hearing on Thursday, Advocate Mohamamd Humayun Kabir Pallab appeared for the writ petitioners while Deputy Attorney General Tushar Kanti Roy stood for the state. Advocate Humayun Kabir and five others Supreme Court lawyers filed the writ petition.
After the hearing on the report, the court ordered the NBR (National Board of Revenue) to submit on October 20 a report containing information about revenue collection from the Internet-based brands and stating what steps have been taken by the NBR to collect revenue from them.


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VNRE - Swiss hotel group Mövenpick on Thursday celebrated the grand re-opening of the property under its management in HCMC following a US$15-million renovation, and unveiled its concentration on more projects in this potential market.
“We’re looking to manage at least two more hotel projects in Vietnam and will give our top priority to a seaside resort,” Andreas Mattmüller, chief operating officer of Mövenpick Hotels and Resorts in the Middle East and Asia.
Mattmüller shared the group’s aim for the Vietnamese market after a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the grand opening of its Mövenpick Hotel Saigon on Nguyen Van Troi Street in HCMC’s Phu Nhuan District.
Mattmüller said Mövenpick had contacted some hotel project developers in Vietnam and would announce the result in the near future.
Mövenpick is eyeing Nha Trang, Danang, Hue and Hoi An in central Vietnam and the resort city of Dalat in the Central Highlands region as part of the group’s plan to expand its presence out of HCMC and Hanoi, Mattmüller told a press conference before the ribbon-cutting ceremony.
With the re-opening of its hotel in HCMC after five months of renovation, Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts now manages two operational upscale hotels for both business and leisure travelers in Vietnam.
The Mövenpick Hotel Saigon has been redesigned in style with a new lobby design taking shape around four incandescent, central pillars and a home for business travelers. Twenty-seven new rooms bring the hotel’s total number to 278 in Superior, Deluxe, Premium, Family and Executive Club categories.
“HCMC is the second fast growing city in the developing world, and that means business men and women are arriving here in droves, pretty much 24/7,” said Knuth Kiefer, general manager in Vietnam for Mövenpick Hotels and Resorts.
“With these upgrades, we have kept pace in terms of amenity and technology while providing business and leisure travelers a respite from city life that is at once hip, serene and accommodating,” he added.
The new Mövenpick Hotel Saigon has restaurants serving international foods, especially Japanese and Chinese specialties as well as a wide selection of drinks. “Our restaurants, bars and lounges will all draw from one of the largest wine lists in Vietnam – more than 300 labels,” Kiefer said.
A Wellness Studio at the luxury hotel offers privacy and individual treatments over sheer expanse, ubiquitous mirrors and televisions.
In addition to new facilities, Kiefer said the Mövenpick Hotel Saigon was a good hotel for those who take early and late flights as the property is five minutes from Tan Son Nhat International Airport.
Kiefer presided over the 2008 renovation of Mövenpick’s sister property, the Mövenpick Hotel Hanoi that features a similar blend of the modern and traditional of East and West.
Reported by Mong Binh - The Saigon Times Daily


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Huawei unveiled its flagship P20 and P20 Pro late last month at an event in Paris, featuring a revolutionary triple camera setup, AI features, and more.
Now according to a recent report from XDA, the company has released the HiAI Engine, the company’s AI computing platform. The HiAI Engine will make use of the Neural Processing Unit (NPU) found on the Kirin 970 chipset for enhanced AI capabilities.
As per Huawei, the HiAI Engine integrates “a plurality of AI capabilities and apps [that make] the apps more intelligent and powerful.” Developers will now be able to download the DDK (Driver Development Kit), SDK (Software Development Kit), and IDE (Integrated Development Environment) for the HiAI Engine to implement it within their apps.
The HiAI Engine also brings with it an automatic speech recognition (ASR) engine which includes features like speech recognition, speech conversion and text-to-speech. However, the ASR engine is currently not open outside China.
To complement the ASR engine, HiAI also includes a natural language understanding (NLU) engine, but it’s also not available outside Chine as of the moment. The NLU engine allows computers to understand the human voice which facilitates more natural communication between them. Capabilities of the NLU engine include word segmentation, text entity recognition, emotive tendency analysis, and machine translation. On top of that, HiAI Engine also includes:
- Scene detection
- Document correction and document detection
- Face detection and facial comparison
- Image category label (used to identify objects within an image)
- Image super resolution (used to intelligently enlarge images)
- Character image super resolution (used to enlarge image including characters by up to nine times)
- Code detection (used to detect QR codes and bar codes)
While the features seem promising it’s too early to say how the HiAI engine will benefit the smartphone ecosystem. Since the engine is now available for developers, it won’t be long before we see apps that make use of the engine.


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National Outbreak of African Swine Fever Hits Shanghai
African swine fever has now spread to Shanghai, infecting 50 of one farm’s 314 pigs and killing 11, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs confirmed Saturday.
Shanghai is the 19th provincial level region to report an outbreak after the first cases in China were reported in August.
Although it does not affect humans, African swine fever is very contagious and frequently fatal for pigs.
Contact reporter Gao Baiyu (email@example.com)
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- 4In Depth: PBOC Isn’t Done With Fintech as Ethics Governance Regulations Loom
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- 4UnionPay International launches premium catering privilege U Dining Collection
- 5UnionPay International’s U Plan has covered over 1600 stores overseas


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The Maritime Union of New Zealand is hosting a public meeting on the future of the Port of Timaru. The meeting will be held at “Robbies” (Hibernian Hotel), Latter Street, Timaru on Thursday 17 September starting at 7.30pm sharp.
All concerned local people are invited to the meeting, including port workers, unions, business, industry, farmers, and all those concerned with the future of the port.
For more information see the Port of Timaru campaign website.
The Maritime Union has stepped up its demand for answers as fallout continues from Fonterra’s dumping of regional ports in favour of long distance rail – and the influence that state subsidies to KiwiRail may have had on any deal.
KiwiRail has waded into the growing debate over the fate of regional ports, as the implications of Fonterra’s withdrawal from ports in New Plymouth and Timaru becomes apparent.
The Maritime Union has hit back at “socially irresponsible” Fonterra pulling out of regional ports and says the dairy giant’s profits are being subsidized by the taxpayer.
Maritime Union of New Zealand General Secretary Trevor Hanson says Fonterra has come out with “weak excuses” for its decision to pull out of some regional ports in favour of transporting products by long distance rail.
Mr Hanson says the future of the New Zealand transport industry seems to be in the hands of one man, Fonterra General Manager of Supply Chain Strategy Nigel Jones.
“Fonterra holds the fate of whole regional economies in their hands because of their size and influence, but seem to have no accountability to anyone but themselves.”
The Maritime Union says Fonterra’s decision to stop shipping containerized exports through Port Taranaki and Port Timaru was an example of how entire regional economies within New Zealand were being disrupted.
The recent announcement by Fonterra means the loss of 25,000 boxes of cargo to Port Taranaki in New Plymouth, and the loss of 24,000 boxes to Port Timaru annually.
Maritime Union General Secretary Trevor Hanson says the “overnight decisions” by Fonterra and major shipping companies are harming regional communities and regional ports through a process of “destructive competition” where ports experienced major and unpredictable changes in shipments.


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I mentioned in the past that Kia and DC Entertainment were working together to create customized Kia vehicles to highlight the founding members of the DC Justice League. Previously, Kia unveiled a customized Batman Optima SX Limited. Three more superhero-inspired vehicles have been unveiled this week at SEMA.
The Dark Knight Rises - one of the biggest movies of the year - will be releasing on DVD and Blu Ray soon (December 4 to be specific), and Warner Bros. has one whopper of a promotion planned for the lead up to release. Starting this weekend, Warner Bros. will send a total of six Batmobiles on tour across the country. The Batmobiles span most of Batman's Hollywood history, starting with the version seen in 1966's Batman, The Movie starring Adam West and ending with the black and camo Tumblers seen in Christopher Nolan's trilogy.
Back at the beginning of the month, I mentioned that Kia and DC Comics had teamed up to create a Justice League series of customized Kia cars. Under the partnership, each of the core members of the Justice League would have their own customized Kias to reflect the superhero's personality. The heroes it would be getting the customize cars included Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, The Flash, Aquaman, and Cyborg.
Kia Motors and DC Entertainment have announced a partnership to create automobiles wearing colors and customized to go along with each of the core members of the Justice League. DC Entertainment is the company behind the DC Comics brand that Justice League superheroes such as Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, The Flash, Aquaman, and Cyborg hail from. There will be eight custom cars created under this new partnership.
While it'll just cost you a couple million bucks to pick up the full Dark Knight Batcave home theater experience you're about to look at, we're thinking only a few rather rich ladies and gentlemen will be considering it seriously. What Elite Home Theater Seating does is to create fantastically comfortable chairs for your home theater setup to watch movies in complete comfort. What they've done here is to create a Batman-themed theater in a rendering program to blow your mind right up and over the top of your skull so that you'll empty your wallet directly into theirs.
Those of you jumping for joy at having just seen the Batman movie you've been anticipating for four years can continue to to do a flip as both Anne Hathaway and Christopher Nolan have suggested a Catwoman movie may be in the works. Firs you'll want to speak with Hathaway whose noted that it'd basically only be possible if Nolan is attached to the movie as well. With the Dark Knight trilogy director connected to the new Superman movie as producer, hypothesizing the same credit for Catwoman may not be that far off.
NPD has released its report of video game sales data for June 2012, and like the months before, it isn't all that pretty. Overall sales of both hardware and software were down 30% year-over-year, dropping from $989 million in June 2011 to $699 million last month. Hardware was the biggest loser, falling a whopping 45% to just $201 million in June.
Wondering how Rocksteady is going to follow-up on the near-perfect Batman: Arkham City? According to sources speaking to Variety, we aren't headed for another sequel, but instead a prequel that will feature Batman's Justice League team mates. Yes, you heard right - apparently ol' Bats won't be alone in his next video game outing, as he'll have the likes of Superman and Wonder Woman around to give him a hand.
Nokia is pushing hard with its The Dark Knight Rises tie-in with the Lumia 900, and its latest promo could be the best yet: full 3D maps of Gotham City. Previewed today in a new teaser video (which you can see after the cut), the map will allow users to "explore Gotham City like never before" complete with in-universe landmarks such as Wayne Tower.
So you went to go see Prometheus but had some lingering questions when the credits started rolling. Don't worry about it too much - the summer movie lineup isn’t over yet, with The Amazing Spider-Man and The Dark Knight Rises just around the corner. Nokia has just released what it calls an exclusive trailer for the final installment in Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, which contains some great new footage to dissect.
iPhone, iPad and Android gamers are about to get their own chance at playing Batman, courtesy of new mobile title The Dark Knight Rises which will hit download stores this summer. The game, published by Gameloft, will see the iconic character take on villains, scoundrels and ne'er-do-wells in a 3D world.


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PARIS: At France’s Renault SA, designing the people’s car of the 21st century was an exercise in cutting costs, part by part and euro by euro.
After eliminating the radio, air conditioning and power steering from the base-model Logan sedan, superfluous angles in the windshield had to go too, saving as much as 10 euros (Rs585). Another 2 to 3 euros went by using identical side mirrors rather than the asymmetric pair found on most new cars. The final price tag is 4,790 euros before sales tax.
“We would fight for even one euro,” says Luc-Alexandre Menard, a Renault executive who oversaw the final stages of the Logan’s development and attended meetings with the project manager, designers and engineers. “The only question was: ‘Are we respecting the price target?’
Renault chief executive officer Carlos Ghosn said last month that the next generation of Logans will be even cheaper. They’ll have to be. Toyota Motor Corp., General Motors Corp., Volkswagen AG and Hyundai Motor Corp. are all planning economy models to compete for new car buyers among the emerging middle classes in developing countries from Russia to China and Brazil.
“Renault has the first mover advantage,” says Simon Davis, who helps manage $192 billion (Rs8,540 crore) at Putnam Investments in London, including Renault and Toyota shares. “We will be looking around 2010 to see what other new models of cheap cars they can come out with. Toyota will certainly come out with a credible competitor.”
Renault, based in the Paris suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt, will display its new Logan models, including a station wagon and utility van, this week at the Geneva International Motor Show, where rivals may give updates on their budget-car projects.
With the Logan, Renault set out to design an inexpensive car that would stand out from existing entry-level vehicles in reliability and spaciousness. It started building the car at the Dacia plant it bought in Romania, where its workers earn around 350 euros a month, compared with 2,000 euros in France. Renault agreed last month to raise Romanian salaries by about 19%.
Since Renault started selling the car in 2004, surging demand and orders for options such as power rear windows have pushed the average after-tax retail price to 7,500 euros in Romania. Logan prices start at 7,600 euros in France.
By comparison, the two-door Volkswagen Fox, which is 16 inches shorter than the Logan, starts at 8,990 euros in France. The VW Golf, about the same size as the Logan, starts at 15,440 euros.
Renault aims to sell 1 million Logans a year by 2010, up from 247,514 last year. On 3 March, it started taking orders in Iran, where the car will be marketed as the Tondar-90, Farsi for thunder. The Logan is already the second-most popular car in Russia, where consumers bought a record $32 billion of new vehicles last year.
“The Logan’s success is that people understand what it is,” Ghosn said. “People know it is a basic car with all the functionality you care about at a very low price.”
The global car industry is bracing for millions of new customers as people in developing markets move out of poverty and look to buy their first car, replace decades-old models or upgrade from vehicles with engines that are one liter or less. That will create a surge in demand for inexpensive cars similar to that of the US and Europe in the middle of the 20th century.
In India, only one in 126 people owns a car. China’s figure is one in 143 and Brazil’s is one in 10, according to the Italian automobile industry association’s 2006 yearbook.
Toyota, which may surpass GM as the world’s biggest automaker this year, had to rethink how it uses materials and develops new cars to be able to make a cheap vehicle profitably. It hasn’t decided where it will produce the low-cost car or how it will be priced, spokeswoman Shiori Hashimoto says.
Seoul-based Hyundai Motor, South Korea’s largest automaker, in December said it would develop cheaper vehicles to sell in Southeast Asia and South America.
“People’s cars were all around in the 1950s,” says Thierry Morin, CEO of Valeo SA, Europe’s third-biggest car-parts maker, which supplies gear for the Logan, including the air conditioning, starter and radiator. “My first car was a 1952 Renault 4CV. That was a true, cheap people’s car.”
Even in Western Europe, the Logan is winning lower-income buyers as an alternative to a used car. Logan sales jumped 40% to 28,620 cars last year in the region. For now, neither GM nor Renault, which doesn’t sell cars in the US, plan to sell such models in North America.
In the new generation of people’s cars, cutting costs is more about shaving cents off the price of each part than building a large number of cars, says Garel Rhys, professor of automotive economics at Cardiff Business School in Wales.
“Taking cost out that way is often more effective than economies of scale,” says Rhys, who estimates that going from 2 million to 3 million cars produced over the life of a model reduces costs by about 5%. “Doing it Renault’s way can cut that by 10% to 15%.”
Menard, Renault’s senior vice president for eastern Europe and the Mediterranean, says it would sometimes take hours of discussion to decide whether to add or subtract one euro in the cost of producing the Logan.
“It’s not easy to get this, it’s really not easy,” he says. “And now we have this know-how.”


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Travel Oregon Launches New Nationwide Ad Campaign
The Oregon Tourism Commission, dba Travel Oregon, has initiated its second push of its advertising campaign, Extraordinary is Ordinary.
Promoting the state's stunning natural beauty, the campaign is set to drive tourism to its seven geographical regions and help to continue the state's recovery from the pandemic while supporting shoulder season travel.
The campaign, produced by the creative team at Portland's Wieden + Kennedy, kicked off with national broadcast commercials and global exposure during the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 this past July.
The strategy behind the fall campaign is to re-engage with the audiences reached this summer and invite them to visit during shoulder season.
Creative for the campaign extends to every corner of the state and reminds visitors and residents alike of all that is extraordinary in Oregon with a whimsical take on three ubiquitous elements: rocks, water and soil. The video campaign combines live-action footage of real places and people with mixed media settings, as well as innovative animation techniques such as puppetry, Claymation and stop-motion.
The digitally painted sets — called "matte paintings" in TV/film productions — were created by internationally recognized artist Simone De Salvatore, whose work has been featured in shows like "Game of Thrones" and in Wes Anderson films like "Grand Budapest Hotel."
Homegrown brands are represented in several of the scenes including Trew Gear, Columbia Sportwear and Pendleton. The bowl of ramen is based on the signature dish at Portland's Afuri restaurant, and the beer is an actual beer from Beaverton's Great Notion Brewing, called "Ripe," a hazy IPA.


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Following today’s Oculus Go launch announcement at Facebook’s annual F8 dev conference, the company also revealed that Rooms, the social VR space first launched on Gear VR, is getting revamped to inaugurate Go. The company announced two upcoming apps as well: Oculus Venues – a previously teased social event viewing app for Go and Gear VR, and the newly revealed Go-exclusive Oculus TV – a big screen TV environment and launchpad for other streaming apps like Netflix and Hulu. A new gallery app is also coming from Oculus, aptly named Oculus Gallery.
The All New ‘Rooms’
The newly redesigned Oculus Rooms will be available at launch of Go, and includes support for Gear VR. Already functioning as a sort of communal app launcher for multiplayer games, the new social VR space now features tabletop games, a space to share photos and listen to music, and a screen to communally watch purchased and rented movies from the Oculus Store. More life-like avatars are coming too, the company says.
Oculus also says tabletop games from Hasbro will land on the platform soon including Boggle, Monopoly and Trivial Pursuit brand experiences.
Oculus Gallery (Available at Launch)
Much like Samsung Gallery, Oculus is publishing a Go-exclusive gallery (available at launch) that lets you stream your photos, videos, and 360 media from Facebook, Instagram, Dropbox, and your phone to Oculus Go. You’ll also be able to stream from your own home media server, which ought to help you offload some those larger media files from the headset and onto a desktop.
Oculus Venues (coming soon)
Venues, first teased at last year’s Oculus Connect, is a new experience for Oculus Go and Gear VR that lets you watch live concerts, sports, comedy and other events with your friends and what the company says could be “thousands of other people” in VR. Check out the quick clip below to see it in action.
“It’s a way to get closer to your interests and connect with other fans, with all the sounds, lights and energy of really being there,” the company said in a prepared statement.
Upcoming Oculus Venues events include Major League Baseball games, musicians like Vance Joy, emerging musicians from School Night at the Bardot from NextVR, stand-up events like Gotham Comedy Club, and more. The company hasn’t published a full schedule yet, but says one is coming soon.
Oculus TV (coming soon)
Oculus TV is a 3D environment with a big screen and seating area. Oculus TV is launching exclusively on Go, and also serves as an app-launching area for VR streaming apps.
Netflix, Hulu, SHOWTIME, SHOWTIME ANYTIME, Facebook Video app for TV, Pluto TV, and Red Bull TV are all going to be there at launch of Oculus TV. More partners like ESPN, including the new service ESPN+, are coming later this year.
We have feet on the ground at this year’s Facebook F8, so check back soon for more coverage on all things AR/VR to come out of it.


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There are lots of online safety and security firms to select from. If you’re in the market for a brand-new firm to protect your data, here are a couple of business to take into consideration. These business concentrate on various aspects of cyber safety and security, such as defending against ransomware as well as hacking. Keep reading for additional information. You may even find a service or product that fits your company requirements and also budget. This post will certainly cover several of the leading cyber safety companies to pick from. cyber security companies
In 2005, the Japanese firm obtained Braintree-based Web safety and security firm Intermute for $1.5 M. The two companies have been teaming up to fight cybercrime, and the deal brought about arrests of 2 suspected cybercriminals as well as the takedown of numerous botnets. While some may not see the benefit of this partnership, Trend Micro’s procurement of the anti-phishing firm HijackThis motivated it to re-examine its plan.
The current record from Pattern Micro lays out the business’s technique for the next decade. It describes just how the safety and security sector will certainly respond to evolving cybercrime development. While 2030 is a long way off, the company has already made numerous ponder what is ahead. One such technology is the metaverse, which has actually already made several ponder what depends on store for the future. Fad Micro is a global cybersecurity business with offices and laboratories in more than 65 nations.
Cyber safety and security company McAfee has just gone personal in a $14 billion bargain led by Introduction International. In the deal, McAfee will certainly be taken exclusive by Advent International, a personal equity company based in the USA. The deal will enable McAfee to continue establishing its safety and security options, while providing investors access to the business’s vast portfolio. Therefore, McAfee’s stock rate will certainly escalate.
If you’re looking for a trusted cybersecurity firm, you have actually concerned the appropriate location. In the 4th quarter of 2019, Cisco Equipments, Inc., reported strong performance in the areas of identity, advanced threat, and combined threat. Throughout the same duration, the company reported $714 million in income in its safety sector. Cisco is one of the leading gamers in the cybersecurity market. Here’s why. Let’s take a look at some of the business’s essential products and services.
As a cybersecurity vendor, Cisco is already a $2 billion firm, as well as gets on track to hit $5 billion in sales by 2020. Nevertheless, it still has some internal job to do. Its brand remains tied to networking, as well as several cybersecurity experts consider Cisco as a networking firm. For that reason, the business should continue to invest in believed leadership and also market education, as well as the networks of cybersecurity specialists. In order to proceed its upward trajectory, Cisco needs to concentrate on cybersecurity.
Palo Alto Networks
A worldwide cybersecurity leader, Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ: PANW) shields hundreds of organizations from cyber violations. With deep cybersecurity expertise and also cutting-edge cyberthreat prevention capabilities, the company’s security platform safeguards the globe’s most essential data and control systems from strikes. The company’s next-generation safety platform enables organizations to securely enable organization operations while stopping cyber breaches.
The cybersecurity solutions used by Palo Alto Networks consist of cloud safety, protected accessibility, as well as security analytics. It likewise offers professional services and cybersecurity consulting to help clients shield their networks. The firm’s items are marketed both straight as well as with channel partners. This permits services to select the safety and security service that’s right for them. There are several choices and features offered to secure data, systems, as well as networks. Below are some of one of the most common sorts of Palo Alto Networks products:
Automox is a cyber safety software firm with an indigenous customer for Windows, Linux and also macOS. It likewise offers support for extra os. The business offers its clients an API that permits them to integrate Automox reporting data right into their applications and also control account setups. It is the only cybersecurity software program company that uses cloud-native safety and security and patching. The business uses native support for Windows, Linux and macOS, and has a staff member count of 160.
The company is currently broadening its sales team and developing its system to fulfill the demands of enterprises. The company’s cloud-native system is developed to impose patch management, safety setups and also personalized manuscripts. Contrasted to typical safety tools, Automox is complimentary to utilize as well as has a reduced learning curve. Automox also supplies a cost-free test. To learn more on the company and its modern technology, visit its internet site.


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‘Tiger Zinda Hai’ crosses Rs 150-cr mark at box office
Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif starrer “Tiger Zinda Hai” has brought some much needed cheer to the Bollywood box office in a lacklustre year, by crossing the Rs 150 crore mark since its release.
The movie, which hit the screens on December 22, got an extended opening weekend courtesy Christmas which was on Monday.
The Ali Abbas Zafar directorial has minted Rs 151.47 crore in four days, according to its makers.
With an opening day collection of Rs 34.10 crore, “Tiger Zinda Hai” continued to pull in the audience to theatres over the weekend and minted Rs 35.30 crore and Rs 45.53 crore on Saturday and Sunday.
On Christmas day, fans of the “Dabangg” star contributed in generating a collection of Rs 36.54 crore, thereby taking its cumulative total to Rs 151.47 crore, read a statement.
Backed by Yash Raj Films (YRF), the film is a sequel to the Kabir Khan-directed “Ek Tha Tiger” and marks the return of Salman and Katrina together on-screen after five years.
Made on a budget of Rs 150 crore, including advertising and publicity, “Tiger Zinda Hai” released in 4,600 screens in India and 1,100 screens abroad.
“‘Tiger Zinda Hai’ is setting new benchmarks. Does phenomenal business on Monday (Christmas). Crosses Rs 150 crore on day four. Unstoppable,” trade analyst Taran Adarsh tweeted on Tuesday.Disclaimer:We do not allow users to post content which is copyright and We take strict actions against the users who post infringement content on our website.Although we do not host any content, users post embed videos from youtube, facebook, Dailymotion and Vimeo and are moderated before posting but we still take strict action against the copyright videos posted.If you are an official representative of any company whose videos are posted illegally on our website or you think some video infringe the copyright then you can simply send an email to email@example.com


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DLA Piper advises Bestinvest management team on Permira buy-out
DLA Piper has advised the management team of UK wealth manager and online investment service Bestinvest on its acquisition by a company owned by Permira for an undisclosed sum.
The transaction is expected to complete in the first quarter of 2014, subject to regulatory approval.
David Raff led the DLA Piper team with support from Stephen Atkinson.
The Permira funds will back Bestinvest’s plans to capitalise on the ‘advice gap’ resulting from the Retail Distribution Review and will also help Bestinvest participate in industry consolidation.
News from DLA Piper
News from The Lawyer
Briefings from DLA Piper
Law à la Mode — April 2014: fashion flair transforms wearable technologies; delivering IT services in the retail sector; and more
DLA Piper has released the April 2014 issue of its Law à la Mode publication.
Insurance and Reinsurance Newsletter: April 2014 — Italy: new regulations on complaints management; and more
On 1 April 2014, the draft measure containing amendments to ISVAP regulation no. 24 on complaints handling was published on the IVASS website.
Analysis from The Lawyer
A new breed of lawyer is smoothing the path for companies entering emerging or unstable jurisdictions
The fragile refinance market is back in rude health and US-style alternative lenders are stepping up with innovative structures to sustain the recovery


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A new report today claims that Apple's iPhone will be widely sold in Argentina next month for the first time in several years as President Mauricio Macri seeks to re-open the South American nation to global trade.
Bloomberg reports that "The iconic phone has been unavailable from carriers Telefonica SA, America Movil SAB and Telecom Argentina SA because of rules put in place in 2009 by Macri's predecessor Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner pressuring device makers to assemble their products in Argentina. Apple never opened a factory there, even as competitors such as Samsung Electronics Co. complied.
All regulatory hurdles to import the iPhone have been removed, though the carriers will have to pay import taxes that will make the devices at least 25 percent more expensive than locally assembled phones, said the person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing private information.
Still, the phone companies wanted to offer iPhones for high-end users for whom the steeper price isn't an issue, the person said. The carriers can let customers pay for the phone in installments, making it more accessible. Read the full Bloomberg report here.
About Making Comments on our Site: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit any comments. Those using abusive language or behavior will result in being blacklisted on Disqus.


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By its very nature, the high tech sector is frequently on the cutting edge of logistics and supply-chain trends. Now the industry is gearing up to face a fresh challenge: satisfying the coming surge in demand for products on a global scale.
The outlook for high tech looks bright. In the latest UPS Change in the (Supply) Chain survey, 74% of respondents said they believed exports will either grow faster or at the same rate over the next two years. But companies will have to embrace innovative strategies to capitalize on that trend.
The emphasis will be on flexibility. Global markets are constantly changing. Today, high tech companies are confronted with shrinking product lifecycles, a rising middle class and the growing risk of supply-chain disruptions, to name but a few recent developments.
One solution is to adopt a nuanced approach to sourcing production. Rather than debate the merits of offshoring versus near-shoring, leaders are stressing “right-shoring” – the practice of considering multiple factors such as company size, customer demand patterns and individual product specifications. There’s no “one-size-fits-all” solution to crafting modern-day supply chains.
At the same time, companies are aggressively expanding into emerging markets such as China, India, Mexico, Brazil and Russia. Success will hinge on their ability to address a complex web of ever-changing trade regulations, free-trade agreements and government initiatives.
Expect technology to play a major role in the high tech supply chain of the future. 3D printing, for example, promises to be a vital tool for designing new products and speeding up time to market. Innovators consider it key to meeting growing customer demands for individualized products and rapid order fulfillment.
All of these developments will take place against the backdrop of a heightened emphasis on supply-chain sustainability. High tech executives view it as a means of reducing cost and meeting customer demands. In many cases, customers themselves are driving their suppliers to pursue sustainability initiatives.
The many challenges confronting tomorrow’s high tech sector call for a high level of supply-chain expertise. In response, companies are turning to trusted partners, in the form of logistics service providers like UPS, that can help them to control costs, improve customer responsiveness, penetrate new markets and, most importantly, optimize their businesses for growth.
Learn more about high tech strategies for meeting global demand by downloading the Change in the (Supply) Chain Survey.
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LMC boss penalised, ordered to pay 12 months’ salary
The district consumer court on Friday penalized municipal commissioner, Lucknow, Indramani Tripathi for the prevailing filthy conditions in the city and ordered him to pay a penalty equivalent to his 12 months’ salary.
The consumer court order came on a May 2017 petition by Dr Anand Akhila, former senior scientist of Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, Lucknow. Judicial officer Rajarshi Shukla also ordered the Lucknow Municipal Corporation (LMC) to clear all the filth from the city within 15 days besides. Speaking after the consumer court order, Tripathi said, “LMC is not a showroom or shop which could be brought under the ambit of the district consumer court. It’s a local self-government. If we collect taxes that doesn’t mean we come under the Consumer Protection Act. The consumer court must be aware of the fact that LMC has limited resources. We get a meagre amount of tax unlike western countries where they (people) pay for every service they avail.” He added that LMC will move the high court against the consumer court order.
Reacting to the court order, Akhila said: “I filed the petition about filthy and unhygienic conditions of Lucknow city and around my residence near Metro City as a tax-payer to LMC.”
He added: “The civic body is supposed to maintain cleanliness of the city, provide clean and mosquito-free drainage, proper roads, collect garbage and prevent outbreak of any disease, proper water and sewage drainage, covering of the drains and manholes, taking care of stray animals (like dogs, cows and pigs), co-ordinate with the power corporation in providing street lights and similar functions for a healthy and comfortable life of Lucknow’s citizens, which it has failed to do.”
The court rejected the LMC’s replies and observed that undoubtedly there were deficiencies in providing clean and hygienic living.


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Dark web: Cyber attacks on pharmaceuticals
Public health has been compromised by the pandemic. The health of pharmaceutical companies is under threat too, but from a different kind of source. The Indian pharmaceutical company, Lupin, is the latest victim of this ‘contagion’ — cyber attacks. This incident has been reported just a fortnight after Dr Reddy’s Laboratories isolated its data centre services after suffering a similar cyber strike. What is especially worrying is that the attack took place soon after the latter got the nod to conduct trials of Sputnik V, a vaccine for Covid-19 developed by a Russian research institute. During the period from July to September, India has allegedly witnessed 4.25 lakh cloud security breaches and the country, it has been reported, is the sixth most vulnerable nation when it comes to such depredations on pharmaceutical firms. A study by Deloitte has also revealed that the pharmaceutical industry is one of the principal targets of cybercriminals. Even though commercial and medical data are under serious threat, the discourse on data privacy in India is disproportionately tilted towards protecting personal data. The intellectual property of private companies such as research data belonging to pharmaceutical companies are incredibly valuable and, hence, vulnerable. If the integrity of research data is compromised, a medication may lose consumer trust or, worse, be rendered ineffective.
In India, protecting such data remains the onus of the pharmaceutical companies themselves. Although the government introduced the personal data protection bill, 2019, it does not adequately address the vulnerabilities of India’s data economy. Instead, the bill proposes a preventive framework that is inclined towards excessive government intervention. This could lead to a significant increase in compliance costs for businesses and end up in a troubling dilution of privacy rights of companies vis-à-vis the State. This is not the only anomaly. The push towards a digital economy has not been accompanied by a simultaneous emphasis on online security. A legal framework for the future of health data privacy is, hearteningly, in the works. The draft digital information security in healthcare bill is being crafted to protect citizens’ health data as part of an ambitious health data digitization drive. Could the scope of this legislation be widened to include medical data of companies rather than just personal data of patients? What would be even better is to have one comprehensive law that covers all aspects of data. It should be drafted in consultation with the State, commercial firms and individuals — the critical stakeholders in the matter.


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Ina Fried, of AllThingsD.com, has suggested that Apple fans “Circle Sept 10 on Your Calendar.”
Tuesday, September 10 is the rumored date that Apple will hold their media press event to show off what they have in store for the iPhone product line.
Will the iPhone 5S have a biometric finger print reader as widely expected? Will the iPhone be available in other colors beside black and white? Will Apple finally release a “low cost” iPhone, possibly the iPhone 5C and will it be available in a rainbow assortment of colors?
About all we do know is that there will be a new iPhone this year and that it will be running iOS 7.
All will be revealed in just 30 days.


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Walmart launches new local delivery service to other retailers
(Gray News) - Walmart is expanding its delivery platform with a new service called GoLocal, which brings goods to your door from other retailers.
Now, drivers making Walmart deliveries could also be delivering packages from other stores.
“Be it delivering goods from a local bakery to auto supplies from a national retailer, we’ve designed Walmart GoLocal to be customizable for merchants of all sizes and categories so they can focus on doing what they do best, leaving delivery speed and efficiency to us,” said Senior Vice President Tom Ward in a news release.
Walmart says it has already established several agreements with retail clients and is still accepting new partners.
Walmart launched its delivery service three years ago. The company says it now reaches nearly 70% of the U.S. population.
Copyright 2021 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. CNN contributed to this report.


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GoPro shares were in free fall Monday, plummeting to an all-time low after Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock to "underweight" from "equal weight" and slashed its price target to $12 from $23. The firm cited inventory issues and slowing consumer drone opportunities for the call.
Morgan Stanley is just the latest in a series of downgrades for the stock. Citigroup and Baird recently lowered their outlooks, with Citi cutting its target to $22 from $75 and Baird reducing its rating to "neutral."
Read MoreTech watch: GoPro
Shares of the camera maker are now down more than 70 percent this year and more than 80 percent from its October 2014 all-time high, but one trader thinks a turnaround may be afoot.
"I think GoPro could double in the next year," Andrew Keene told CNBC's "Trading Nation" on Monday. "Any good news would be positive for the stock."


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It will also include a more in-depth labeling system.
Now Musk has commented again on the autopilot / FSD rewrite.
The CEO says this will lead to a “leap forward”:
“The improvement of the FSD will be a leap forward because it is a fundamental architectural rewrite, not an incremental adjustment. I personally drive the advanced alpha construction in my car. Almost zero intervention between home and work. Limited public release in 6-10 weeks. “
Last month, the CEO said the autopilot update was two to four months away and would help Tesla roll out more features much faster.
Therefore, the timeline slips a few weeks.
“Limited version” generally means that Tesla will first push the update to “Early Access” owners who test an advanced beta of certain new features and give feedback before Tesla pushes it to the larger fleet.
It’s also the second time Musk has mentioned testing the alpha version of the autopilot rewrite in his own Tesla car.
During Tesla’s T2 results, the CEO said he was leaving his home to work “without intervention”:
So I have personally tested the latest alpha version of full autonomous driving software while driving my car and it really is, I think deeply better than people think. It’s incredible. So, I almost get to the point where I can go from home to work without intervention, despite construction work and very varied situations. This is why I am very confident that the full autonomous driving feature will be completed by the end of this year because I literally drive it.
Musk’s personal Model S was spotted last month, and it also features a prototype color.
Last year, Musk announced Tesla’s plan to deploy 1 million “Robotaxi” vehicles for a self-driving carpool network by the end of 2020.
This new update is essential for Tesla to achieve this goal, which Musk says is still achievable.
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‘Toe in the water’: Without much fanfare, News Corp’s The Sun launches a U.S. site
U.K. newspaper The Sun quietly launched a free U.S. website on Wednesday as News Corp tries to take advantage of the tabloid’s existing audience across the pond.
News U.K. currently has about a dozen editorial and audience development employees working specifically on The U.S. Sun, whose operations are based in News Corp’s Midtown headquarters in New York, according to a person familiar with the matter. The soft launch is largely seen as a “toe in the water” exercise, that person said.
Alongside original reporting and aggregation, the team is also repurposing relevant content from The Sun’s U.K. version for a U.S. audience.
The U.S. Sun launched with its top story describing a fatal Ukrainian Airlines airplane crash. Other stories included an exclusive photo that the publication alleged showed former President Bill Clinton posing with Ghislaine Maxwell, a former associate of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The site also had a piece which claimed Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are planning to move to Canada. The launch was announced with a simple tweet, declaring, “Hello America! 🇺🇸 We’ve just launched our new site: https://the-sun.com.”
In November, the U.K. version of The Sun’s website pulled in 26 million unique users in the U.S., according to research firm Comscore. The Sun attracted 113 million monthly global users in June, News Corp said in its annual report for the 2019 fiscal year, which referenced Google Analytics data. News UK posted a 4% drop in revenue, to $1.03 billion, in the period, which parent company News Corp blamed on the weakness of the print advertising market and foreign currency fluctuations.
News UK declined to comment.
The Sun enters an already crowded celebrity magazine and tabloid market, alongside its News Corp stablemate New York Post and other titles including National Enquirer and TMZ. This new entrant into the U.S. market arrives about a decade after its U.K. rival Daily Mail launched with a Los Angeles newsroom. Daily Mail has since gone on to employ around 200 staff in the region and has its own TV show. For November, the Daily Mail’s site was the 45th most visited site in the U.S., drawing 75 million unique visitors, according to Comscore. (The Sun, with its 34 million unique U.K. visitors, beat Daily Mail’s 25 U.K. million visitors in November, according to Comscore.)
Since The Sun lacks the brand recognition in America of some of its peers, “it’s going to be a very risky and frustrating journey if they’re just trying to steal a slice of the ad revenue pie,” said Rob Ristagno, CEO of publisher consulting and analytics company Sterling Woods.
One strategy for the publisher could be to build an audience in the U.S. and then attempt to add a paid-for proposition — although it seems unlikely the tabloid would go down the subscription route. The Sun launched a paywall in the U.K. in 2013, only to scrap it two years later.
Instead, The Sun could experiment with providing paid events or other forms of special access to its brand offerings. “If that’s the long-term strategy, my next question would be, What niche are they trying to carve out?” Ristagno said.
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Nine arrested and ‘large quantities’ of counterfeit goods seized in Cheetham Hill raids
It's part of a joint operation targeting the counterfeit goods trade in North Manchester.
Nine people have been arrested as part of a joint operation targeting the counterfeit goods trade in the Cheetham Hill.
It comes after Greater Manchester Police (GMP), together with North West Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit, City of London Police’s Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit, the Intellectual Property Office, and its other partner agencies, have this week executed warrants and exercised powers to “fight, prevent, and reduce” crimes being committed in the north Manchester area.
Counterfeit goods and drugs were seized in “large quantities”, as well as a significant sum of cash.
GMP says the nature of the crimes being committed in Cheetham Hill have gone on to have an impact “locally, regionally and nationally”.
Detective Superintendent Neil Blackwood said that the raids carried out this week are about “so much more” than the counterfeit goods trade that the area is known for though.
“The trade, which often involves organised crime groups, is strongly linked to money laundering and immigration offences, and we also know the area is a hotspot for sexual offences and traffic offences,” he explained.
“Too often unbeknownst to members of the public who buy counterfeit goods, they are often produced using poor quality materials and / or banned substances which put health at risk.
“Ourselves and our partner agencies are committed to ridding this area of criminal activity and will use all powers at our disposal and we will be taking proactive and robust action against this trade in Strangeways.
“Members of the public can be reassured that this is a priority for us.”
“The counterfeit goods trade isn’t a victimless crime,” added Detective Sergeant Adam Williams from the Police Intellectual Property Unit (PIPCU) at the North West Regional Organised Crime Unit (NWROCU).
“Often criminals use the profits to fund other organised crime, and with that often comes violence, which can have devastating effects on the local community. The staff employed to run these counterfeit shops are often vulnerable people who are paid below the minimum wage, whilst the criminals enjoy lavish lifestyles from the proceeds of their crimes.”
“This week’s activity should send a clear message,” he added.
“We will stop at nothing to tackle this issue and it’s a priority we will continue to crack down on.”
Featured Image – GMP


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HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — Makeup and beauty expert Peter Lamas, the founder of Peter Lamas Products, in February is launching a skin care collection that promises to minimize the appearance of fine lines, wrinkles and scars.
The line combines natural ingredients with advanced technology to reveal resilient, luminous skin, according to the company.
"I am very excited about the launch of our new skincare line. My team and I worked hard to create products that are highly-effective and unique in anti-aging skin care, without the use of harsh chemicals," stated Lamas. "The Peter Lamas Skincare Collection focuses on the use of apple and grape stem cells, Photosomes, Stay-C 50 (a highly effective and stable form of vitamin C) and other cutting-edge anti-aging ingredients to help turn back the clock and help maintain healthy, beautiful skin."
Lamas recently attended the launch of Walgreens’ 8,000th flagship store in Los Angeles at the iconic corner of Sunset and Vine. Walgreens CEO Greg Wasson, pop singer Fergie, actor Quinton Aaron, entertainer Mark McGrath and football legend Terry Bradshaw were all in attendance.
"Walgreen's new Hollywood location looks beautiful and provides consumers with a really unique shopping experience," stated Lamas. "With our products in Duane Reade stores, I am truly proud to be part of the Walgreens family."
Peter Lamas products are available nationwide at Fred Segal, Whole Foods, Duane Reade, Pharmaca and other specialty beauty stores nationwide.
Find us on Facebook for more insight, analysis and the latest in drug store news.


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Big Pharma Slumps as the Dow Turns South
Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over daily movements, we do like to keep an eye on market changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.
Stocks are falling across the markets, but the Dow Jones Industrial Average hasn't taken too bad of a beating so far through most of the trading day. As of 2:45 p.m. EDT, the Dow has lost around 90 points. Big pharma's certainly not having a good day, however, as Pfizer and Merck are hanging near the bottom of the Dow. Let's catch up on what you need to know.
Will Zilmax make a comeback?
Merck's stock has fallen about 0.7% today, still suffering some of the impact of a poor earnings report that impressed no one on Wall Street. However, the company issued an important announcement today that it will attempt to relaunch sales of animal food product Zilmax in the U.S. and Canada, according to Reuters.
Zilmax first hit the skids in August when animal behavior concerns arose from food giant Tyson Foods . Tyson reported that cattle that had been fed products including Zilmax showed less ability to move normally. While the company couldn't isolate Zilmax as the specific cause of the concern, it did list Merck's product as one possible factor. Merck shut down sales then, but the company now plans to conduct an audit on the drug's use. If all goes well, Merck will have Zilmax back on the market before long.
Why is this a concern? Merck's animal health unit is much smaller in terms of revenue than its lucrative drugs business, but it's generally been a consistent cash cow over the years. However, the division lost 2% in sales year over year in the third quarter, a surprising statistic that some chalked up to Zilmax's troubles.
The future of Merck's animal health business won't make or break this company, but its slump in the third quarter puts it behind the growth seen around the business. Zoetis , Pfizer's former animal health business and one of the biggest names in the industry, has managed consistent growth in 2013 after being spun off from its parent corporation. On a year-over-year basis, Zoetis pulled in nearly 3% sales growth over the first half of 2013.
Animal health isn't the kind of growth industry that the pharmaceutical business is, although Zoetis' solid growth hasn't yet translated to its stock yet, as shares of this company have only gained around 3% since it launched earlier this year. Merck investors shouldn't fret over the declining performance of its animal health group after just one quarter, and if Zilmax returns to the market expect this division to turn around in the coming quarters back to its consistent self.
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The article Big Pharma Slumps as the Dow Turns South originally appeared on Fool.com.
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According to the company, the deal expands its European footprint into Spain and Portugal.
BVI announced the acquisition of Medical Mix, a company specializing in the supply of medical devices for ophthalmic surgery across Spain and Portugal.
According to BVI, the agreement comes on the heels of a period of momentum for the company as it grows into a broad manufacturer and supplier of solutions that provide an end-to-end range of products for cataract, retinal, and glaucoma diseases.
In a news release, the company noted the acquisition is another pivotal step in BVI’s growth which has been increasing over the last 5 years. The company added that its European footprint features direct sales representatives and infrastructure in all major Western European markets, increasing from only three markets 5 years ago.
Servin Korangy, president and CEO of BVI, pointed out in the news release it is a pleasure to welcome Medical Mix to the BVI team.
“When Vicente (Durán) and I began discussions, it was immediately evident that our strategic vision for our industry was incredibly consistent,’ he said in the news release. “This shared vision of the future will serve as a rock-solid foundation for our continued success in the market.”
Durán, Medical Mix founder and president, added in the news release that the agreement with BVI is a very exciting next step for his company and the market in Spain and Portugal.
“The business philosophy and approach of BVI makes our combined future very bright, offering the market the best portfolio of innovative products together with the best service tailored to customers’ needs,” he said.
Founded in 1982 and headquartered in Barcelona, Medical Mix is one of the largest providers of surgical ophthalmic products in Spain and Portugal, according to the news release, and the robust portfolio is composed mainly of BVI products alongside other prestigious international brands. The company has been built to consistently deliver the highest quality of service alongside its breadth of products which allow it to serve as a trusted partner to surgeons and patients across both countries.
Medical Mix, a longstanding distributor of BVI’s Intraocular Lenses (IOLs) since 2008, consumables since 2012, and equipment since 2019, has been a key partner with BVI products. This acquisition solidifies the enduring partnership, allowing both companies to provide comprehensive ophthalmic solutions to their customers.
According to the news release, BVI partners with ophthalmic surgeons to improve the vision of millions of patients across the globe. The company noted its organization supports surgical teams in more than 90 countries worldwide, either directly or through our network of trusted distributors.


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This article is more than 1 year old
Microsoft, Asus launch anti-Linuxbook campaign
'It's Better with Windows'
Microsoft and Asus have teamed up to present a new advertising smarm-storm intended to extol the virtues of Windows on netbooks - and smear Linux.
The joint effort's spawn is a website entitled "It's Better with Windows." It's a simple site with a simple message: Windows can prevent poor, unsuspecting non-techies from "dealing with an unfamiliar environment or major compatibility issues."
And, yes, that's their emphasis, not ours.
The Asus-hosted site features a teeth-grindingly vapid video showcasing happy multiculties as they enrich their lives by using Asus Eee PCs running Windows, complete with a soundtrack of some of the most jejune tunes you may ever have the misfortune to endure.
Watch it if you dare.
Netbooks were once a happy hunting ground for Linux, but Microsoft has steadily gained ground on the open sorcery of that freely available OS - so much so that an NPD report last month stated that the Windows installation rate on netbooks has grown from 10 per cent in the first half of 2008 to 96 per cent in February 2009.
And now it appears that 96 per cent isn't enough for Microsoft. They want it all.
Why? Well, as the site proudly proclaims, Windows is trusted, familiar, and compatible. And, by implication, Linux isn't.
Those nice folks in Redmond and their co-conspirators at Asus are just trying to help. ®


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Dropbox unfazed by Apple’s new file storage app
Apple’s (AAPL) recently-announced iCloud Drive is being heralded as a potential Dropbox killer. Dropbox, naturally, isn’t convinced.
“Our approach has always been to be extremely cross-platform,” Ilya Fushman, head of product, business and mobile at Dropbox, said in an interview shortly after Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference, which took place yesterday in San Francisco. “It will be hard for any one ecosystem player. Even Apple.”
The iPhone maker has dabbled in file storage capabilities for several years, but its updated offering will now let users store any type of document in the cloud and then access or collaborate on it from any iOS device and Mac or Windows computers. “iCloud Drive brings a whole new level of collaboration between apps, providing seamless access and the ability to work on the same file across multiple apps,” the company said in a press release issued Monday morning. Files will be available inside Finder, not to mention auto-synced across multiple devices—unless, of course, you use a phone that runs on Google’s (GOOG) Android mobile operating system.
That’s where Dropbox and a growing number of competitors have the upper hand. Apple didn’t say whether it would make iCloud Drive available to users of Android-powered phones, like those made by device makers Samsung and HTC, at some point in the future. Dropbox, meanwhile, lets users of any device and any operating system share documents—even with friends who don’t use Dropbox. That’s at least partly why the growing startup’s simple and easy-to-use file storage and sharing service has amassed a whopping 300 million customers. Dropbox won’t say what percentage of its customers are also iPhone users. But the company’s head of product, Fushman, did say business customers tend to use iPhones more than devices that run on Google’s Android mobile operating system. “I just want to get to my stuff,” says Fushman. “I don’t want to think about the operating system it’s on.”
Of course, Dropbox has its challenges. In recent months the company has worked to make its namesake product more compelling and useful by launching new tools like Carousel, a photo-sharing app, and bringing its Mailbox mobile mail application to Android phones and desktops. Its biggest recent push is Dropbox for Business, a slightly more feature-rich flavor of the company’s bread-and-butter file storage offering that is intended for corporate users, adding IT-friendly features like remote wipe and additional ways for large teams to collaborate on shared documents.”We’re not just thinking about files; we’re thinking about conversations,” Fushman says.
But while Dropbox—not Apple—reigns supreme in the consumer market for file storing and sharing, as it veers into the enterprise storage and collaboration territory, it faces a market full of already entrenched competitors such as Box and Microsoft (MSFT). According to Fushman, Dropbox users already represent over 4 million businesses, though it’s not clear how many of those are actually paying corporate customers vs. rogue employees.
Initially, Apple’s new iCloud Drive is likely to appeal to consumers, not IT departments. And getting everyday users to switch to Apple’s service, even if they already own an iPhone, won’t necessarily be easy. (To wit: Despite the launch of Google’s Drive, Dropbox user numbers have continued to skyrocket.) But it’s clear that Dropbox is working in a market that is becoming commoditized, and it’s more important to find more lucrative customers than worry about Apple’s foray into a service it has mastered for years.


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Aaron Neuwirth wrote about the upcoming sequel/reboot for Candyman from producer Jordan Peele.
Matt Marshall reviews "Us," Jordan Peele's latest horror social satire, starring Lupita Nyong'o, Winston Duke and Elisabeth Moss.
Aaron Neuwirth reviews Jordan Peele's Us, a twisted tale concerning a family besieged by evil doubles of themselves, which is only the beginning.
Scott Menzel's SXSW review of Jordan Peele's Us starring Lupita Nyong'o and Winston Duke
This joyful time of year just got more exciting, especially for horror fans. On Christmas Day, Academy Award-winner Jordan Peele unleashed the first (and presumably last full) trailer for his follow-u...
Kit Bowen takes a look at how the winners of the recent WGA Awards rank on the Oscars Watch 2018 scorecard.


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Mediacorp becomes YouTube's strategic content partner in Singapore
Singapore, 1 February 2019 — The world’s leading video-sharing platform, YouTube and Singapore’s largest content creator and transmedia company Mediacorp, today announced a strategic partnership to deliver an enhanced product experience for audiences and advertisers in Singapore. The partnership, under the auspices of YouTube’s Player for Publishers (PfP) programme, combines Mediacorp’s extensive, award-winning content with the reach and marketing prowess of YouTube’s platform. The PfP programme provides a video hosting, streaming and ads management platform to publishers.
Mediacorp will host news, current affairs, entertainment and lifestyle content produced by two of its flagship platforms, Channel NewsAsia and 8world, on their YouTube channels. Through PfP, Mediacorp is expanding its network to better connect consumers with its news videos. The programme will also give Mediacorp better control of its advertising opportunities on YouTube through PfP’s specific features, reducing costs and simplifying the video infrastructure to deliver the most optimised user experience to Mediacorp’s audiences on YouTube.
Mediacorp has over 40 products in four languages (English, Mandarin, Malay and Tamil) on TV, radio, its over-the-top service Toggle and other digital platforms, reaching 99% of people in Singapore every week. Globally, YouTube has over 1.9 billion logged-in users each month with more than 400 hours of content uploaded onto YouTube each minute. The website is ranked the second-most popular in the world, according to Alexa Internet.
“We’re glad to welcome Mediacorp as a PfP partner in Singapore. Tailored to the needs of the media industry, PfP’s goal is to reduce complexity, increase reach and revenue potential. It adds to Mediacorp’s multiplatform offerings while providing YouTube users with – more great content that will educate, excite, engage and inspire YouTube audiences globally. We hope that our technology will provide a solution as one of Mediacorp's movements to reach larger audiences,” said Ajay Vidyasagar, Regional Director, YouTube Partnerships.
Mediacorp’s Chief Commercial and Digital Officer Parminder Singh said, “We are pleased to be YouTube’s PfP partner in Singapore. This strategic partnership enables us to offer our extensive range of brand-safe, quality content to the die-hard fans and digital natives of the YouTube communities. YouTube and Mediacorp share a passion for delivering great content and developing holistic advertising solutions to marketers, helping them reach the most engaged audiences in Singapore.”
 Source: Nielsen Media Index 2018
Lead, Communications, Mediacorp
Tel: +65 6350 3343


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China has overtaken the United States as the world’s largest ice cream producer, according to statistics published at the 20th China International Ice Cream Industry Exhibition in Tianjin city.
Kicking off on Thursday, the exhibition, also known as Ice Cream China, is the biggest annual event in the domestic ice-cream and frozen food industry’s calendar.
According to a spokesperson from the China Association of Bakery & Confectionery Industry, the country produced more than 3.3 million tonnes of ice cream and sales of almost $US6.6bn in 2016, reports Xinhua.
“Taking the output of smaller producers into account, China’s total production of ice cream last year surpassed that of the United States,” added the spokesperson.
Although ice cream is believed to have been invented in China, it took more than 2,000 years for the Asian powerhouse to warm up to the frosty dessert.
Per capita consumption of ice cream in China was only one litre per annum 20 years ago, but in 2016 that number had tripled to three litres.
Moreover, China surpassed the US to become the world’s largest ice cream market in 2014.


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Google lets you translate non-Roman languages
Google has released three new features and a new look and feel for Google Translate. Google now added a translate instantly button, read and write any language and text to speech. The translation into non-Roman languages is the most interesting change.
Google made the following changes, next to the lay-out change:
Tagcloudsearch engine tools twitter browser website images social media london analytics apple indonesia smx google wave baidu blog iphone sea searchcowboys ppc yandex app interview adwords marketing yahoo maps funny blogger ses europe spain research a4uexpo sem streetview business bing matt cutts realtime ads


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Apple did not show off a new iPhone as per usual at its latest Worldwide Developer's Conference; according to two analysts the famous tech company is waiting for September to do so.
Deutsche Bank analyst Chris Whitmore said Apple will release two iPhones in the fall - an iPhone 5 and the iPhone 4S. The result of the second phone will be an attempt of Apple's to reach the mid-range smartphone market. Typically, the company has only gone after high-end customers.
With Nokia and RIMM struggling the time is right for Apple to aggressively penetrate the mid range smart-phone market (i.e. $300-500 category) to dramatically expand its [total addressable market] and market share, Whitmore said in a note.
Whitmore says the mid-range iPhone 4S would cost $349 and would come with a pre-paid voice plan that would drive significantly greater penetration. While most phone carriers in the U.S. have a cheaply subsidized smartphone with a monthly contract, most people in the world are in regions where it is cheaper to carry a pre-paid phone.
The iPhone 4S would appeal to a greater audience across the planet. While Apple has great marketshare in the U.S. and Canada, it only has 3.9 percent share globally according to Gartner's most recent numbers.
Another note, from Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty, said she expects iPhone and iPad production to begin ramping up aggressively from August through the end of the year. She cites unnamed sources in Taiwain. With this timeline, Huberty is predicting Apple to release an iPhone 5 in late September or the end of the third quarter.
Apple did not respond to a request for comment.
There have been numerous rumors surrounding the next generation iPhone. One of the more recent rumors from Bloomberg said the next iPhone would be a slightly better version of the iPhone 4. It said the iPhone 5 will then be introduced in June of next year.
Since Apple is very good at keeping things under wrap, it will likely remain a mystery and subjected to hearsay until Jobs and co. make an announcement.