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More local farmers are choosing to work within the system of convenience designed by Door To Door Organics to get better food to more people.
On 15 acres of farmland in Osceola, Mo., Bear Creek Farms is “drowning” in organic zucchinis, kale, cucumbers and tomatoes. Come fall, the farm will be bursting with fresh cabbage, Swiss chard, eggplants and peppers.
“It’s all about soil,” Robbins Hall, owner of Bear Creek Farms, says. “Soil makes healthy plants, and healthy plants are the most nutritiously dense and can withstand a lot of environmental issues.”
Bear Creek Farms is one of five, local USDA-certified organic farms that sell their produce through Door to Door Organics, a service that delivers a box of specially selected, organic products of farm to door food each week.
“Supporting local is the most important thing we try to do,” Shane Hanson, Door to Door location director for Kansas City, says. “We start locally each week, with produce or fresh bread. Keeping that money in Kansas City is important, it’s what we strive to do as a company.”
Hanson said educating the community on organic foods and maintaining an environmentally friendly business are both top priorities.
“We’re trying to make it convenient and fun, not more expensive,” Hanson says. “We’re also environmentally friendly. We’re saving you gas money and lessening the carbon footprint, instead of having hundreds of customers driving to the store.”
Before Door to Door will officially work with a farmer, Hanson says they go on a farm visit and examine some of the produce. From there, Door to Door will keep an active role in the farming process. Bear Creek Farms sells its produce primarily to Door to Door and Whole Foods. The farm visits help build a healthier working relationship, which leads to a better product down the road.
Hanson says the first thing a customer will notice about organic produce is the taste. To guarantee the freshest and tastiest produce, the organic farms do not use any chemical pesticides on which larger, conventional farms rely.
“The health component is so important,” Hanson says. “We also consider the environmental impact. These big conventional farms are spraying pesticides and the runoff goes into the food and into the runoff system. People then use that water for their house and cleaning systems.”
Door to Door also offers free recipes on its website, which use ingredients from the produce available. Hanson encourages customers and others interested in going organic to experiment with some of the lesser known vegetables and grains.
“It can open your eyes to a whole new world of vegetables that people might not recognize so they stay away from them,” Hanson says. For more information on Door to Door, local produce and other products available, visit kc.doortodoororganics.com.


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The deal with the Paris-based group is said to be worth £6.5m, and will see the Newcastle giant, the UK’s only remaining FTSE-100 ranked IT company, gain treasury and cash management software.
Sage will pay an initial amount of £4.7m for Concept in cash and additional deferred payments worth as much as £1.8m depending on how the software performs.
The news was favourably met by the market yesterday as Sage shares closed up 3.5p to 139.5p.
However today the company stock has shed 2% of its value, down to 134p.
Barclays has partnered with accounting software company Xero to provide businesses with access to transaction data through its direct feed.
Government's estimate of a £400m admin saving from Making Tax Digital is way off - and is instead a huge cost burden, warns Lamont Pridmore chief executive Graham Lamont
Xero unveiled its expanded global partner programme at Xerocon South, the accounting technology conference in Australasia
Accountancy software firm Sage has been hit by a data breach which may have compromised the personal details and bank account details of as many as 300 UK businesses

domain: news


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The Philippines has announced plans to launch a wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC) within the next two years. While a retail version is not currently in the works, this move represents a major step towards modernizing the country's financial systems. The introduction of a CBDC will bring numerous benefits, including increased efficiency, transparency, and security in financial transactions.
A wholesale CBDC is designed for use between financial institutions and the central bank. It functions as a digital representation of the country's fiat currency and is only accessible to authorized participants. By implementing a wholesale CBDC, the Philippines aims to streamline interbank transactions, reduce settlement times, and minimize the risks associated with cash handling.
The decision to exclude a retail version of the CBDC means that it will not be available to the general public for everyday transactions. However, this choice allows the central bank to focus on addressing the needs of financial institutions and improving the overall stability of the financial system. By targeting wholesale transactions, the Philippines can lay the foundation for future advancements in digital payments and potentially pave the way for a retail CBDC in the future.
The launch of a wholesale CBDC in the Philippines is a significant development in the country's efforts to modernize its financial systems. The adoption of digital currencies has been steadily increasing globally, with many central banks exploring the potential of CBDCs. This move by the Philippines demonstrates its commitment to staying ahead in the rapidly evolving digital economy and ensuring that its financial infrastructure remains competitive.
With a wholesale CBDC, the Philippines will benefit from improved efficiency in interbank transactions. Settlement times can be significantly reduced, leading to faster and more secure transactions. Financial institutions will also experience cost savings by eliminating the need for physical cash handling and reducing operational complexities. This will ultimately contribute to a more resilient and robust financial system.
The introduction of a wholesale CBDC also brings enhanced transparency to the financial sector. As transactions are recorded on a blockchain or distributed ledger technology, the central bank can have real-time visibility into interbank activities. This allows for better monitoring and oversight, reducing the risk of fraudulent or illicit activities. The increased transparency will also foster trust among financial institutions and promote a more secure and accountable financial ecosystem.
In conclusion, the Philippines' plan to launch a non-blockchain wholesale CBDC within two years is a significant step towards modernizing the country's financial systems. While a retail version is not currently in the works, the introduction of a wholesale CBDC will bring numerous benefits, including increased efficiency, transparency, and security in financial transactions. The move demonstrates the country's commitment to staying ahead in the digital economy and ensuring the competitiveness of its financial infrastructure.
Gyeonggi province in South Korea is pioneering in the fight against crypto tax evasion, using innovative electronic systems to swiftly seize assets fr
Nigeria has been in the spotlight for its strict regulations on cryptocurrency trading, with Binance facing criticism for restricting USDT exchanges a
Circle has decided to stop supporting the USDC stablecoin on the TRON blockchain. This shift reflects a strategic change in risk management for Circle
A Texas cryptocurrency company, Lejilex, and the Crypto Freedom Alliance of Texas (CFAT) are suing the SEC, claiming regulatory overreach in the class
MicroStrategy, under CEO Michael Saylor's guidance, holds about $10 billion worth of Bitcoin, with a $4 billion profit. Saylor believes in Bitcoin's s


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*Average kerosene price per litre grows by 2.9%
16 October 2018, Sweetcrude, Lagos — Nigerians paid 1.9 percent more for premium motor spirit, PMS – popularly known as petrol – in September as against August, statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, have shown.
Average price paid by consumers for petrol increased by 1.9 percent year-on-year and 0.3 percent month-on-month to N147.30 in September 2018, from N146.90 in August, NBS said.
States with the highest average prices of petrol in the month under review were Enugu (N153.88), Taraba (N152.86) and Delta (N150.92) while states with the lowest average prices were Kano (N144.87), Katsina (N143.63) and Bauchi (N144.00).
Average price per litre paid by consumers for National Household Kerosene increased by 2.95 percent month-on-month and 12.40 percent year-on-year to N297.28 in September 2018, from N288.75 in August 2018.
While states with the highest average prices per litre of kerosene were Abuja (N350.00), Niger (N337.88), and Enugu (N344.67), those with the lowest average prices were Borno (N250.00), Abia and Kogi (N241.67) and Kwara (N235.28).
Similarly, average price per gallon paid by consumers for kerosene increased by 3.95 percent month-on-month and by 15.75 percent year-on-year to N1127.05 in September 2018, from N1084.24 in August 2018.
States with the highest average prices per gallon of kerosene were Ebonyi (N1260.00), Jigawa (N1258.33) and Ekiti (N1253.33).
States with the lowest average prices per gallon of kerosene were Benue (N1016.64), Bayelsa (N994.90) and Akwa Ibom (N956.01).


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Venezuela curbs tourist dollars to Florida
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The Venezuelan tourists frequenting South Florida malls will have less to spend thanks to currency restrictions by their country – assuming they can book a flight here in the first place.
The government of Venezuela reduced the limit that its citizens can charge on their credit cards in Florida to $700 annually, down from $2,500. This applies only in the Sunshine State, the top tourist destination for Venezuelans in the United States and the home of a large ex-pat community.
However, Venezuela placed similar limits on tourist spending in the Dutch Antilles, Colombia, Costa Rica and Panama.
Venezuela also reduced the annual Internet purchase limit for products in the United States to $300, down from $500.
Venezuelans using these rules can use the government-approved auction rate to convert their bolivars into dollars. As bad as the latest 11.4 bolivar-to-dollar ratio is, it’s even worse for Venezuelans when making that conversion on the black market.
Venezuela is trying to stem the flow of currency leaving its nation, which suffered eye-popping 56 percent inflation in 2013. Bloomberg reported that the new currency restrictions would save its government an estimated $1.6 billion.
Those efforts won’t be very popular for retailers in places like Sawgrass Mills and the Dolphin Mall, where Venezuela shoppers often leaves with carts of clothing to fly back home. It’s become increasingly difficult to obtain consumer goods in Venezuela. President Nicolas Maduro recently introduced a law capping prices and profit margins throughout the country so the availability of high-end goods will certainly be impacted.
RELATED CONTENT: Venezuela’s crackdown on retailers pushes big money to Florida
Even for Venezuelans with dollars who are determined to fly to Miami, obtaining an airline ticket has become a monumental challenge. Numerous airlines, including United Airlines, have halted flights to Venezuela because airlines have $3.3 billion in local currency trapped in the country because of currency controls, according to Bloomberg.
American Airlines is still offering flights between Caracas and Miami but you can bet, given the dwindling number of airlines and the law of supply and demand, that rates won't be cheap.
This could impact the real estate market, where Venezuelan buyers have shown great interest and purchasing power in Miami.
RELATED CONTENT: Venezuelan interest in Miami real estate spikes online
What’s the point of buying a condo in Miami when you can’t get an airline ticket to stay in it or buy furniture to fill it?
Brian Bandell covers banking, finance, health care and education. Get the latest banking news with our free daily newsletter. Click here to subscribe.
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Comprehensive M&A data with integrated detailed company information
Amazon to pick up stake in Bharti Airtel: Reuters
Posted on Friday, 05 June 2020 06:19
Amazon is in the early-stage talks to buy a stake worth at least USD 2.00 billion in India’s Bharti Airtel, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
The sources, who asked not to be named as the situation is still private, said the planned investment, if completed, would mean the online marketplace giant taking around 5.0 per cent of the target’s stock.
Discussions come as global players are betting on the digital arm of Reliance Industries, which owns Bharti’s telecommunications rival Jio, Bloomberg observed.
Talks between Amazon and Bharti are still in the early stages, the insiders observed, adding terms could therefore still change and there is no guarantee an agreement will be reached.
Shares in the potential target rose 5.7 per cent to INR 583.25 (USD 7.77) at 15:30 today, giving the business a market capitalisation of INR 3,300 billion.
Amazon has invested over USD 6.50 billion in India to date, TechCrunch reported.
When contacted by the technology news site, the ecommerce giant declined to comment while Bharti said the company routinely works with all digital and over the top players and have deep engagement with them to bring their products content and services for its wide customer base.
The target is a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 18 countries across Asia and Africa.
Headquartered in New Delhi, Bharti ranks among the top three mobile service providers globally in terms of subscribers, the company’s product offering include 2G, 3G and 4G wireless services, mobile commerce, fixed line services, high speed home broadband and long distance capabilities.
It has over 403.00 million customers across its operations at the end of June 2019.
During the year ended 31st December 2019, Bharti posted revenues of INR 807.80 billion, down 2.2 per cent from INR 826.39 billion in the previous 12 months.
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation fell 13.6 per cent to INR 262.94 billion in 2019, compared to INR 304.48 billion in 2018.
© Zephus Ltd


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The Corporate Action Network launched an unprecedented campaign to hold Johnson & Johnson and its top executives accountable for its production of transvaginal mesh products that injured thousands of women. The organization is entitled “Johnson & Johnson Hurts Women.” The organization submitted a letter to Senator Kay Hagan stating that “as many as 30 percent of women implanted are unable to work and function and are referred to pain management. What the future hold for these woman as the mesh continues to degrade inside their bodies is unknown as the company chose not to study the long-term effects.”
The organization also requests that the Department of Justice take criminal action against Johnson and Johnson for destroying thousands of corporate documents in conjunction with the transvaginal mesh litigation. The letter also stated that an investigation needs to be conducted in relation to Johnson & Johnson paying a physician $800,000 in exchange for his influence over the regulatory approval process for transvaginal mesh.
Members of the organization protested at Johnson & Johnson’s annual shareholder meeting this year. Several women disclosed stories about how they have undergone several corrective surgeries and can no longer engage in intercourse. Johnson & Johnson CEO Alex Gorsky stated that he was sorry to hear about the problems women were experiencing but that the company puts safety first.
Recently, Johnson & Johnson was ordered by a Texas jury to pay $1.2 million to a woman who was affected by the vaginal mesh products. The jury found that the company was responsible for Ms. Batiste’s injuries. In February 2013, a jury ruled that Johnson & Johnson must pay $3.35 million for injuries related to the mesh. The plaintiff in that case underwent 18 surgeries to attempt to correct the damage caused by the mesh and was continuing to receive ongoing treatment.
In 2012, Johnson & Johnson stopped selling several of its devices claiming that it was a business decision and not related to the thousands of lawsuits pending against them. As we previously reported, on April 29, 2014, the FDA reclassified mesh products utilized for “pelvic organ prolapsed” as high risk devices. This will require manufacturers to analyze the safety and effectiveness of the product before it receives FDA approval. While this is a step in the right direction, it comes years after women have suffered serious injuries associated with mesh products.


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Inkwell has already nominated Sen. Chuck Hagel for a False Courage Award. Now, Mark Lasswell of the Wall Street Journal praises Chuck for courageously taking on the shoe salesmen of America:
“Washington is a city of many diversions, but very little surpasses the pure entertainment value of watching a senator–media chatter about his potential attractiveness as a presidential prospect ringing in his ears–commandeer the microphone during a committee meeting and then posture in a most forceful and statesmanlike way for the television cameras. Sen. Hagel did not disappoint last week. As the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations prepared to vote on the resolution expressing outright opposition to the increase in troops, Sen. Hagel, a longstanding critic of the war, was in ultra-dudgeon about what he apparently regards as an insufficient amount of Capitol Hill kibitzing on the president’s conduct of the war.
“I think all 100 senators ought to be on the line” by having to make a “tough vote” on the troop increase, Sen. Hagel said. In a bit of bullying that instantly became the TV quote of the day, he then appeared to call out an unspecified number of his honorable colleagues as cowards: “If you wanted a safe job, go sell shoes.”
“Now, this seemed like a low blow–against shoe-store employees. Surely Sen. Hagel was not suggesting that selling shoes is physically safer than serving in the Senate. In the past two months alone, according to police reports, robbers have struck several shoe stores across the country. A Payless ShoeSource store in Philadelphia was held up on Jan. 16. At another Payless, in Palm Bay, Fla., near Melbourne, a man with a knife robbed the store on Dec. 26 and then demanded a kiss from a female clerk, police said. (Reader, she kissed him.) At the Boynton Beach Mall in Florida on Christmas Eve, according to police, a gang confrontation in a shoe store turned violent, leaving one victim dead from a gunshot wound. On Dec. 10 at the Shoe Biz store in South Bend, Ind., a man posing as a customer asked about children’s shoes and then threatened to “get violent” unless he was given money. An employee handed over the store’s cash; the man also stole her cellphone. On and on the police blotter goes.”


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The Hungarian government will instruct major grocery chains to offer price discounts with a view to lowering prices.
Government spokeswoman Alexandra Szentkirályi told a press briefing that the improvement in the inflation data was already visible thanks to the government’s measures, but the cabinet decided to introduce a new tool based on Greek and French examples — classifying basic foodstuffs into 20 categories such as poultry, cheese, bread, baked goods, vegetables, fruit and cold cuts — from July 1 at the latest. The retail outlets in question will have to offer a product of their choice in all categories at least 10% cheaper than the price in effect in the 30 days preceding the special offer, she added. Products must be selected for the special offers every week in order to ensure that the possibility of purchasing at a discount covers a wide range of products, Szentkirályi said. The discounts cannot apply to price-capped products, she added. Meanwhile, she said the Competition Office (GVH) and the government’s online price-monitoring platform is set to start running on July 1, noting that it aimed to boost competition and prevent overpricing. The authorities have inspected more than 6,000 shops since the price caps were introduced, Szentkirályi said, adding that inspections would continue as long as the price caps are in effect. “High inflation will be with us as long as the war in Ukraine is ongoing and as long as the sanctions are in effect,” she said, noting that the government aims to push inflation into the single digits by year-end. The government is not considering any proposal to cap fuel prices, the head of the PM’s office added.


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Remember the news about the plans to let Honda’s humanoid robot ASIMO conduct the Detroit Symphony Orchestra? It looks like he did a good job: (This video is no longer available.) More cool videos can be found at the brand new official Honda YouTube channel. […]
At May 13 Honda’s humanoid robot ASIMO will be conducting the Detroit Symphony Orchestra as it performs “Impossible Dream” to open a special concert performance with renowned cellist Yo-Yo.


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The American Express payment system is exploring the Blockchain distributed registry technology to accelerate payment transactions between the buyer and the seller.
The company has already sent a patent application to the US Patent and Trademark Office. It describes the principles of the future system. The application for payment is sent to the blockchain, where processing is performed using a smart algorithm, risks are analyzed and the system decides whether to approve the payment or not.
In case of a positive result the system withdraws a certain amount from the buyer and then adds it to the seller’s account. Of course, to access to such a system you will need to have digital blockchain wallets. The main advantage is the absence of third parties, unlike banks, because the processing of the request will take place directly in the blockchain.
A distributed registry can also improve traditional P2P payments, which will also be used in the system, according to the information from the patent application.
“A payment network based on peer-to-peer payments may be used to facilitate most functions of traditional card payment networks and to enable additional services and functionality” – the document says.
It is worth noting that it’s not the first time the company has come up with patents for development. So the application published last October was put forward as a part of the program of remuneration of clients. At that time the representatives of American Express said that the security provided by blockchain would have a positive effect on the reward system.


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As reported by 9news.com, mandatory marijuana safety testing in Colorado is still months away, with potency testing not scheduled to begin until May of this year, and contamination testing not required until October.
Contaminant testing will be required to screen marijuana products for bacteria, mold, filth and chemical solvents. While it is virtually impossible to die of an overdose of cannabis, people can die from contaminants. According to one lab owner, E. Coli and Salmonella have both showed up in previous tests, though she declined to discuss the specifics or frequency.
At present, the testing laboratories are operating on provisional licenses. Only three are licensed by the state, and are already overworked.
The goal is to have all legal marijuana products subject to health and quality standards as high as those for food and alcohol. In the meantime, pot buyers should look for labels to see whether any quality testing has been done at all.
Of course, it is unlikely that the current situation will hold up sales, since marijuana products have never been regulated in such a fashion in the past.
Prior to this summer, the Colorado Department of Health tested for THC in DUI cases, but it discontinued testing after DUI attorneys questioned bias in the lab. Testing for quality in cannabis will not be related to DUI cases.


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Google’s cloud-based gaming platform, Stadia, is set to shut down in just a few weeks. The company announced it would end the service last year, but the axe has yet to take effect immediately. However, the end is now in sight, with January 18th marking the final day of Stadia’s operations.
But before the platform shuts down for good, Google has released what could be the service’s final title and also a sweet goodbye message to its faithful fans. The Game is called Worm Game (via 9to5Google), an experiment on the breadboard that Stadia developers utilized for testing the system before the public launch in 2019. The Game wasn’t intended for public release and appeared somewhat unkempt.
Worm Game is a more sophisticated version of the classic Snake game that uses keyboards and gamepads. There are four modes to play: multiplayer, campaign arcade, and an excellent customizable level editor. Although it’s unlikely to be awarded the coveted Game of the Year award, it’s a decent time killer to play within the last minutes of Stadia. It will be shut down, together with Stadia’s other features, when 11:59 p.m. Pacific this Wednesday, Stadia will be a new chapter in Google’s history of failed projects.
While it’s sad to see Stadia go, alternatives are available right now for those looking forward to playing on the platform. If you own a Stadia Controller, stay tuned for an update to connect it to various gaming cloud platforms or any other console or device you’d like to play on.


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After getting a remix treatment last week courtesy of Kweku Saunderson, Frank Ocean’s Blonde album, originally an Apple Music exclusive, has now become available on TIDAL. This following its arrival onto Spotify and Google Play platforms in recent weeks. Meanwhile, Frank’s accompanying visual album, Endless, will still a remain as exclusive to Apple Music. As for TIDAL subscribers, your time has come — press play to listen below.
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HYPEBEAST 100: The innovators from all realms of creativity in the spotlight.
Explore and be inspired by the latest women's fashion news and trends.


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Since its release in 2007, every year the new GT-R model is about addition, rather than change and we are more than happy for that fact. Say hello to the new Nissan GTR 2015 which will leave you jaw-dropped. With a focus on the horizontal axis of the GTR experience, the new beast fulfills the racing needs like never before.
However, the new Nissan GTR 2015 will surely appeal to an even larger audience, as it is perfect for cruising, city driving and travelling. In comparison, for the 2014 model, the company worked diligently to further stabilize the vehicle`s vertical motion. At the same time, they focused on increasing car`s stability without sacrificing the GT-R`s speed. And then, the need for the so called “yaw” has came and the company decided to further work on GTR`s horizontal motion. That result is implemented in the perfect 2015 model.
Moreover, this monster has an enhanced performance of the suspension and tires, as well as updated drivetrain that improved the vehicle`s traction.
Enjoy the video below!
Feel free to Like, Share & Comment!


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In a twist to the US’ import ban on various HTC Corp (宏達電) smartphones, the company yesterday said some of its products blocked by US customs because of patent-infringement concerns had been allowed to enter the US market after passing the customs’ review.
“Some of our products have passed the review and have been delivered to our telecoms operators’ clients in the US,” HTC said in a statement submitted to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday.
The Taoyuan-based handset maker’s statement came after two of its flagship mobile phones, HTC One X and HTC EVO 4G LTE, were prevented by US customs from entering the country after the US International Trade Commission ruled late last year that HTC had infringed on a crucial patent held by Apple Inc.
“The company is closely working with the US customs to speed up the review,” HTC said in the statement. “The company is confident that the problem will be resolved soon.”
The US customs’ review went faster than a possible three-week examination estimated by Jeff Pu (蒲得宇), who tracks the handset industry for Fubon Securities (富邦證券), and that means the ban could have less impact on HTC’s revenue this quarter.
Originally, Pu expected US customs could spend up to three weeks checking HTC’s products, resulting in a reduction of 10 to 15 percent in the company’s revenue this quarter.
HTC, the world’s No. 5 smartphone maker, told investors last month that it expected revenue to grow 55 percent quarterly to NT$105 billion (US$3.55 billion) this quarter, recovering from a product transition period.
Last quarter, HTC’s shipments dropped 17 percent to 7.68 million units, compared with 9.3 million units in the previous year, because of competition from Apple Inc and Samsung, according to market researcher Gartner Inc’s statistics.


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'Free' is here to stay on the Web
Music publishers seem to have the upper hand for the moment in cracking down on free sharing of music files. But the future of commerce on the Web continues to look as though "free" will be a theme for a long time.
A Friday morning session at PopTech centered around "Digital Freedoms" and brought together three speakers who spend a lot of time thinking about the economy of the Web.
Online, attention (visitors) and reputation (links) have currency. This is the Google economy, says Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired magazine. You can think of Google's Larry Page as the Ben Bernanke, the central banker, of this Web economy, he says. Mr. Anderson, author of "The Long Tail," a seminal book on how the Web economy operates, wrote an article for Wired called "Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business" and has a book by the same title on the way.
Free, of course, isn't always "free." There's money to be made around the core "free" offering. One example is the
ABC NBC show "Heroes," which is "one of the most pirated TV shows on the web," says Matt Mason, a former pirate radio deejay in London and author of "The Pirate's Dilemma: How Youth Culture Reinvented Capitalism." While "Heroes" episodes can be found for free online, the show earned about $50 million from other sources last year, including comic books (using story lines that didn't make it on the air), webisodes, fan sites, and merchandise sales. The fans essentially took the core story and created a bigger universe for themselves.


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Glen’s Garden Market owner Danielle Vogel learned that two of her grocery store employees tested positive for Covid-19 on a recent Saturday night. Concerned about next steps and getting staff tested as soon as possible on a busy shopping weekend, she called the DC Covid-19 Hotline. A pre-recorded message clicked on: “Please call back during normal business hours, Monday through Friday, 7 AM to 7 PM.”
After going to the DC Coronavirus website, Vogel says she dug up information for two public testing sites but learned they were also only open on certain weekdays with limited hours.
“This representation by the mayor that grocery store employees can easily get tested is inaccurate,” says Vogel, citing a statement by Mayor Muriel Bowser that tests will be widely available to grocery workers. Vogel, who maintains strict safety measures at her store, including limiting capacity to five shoppers at a time, ended up taking her team to a clinic in Maryland for tests—all negative—after failing to make progress in DC. “I spent a bit of time on the DC coronavirus website. I’m a lawyer for Godsakes—if I can’t figure this out, good luck.”
The DC Department of Health says there are no plans to extend the hours of the “Covid human needs referral service center,” as it’s also called, to accommodate weekend or late-night inquiries (though there are emergency contacts such as a line for residents who’ve been ordered to quarantine by a medical professional). The hotline operates more like a switchboard where personnel direct your call—or refer you to department websites in a multitude of languages—for inquiries about how to obtain social service and unemployment benefits, food, health services, support for children and seniors, and more.
So no, not as helpful at the Butterball Hotline—which, for the record, is open 24/7.


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Google has unveiled a new cloud gaming platform called “Stadia” which will stream console-quality games to multiple devices such as TVs, PCs, tablets and smartphones. These types of games have traditionally only been available to play using home-owned hardware such a PlayStation 4 or XBox One console, using software downloaded from the internet or purchased on disc.Google may be about to steal a march on the video game business, and change its future, by allowing viewers of YouTube gaming videos to simply click a button and actually enter that game and begin playing it themselves.
Introduced at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco by Google CEO Sundar Pichai, “Stadia” will be a cloud-based system where games run elsewhere, on Google’s own high-end hardware, but users connect to the game with their device via the web. The technology will operate best when used with Stadia’s dedicated controller which links directly to Google’s servers to interact with the game, rather than via the device being used to view it on. This will reduce latency or lag (the delay between a player performing an action, and the game reacting to that move) and improve the quality of play. No pricing has yet been revealed but Google says Stadia will launch in 2019 in the US, Canada, UK and Europe.


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2013-10-23 14:41:46 - DesiDime conducted a survey across various channels to gaze the interest of online shoppers in India and to understand the most preferred e-commerce store in India.
Indian E-Commerce Survey Part I – 2013
India’s Largest Online Shopping Community For Deals & Coupons
Which are India’s Most preferred Ecommerce Stores?
Desidime is India’s largest user driven online shopping community with 1.6 million visitors every month. They work closely with over 500 e-commerce stores and provide a platform for users to discuss and make the best shopping
decisions by sharing the best deals, coupons and freebies across India.
Some stats regarding DesiDime
– Approx. 1.6 million visits every month
– More than 1.1 million posts in DesiDime forums
lakh fan following on Facebook
– Aggregating deals and coupons for more than 500 stores
– Alexa Rank: 275
DesiDime advertised the survey on their homepage ( www.DesiDime.com
). The survey also ran across their Facebook page, which has over 1.25 lakhs fans. To further comprehend the shopping scenario across e-commerce and online shoppers in India, they took help of an e-commerce company which sent out a mailer to its existing 10 lakhs subscribers to understand the key players in the e-commerce market and mind-set of the varying age group.
DesiDime ran this survey on its various channels for over a month and gathered feedback from around 3,500 respondents. Off the overall responses, 90% were male and close to 45% were in the age group of 25 – 34 Years. The information gathered from the survey is summarised below.
Flipkart is the No. 1 Preferred e-commerce store in India
Flipkart was uniformly voted as the favorite online store by respondents across various age groups and gender, followed by eBay India and Snapdeal, 78% respondents have selected Flipkart as one their top 5 favorite ecommerce stores.
Amazon India, though launched very recently was not lagging behind. Surprisingly, 50% of the respondents chose Amazon as one of the popular store.
Also Marketplace & Horizontal players seemed to have more popularity as compared to vertical specific players
While Flipkart continued to remain the number one store across gender amongst women fashion brands like Jabong, Myntra and Yebhi featured in the list of the top 10 preferred e-commerce store
Flipkart was uniformly voted as the favorite online store by respondents across various age groups, followed by eBay India and Snapdeal.
Respondents in the age group 15-24 years, preferred pizzas and mobile recharges stores like Dominos and PayTM
Interestingly, electronic players like Croma Retail and Indiatimes Shopping were recommended by respondents in the age group + 35 years.
By far, Flipkart, eBay India, Snapdeal and Amazon India have been the most popular stores among men and women shoppers. Jabong also emerged as favourite among female shoppers.
This is the first part of a two part series covering the Indian ecommerce market. DesiDime’s next step is to understand the type of products users prefer to shop online, how often people prefer to shop online, cities contributing the maximum to online shopping, how much importance does social media play and how much mobile is contributing to the overall transactions. This will in turn help to understand all the stakeholders Indian e-commerce market better.
Press Contact: Mehul Jobanputra
Phone: +91-98337 3488


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Fifteen electric sedans ordered by employees of the new Tesla factory in Shanghai were delivered at a ceremony in December, 2019. (File photo: China Daily)
Foreign brand cars' sales in China continued to rise in May as offline consumption accelerated its recovery. As the US and the EU are showing almost no economic recovery signs amid the global pandemic, China is expected to be the most promising car market in 2020, an analyst said.
As electric carmaker and battery manufacturer Tesla Inc struggles to resume production capacity at its US factory, sales of the made-in-China Tesla Model 3 hit 11,095 units, skyrocketing 205 percent month-on-month, the latest data from the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) showed.
Thanks to online and offline promotional activities like livestreaming on e-commerce platforms in China, Sweden's Volvo saw continued growth in both its sales and client entry rate in May. According to a company statement, it sold 15,100 cars in the Chinese mainland in the month, up 22 percent year-on-year. Its client entry rate grew 40 percent year-on-year.
Major Japanese brands such as Nissan Motor, MAZDA and Toyota Motor Corp reported sound sales performances in China in May.
MAZDA sold a total of 22,886 cars in China in May, surging 31.64 percent year-on-year. That is much higher than the Chinese market's average car sales growth of 1.8 percent year-on-year to 1.61 million units, data from the CPCA showed.
Toyota reported May sales of 166,300 cars in China, an increase of 20.1 percent year-on-year. Toyota's sales in the market have now recovered to pre-coronavirus levels and are expected to further rise through the rest of the year with the rollout of the company's compact Wildlander SUV.
Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the CPCA, told the Global Times on Wednesday that foreign brands' sales performances in May were within expectations as the country's auto market has arguably recovered its vitality.
"As there is yet no sign of auto market recovery in the US or Europe, China may be the most promising car market in 2020," he said, predicting the country's auto market growth will be 7 percent this year.
Despite the COVID-19 impact, foreign brands ramped up investment in the Chinese market.
Toyota announced on June 5 that it would invest about 200 million yuan ($28.24 million) in a new joint venture with five Chinese auto companies to develop hydrogen fuel cell technology.
That came after Volkswagen announced its plan to invest 1 billion euros ($1.13 billion) to acquire 50 percent of shares of Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Co in Hefei, East China's Anhui Province to expand its presence in China and the electric vehicle sector.


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March 28, 2016
It’s a huge year for Vans. 2016 marks the brand’s 50th anniversary, and they’re going big with their celebrations. Over the past week, Vans has hosted skateboarders, creative individuals, musicians and purveyors of street fashion in their “House of Vans”, an event across 10 cities that commemorated their 50 years of “Off The Wall” heritage in action sports, art, music and street culture. Musicians like Wu-Tang Clan, Jamie XX and Yeasayer took to the stage at night, while fans attended DIY workshops, checked out exhibitions by their local artists and watched a skateboarding competition during the day. As part of its 50-year anniversary, they’ve also released a swanky new Gold Pack Special Edition Footwear and Apparel Collection to commemorate this milestone. This 22-piece collection features iconic silhouettes like the Authentic, Classic Slip-On, Era 59, Old Skool and Sk8-Hi Reissue that are bedecked with gold embellishments. Also, to honour the brand’s design legacy, you’ll see emblems like the checkerboard, the Sidestripe and Duke Kahanamoku’s vintage aloha pattern across the entire collection. Shoes aside, the golden theme continues in the apparel and accessories as well. You can expect pocket tees and tank tops, as well as the 50th Zip Front Fleece, two 50th 6-Panel Snapback, the Old Skool 50th Backpack and the Realm Backpack, that have been dressed up with gold accents.
Vans 50th Anniversary Gold Pack, $20-$70. Available at Vans stores.


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This year, more holiday shoppers are expected to shop online, beginning before Black Friday through to the pinnacle of online commerce, Cyber Monday. While an increase in online shopping is good news for anyone looking to avoid the holiday rush, CIOs are rightly worried that their networks may get trampled in the online aftermath. The effect of millions of customers hitting your website at the same time can have a crippling effect on network performance, resulting in unplanned downtime, sales delays and other system hiccups at the most critical and costly time of year.
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Nokia's planned takeover of rival network gear maker Alcatel-Lucent will give it far greater scope to invest in new technologies like 5G mobile equipment while cutting costs, its chief executive said on Wednesday.
Rajeev Suri also told Reuters in an interview that the Finnish company was making rapid progress toward closing the acquisition, originally valued at 15.6 billion euro ($16.62 billion).
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Swedish telecoms network gear maker Ericsson raised its forecast for mobile data traffic, in a further boost to companies that benefit from rising numbers of consumers viewing online videos on platforms such as YouTube and Netflix.
Ericsson, the world's top mobile network equipment maker, expects a tenfold surge in mobile data traffic globally between 2015 and 2021 as the number of smartphone subscriptions rise. In its mobile industry report in June it forecast that growth would be eightfold between 2014 and 2020.
SAN MATEO, Calif – Guavas, Inc., a leading provider of big data analytics applications for operational intelligence, recently announced the launch of a new suite of applications to enable the next generation of contextual customer experience analytics that fully illustrate the customer journey across networks and services.
BARCELONA (Reuters) - The $1 billion in added revenue Cisco and Ericsson each expect to see by 2018 from their new partnership to build next-generation networks is just the beginning, top executives said on Wednesday.
Executives at both Cisco and Ericsson said in an on-stage interview that they expected "at least" $1 billion a-piece during the first phase of the partnership announced this week, but that they had bigger ambitions for the years to come.
AMSTERDAM/BARCELONA (Reuters) - Dutch navigation company TomTom announced on Thursday a multi-year contract to provide Uber with digital maps and traffic data for the software used by its drivers.
It is the latest in a series of deals for the Dutch company, which also signed agreements this year to provide maps for Volkswagen and renew a contract to supply maps for Apple's built-in iPhone navigation app.
TomTom CEO Harold Goddijn said Uber had chosen the Dutch company because the ride-hailing app company wanted to have "total control" over its own products.
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand's telecoms regulator on Wednesday has extended auction time for two licenses of fourth generation (4G) mobile spectrum after almost 10 hours of bidding that pushed up a combined prices to more than 49 billion baht ($1.37 billion).
Thailand's top mobile operators have bid aggressively to win licenses for bandwidth on the 1800 MHz frequency with base prices of 15.91 billion baht per license.
Dallas, 18 November 2015: Standards-based Carrier Ethernet 2.0-based networks are getting faster by an order of magnitude as the MEF today announced the first 6 vendors to offer 100G CE 2.0 certified products – supporting the future of high-speed interconnects in the Internet and in the Cloud. The vendors are Alcatel-Lucent, Ciena, Cisco, Coriant, Huawei, and Infinera.
18 November 2015— Dallas, USA —CENX, the global leader of orchestrated service management and assurance solutions for physical and virtualized networks, today announced that PCCW Global has selected CENX’s Cortx Service Orchestrator to enhance elements in its VPN and cloud offerings that will facilitate self-serve, on-demand connectivity. Using an on-line portal, integrated to PCCW Global’s OSS and BSS environments, customers can dynamically scale their bandwidth connectivity and cloud data center resources.
What is the big deal about 5G? Why is everyone talking about it? Why is so much money being spent on R&D to develop and marketing to capture the hearts and minds of the ICT industry?
As the Internet generation grows accustomed to having broadband access wherever they go and not just at home or in the office, the true promise of mobile broadband is becoming a reality. Fifth Generation (5G) mobile/cellular networks the next major phase of mobile telecommunications standards beyond the upcoming 4G LTE standards.


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Despite over half of worldwide online customers using credit cards to make purchases, more than 50% of eCommerce sales are completed through alternative payment methods, according to Research and Markets (www.researchandmarkets.com). The combined share of different alternative payment methods in global eCommerce sales will rise, leaving the share of bank cards at a decrease, according to the research group.
Alternative payment methods are particularly favored over bank cards in emerging markets such as China. Here, e-wallets like Alipay made up for more than half of online sales. Research and Markets also found that in Indonesia and Thailand, online consumers prefer bank transfers, but in Vietnam, this method comes second after cash on delivery.
Cash on delivery is also the most favored method from eCommerce consumers in many select developing markets due to the level of banking penetration being lower than in other advanced economies, according to Research and Markets. In advanced markets such as the USA, Canada, Japan, South Korea, the UK, and Sweden, credit card online payments remain in the lead. Notably, exceptions to this trend are in Germany and the Netherlands where alternative payment methods outrank bank card payments.


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Sue Reaume, president of the Chittenango Area Association of Churches, said the organiztion is in desperate need of backpacks, particularly for high-schoolers.
“What we do is receive a list of supplies that are needed for the various age groups from the school,” Reaume said. “We pre-pack the items in the backpacks and then set a day for distribution.
“Last year, we handed out more than 200 backpacks, and I am sure on we will have more this year.”
Reaume said the group supplies paper, pens, pencils, binders, glue, scissors, and more.
“The food pantry would also like to start giving out gluten-free food to their clients,” she said.
For more information, find Chittenango Area Association of Churches on Facebook.


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UPDATE: Kia released this photo in advance of its Chicago show press conference.
This murky teaser picture foreshadows a Kia plug-in hybrid vehicle that will debut at next month’s Chicago auto show. The concept is billed as a styling exercise to show how Kia styling would fit around a hybrid-only model.
We don’t have much more information yet, although Kia says such a model could have either a gasoline or diesel engine coupled to its electric motors. Hyundai showed its take on a hybrid, the Blue-Will concept, at the Detroit show. It’s a good bet that when both brands do produce hybrid-only models, à la Prius, they’ll share guts with one another.


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It has been over a year since Zynga, the social gaming company, finished its IPO and jumped on NASDAQ. Investors who were interested in the Internet IPOs and in social media had their peak back when Zynga listed itself as a market for sharing stocks publicly. However, the company has been going down along with other social media stocks.
There have been many opinions about why Zynga has been facing problems, among which include the freemium models their games have. While Zynga does have a huge base of users, it has definitely struggled in making money from that. The biggest problem has also included the shift to mobile gaming.
However, Zynga has been looking to further revive their growth once again and get back into the business. Back in October 2012, the company said it had a plan to reduce its cost and wants to get back onto the mobile market. However, perhaps the thing that has gotten investors so excited is the fact that it wants to make the jump into real money gaming.
October also saw Zynga make an announcement to work exclusively to offer real money gambling with poker and casino games within the United Kingdom. In the previous month, the company also said that it had filed an application with Nevada to be able to run the same kinds of games within the state.
Earlier we wrote about innovations in the casino industry, and it seems this is something Zynga is pushing for. Zynga’s hoping to regain its growth by getting into the gambling market, and it seems that the company is truly putting a concentrated effort into making this foray into the market succeed. However, up until now the only results we are able to see so far is an empty site with a ‘coming early 2013’ message.


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If you are unfamiliar with Cygames, it is currently one of the biggest gaming companies in Japan at present. One of the company’s biggest success has been the hugely popular mobile role-playing game Granblue Fantasy.
Cygames is also partnering with both Platinum Games and Konami as well, with the former working on a console version of Granblue Fantasy and the latter involving an updated port of Zone of the Enders: 2nd Runner for PS4.
This new deal though also has Nintendo acquire 5% of Cygames and operation of Dragalia Lost in the West. This also ties into the DeNA and Nintendo partnership, as DeNA also owns a 24% stake in Cygames.
While the game is expected to have a Summer release in Japan and across Asia, a Western release is planned but dates for that have yet to be announced.
From the new trailer (shown below), it’s clear that Cygames is sticking to its strong character design for Dragalia Lost, this being the company’s main monetization strategy on titles such as Granblue Fantasy.
However, Cygames and Granblue Fantasy have not been without controversy, as these monetization strategies have been considered quite exploitative.
With Nintendo closely involved in Dragalia Lost it will be interesting to see if this kind of monetization behavior will kept in check but for that we will just have to wait and see once the game is released in Japan this Summer.
Read my Forbes blog here.


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American business is interested in working in Russia despite political intricacies
This year, the US presence at the Forum is the second largest after China. We did it without any support from the government. <…> USD 85 billion worth of US investment are now employed in Russia. It is a fairly good result. Extra USD 1.6 billion are planned to be invested this year. <…> Despite the problems, our relations are broad and deep — Alexis Rodzianko, President, American Chamber of Commerce in Russia.
At this year’s Forum, the US presented the largest private delegation, a private sector delegation. This fact speaks for itself. <…> Recently, the American Chamber of Commerce did a survey which revealed that companies view Russia as a part of their global strategy — Daniel Russell, President, Chief Executive Officer, US–Russia Business Council (USRBC).
We are very much interested to be here and to significantly expand our activity. <…> We have been in the business for 75 years. Over this time, the US has seen 14 presidents. We are not thinking about today’s political fights; we are thinking about long-term interests — Seifi Ghasemi, Chairman of the Board, President, Chief Executive Officer, Air Products and Chemicals Inc .
We can compete in geopolitics, but we can also cooperate to improve the life of the society and conditions for business. <…> Business plays a small role in geopolitics, but it can contribute to building trust — James Quincey, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, The Coca-Cola Company.


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Guyana fines shipping terminal cartel
The Shipping Association of Guyana is appealing against a €17 million fine levied by the country’s competition authority against five of the industry group’s members for allegedly colluding to impose coordinated fees on certain haulage companies.
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DETROIT — A Fiat Chrysler engineer pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges alleging that he rigged software in more than 100,000 pickup trucks and SUVs sold in the U.S. so they would pass emissions tests even though they were spewing far more pollution on the roads.
The alleged scheme involving Emanuele Palma isn’t as big as the Volkswagen emissions scandal, which involved nearly 600,000 vehicles. But the indictment shows that investigators are still on the case, months after Fiat Chrysler agreed to a $650 million civil settlement and said it would fix Jeep Grand Cherokees and Ram 1500 trucks with “EcoDiesel” engines made between 2014 and 2016.
Palma, who was a Detroit-area engineer with a Fiat Chrysler engine subsidiary, is charged with conspiracy, violations of the federal Clean Air Act, wire fraud and making false statements.
Prosecutors allege that Palma manipulated software to make the pollution control system perform differently under government testing than during regular driving.
“As a result of his engineering decisions, his management, his lies, these vehicles on the road emitted dramatically higher pollutants than were allowed by law,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Wyse told a judge in US. District Court in Detroit.
Palma’s attorney, Ken Mogill, said, “We intend to defend this very vigorously.”
U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Stafford rejected Wyse’s request that Palma, a native of Italy who still works at Fiat Chrysler, wear an electronic monitoring device while he’s free on bond.
Fiat Chrysler released a brief statement, saying it continues to co-operate with investigators. The automaker in January agreed to a settlement with U.S. and California regulators. The deal, however, didn’t resolve any potential criminal liability.
“We acknowledge that this has created uncertainty for our customers, and we believe this resolution will maintain their trust in us,” Mark Chernoby, the company’s head of North American safety and regulatory compliance, said at the time.
In 2017, more than a year before his death, Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne said there was no comparison between the situations at his company and Volkswagen because there was no intent by Fiat Chrysler to cheat. He said some software on the Fiat Chrysler engines wasn’t disclosed to the Environmental Protection Agency because it’s standard among automakers and disclosure wasn’t previously required.
“There’s not a guy in this house that would even remotely attempt to try something as stupid as that,” he said of cheating. “And if I found a guy like that, I would have hung him on a door.”
Bruce Huber, a professor at Notre Dame law school, said the mention of co-conspirators in Palma’s indictment suggests that more people will be charged.
“Either people were disobeying leadership or leadership knew about it and lied,” Huber said. “Either way it’s not going to reflect positively on either the corporate culture or management efficacy.”
Meanwhile, prosecutors in Germany on Tuesday charged VW’s chief executive, chairman and former chief executive with stock manipulation for not telling investors in 2015 that the scandal was about to break.
Volkswagen in 2017 pleaded guilty in the U.S. and agreed to pay $4.3 billion in civil and criminal penalties on top of billions more to buy back cars.


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Vina Star Motors Corporation (VSM) has opened a sticker design contest to boost sales of the Mitsubishi Mirage.
The contest to design a “Mirage - True Smartness” sticker is expected to attract contestants who wish to show off their style by designing personal stickers, according to VSM, the exclusive manufacturer and distributor of Mitsubishi in Vietnam.
From August 11 to September 12, participants will have a chance to create a set of custom decals. The contest will grant 20 special prizes worth a total of VND200 million (US$9,440).
Introduced into the market at the end of 2013, the Mitsubishi Mirage targets for commuters seeking a smart compact car that's economical, comfortable, and durable.


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ARMONK, N.Y., Nov. 20, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that it is bringing a greater level of control, security and flexibility to cloud-based application development and delivery with a single-tenant version of Bluemix, IBM's platform-as-a-service. The new platform enables developers to build ap...
|By Business Wire||
|December 11, 2012 02:30 PM EST||
Dell today announced a renewed commitment to accelerate growth of small and midsize companies with scalable technology solutions, resources for entrepreneurs, and a new partnership with Clinton Global Initiative designed for next generation business founders.
“Fast-growing entrepreneurial companies are an important catalyst for global economic recovery and job creation,” said Michael Dell, Chairman and CEO of Dell. “At Dell, we’re delivering agile, efficient and powerful solutions to help entrepreneurs succeed today, scale quickly and have their ventures grow as big as their dreams and ambitions.”
Scalable Technology Solutions Designed for Midsize Companies
Dell has invested in strategic acquisitions and programs like the Dell Innovators Credit Fund to build and deliver adaptable, standards-based technology solutions ideal for the midsized business and scalable up or down to meet the needs of organizations large and small. When working with Dell, customers can count on a fast, practical path to results with the flexibility needed to adapt to new challenges. Insights gained through conversations with midsized companies and a recent research study on midsized companies, Dell developed a unique approach to meet the needs of business that will benefit organizations of all sizes:
- Open-innovation that never locks customers into proprietary technology
With new technologies emerging globally, proprietary solutions can put the whole organization in jeopardy. The Dell approach promotes an open-innovation philosophy so business leaders can decide what’s best for the company and adapt to change at any point.
According to Dell’s own research, the top priorities for midsized companies in the next year include increasing effectiveness and productivity, growing revenue and reducing costs. To address key priorities midsize companies, like their larger counterparts, are prioritizing spending on things like virtualization and cloud computing to address their aging infrastructures and security concerns while boosting innovation. With Dell’s end-to-end solutions including virtualization and cloud computing businesses are able to be more productive, drive down costs and expand revenue potential.
- Ability to manage IT services in house, outsource or a combination of both
As customers face new obstacles and opportunities, business needs and IT organizations will evolve. By giving organizations the ability to select a short-term outsourced solution or a full in-house infrastructure migration, Dell provides an efficient path to solve short- and long-term challenges.
The needs of midsized companies are not confined to the private sector; public organizations – particularly education – face the same challenges of limited resources with increasingly sophisticated IT demands. Tulane University, one of the most highly regarded and selective independent research universities in the United States, realized that the ever-expanding technology needs of its more than 12,600 students and 4,300 employees required a more modern infrastructure. Over the last seven years the organization underinvested in networking and had more than 40 relationships with a variety of vendors.
“I inherited a strained network that couldn’t keep up with the requirements, causing a costly and inefficient IT liability,” said Charlie McMahon, CIO of Tulane University. “With Dell, I found a true partner that scoped the services our network needed to architect a solution that solved the problem rather than just add equipment. With the Dell solution, as demand for streaming video, online meetings and use of web applications increases, the new network will facilitate these technology needs, allowing my team to remain 10 steps ahead of user demand.”
- Choice to buy directly from Dell or a channel partner
A recent study commissioned by Dell reveals that midsize companies across the globe prefer to purchase technology solutions direct from the manufacturer for the additional advice and consulting provided. Through a direct sales force and its network of certified partners who serve as an extension of the team, Dell is a single point of accountability to serve the technology needs of midsize organizations from the desktop to the data center. Whether a local firm or large multi-national corporation, organizations have flexible sourcing options that prioritize their needs over the needs of the vendor with the benefit of Dell sales and services professionals and thousands of certified partners from pre-sales to ongoing support.
- The exceptional ability to scale IT up or scale down at anytime
In times of change and economic uncertainty, it’s critical for organizations to solve short-term needs while keeping an eye on long-term challenges and opportunities. Scalability enables companies to not only expand resource capabilities but also cut back while remaining flexible to adapt to future challenges - without paying for more than what is needed.
D4, a leading national provider of electronic discovery, computer forensics and litigation support services, needed enterprise storage that could deliver performance, scalability, availability and cost efficiency to support data that was doubling every 18 months. The company worked with Dell to deploy a Dell Compellent Storage Center array because its automated tiering, replays and cost-efficient scalability could enable the company’s growth. To date, D4 has gone from regional to national, grown revenue by 40 percent, saved hundreds of thousands of dollars a year with automated tiered storage and reclaimed disk space.
“We’re dealing with an explosion in the amount of data that needs to be assessed in litigation,” says John Holland, CEO and founder of D4, LLC, a 135-person firm based out of Rochester, N.Y. “Hundreds of gigabytes of information in a case can be the equivalent of millions of pages and our clients are faced with tight deadlines. Dell got everything stored in a manner where it could be searched and analyzed with automated technology tools that helped our clients decide quickly whether to settle a case or seek victory in a trial.”
- End-to-end solutions company
The Dell portfolio spans across all areas of IT including hardware, software and services. Regardless of the organizational challenge, Dell technology and services can help solve them.
Dell continues to hear from customers that financing and access to capital are a key resource needed for growth. For example, SoloHealth®, a consumer-driven healthcare technology company based in Atlanta, Ga., provides free health screenings and insights from medical professionals with its SoloHealth Station™ consumer kiosks and databases, produced by Dell OEM Solutions. The company struggled with receiving traditional financing, even with 90 percent of year-over-year revenue growth. It turned to Dell for $18.5 million in debt capital from Dell Financial Services in addition to the hardware, services and support to produce and deliver thousands of health screening kiosks to retail locations nationwide.
“We worked hard to get our business strategy and product primed and ready for our big break. And that break came in a phone call from Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club, who both wanted us to deploy more than 2,000 kiosks at their retail locations in 6 months’ time,” said Bart Foster, CEO and founder of SoloHealth. “Dell Financial Services fueled our growth by providing quick and easy access to the capital needed to fulfill the demand. Today, with Dell’s help, we’ve helped more than 5 million consumers take control of their health with a comprehensive self-service technology.”
Dell Launches Center for Entrepreneurs
Dell today launched the Dell Center for Entrepreneurs, under the leadership of its Entrepreneur in Residence Ingrid Vanderveldt, a community designed by and for entrepreneurs. Building on Dell’s entrepreneurial heritage and spirit, the Center for Entrepreneurs creates a gateway to knowledge, solutions and opportunities for growing businesses. Founders at all stages of growth are invited to join this community to access:
- Resources: Assistance in identifying capital through Dell Financial Services and the Dell Innovators Credit Fund helps businesses of all sizes access the credit and leasing they need to invest in technology to fuel growth. Also included: webcasts, videos and case studies from Dell and industry experts.
- Expertise: Building on what Dell has learned through its entrepreneurial journey, the Dell Social Innovation Challenge, Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network, and Dell Founders’ Club are cultivating a vibrant community of entrepreneurs who connect with one another for new sources of financial and human capital, knowledge and markets.
- Solutions: Featuring entrepreneur success stories showing how businesses of all sizes and at all stages leverage cloud computing, virtualization, mobility, and data insights to differentiate from the competition, better serve their customers and grow.
Empowering the next generation of entrepreneurs
Following every economic downturn, entrepreneurs have emerged to create new businesses that jumpstart the global economy. According to a recent report by the Technology CEO Council (TCC), which Mr. Dell chairs, companies that use IT more effectively, especially for data driven decision making, show higher productivity and profitability than average companies.
Building on a history of supporting entrepreneurship, Dell will sponsor this year’s Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U) and support the entrepreneurship theme at CGI U 2013. This year’s event will be held at Washington University in St. Louis from April 5-7, 2013, and will bring together nearly 1,200 young leaders who are taking real, concrete steps toward solving a wide range of global economic challenges. The entrepreneurship theme at CGI U 2013 will provide students with opportunities to learn about the multi-faceted risks and opportunities involved with launching, running and growing a business, and the critical role that technology can play in building the enterprises and organizations of the future.
As the visionary outcome of a true entrepreneur, Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) is committed to help power the success of entrepreneurs by developing technology solutions that help their businesses increase productivity and grow. Dell listens to customers and delivers innovative technology and services that give them the power to do more.
Join us at Dell World 2012 – The Power to Do More. Technology professionals will learn from one another and identify key challenges and opportunities connected to the top forces changing business today. Learn more at www.dellworld.com, attend our virtual event at Dell World: Live Online or follow #DellWorld on Twitter.
About CGI University
The Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U) brings together college students to address global challenges with practical, innovative solutions. CGI U participants do more than simply discuss problems – they take concrete steps to solve them by creating action plans, building relationships, participating in hands-on workshops, and following up with CGI U as they complete their projects. Previous CGI U meetings have taken place at Tulane University, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Miami, the University of California at San Diego, and the George Washington University, and have convened more than 4,500 students from nearly 750 schools, more than 130 countries, and all 50 states. To learn more, visit cgiu.org.
Dell and Compellent are trademarks of Dell Inc. Dell disclaims any proprietary interest in the marks and names of others.
Feb. 1, 2015 11:15 AM EST Reads: 3,397
Building low-cost wearable devices can enhance the quality of our lives. In his session at Internet of @ThingsExpo, Sai Yamanoor, Embedded Software Engineer at Altschool, provided an example of putting together a small keychain within a $50 budget that educates the user about the air quality in their surroundings. He also provided examples such as building a wearable device that provides transit or recreational information. He then reviewed the resources available to build wearable devices at home including open source hardware, the raw materials required and the options available to power s...
Feb. 1, 2015 11:00 AM EST Reads: 2,611
The Internet of Things promises to transform businesses (and lives), but navigating the business and technical path to success can be difficult to understand. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Sean Lorenz, Technical Product Manager for Xively at LogMeIn, demonstrated how to approach creating broadly successful connected customer solutions using real world business transformation studies including New England BioLabs and more.
Feb. 1, 2015 10:45 AM EST Reads: 2,810
Since 2008 and for the first time in history, more than half of humans live in urban areas, urging cities to become “smart.” Today, cities can leverage the wide availability of smartphones combined with new technologies such as Beacons or NFC to connect their urban furniture and environment to create citizen-first services that improve transportation, way-finding and information delivery. In her session at @ThingsExpo, Laetitia Gazel-Anthoine, CEO of Connecthings, will focus on successful use cases.
Feb. 1, 2015 10:15 AM EST Reads: 2,105
Enthusiasm for the Internet of Things has reached an all-time high. In 2013 alone, venture capitalists spent more than $1 billion dollars investing in the IoT space. With "smart" appliances and devices, IoT covers wearable smart devices, cloud services to hardware companies. Nest, a Google company, detects temperatures inside homes and automatically adjusts it by tracking its user's habit. These technologies are quickly developing and with it come challenges such as bridging infrastructure gaps, abiding by privacy concerns and making the concept a reality. These challenges can't be addressed w...
Feb. 1, 2015 10:00 AM EST Reads: 3,320
The Domain Name Service (DNS) is one of the most important components in networking infrastructure, enabling users and services to access applications by translating URLs (names) into IP addresses (numbers). Because every icon and URL and all embedded content on a website requires a DNS lookup loading complex sites necessitates hundreds of DNS queries. In addition, as more internet-enabled ‘Things' get connected, people will rely on DNS to name and find their fridges, toasters and toilets. According to a recent IDG Research Services Survey this rate of traffic will only grow. What's driving t...
Feb. 1, 2015 10:00 AM EST Reads: 3,313
The Internet of Things is a misnomer. That implies that everything is on the Internet, and that simply should not be - especially for things that are blurring the line between medical devices that stimulate like a pacemaker and quantified self-sensors like a pedometer or pulse tracker. The mesh of things that we manage must be segmented into zones of trust for sensing data, transmitting data, receiving command and control administrative changes, and peer-to-peer mesh messaging. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Ryan Bagnulo, Solution Architect / Software Engineer at SOA Software, focused on desi...
Feb. 1, 2015 10:00 AM EST Reads: 2,584
"For over 25 years we have been working with a lot of enterprise customers and we have seen how companies create applications. And now that we have moved to cloud computing, mobile, social and the Internet of Things, we see that the market needs a new way of creating applications," stated Jesse Shiah, CEO, President and Co-Founder of AgilePoint Inc., in this SYS-CON.tv interview at 15th Cloud Expo, held Nov 4–6, 2014, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
Feb. 1, 2015 09:30 AM EST Reads: 2,474
The Industrial Internet revolution is now underway, enabled by connected machines and billions of devices that communicate and collaborate. The massive amounts of Big Data requiring real-time analysis is flooding legacy IT systems and giving way to cloud environments that can handle the unpredictable workloads. Yet many barriers remain until we can fully realize the opportunities and benefits from the convergence of machines and devices with Big Data and the cloud, including interoperability, data security and privacy.
Feb. 1, 2015 09:00 AM EST Reads: 3,014
The Internet of Things is tied together with a thin strand that is known as time. Coincidentally, at the core of nearly all data analytics is a timestamp. When working with time series data there are a few core principles that everyone should consider, especially across datasets where time is the common boundary. In his session at Internet of @ThingsExpo, Jim Scott, Director of Enterprise Strategy & Architecture at MapR Technologies, discussed single-value, geo-spatial, and log time series data. By focusing on enterprise applications and the data center, he will use OpenTSDB as an example t...
Feb. 1, 2015 06:45 AM EST Reads: 3,289
The industrial software market has treated data with the mentality of “collect everything now, worry about how to use it later.” We now find ourselves buried in data, with the pervasive connectivity of the (Industrial) Internet of Things only piling on more numbers. There’s too much data and not enough information. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Bob Gates, Global Marketing Director, GE’s Intelligent Platforms business, to discuss how realizing the power of IoT, software developers are now focused on understanding how industrial data can create intelligence for industrial operations. Imagine ...
Feb. 1, 2015 06:30 AM EST Reads: 2,049
Cultural, regulatory, environmental, political and economic (CREPE) conditions over the past decade are creating cross-industry solution spaces that require processes and technologies from both the Internet of Things (IoT), and Data Management and Analytics (DMA). These solution spaces are evolving into Sensor Analytics Ecosystems (SAE) that represent significant new opportunities for organizations of all types. Public Utilities throughout the world, providing electricity, natural gas and water, are pursuing SmartGrid initiatives that represent one of the more mature examples of SAE. We have s...
Feb. 1, 2015 05:15 AM EST Reads: 3,254
There is no doubt that Big Data is here and getting bigger every day. Building a Big Data infrastructure today is no easy task. There are an enormous number of choices for database engines and technologies. To make things even more challenging, requirements are getting more sophisticated, and the standard paradigm of supporting historical analytics queries is often just one facet of what is needed. As Big Data growth continues, organizations are demanding real-time access to data, allowing immediate and actionable interpretation of events as they happen. Another aspect concerns how to deliver ...
Feb. 1, 2015 03:00 AM EST Reads: 3,621
Scott Jenson leads a project called The Physical Web within the Chrome team at Google. Project members are working to take the scalability and openness of the web and use it to talk to the exponentially exploding range of smart devices. Nearly every company today working on the IoT comes up with the same basic solution: use my server and you'll be fine. But if we really believe there will be trillions of these devices, that just can't scale. We need a system that is open a scalable and by using the URL as a basic building block, we open this up and get the same resilience that the web enjoys.
Feb. 1, 2015 02:00 AM EST Reads: 3,223
The Internet of Things will greatly expand the opportunities for data collection and new business models driven off of that data. In her session at @ThingsExpo, Esmeralda Swartz, CMO of MetraTech, discussed how for this to be effective you not only need to have infrastructure and operational models capable of utilizing this new phenomenon, but increasingly service providers will need to convince a skeptical public to participate. Get ready to show them the money!
Jan. 31, 2015 11:30 PM EST Reads: 3,138
The 3rd International Internet of @ThingsExpo, co-located with the 16th International Cloud Expo - to be held June 9-11, 2015, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY - announces that its Call for Papers is now open. The Internet of Things (IoT) is the biggest idea since the creation of the Worldwide Web more than 20 years ago.
Jan. 31, 2015 07:30 PM EST Reads: 3,263
Cloud Expo 2014 TV commercials will feature @ThingsExpo, which was launched in June, 2014 at New York City's Javits Center as the largest 'Internet of Things' event in the world.
Jan. 31, 2015 03:00 PM EST Reads: 3,669
"People are a lot more knowledgeable about APIs now. There are two types of people who work with APIs - IT people who want to use APIs for something internal and the product managers who want to do something outside APIs for people to connect to them," explained Roberto Medrano, Executive Vice President at SOA Software, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at Cloud Expo, held Nov 4–6, 2014, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
Jan. 31, 2015 02:30 PM EST Reads: 2,789
SYS-CON Media announced that Splunk, a provider of the leading software platform for real-time Operational Intelligence, has launched an ad campaign on Big Data Journal. Splunk software and cloud services enable organizations to search, monitor, analyze and visualize machine-generated big data coming from websites, applications, servers, networks, sensors and mobile devices. The ads focus on delivering ROI - how improved uptime delivered $6M in annual ROI, improving customer operations by mining large volumes of unstructured data, and how data tracking delivers uptime when it matters most.
Jan. 31, 2015 02:00 PM EST Reads: 3,930
DevOps Summit 2015 New York, co-located with the 16th International Cloud Expo - to be held June 9-11, 2015, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY - announces that it is now accepting Keynote Proposals. The widespread success of cloud computing is driving the DevOps revolution in enterprise IT. Now as never before, development teams must communicate and collaborate in a dynamic, 24/7/365 environment. There is no time to wait for long development cycles that produce software that is obsolete at launch. DevOps may be disruptive, but it is essential.
Jan. 31, 2015 01:15 PM EST Reads: 2,759


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Business takes out top honours at awards night
THE MACLEAN branch of Banana Coast Credit Union has got plenty of reasons to smile after taking out top honours at their recent BCU Awards Night.
The branch not only took out the award for best BCU store, but also won quarterly performance awards throughout the year.
The awards recognise the great service from the Maclean team of Cath Beamer, Lorraine Dobbin, Emma Marcus and Maddi Cameron-Clarke to their customers and members in assisting them achieve their financial goals.
BCU demonstrated their commitment to their members in the Lower Clarence by moving its Maclean store to brand new premises this year, providing staff and our members with a fresh, modern fit-out, new technology and enhanced security.
Feedback from their members and the staff has been consistently positive, and BCU is pleased that the town continues to support BCU has they strive to offer a modern, local alternative to the banks.
In June, BCU was announced as Money Magazine's Credit Union of the Year, and in a statement the credit union said it was a thrill to be recognised.
"For a regional credit union to take out top spot in Australia's longest-running, highest-selling and most read personal finance magazine is testament to the commitment, passion and drive BCU exhibits by ensuring our members receive outstanding service and competitive products," they said.
"If you want to see what it's like to receive award-winning service and support a local business visit BCU Maclean today."


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Distinctive, Black-Glass Design Wins Student Packaging Competition
Washington, DC (October 2, 2014) – First place winner of the 2014 Glass Packaging Design Competition at Michigan State University School of Packaging is the student team of Brett Boonie, Stephen Grimmer, Mitchell Kreps, and Brody Losh. Their pagoda-style, black-glass design for “Emperor’s Choice” soy sauce beat out 64 student teams in this eighth competition sponsored by the Glass Packaging Institute (GPI).
The winning glass bottle features the distinct shape of a Chinese castle, complete with a bright-red tiered closure. “Every design feature ties back to the old world origin theme which is brought together throughout,” says Paul Koning, MSU packaging instructor who led the competition with Rick Bayer, GPI Academic Subcommittee Chair, as part of GPI lectures to MSU packaging students. “It’s also a really feasible package from a manufacturing standpoint and that makes it attractive.”
The 10 fl. oz. glass bottle sits on a square, plateaued base with bowed sides, and a rooftop neck and cap reflecting the distinct pagoda architecture. “The black glass made it special,” says student winner Steve Grimmer. “There are a lot of plastic soy sauce bottles out there, but if you want something to be premium it really has to be glass. Glass also has good tactile feel, and the flexibility to create really unique bottle shapes.”
Four-member student teams, all randomly assigned, from the Fall 2013 and Spring 2014 Packaging with Glass and Metal class participated in the competition, working on the project throughout the semester as they learned about glass packaging.
“It was an extremely close competition this year,” says Koning. “I think we’re increasing the demand on our students to perform at a higher level. Also, the track record of the class is well known. Students can see the previous winning models on display at the school.”
The top three teams were recognized with glass plaques, and the winning team was invited to glass container manufacturer Owens-Illinois for a tour of their Innovation Center in Perrysburg, Ohio. Student winners were also able to meet and dialogue with O-I’s new product development innovators, marketing leaders, and manufacturing quality team.
“The visit to O-I was an excellent, positive experience all around,” says Grimmer. “Their new R&D facility was incredible. They can kick out new packaging ideas faster, and test new products, such as the red glass they’re working on.”
“We wanted to make the student visit educational rather than a simple tour,” says Raul Parades, O-I’s Director of New Product Development. Students were treated to an in-depth snapshot of O-I’s design studio, quality lab, Ideation Center, Archive Center, and the new Innovation Center. “Armed with this hands-on knowledge, we hope they’ll become glass advocates, choosing to work with glass and creating innovative designs for new glass containers as they move forward in their careers,” says Parades.
"This visit really gave the students a focused understanding of what it takes to design, manufacture, and deliver a successful glass package,” says GPI’s Rick Bayer. The student visit also helped O-I understand how they could further enrich MSU’s packaging curriculum. They’re now working with GPI and MSU to have Parades guest lecture this fall.
A model of the winning design was supplied by O-I, and for the first time they designed a closure using 3D printing technology. The students had one idea for the pagoda roof line closure, but to display a full design solution, O-I created a couple of models from the student sketches. These were interpreted in a 3D CAD model and then transferred to a FDM (fused definition modeling) printer, which allows for virtually overnight prototyping.
O-I created a more traditional Lucite model of the bottle and painted it black to match the proposed black glass concept. Spear supplied a pressure-sensitive, 3-color film label for the model to replicate a traditional ACL look.
“We’re glad we could be a part of the GPI education program, and just as excited as the students to see their idea come to life in three dimension--and the real-world education that affords them,” says Doug Hesche, Director of Sales at Spear.
The top ten submissions (five from each semester) were judged by an industry panel including Dale DeVore-Ardagh, Raul Parades-O-I, Efrain Karchmer-Vitro, Dave Wengerhoff-Diageo, Bill Eaton-Pepsico, and Rich Crawford-GPI Past Chairman Board of Trustees.
“We’re really grateful to Rick Bayer and everyone in the glass industry who is involved in this annual design competition,” says Koning. “And special thanks to O-I for hosting the students this year and creating a beautiful model.”
About the Glass Packaging Institute
The Glass Packaging Institute (GPI) is the trade association representing the North American glass container industry. Through GPI, glass container manufacturers speak with one voice to advocate industry standards, promote sound environmental policies and educate packaging professionals. GPI member companies manufacture glass containers for food, beverage, cosmetic and many other products. GPI also has associate members that represent a broad range of suppliers and closure manufacturers. To learn more, visit www.gpi.org. Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook @ChooseGlass.


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Google has been issuing an increasing amount of “mobile-first indexing enabled” notifications through Google Search Console recently. The switch is part of Google’s shift to a mobile-first index for its search rankings algorithm, which began rolling out earlier this year. While some sites have already made the changeover, more and more sites have been notified, with a flood of alerts being issues over the last week.
What does “mobile-first indexing enabled” mean?
Google is issuing “mobile-first indexing enabled” notifications to sites through Google Search Console that they now primarily crawl and assess as a mobile site. Mobile-first means, for SEO purposes, that Google is more concerned about the website’s content, structure, design and performance on a mobile device, rather than desktop.
What actions should be taken?
For a non-responsive website or sites that perform poorly on mobile, this presents a significant problem. More than half of all website traffic is from mobile devices, and this major change by Google illustrates a broader change in user behaviour. Organisations must recognise the importance of mobile and responsive web design and take action to ensure their websites are designed and built to offer a great user experience across all device types.


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BBIN Wins Award and Earns Great Recognition
Just before the iconic international exhibition of ICE London 2019, BBIN has been bestowed with the winner of Australia/Asia Focused Technology Supplier at the International Gaming Awards, an awards organization with the most credible and historical nominating unit in the global gaming industry.
For the third consecutive year, BBIN has been recognized by this world-renowned Awards. The year of 2019 also marks BBIN’s 20th Anniversary since its establishment. Winning this glorious award demonstrates BBIN’s strong capabilities and long-term cultivation in Asia.
BBIN is the leading online gaming system supplier in Asia. Its technology and service have been nominated for numerous times and won multiple significant gaming awards in the industry. This year, BBIN is honored to have been bestowed with the IGA Awards. Such accomplishment is a proof and assurance of BBIN’s global credibility to existing and potential collaborative partners around the world.
In the future, BBIN will continue to develop a more diversified and professional brand, offering cutting-edge products and services. Moreover, BBIN has recently built strategic collaborations with distinguished brands in popular sporting events and international charity events. Keeping moving forward with its leadership title in Asia’s online gaming industry, BBIN supports all collaborative partners to achieve greater success and leap to new heights.


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I am deeply humbled to receive this award when I think about the thousands of Auburn alumni who have done so many amazing things.
Alpharetta, GA (PRWEB) March 30, 2017
Auburn University’s Raymond J. Harbert College of Business today named Jon Butts, CEO of Muscle Up Marketing, Entrepreneur of the Year. The prestigious award is open to alumni who graduated more than 10 years ago. Winners are selected based on their recent professional accomplishments, their impact as business leaders, ethics and integrity.
“Being recognized as Auburn University’s Entrepreneur of the Year is one of the proudest achievements of my career,” said Butts. “I am deeply humbled to receive this award when I think about the thousands of Auburn alumni who have done so many amazing things.”
Muscle Up Marketing is a full-service agency that specializes in integrated print and digital marketing campaigns for member-based businesses. Their cutting-edge strategies, robust product offering, and superior service help provide an effective hassle-free experience to a client roster of over 1,000 businesses across the United States and Canada.
Butts has experienced a tremendous amount of success since founding Muscle Up Marketing with only $1,000 and no outside funding in 2011. Butts was named by Direct Marketing News as a 40 Under 40 Winner in 2013 and Auburn University’s Top Tiger in 2016. In addition, Muscle Up Marketing was named to Atlanta Business Chronicle’s 2015 Best Places to Work, the Inc. 500 in 2015 and the Inc. 5000 in 2016.


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Reflections From the Retail Gift Card Association Forum: A Fast-Changing Landscape
In late October, I had the opportunity to moderate a panel at the Retail Gift Card Association Forum (RGCA), the premier annual event in the gift card industry, where senior executives from Panera, Disney, Inspire Brands, and Best Buy joined me in discussing the fast-changing gift card landscape. It was a spirited conversation about trends, innovations, and customized gift card experiences. Below are a few key takeaways:
Capitalizing on the Holidays Despite the Supply Chain Challenges
According to a recent Gift Card Gauge survey by Fiserv, most U.S. consumers (56 percent) planned to get a jump start on the busy holiday season by starting their shopping before November. This is a testament to the trend toward a longer holiday shopping season we’ve seen growing for years. Despite the early start to the season, many consumers report they won’t complete their shopping until late December. As a result, our panelists said they're both launching holiday promotions earlier and keeping them active later in the season, with some even extending through December and into January.
Although gift cards have been a mainstay over the last decade, panelists emphasized how macroeconomic factors in 2021 have elevated their position as a premium gift — with some referring to gift cards as the “hero gift” due to supply chain challenges. The panelists noted that empty shelves might drive even stronger-than-forecasted gift card sales. Others even predicted a shortage of physical gift cards by season’s end, which led us to a conversation on growing demand for digital gift cards.
Consumers Expect Digital Solutions
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed consumer buying behavior, and digital purchases have become a necessity. According to the Gift Card Gauge, U.S. digital gift card adoption will increase 23 percent by 2025. To that end, the panel discussed how digital gift card demand could spike exponentially as we exit 2021, driven not only by consumer preference, but also due to lack of supply and an associated increase in the cost of plastics.
Additionally, panelists described an ongoing evaluation by gift card managers of how best to solve consumers’ digital needs. If a retailer doesn't have its own branded app for digital purchases, it’s necessary to have a fully responsive website so consumers can easily buy gift cards. The panel also highlighted the importance of other digital pay functionalities, as nearly two-thirds of consumers use digital wallets. Consequently, retailers need to ensure gift cards can be used within digital wallets as consumer behavior continues to shift in that direction.
Gift Card Program Advantages: Beyond the Transaction
Gift cards are a great marketing tool to raise brand awareness and grow sales. Our panelists provided three additional bottom line-boosting benefits brands should consider when planning and executing a gift card program:
- Improving cash flow and revenue: The panelists talked extensively about how gift cards can drive traffic in-store and online, and the associated “lift,” or overspend, that occurs when a gift card is converted into a sale. On average, customers spend $59 more than the value of their gift card.
- Increase customer engagement: The panelists provided their company-specific experiences in leveraging gift cards to drive customer engagement, with numerous examples of how they're using gift cards to improve customer loyalty or as an incentive to keep customers coming back.
- Milestone events: The panelists discussed how gift card giving has grown beyond the traditional holiday season. From birthdays and graduations to anniversaries and babies, gift cards are becoming the most popular way to celebrate milestones. As such, brands should have a yearlong gift card strategy, and think of gift cards as more than a tool they break out just for the holidays.
Given the global supply chain crisis, the tried-and-true gift card will take on even more importance this holiday season. Gift cards are a staple for today’s consumers, and merchants realize that the benefits of a well-rounded gift card program extend well beyond a single transaction with a single customer.
Tom Niedbalski is the vice president of gift solutions at Fiserv, a global fintech and payments company with solutions for banking, global commerce, merchant acquiring, billing and payments, and point-of-sale.
Related story: 2020 Merchant Gift Card Omnichannel Evaluation


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Welcome to the Connected Church News!
This news item is part of the weekly top 5 news bulletin (from Week 3, Aug 22) specially packaged for leaders of Nonprofits, Churches, and Faith-based Social Ventures.
Instagram made an interesting announcement about hands free recording option for reels that is coming to the new Samsung Flip phones. Samsung is releasing its next generation of foldable flip phones. So basically it’s a phone that has a display that folds. This is not that phone. It’s an old phone. Just using it for explaining what this feature is to you. So basically if you get this flip phone, you can place it on top of a table and you can stand right here and you can record reels or stories using Instagram hands free. So you don’t need a tripod, it doesn’t have to be shaky, you don’t have to try to figure out where to put the phone. So you can use this feature on new Samsung Flip phones and record reels and stories hands free. And Instagram also says that they are bringing more improvements to Android and Instagram Android integration.
Here is the full list of the Top 5 News Items from Week 3, August 2022 with source links from Instagram, WhatsApp, Amazon, Meta, Bitcoin, Web3.
🗞 News 1: Instagram releases hands-free Reels creation on Samsung Phones
🗞 News 2: Amazon triggers a trend with a new Palm-Scanning payment system
🗞 News 3: WhatsApp releases new privacy tools, protection and activity controls
🗞 News 4: Meta releases Duet Display and Companion apps for its Portal devices
🗞 News 5: [Web3] Machankura new SMS service allows transfer of Bitcoin via text
Any questions or thoughts? Please leave them in the comments or DM me on any of the social channels.
Author of The Connected Church. Social Media and Digital Marketing Consultant for Nonprofits, Faith-based Organisations, Churches, and Ministries.