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The non-fungible token industry, currently valued at $ 100 million, is changing the perception of ownership and authenticity of digital assets. Leading companies in the gaming and blockchain world are already experimenting with NFTs in a variety of ways. The main goal, however, is to prove the authenticity and ownership of digital objects, which had proven difficult until the advent of blockchain technology.
Blockchain technology allows digital assets to have unique identifiable attributes that make them rare and irreplaceable. In NFT marketplaces like OpenSea, a variety of projects are working on the production of all kinds of creative and transferable NFT items.
While there has been a lot of excitement over the past decade about fungible digital assets like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), non-fungible tokens are just getting started and there are already plenty of advances to write home about.
A quick NFT primer
While a fungible token such as Bitcoin cannot be distinguished from other tokens of this type and can be replaced by this, a non-fungible token is distinguishable from other tokens and cannot be replaced or replaced.
For example, a banknote in a wallet can easily be borrowed and replaced with another. The person taking the loan does not necessarily have to return the same banknote. This banknote is therefore a fungible item that can be replaced by another of its kind on a one-to-one basis.
However, when buying a unique work of art or a plane ticket, it is impossible to get the same value by exchanging the item for another – provided those items are unique. Therefore, a ticket that gives you a standard class seat on a flight to Location A is not the same as a ticket that allows you to board a private jet to Location B.
Blockchain makes it possible to own NFTs in the digital world, much like anyone would own a baseball card in the physical world. These digital assets can be stored in the blockchain and transferred from one owner to another without the risk of illegal collection and duplication. Tyler Perkins, vice president of marketing at Immutable – a blockchain-based game development company – told Cointelegraph:
“The use cases for NFT are incredibly powerful. Whether it’s unprotected ownership of video game items and domain names, creating digital scarce art, or tracking goods, they work well for a variety of high value use cases in a digitally native world. “
However, it would be difficult to discover NFTs without a marketplace. Perkins noted that “marketplaces play an important role in the discovery and growth of NFTs,” adding, “The ability to trade a digitally scarce, unique asset is one of the technology’s main selling points, so marketplaces naturally support it.” Below is an overview of some popular NFT marketplaces.
OpenSea is considered the world’s largest marketplace for NFTs. With a transaction volume that exceeds many of its competitors, OpenSea offers a wide variety of virtual assets ranging from digital collectibles to domain names, digital art to card games, etc.
Simply put, the platform acts as a one-stop shop for all non-fungible tokens. Users can also customize their NFTs and sell them to a target audience in the market. OpenSea currently hosts more than 1.2 million NFTs and provides tools that allow developers to create NFTs and incorporate them into games with minimal effort.
According to the company’s CEO Devin Finzer, the future of the NFT industry will be much more active in the purely digital gaming world before real asset tokenization gains momentum.
On June 8th, PlayDapp was launched as a customer-to-customer NFT marketplace, allowing users around the world to freely trade blockchain in-game items. Currently, the platform allows users to trade in-game items from CryptoDozer and DozerBird, which are the only blockchain games supported on the market. Plans are underway to bring out titles such as “Together with the Gods: Knights of the Dawn”.
Not only is PlayDapp a platform for gamers looking to trade NFTs, it also offers developer support. According to Choi Sungwone, the platform’s general manager of strategy, the company plans to provide tools that will allow “RPG genre game items to be traded through PlayTapp MarketPLAce via NFT.”
PlayDapp focuses on creating in-game items that can be traded between users and is backed by the involvement of industry experts such as Koh Kwang-wook, the former chief technology officer of Item Bay, the world’s first website dedicated to online Game items.
About a year ago, SuperTree, the company that supports the PlayDapp marketplace, joined Samsung’s C-Lab program, a startup incubation program that supports the development of promising startups.
Game, the company that owns Game Credits, aims to be the esports industry’s game currency. At its core, the Game Credits platform uses the GameCredits (GAME) token for multiple purposes. First, the token serves as in-game currency that NFTs can be used to buy and sell in the market.
GAME token holders can also use tokens to fund the development of high quality games on the platform. The token is used to pay for transactions on the NFT marketplace and to pay fees associated with the creation of NFTs by developers.
In addition to being a marketplace for in-game items, Game Credits provides solutions for owning and creating digital assets by providing developers with pre-built tools that allow NFTs to be quickly integrated into gaming platforms.
With Game Credits, developers can earn with the NFTs they have created even without knowledge of blockchain programming. Jason Cassidy, CEO of Game Credits, told Cointelegraph that the NFT exchange is an integral part of the ecosystem: “NFTs represent the other half of crypto – the parts of our world that are unique and of value to us for very different reasons are.”
Founded in 2015, Decentraland is a user-owned, decentralized virtual world that has an NFT marketplace where users can buy, develop, and later sell land. The platform also allows users to create original artwork and scenes using simple construction tools. In addition to buying and selling virtual land, Decentraland’s NFT marketplace has wearable avatars along with other NFT items based on the Ethereum blockchain.
Each virtual element on the platform is represented with a token that is recorded in a ledger secured by blockchain. For example, virtual land is represented by a token called LAND, and those who have such tokens can build other tokens that represent other items such as a house, hotel, or school above the virtual land.
Although the platform is still under development, at its core Decentraland wants to create a new way of interacting with NFTs by creating a rich experience tied to a local business network.
The Enjin marketplace was one of the first NFT marketplaces to go online. Enjin, a platform for issuing blockchain assets, allows developers to use their Enjin coin (ENJ) to develop NFTs. Enjin Coin is based on Ethereum with a refined NFT standard that includes the Enjin suite and enables the creation and monetization of digital games.
So far, Enjin has worked with other industry players to create tools like the EnjinCraft plugin, an open source plugin that enables token NFTs to be used in Minecraft. Therefore, players can link Enjin wallets to buy weapons and avatars in-game, or swap them for other items in Minecraft.
After partnering with Ubisoft, Microsoft and Samsung – to name a few – the Enjin team has grown in popularity in the Ethereum world and plans to expand its platform while enabling safe ownership and trading of NFTs .
With a weekly volume of more than $ 1 million, Rarible is one of the leading marketplaces for NFTs, according to Dapp Radar. However, the Russia-based platform wasn’t established until 2020.
Rarible is a community-owned platform that offers a wide variety of digital assets, from digital artwork and domain names to various types of collectibles. In addition to the ability to allow players to trade NFTs, the platform allows users to use the Rarible Governance Token (RARI) to create custom NFTs. This feature allows artists to create music albums, films and even books whose property is secured on the blockchain.
The rarible token is also used as a governance token, further transforming the rarible market into a decentralized autonomous organization.
Rarible recently partnered with CoinFund, a New York-based blockchain investment firm, through which Rarible is expected to raise funds to further develop its NFT market.
The way forward
There is currently a consensus in the crypto community on the value of fungible digital assets like Bitcoin and Ether, which is determined by market forces. Non-fungible assets, however, are valued for completely different reasons and are increasingly becoming the other half of the blockchain discussion.
With reports pointing to growth of over 2.5 billion users, Cassidy believes that future growth will depend on the usability of NFT exchanges: “Hot NFT sectors like the arts need these marketplaces for price discovery to take shape because their value is purely subjective. The exchanges provide this basis for awareness of a new asset class and direct access to investments in it. “
The future of the NFT landscape looks bright as organizations like the Blockchain Game Alliance seek to bring NFT-minded minds together to further develop the industry. However, there are still some challenges along the way. For example, Cassidy noted that the lack of liquidity makes it risky to invest in certain NFTs as the market is still in the early stages with a limited number of buyers. Since the value of assets is viewed as subjective, an investor may have to wait a while to get the desired price.
With most NFTs based on Ethereum, Cassidy added, “The more Ethereum struggles to scale, the more challenges the NFT industry will face, as the ERC-721 and ERC-1155 standards currently make up the majority of all NFTs in existence today. “
Perkins also identified scalability as the main problem hindering further growth in the industry. However, he felt that scalability might not long be an issue given the efforts of several projects to develop scalable layer two solutions designed to improve the way decentralized applications process out-of-chain transactions. Therefore, Layer Two solutions reduce the cost of switching NFTs from one user to another while increasing the overall efficiency of Ethereum-based platforms.


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Tired of attending meetings with inadequate lighting? Google Meet will now feature an automatic low light mode on its web interface. This mode uses artificial intelligence to gauge your ambient lighting and switch itself on when needed. As a result, you should be able to broadcast brighter videos with more clarity while attending business meetings. The feature is expected to roll out within the next 15 days, and will be available to Google Workspace, G Suite Basic, and G Suite Business users.
Google has acknowledged that using the low light mode takes more processing power than what’s offered by old devices, and thus, using the feature might just hamper performance. Users who find their devices underperforming due to the new feature can simply turn it off by going into their video settings.
Google Meet’s smartphone interface already offers this feature. In fact, it’s available for use on both Google Meet and Google Duo.
Video Source: Google Workspace

domain: news


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Venison schedules had an unexpected lift this week as supply shortages and good demand in key markets stimulated this early recovery.
Deer Industry NZ reports these gains are shared between currency affects and market gains, primarily due to more product being sold chilled.
There has been positive signs of growth from the new markets outside Europe, namely North America and China, and this has allowed prices to lift in a period that traditionally is at it’s yearly lows.
Weaning will now be well underway on many properties and careful management is needed if stress levels to the freshly weaned animals is minimised.
A management system that sends young animals back to the paddock they came from without their mothers seems to help them settle quicker without fence pacing or stress, and allows them to get them back into high autumn growth rates that is important to reach targets for spring carcass weights.
More small drops in schedules this week as the frozen adjustment continues, and with lower processing volumes predicted for February March will result in the later kill needing to be sold in the slow northern hemisphere summer period.
Analysts are picking prices will fall further yet with the shortages of processing stock, but the weather may instead dictate volumes, offered with the dry reappearing in certain areas and numbers may increase if feed gets tighter.
The latest mutton processing statistics show a 30% increase ahead of last year and after years of heavy culling demand for surplus quality breeding animals is strong and ahead of their present productive returns.
The lamb and sheep skins market is still weak and impinging on animal returns with only wool helping to lift prices at the farm gate.
Beef and Lamb NZ now forecast lamb slaughter volumes will be down 6-8% on last year with lower weights also negatively impacting on tonnages of meat sold.
Store lamb prices have remained steady in both islands in spite of falling prime schedules as livestock options remain limited, with store cattle scarce and expensive and beef weaner calf sales yet to commence.
The double island wool sale last week disappointed sellers and they passed between 18-23% of the offering, with lambs wool falling again off its highs to now trade for the first time this year, below $7/kg clean.
Crossbred fleece prices have held relatively well for this time of year but are still the best they been for the last 10 years, and are sure to have reignited interest in animals with superior wool genes in recent ram purchases.
Another week of stable beef schedules as lower processing numbers from both NZ and Australia compensate for weaker demand out of China.
The important US market continues to lift again on the back of shortages both domestically and imported, but cheap pork and chicken and grain prices will keep any price surge in check.
A lift in local trade schedules reflects the shortages of quality stock, but replacement 18 month store animals are hard to find and are priced well ahead of present prime values.
Beef calf sales are soon to start in Northern saleyards and all market signals point to a bumper season with good weights expected and prices could match break record levels.


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Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s newly established subsidiary Code Eight is testing a service that lets customers buy items and get product recommendations via text messages, Recode reported Dec. 20, citing unnamed sources.
Code Eight is also working on a project to create physical stores that would operate without checkout lines or cashiers and deploy technologies like computer vision, Recode reported. This "Project Kepler" is still in the works but is meant to rival Amazon.com Inc.'s automated Amazon Go store, which has yet to launch, according to the report. Jet.com Inc. founder and former chief technology officer Mike Hanrahan is leading the project, Recode reported.
The text message service asks customers to place orders by taking photos of products or placing more general requests for the kinds of products they want, Recode reported, adding that the service targets the "high net worth urban consumer," which is not a traditional Wal-Mart customer.


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A Samsung phone user says his Galaxy S9 plus sent his entire photo library to a contact in the middle of the night while he was asleep. Apparently, the only evidence of the mass photo sharing was in his T-Mobile logs.
For more, read post in TechCrunch
Related post: Shhh, Alexa is Listening
If you’re anywhere near Travis Air Force Base this July 4th and want a quieter spectacle than the traditional firework show, catch the Intel Shooting Star drones. These aerial acrobats are the same troupe that wowed us at the 2018 Winter Olympics. To mark the 75th anniversary of the base, and to comemorate the holiday, they’ll once again take to the sky.
for more read TC post


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SYDNEY, Australia, Jan 19 (GCTL) - CargoWise, a technology solutions provider, has further increased its presence in the South African market with another successful go live for Sturrocks Shipping via its partnership with Compu-Clearing, South Africa’s premier logistics technology provider.
Since its establishment in March 2010, both companies have achieved successful implementation of CargoWise’s ediEnterprise software with customers in South Africa including Bidvest Panalpina Logistics, Sturrock and Turners Shipping. Other customers in the process of implementation include DGL.
Compu-Clearing Chairman Arnold Garber says, “The strength of Compu-Clearing’s market knowledge of African-based companies’ business requirements, together with our support capabilities at a local level and CargoWise’s ediEnterprise fully-integrated single-platform solution, means we can offer value that cannot be beaten.
For full story above, kindly subscribe as gctl8.com member for ONLY US$120 per year. You can enjoy :


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One of GCC’s foremost foodservice providers, Alyasra Foods is embodying excellent customer experience and optimised operations, owed to extensive digital transformation efforts.
Seafood has long been a staple of Kuwaiti diets.
A small Middle Eastern landmass hugging the upper reaches of the Arabian Gulf, the country’s arid climate and desert-based terra firma has long dictated that fresh water, arable land and, resultantly, traditional land-based agricultural has been hard to cultivate.
As such, many of Kuwait’s long-standing household favourite foods and dishes, from Muttabaq Samak to Murabyan, are strictly fish based.
However, culinary diversification has began to sweep across the country in the past three decades.
“Up until the 1990s, fish was the primary source of protein in the GCC region. Back then, a family in Kuwait identified this relatively linear national diet as a major opportunity – they began importing frozen chicken from Brazil,” reveals Niels Miles Frandsen, introducing Alyasra Foods.
“They sold this in supermarkets across Kuwait, capitalising on a shift in consumer tastes as chicken gradually came to the fore of people’s diets. Indeed, Alyasra Foods established itself as one of the pioneers of this shift.”
The statistics speak true of Frandsen’s depiction. In the 20-year period between 1991 and 2011, annual domestic poultry consumption rose from 23 million tonnes to 143 million tonnes, while the country now imports over 96 percent of its food.
“Leveraging this base the family quickly diversified the company’s portfolio, incorporating frozen meat, frozen vegetables, frozen fish and an array of other products into its distribution channels that served many major supermarkets, allowing it to become the largest supplier of frozen foodstuffs in the country,” he adds, eluding to the 70 percent market share that the company once had in the frozen category.
Fast forward to the present day and with Frandsen as the current CEO, Alyasra Foods has changed drastically since this time having explored both new regions and subsectors.
It now houses operations spanning Iraq, Saudi Arabia and more recently the UAE, has launched its own in-house brands range and is heavily focused on the ongoing development of a particularly successful foodservice business serving hotels, restaurants and caterers (HORECA).
It is the latter that now accounts for the majority of Alyasra’s business, the firm having sold its retail distribution division in 2014.
“Alyasra Foods made this sale as I arrived as the Chief Executive Officer,” Frandsen explains. “It was in fact a major reason why I felt the role would be a good fit for myself.
“I had no prior knowledge of the food and drink sector, but it was evident that the company was at a crossroads. It was clear that some bold decisions were going to be made, and it was set up to be a fantastic opportunity where I could help take the business to the next step together with the owners.”
AN OPERATIONAL EVOLUTION
Alyasra Foods has achieved much in these past five years, largely owed to the ongoing transformation that has swept through the enterprise during this period.
“Selling the retail business marked a monumental change, but equally outlined the perfect opportunity for such a transition to happen,” admits Frandsen.
Indeed, the past half-decade has witnessed substantial consolidation practices from Alyasra Foods while its major revenue streams have shifted. However, more recent times have seen the business turning its attentions towards the pursuit of growth – ambitions that have been accelerated by operational digitisation.
For the Chief Exec, the resultant benefits have been twofold. “It’s enabled us to differentiate ourselves through great customer experience, providing our customers with a really easy way to transact through multiple channels,” he states.
“Our sales staff, for example, will soon be able can sit down with a tablet and chat with any client, tapping into the company cloud database in order to leverage information and provide greater insight in a seamless manner.
“Secondly, we’ve been really looking at how to accelerate our customers’ profitability. We’re no longer purely interested in providing them with a product and service; we’re also hoping to cut their costs, help them become more profitable and raise their profiles in the eyes of consumers.”
And while customer experience has been a core benefactor of these technological efforts, providing Alyasra with numerous competitive advantages, they have simultaneously provided a multitude of other enhancements.
Frandsen continues: “We’re also bettering our own operational excellence. We’ve been able to cut costs by bolstering as many operational processes as possible using technology, be it efficiencies in our warehouses or the productivity of our workers.”
The latter is a point that Frandsen is quick to emphasise, highlighting that the aforementioned overhauls and optimisations have allowed the firm’s employees to take greater pride in their work.
“Our staff have definitely seen the benefit,” he adds. “Initially our plans caused a level of uncertainty, but the workers have come to recognise that these changes are serving to help them rather than causing them to fear for their jobs.”
Offering the opportunity to work with industry-leading technologies, Alyasra Foods has equally been benefitting from bolstered talent retention as a result, crucial in enhancing client relationships and providing a host of other circular benefits to the business.
“Aside from our customer experience efforts, we’re working hard to build a pool of talent at the moment,” Frandsen explains. “It’s something the GCC has traditionally struggled with, particularly when compared with the likes of the UK or US.”
The firm’s management have largely been tasked with this, those most familiar with the company’s cultures and inner-workings responsible for upholding the businesses training practices. However, the enterprise readily uses external resources in necessary cases.
“We have to be very specific when doing this, but in areas where we’ve lacked competency that have occurred during this digital transformation phase, we’ve leveraged external resources on occasion to provide our staff with the best insights possible.”
LEAPFROGGING INTO THE FUTURE
Embedding this revitalised, transformation-driven culture throughout the four markets that it currently operates in will be Alyasra’s primary emphasis moving forward.
In turn, Frandsen is confident that this short-term goal will provide grounded foundations for achieving the company’s long-term ambition of becoming the largest foodservice distribution company in the GCC.
“In summary, I’d say we’ve undertaken a radical 360-degree change in how we conduct business,” he states. “But this is just the beginning, and it’s our inspiration to become the go-to company for foodservice in the region.
“We’re not uniquely progressive from a global perspective, but I’d consider us a foodservice innovator in the GCC, definitely.”
Positioned ahead of the regional curve, Alyasra’s future looks bright.
The CEO concludes, drawing further optimism from the current economic climate: “The GCC is experiencing dramatic change; mindsets are shifting and it’s having huge impacts on many sectors including our own – the HORECA industry is going through a boom again, for example.
“Our eyes will remain firmly focused on Saudi Arabia, and with positive prospects on the horizon, I’m confident about the region and our direction.”


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The video above from the Wi-Fi Alliance shows the Wi-Fi Direct technology, which is technically supported by many Android devices and it allows for peer-to-peer wireless connections. The possibilities include sharing, screen mirroring, and syncing of data and services between devices without the need of a traditional access point or Internet connection. Wi-Fi Direct is based on the soon to be certified Wi-Fi Display standard that many reported Qualcomm would be the first to deliver with its Snapdragon S4 processors in Android devices by summer 2012. Now it looks like Texas Instruments might beat them to it with a report from Android and Me claiming devices powered by the company’s OMAP4 platform will likely hit the market first:
Earlier this month at CES, Texas Instruments showed me their current implementation of WiFi Display running on several Android devices and I was genuinely impressed. First I witnessed screen mirroring, which was demonstrated by HD video streaming from a tablet to a TV. Next I got to wirelessly beam a full 3D game to a TV, while I controlled the on-screen character using the tablet’s built-in gyroscope. Texas Instruments also demoed another cool use case of projecting a mobile device’s display to a large screen and then issuing gesture controls to an application using the device’s front-facing camera.
The report claimed Texas Instruments will be first to deliver the technology in its current-generation OMAP4 processors, which cover a ton of Android devices including the Galaxy Nexus, RAZR, Droid 3, Nook Tablet, Kindle Fire, LG Spectrum, and many more. The Wi-Fi Display standard is expected to be certified by the Wi-Fi Alliance in Q2 2012 with the necessary firmware updates to enable the technology on devices expected to land in the summer. We will keep you posted when we learn more.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.


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Google putting the squeeze on small OEMs
Android police just ran an interesting article yesterday. Apparently Google has had enough of devices launching with decrepit software and tarnishing the Android brand. So they will effectively force OEMs to launch devices with much more recent software or face losing the GMS license.
That will effectively mean that smaller hardware manufacturers will be forced to run a much closer to stock version, because they will not have enough time to splice it open and "beautify" it. It also makes a lot more sense now why KK was made to run on lesser hardware.
Here is the article Android Police


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Entain expands online gaming in Eastern Europe-acquires Enlabs heavily
In order to expand Entain's business in Eastern Europe, the British gaming giant Entain has proposed to acquire the Baltic online operator Enlabs for a price of 252 million pounds. For the acquisition of Enlabs, Entain announced that it has reached an agreement with Enlabs' independent bidding committee. The company's online gaming scope also includes an Optbet located in the Baltic Sea. Not only that, Enlabs also recently bought Ninja Casino's parent company Global Gaming, which can be said to pave the way for them to make a big splash in the gaming industry in Eastern Europe.
Entain bid to buy about 42.2% of Enlabs' shares, but it needs to ensure the approval of Enlabs shareholders holding 90% of the shares before February 18. For now, Enlabs shareholders welcome the news.
Entain stated that because Enlabs is not only the top operator in Latvia, the second largest operator in Estonia, but also the top five operators in Lithuania, and also has the potential to expand to Belarus and Ukraine, Entain's acquisition plan for Enlabs can Enhance its strength in the Baltic Sea, as these two markets are mostly regulated online gambling. Entain plans to retain Enlabs chairman Niklas Braathen to ensure the successful implementation of these expanded goals.


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UBM Asia (Thailand) has announced the launch of the inaugural Food processing and Packaging Asia 2011 at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Center to take place alongside the 7th edition of Food ingredients Asia (Fi Asia). Both events will run Sept. 21-23. Fi Asia will be co-organised with the Food Science and Technology Association of Thailand, National Food Institute, the Federation of Thai Industries and Thai Food Processors’… more
The Hong Kong Trade Development Council opened its fourth Hong Kong International Wine & Spirits Fair earlier this month at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. According to the HKTDC, a record 934 exhibitors from 37 different countries and regions attended the show to make it Asia’s biggest wine show by number of exhibitors. The HKTDC reported exhibitor numbers up 37… more
The September Hong Kong Jewellery & Gem Fair (September Fair), organised by UBM Asia, held its 33rd edition this week. The trade fair runs from 16th to 20th September and is held at two venues. At AsiaWorld-Expo (AWE), it will be held from 18th to 22nd September. The finished jewellery section will be held at the Hong Kong Convention and… more
The 11th edition of the Shanghai International Children-Baby-Maternity Industry Expo (CBME), organised by UBM China (Hangzhou), closed with record results at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre (SNIEC). The three-day exhibition covered some 80,500 square meters of exhibition space according to its organiser, while a record-breaking trade visitor crowd of 88,062 from 78 countries and regions were… more
Kathleen Thomas, who has worked for several high-profile investment banking firms in the business-to-business exhibitions and conferences space, was named managing director at New York City-based JEGI, effective immediately.
Thomas will further expand JEGI’s global leadership across the global media, information, marketing, software and tech‐enabled services sectors, according to company officials.
“We are delighted to welcome Kathleen on board,” said Wilma Jordan, founder and CEO of JEGI.
Jordan added, “She and Richard Mead, our long‐tenured managing director and B2B… more


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As expected, Huawei has announced the HiSilicon Kirin 980 flagship chipset which will take over the 970 on the P20 Pro and Honor 10. Huawei also stressed that the new chipset is 37% faster than its predecessor. The 980 was introduced in Berlin at the IFA, and it’s expected to be in the upcoming Mate 20-series and of course the P30 and P30 Pro smartphones early next year.
HiSilicon Kirin 980, fastest Chipset?
As stated above, the chipset is the world’s first 7nm-based chip (manufactured by TSMC). With this comes plenty of power and efficiency gains over its predecessor and probably over the 10nm chipsets, including the Snapdragon 845. Nonetheless, the HiSilicon Kirin 980 comes with 8-cores of processor and 2x high-performance Cortex-A76 cores and 2x “power-efficient” Cortex-A76 cores.
Of course, the two power-efficient Cortex-A76 cores will be clocked lower than the high-performance ones. The cores will use ARM’s DynamIQ architecture to form a single cluster. The chipset also comes with 4x low-power Cortex-A55 cores. Huawei also integrated a “Flex-Scheduling” technology on the chipset.
This should be able to assign the right cores to the right tasks and achieve better efficiency. Even though the clock speeds weren’t revealed yet as at the time of writing, Huawei assured they will be higher and faster than the 970.
In the graphics department, the chipset will be using the flagship Mali-G76 GPU which was introduced in May by ARM. We reported about the Mali-G76 GPU, the successor to the Mali-G72 which comes with 46% performance improvements and 178% power efficiency. It also has a new clock-boosting technology which recognizes when a demanding game is running and provides optimal gaming performance.
Now, does it stand a chance with the Snapdragon 845? Well, Huawei didn’t say that, but if it’s 20% better than 10nm chips in terms of performance and it’s 40% better when it comes to power efficiency then that should include the Snapdragon 845 right?
We have to keep in mind that the new HiSilicon Kirin 980 chip is also the first to support 2133MHz LPDDR4X memory (aka memory speed) and incorporates a dedicated dual NPU chip. This is far better than the 1866MHz the Snapdragon 845 can reach. The chip also recognizes up to 4,500 images per minute, which is around 120% faster than last year’s single NPU chip on the Kirin 970.
It also features 6.9 billion transistors crammed inside a 1cm² die (1.6 times more than its predecessor). There’s 1.4Gbps Cat 21 LTE modem and blazing fast WiFi speeds of up to 1,732Mbps peak download/upload speeds. We can’t wait for benchmark results to really prove how powerful the HiSilicon Kirin 980 really is. That should be in October, when the Mate 20 and 20 Pro devices are released.


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Huawei Cloud unveils advanced AI capabilities accelerating intelligence for all Industries at LEAP 2024
Huawei Cloud is participating in LEAP 2024, where it will showcase its advanced cloud capabilities and innovative Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions tailored for the Saudi market. The company's participation aligns with Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030, which emphasizes economic diversification and digital transformation. Accordingly, Huawei Cloud is committed to helping the Saudi government and industries achieve their digital transformation goals and upgrade intelligence through its class-leading cloud platform.
Huawei Cloud's Riyadh Region, the central hub for Huawei Cloud services in the Middle East, Central Asia, and Africa, has been providing cutting-edge and reliable cloud services since its launch in September 2023. With three Availability Zones, it ensures low-latency, secure, and innovative services for customers, covering major network carriers and offering a comprehensive range of cloud services, including infrastructure, databases, containers, big data, and AI services. Obtaining the Class C license within three months of launch reflects Huawei Cloud's commitment to enhancing connectivity, cloud computing, and AI services in Saudi Arabia, contributing to the country's core competitiveness in the digital era.
During LEAP, Huawei Cloud will showcase its Cloud Riyadh Region, demonstrating its dedication to customer-centricity and advancing local innovation and development. The main highlight at the event will be the Huawei Cloud Pangu Large Model 3.0, a commercial Arabic large model with 100 billion parameters and industry-leading understanding and generation capabilities. The model adopts a layered and decoupled architecture, providing diverse deployment modes, and meets the different needs of enterprises for large models.
Pangu AI-powered solutions include government and enterprise question-and-answer assistants and smart city solutions. The government and enterprise Q&A assistant provides multi-language Q&A services based on the Pangu Arabic large model and digital human technology. Meanwhile, the smart city solution completes multi-data analysis through multi-modal large models to assist intelligent operation centers in the fields of cities, electric power, energy, transportation and other fields. In addition, Huawei Cloud will showcase intelligent solutions for industries such as automotive, e-commerce retail, government affairs, electricity, finance, and media and entertainment.
Alan Qi, President of Huawei Cloud Middle East and Central Asia, said: "We are thrilled to participate in LEAP 2024 and showcase our advanced cloud capabilities and innovative AI solutions. We believe that our solutions can help drive digital transformation across various industries and enable the creation of smarter, more sustainable cities. We invite partners and customers to the stand and explore how we can collaborate to build a fully connected intelligent world."
At its stand, Huawei Cloud will demonstrate how its GeoGenius Digital Twin Solution can power the next evolution of the Smart City, the Cognitive City. The Digital Twin solution can help cities better provide public transport, electric power, emergency services, and more. Additionally, the company will showcase its Video Ingestion and Analysis Service (VIAS), which collects, distributes and analyzes camera video data and reports alarm events. Using Huawei Cloud's leading AI and big data technologies, VIAS enables event detection, analysis, and decision-making for smart campus, city governance, smart water, and smart transportation.
Huawei Cloud is also excited to host the Huawei Cloud Automotive Forum on Day 4 of LEAP, which aims to provide opportunities for automotive companies to connect with local government and help expand their business to the Saudi market.
Dr. Zhu Shenggao, Vice President of AI, Huawei Cloud Middle East & Central Asia, will give a Keynote speech at the Deepfest stage titled "Reshaping Industries with AI". Dr. Shenggao will illustrate how Huawei Cloud has made "AI for Industries" one of its core missions. He will explore how Huawei Cloud Pangu models can empower everyone from every industry with an intelligent assistant, making them more productive and efficient.
Alan Qi, President of Huawei Cloud Middle East and Central Asia, will appear on the main stage at a panel discussion on "Cloud innovation, AI and sustainability". Huawei Cloud believes that technology should be used to create a better world for all, and the company is committed to using its expertise to drive sustainable innovation.
Huawei has deep roots in the Middle East and Central Asia for over 20 years, while over the last four years, Huawei Cloud has been dedicated to offering cutting-edge cloud services, localized services, and an open ecosystem. Last year, Huawei launched localized cloud services in Türkiye and Saudi Arabia. Enterprises can access Huawei Cloud services without building their own data centers to expand their global footprint. Huawei Cloud will also launch localized cloud services in Egypt and the Philippines. Further, Huawei Cloud will launch AI cloud services in Hong Kong to provide large-scale and efficient intelligent computing. With 85 availability zones in 30 regions worldwide, Huawei Cloud serves customers in over 170 countries and regions.
Over the next five years, Huawei Cloud aims to empower 200,000 developers in Saudi Arabia through creating joint solutions with 1,000 local partners and supporting 2,000 startups. In collaboration with global and local partners, Huawei Cloud aims to facilitate digital and intelligent transformation for countries and organizations and promote a robust digital transformation ecosystem across the region.
At the LEAP exhibition, Huawei Cloud will sign cooperation memoranda with multiple partners, indicating not only the alignment of cloud technology with the development goals of partners but also symbolizing the firm mutual recognition of common goals and the profound commitment to continuously pushing the boundaries of possibilities in the digital intelligence era. Huawei Cloud will work hand in hand with numerous partners to achieve more fruitful results through unremitting efforts, leaving a profound impact in various industries and jointly creating a new chapter in the digital era.


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MANILA - Robinsons Land Corp said Monday it partnered with Hong Kong Land for its first luxury condominium project.
The Velaris Residences will feature two-level penthouses, 156-square meter three-bedrooms units, 105.5-sqm two-bedroom units and 46 to 81 sqm one-bedroom units. It will be launched on Feb. 21 and will be completed in 2024, the developer said.
Located within Robinsons Land's Bridgetowne community, The Velaris Residences will leverage Hong Kong Land's smart home expertise, including digital locks and mobile-app controlled air-conditioning and lighting, the company said.
"The Philippine property market is one of the most exciting markets in Asia, and we are delighted to be part of it and to bring the innovations and design excellence that Hongkong Land is known for," said Hongkong Land chief executive Robert Wong.
Bridgetowne connects Pasig and Quezon City. It has access points through C5, Ortigas Avenue and Amang Rodriguez Avenue, RLC said. The luxury development will benefit from the government's Manila Subway and MRT-4 projects.


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Street-map test drive
Fiat has launched Happy Drive, a web application that allows consumers to virtually experience the Fiat 500 in their local environment with a virtual test drive thanks to Google Street View.
Why it matters
The online space is becoming increasingly important in offering high-level service traditionally reserved for in-store and tangible consumer touch points. How will an online showroom, complete with a virtual test drive, impact traditional dealerships?
Portugal has become a European trendsetter in green transport, having launched groundbreaking plans for a nationwide network of recharging stations that would allow battery-driven electric automobiles to cruise the highways. By 2011 there will be 1,300 stations around the country as well as the introduction of tax incentives for individuals and businesses buying electric vehicles.
An award winning bike design made out of rust-free aluminium with a built in LED light system that is charged by sunlight. The bike also has an integrated lock so you don’t have to carry any accessories with you.


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U.S. doctors, including some at the Cleveland Clinic, “are becoming concerned about the quality of generic drugs supplied by Indian manufacturers following a flurry of recalls and import bans by the Food and Drug Administration,” according to this story from Reuters. It's no small issue, since India supplies about 40% of generic and over-the-counter drugs used in the United States, making it the second-biggest supplier after Canada. Reuters reports that in recent months, the FDA, citing quality control problems ranging from data manipulation to sanitation, “has banned the importation of products from Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd, Wockhardt Ltd and, most recently, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.” Dr. Steven Nissen, head of cardiology at the Clinic, tells Reuters, "I'm just beginning to realize the gravity of the problem. It's terrible and it is starting to get a lot of traction among physicians." The story notes that generic drugs account for nearly 85% of medicines prescribed in the United States and the government is relying on them to help rein in health care costs. "We are losing control over what people are swallowing," says Dr. Harry Lever, a cardiologist at the Clinic who is trying raise awareness of the matter among U.S. lawmakers. "Now, when a patient comes in who is not doing well, the first thing I do is look at their drugs and find out who makes it." Increasingly, Lever tells Reuters, he recommends that patients seek out generic drugs from specific manufacturers outside India. Indian drugmakers “are by no means the only companies to recall products or be warned by the FDA about manufacturing problems,” the story adds. For instance, Germany's Boehringer Ingelheim last year said it would shut down its U.S. contract manufacturing unit, Ben Venue Laboratories in Bedford, after it was cited for repeated manufacturing violations that led to shortages of the cancer drug Doxil.
This and that
Bionic men and women: Bloomberg takes a look at companies in the United States, Europe and Japan, including Parker Hannifin Corp., that are “developing bionic suits that may some day save labor and help the elderly care for themselves.” One company, Japan's Cyberdyne Inc., plans to go public this month amid increased competition in the field. “The demand for rehabilitation robots is very high as societies around the world are aging,” said Mitsushige Akino, chief fund manager at Ichiyoshi Investment Management Co. in Tokyo, who says he is considering buying Cyberdyne shares. California-based Ekso Bionics “has about 60 devices in use at 50 centers and the product is available in North America, South Africa, Europe and South America,” according to the story. Its suits start at around $110,000 and the company is planning to expand into the Asian market in the next 18 months. Parker earlier this month issued a news release stating that it had entered into clinical trial agreements with several U.S. rehab institutions to support testing and development of an exoskeleton called Indego, a powered orthotic device that allows users to stand and walk. Crain's story about that announcement noted that Parker “said it currently is developing a second-generation device for clinical trials starting in July to support submission for U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval. Pending regulatory approvals, Parker is targeting a commercial launch of Indego in Europe in early 2015 and in the United States in 2016.” Parker has formalized agreements with the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago; Kessler Foundation/Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation in West Orange, N.J.; Rusk Rehabilitation at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York, N.Y., and Craig Hospital in Denver. A little help here: The Toledo Blade is part of a Washington Post experiment to expand its subscriber base under new owner Jeff Bezos. A Post pilot program is giving readers of a half-dozen other newspapers full access to its website and mobile applications. Taking part are The Blade, the Dallas Morning News, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Bloomberg says the pilot program allows paying subscribers of participating papers full access to The Post's stories as well. The Post can benefit from the extra online traffic, according to Steve Hills, the newspaper's president and general manager. The Post won't get any money directly from the subscription partnership. The publisher "wanted to make it easy for its partners," as well as create an efficient way to add more readers, Hills tells Bloomberg. The combined circulation of the six papers is about 1.5 million. Going south: Arhaus, the Walton Hills-based furniture retailer with 51 stores nationwide, is planning further expansion in Florida. JaxDailyRecord.com reports that Arhaus, which has Florida stores in Palm Beach Gardens and Naples, is ready to build another one in Jacksonville. The city is reviewing a $2 million buildout for a two-story, 16,157-square-foot store in the St. Johns Town Center, where a new Nordstrom is opening in October. The plan sounds pretty nice. “The company said interior architectural details feature skylights, a river rock fireplace, hand-painted murals, and a combination of distressed oak and stone flooring, as well as signature display elements such as the Arhaus 'chair wall' showcasing dining seats and an 'accessory column' stacked with seasonal soft goods and glasswork,” according to the story. You also can follow me on Twitter for more news about business and Northeast Ohio.


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Cyberpunk 2077 pre-order numbers are apparently highest in China according to now-deleted post on the Linkedin profile of the company's director of PR and marketing in the region Darren Ding.
Seven years after the official reveal at E3 2013, CD Projekt Red's AAAA RPG is set to finally release in November 2020 after several delays. And while many assume that these delays have killed the hype for the sci-fi title, it looks like the pre-order numbers are telling a different tale.
According to now-deleted post on the company's director of PR and marketing in the region Darren Ding Linkedin profile, Cyberpunk 2077 pre-order numbers are highest in China.
On top of this, Cyberpunk 2077 is apparently on top of the pre-order charts on Steam in China, shortly after it appeared on Valve's platform. CD Projekt Red recently released the story trailer with Chinese voice acting and confirmed that the game will support both Simplified Chinese text and Mandarin voices at launch.
Additionally, more than 150 voice actors completed around 70,000 lines in Mandarin so it is safe to say that Chinese language players can look forward to Cyberpunk 2077.
Cyberpunk 2077 is officially hitting the shelves on November 19, 2020, for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The game will also arrive to next-gen consoles PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X.
Thanks, PC Games Insider.


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“All natural” is a megatrend in the ingredient industry these days. Many new innovations are taking place throughout the whole ingredient value chain – from farming and manufacturing through to the product formulators and the FMCG marketers. The trend is being closely observed by both industry experts and consumers. More than half of all sweetener […]
“All natural” is a megatrend in the ingredient industry these days. Many new innovations are taking place throughout the whole ingredient value chain – from farming and manufacturing through to the product formulators and the FMCG marketers.
The trend is being closely observed by both industry experts and consumers. More than half of all sweetener discussions in the media, both in traditional and social networks, relate to stevia (58%), in contrast to aspartame (28%) or sucralose (14%). The high communication activity, especially in social networks and online forums, reveals that the natural sweetener concept is often not fully understood. When consumers’ perceptions were tested, Canadean Ingredients found that 79% of consumers knew that stevia is natural. However, 43% and 49% also believed that aspartame and sucralose were natural.
If an ingredient label lists “steviol glycosides from the stevia plant” or “sweetener: E960”, it can be expected to be interpreted differently by the average consumer. The situation is that many consumers do not interpret E numbers as a safety check, but instead interpret it to be that an ingredient with an E number is highly processed and risks being unsafe. Whether the interpretation is natural or synthetic, there is still a long way to go for a mainstream consumer product breakthrough.
Today, 2% of the global consumption volume of low calorie sweeteners in soft drinks is derived from stevia. In the North America and Europe market, 3.2% of non-caloric sweetener consumption is stevia-based. Although the consumption of global soft drinks with natural sweeteners in 2012 is small, it is constantly growing.
When calculating consumption based on the sweetness index, it is apparent that traditional sweeteners still have a significant impact within the soft drinks industry. One of the main reasons for this can be found in the more polarised consumption patterns of Western markets, which influence ingredient decisions for many new soft drink formulations. Consumers are less likely to consume sweetened carbonates (2010-2012 CAGR 2.04%) compared to bottled water (2010-2012 CAGR 6.39%), and they are even less likely to drink natural sweeteners that may be added to juices (2010-2012 CAGR minus 1.05%).
Today, many consumers are moving to drinks containing high sugar, such as energy drinks (2010-2012 CAGR 14.07%). This means they are embracing the less natural profile of these beverages, especially when they are offered as low-caloric versions, as they largely contain synthesised-intense sweeteners. Over the last three years, aspartame consumption in energy drinks grew nearly 20% in North America and 6.5% in Europe.
In 2012, sweetness consumption in energy drinks for all low caloric sweeteners was 325 MT (totalling a nutritional burden of zero calories) and non-caloric sugar types more than 1.1 million MT (totalling a nutritional burden of consuming 4.4 mio kcal). One might ask if this could become a new hot topic on the agenda for nutritional watch dogs.
Each consumer is different in terms of his or her idea of a perfect healthy lifestyle; it can be quite complex, as there are many different views of what is right and wrong/healthy or unhealthy for them. Today, health-conscious consumers may be seen drinking carbonates with normal sugar on a perfectly balanced and rational basis, and then there are other consumers who seem to be living a healthy lifestyle but indulge in high carb energy drinks or other performance beverages. Consumers may be drinking fruit-based carbohydrates, believing this is the healthier choice because of the lack of processed ingredients.
This contradiction between processed ingredients, nutrition and health may be due to groups of consumers’ mistrust in the industry. The main reason for the natural megatrend could well be that less-processed products are considered healthier amongst urbanised Western consumers, who have a romantic dream of foraging for their own food in the wild and growing their own vegetables. Many consumers expect the modern supermarket to be offering choices of healthy, natural products with origin declarations.
When comparing consumers’ attitudes in 2012 versus 2013, we saw there was no change in consumers’ perception of what is the healthiest choice in terms of sweetening agents, as the majority (47% in 2012 and 48% in 2013) still think that honey is the healthiest. However, the number of consumers believing sucralose is the healthiest sweetener has decreased from 16% in 2012 to only 4% in 2013, meanwhile the perception of stevia as the healthiest choice of sweetener has changed in a positive direction – from 9% in 2012 to 14% in 2013.
So the natural trend is booming – but as a mainstream business for the industry, it is still somewhat out in the future in terms of revenues. Consumers take information on board, but slower than industry has anticipated (or predicted).


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Tobago ready to rumble as tourism strategy unveiled
While Sandals is being touted as a huge boost to Tobago’s tourism industry, the Tobago Tourism Agency is not waiting for the brand to open its doors on the island.
The Agency, formed a year ago, is forging ahead with plans to market Tobago and put the island back in the highly competitive tourism game.
“When Sandals come on board they will really help us because they are volume generators. When you look at the airlift coming into Tobago, a volume leader will help to get a higher frequency and therefore it will be easier to get in and out of Tobago. That is one of the benefits in addition to the normal expectations of having a stronger link to the economy. It will be a game changer when it comes on stream but we are not waiting for them,” Louis Lewis, the Chief Executive Officer of the Tobago Tourism Agency told Loop.
Lewis on Wednesday unveiled the marketing strategy and destination imagery for Tobago at the Mt Irvine Bay Resort.
The strategy will be based on four main pillars: Seas and Beaches, Eco Adventure and Nature, Global Culture, Heritage and People, Romance and Weddings.
The pillars were derived from several consultations, input from the stakeholders, surveys and research.
“Some of the things we identified were it was difficult to establish what is a unique selling perspective for Tobago. Within the trade, people had difficulty interpreting what is Tobago and that is both a challenge and a blessing. The issue we discovered is because Tobago is so strong in so many markets it is difficult to single it down to one product and that was a key discovery,” Lewis said.
He said a sentiment analysis conducted by UK consultancy firm Gravity Limited which scraped the web for all conversations about the destination, showed that the discussion about Tobago was very strong at over 85 percent but weak in terms of volume. He said they also discovered that there were a large number of people booking Caribbean destinations with no island in mind which provided an opportunity for Tobago.
He said a review of the product also showed that what is considered a weakness such as the island not being as developed as its competitors, could be a strength in that in it is unspoilt.
“If you take a step back and look at Tobago in any one of those attributes you will find we are world class, we are strong; we are dominant. The question is how we get that out to the market,” he said of the four pillars.
The strategy will be driven by a graphic which consists of a silhouette and a collage of images representing various activities on the island.
Lewis said the image was tested in source markets in the US, Canada, England, France and Germany among others.
The graphic is supported by the slogan Tobago Beyond.
“We want to present ourselves as beyond the ordinary and that is to play to the strengths we have in the marketplace,” he said.
The Tobago marketing strategy will be driven also by a programme called 101 Things to do in Tobago which will encourage tourists to discover all the things they can do on the island.
To drive the campaign, the Tobago Tourism Agency will engage heavily in digital marketing including programmatic marketing.
“That 1.7 million people who are looking at the Caribbean and who have no definitive place of taking a vacation, we will be serving them material on Tobago,” said Lewis.
“We are coming in from behind and we really have to get into the game, eat somebody’s pie but we are determined to be successful.”
In her address, Nadine Stewart-Phillips, the Secretary of Culture, Tourism and Transportation in the Tobago House of Assembly, said the quality of accommodation sites and attractions, service delivery and hospitality to visitors must also be beyond ordinary.
“There can be no gaps between our invitation of visitors, the expectations we create and the service we deliver,” she said.
To that end, she said, the THA will facilitate tourism upgrades through the Tourism Accommodation Upgrade programme and a broad spectrum of training in all aspects of tourism service delivery will also be conducted in partnership with the Tobago Hospitality Tourism Institute.
She said her Division and the Tobago Tourism Agency will work with the Trinidad and Tobago Bureau of Standards to improve and standardise the quality of products and services being offered to visitors and locals.
She said agriculture has to be strengthened to serve the needs of visitors and urged stakeholders to assist in environmental conservation.
She said a motion will be piloted in the THA today to improve and grow the tourism sector.
The rollout of the Tobago Tourism plan has begun. A new website, Tobagobeyond.com has been developed and while the traditional focus has been Europe, the Agency will also be marketing Tobago in the US and Canada. Lewis told Loop an alliance is being sought with Sunwing Airlines in Canada. Airlines currently serving Tobago are British Airways, Thomas Cook, Virgin Atlantic and Condor.
Asked about the demographic being sought, Lewis said research has shown that Tobago attracts two-income families and people over 40 who have earned a higher level of income who are attracted to activities such as golfing and birding.
“We are really pushing the reasons to visit that is why we have a new campaign on 101 reasons to visit,” he said.


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Thomas Hogan is stepping down from his position as executive vice president of enterprise business sales and market at Hewlett-Packard in a move that could shake up HP's all-important enterprise business during the company's transition to the strategies and vision of its new CEO.
Hogan, who reports to Ann Livermore, executive vice president of enterprise business for HP, will be replaced by Jan Zadak, managing director for HP Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA).
Hogan joined HP in 2006 after serving as president and CEO of Vignette, a company specializing in enterprise content management.
Hogan will remain at his current position until May 1, and will remain at HP to help with the transition, HP said in a statement.
HP declined to comment further on the news of Hogan's departure except to confirm that Hogan reports to Livermore.
The departure of Hogan comes at a time of change for HP which just six months ago underwent a change in CEOs.
HP in September hired a new CEO and president, Leo Apotheker, who as the former CEO of SAP brought to HP a software mindset the company had been lacking.
Apotheker replaced Mark Hurd as president and CEO. Hurd left HP in October after an investigation into what the company called improperly filed expenses and an improper relationship with a subcontractor.
Executive changes after the appointment of a new CEO are a part of HP's culture, said Dhruv Gulati, executive vice president of Lilien Systems, a Larkspur, Calif.-based solution provider and long-time partner.
"Hogan was hired under the Hurd administration," Gulati said. "I've got to believe there's a philosophy change with Leo. Every time there's a CEO change, there are other changes."
That's actually true at all companies, said John Convery, executive vice president of vendor relations and marketing at Denali Advanced Integration, a Redmond, Wash.-based solution provider and long-term HP partner.
"The new CEO comes in and sets the strategy, and wants to work with those who share his vision," Convery said.
Whether Hogan is leaving for a great new opportunity or because his strategies are not the same as the new CEO, in the end it's business as usual for the channel, Convery said. "HP as a deep, deep bench in its executive team," he said.
One potential big impact from Hogan's departure could be on HP's cloud strategy. Hogan launched HP's Instant-On Enterprise initiative to embed technologies such as cloud computing and converged networking into all a company's business processes.
Apotheker only last month broke his silence on his vision for the company by promising that HP will be a leader in cloud computing on the strength of an infrastructure, security, and connectivity portfolio second to none.
Hogan's experience at Vignette could be at odds with Apotheker's vision as the former CEO of SAP, wrote Aaron Rakers, an analyst with financial analyst firm Stifel Nicolaus, in a research report on Monday.
"We believe Mr. Hogan's software background likely raises some questions with regard to his view of HP's cloud/software strategy," Rakers wrote.
Hogan's replacement does have in his background something he did not: Both Apotheker and Zadak honed their business skills in Europe.
Zadak, in his role as managing director for HP EMEA, chairs the regional leadership team which is responsible for HP's EMEA strategy. Zadak also heads HP's enterprise storage, systems and networking, software and solutions, and services businesses in Europe. Zadak, a native of the Czech Republic, came to HP via the company's acquisition of Compaq, which he joined in 1997.


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|By Business Wire||
|November 19, 2012 08:01 AM EST||
PayAnywhere (www.PayAnywhere.com), the professional grade mobile point of sale solutions provider, today announced the launch of its nationwide retail channel with some of the nation’s largest and most well-known retailers, including Wal-Mart® Stores Inc., OfficeMax® Incorporated, Sam’s Club® and The Home Depot®. Prominent specialty retailers, such as Pep Boys® in the automotive space and Hastings® Entertainment in the multimedia entertainment space, and regional retailers such as Fred Meyer® and Meijer’s® are also offering the award-winning PayAnywhere mobile credit card readers in stores as part of the company’s newly launched channel program.
With this nationwide retail rollout, business owners and professional contractors can now find PayAnywhere mobile credit card readers on shelves and pegs at stores where they already shop for their business needs. Select retailers, such as The Home Depot, are featuring the PayAnywhere readers at contractor’s desks in stores, to best serve professional trade customers.
“PayAnywhere is designed to support the needs of real businesses from the moment a sale begins to when the money is deposited in the bank, and everything in between,” says Marc Gardner, CEO and founder of PayAnywhere. “We offer our customers live customer and technical support, because PayAnywhere believes that if a business owner trusts us to process their money, they deserve a person to talk to whenever they require support. That high level of service, built on twenty years of payment experience, and combined with the comprehensive business intelligence our solution provides, sets PayAnywhere apart from the pack as the only mobile POS choice for real businesses.”
Walmart is selling PayAnywhere in its retail stores nationwide and online at Walmart.com. By retailing PayAnywhere, Walmart is providing business owners an important and powerful tool shown to boost revenue by accepting credit cards on their mobile device anytime, anywhere.
OfficeMax Incorporated, a leader in office supplies, technology and services, is offering the PayAnywhere credit card reader for mobile devices in OfficeMax stores and online at OfficeMax.com. Selling the PayAnywhere reader delivers on the OfficeMax mission to provide workplace innovation that enables its customers to work better.
Sam’s Club chose the PayAnywhere credit card reader to showcase in retail clubs nationwide and online at SamsClub.com. Sam’s Club is the nation’s eighth largest retailer and a leading membership warehouse club. The retailer is making PayAnywhere available to its more than 47 million Sam’s Club members, 600,000 of which are business members.
The Home Depot, the world's largest home improvement specialty retailer with more than 2,200 retail stores, is featuring PayAnywhere at countertop displays at contractor desks in stores. By offering PayAnywhere directly from the contractor desks The Home Depot is arming its professional trade and business owner customers with a tool to immediately improve their accounts receivable processes.
Amazon.com, the world’s largest online retailer, is offering both the PayAnywhere mobile app and the PayAnywhere credit card reader across its online properties. Online orders of the PayAnywhere card reader will be fulfilled and shipped directly from Amazon.com, and the free PayAnywhere app is available for instant download from the Amazon Appstore.
Pep Boys is stocking PayAnywhere through 730-plus stores in 35 states. PayAnywhere can be found on Pep Boy’s shelves alongside the more than 25,000 car parts and accessories sold in its stores and online at PepBoys.com. By selling PayAnywhere in its stores and online, Pep Boys is providing independent contractors and repair shops an important and powerful payments tool that not only boosts revenue but increases customer satisfaction.
With a MSRP of $9.99, PayAnywhere gives new customers a $10.00 rebate once the credit card reader is activated and they start processing transactions. As a special offer for those who buy PayAnywhere from select retailers, the first $1,000 in transactions made within the first 30-days of account activation are completely free.
With PayAnywhere there are no hidden fees: no setup, monthly or cancellation fees. PayAnywhere customers enjoy a low 2.69 percent rate for swiped transactions with funds typically deposited in their bank within two business days. Designed specifically to meet the mobile point of sale needs of real businesses, the PayAnywhere solution works with iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, Android and BlackBerry devices.
PayAnywhere also offers its customers an online merchant portal for creating extensive custom transaction reports, setting up business intelligence alerts via text message or email, viewing customer receipts, monthly statements and more. Real-time transaction reporting is available both in-app and on the merchant portal, providing access to critical business analytics that let PayAnywhere customers manage and grow their businesses more successfully.
Created by a multi-billion dollar credit card processing company with more than two decades of merchant payment processing experience, PayAnywhere is powering a payments revolution with its enterprise-grade, “pay-as-you-go” mobile payments system. PayAnywhere’s mobile point of sale (mPOS) technology and payments industry expertise delivers the industry’s most comprehensive enterprise-grade mPOS features with live 24/7-customer support. For more information visit www.payanywhere.com.
PayAnywhere is a registered trademark of PayAnywhere. iPad®, iPhone® and iPod® are registered trademarks of Apple® Inc, registered in the U.S. and other countries. Android™ is a trademark of Google Inc. BlackBerry® is a property of Research in Motion Limited. All other trade names are property of their respective owners including Amazon®, Wal-Mart® Stores Inc., OfficeMax® Incorporated, Sam’s Club®, The Home Depot®, Hastings® Entertainment, Fred Meyer®, Meijer’s® and Pep Boys®.
As cloud and storage projections continue to rise, the number of organizations moving to the cloud is escalating and it is clear cloud storage is here to stay. However, is it secure? Data is the lifeblood for government entities, countries, cloud service providers and enterprises alike and losing or exposing that data can have disastrous results. There are new concepts for data storage on the horizon that will deliver secure solutions for storing and moving sensitive data around the world. ...
May. 24, 2016 03:30 PM EDT Reads: 853
SYS-CON Events announced today that Enzu, a leading provider of cloud hosting solutions, will exhibit at SYS-CON's 18th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 7-9, 2016, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. Enzu’s mission is to be the leading provider of enterprise cloud solutions worldwide. Enzu enables online businesses to use its IT infrastructure to their competitive advantage. By offering a suite of proven hosting and management services, Enzu wants companies to foc...
May. 24, 2016 02:15 PM EDT Reads: 2,063
SYS-CON Events announced today the How to Create Angular 2 Clients for the Cloud Workshop, being held June 7, 2016, in conjunction with 18th Cloud Expo | @ThingsExpo, at the Javits Center in New York, NY. Angular 2 is a complete re-write of the popular framework AngularJS. Programming in Angular 2 is greatly simplified. Now it’s a component-based well-performing framework. The immersive one-day workshop led by Yakov Fain, a Java Champion and a co-founder of the IT consultancy Farata Systems and...
May. 24, 2016 02:00 PM EDT Reads: 3,826
Customer experience has become a competitive differentiator for companies, and it’s imperative that brands seamlessly connect the customer journey across all platforms. With the continued explosion of IoT, join us for a look at how to build a winning digital foundation in the connected era – today and in the future. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Chris Nguyen, Group Product Marketing Manager at Adobe, will discuss how to successfully leverage mobile, rapidly deploy content, capture real-time d...
May. 24, 2016 01:45 PM EDT Reads: 1,344
IoT generates lots of temporal data. But how do you unlock its value? How do you coordinate the diverse moving parts that must come together when developing your IoT product? What are the key challenges addressed by Data as a Service? How does cloud computing underlie and connect the notions of Digital and DevOps What is the impact of the API economy? What is the business imperative for Cognitive Computing? Get all these questions and hundreds more like them answered at the 18th Cloud Expo...
May. 24, 2016 01:45 PM EDT Reads: 2,038
In his keynote at 18th Cloud Expo, Andrew Keys, Co-Founder of ConsenSys Enterprise, will provide an overview of the evolution of the Internet and the Database and the future of their combination – the Blockchain. Andrew Keys is Co-Founder of ConsenSys Enterprise. He comes to ConsenSys Enterprise with capital markets, technology and entrepreneurial experience. Previously, he worked for UBS investment bank in equities analysis. Later, he was responsible for the creation and distribution of life ...
May. 24, 2016 01:30 PM EDT Reads: 1,726
In his session at 18th Cloud Expo, Bruce Swann, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Adobe, will discuss how the Adobe Marketing Cloud can help marketers embrace opportunities for personalized, relevant and real-time customer engagement across offline (direct mail, point of sale, call center) and digital (email, website, SMS, mobile apps, social networks, connected objects). Bruce Swann has more than 15 years of experience working with digital marketing disciplines like web analytics, social med...
May. 24, 2016 01:30 PM EDT Reads: 962
What a difference a year makes. Organizations aren’t just talking about IoT possibilities, it is now baked into their core business strategy. With IoT, billions of devices generating data from different companies on different networks around the globe need to interact. From efficiency to better customer insights to completely new business models, IoT will turn traditional business models upside down. In the new customer-centric age, the key to success is delivering critical services and apps wit...
May. 24, 2016 01:15 PM EDT Reads: 667
The essence of data analysis involves setting up data pipelines that consist of several operations that are chained together – starting from data collection, data quality checks, data integration, data analysis and data visualization (including the setting up of interaction paths in that visualization). In our opinion, the challenges stem from the technology diversity at each stage of the data pipeline as well as the lack of process around the analysis.
May. 24, 2016 01:00 PM EDT Reads: 848
SYS-CON Events announced today that ContentMX, the marketing technology and services company with a singular mission to increase engagement and drive more conversations for enterprise, channel and SMB technology marketers, has been named “Sponsor & Exhibitor Lounge Sponsor” of SYS-CON's 18th Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 7-9, 2016, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York. “CloudExpo is a great opportunity to start a conversation with new prospects, but what happens after the...
May. 24, 2016 10:30 AM EDT Reads: 686
SYS-CON Events announced today that 24Notion has been named “Bronze Sponsor” of SYS-CON's 18th Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 7-9, 2016, at the Javits Center in New York, New York. 24Notion is full-service global creative digital marketing, technology and lifestyle agency that combines strategic ideas with customized tactical execution. With a broad understand of the art of traditional marketing, new media, communications and social influence, 24Notion uniquely understands how to con...
May. 24, 2016 09:30 AM EDT Reads: 1,673
The demand for organizations to expand their infrastructure to multiple IT environments like the cloud, on-premise, mobile, bring your own device (BYOD) and the Internet of Things (IoT) continues to grow. As this hybrid infrastructure increases, the challenge to monitor the security of these systems increases in volume and complexity. In his session at 18th Cloud Expo, Stephen Coty, Chief Security Evangelist at Alert Logic, will show how properly configured and managed security architecture can...
May. 24, 2016 09:00 AM EDT Reads: 1,947
When it comes to IoT in the enterprise, namely the commercial building and hospitality markets, a benefit not getting the attention it deserves is energy efficiency, and IoT's direct impact on a cleaner, greener environment when installed in smart buildings. Until now clean technology was offered piecemeal and led with point solutions that require significant systems integration to orchestrate and deploy. There didn't exist a 'top down' approach that can manage and monitor the way a Smart Buildi...
May. 24, 2016 08:30 AM EDT Reads: 2,035
SYS-CON Events announced today BZ Media LLC has been named “Media Sponsor” of SYS-CON's 19th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on November 1–3, 2016, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. BZ Media LLC is a high-tech media company that produces technical conferences and expositions, and publishes a magazine, newsletters and websites in the software development, SharePoint, mobile development and Commercial Drone markets.
May. 24, 2016 06:00 AM EDT Reads: 3,376
WebRTC is bringing significant change to the communications landscape that will bridge the worlds of web and telephony, making the Internet the new standard for communications. Cloud9 took the road less traveled and used WebRTC to create a downloadable enterprise-grade communications platform that is changing the communication dynamic in the financial sector. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Leo Papadopoulos, CTO of Cloud9, will discuss the importance of WebRTC and how it enables companies to fo...
May. 24, 2016 04:30 AM EDT Reads: 2,393
SYS-CON Events announced today TechTarget has been named “Media Sponsor” of SYS-CON's 18th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 7–9, 2016, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY, and the 19th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on November 1–3, 2016, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. TechTarget is the Web’s leading destination for serious technology buyers researching and making enterprise technology decisions. Its extensive global networ...
May. 24, 2016 04:00 AM EDT Reads: 3,004
With major technology companies and startups seriously embracing IoT strategies, now is the perfect time to attend @ThingsExpo 2016 in New York and Silicon Valley. Learn what is going on, contribute to the discussions, and ensure that your enterprise is as "IoT-Ready" as it can be! Internet of @ThingsExpo, taking place Nov 3-5, 2015, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA, is co-located with 17th Cloud Expo and will feature technical sessions from a rock star conference faculty ...
May. 23, 2016 05:00 PM EDT Reads: 4,619
The 19th International Cloud Expo has announced that its Call for Papers is open. Cloud Expo, to be held November 1-3, 2016, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA, brings together Cloud Computing, Big Data, Internet of Things, DevOps, Containers, Microservices and WebRTC to one location. With cloud computing driving a higher percentage of enterprise IT budgets every year, it becomes increasingly important to plant your flag in this fast-expanding business opportunity. Submit y...
May. 23, 2016 04:00 PM EDT Reads: 1,824
Internet of @ThingsExpo, taking place November 1-3, 2016, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA, is co-located with the 19th International Cloud Expo and will feature technical sessions from a rock star conference faculty and the leading industry players in the world and ThingsExpo New York Call for Papers is now open.
May. 23, 2016 03:00 PM EDT Reads: 1,668
There are several IoTs: the Industrial Internet, Consumer Wearables, Wearables and Healthcare, Supply Chains, and the movement toward Smart Grids, Cities, Regions, and Nations. There are competing communications standards every step of the way, a bewildering array of sensors and devices, and an entire world of competing data analytics platforms. To some this appears to be chaos. In this power panel at @ThingsExpo, moderated by Conference Chair Roger Strukhoff, panelists will discuss the vast to...
May. 23, 2016 02:00 PM EDT Reads: 2,338


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The bill, already passed by the House, bans all imports from Xinjiang unless companies can prove they aren’t made with forced labor.
At the beginning of the year, the State Department officially declared that China’s treatment of the Uyghurs and other ethnic minority groups in Xinjiang constituted a genocide. On Thursday, with just a few weeks left in 2021, Congress did something about it.
The Senate unanimously passed the Uyghur Forced Labor Protection Act. The bill bans all imports from China’s Xinjiang region, the center of the ongoing cultural genocide, unless companies seeking to import products can prove with “clear and convincing evidence” that they were not made with forced labor. The House previously passed the legislation, and the White House has said that President Biden supports the measure.
“The Administration will work closely with Congress to implement this bill to ensure global supply chains are free of forced labor, while simultaneously working to on-shore and third-shore key supply chains, including semiconductors and clean energy,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement.
Thursday’s historic vote wasn’t the only big move policymakers took to address China’s treatment of the Uyghurs, either. The Biden administration also announced new sanctions against Chinese surveillance and biotech companies, along with government entities, for China’s treatment of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang.
All of this, of course, comes after the United States announced a diplomatic boycott of the upcoming Winter Olympic games in Beijing in response to China’s actions against the Uyghurs. Countries including Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom have joined the U.S. in the boycott.
While the Olympics boycott is a largely symbolic gesture — although one that sends a very public message — the legislation passed by the Senate on Thursday has some real teeth. There’s ample evidence that China is utilizing forced Uyghur labor in the Xinjiang region to make products that have been connected to dozens upon dozens of Western brands, including big names like Apple and Nike. More than 85% of China’s cotton comes from Xinjiang, and forced Uyghur labor in Xinjiang also has been connected to the burgeoning solar industry.
The legislation isn’t perfect — factories could move out of the region to get around the restrictions, for example — but the bill’s passage is important because it marks the first time China’s government has faced a serious consequence over its actions in Xinjiang. There’s growing international consensus that Chinese leaders are overseeing a cultural genocide and other human rights violations.
More than 1 million people, most of them Uyghurs or members of other ethnic minority groups, have been detained in reeducation camps in Xinjiang. China’s government also stands accused of using “forced sterilization, sexual violence, enslavement, torture, and forcible transfer” against the Uyghurs. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Uyghurs have been forced to work in factories making products or feeding the supply chain for some of the world’s best known brands.
The passage of the legislation also sends a strong message to companies who have been connected to forced labor in Xinjiang.
Indeed, rather than clean up their own labor practices and supply chains, companies like Nike, Apple, and Coca-Cola lobbied against the legislation last year. And Nike and Apple have gone out of their way to confirm on their commitment to China.
In many ways, 2021 was a turning point for U.S.-China relations. As China marked its 20th anniversary in the World Trade Organization, the conventional wisdom among policymakers and think tank types truly shifted. China’s authoritarian government is now rightly viewed as a strategic competitor, and one that is undertaking a cultural genocide in order to strengthen control over its own people.
Policymakers are right to take action. The United States should not allow anything made from forced labor practices to reach its shores. U.S. officials also should implement an industrial policy to strengthen our own production capabilities and ensure we are less reliant on China, which is especially vital for things like solar panels and other clean energy technology.
But at the same time, companies also need to clean up their act, too. There’s absolutely no excuse for Nike, Apple, and others to be depending on forced labor and subsidizing a genocide to make their products.


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Last month Martin McDonagh’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri hit cinemas worldwide. The film features advertising at its heart and highlights the power of three billboards to champion the voices of the silenced and inspire real-world action. It was the poet and playwright Oscar Wilde who famously observed that ‘Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life’ and this wry insight has certainly been borne out in recent weeks. Campaigners lobbying for political action in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire in the UK, and the Florida school shooting in the US, have now both leveraged the widely-recognised symbol of three red billboards to shine a light on their respective causes.
Image Credit: Jeff Moore/Justice4Grenfell/PA
But not all advertising can so easily inspire real-world action – in our ‘post-truth’ era, the general scepticism and hunger for authenticity in consumers puts advertising in a precarious position. YouTube saw fit to introduce new regulations in 2016 which mandated that all content-makers disclose when a video was a paid product placement or endorsement. People were fed up with being sold something branded as reality, but which was really just a platform for brand promotion. So how have brands and agencies been dealing with this gulf between reality and fiction when it comes to advertising? How have they learnt to draw people into their brand-world and consequently inspire action in the real world?
One way that we’ve seen VCCP tackle this problem in the past is using satire. Cast your mind back to our 2015 campaign for Amnesty International, created in protest of the London Arms Fair. Instead of taking the ‘authenticity’ route and creating a hard-hitting ad about the reality of weapons and their harmful consequences, the campaign opted for a more tongue-in-cheek, satirical approach to drive its message home. Through humour, the campaign exposes the true nature of the situation and invites the viewer to draw their own conclusions as to the absurdity of an international arms fair, tacitly supported by a UK government that simultaneously condemns human rights abuses in other countries.
Image Credit: Coloribus
However, it seems that no amount of advertising can build a brand story or world that is immune to real-life consequences. Take Oxfam for example, a charity who finished 2017 on a high following the release of a brilliantly conceived campaign – The heist no one is talking about. The film was an eye-opening, cinematic venture which created a fictional narrative centred around a chilling metaphor. Masked robbers storming a hospital and robbing people of their life-support systems represented companies who were dodging taxes in impoverished countries. The spot highlights the connection that this form of tax avoidance is stripping these countries of funds for vital services and consequently harming vulnerable, sick people. The powerful ad drew people into a terrifying narrative before ripping away the pretend and revealing that our real world is not as far removed as we think from the fictional world we see on-screen.
Image Credit: Whitehouse Post
But this high evaporated earlier this month when Oxfam was hit by serious allegations of staff misconduct in the aftermath of the 2010 Haiti earthquake. The backlash has reverberated around the world. Thousands of people have cancelled regular donations to the charity and the full extent of damage to public opinion of Oxfam remains unknown. While advertising can build up a powerful brand story, the real-life actions of a few can ultimately topple that narrative in an instant. Reality will always be unpredictable and fluctuating – and as an advertising agency we need to remain agile and reactive to keep up.
Cover Image Credit: Jesus Aranguren/Avaaz


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Bank commercial card program ranked by Nilson Report
Card program ranked for seventh consecutive year
– Premier Valley Bank, a member of Heartland Financial USA, Inc. (NASDAQ: HTLF) that operates under the brand name HTLF, was ranked by Nilson Report as among the top U.S. commercial credit card issuers for the seventh year in a row.
HTLF saw a 48 percent increase in purchase volume growth and ranked 31st overall among purchasing and fleet card issuers, an improvement from 36th in 2020.
“Companies can improve cash flow, manage expenses and reduce payment fraud by partnering with us. We help businesses define and implement a comprehensive payments strategy,” said Lo B. Nestman, president and CEO of Premier Valley Bank.
“With our suite of payment solutions including integrated payables, virtual card and contactless cards, Premier Valley Bank is helping clients streamline their AP process, optimize working capital and create a recurring revenue stream.”
Also, HTLF was again recognized this year by Forbes as one of “America’s Best Banks,” earning its best ranking yet of #28 amongst a nationwide group of 100 leading banking organizations with assets ranging from $9 billion to over $2 trillion.
For 50 years, Nilson Report has been a respected source of payments industry news and market insight. Nilson analyzes and reports on the performance of hundreds of credit, debit, and prepaid card issuers, transaction acquirers, and technology vendors with an unbiased perspective.


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The Spanish hatchback was awarded the Eco Car of the Year title at the annual awards ahead of a host of other low-CO2 and frugal models.
Voted for by the Association of Scottish Motoring Writers, the Leon E Ecomotive was praised for its ultra-low CO2 emissions of just 99g/km – which enables the car to be exempt from UK road tax.
Fuel economy from the 105PS, 1.6-litre TDI engine is 74.3mpg, and the ‘E Ecomotive’ badge is used to signify the most efficient and frugal engines in the Leon range.
John Murdoch, President of the ASMW, said: "There is no complicated technology or heavy battery packs, just an efficient diesel engine and a variety of aerodynamic and mechanical tweaks.
"The result is exceptional. In real world driving conditions the Leon E Ecomotive is more economical than any of its direct rivals, while its keen pricing and exemption from road tax make it a sure-fire winner with canny Scots."
A second Leon model, the sporty Seat Leon Cupra R, was awarded the Sporting Car of the Year award for its headline performance figures.
These include a top speed of 155mph and a 0-62mph sprint time of 6.2 seconds from the 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol engine.
The car is Seat’s most powerful production car ever sold in the UK, and the judges said: "In various forms our winner is already a familiar sight on Scottish roads but, in the new flagship Cupra R guise, we believe it is the most thrilling and value for money hot hatch on sale today."
The Seat Leon E Ecomotive and Cupra R are on sale in the UK now.


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Flowrox establishes a subsidiary in Russia
Flowrox Group has established a new subsidiary in Moscow. The company called Flowrox LLC started their operation in mid-September.
“This is a significant step to improve the services and the supply of our products to our customers and partners in Russia and the CIS countries. With our own local organisation, we can offer high-quality customer services and manage the distribution of our highly appreciated products to Russia very efficiently”, says Kauko Tanninen, the newly appointed managing director of Flowrox LLC. Tanninen will be supported by a team of local sales professionals.
Establishing a subsidiary in Russia is part of Flowrox Group’s internationalisation strategy. “The company has continued its internationalisation path and expanded its service and sales office network especially in growth markets. The aim is to be close to the customers to secure fluent cooperation and dialogue with them. In addition, Flowrox has invested in larger product range and effective after-sales services during the past years”, says Tanninen.
“We all look forward to a good and smooth cooperation with our customers in Russia and the CIS countries. We want to offer the best possible service and support for our customers in their various and demanding valve and pump related needs”, concludes Tanninen.


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According to Ernst Lieb, CEO of Mercedes-Benz USA, the company has adjusted option packages on the new GLK compact SUV to help it deal with an oversupply of high-priced versions. Lieb said that Mercedes-Benz USA ordered to many high-end models for January’s U.S. launch date.
“We planned production in June and July of last year, and we didn’t know where we would be in January,” he said. “We had models coming at $40,000-plus.”
Many flocked into Mercedes-Benz showrooms thinking they’d find more two-wheel-drive GLK models with a starting price of $34,775 and $36,775 for the all-wheel-drive version. Instead, dealers had stocked up on pricey models loaded with options.
Mercedes-Benz is now rearranging its option offerings to help move the GLK out the showrooms. The sunroof, which was a part of the $3,150 option package is now being offered as a stand-alone package for $1,450. A multimedia package, coupled with a navigation system, was priced at $3,350. It is now being offered separately for $1,800.
Those who purchased the GLK equipped with either package in February or March will receive a $2,000 refund.
2010 Mercedes-Benz GLK:
– By: The Daily Auto Editor


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After a tumultuous year, Facebook has lost its footing as a top-rated employer, based on Glassdoor's 2019 list of the "Best Places to Work." After ranking No. 1 last year, Facebook now ranks seventh, dropping from a 4.6 to 4.5 award score out of a perfect 5.
Zoom Video Communications supplanted Facebook as the top seat in the tech category.
The report comes as Facebook continues to be scrutinized by the public for how it handles user data and misinformation on its platform. The Glassdoor ranking adds data to the speculation that Facebook employees, too, are souring on the company. Glassdoor bases its ranking on eight factors, including work/life balance, senior management and compensation and benefits. On employee satisfaction alone, Facebook has seen a steeper decline, steadily falling from a 4.6 rating in Q1 to a 4.3 in Q4, according to Glassdoor community expert Scott Dobroski.
"Facebook employees talked about the 'move fast' culture sometimes moving too fast," Dobroski said in an interview with CNBC. He noted that this is the first time Facebook has seen a decline in its award score since 2015. Facebook employees on Glassdoor said they wanted a more robust internal structure and transparency from the company's leadership. "Its not a major surprise considering what's been going on with Facebook. Employees want to be kept in the loop," Dobroski said.
Facebook has gone from a hot place to work to a place many employees are itching to leave. Six former Facebook employees told CNBC they have been receiving increasingly more messages from current Facebook employees looking for a way out. They said employees have been motivated to look elsewhere thanks to falling stock prices, continued scandals and the increased bureaucracy that comes with the maturing of any tech company.
Other tech companies have also fallen from top spots on Glassdoor's list. Google dropped three spots, landing at eighth place with an award score of 4.4. Amazon still hasn't made it onto the list since Glassdoor first began publishing it in 2009. This year, Amazon had an award score of 4.1, just outside of the top 100.


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Microsoft wants the camera on the back of your phone to do more than take 2D photos. A new project from Microsoft's research lab is turning the average smartphone's rear camera into a 3D scanner — one that can automatically create 3D models that are supposed to be good enough for printing. In a demo video, researchers use an iPhone 5S to scan objects just by moving the phone around them. The phone tracks the object that's being captured and then builds up a model as the camera captures it from different angles.
Most smartphones should be able to do this
Some of the models created in the demo video look rough, but they're pretty impressive when you consider that the iPhone wasn't designed to make them. Microsoft says that no additional hardware is needed to turn the iPhone — or other modern smartphones — into a 3D scanner; computation is all done on the phone, too. That's a bit different from what Google is doing with projects like Tango, which use additional hardware, including a motion-tracking camera and a depth sensor, when mapping the world. Those additional sensors are likely to give Tango better results, but Microsoft says that just a single camera should be enough to make models for printing or use in augmented reality gaming.
Microsoft's project is called MobileFusion, and researchers are currently trying to get it running on iOS, Android, and Windows Phone. There are no release plans yet, but the intention is to make it available to the general public eventually.