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Christmas proved a tale of two countries for electronics retailer Currys as the business said a better-than-expected performance in the UK and Ireland managed to offset its struggles in Scandinavia.
The company told shareholders on Wednesday that trade in the British Isles had improved during the 10 weeks to January 7 – its so-called “peak” period – when compared with the rest of the financial year to date.
Sales of appliances and mobile phone equipment were strong, although that was offset by weaker sales of computing products and consumer electronics.
Thanks to a stronger performance in store than online, and as Currys cut costs to improve margins, the business achieved better-than-forecast profits in the UK and Ireland, it said.
Like-for-like sales dipped 5% against last Christmas, but improved compared with the 8% drop during the year to date.
The company’s international business saw a 7% dip, driven by Scandinavia, where sales slowed by 10% when compared with Christmas 2021.
Our transformation is visibly succeedingAlex Baldock, Currys
Chief executive Alex Baldock said: “This peak has again shown Currys to be the number one choice for all things tech, helping customers shop however they want – online, in store or a mix of both – through our winning omnichannel model.
“We’ve delivered a strong peak performance in the UK&I, growing profits again through resilient sales, increasing gross margins (not least through record services adoption) and strong cost discipline. Our transformation is visibly succeeding.
“Internationally, it remains tough and we continue to face into intense, but temporary, market pressures.
“We’re not simply waiting for the external environment to improve, of course. We’ve already reduced stock levels and stepped up our measures to increase margins and reduce costs.”
The company said that, barring any unexpected deterioration in the economy, it expects pre-tax profit to reach between £100 million and £125 million in the financial year.
It had downgraded this forecast a month ago, from £125 million to £145 million previously.
On a call with reporters, Mr Baldock said some customers were shelling out on more expensive white goods because they use less energy and will save money over their lifetimes.
He also said air fryer sales have soared by 500% as people try to use less energy. But TV sales did not see a boost during the World Cup, despite them coming down in price recently, he said.
The firm said the number of customers using credit to shop with Currys hit a record high of 1.9 million, up 4.3 percentage points to 18% of its total consumer base.
It comes as the cost of living has soared, with inflation remaining at 10.5% in new Office for National Statistics data released on Wednesday.


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A look at some of the stories making the news in the IT world.
Epicor helps Benson Group quadruple output
Benson Group, one of the UK’s fastest growing packaging manufacturers, will extend its use of the Epicor Manufacturing ERP solution and Epicor Advanced Planning and Scheduling to its packaging plant in Crewe, Cheshire.
Additionally, Benson has achieved a four-fold increase in production output at its flagship manufacturing facility in Bardon, Leicestershire, which is underpinned by the Epicor solution.
In its eight year relationship with Epicor, Benson Group has grown from a single-site £10m business to one of the UK’s largest manufacturers of folding cartons, with 2009 revenue expected to reach £90-£95m.
Through Advanced Planning and Scheduling, Benson Group has been able to achieve a higher utilisation of its manufacturing lines, reduced downtime between jobs and ready make times, by ensuring cut and finishing operations based on the same die board are scheduled to run in sequence.
“Epicor has been an instrumental element to achieving the success we enjoy today through greater efficiency in our processes and sites,” said Phil Towersey, IT manager at Benson Group. “For example, our accounts team is the same size as it was eight years ago, despite a huge increase in our revenues.”
Vantage Industries implements Solarsoft ERP
Vantage Industries, the coated fabrics manufacturer, has purchased Solarsoft’s iVP ERP software to manage its inventory, purchase order processes and entire supply chain.
The implementation of Solarsoft’s iVP system will also provide Vantage with full remote access, Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) integration with suppliers and the ability to manage all inbound and outbound deliveries in a timely and accurate fashion.
Since August 2009 Vantage has been an independent company, manufacturing coated and non-slip fabrics, primarily PVC-coated polyester and EVA-coated substrates. The products are designed for a variety of commercial and residential applications and are marketed directly to retailers, distributors and individual consumers.
Bob Waddell, Vice President of Vantage Industries, said: “After we established ourselves as an independent company, we needed to construct our own infrastructure from the ground up and unite the various business functions. Solarsoft iVP will be the lifeblood of our business, and the stability, security and high levels of support that come with it allow us to have complete confidence in our business processes.
“It is intended that Solarsoft iVP will manage our entire business from end-to-end — from the 50+ sales staff in the field having instant and secure remote access to the CRM system and quoting module, to the incoming purchase orders and EDI being balanced with our stock inventory and supply chain, right through to the picking and packaging of the outbound deliveries.”
Mid-market companies Flex their way to SOA
Infor announced an increase in customer demand for the latest versions of its software through the Infor Flex Program.
Approximately 200 customers have cost-effectively contracted to upgrade or exchange their existing Infor solutions to software that can utilize Infor Open SOA (service-oriented architecture) since the program’s announcement in June 2009. Infor Flex enables qualifying customers with active maintenance contracts to upgrade from an existing Infor solution to the latest version of that software or to exchange an Infor solution to a more robust system which may take advantage of innovations through Infor’s Open SOA technology. In addition to supplementary modules and complementary applications, Infor Open SOA enables customers to deploy new components, which provide innovative functionality across multiple solutions. Such components from Infor will aggregate data across various aspects of the business and improve operations in the areas of business intelligence, accounting and strategic planning.
“Customers have made it clear that they expect more from their software vendor than solutions that do not grow with their business and must be ripped out and replaced through a prolonged, expensive and risky implementation,” said Dennis Michalis, corporate senior vice president, Infor. “The success of the Infor Flex Program highlights our unique approach to software upgrades that provides transparency up front, mitigating the risk of an implementation that runs over on time or budget.”
Siemens supports research in the field of seismic risk
Siemens PLM Software announced an in-kind software grant, with a commercial value of nearly €28,000, to support EUCENTRE’s research program devoted to the reduction of seismic risk around the world.
EUCENTRE (European Center for Training and Research in Earthquake Engineering) uses Siemens PLM Software’s solutions for modelling and analysis, aiming to define the seismic behaviour of single structures, and to validate simplified models for evaluation of large scale seismic risk. Through EUCENTRE’s use of Siemens PLM Software’s technology, scientific progress is possible in the fields of seismic engineering and seismology, which in turn provides a concrete basis for the development of emergency plans and the improvement of intervention strategies and policies.
“Siemens PLM Software develops and nurtures partnerships that provide significant value for academic institutions, youth / displaced workers development programs, Regional Productivity Partnerships, Partners for the Advancement of Collaborative Engineering Education (PACE) and our global communities,” said Hulas King, director of Siemens PLM Software ‘s GO PLM & Global Community Relations. “We partner with academic institutions to increase the skills of the work force, introduce the most advanced technologies and improve PLM processes. We are proud to team with Eucentre’s strong leaders and University of Pavia’s gifted students to reduce seismic risk on a global basis.”
SAP gains 3M as new customer
One of the world’s largest brands has selected SAP AG as its enterprise standard software provider to unify its global business processes. 3M is rolling out SAP Business Suite 7 software as it phases out some of its legacy applications at sites around the world. To help ensure business continuity, 3M is taking a phased approach to its deployment of SAP Business Suite 7. First implementations are already under way in Europe and Asia Pacific. In Europe, 3M is in the process of implementing a new demand forecasting and supply planning system leveraging the SAP Advanced Planning & Optimisation component.
“Providing innovative solutions to our customers around the world is our top priority, so we undertook a thorough evaluation to determine the best-suited business software that could further improve customer intimacy, service delivery and power each of our divisions and regions of operations with industry best practices,” said Ernie Park, vice president and chief information officer, 3M. “SAP business solutions will play an important enabling role in unifying core processes globally and supporting our ongoing strategy of meeting customer needs wherever they are. We expect the SAP deployment to provide significant value to 3M in the coming years.”
Virtualisation management solutions lead to growth for Vizioncore
Vizioncore Inc, a specialist in virtualisation data protection and management solutions, announced that its solutions have been adopted by more than 20,000 customers globally.
Vizioncore’s recently launched Backup 2.0 thought leadership program is designed to help companies understand how products like vRanger Pro are transforming data protection, making it more effective and comprehensive, and lowering the total cost of ownership. In addition, vFoglight has been deployed to date by more than 5,000 customers to date. In 2009, vOptimizer Pro, Vizioncore’s storage optimisation and reclamation tool, became the fastest-growing product in the company’s history.
“Virtualisation management providers like Vizioncore continually impress us with truly innovative solutions that customers need to get the fullest value from their implementations,” said Lauren Whitehouse, senior analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group.”These solutions also set the stage for virtualisation to take over the data center, resulting in more cost-effective and efficient IT across the board.”
Lanner launches PRISM Forensics
Lanner, the business process improvement company, announced the launch of the ‘Forensics’ module of its specialised police simulation software, PRISM.
This follows on from the ‘SWIM’ (Scientific Support Work Improvement Model) programme, delivered in conjunction with Home Office Police Standard Unit (PSU). This work resulted in a report deemed to be “the most significant report into forensic science of the past decade” by senior police scientists.
Following the success of SWIM and the implementation of a series of PRISM modules for Call Handling, Incident Response and Custody Management, Lanner has launched the PRISM Forensics module. This tool has been designed using the PRISM ‘quick-start’ software architecture — enabling the module to be configured to the needs of any force quickly, without the need to invest time and money building a process model to enable decision making from scratch.
Ernie Brummitt, head of Performance Analysis at Nottinghamshire Police, said: “PRISM can drill down into the processes and highlight the bottlenecks which can inhibit the ability to maximise resources. PRISM’s ability to map out scenarios, based on multiple dynamic variables in order to build a business case, is invaluable.”
Hadley Group chooses Infor for performance management
Infor announced that Hadley Group, one of Europe’s largest privately owned cold rolled steel manufacturers, has extended its portfolio of Infor solutions with an investment in Infor PM 10 (Performance Management) software.
Hadley Group will deploy PM10 for more agile budgeting and forecasting within its manufacturing sites in the UK and Germany in early 2010, and later roll it out to staff in Dubai and Thailand. Beyond performance management, The Hadley Group is also piloting an upgrade from Infor ERP Baan 5 to Infor ERP LN, the latest version of Baan. This is currently being conducted in a test environment in the UK before adopting and rolling out to other sites.
“In the current economic climate, moving to a rolling three month budgeting schedule, as opposed to analysing out-of-date annual plans, makes perfect sense for better business planning. Our adoption of PM 10 goes hand in hand with a change in our culture as we shift focus from a constant, time intensive analysis of our financial information to management by exception,” explains Mike Collier, business systems manager, Hadley Group.
Micro-Apps by Seal Consulting
SAP AG announced details of a customer deployment of “micro-apps” that uses Google Gadgets technology to bring the business value of SAP software to more users.
Developed by SAP partner, Seal Consulting Inc., the enterprise desktop notification (EDN) micro-app is optimising processes and improving customer service at Archean Group, an Indian conglomerate with businesses from chemicals and mining to renewable energy, shipping and shipbuilding.
Micro-apps are small applications, or gadgets, delivered into browsers or mobile-devices that extend the functionality of enterprise applications to broader groups of users, specific to their roles and requirements. Seal Consulting’s EDN micro-app extends the wealth of information and business events processed by SAP applications to non-SAP users via Google Gadgets technology. Users simply deploy a gadget front-end on the desktops to receive direct and non-intrusive workflow and alert notifications.
Aero Sense Technologies uses SolidWorks Enterprise PDM
SolidWorks Enterprise PDM (product data management) software is enabling a UK-based aerospace design firm to collaborate across 14 time zones without worrying about mixing up versions or losing important ideas and modifications between sites.
Aero Sense Technologies purchased 25 seats of SolidWorks Enterprise PDM software to coordinate operations between its production facility in Sri Lanka and its design sites in Exeter and Los Angeles. SolidWorks Enterprise PDM software stores CAD models and supporting documents — anything from documents to images — in an indexed central repository. Secure access and built-in audit functions protect data from accidental and deliberate damage while tracking who accesses design data, what they changed, and when.
“We need robust data management and revision control between our three sites. Working from a common data model in SolidWorks Enterprise PDM gives us the control and functionality to maintain our documents’ integrity,” said Aero Sense Technologies Senior Mechanical Engineer Ashley Roy.
“There are many different document formats involved in product development: SolidWorks files, Word documents and other CAD files, among others. SolidWorks Enterprise PDM creates a common environment that enables our staffs to collaborate while maintaining authoritative versions of documents and data models.”
Preactor announces partnership with QAD
Preactor International announced a partnership agreement with QAD Inc., a provider of enterprise software and services for global manufacturers, to offer its solutions to QAD customers.
QAD’s Enterprise Applications solutions provide the functionality manufacturing companies need to manage resources and operations. Preactor International has over 16 years experience in the advanced planning and scheduling market and its products are installed at over 3,000 companies, making it one of the most installed APS solutions on the market today.
Said Mike Novels, CEO of Preactor International: “In today’s challenging market companies are looking for help to manage resources more effectively in situations where both supply and demand are uncertain. Working with QAD, Preactor aims to deliver this help.”
Perceptions about design technology hampering growth
A survey from Autodesk, polling the views and opinions of more than 100 senior decision-makers working for mainstream manufacturing companies in the UK, finds that these companies see increasing margins (48%), improving quality (30%) accelerating speed to market (29%) as the three most important drivers of business growth.
The most important barrier identified is the cost involved in achieving this growth (highlighted by 62% of respondents), followed by market conditions (cited by 58%). 83% of those surveyed felt that it would take a rise of more than 10% in annual investment in design technology solutions to achieve ‘improved margins’ while 37% felt that an increase of more than 50% in annual investments would be required to deliver ‘accelerated speed to market’. 33% thought that a similar increase would be the minimum needed to attain ‘reduced product development costs’ (ranked as the fourth most important growth driver).
“This emphasis on cost is significant, particularly when you consider that manufacturers believe that the same commercial drivers seen as critical to their growth will also require the largest increases in design technology investment to achieve,” says Amina West, sales director, Autodesk Manufacturing Solutions, Northern Europe.

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ROBINSONS squash and J2O maker Britvic has posted a leap in annual profits as pandemic restrictions eased.
It has also forecast further progress over the year ahead despite cost pressures.
Britvic reported pre-tax profits of £142.9m for the year to September 30, up from £111.2m the previous year. Its first half trading was hit hard by the lockdowns - but the group saw a marked bounce back in the final six months as hospitality reopened.
Following a 12pc tumble in interim sales, revenues ended the year 6.5pc higher at constant exchange rates, at £1.4bn. But the firm said it is facing challenges from soaring costs and supply chain disruption.


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Everyone's Still Loving Fast Food, Even People with More Money
A new, sweeping study by the CDC reveals interesting data about our fast food nation
Fast food has gotten a bad rap for far too long. It’s seen as a sodium-saturated, super-highway to obesity that targets those living in poverty. But that’s all changing, says the CDC—well, most of it. New data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention after a three-year period of collecting data has shed some light on the way Americans eat fast food. A cross-sectional survey of 100,000 adults was conducted by the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 2013 to 2016 in which “information was obtained via an in-person, 24-hour dietary recall interview with trained interviewers” in mobile examination centers.
Of the myriad conclusions found in this data collection journey, some of the most interesting points revolve around the type of people who are eating fast food nowadays. First off: Everybody’s eating fast food—about 37% of adults in the United States admitted to consuming fast food on a given day, with 44.9% of those consumers falling in the age range of 20 to 39.
Once thought to be the fare of poorer individuals unable to afford nutritional meals, it was also found that “the percentage of adults who ate fast food rose with increasing income,” meaning the more you make the more you eat out.
When it comes to the financial status of those 100,000 adults, 32 percent of their subjects making less than the federal poverty line ($32,630 a year for a family of four) eat fast food daily, while “42 percent of people above 350 percent of the poverty line—$112,950 a year or more for that size family—were daily consumers.”
That’s right, it’s not just those under the poverty line munching on McDonald’s, Burger Kind, and piping hot ‘za. Another interesting conclusion that came from this study was the fact that men are more likely to eat fast food for lunch, while women usually have it for a snack. The fast food customer is changing, but the food generally remains the same with Americans being served food that’s incredibly high in fast and cholesterol. Not to make major assumptions here, but it looks like guys are dead set on sealing their fates as the ones who die first.


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The latest November Android 8.0 Oreo update is now available for Google Pixel, Pixel 2 and Nexus devices. Bringing your device up to date with Google’s latest security patches, bug fixes, and new features. Here’s which devices are getting an update and what you need to know.
Just as expected, Google is pushing its latest monthly security update out to a slew of devices. This is the first update since the Android 8.1 Oreo beta, but it’s still Android 8.0 Oreo.
Today’s November Android Oreo update is rolling out to the Google Pixel, Pixel XL, Pixel 2, Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, Nexus Player, and the Pixel C Tablet. This is an important update that could affect your device and its performance.
The November Android 8.0 Oreo update is an important update for most devices. However, the device that it will make the biggest impact on is the new Pixel 2 XL. Google has yet to release the November update for the Pixel 2 XL, although it’s likely coming soon.
We’re expecting the November release to fix a slew of bugs and problems plaguing the new Pixel 2 XL. From slow charging, battery life issues and sounds coming from the speaker, along with improving the display. For now, though, these are the changes for all of Google’s other Nexus and Pixel devices.
Nexus & Pixel November Android Oreo Update Details
Starting today, Monday, November 6th, multiple devices should see this update. It’s a free software update for all eligible devices and comes right from Google or those with a Pixel on Verizon. This is a small, fast and painless update that should only take a few minutes to complete. We’ve seen these take 24-48 hours to arrive in some cases, so keep that in mind.
Typically these updates have between 20-30 changes mostly in the form of security patches, but occasionally other bugs or glitches are also fixed. We’ve seen new features slip into these updates too, like for the aging Nexus 5.
November Oreo Update Bluetooth Fixes
A big part of this update focuses on Bluetooth. More importantly, Bluetooth connections with cars, connectivity as a whole, and stability. We’re hearing this patch should fix all Nexus and Pixel Bluetooth problems we’ve heard about for the past few months.
Looking through the changelog we see a few important entries for Bluetooth. Here’s a list of the changes in the November Oreo update for Nexus and Pixel users.
Multiple reports suggest this will fix the original Pixel and Pixel XL Bluetooth problems for good. Yes, this is a re-occurring issue for a lot of people, so we’ll report back after we test it for a few days.
November Android Oreo Update Changes & Patches
In total, we’re seeing over 30 different patches for the Android operating system in November. Some of these include critical bugs or security problems to the media framework, framework, Android system, kernel, drivers and more.
The most notable patch is for the KRACK vulnerability that was in the news over the last 30 days. For a full list of all the changes head to the Android security bulletin.
When Will It Arrive?
For most users, this is an important update. Not only because it patches important security holes, but for the Bluetooth fixes. And while we’re not seeing anything about the Pixel 2 XL update yet, everyone else should receive this update within the next 24-48 hours.
You can also manually download and install the latest factory images with the June Android Nougat update, or install just the OTA software update files right here. Typically monthly Android updates arrive within 48 hours, but some could be waiting 5-7 days before it arrives.
To get started head into Settings > About Phone > and check for updates manually if you’d like, or just wait for the over the air notification to pop-up. Rebooting your phone or tablet will often trigger the software update.
Most should have the November release by the 8th or 9th at the latest. Again, check the list at the top of the page to see if you have a supported device. We’re already seeing the update for every device on the list. Well, except for the Pixel 2 XL, of course. Stay tuned for more details, and we’ll update this post as soon as we hear from Google for that release.
All said and done, expect an update on your Nexus or Pixel device today or within the next few days. You won’t notice anything new, but the phone will be more secure and better prepared for the future. Then, in December the official Android 8.1 Oreo update will arrive. Again, this update is only for Nexus and Pixel phones and tablets. Which means those with a Samsung, HTC, Motorola or other devices will have to wait for updates from that specific manufacturer.
No matter what version of Android Oreo you are on if you’re having problems we have a few tips. Those experiencing issues should check out this post for more help. Stay tuned for more details and drop a comment below with any questions or concerns about the Nexus and Pixel November Oreo update.


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The P-I traces startups, venture capital and life in the Pacific Northwest technology community.
Posts by Author
With the new Apple iPhone slated for release tomorrow, people are already getting excited about some of the third-party applications that are rolling out today at the Apple App Store. (TechCrunch offers its favorites and you can find the top 20 applications — led by weather maps, solitaire and other games — here) [Read More]
Tech journalist Kara Swisher of All Things Digital says she plans to spend more time in Seattle talking to technology companies, noting that she’s already met with Wetpaint, Delve Networks and RealNetworks’ Rob Glaser. She writes: [Read More]


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- PAi has been developed by Bengaluru based startup CoRover Private Limited
- The users will get verified automated responses to their queries on all NPCI’s products
National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) has launched an artificial intelligence (AI) based chatbot named PAi. It will create awareness around its products like FASTag, RuPay, UPI, AePS on a real-time basis.
PAi has been developed by Bengaluru based startup CoRover Private Limited. It said that it’s AL and ML equipped Natural Language Processing (NLP) chatbot technology has been accessed by over 20 crore consumers.
Kunal Kalawatia, chief of marketing, NPCI said, “We are glad to unveil AI-powered Pai for our users. In this fast paced world, addressing user queries is the need of the hour. We believe PAi will create entirely new user experiences that are as natural and easy as conversations, help users know about our products and in-turn promote digital payments.”
Queries on all NPCI’s products
PAi will be available round the clock and customers can ask their queries in English and Hindi, through text or voice on the websites of NPCI, RuPay, and UPI Chalega. The users will get verified automated responses to their queries on all NPCI’s products. PAi will also be accessible to global RuPay Cardholders. PAi will be available in many regional languages of India soon.
Ankush Sabharwal, founder and CEO, CoRover said, “As the world changes, Conversational AI will be the core for business continuity and its seamless operations. Chatbots powered by conversational AI brings every customer closer to verified information on their digital payments. CoRover is excited to partner with NPCI and contribute to the vision of building robust digital payment infrastructure for India and the world.”


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Public-Private Partnerships | Global Coffee Alliance
Right to left: Mr Robério Oliveira Silva, Executive Director of the ICO, Melanie Rutten-Sülz, Executive Director of the 4C Association, and Ted van der Put, Program Director of IDH. Photo by Mariana Bassani. More photos at flickr.com/icocoffeeorg
Global Coffee Alliance | Vision 2020
On 9 March 2015, with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the International Coffee Organization (ICO), the 4C Association and IDH, The Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH), the global coffee industry sees the establishment of a multilateral partnership for public-private collaboration.
Established to facilitate the long-term sustainability of the global coffee market with a farmer-centric approach, the alliance aims to cost efficiently scale existing initiatives and fill gaps towards collective impact in the coffee sector.


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New York – Fashion One carves another notch in its programming slot by rolling out its Weekend Special block, featuring fashionable shows every weekend starting this year.
The Weekend Special block will be showcasing a compilation of the biggest fashion moments in recent years. From the world’s top fashion icons, to the biggest fashion trends, Fashion Week highlights, and a dash of Hollywood glamour, this weekly treat will definitely make your leisure days a fashion craze.
Watch what’s in store for the Weekend Special block airing every Saturdays and Sundays at 8.30pm (GMT+8 for Asia), exclusively on Fashion One. Check your cable operators for your local TV channel listing.
February’s Fashion Week Autumn/Winter Lookback brought the highlights and key trends from the big 4 Fashion Weeks in the last 5 years. Don’t miss this coming weekend as we cap the month with the high fashion staples of Paris Fashion Week A/W ‘10-’14.
Coming up is March’s Glamour Month:
- CJ ENM Hong Kong partners with iQIYI International to bring tvN movies SVOD service regionally 104 views | posted on August 7, 2020
- MediaHub Australia celebrates 10th year anniversary with more success and services 79 views | posted on August 7, 2020
- Multiple-award winning Thai film ‘Bad Genius’ has been turned into a 12-part series on Dimsum Entertainment’s platform 64 views | posted on August 6, 2020
- David Elder appointed GM at Silver Trak Digital New Zealand 51 views | posted on August 7, 2020
Asian Television Awards
- Asian Television Awards to hold its 25th awards ceremony in Phnom Penh, Cambodia posted on July 7, 2020


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Americans Already Leading 2016 Olympic Games - In Ticket Purchases
PHOTO: Americans have purchased 88,100 tickets to the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janiero. (Photo courtesy of Embratur).
It’s safe to say American travelers will be well-represented at the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janiero. Americans have purchased the largest number of tickets for the games, said Brazilian Ministry of Tourism and Brazilian Tourism Board (Embratur) officials Thursday.
To date, Americans have purchased 88,100 tickets, followed by citizens of France (54,600) and Germany (42,000). Of the 2.4 million tickets sold, 600,000 tickets were purchased by overseas fans, the agencies reported.
In a statement, officials at Brazil’s Ministry of Tourism and Embratur cited initiatives designed to compel a vote on a Brazilian bill to provide visa waivers for U.S and Canadian citizens to enter Brazil during next year’s event. “The measure is part of a bill that was passed in Congress and is currently waiting presidential approval,” the officials said.
Earlier this year, Embratur published a list of authorized ticket resellers through which U.S. resident and fans outside of Brazil could purchase tickets. The most popular sports in terms of ticket requests have been volleyball, football and basketball. Embratur officials say 7.5 million tickets will be available to fans with more than half priced at $22 or less.
Buoyed by the country’s successful hosting of the 2014 World Cup soccer tournament, which bought one million visitors to the country and energized its campaign to expand travel to the destination, the Ministry of Tourism and Embratur have implemented several programs to promote the Games in Rio.
“The Olympic Games were cited as motivation to return to Brazil by 65 percent of World Cup tourists,” said Henrique Alves, Brazil’s tourism minister.
“The World Cup left a great legacy to strengthen the infrastructure with improvements in airports, urban mobility in the host cities [and] the integration of public agencies,” said Alves. The improvements include $663.8 million in new hotel and resort projects. “All these investments create a favorable ground for the 2016 Olympics,” said Alves.
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Breitenbach, who has partnered with her son Matthew since 2006, had sales of $256.36 million last year, according to the paper. She has been the Corcoran Group’s No. 1 broker in sales and units volume and exclusive listings sold for the last three years, according to a statement.
Breitenbach has handled more than $2 billion dollars in East End real estate transactions in her 20-plus-year career.
Among Breitenbach’s sales last year were 713 Ocean Road in Southampton for $22.55 million, 96 Meadow Lane in Southampton for $21.6 million and 1251 Ocean Road in Bridgehampton for $20.5 million.
“I’m tremendously proud to continue to grow our sales volume in the ultra-competitive Hamptons marketplace,” Breitenbach said in the statement.
More breaking news
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- Doubts grow over stock market’s Trump-inspired surge
- Nonresidential construction booms in January
- Smaller bite: Tax bills dip for most popular mutual funds
- Suozzi to hold town hall meeting Thursday
- Former tech CEO gets prison in US after self-exile in Africa


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Soon everyone can afford to dress like Nicole Richie!
A source tells the new Us Weekly -- on stands Friday -- that the designer and Fashion Star mentor is currently designing a fashion collection for QVC.
PHOTOS: Nicole's wild to mild transformation
Richie, 30, already has her House of Harlow and Winter Kate lines, but her new, QVC collection reportedly launch in February, coinciding with the premiere of Fashion Star.
PHOTOS: Celebs with their own fashion lines
"The line is cute -- it can be worn by teeny-tiny girls but also goes up to size XXXL," an insider tells Us. "Nicole has a great fashion sense, and she's very hands-on."
PIC: Nicole dresses as Jennifer Lopez for Halloween!
For more on Nicole's new line, check out the new Us Weekly, on stands Friday!
Get more Us! Follow us on Twitter, Friend us on Facebook, Subscribe to Us Weekly
Fergie, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Heidi Klum all get an F on this week's Fashion Offenders.
Beyonce and Alicia Keys double date with their famous hubbies on today's Celebs Gone Social.
See what the cast of "American Beauty" is up to today.
Jennifer Lopez shares an adorable photo of her look-alike daughter, plus more celebritots on social media on today's Celebs Gone Social.
Prince Harry, Jessica Alba and more stars who threw out the first pitch at baseball games.
Sofia Vergara poses in a revealing neon bikini while her "Modern Family" castmates hit the beach in Australia on Celebs Gone Social.
Get the scoop on the RHONJ stars' recent whereabouts on Replay.
© 2015 Whalerock Industries


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Auth0 was founded in 2013 and provides a platform to authenticate, authorize, and secure access for applications, devices, and users. It will operate as an independent business unit inside Okta. Both platforms will be supported, invested in, and integrated over time — becoming more compelling together, according to a news release from Okta.
Subject to regulatory approvals, the deal is expected to close by July 31.
Okta and Auth0’s comprehensive, complementary identity platforms are robust enough to serve the world’s largest organizations and flexible enough to address every identity use case, regardless of the audience or user, the release said.
“Combining Auth0’s developer-centric identity solution with the Okta Identity Cloud will drive tremendous value for both current and future customers,” Todd McKinnon, CEO and co-founder of Okta, said in a statement. “In an increasingly digital world, identity is the unifying means by which we use technology — both at work and in our personal lives. With so much at stake for businesses today, it’s critical that we deliver trusted customer-facing identity solutions.”
Eugenio Pace, CEO and co-founder, Auth0, said, “Okta and Auth0 have an incredible opportunity to build the identity platform of the future. We founded Auth0 to enable product builders to innovate with a secure, easy-to-use, and extensible customer identity platform. Together, we can offer our customers workforce and customer identity solutions with exceptional speed, simplicity, security, reliability, and scalability. By joining forces, we will accelerate our customers’ innovation and ability to meet the needs and demands of consumers, businesses, and employees everywhere.”
Okta, in its fiscal year ended Jan. 31, reported total revenue of $835.4 million, an increase of 43 percent year-over-year.


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A fleet of electric and autonomous vehicles and drones seamlessly respond to and deliver products ordered via online platforms, their routes and energy optimised through intelligent data. It isn’t a vision that will necessarily excite everyone, but as the technologies continue to develop and the cost saving potential is quantified, it is becoming increasingly likely as a core part of the future of retail and consumption.
Captured in their ‘City of Tomorrow’ umbrella programme, Ford’s vision for ‘Autolivery’, where autonomous vehicles and drones combine to deliver everything from groceries to medical supplies directly to the doorstep is perhaps one of the most advanced and developed visions regarding the evolution of mobility and potential transport in a ‘smart city transition.’
Conceived by three Shanghai-based designers, Autolivery envisions autonomous delivery vans driving to a street address, where an automated drone could complete the final phase of the journey, delivering the packages, either to the doorstep, or even potentially a balcony.
Ford are pressing ahead with initiatives in this space, their City of Tomorrow programme has produced trials of electric vans and ride-sharing chariots in a number of cities, and they’ve also committed to producing a range of fully-autonomous vehicles, including ride-sharing and package delivery services, by 2021.
As automation in the transport and delivery sectors continues to move forward, questions around access to jobs are inevitably raised. The evolution of intelligent technologies represents a significant social and economic challenge, which will need to be addressed more broadly – there are numerous proponents of the Universal Basic Income concept for example. However, there’s little question that the rapid evolution of autonomous means of transport, and delivery, does represent the potential to significantly optimise a significant part of the value chain from an economic, energy and materials standpoint.
Get another perspective on the future of self-driving vehicles by reading last weekend’s Circulate on Fridays, which includes a focus on IDEO’s latest work on the subject.
The post Autolivery: The delivery drones and autonomous cars of the future appeared first on Circulate.
Source: Circulate News RSS


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Visit Philadelphia has announced after an extensive national search, it has named Angela Val as the destination marketing organization’s new President & CEO. With more than two decades of experience in the tourism industry, and more than 30 years as a Philadelphian, Val is recognized trailblazer and established leader poised to elevate the organization and the city of Philadelphia to new heights. Val’s appointment also marks a historic moment for the organization, as she will become Visit Philadelphia’s first Black President & CEO, furthering the organization’s longstanding commitment to creating a diverse and inclusive organization, culture and city.
Val, President & CEO of Visit Philadelphia, explains her mindset in approaching her new role.
“I’m a big we person, and collaboration has always been at the forefront of my leadership style, said Val. I will have more information on long-term plans shortly. First, I am going to go on a listening tour and speak with staff, board, hotel, arts & culture, restaurant and retail community, and business leaders. I want to make sure we create a collaborative foundation on which to build the future vision and plans for the organization.”


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Hackers target fast food giant Burger King's Twitter account
1:21 PM, Feb 18, 2013
1:30 PM, Feb 18, 2013
(WXYZ) - It appears as if Burger King is the latest victim of hackers.
The fast food giant's Twitter account was taken over shortly after noon on Monday. The first tweet posted after the takeover said "We just got sold to McDonalds! Look for McDonalds in a hood near you."
Burger King's Twitter page has since been changed to represent the supposed "purchase." It was soon posting under the McDonalds' name and a picture for McDonalds' Fish McBites, one of that company's newest products.
The description of the account also said "Just got sold to McDonalds because the whopper flopped =[ FREDOM IS FAILURE" It also appeared to show a link to the McDonalds homepage and the Twitter icon was changed to the Golden Arches symbol of McDonalds.
It's not clear who hacked the account, but they posted a tweet saying "Everybody follow us!" with a reference to one of the Twitter accounts used by the hacker "group" Anonymous. It also referenced the hashtag #OpMadCow.
The Anonymous Twitter account also responded to the hacking of the Burger King Twitter account, tweeting "We're guessing the @BurgerKing social media team is having a bad day...".
The hacking did not go unnoticed online. BuzzFeed News, a website that follows social media happenings, says the Burger King Twitter account gained almost 15,000 followers in the first hour that is was hacked.
The account continued to gain followers and soared from 86,000 followers to 107,000 followers by the time Twitter suspended the account at 1:17 pm.
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The Dead Sea Scrolls are some of the world's most valuable religious artifacts. Dating back two millennia, they include scraps of the early, Hebrew Bible and offer an insight into the world from which Christianity emerged.
So when the billionaire businessman and evangelical Christian Steve Green opened the Bible Museum in Washington DC last year, five scroll fragments took centre stage.
Just one problem. They were fakes.
A team of German experts analysed five of the museum's 16 pieces after doubts were raised two years ago and announced this week they had “characteristics inconsistent with ancient origin”.
The museum immediately withdrew the five pieces from display and replaced them with another three, which will in turn be tested for authenticity.
It was, said museum staff, something of a teachable moment.
"Though we had hoped the testing would render different results, this is an opportunity to educate the public on the importance of verifying the authenticity of rare biblical artifacts, the elaborate testing process undertaken and our commitment to transparency," said Jeffrey Kloha, chief curatorial officer for the museum.
It marks the latest embarrassing setback for the museum, highlighting the difficulty in determining authenticity of fragments of the scrolls which can sell on international markets for more than $1m.
The 430,000 square feet museum cost $500m when it opened last November. Its views of the Capitol were said to demonstrate the commitment of its evangelical founders – and sparked concerns that the project was part of a plan to persuade America’s leaders to put Protestant, Christian values at the heart of policy.
In all, Mr Green and his family amassed a collection of some 40,000 biblical artifacts and manuscripts.
But the exhibits attracted controversy even before they went on display.
Last year Hobby Lobby, the company owned by the Green family, agreed to pay $3m and return 5,500 artifacts smuggled out of Iraq as part of a settlement with the US Justice Department. At the time, Mr Green said his company should have conducted more "oversight" on the origins of the clay tablets and seals, for which he paid dealers more than $1.6m.
The Dead Sea Scrolls offer another example of the fraught nature of buying and selling antiquities.
Their discovery in the middle of the last century shook up the study of the early Bible. Bedouin shepherds stumbled on the fragments of parchment and papyrus tucked inside jars in caves in what is now the Palestinian West Bank.
The collection came to about 900 manuscripts and an estimated 50,000 fragments. It took scholars six decades simply to excavate and publish the texts.
They offered a version of the Hebrew Bible that was almost a thousand years older than the earliest known example.
Most of the pieces are held by the Israeli Antiquities Authority, which displays them in Jerusalem. Only a few pieces – some of those sold on by the lucky shepherds to a local cobbler-cum-antiquities-dealer - entered private hands.
That changed in the early noughties. New fragments began appearing on the market, and the trade expanded rapidly, fuelled in part by wealthy, evangelical collectors with a thirst for Bible artifacts.
As a result, many experts have warned that the new pieces were exactly that: New.
Joel Baden, co-author of Bible Nation, a book about the Greens, said the family may have failed to check the authenticity of items they were buying.
“They made it widely known that they were buying everything,” he told CNN.
“Every antiquities seller knew the Greens were buying everything and not asking questions about anything.”


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Leopard Imaging Expands 3D Depth Time-of-Flight and Stereo Camera Portfolio for Edge Computing Powered by NVIDIA Jetson Edge AI Platform
Leopard Imaging Inc. (Leopard Imaging), a global leader in high-definition embedded camera design and manufacturing, announced it is building on its portfolio of 3D Depth Time-of-Flight (ToF) and Stereo camera solutions for edge computing. The company is also expanding its current solutions based on the NVIDIA Jetson AGX Xavier to support the new Jetson AGX Orin system-on-module (SOM), taking edge computing and image processing to the next level for global customers.
An Elite Partner in the NVIDIA Partner Network, Leopard Imaging develops 3D depth cameras based on a wide variety of imaging sensors compatible with the NVIDIA Jetson AGX Xavier platform. This includes hardware and software development, image tuning, and one-stop shop customization services for developers and customers.
Leopard Imaging has a wide range of imaging solutions and a strong track record of developing 3D ToF cameras. With the NVIDIA Jetson platform, Leopard Imaging ToF cameras empower autonomous driving, robotics, IoT, drones, and other edge AI related industries. Leopard Imaging equips the imaging quality with Active Alignment (AA) technology through its manufacturing and its full integration services.
Leopard Imaging’s ToF cameras and Hawk stereo cameras, developed in collaboration with NVIDIA, will be available on Jetson AGX Orin in the second quarter of 2022. Delivering 275 TOPS, NVIDIA Jetson AGX Orin is one of the most powerful AI computers for energy-efficient autonomous machines. It accelerates the NVIDIA AI software stack with 2,048 NVIDIA CUDA cores and 64 Tensor Cores, 4x the CUDA cores and up to 8x the performance of NVIDIA Jetson AGX Xavier, and supports multiple sensors with the latest high-speed interfaces.
Recommended AI News: Speedb Ramps Up Growth By Appointing Data Industry Veteran to its Executive Team
“As the first camera provider that joined the NVIDIA partner ecosystem, and the designer and manufacturer of 2D and 3D cameras for NVIDIA Jetson. Leopard Imaging is leveraging the new Jetson AGX Orin to take its AI-enabled image processing offerings to the next level,” said Bill Pu, President and co-founder of Leopard Imaging.
Leopard Imaging exhibited demos of Hawk 3D Depth Camera on NVIDIA Jetson AGX Xavier at CES 2022 and is going to exhibit demos of 3D Depth Cameras on NVIDIA Jetson AGX Xavier and the new Jetson AGX Orin at the Embedded Vision Summit, running May 17-19, in Santa Clara, California.
[To share your insights with us, please write to firstname.lastname@example.org]


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posted fourth-quarter numbers that were better than analysts expected Tuesday, concluding a year that the company conceded "proved to be a challenging" one.
For the fourth quarter ended July 31, the Chelmsford, Mass., maker of optical networking products posted a loss of $9.7 million, or 4 cents a share, on revenue of $10.9 million. A year ago the company lost $73.5 million, or 28 cents a share, on revenue of $8.5 million. Analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call had called for a 5-cent loss on revenue of $10 million.
"Despite difficult market conditions, Sycamore remained focused on financial management, technology innovation and customer relationships," CEO Daniel Smith said. "Each of these areas will continue to be a top priority in fiscal year 2004."
After rising 13 cents during regular trading to close at $4.40, Sycamore shares tumbled a penny in postclose action to $4.39.


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Launch of new reports on the impact of the COVID-19 on the low- and moderate-income populations and MSMEs in Asia and Africa
MSC and Swiss Capacity Building Facility(SCBF) launched the new reports on the impact of the COVID-19 on the low- and moderate-income populations as well as micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Asia and Africa, through an interactive webinar on 28th of January, 2021.
Inclusive FinTechs in Francophone Africa: Mali country report
Mali is a frontier market for FinTechs. The ecosystem comprises 18 FinTechs, 11 enablers funding partners.
The Malian Government understands the need to strengthen the entrepreneurship ecosystem. It is in the process of creating policies to utilize digital solutions. This will require investment in skills, education, and support of the startup sector backed with strong mentors.
Inclusive FinTechs in Francophone Africa: Togo country report
Togo has ambitious plans to embrace digitization as a lever to modernize the economy and society. To this effect, it has created innovation centers to support the startup industry and provide an environment that allows innovation and research and development. The World Bank’s Doing Business 2020 Report has rated Togo as Africa’s best reformer in 2019.
COVID-19: Impacted yet proactive youth response to the crisis through innovation
COVID-19 has disrupted normal life—in terms of health, economy, and society. The pandemic is unique in that it affects all segments of the population, including youth. Young people are more vulnerable to declining labor demand. However, instead of giving up, youth have shown their resilience and turned this crisis into business opportunities, creating brilliant initiatives.


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Social media companies to be targeted in Morrison call on G20
Supply chain questions answered, plus tips and solutions for smart shopping.
ABC reports that the strained supply chain and..
Imagine with me: Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook without any metrics.
You log onto the app, and see the same pictures..


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Keep up with the latest hiring trends!
In the news this week:
Watch the video:
Facebook try to encourage you to share more personal information
Facebook’s latest tweak now puts your friends to work to try and cajole you into parting with more of your closely guarded personal information – including the stuff you really don’t want out there. Users who have not disclosed their phones numbers, addresses or personal emails on their Facebook will start receiving notifications from friends who want to know more. In the past, every request for personal information, be it for your high school or employer information, has come from Facebook. This new, highly personal approach is a clever attempt to mine more information from it’s users, but many are calling it unethical in that the update essentially uses your friends to guilt you into dispensing sensitive contact information on a very public platform. What do you think of the new update?
Tactics HR is now Tactics Cloud
The website formally known as Tactics HR, has changed it’s name to Tactics Cloud. The newly updated free resource allows you to search Twitter bios (similar to Followerwonk) and do so with a more modern user interface and an improved reporting and grouping system. Try it out for yourself here.
LinkedIn roll out richer interface
Now seeing who you know and how you know them on LinkedIn is far easier with LinkedIn’s new, richer interface. According to LinkedIn, “professional goals become more attainable when you’re able to connect and collaborate with others who can help you achieve them. Finding the best path to meeting these key contacts can be daunting though.” Their new ‘How You’re Connected’ tool aims to make that process easier by helping you identify the “strongest commonalties” between you and the person “that could be the key to obtaining your next success”. The new feature began rolling out to English speaking members last Wednesday.
Google sell Motorola
Google have sold Motorola to Lenovo for the measly sum of $2.91 billion, less than a year after their purchase of the technology firm for $12.5 billion. But despite the $7 billion loss, critics are saying that Google come out ahead after acquiring a mobile phone business, a set-top box business, approx. $5.5 billion in cash and tax credits and, most importantly, a large portfolio of patents – patents Google said from the outset, were their primary interest in Motorola. Lenovo, the buyers, are the world’s largest PC maker and the fourth largest smartphone maker and stand to gain four big things from their purchase: a foothold in North and Latin America, major mobile engineering and design expertise, patents and the Motorola brand.
Twitter announce new Android app upgrade
Twitter are making it even easier to edit and share photos. Android users can now crop photos by selecting either a square or wide aspect, rotate an image before it’s shared and see a reminder to tag friends if the photo is of people.


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The plant-based food market is heating up in the U.S., and companies are looking to cash in.
This week Panda Express announced its plan to team up with Beyond Meat (BYND) to bring Beyond the Original Orange Chicken to select locations nationwide. Beyond Meat unveiled its new, plant-based chicken tenders a week prior to this launch, with its key ingredient being a fava bean.
The company is just the latest in a growing number of restaurant chains to embrace the meatless revolution. a release, Panda Express boasted that it was the first national Asian eatery to put Beyond on its menu.
Known for menu staples like its Original Orange Chicken, Panda Express stated it has “significant brand equity in this staple American Chinese comfort food,” but is ready to take the next step by offering the plant-based alternatives. And with food companies riding a wave of health conscious alternatives, Panda is clearly hoping to lure younger, first-time diners as well.
“Creating a fresh new take on a classic favorite isa great and accessible way to introduce plant-based proteins to our guests, and perhaps even drawing a new audience for Panda,” the company said this week.
And other companies are on the hunt to get a stake in this rapidly growing plant-based protein and vegan market, where growth has skyrocketed 227 percent compared to a year ago, according to data intelligence platform tastewise.
In the last couple of years, chains like KFC, Burger King, Starbucks (SBUX), Dunkin’ Donuts and Shake Shack have all carved out space on their menus for alternative meat options — though the latter has downplayed the prospect of joining forces with Beyond Meat.
In June, tech entrepreneur Alexis Ohanian’s fund, Seven Seven Six, led a $50 million dollar Series B for the plant-based chicken company SIMULATE. Founder and CEO Ben Pasternak told Yahoo Finance he intends to use the latest funding round to hire top talent including food, material and flavor scientists and engineers ahead of scaling beyond direct-to-consumer and retail. Most recently the company introduced plant-based chicken patty DISCS.
Powerhouse consumer good company Kellogg’s (K) hopes to take a bite out of this market with the recent introduction of Incogmeato Chik’n Tenders. According to the company, the product “captures the feel of tear-apart chicken tenders thanks to technology that creates fibers to mimic the texture of real chicken.”
Pinky Cole, the owner of Slutty Vegan in Atlanta, has been in the vegan market for the past seven years, but believes that plant-based meat demand will explode “within the next 10 years,” she said in a recent interview with Yahoo Finance.
“It just goes to show you that this [vegan options] is what people are asking for, so you have to fulfill the demand,” Cole said in May, adding that “it shows you that people are getting more conscious” about what they eat.


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Billionaire investor Carl Icahn raised his bid for Pep Boys - Manny, Moe and Jack to value the automotive parts and repair chain at $1 billion, topping last week’s sweetened merger pact with Bridgestone Corp.
The activist, whose latest offer is worth $18.50 a share, has been involved in an extended bidding war for Pep Boys US:PBY with the Japanese tire maker. Pep Boys shares rose 6.2% to $18.48 in after-hours trading.
Pep Boys in a news release said its board of directors had determined Icahn’s offer is superior to Bridgestone’s. Bridgestone has until 5 p.m. ET Thursday to respond before Pep Boys may terminate its agreement. A Bridgestone spokesman wasn’t immediately available to comment.
Philadelphia-based Pep Boys put itself up for sale earlier this year and initially entered a takeover deal with Bridgestone in October. Icahn, who also held talks with the company earlier this year, went public with his bid at the beginning of December.
In Monday’s securities filing, Icahn’s company, Icahn Enterprises LP, suggested it may be willing to further raise its bid, but added that it didn’t intend to do so if Pep Boys agreed to increase the termination fee that would be paid to Bridgestone. Such a move “would prevent a truly robust auction,” Icahn Enterprises said.


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The image editing app is declared by Microsoft as deprecated
In the recent list release of Microsoft, MS paint is visible with a tag “deprecated”. That clearly means the upcoming Windows 10 fall creator update may have no place for this iconic feature. With this announcement, Microsoft somehow is declaring an end to the era of the 90s. The 32-year-old feature was first seen in the year 1985 as a part of Windows 1.0. However, the November born Windows feature was originally a child of ZSoft Corporation and a licensed version of PC paintbrush.
MS Paint has been the mainstay of windows
In the early years, Paint used to support the 1-bit monochrome graphics while after Windows 98 the famous JPEG format came as a sweet gift with the iconic feature. The 90s has seen the conversion of 1-bit black and white graphic MSP format to change into the popular JPEG format as well as the generation of doodling. Furthermore, the digital 2D program for painting is free and automatically installed on the PCs for decades.
Now company is extending its efforts towards paint 3D
Microsoft has disclosed Paint 3D in the year 2016 on their official website as a new version of the old software. The home page of Microsoft’s website has revealed that this version is much advanced from the previous 2D paint version. The users can create three-dimensional pictures using the same. The announcement of Windows 10 creator update has revealed that it is moving the outlook express and reader apps too.
The company doesn’t intent to remove the app completely
Moreover, it is also announced that those other two apps will be integrated into Microsoft’s edge browser which is another replacement for the age old Internet explorer. However, it is surprising to see that other replacement news is not upsetting the users in the way the Paint news is working. The funny thing is Paint never had huge functionality like Outlook or Adobe reader but according to the top comments in social media. Paint was synonymous to the childhood drawings in the time of 90s. Furthermore, the simplicity of the application was another important feature that attracted almost everyone.
The iconic company is trying to set the Paint 3D in the market
Therefore, the announcement has received a huge public outcry as the immediate reaction. Moreover, the level “removed and deprecated” has increased much confusion among the users. The voice of disappointment is reflected all over the social media. The tweets like “RIP, My childhood with MS paint (1997-2017)” or ” No MS paint? Oh, the horror” is highly visible on the social media. The public reaction has changed the language of the new announcement of Microsoft on July 2017.
The trusted old app has got incredible support of its fans
According to this new announcement, the surprising amount of fans of this trusted old app is taken as incredible support and it is said that the app is not going to leave. The 1985 born app is going to move in the Windows Store and is still free to use for the users. So, Microsoft is not completely abandoning the childhood pop star of the digital paint according to the new update but just moving its position. However, it is clear that the iconic company is trying to set the Paint 3D in the market with the hope of the same level of the success rate as the older version.


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The latest headlines from PayPal.
Nov 25, 2009
MicroPlace, a social business owned by eBay Inc., and green living expert Sara Snow are cooking up something good for the world this holiday season. Snow, whose online recipe box includes butternut sq...
Nov 4, 2009Most Innovative Applications Will Win Prizes Worth a Total of $150,000
Fourth paragraph of release should read: Finalists will be determined by popular vote on x.com and a panel of distinguished judges including chairman of eBay Inc. Pierre Omidyar... (sted ...including...
Nov 3, 2009Announces New APIs; Introduces Developer Pricing for Services and Toolkit for In-App Mobile Payments
INNOVATE 2009 PayPal today opened its global payments platform, PayPal X. The company unveiled new application programming interfaces (APIs), a new developer portal and introductory services pricing t...
Nov 3, 2009
INNOVATE 2009 Today, at PayPal X Innovate 2009, more than a dozen developers announced a new generation of applications built with the PayPal X global payments platform. AERS, Carlson, FIS, FundRazr,...
Nov 3, 2009Customers Can Now Send and Receive Payments in Brazilian Real, Malaysian Ringgit, Philippine Peso, Taiwan New Dollar and Thai Baht
INNOVATE 2009 PayPal today announced that it has added five new currencies and now supports payments in 24 currencies including the U.S. Dollar, Australian Dollar, Canadian Dollar, Hong Kong Doll...


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Alex Ferguson’s My Autobiography has been the No. 1 book for eight weeks in a row in the UK, according to new revelations from Nielsen.
The data which comes from Nielsen’s BookScan Total Consumer Market measuring print book sales in the UK, also reported that David Jason’s My Life has also done well this season, taking the eNo. 3 position for eleven weeks in a row.
Here is more from the press release:”Diary of a Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney which has dominated the chart around the world this year and has taken the US Christmas number one position with Hard Luck and is in this week’s UK chart at number four, with David Walliams’ Demon Dentist at number ten; both authors have had an incredible year. The Minecraft Annual 2014 has taken position five and has been in the chart for fourteen weeks whilst the Minecraft Redstone Handbook 2 has taken position nine and has been in the chart for four weeks.”


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Lahore, January 12, 2017 (PPI-OT): The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry has urged the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to extend the scope of incentives package to all the export-oriented sectors while small and medium export-oriented industries should be given priority in this regard.
In a statement issued here, the LCCI President Abdul Basit and Vice President Muhammad Nasir Hameed Khan said that Prime Minister’s incentive package would go a long way and hopefully will boost the country’s exports by around three billions dollars by the end of ongoing financial year.
They said that Prime Minister’s package with the incentives for drawback on local taxes and levies and removal of customs duty on basic raw materials at import level would considerably enhance the export volumes.
“Package including removal of custom duty on imports of cotton would greatly help the textile sector to get rid of its miseries. Cotton textile production and apparel manufacturing are Pakistan’s largest industries, accounting for about 66% of the merchandise exports and almost 40% of the employed labour force. Cotton and cotton-based products account for 61% of export earnings of Pakistan.”, they added and said that the package will increase the competitiveness of Pakistani merchandise in the international market and also lower the cost of doing business.
They said that the zero-rated export oriented sectors would achieve the desired goals with the help of incentive package and they would be able to enhance the exports by at least 10 percent.
The LCCI office-bearers said that same incentive package should be announced for all export-oriented industries to triple the national exports within a short span of time. He said that continuous decline in the exports is a matter of concern. He said that volume of exports during July to December 2016 remained 9.912 billion dollars that are 3.82 percent lower than the exports of 10.306 billion dollars during the same period of 2015. They said that despite having all ingredients for economic development performance in exports remaining the below of mark from last couple of years. They said that precious foreign exchange always help any country to economically excel therefore government would have to provide maximum facilities to the all export-oriented industries.
While citing the example of Food Industry, the LCCI office-bearers said that government’s support to this sector could help Pakistan to be a leader in the international market, to generate huge revenue for the government and if all export-oriented industry is given bailout and incentive package, the economic benefits would be out of proportion.
The LCCI office-bearers mentioned rice, fruit and vegetable, furniture, cement, tiles, marble, cutlery, electrical appliances, software, livestock meat, chicken, powdered milk, wheat, seafood and defense equipment sectors where a little attention of the government could do miracles at economic front.
For more information, contact:
Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI)
Lahore -54000, Pakistan


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Mitsubishi Motors Malaysia (MMM), the official distributor of Mitsubishi Motors vehicles in Malaysia, has requested for owners of imported Mitsubishi Lancer and Outlander, and the locally-assembled ASX models to replace the engine control relay of their vehicles. Overall affected cars are about 5,000 units.
Period of Manufacture
March 2015 – November 2016
December 2014 – February 2016
December 2015 – June 2016
The relay protects the engine’s ECU from any sudden surge of voltage. If it is not replaced, the internal parts of the relay may fail and subsequently affect the engine’s ECU function.
Separately, MMM will also be conducting a Field Fix Campaign to replace the passenger side airbag inflator for 115 units of Pajero Exceed manufactured from March 2010 – July 2012.
Some of the passenger side airbags may release metal fragments when deployed causing injuries to the occupants. This exercise is part of the Takata airbag recall campaign worldwide.
“Safety is our utmost priority thus MMM is taking this initiative to assure customer’s safety and regrets the inconvenience caused to the affected customers,” said Tomoyuki Shinnishi, Chief Executive Officer of MMM.
MMM will issue notification letters to all affected Mitsubishi owners and request all affected customers to make an appointment at any of the Mitsubishi Motors authorized service centres for the replacement of the above. The full cost of the replacement will be borne by the company.
For the list of service centres and further information, visit here or contact MMM Customer Careline at 1800 18 8161 (9 am – 5 pm, Mondays to Fridays excluding public holidays).


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XM and Sirius will continue to duke it out in the burgeoning satellite radio market – if they have enough cash to survive.
For music fans frustrated by the homogenous din of the Clear Channel-controlled universe, satellite radio seems to have it all: crystalline sound; more than 100 channels of music, news, and talk; the artist and song title clearly displayed – all for about $10 per month.
The equation seems so right, in fact, that satellite radio has become the second-fastest consumer service to reach the million-subscriber mark in the United States. Only direct broadcast satellite TV was adopted at a faster clip.
There’s only one source of static in the satellite radio model: profits. The fledgling XM Satellite Radio Holdings, which owns 80 percent of the 1.5 million satellite radio subscribers, has close to $1 billion in long-term debt. Top competitor Sirius Satellite Radio, the only other service with a license to launch satellite radio, is also bathing in red ink. With the tech landscape littered with innovative and ground-breaking companies that sputtered and fell to earth – Netscape, Napster, Silicon Graphics, among others – some are skeptical that these satellite radio pioneers will be around to bask in the success of the market they’re creating. Yet despite the massive debts weighing on these high-flying companies, Wall Street opinion is markedly bullish on both.
Phenomenal growth is boosting analysts’ confidence. In 2003, XM brought in revenues of $91.7 million, up 450 percent from 2002. Sirius says its 2003 revenues were $12.9 million – a 16-fold increase over 2002. According to projections from both companies, by the end of 2004 there could be almost 3.7 million people will subscribe to satellite radio subscribers in the United States. The industry is also riding great expectations: satellite radio is supposed to revolutionize radio the way digital cable and satellite did TV, and there is no doubting its appeal.
Chance Patterson, XM’s vice president for programming operations, says the company added more than 1 million subscribers in 2003 bumping its total (as of December 31) to 1.36 million. Although comparatively small with 216,016 subscribers (as of December), Sirius is growing fast. The company added 110,000 subscribers last quarter, almost doubling its size in three months and marking a seven-fold increase over 30,000 subscribers a year ago.
Those subscribers, however, don’t come cheap. The cost to lure a new satellite radio subscriber is around $73 per customer, based on advertising and other promotional fees, according to Steven Weiss, an analyst at financial services firm Bear Stearns. A formidable cost, but still less than one-seventh the price of attracting a new customer to satellite television; DirecTV says it spends about $550 to obtain each subscriber.
Meanwhile, XM and Sirius have kept their monthly churn rate to a modest 1.5 percent, roughly the same as satellite TV.
High startup costs are part of the problem. Before it launched, XM’s debt started to mount when it forked over $1.5 billion for two geostationary satellites (manufactured by Hughes Space and Communications) nicknamed Rock, and Roll. Exploding launches and other delays kept the full network of satellites from forming for months longer than planned; chip procurement also faced snags.
Finally ready to go, XM pumped $100 million into a national advertising campaign geared to fire up consumer interest. The planned launch date: September 12, 2001. One day prior, terrorists commandeered commercial jet liners and attacked the World Trade Center and Pentagon. The U.S. went into shock, financial markets reeled, and the technology sector softened even further. XM quietly rolled out its product later that month in Dallas and San Diego. Two months later, it was available nationwide.
XM rebounded from its stutter start thanks, in part, to industry partnership deals with automobile makers. With XM and Sirius stock and a cut of subscription fees, many manufacturers have a vested interest in satellite radio’s success – and they are willing to pull their weight. Last year, for instance, General Motors started pushing a three-month trial for XM service in 44 new car models – 75 percent of its production line. The new car buyers get the service free for 90 days, and the car companies pay a discounted license fee off XM’s usual $10 monthly service price for the trial window. Unlike many other high-tech gizmos for automobiles, consumers have shown that they’re willing to pay for entertainment: between 70 and 80 percent of trial subscribers stay with satellite radio.
Weak signalsThere is, however, growing skepticism about future viability. Sirius has $58.3 million in debt and $524.7 million in cash on hand, compared to XM’s $937.7 million debt load and $569.8 million in cash, according to figures supplied by research analysts at securities corporation SG Cowen. Most of XM’s debt is in maturing convertible bonds. That means before they mature (twice each year), XM must pay back the debt in cash – with interest – or hand over the equivalent worth of XM shares to the debt holders.
XM is also facing pressure from investors like Chicago VC firm Madison Dearborn Capital Partners and News Corp.’s Hughes Electronics. Both are keen on profiting from early-stage investments. In January, XM filed to sell 18 million shares, including 8.5 million Hughes shares and 2.5 million Madison Dearborn shares. The remaining 7 million on the block will help pay down debt by raising about $187 million, based on XM stock price as of January 22.
Large debt loads make both XM and Sirius all the more reliant on future growth of their subscriber bases. With largely fixed costs, all the satellite radio operators need are enough subscribers to break even, and then they begin to pump out profit with each new listener. XM officials, for instance, say the company needs 4 to 5 million subscribers to turn a profit.
Change in courseThe industry’s rough first few years forced both XM and Sirius to overhaul their original business plans.
“When we were developing our business model, we thought the subscriber base would be dominated by rural subscribers, because they have the least amount of local choice in radio format,” says XM’s Mr. Patterson. But an entirely different demographic turned out to be the cash cow: current figures show satellite radio is more popular among the commuter class in affluent suburbs.
As with most high-tech consumer products, satellite radio’s first adopters were the alpha geeks – those willing to spend top dollar to be the first with the latest gadget. But as major automakers General Motors and Honda start including satellite radio as a standard option in new cars, Mr. Patterson claims the service is becoming a mass market phenomenon.
Wall Street data affirms rapid industry growth. “We see total industry demand of around 35 million subscribers by 2013, enough to support profitable business models for both XM and Sirius,” says Kit Spring, an analyst with St. Louis-based brokerage Stifel Nicolaus. Even if satellite radio only won half of its 35 million-subscriber target, the $10 monthly subscriber fee would build a $2.1 billion market.
An increasingly mobile culture, along with consumer demand for more personalized media, is driving industry growth. But preparing for takeoff requires big investments. Satellites are neither cheap nor permanent, they age and degrade over time and must be replaced. Looking at their corporate balance sheets, Sirius appears to be more robust than XM despite its smaller size. To partially mend the disparity, as of January 15, XM plans to sell 7 million shares to tackle its debt problems.
Second in a two-horse raceDespite XM’s commanding market-share lead, Sirius’ Mr. Clayton isn’t fazed. His company has set out to differentiate its service by targeting specific niches, and high-margin customers. In addition to offering 60 channels of commercial-free music, Sirius has struck exclusive carriage deals for audio content from National Public Radio and the Wall Street Journal.
Taking a cue from the boon DirecTV has had from sports programming, Sirius is also targeting sports fans via exclusive deals with the NFL, NBA, and NHL. Reaping another savvy strategy, Sirius is being packaged in name brand radios like Alpine, JVC, Pioneer, Kenwood, Panasonic, and Clarion. It also has exclusive carriage agreements with Ford, BMW, and DaimlerChrysler.
Sirius is also looking to get a big piece of the 200 million cars and trucks (as well as RVs, heavy trucks, boats, and home users). In fact, the company estimates there are 350 million potential individual users for satellite radio products in the United States. That is plenty of room for two players.
Then there is the secret weapon, which Sirius unveiled at the 2004 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas: video. Within the next 18 months, it plans to beam live VHS-quality video to its customers using MPEG-4 technology – the same video standard used in Real’s RealPlayer and Microsoft’s Windows Media Player. The company says it has no plans to take on DirecTV or EchoStar in the home satellite television arena (both of which use higher-quality MPEG-2 streaming technology), but will focus on mobile customers, pushing products like video players for minivans.
XM had some CES announcements of its own: the company plans a nationwide rollout of localized weather news service. The concept has sparked protest from some local broadcasters, who say satellite radio is licensed to do national programming only and should stay away from local broadcasting. As for Sirius’ high-profile announcements, XM eschews video and sports, saying that the video-based programming in cars is not feasible.
And although most Wall Street analysts agree that satellite radio will eventually be a viable market for both companies, they are unwilling to handicap each individual business model in the long term, and gun shy from making the mistake of dismissing satellite radio as a rural-only plan. For the moment, satellite radio could belong to either – or neither – of its two major players.
For: Red Herring


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''We've been talking to Sony about the nuts and bolts of its oft-stated -- but rarely-scrutinized -- 10-year plan for the PlayStation 3, first discussing the company's hardware strategy. But what about software?
Sony Computer Entertainment of America product marketing VP Scott Steinberg has said that he hopes the PlayStation 2, already wrapping up its promised decade, will act as something of a gateway to expand PS3 adoption. On the hardware end, Sony's banking on fondness for the DualShock controller and interface synergies with the PSP to foster affinity for its console -- still new in the grand scheme of the 10-year plan.
As for software, Steinberg says that, with some of the platform's more key franchises on PS2 being folded into the $19 "Greatest Hits" label, more users will embrace franchises like SOCOM and Metal Gear Solid, and follow their sequels onto PS3.''


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The Chinese Ministry of Commerce on Wednesday outlined proposals for an “industry standard” for live-streamers who market products on online shopping platforms. The rules include details about how hosts on such shows should dress or speak in front of the camera, as well as guidelines for how platforms should allow consumers to provide reviews for hosts or the products that they market. Those reviews should also be made public, the ministry said.
“When the host streams live, his or her clothing and image should not violate public order or good morals,” the ministry wrote, adding that “their appearance should also reflect the characteristics of the products or services they are marketing.”
The rules are intended to “create a good e-commerce environment for consumers,” the ministry said.
The rules also suggest that hosts “speak Mandarin during the streaming” and be “objective and honest” about the products they try to sell.
If hosts display behavior that violates the law, they should be warned or punished by the e-commerce platform — a move that could include restricting their traffic, suspending them or even blacklisting and removing their accounts, the ministry added.
The regulator is seeking public opinion on the rules until September 2.
Stocks in Hong Kong dropped Thursday after the rules were revealed.
Since late last year, Beijing has released an onslaught of regulations hitting industries ranging from tech to private tutoring. The government blames the private sector for creating a series of socioeconomic problems that could destabilize the society.
Beijing has signaled the get-tough approach to big business will continue. Top leaders from the ruling Communist Party recently laid out a blueprint for how they plan to increase regulatory oversight on companies over the next five years. Authorities pledged to strengthen rules for the digital economy, online finance and big data.


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The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of restaurant and in-store retail tech, as quarantined and locked-down consumers searched for ways to get groceries and prepared meals delivered to their homes.
According to Zach Rash, co-founder and CEO at Coco, many of the existing delivery options fall short.
“These delivery services have a fundamental flaw. A lot of restaurants don’t actually make any money on them because of how much the fees cost,” he says, referring to on-demand delivery apps that aggregate orders and hand them over to subcontracting drivers on mopeds, bicycles, or in cars.
“You get a lot of couriers double-parking in front of your restaurant, waiting in your line, or taking up space in the store. That hurts the experience for dine-in guests.”
Restaurant staff also usually have to fetch orders for couriers, taking their attention away from in-store operations and keeping on-premise guests happy.
So: how’s about we get robots to do it?
For the most part, robot delivery has remained a futuristic concept, stuck in ideation. Most media reports frame autonomous delivery as a test run or pilot, Rash says. This sentiment colored many of his company’s initial interactions with potential restaurant partners.
“We were met with that at first, but once we started working with some of these bigger trusted brands and showing the results, it actually spreads pretty fast because merchants talk [and] see their neighbor signing up for this and they see more robots in their neighborhood doing deliveries,” he says.
To entice skeptical vendors, Coco offers a free week-long test run so they can see how it works, whether it impacts their operations negatively, and how the economics pan out.
Santa Monica-based Coco, which started as a UCLA spin-out named Cyan Robotics, distinguishes itself from other robo-delivery startups by relying on remote drivers instead of automation to pilot its robots through the streets.
Restaurant staff prepare food and place it inside a robot located at their store. The robot then locks the compartment where the food is contained and heads towards the delivery destination. The orderer receives a text message with a code to unlock the robot.
Coco has optimized its platform so that its robots take routes that are less pedestrian-dense. This cuts down on potential tampering, delays, and other issues.
According to Coco, its robots have shaved 30% off of delivery time for its restaurant clients – while getting orders to customers on-time 97% of the time.
“We can save them 50% or more on the actual delivery cost because we’re just plugging into the customers they already own,” Rash adds.
Merchants are charged on a per-delivery basis that varies according to how far the robot travels. Coco can also work with third-party services like DoorDash and Uber Eats that secure the initial order, while its robots handle delivery.
Coco will use the new funding to grow its team of 120 employees to over 1,000 by the end of the year. It will also acquire more hardware and expand into new markets, growing from over 50 current merchant partners – which include California’s Umami Burger.
Scaling up won’t be without its challenges, with an increasing number of players entering the space. Even ‘big tech’ is throwing its hat in the ring; Uber spun out a delivery robot startup called Serve Robotics earlier this year, while Google parent Alphabet’s drone delivery service recently hit a 100,000-delivery milestone in Australia.
Many merchants are starting to feel overwhelmed by the number of options and the pressure to keep pace, by Rash’s observation.
“There are so many products being pitched to them all day, every day. We are really trying to simplify and streamline things for merchants and work with them on what they actually need,” he says.
“We try to hide a lot of that complexity and just say, ‘OK, Coco is your trusted partner, all you need to worry about is managing Coco and we’ll take care of the rest.'”


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Big news: Dominique Ansel Bakery sends word that it passed a two-and-a-half-hour DOH re-inspection this afternoon and that it will officially be back open for business tomorrow morning at 8 a.m. Know this, Cronut lovers: Ansel will be festooning tomorrow’s batch with decorations inspired by Rocky — black Cronuts with a gold star — as “a symbol of our dedication and resilience.” (The flavor will still be passion fruit and caramel.)
The bakery has also issued a letter to its fans, and this sweet photo:
What you see in the photo is us - the less than 20 members of the Dominique Ansel Bakery team in our Soho bakery. This is all of us. In the past year, we have woken up daily knowing that our success has made us vulnerable to more malicious attacks than any small, one-shop business should ever have to suffer. But we refuse to believe that we live in a world where success turns people into targets of spite and contempt. We choose instead to believe that it has led us to so many of you, our adoring fans and customers whom have sent your support. Thank you for the hundreds of emails, calls, and personal letters we received.
Our dream is that we can encourage creativity and inspire those around the world to do the same. And this morning we wake to pursue this one simple dream harder than ever before. With your help, we know we will get there and develop a constructive and genuine way to improve every day.
We are deeply sorry for any disappointment that we may have caused you. Taking this opportunity, we have completely fortified our facilities with a full reconstruction and re-cementing, taking every issue seriously in an effort to provide an even more pristine environment for our guests. As you know, we cook in completely opened kitchens, so everything we do is in full view.
Looking forward, our hope is that honest, hard-working businesses should not have to face cruel and sensationalized attacks that are not framed in the proper context. And systems should not be abused to single-out any one business over another. We urge our customers to seek deeper details and answers before jumping to conclusions. And regardless of the hits, we will take every chance and criticism as a lesson learned and work harder to rise to the expectations you have of us and that we have of ourselves.
On Tuesday morning, we open our doors at 8am as usual. We are excited to welcome you back and looking forward to greeting you all personally, as we do every day. In the words of Rocky Balboa - whose theme song has been playing on our radio all weekend long while we worked to deliver everything that was required of us and more - “getting hit and keep moving forward…that’s how winning is done!”
With our very best,
The Dominique Ansel Bakery Team
Update: The bakery is open and the cronut line is as long as ever.


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Square Enix CEO Yoichi Wada was speaking at the Tokyo Press conference today. Reported by Sponichi, Wada said of the problematic Final Fantasy XIV.
“The Final Fantasy brand has been greatly damaged.”
Square Enix have been implemented fixes for FFXIV earlier on in the year. Wada reveals about those fixes by saying.
“We’ll continue with our reform work, which basically amounts to fully redoing the game, and hope to revive the FFXIV that should have been released.“
Wada’s further comments on Dragon Quest X, which was recently revealed as an online RPG. “We’re not making them all online,” said Wada of future titles in the DQ series. “We’ll continue with a variety of developments, online included.”


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I am sure you guys wouldn’t need reminding about Digital Extremes, the studio that has participated in making some really awesome titles like Unreal Tournament, BioShock and now Warframe. News from their headquarters is that the Canadian studio now has a new owner.
According to the announcement made by the company, they have been acquired by two Chinese companies namely Multi Dynamic Games Group Inc. (a subsidiary of Sumpo Food Holdings Limited) and Perfect Online Holding Limited (a subsidiary of Perfect World Co., Ltd.).
The two acquirers have bought off 58 percent and 3 percent shares in Digital Extremes respectively making their total a majority holding of 61 percent.
The first reaction that we saw from most of the Warframe fans was disappointment. Naturally, one would expect things to change when a new owner takes over the development studio of a previous project. However the developers are confident.
James Schmalz who is the chief executive officer of Digital Extremes stated today that their new owners were really akin to their ideology of gaming as well as their approach. Not only that, he also reassured the Warframe fans that this takeover didn’t mean the future of the game was in jeopardy:
We are thrilled with the potential to work with partners who share our philosophy on the future of gaming and how we’re approaching it. This partnership will further empower us to continue making Warframe bigger and better with full control over its destiny.
Last but not the least, when the deal is closed it will also grant Perfect Online Holding Limited the exclusive publishing rights of Warframe on all the consoles in Mainland China.
How do you think this will affect Warframe and the future games that Digital Extremes is going to make?


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Trade and Customs white papers published
- Whatever the future arrangements, the UK will leave the current EU Customs Union and there will be some form of border for the movement of goods, though there may be only light touch processes provided a new UK-EU customs partnership can be agreed (in addition to specific arrangements for the land border in Northern Ireland). Businesses may wish to start considering the impact of these proposals now, given the potentially long lead times associated with such changes .
- Current UK customs legislation is insufficient to create a standalone customs regime, and the Customs paper confirms that the UK’s new legislation will, as far as possible, replicate the effect of existing EU customs laws.
- The paper also covers provisions for the implementation of customs, VAT and excise regimes in the event that ‘no deal’ on Brexit is reached. The Government has acknowledged that there will be an increased administrative burden on businesses importing products into and exporting products from the UK, unless a customs partnership can be agreed.
- The Customs Bill, due to be published this autumn, will allow the Government to create a standalone customs regime by ensuring, among other powers, that the UK can set and charge customs duty on goods (including on goods imported from the EU).
The UK will also need to make changes to the cross-border rules for the VAT and excise regimes following the UK’s exit from the EU. Once the UK exits the EU, the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) will no longer have jurisdiction over UK customs, VAT and excise (although the UK will remain subject to the CJEU during any transitional period after Britain leaves the EU in March 2019). The Government is considering two broad approaches to its future customs relationship with the EU: a ‘highly streamlined customs arrangement’ or a ‘new customs partnership’ with the EU. The Government is assessing which option delivers the greatest economic advantage to the UK. It also has three strategic objectives:
- Ensuring that UK-EU trade is as frictionless as possible
- Avoiding a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland and;
Establishing an independent international trade policy.
European Commission proposals for the reform of the EU VAT system
On 4 October 2017, the European Commission published proposals for a series of key reforms to improve and modernise the VAT system by creating a new ‘definitive VAT system’. The focus of the proposals is on tackling VAT fraud, with the proposals aiming to reduce the amount lost to cross-border VAT fraud by 80% or around €40 billion annually. The EU is also looking to make the VAT system more robust and simpler while reducing the possible ‘distortions of competition’ associated with non-harmonised VAT rates.
- Tackling VAT fraud: VAT would be charged on cross-border trade between businesses. Currently, this type of trade is exempt from VAT.
- One Stop Shop: VAT obligations for companies that sell cross-border will be simplified. This concept is already familiar in cross-border trade.
- Greater consistency: a move to the ‘destination’ principle where the final amount of VAT is paid to the final consumer’s member state at the applicable rate.
- Less red tape: simplification of the invoicing rules to enable sellers to issue invoices in compliance with their local rules, even when the underlying supply is cross-border.
Although the EU is trying to establish an EU-wide system which can ‘keep pace with today’s digital and mobile economy’, it is not proposing any new tax charges specifically addressing the taxation of the digital economy. The proposals also introduce the notion of a ‘certified taxable person’ (CTP). Provided that companies meet certain criteria, they will be able to obtain EU-wide certification as ‘a reliable VAT taxpayer’. Once certified, both they and the companies that do business with them will enjoy a number of simplified procedures for the declaration and payment of cross-border VAT. These proposals require unanimous agreement from all member states in the Council before they can enter into force. The intention is that four ‘quick fixes’ (available only to CTPs) will come into force by 2019 – these are: Simplification of VAT rules for call-off stock. CTPs will no longer need to register and pay VAT in another member state when they store goods there.
- Simplification for elements of chain transactions by CTPs which don’t involve the physical movement of goods, for example where there is a sales chain, but physically the goods move directly from the original seller to the final buyer.
- Harmonized and uniform rules making it easier for CTP traders to prove that goods have been transported from one EU country to another.
- Clarification that, in addition to proof of transport, the VAT number of the commercial partners recorded in the electronic EU VAT-number verification system (VIES) is required for the cross-border VAT exemption to be applied under the current rules. These short-term measures are intended to improve the day-to-day functioning of the current VAT system until the implementation of the definitive VAT system, planned for 2022.
The proposals only apply to transactions within the EU. Assuming the UK leaves the EU before 2022, the proposals will not apply to the UK, unless the UK is able to negotiate a special status with the EU which adopts them.