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MANHATTAN, Kan. — It’s nearing the middle of July, so Kansas gardeners are turning their thoughts to harvesting tomatoes, potatoes, peppers and many other fruits and vegetables.
It’s not the time to begin the work all over again…right?
“Probably the last thing most gardeners are thinking of right now is planting vegetables,” said Kansas State University horticulture expert Ward Upham. “But fall gardens will often produce higher quality, tastier cool-season crops if you plant now.”
Upham said fall vegetables do well if they are allowed to mature during cooler, less stressful times. That means a fall bounty requires getting seeds into the ground as early as mid-July.
Planting vegetables during summer’s heat, however, requires a different approach. “Plant seeds slightly deeper than you would in the spring so that it stays cooler, and the soil around the seeds stay moist longer,” Upham said. “Plant more thick, and thin the plants later. The plants also may need to be protected from rabbits by using fencing.”
Upham shared a timely calendar to help gardeners plan for a fall harvest:
Plant potatoes if you can find them, or use seed potatoes that you might have saved. Do not use freshly dug potatoes because they have a built-in dormancy that will prevent growth. Also, do not use grocery store potatoes; they won’t sprout because they often have been treated.
Cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower can be started from seed in mid-July. “Choose a protected place where the soil can be kept moist and rabbits will not bother them,” Upham said, adding that the crops should be transplanted in mid-August.
Seed beets, carrots and beans.
Late July to early August
Seed spinach and long-season maturing lettuce. Leaf lettuce will be seeded later.
Mid- to late August
Transplant cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower to their final location.
“There is no need to fertilize before planting these crops,” Upham said. “Side dress them two weeks after transplanting, or four weeks after sowing seed by apply 2 tablespoons of a 16-0-0 fertilizer, or 1 tablespoon of 27-33-3 or 30-3-4 fertilizer.”
Upham said liquid fertilizer can also be used (many store brands exist), and should be used according to label instruction. “It would be a good idea to wash off the leaves with clean water to prevent burn from the fertilizer,” he said.
Fall crops should be watered more frequently so that the seed does not dry out. Upham recommends a soaker hose or drip irrigation next to the row, which allows water to slowly seep into the ground. “Overhead watering often causes soil to crust, making it more difficult for young, tender plants to emerge,” he said.
Upham and his colleagues in K-State’s Department of Horticulture and Natural Resources produce a weekly Horticulture Newsletter with tips for maintaining home landscapes. The newsletter is available to view online or can be delivered by email each week.
Interested persons can also send their garden- and yard-related questions to Upham at firstname.lastname@example.org, or contact your local K-State Research and Extension office.
— Pat Melgares, K-State Research and Extension
For more news from Kansas, click here.


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Behind the scenes, the Bitcoin network is sharing a massive public ledger called the "block chain". This ledger contains every transaction ever processed which enables a user's computer to verify the validity of each transaction. The authenticity of each transaction is protected by digital signatures corresponding to the sending addresses therefore allowing all users to have full control over sending bitcoins.
OpenDime is the making a name for itself as the “piggy bank” of cold storage units in the world of cryptocurrencies. It functions like other cold storage units with one key exception: one-time secure usage. That one key difference changes quite a lot in the way people use it. Other storage platforms act more like wallets to be used repeatedly with a reasonable degree of security. Whereas an OpenDime unit can be used extremely securely as an address to store Bitcoins until the owner needs to cash out, but only once. In a manner that directly parallels smashing open a piggy bank, once an OpenDime storage unit is “opened” it can no longer be used with the same degree of safety again. OpenDime is a platform that changes the intangible asset of Bitcoin into a physical thing that people can exchange between each other in the real world.
Bitcoin is in the very early stages of acceptance, and although it is already accepted as a means of payment by numerous merchants, it has yet to become more widely accepted and “mainstream.” This could change, however, as more and more users are attracted to cryptocurrencies for the various potential benefits they may provide. In fact, investors have been flocking to the currency in significant numbers, and some even feel that eventually Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies could replace other traditional payment methods.
News drives attention, and attention drives understanding. While many people have flocked to cryptocurrencies purely in search of financial gain, there are a ton of people that are simply curious. Some peoples are sticking around and trying to understand what cryptos are all about. While more users increases Bitcoin’s network effect, more people forming in-depth understandings of cryptos also strengthen the active Bitcoin community.
David Carlson: The Bitcoin Pioneer | Carlson, a former software engineer, is often credited with starting the basin’s bitcoin boom when he built one of the world’s first large-scale mines in an old furniture store in Wenatchee. “We’re where the blockchain goes from that virtual concept to something that’s real in the world, something that somebody had to build and is actually running,” he says. Here, Carlson stands in front of his latest mining endeavor, a megaproject made up of 24 prefabricated mining “pods.” | Patrick Cavan Brown for Politico Magazine
Bitmain acquired this mining facility in Inner Mongolia a couple years ago and has turned it into one of the most powerful money factories on the Bitcoin network. It quite literally metabolizes electricity into money. By my own calculations, the hardware on the grounds—some 21,000 computers—accounted for about 4 percent of all the computing power in the Bitcoin network when I visited.
One of the best things about the DigitalBitbox is its unique adaptation for passphrase security and backups. This is maybe the one device out there, that comes with a simple yet truly reliable “second-chance” in the worst-case scenario. Additionally, it comes with multiple layers of added security including a hidden wallet and two-factor authentications.
Bloomberg reported that the largest 17 crypto merchant-processing services handled $69 million in June 2018, down from $411 million in September 2017. Bitcoin is "not actually usable" for retail transactions because of high costs and the inability to process chargebacks, according to Nicholas Weaver, a researcher quoted by Bloomberg. High price volatility and transaction fees make paying for small retail purchases with bitcoin impractical, according to economist Kim Grauer. However, bitcoin continues to be used for large-item purchases on sites such as Overstock.com, and for cross-border payments to freelancers and other vendors.
The concept of a virtual currency is still novel and, compared to traditional investments, Bitcoin doesn't have much of a longterm track record or history of credibility to back it. With their increasing use, bitcoins are becoming less experimental every day, of course; still, after eight years, they (like all digital currencies) remain in a development phase, still evolving. "It is pretty much the highest-risk, highest-return investment that you can possibly make,” says Barry Silbert, CEO of Digital Currency Group, which builds and invests in Bitcoin and blockchain companies.
As you can imagine, since mining is based on a form of guessing, for each block, a different miner will guess the number and be granted the right to update the blockchain. Of course, the miners with more computing power will succeed more often, but due to the law of statistical probability, it’s highly unlikely that the same miner will succeed every time.
The U.S. federal investigation was prompted by concerns of possible manipulation during futures settlement dates. The final settlement price of CME bitcoin futures is determined by prices on four exchanges, Bitstamp, Coinbase, itBit and Kraken. Following the first delivery date in January 2018, the CME requested extensive detailed trading information but several of the exchanges refused to provide it and later provided only limited data. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission then subpoenaed the data from the exchanges.
The Ledger Nano is a smartcard based hardware wallet. Private keys are generated and signed offline in the smartcard’s secure environment. The Nano is setup using the Ledger Chrome Application. A random 24-word seed is generated upon setup and backed offline by writing it down on a piece of paper. In case of theft, damage or loss, the entire wallet can be recreated with the seed. A user selected PIN code is also assigned to the device to protect against physical theft or hacking.
By convention, the first transaction in a block is a special transaction that produces new bitcoins owned by the creator of the block. This is the incentive for nodes to support the network. It provides the way to move new bitcoins into circulation. The reward for mining halves every 210,000 blocks. It started at 50 bitcoin, dropped to 25 in late 2012 and to 12.5 bitcoin in 2016. This halving process is programmed to continue for 64 times before new coin creation ceases.
Bitcoin is a digital asset designed to work in peer-to-peer transactions as a currency. Bitcoins have three qualities useful in a currency, according to The Economist in January 2015: they are "hard to earn, limited in supply and easy to verify". However, as of 2015 bitcoin functions more as a payment processor than as a currency.
If the private key is lost, the bitcoin network will not recognize any other evidence of ownership; the coins are then unusable, and effectively lost. For example, in 2013 one user claimed to have lost 7,500 bitcoins, worth $7.5 million at the time, when he accidentally discarded a hard drive containing his private key. A backup of his key(s) would have prevented this.

domain: news


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The Nintendo Switch was the best-selling console with 912,081 units sold for the week ending December 17, 2022, according to VGChartz estimates. The Switch has now sold an estimated 119.74 million units lifetime.
The PlayStation 5 sold an estimated 690,842 units to bring its lifetime sales to 29.30 million units. The Xbox Series X|S sold 469,840 units to bring their lifetime sales to 20.63 million units.
Sony earlier this month announced lifetime PS5 sales had surpassed 30 million units at the end of 2022. When you add in the two missing weeks of 2022 VGChartz estimates will have PS5 sales above 30 million.
I remember back in the day old sayin: Whoever gets a 10 mill advantage has won the generation.
A 43% increase from last year. Just show how low the supply of ps5 was from last December. Sony is really starting to have much more ps5 to sell.
The Switch is killing it and by those numbers has pulled away from the PS4. Almost a million sold just before Christmas. That’s impressive.
Numbers for PS5 and Xbox S/X are solid all the way around. But surprisingly the industry is down for the year.


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Housed in a former factory in the heart of Stockholm, the Misschiefs Takeover exhibition champions a more diverse and experimental approach to design than Sweden is traditionally known for.
Designers including Lotta Lampa, Kajsa Willner and Monica Förster have created a range of offbeat, self-motivated pieces that include characterful glass totems, a flame-like fibreglass bench and a series of slush-cast vases.
Misschiefs started out as a feminist collective, launched by Bjäringer in early 2020. The Swedish curator had recently moved to Stockholm, having spent most of her life in France, and was shocked by the lack of diversity visible in the city's design scene.
"I thought it was quite male, boring and white," she told Dezeen. "I wanted to present a more punk side of Swedish design."
As Bjäringer got to know the city better, she found that the variety was there – it just needed a better platform.
Although she hadn't intended to focus exclusively on women, the curator found that female designers were producing some of the most exciting ideas. So she decided to form Misschiefs as a collective of "womxn", inclusive of trans and nonbinary women.
The current Misschiefs Take Over exhibition opened this week, as part of Stockholm Design Week, but Bjäringer and her team have been occupying the former laundry factory on Linnégatan 4 since August.
As well as being an exhibition space for completed projects, it has given artists and designers – many of whom lost their studios in the financial downturn of the Covid-19 pandemic – a space where they could produce work.
"Since I was in touch with all these women designers and artists who had been really badly hit by the crisis, it became very personal," said Bjäringer. "It became a rescue operation."
Some of the eight designers participating in the current exhibition have been involved since the beginning, while others are working with Misschiefs for the first time.
Lotta Lampa is presenting a series of large-scale pieces that include the Burns Out bench, which takes inspiration from "motif-painted raggar cars," a take on the American 1950s hot rod cars that spawned a mainly countryside-based subculture in Sweden.
Malmö-based Kajsa Willner is exploring ways of minimising material consumption with her Emulate Nature vases, which she casts in tin using the scraps left over from her previous casts.
The glass totems were created by artist Frida Fjellman, using materials leftover from a sculpture she made for the National Museum, while Färg & Blanche co-founder Emma Marga Blanche worked with her partner, Fredrik Färg, to create a cabinet using a new textile they call "burn lace".
Other exhibits include a hand-carved wooden stool by Monica Förster, a seemingly anatomical wall hanging by Maja Michaelsdotter Eriksson, Isa Andersson's lamps made from nylon stockings, and Sara Szyber's Check Mates armchairs.
Bjäringer won't take commission for works sold through the exhibition, as she runs Misschiefs as a non-profit organisation. This is possible because the exhibition space has been given to her rent-free by a real-estate company sympathetic to her ambitions.
Misschiefs will continue to occupy this 500-square-metre space until March. With its city centre location, Bjäringer says it has already become a meeting point for creatives in the city.
With Stockholm Furniture Fair not taking place this year, it is one of the few large-scale exhibitions taking places during Stockholm Design Week.
"It's become more of a human story than just a story about the objects," said Bjäringer.
"In a pandemic time, where we have this big debate over whether culture is a luxury or a necessity, it has become a battle flag for cultural diverse art in Stockholm."
Misschiefs Takeover is taking place from 9 to 13 February, as part of Stockholm Design Week. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.
Photography is by Daniel Camerini.


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It has been 20 years since Wagamama first introduced Nottingham food lovers to katsu curry and ramen served at long communal tables.
The pan-Asian chain is about to open a second restaurant in the county - this time in West Bridgford - just three miles down the road from the original in The Cornerhouse.
Japanese curries, donburi, gyozas and noodles galore await customers in the former Carluccio's Italian restaurant in the leafy Rushcliffe town.
Wagamama is the latest eatery to join the Giggling Squid, Cote Brasserie, Copper Cafe, Yumacha and Portello Lounge in Central Avenue.
Anyone familiar with 'Waga's' will know that there's no booking system - customers simply turn up and queue for a table.
The new restaurant, which is having a trial run for friends and family this weekend, was attracting plenty of attention with passers-by asking for a menu and checking the official opening date.
Wagamama spokeswoman Alice Eagle said: "Our city centre restaurant has been open now for 20 years and we have seen demand grow so much over time that we knew a second restaurant nearby would be a great addition to the area.
"We wanted to bring another element of choice to Central Avenue alongside our fellow casual dining brands.
"West Bridgford is a fantastic part of Nottingham to visit and we know it’s a go-to spot when deciding on where to dine-out."
The 118-seater restaurant, which will open on Monday, November 1, features the latest interior design but will still be home to the iconic Wagamama benches.
There's also a large selection of booth seating available, plus a further 18 seats for alfresco dining.
Sides of bang bang cauliflower, fluffy Asian buns with duck, and sticky vegan ribs are whisked to the tables from a bustling open kitchen.
Food is served as it is cooked so dishes ordered doesn't always arrive the same time.
Main plates include miso-glazed cod ramen, ginger chicken udon, firecracker prawn and the best-seller chicken katsu curry.
To begin with it will be dining in only to allow the new team to settle in but in the new year click and collect and delivery through Deliveroo will be added.
The doors will open with the new 50 percent plant-based menu, making Wagamama the first chain to offer vegans as big a choice as meat eaters and pescatarians.
Dishes include raisukaree tofu curry, tofu harusame salad and teriyaki vegan 'chicken’ ramen - plus a new pale ale Mama Biru.
Ms Eagle added: "We believe in the power of small choices for big change. Individual actions when made collectively add up to create a positive change in our world.
"As our climate is warming, our choices are becoming more significant. Filling bellies sits at the heart of our business, so this is where we have started. We know the earth could benefit from us all eating a few more plants."
Nottingham's Wagamama, overlooking Burton Street, was the second to open outside London - now the number of restaurants has grown to more than 150 across the UK.
The bustling atmosphere, speedy service and polite staff are all praised in reviews as well as the food.


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Eating out has never been more popular. It’s no longer a special treat, but an everyday delight. People of all ages are embracing the dining experience, close to home and on vacation. Hotels can capitalize on this right now – but only if they have the right technology and strategy.
Dining out is a vital part of the travel experience
Over the last five years, eating out locally has become part of our daily lives. Not only that, but dining is now a much faster and more informal affair, leading to a boom in both casual and fast-casual restaurants.
Unsurprisingly, this willingness to try local restaurants, experience ‘craft’ foods, make spur-of-the-moment choices, and eat in a more relaxed atmosphere, has altered the way we eat on vacation too.
Millennials say eating out is increasingly an important part of their travel experience. In fact, according to a survey by Topdeck Travel, 98 per cent of young people ranked ‘eating local cuisine’ as very important.
Chinese travelers, who are becoming ever-more important for the hospitality industry, also say that food is important when traveling. In a survey by Hotels.com, Chinese travelers weighted cuisine as the third most important factor when picking a destination behind only safety and historical sites – and ahead of shopping.
Of course, we’re also all eating out closer to home as well. For example, in the US and Canada consumer spending on restaurants is rising. In fact, last year spending on eating out in the US surpassed spending on groceries for the first time in history. As fears about the outlook for tourism play out across the industry, hotel restaurants provide hoteliers with an attractive way to increase revenues from people living locally.
Competition is fierce, and hotel restaurants should look to invest in tech to compete more effectively
Hotels have worked hard to increase revenues from their bedrooms business, and entice these guests to stay with them by upgrading their facilities. They’ve launched loyalty schemes, and introduced cutting-edge bedroom tech, like in-room voice activated assistants. But still, hotels would like to get more of these guests to use their restaurants.
Local restaurants and increasingly online delivery services are still in the lead. They’re winning the battle for these customers and their business.
Some hotels have fought back, introducing new fast-casual restaurant experiences – or are exploring partnerships with chains to introduce the concept. But while accepting and reacting to this growing trend may well pay dividends long term, it doesn’t tackle the immediate core problem.
To read the full article, visit https://www.hospitalitynet.org/opinion/4083400.html


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Research: Gartner predicts spending on IoT security will reach $348m this year
(Image Credit: iStockPhoto/weerapatkiatdumrong)
Analyst powerhouse Gartner has predicted that global spending on IoT security will reach $348 million this year, up almost 24 percent from the $281 million spent last year. Furthermore, the firm believes spend will reach $434 million in 2017 and $547 million in 2018.
This momentum is set to continue, and...


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Sales of recently built, single-family houses dropped 12.8 per cent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 635,000 units in July off a revised up reading in June, based on recently released data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development along with the U.S. Census Bureau. On a year-to-date foundation, new home sales for 2019 are 4.1 percent greater than the exact same period in 2018.
“Builder confidence continues to trend upward as lower interest rates provide for more favorable buying conditions,” stated Greg Ugalde, chairman of this National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a home builder and developer in Torrington, Conn.
“New home sales were sharply revised upward in June to a post-recession high annual rate of 728,000,” stated NAHB Chief Economist Robert Dietz. “While we continue to see volatility in the monthly numbers, sales continue to trend in a slightly positive direction and are in line with our forecast.”
A new residence sale happens when a sales contract is signed or a deposit is approved. The residence could be at any stage of building: not started, under construction or completed. In addition to adjusting to seasonal effects, the July reading of 635,000 units is that the number of houses that could sell whether that rate continued for another 12 weeks )
The stock of new houses available has been 337,000 at July, representing a 6.4 weeks’ supply. The median sales price was 312,800. The median cost of a new residence sale a year before was 327,500.
Regionally, and also a year-to-date foundation, new home sales are 7.2 percent greater in the South and 9.5 percent higher at the West. Sales are down 15.4 percentage at the Northeast and 12.4 percentage at the Midwest.


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Earlier today, China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) advanced an on-going anti-dumping investigation into Australian wine with the announcement that, from tomorrow, bottled imports from the country will face preliminary tariffs of as much as 217%. Comments from the Australian wine industry that this was a disappointing outcome were, to say the least, an understatement.
China is by some distance the biggest market for Australian wine by value, accounting for 42% of all exports. This has come about through years of hard work winning over Chinese consumers, even before Australia signed a free-trade agreement with China that last year led to a tariff-free wine landscape. It helps that Australia produces the type of fruity reds that go down well in China, but Australian wine’s visibility in the country has come a long way since I lived there more than a decade ago, when my local wine shop’s nod to the region was nothing more than a couple of dusty bottles of Jacob’s Creek Cabernet Sauvignon.
Major investment from large producers such as Treasury Wine Estates has paved the way, as well as painstaking efforts from smaller wineries, teams from which have travelled long and hard, meeting countless distributors around the country.
Wine Australia, the Government agency tasked with marketing the country’s wine to the world, has also pumped money into attracting Chinese consumers. Over the past two years, the majority of an AUD50m (US$37m) fund from the Government to boost the global profile of Australian wine went towards consumers in China as well the US.
There is no doubt the tariffs, if they stick, will hurt Australian wine. The question is: How much?
One marker was the 11% drop in Treasury Wine Estates’ stock price today, stemmed only by a halt in trading. Elsewhere, lessons may be learned from US whiskey, which recently also found itself caught up in trade wars not of its choosing. From 2018 onwards, tariffs from both an aluminium pricing spat and a Boeing/Airbus feud with the European Union have been placed on imports of American whiskey into Europe and China. Large players in the category, including Beam Suntory, which owns Jim Beam, and Jack Daniel’s owner Brown-Forman lobbied hard but ultimately couldn’t fight off punitive levies on imports, mostly around the 25% mark.
This month, spirits trade groups on both sides of the Atlantic put the damage from the tariffs into context. According to the Distilled Spirits Council of the US and SpiritsEurope, American whiskey exports to the EU are down 41% since June 2018. Meanwhile, retaliatory tariffs in the other direction have pushed up prices for US consumers. Consequently, US imports of Scotch whisky between October 2019 and August this year were down year-on-year by almost 34%.
Australian wine’s situation in China is not directly comparable, but American whiskey’s current plight does show wineries how damaging tariffs can be. The fact that Scotch is also hurting proves something else – when it comes to a trade war, everybody loses.
“China is certainly a worry” – just-drinks speaks to Treasury Wine Estates CEO Tim Ford


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The Nintendo Switch Pre Order situation could be sorted for those lucky enough on release day
Today has seen more information released about the Nintendo Switch Pre Order situation, as well as what fans can expect on release day.
Several big stores in North America have confirmed that they will be holding Nintendo Switch console stock on March 3, although in limited quantities.
With the new console pretty much sold out across the board, strolling down to a local store might be the best way to grab a Switch in both the US and UK.
Target and Best Buy are known to be holding stock, along with Walmart and Gamestop, who will also be trying to supply walk-in shoppers.
Some North American stores are also holding midnight events, so some gamers may need to head down early.
It should likely be the same situation in the UK, with Nintendo pledging that a Pre Order situation similar to that of the Pokemon Go Plus device, or Nintendo Mini NES should not materialise.
That’s according to Nintendo UK boss Nicolas Wegnez, who believes the company will avoid the situation of Pre Order shortages, citing that there should be units to buy on day one from stores.
“It’s true pre-orders are very strong, but we still expect Nintendo Switch to be available at some retailers on Day One,” Wegnez told MCV.
“We do expect shipments to steadily come. As we all know, this is not a sprint but a marathon, which is why we are so busy preparing strong plans for the months to come following the launch.”
So fans who have pre-ordered the console should be safe, at least in the UK, from being disappointed on March 3.
Games will also be a factor as there are currently no consoles being sold in bundles.
More than 60 quality indie games are confirmed for Nintendo Switch this year alone, and many games take advantage of the multiple play modes (TV mode, handheld mode, tabletop mode), flexible control options, local and online multiplayer, and Joy-Con functionality like HD rumble.
One game that is likely to sell well on the Nintendo Switch release date is Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
The new Link title is already earning some good review scores and is likely to be the system selling title Nintendo will have until the likes of Splatoon 2 and Mario Kart arrive.


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Not since the original iPhone was introduced back in 2007 has an Apple device been so dramatically unveiled to the public. Journalists have been handcuffed over this thing. And after months of leaks, rumors, spy shots, and speculation, Apple finally announced the iPhone 4 at today's Steve Jobs keynote at the 2010 Apple Worldwide Developer's Conference in San Francisco.
Introduced in iOS 17.1 and watchOS 10.1, NameDrop is a novel feature that facilitates the sharing of contact information between nearby iPhones and Apple Watches by holding them together.
WhatsApp introduces a breakthrough feature enabling iPhone users to share photos and videos in their original quality on the messaging platform.


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The New Nikon S800C COOLPIX Camera powered by Android
Today, we share photos more than ever. Now you can shoot and share amazing quality photos, with the newest COOLPIX cameras. Image a camera with WiFi built right in. So when you get that shot you just can’t wait to share, you can share it right away via email, or your favorite social site.
Now that COOLPIX is powered by Android and has built in WiFi, uploading your favorite pictures is simple. But it gets better. The COOLPIX S800C can now do more than ever, thanks to a built in browser that turns your camera into something special. It does more than upload pictures. Download your favorite photo apps directly to the COOLPIX S800C with Google Play. It can download pictures posted by your friends and family so you can view them on your 3.5” high resolution OLED touch screen. Plus now you can wirelessly transfer images from your camera to smartphones and tablets. It’s simple, it’s fast and it’s totally wireless.
Check out the newest commercial featuring Ashton Kutcher


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A 150 per cent jump
The cost of imported goods is set to rise following decision by shipping lines to more than double fees charged to facilitate emergency security measures in case of pirate attacks.
The shipping lines have announced that they will increase the emergency surcharge fee per container from Sh16,740 to Sh41,550, a 150 per cent jump.
This will pile pressure on the cost of imported goods like petroleum, cooking gas, electronics and machinery already hit by the increased cost of commodities at the international market and the weakening Shilling.
“The costs associated with piracy are increasing and this is affecting business at the port,” said Agayo Ogambi, a senior official of the Kenya Shippers Council (KSC).
He said the Council plans to oppose the new fees.
The increase in emergency surcharge fees -that enables shipping lines to take security measures in case of an attempted attack – apply to the ports of Mombasa and Dar as Salaam.
It is another blow to these ports that have been given a wide berth by cruise tourists wary of attacks by gangs from Somalia.
The new fees are understood to have been triggered by the increasing cost of hiring private security for vessel escort because of shortage of officers with naval experience.
Most African countries retain skeleton naval units meaning that unlike in the army, the supply of retired naval officers to undertake private security guards is scarce.
Shipping lines have stopped depending entirely on the naval ships from patrolling in the Indian Ocean because attacks have persisted as pirates take advantage of the long coastline and the vast unpoliced interior of the Indian Ocean.
The new costs are a major blow to consumers already hit by rising inflation and the weakening of the Shilling that has made imported goods to be more expensive.
Kenyan inflation surged to 9.2 percent in February from 6.5 per cent a month before because of higher food and fuel prices, said the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics.
The Kenyan Shilling has also lost against major world currencies since January this year, meaning importers are paying more for same products.
In early February, the Shilling exchanged Sh81.27 to the US dollar.
Source: Business Daily


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The biggest stock market debut in history is in question. The Hong Kong and Shanghai stock markets have decided to stop the IPO of Ant Group, the unicorn backed by Jack Ma (Alibaba), accused of not presenting all the necessary information by the region's supervisors.
Specifically, the agencies signal Ant Group to make "changes" without notifying them properly in its initial IPO prospectus.
In addition, the Shanghai operator indicates that this Monday Ma himself met with the People's Bank of China and other regulatory entities, something that is considered a conflict of interest. Ant Group had planned to debut this Thursday raising some 14.6 billion euros.
Its IPO was to be simultaneous on both the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock, and is now suspended until further notice. It remains to be seen whether or not the company complies with the demands of the supervisors and makes the biggest stock market debut yet.
As a result, the shares of Alibaba Group, Ma's flagship company, they are yielding more than 9% in the pre-market opening.
. (tagsToTranslate) Shanghai (t) Hong (t) Kong (t) slow down (t) Group (t) largest (t) exit (t) stock market (t) history (t) Category: All (t) Category: Market Report (t) Category: Company News (t) Category: Pulsos (t) Category: Market Pulse


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LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (KTHV) -- When it comes to your prescription drugs, you hope you’re getting the best price anywhere you go, but you’ll often find that your drug prices can differ from pharmacy to pharmacy for the same drug.
We’re now introducing you to a middle-man of sorts who is often unheard of, but has a major role in prescription drugs, the Pharmacy Benefit Manager, or PBM. The process seems simple. People need medicine. A doctor writes a prescription. You pay for your pills.
"When we submit it to someone's pharmacy plan, we get a price back from the plan and we do not have control over that," said Philip Way who is the pharmacist at Remedy Drug.
There’s the pharmacist, the insurance company, the drug maker, and another party, the PBM. The PBM is placed between the pharmacy and your insurance company. You may know them as Express Scripts, CVS Caremark, and OptumRX. PBMs negotiate contracts with insurance companies, while negotiating drug prices with pharmacies.
"These 3 big PBMs control as much as 80 percent of the lives in the US who have insurance," said Scott Pace, CEO of the Arkansas Pharmacists Association.
"If we want to take their patients then we take their prices. We submit a claim for somebody on a certain plan and then we get sent back to us the amount we're getting paid and the patients copay," said Way.
PBMs work out the benefits the insurance company will offer patients and process any claims the pharmacy makes using that insurance. They claim to reduce costs for prescription drug benefits by at least 30 percent.
"People who have these benefits will pay a copay for a drug instead of the whole price of a drug," said Mark Merritt, the CEO for PCMA or Pharmaceutical Care Management Association.
PCMA represents PBMs.
“They (PBMs) create discount pharmacy networks. They find drug stores with lowest rates and encourage people to go to them," said Merritt
Which can explain why some pharmacies have lower prices. When it comes to patients using insurance, the pharmacist doesn't control the price.
“We want to make sure we're paying as little as we can and that’s how the marketplace works," said Merritt.
"Sometimes the contracted price is below the price we pay for the medicine," said Way.
That means with some sales, pharmacies can actually lose money.
"I'd say about one out of every five (sales)," said Way.
"Filling a prescription is not knowing what you’re going to get paid. It’s almost like pulling a slot machine and hoping, crossing your fingers and hoping you get paid more than it costs you to buy the drug and perform the service," said Pace.
Because in the end, it is a business. Merritt said PBMs don’t know how much pharmacies pay for drugs and wholesalers.
"There are a lot of drug stores out there and our job is to drive competition among those drug stores so they offer the lowest rate," said Merritt.
We reached out to the PBMs.
CVS Caremark representatives told us: "The drug manufacturers set and control the price of their drugs and PBMs work to lower those costs for our clients and their members. We embrace transparency with our clients and work to ensure the patients we support have clear information."
Express Scripts representatives told us: "We are transparent with our clients, the employers and health plans that hire PBMs, and about how we deliver savings."
Optum Rx told us: "OptumRx's pharmacy benefit solutions are helping our customers and members save billions in prescription drug costs this year alone. Pharmacies should always charge the lowest amount outlined in a members' health plan when filling prescriptions."
“PBMs are making money from the patient pharmacy side and they’re making money from the health insurance side. Their number one goal is to maximize profits and to make as much money as they can and they are certainly doing that," said Alex Gray, an attorney with Steel Wright Gray and Hutchinson Law Firm.
Gray filed several lawsuits on behalf of patients claiming they are being forced into overpaying.
"They’re paying more than the pharmacy is getting reimbursed and that is a violation of the law," said Gray.
Gray provided THV11 with six documents obtained from pharmacists that are examples of what’s called a ‘clawback.’ In one example, the cost of an anti-depressant including ingredients and pharmacy fee's is $2.23, but the patient paid a copay of $10. The remaining $7.77 goes back to the health plan.
“The patient has no legal obligation to pay a PBM. There’s no contract between the patient and the PBM so the patient is paying more than required," said Gray.
"That’s not a standard industry practice and it’s not something we think is the best way to go about things as an industry," said Merritt.
That's why patients are encouraged to ask the cash price as well as the insured price because while it doesn't happen all the time, some PBMs restrict what pharmacists can say about pricing unless you ask.
Meanwhile, the state of Arkansas is fighting for more regulation. Act 900 passed in 2015 to give pharmacists an appeal procedure to question prices and require PBMs to reimburse all pharmacies the same amount.
"The system of healthcare works best when its transparent. What we have here is an unregulated middle man who is as opaque as it gets," said Pace.
The PBMs are challenging this move.
"It would have dramatically increased cost because it would have given drug store an incentive to pay for the highest cost," said Merritt.
The one thing Pace and Merritt agree on, is patients should ask more questions. When it comes to health care, they both claim to fight for you, the patient.


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Industry: APP/WEB Based Service Provider
“Dogspot is an online pet care platform. The Gurgaon-based company had reportedly said in 2016 that they handle about 60,000 orders on a monthly basis with an average basket size of Rs 1,700.
Funding (2016/2017): Ratan Tata, chairman emeritus of Tata Sons Ltd, has invested in the company as part of a fund-raising round. The company did not disclose the amount raised.
Dheeraj Jain, partner at Redcliffe Capital, a UK-based hedge fund, existing investors Ronnie Screwvala, K. Ganesh and early-stage investment firm India Quotient were among others who invested.”
Founder : Rana Atheya


text: Jessica recently posted on her Weibo account that she has been removed from Girl's Generation (I attached the translation here) This is either a horrible joke and a bad hacker, or she's really leaving. What would SNSD do without Jessica? And what would Krystal do without her sister in the company? Originally, SM responded by saying she didn't post the message, but now they have changed their answer. They are 'checking into' the post to see what is going on. I'll keep this card updated with any more news! _UPDATE_ The Korean media has revealed that Girls’ Generation has departed for their fan meeting in Shenzhen, China with Jessica nowhere in sight! _UPDATE_ SM CONFIRMS JESSICA IS LEAVING SNSD Here's SM's statement: "This spring, Jessica told the company that due to a personal situation, she will be stopping team promotions after the end of one more album promotion," said SM Entertainment. "Despite Jessica′s sudden announcement, the company and the SNSD members persistently worked hard and pondered on how to continue promotions in a good direction for SNSD." "However, before agreements could be made on rising conflicts regarding the priority and interests of SNSD promotions, Jessica began her fashion-related business, and a situation arose where it became difficult to maintain the team despite continuous discussions." "With this, the company decided it had to promote SNSD with eight members sooner than expected, and while it was discussing when to announce the news, Jessica posted her own perspective in the early morning." SM Entertainment wrote last, "From this point onward, the company will unchangingly support and manange SNSD with eight members as well as Jessica′s personal activities."


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Malaysian credit reporting agencies CTOS and Experian offer free dark web monitoring for all Malaysians for a limited period of time
Malaysian credit reporting agencies CTOS and Experian issued a press statement announcing that their data assets are secure and that they will also offer free dark web monitoring to all Malaysians for a certain period of time (one month and three months respectively).
Their announcement comes after Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) suspended the Central Credit Reference Information System (CCRIS) of all credit reporting agencies (CRAs) in response to potential cyber threats and the possibility of a data breach.
While it is unclear what exactly caused the suspension, CTOS wrote that the industry-wide move was "a precautionary measure to further protect customer information. They also explained that "cyber attacks are becoming more frequent and sophisticated" and that the temporary suspension applies to all CRAs.
Previously, BNM said that access to credit reporting agencies will be restored once secure access is assured. Nevertheless, financial consumers can access their CCRIS reports through this link: https://eccris.bnm.gov.my
"We want to assure the public that as of today there is no indication that our data assets have been breached …… We have made and will continue to make significant investments to ensure our IT and data security," CTOS Group CEO Dennis Martin ( Dennis Martin) said, "Our framework, policies, procedures and systems are benchmarked against Bank Negara Malaysia's Risk Management in Technology (RMiT) standard and ISO27001 as well as other global standards."
According to Martin, "CTOS takes cyber security risks and data breach protection very seriously, and all the data and information we have is protected by world-class certified data security technology. As cyber attacks become more frequent and sophisticated, we have also enhanced our proactive assessment processes to protect the integrity of our data."
Experian also explained that they have conducted an "in-depth security investigation" and have found no evidence of a breach of any system, server or facility. They have presented their findings to the State Bank throughout the investigation and will restore their CCRIS services "as soon as possible.
"We are committed to advancing data security standards and safeguards to protect the information and interests of Malaysian consumers and businesses. This is a worrying time for many, with news of personal data allegedly being sold on the dark web over the past few weeks." Experian wrote.
CTOS has announced that starting today, October 4, 2021, all Malaysians can get one month of free dark web monitoring through CTOS SecureID. The service will help check whether customers' personal information is potentially exposed to the dark web.
You can sign up for a free month of service through CTOS here. According to their website, it usually costs RM8.90 per month or RM86.90 per year. CTOS SecureID will also provide you with credit monitoring and reporting, as well as fraud and Takaful insurance.
Experian offers free dark web monitoring for three months through JagaMyID. The basic JagaMyID service usually costs RM63 per year and also includes a credit report but no protection plan. the JagaMyID Plus account includes a protection plan and costs RM99 for one year.
Starting October 4, 2021, you can sign up for three months of free service through Experian here.
A total of three CRAs authorized by BNM have access to CCRIS. in addition to CTOS and Experian, Credit Bureau has also acknowledged the suspension. However, it does not yet offer a free dark web monitoring service similar to the other CRAs.
From：On DarkNet – Dark Web News and Analysis
Copyright of the article belongs to the author, please do not reproduce without permission.


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Their reasons are as varied as their business models, but each year a number of VAR and integrator executives decide to sell their organizations—with differing degrees of success.
Whether a VAR primarily provides services or focuses almost exclusively on products, prospective sellers should take certain steps to ensure a smooth and profitable transition from business owner to amateur tennis ace. Misconceptions abound, executives cautioned, and it’s wise to plan the sale of a business as far in advance as possible.
The Bottom Line
Chicago-based VAR Logicalis, which recently acquired STI and Eisco Technology, doesn’t stop at extensively reviewing financials and market positions when making an acquisition; the company also researches partner relationships.
“Logicalis’ goal is, and has always been, to dramatically grow our revenue through the acquisition of complementary and very successful integrators of our top product lines, which include HP, IBM, Cisco and EMC,” said Mike Cox, Logicalis’ CEO. “Our acquisition of STI quickly takes us to a whole new level in our IBM sales and service capabilities.”
Although profitable businesses generally command a higher price tag, executives can sell organizations that operate in the red, said Jeff Gold, president of Trailmap, an Athens, Ga.-based business consultant, who has owned and sold 10 companies, and who works with both SMBs (small and midsize businesses) and enterprises.
“Both are salable. A lot of people have a business that’s not doing well and close it down at a time when another company might have been interested in buying it,” he said. “Buyers fall into two primary categories—somebody who wants to take a profitable business and build it up, or somebody who wants to buy a business that ‘synergizes’ well with something else [he’s] doing, whether or not it’s profitable.”
Those solution providers that survived the recent lean years generally are extremely salable, said Jody Rookstill, vice president of sales and marketing at Valuation Broker, which brokers valuation services for companies with sales of $100,000 to $30 million per year. By including owners’ salaries, for example, a business’s bottom line instantly improves, he said.
“Those that were around, that started in the mid-1990s, have a lot of bigger groups and individual investors looking to buy them,” said Rookstill.
Name Your Price
Of course, one of the first questions prospective sellers want answered is the value of their business: how much they can expect for their company.
“Don’t be unrealistic,” said Rookstill. “Nothing kills a deal faster than unrealistic expectations of the selling group. You chase off a big chunk of buyers by pricing yourself out of the market.”
While some VARs already have relationships with CPAs or attorneys who can help determine the value of their business, VARs also may consider using a valuation service, said Rookstill. “It sets a baseline value,” he said. “We’ve found the sales process goes a lot faster when you have a valuation document.”
Since it brokers valuations through a series of partners that specialize in different businesses—such as VARs and integrators—Valuation Broker claims its valuations are 30 percent to 40 percent less than comparable services through other companies. Typically, Valuation Broker gets quotes from a handful of valuation companies and provides this information to the prospective seller, who chooses whether to use the service. “Opinion of valuation” reports start at about $1,400 for smaller companies, Rookstill said.
“Our services to [VARs] don’t cost them anything,” he said. “We get paid by the valuation firm and the [real estate] brokers. We stay involved from a quality-assurance perspective.”
Since many VARs and integrators differentiate themselves based on relationships—with their vendors, their employees and their customers—prospective sellers must take steps to document how to retain these assets after the sale.
“When you sell a business you have tangible assets, and then you start getting into the intangibles like personnel,” said Rookstill.
Well-crafted contracts with key employees, as well as strong written deals with a wide breadth of clients, help cinch a deal, he said.
But written documents are not always necessary, countered Gary Martin, president of Nevada Business Systems, a Las Vegas-based Konica Minolta reseller, who earlier this month sold his 20-employee dealership to Konica Minolta. “Do we have an employee contract? No,” he said. “Do we have commitment, desire and determination? Yes. It all boils down to personality. A service tech is looking at security for himself and his family. A sales person is looking to make more money.”
Of course, the onus of honoring these contracts and continuing strong relationships then falls squarely on the buyer’s shoulders. “The buyers need to figure out what they need to do to retain key employees,” said Gold. “That’s just going in and talking to them during the [sales] process, and bringing them into the process.”
Sellers must create a written plan that details their exit strategy. Often, former owners are asked to stay for a transition of anywhere from 90 days to several years, said Rookstill. Generally, sellers aren’t encouraged to take the money and run, he noted.
“I will stay on for a couple of years. We’ve got it in writing. It lends some credibility to the employees,” Martin said. “At this stage in my life, health becomes an issue. I’m sure in the next two, three years, a successor will be named.”
Often, it’s wise to abbreviate the transition period, said Gold. “I would sever all ties with an existing business other than a transition period or consulting for so many hours—but specify that. If they need you after that, you negotiate it at that time,” he said.
Sellers planning to remain in the same industry must disclose that fact to prospective buyers, said Gold. “If you’re going to be involved in a similar business or consult, make it clear to all parties,” he said, warning against poorly written non-compete clauses that last too long.
When a business has some potential or real problems, sellers should inform anyone interested in acquiring the company, said Rookstill.
“If there are skeletons in the closet, be very forthcoming with prospective buyers. Be upfront,” he said. “If there are things you know are a definite weakness or [a problem] from the past, be upfront. Buyers are very savvy. If it comes out later rather than sooner, more often than not you’ve lost your prospective buyer.”
By doing so, sellers often can keep a deal alive—and preserve their integrity and reputation in the industry, Rookstill added.
Gold, who generally recommends selling a company’s assets while retaining the name, warns sellers to protect themselves from any possible mistakes the buyer may make.
“Sell everything as-is. You’re not selling it as-is in the sense that you’re selling bad product, but because so many things are subjective,” said Gold. “Somebody can buy a business. For whatever reason, they want to change everything the first two weeks they’re there. You want to be careful you don’t do anything that makes you liable for the new owner’s mistakes.”
By selling assets, rather than the entire company, both buyer and seller are clear on what is in play, he said.
“There are so many things, when you sell an entire business, that can come back and make trouble for you,” he said. “When you make an asset sale, it’s real clear what you’re selling and what you’re responsible for. Both sides end up a lot happier in the end.”
Ideally, channel company owners will operate their business as if they were on the market—even if they have no immediate, or even long-term, plans to sell, said Rookstill.
“Most business owners are so focused on running their company, they don’t develop an exit plan,” he said. “If you run your business always assuming you’ll be selling in three months, when you’re ready to sell, it’ll all be done. You’ll get a premium over the guy who’s working day-to-day and who doesn’t have a plan in place.”


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IN the past year, hotel chains and home-sharing sites have started encroaching on each other’s turf. Airbnb Inc advertises hotel rooms on its platform and Marriott International Inc recently launched a home-stay offering.
HONG KONG: The first week of October – China’s national holiday break during which millions head out on vacation – marks one of the busiest periods for Hong Kong’s tourism and retail industry.
BEIJING: The first week of October -- China’s national holiday break during which millions head out on vacation -- marks one of the busiest periods for Hong Kong’s tourism and retail industry.
HONG KONG: The collapse of Fosun Group’s flagship European investment, Thomas Cook, is proving to be a reality check for the Chinese conglomerate’s ambitions to create a global travel empire via flashy acquisitions.
FRANKFURT: Frankfurt-based airline Condor’s request for emergency financing was granted by the German government in a bid to get the tourist carrier through the winter after the demise of U.K. parent Thomas Cook Group Plc.
Does Mukesh Ambani (pic) see dark clouds gathering on the horizon? From his message to shareholders, it doesn’t look like India’s richest tycoon is worried. But his actions may reveal more than his words.
Some employers are banning weekend and late-night emails to prevent employee burnout
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump’s top trade envoy will be in the congressional hot seat for two days this week, giving lawmakers the chance to grill him about the prospects for a deal with China, as well as various punitive measures threatened by his boss.
ANAHEIM, Calif: A galaxy far, far away is colonizing Walt DisneyCo.’s theme parks.


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A Heinz ad featuring children, teenagers and adults using tins of baked beans to drum out the rhythm of a song has been banned by the ASA for encouraging unsafe behaviour.
The ‘Can Song’ ad shows people singing along to a song while using a baked beans can as an instrument. Towards the end of the ad, on-screen text states “Learn the #CanSong”.
It triggered nine complaints, which challenged whether the ad encouraged unsafe practice and whether it featured behaviour that could be dangerous for children to emulate.
Heinz said the can was tapped only on its sealed top, its bottom or sides and did not depict any movements that involved placing a hand or fingers inside the can. As consumers had created their own video versions of the ‘Can Song’ and uploaded them onto social media sites, the brand argued copying the ad was not harmful to their health or safety.
It had also taken additional precautionary measures by including instructions on how to prepare a ‘safe’ can in the social media videos that featured the Can Song. Heinz said all cans featured in the ad had been taped, and that all the children shown tapping cans in the ad were shown in the presence of an adult.
The ASA disagreed. While it acknowledged that the cans in the ad were tapped only on sealed tops, bottom or sides, it was not always clear, particularly given the speed at which the Can Song was played.
In addition, the ASA argued that the ad itself did not include any references that instructed consumers to ensure a tin can was made safe before attempting to learn the song. As result, it concluded that the ad “condoned and encouraged behaviour that prejudiced health or safety”.
Because the ad was likely to encourage behaviour that could be dangerous for children to emulate, the ASA concluded it breached the code. Heinz has been told not to broadcast the ad again in its current form.
In response to the ruling, a spokesperson for Heinz told Marketing Week: “We believe this popular ad did not pose any safety risk and many fans were inspired to create their own video versions. Of course safety is our number one priority and our online tutorials also included taping the can end as an extra precaution. Although we acknowledge the ASA decision the TV campaign is over and we have no plans to run it again.”


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'I want to protect the future generations by providing them healthy milk,' said one of the suppliers, who claims most sellers in the city are irked by PFA's decision to promote the sale of pasteurised
Replying to a question, the PFA DG said it was easy to keep an eye on a few hundred pasteurised
units as compared to thousands of milk selling points and that pasteurisation was the only solution to milk adulteration.
The meeting was briefed that in this friasian pasteurised
egg plant the latest technology of separating egg yolk from egg white and then preservance of egg yolk and egg white from three weeks upto one year will be possible.
The horse manure compost pasteurised
either for 2 or 3 h had the highest number of contaminated bags (40 bags) and was significantly (P less than 0.05) higher than the other treatments and thus abandoned.
The FSA said: "These eggs were mixed with other non-contaminated eggs to make pasteurised
It will continue to serve the Thai domestic market where dairy consumption is growing by 10% annually and the niche market of Singapore where it currently has 35% of sales of pasteurised
milk, said Prasit.
Kiobrina is a recombinant human bile-salt-stimulated lipase (rhBSSL) aimed at improving growth and development in preterm infants receiving pasteurised
breast milk and/or formula.
A Most milk we buy in the UK is pasteurised
. Milk is pasteurised
by heating it, usually to 71.7C for 15 seconds.
This destroys all bacteria and makes it last much longer than ordinary pasteurised
milk, which involves a process to kill off bacteria, came second and others which scored highly include tea bags and screw-top wine bottles.
In 1999, Granarolo marketed in Italy high-temperature pasteurised
milk produced in Germany.
It is hoped that following the code will assist operators in ensuring that their products have been correctly pasteurised
and that the risk of post-pasteurisation contamination has been avoided.


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Armenia’s economic activity indicator grows by 10,2% in January 2018
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 20, ARMENPRESS. Armenia’s 2018 January economic activity indicator has exceeded the previous year’s indicator for the same period by 10,2%.
The national statistical service released the main macroeconomic indicators. A decrease has been recorded only in the volume of gross agricultural output.
Construction growth totaled 19,7% - 9 billion 333,7 million drams. The 2018 January indicator in energy production increased by 7% against the previous year’s same period.
Service volume (without trade) grew by 15,2% - totaling 111 billion 444,8 million drams. The gross agricultural output decreased by 0,4% - comprising 17 billion 535,7 million drams.
The consumer price index increased by 2,7%, whereas the industrial production price index grew by 5,2%.
Trade turnover increased by 17,3% and comprised 157 billion 386,6 million drams. The industrial production volume is 128 billion 254,6 million drams – 13,9% more than in January of 2017.
The average nominal monthly salary grew by 10,2%.
Foreign trade turnover volumes grew by 47,6% (exports grew by 45,2% and imports grew by 48,9%).


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Google CEO Sundar Pichai isn’t wasting any time at this year’s I/O developer conference. But one breakout feature announced during the keynote is that Google plans to add incognito modes to both search and its Maps app.
Pichai didn’t spend a whole lot of time on this feature—it was part of a flurry of privacy-related updates. But we did get to see a screencap that showed the ability to turn on Incognito mode. Ostensibly, it works the same way as it already does on Chrome and YouTube. What does this ultimately mean? Well, your search and travel data won’t be linked in your history. So soon, you can keep your location searches and trips seeeeecreeeeeet—for all your hot trysts, secret trips, and maybe more innocently, surprise party planning.
“Soon” is about all we got from Pichai as to when we might see this feature go live. Incognito mode will also be coming to search sometime later this year. Technically, you can already search in Incognito mode, but only if you’re using the Chrome browser. This should open Incognito searches up to everyone who uses Google’s search engine on other browsers, like Firefox or Opera.


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Kuehnert, who graduated from UNC in 2013, is the co-founder of Buds Boxers, a startup underwear company aimed at the college-age demographic that is hoping to have a Kickstarter campaign up and running this week.
Kuehnert said the conceptualization began in December 2013, when he and a few of his entrepreneurial friends from Chapel Hill began floating ideas of something fun to work on.
But Buds didn’t come around until the following summer, when those same friends began thinking of projects in men’s apparel.
“We first thought about starting a men’s tie company, we thought about socks, but we just realized a lot of these ideas had already been done,” Kuehnert said.
“We just kept playing around with the idea, and one day we just thought, ‘Why don’t we change the way men think about their boxer shorts?’”
Kuehnert said Buds wants to make their mark through their quality, American manufacturing and designs.
“We are not competing with Walmart boxers — we are trying to get guys to care about stuff that’s really awesome instead of buying the five pack of Hanes,” he said.
At the moment, Kuehnert’s goals are to get $21,000 in funding through Kickstarter and raise awareness for the brand. To do that, he realized he needed more manpower.
Enter Jake Higdon. Higdon, a junior global studies major, became involved just a few weeks ago. He said he’s been helping with outreach and marketing in anticipation to the launch on Kickstarter. Sometimes, he said, it’s difficult to market a product that’s generally hidden under other layers.
“Boxers are something that people think they don’t really need to worry about,” he said. “We are trying to remake that. That’s the whole point really — redefining that market.”
Higdon has also helped come up with a slogan: “Join the Boxer Rebellion.”
Both Kuehnert and Higdon exude a laid-back vibe they say is reflected in their start-up.
Dave Dwight, a junior economics and global studies major who has been on board since the summer, said that attitude has made the process as enjoyable as possible.
“This is a side project for all of us,” he said. “We’re not trying to put an incredible amount of personal self-worth into the success of this project.”
That doesn’t mean the team hasn’t faced challenges.
“We all come to the table with our different brand ideas, and trying to come up with a congruent and concise brand for people hasn’t always been easy,” Dwight said.
Kuehnert said the group has no plans to open a storefront. He said they are planning on selling online.
“It’s possible that if things go well, we would partner with retailers and have them in different storefronts,” he said.
For now, their main goal is to see the Kickstarter funded as soon as possible, Dwight said.
“Long term, let’s get the Kickstarter funded and move on to Buds 2.0. It’s really hard to say what’s beyond that.”


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Getty Images has taken action against a serious copyright infringer
Getty Images statement regarding legal action taken against Mr. Walter A. Kowalczuk.
Getty Images has taken action against a serious copyright infringer who was discovered to have improperly accessed, downloaded and distributed Getty Images content through social media.
In early March 2016, Getty Images received a report from one of its customers alerting us to suspected copyright infringements that were taking place via a private group hosted on Facebook.
The ensuing investigation revealed the Facebook group was being used by some members as a forum for unlawfully trading and/or selling sports photographic imagery owned by or exclusively licensed to Getty Images. As alleged in the lawsuit filed on June 8, 2016, defendant Walter A. Kowalczuk was an active member of this forum and used it to offer for sale, high resolution Getty Images images, and images belonging to other photo companies, for as little as $0.75 per image, using code names to hide the true source of content and to conceal his unauthorized sales.
While Getty Images’ investigation thus far has revealed significant infringement, it believes that further investigation will reveal that Mr. Kowalczuk downloaded thousands of images without authorization from Getty Images and profited from those downloads. In addition, Getty Images believes that Mr. Kowalczuk was not acting alone, and the company is actively pursuing other possible infringers. Getty Images filed a complaint against Mr. Kowalczuk for copyright infringement, violations of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and other claims. That complaint was filed in the United States District Court in Cleveland, Ohio.
Getty Images strongly supports a robust and fair industry that recognizes and remunerates the artists whose expertise, time and livelihood is adversely affected by copyright infringements such as those incurred by Mr. Kowalczuk.
Getty Images has an immense responsibility to the 200,000+ artists we work with and our over 330 image partner relationships, to ensure that their work is properly licensed. Bear in mind that many artists themselves are small businesses, and are entitled to be paid for their work.
We intend to hold Mr. Kowalczuk and any others involved in this illegal marketplace accountable for their infringements.


text: Miami, FL – December 1, 2014 – What do you get when you merge two creative forces? One epic collaboration. On Monday afternoon, Miami Design District boutique APT 606 and Spinello Projects teamed up for the opening reception of new works by Typoe, a Miami-based multimedia artist. With a new vision in store, APT 606 has executed a clean new look to their conceptual menswear boutique, which provides an exclusive collection in minimalistic nature featuring some of today’s most coveted designers. The exhibition of multimedia works at APT 606 will be on display and open to the public, free of charge throughout Art Basel week from 11am-10pm.


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Bournemouth College welcomes decision to extend grants for apprenticeships
ADRIAN Martin, the director of Apprenticeships at The Bournemouth & Poole College has welcomed the decision to extend the timeframe for Apprenticeship grants made to local employers.
He says extending the £1,500 cash incentive to businesses who take on a new apprentice is a shot in the arm for the local economy and a real boost for young people looking to take their first steps into industry.
The money is paid up-front by Government funding agency, The Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS), and has been hailed a success by many smaller enterprises in the region.
Adrian said: “The decision should be welcomed by businesses. It will encourage more small companies to come forward to take on fresh young talent, which we have in abundance at the college.”
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Under the BIS scheme the grants are available to businesses who take on young people between the ages of 16 and 24 as apprentices for the first time.
It was scheduled to end this year but it will now run until December 2014. There will be no changes to the eligibility criteria.
One company to benefit from the scheme is Copyrite of Wimborne. Copyrite specialises in the repair and maintenance of office equipment such as printers and photocopying machines. It has taken on two apprentices under the grant scheme, Josh Bird and Myles Duncan-King, and is now looking for a third.
Before the scheme the company was reluctant to commit resources to young trainees and there was a shortage of trained engineers with the skills in that sector. The BIS financial backing was crucial to the decision to turn to Apprenticeships as an answer to the problem.
Ricky Beach, Copyrite service manager said: “Although we are small operation we decided to engage first one apprentice, then a second and the grant support was so useful to us. We have had excellent support through the college to make it work for us.”
Ricky said the funding support system was excellent and that other small businesses need to look at this an option.
Added Ricky: “Without the work and support of the college it would be even harder to talent spot and find the right kind of young people, in our case Josh and Myles, to help our company move forward.”


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Tuesday, April 04, 2006, 06:00 am PT (09:00 am ET)
Austek wins order for 1.2M widescreen Apple iBooks?Asustek has secured a contract from Apple Computer to make an initial delivery of 1.2 million iBook notebook personal computers, the Commercial Times reported, without citing sources.
According to the report, of which the reliability is unknown, the notebooks will be powered by Intel microprocessors and be equipped with 13.3-inch display.
The report further states that Apple will not begin to sell the notebooks until June, while contract suppliers of LCD panels will start delivering the displays to Apple's manufacturing facilities in April for a product ramp.
AU Optronics Corp., Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp., as well as South Korea's LG Philips LCD will reportedly supply the LCD panels for the new iBooks.
AU Optronics is expected to supply about 40,000-50,000 panels to Apple a month, the report added.
The Commercial Times also recently reported that Intel will cut Core Duo pricing ahead of a new 2.33GHz model in May.
On Topic: General
- Former head of Android Andy Rubin leaves Google to start tech hardware incubator
- Seth Rogen to play Steve Wozniak alongside Christian Bale's Steve Jobs
- President Bill Clinton, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella & others praise Apple CEO Tim Cook for publicly announcing he is gay
- 'I'm proud to be gay,' Apple CEO Tim Cook says in open letter supporting equality
- Microsoft inadvertently leaks 'Band' fitness wearable in new app, reveals 'Microsoft Health' [update: confirmed]


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The Delaware Train & Slot Car Show will be held from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. April 6 at the Nur Shrine Center, 198 S. Dupont Highway, New Castle.
The show will feature more than 160 tables of trains, accessories, slot cars and some toys. Delaware Train Show will have trains in all scales and makes from various unique dealers coming from up and down the east coast.
The April Fools Toy Show will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. April 7, also at the Nur Shrine Center. More than 175 tables of new, collectible and antique toys will be featured.
Admission each day is $5, with children younger than 12 free. Early buyers, who receive an extra hour of shopping before doors open, are $10.
The fourth annual Delaware Punk Rock Flea Market is set for May 26, at the Nur Shrine.
For more, visit toyshows.org or call 856-302-3606.


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What happened in November?
Both new listings and new listing dollar volume were down in November, a month typically slower for new listing activity. Only 31 new properties came onto the market last month, roughly one third of new listings seen in the high month of May. Total new listing dollar volume still topped $60 million in November as 4 new homes priced over $3 million hit the market, including two homes in excess of $10 million – a 4,000 square foot house and adjoining lot in Wilderness Ranches and a 6 bedroom home now under construction in Shooting Star. Helped by these higher end homes, the average listing price reached over $2 million in November, however the median listing price dropped under $1 million for the first time in the past 7 months. Only two new lots came onto the market in November, not surprising given the time of year - a 3.3 acre lot north of town listed for $825,000 and a unique half acre lot with Fish Creek frontage in Wilson, listed for $1.65 million. The majority (35%) of new November listings were in the $1-3 million price point, including a newly built home in downtown Wilson, listed for $1,785,000 and an oversized home in Melody Ranch, totaling nearly 4,700 square feet, listed at $2,350,000.
Thinking of Selling?
In November, 40% of properties sold within 90 days of hitting the market and sold at 98% of their listing prices. Demand for Jackson Hole properties remain high from both local and out of town buyers. Don't wait until spring - take advantage of lower inventory. Contact me for a opinion of your property's market value.
November recorded 45 real estate sales, down from last month (53 sales) and also down from November 2017 (50 sales). However, despite having 8 fewer transactions than October, the sales volume in November was $10 million higher. In fact, November was only the third month all year where total sales volume exceeded $100 million. This spike in total volume was helped by 3 large sales: 2 houses in the exclusive Indian Springs neighborhood (both listed slightly over $10 million), and a 170 acre ranch parcel at the end of Boyles Hill Road, which was listed for $23 million. As a result, the average sales price jumped up to $2.2 million in November, however the median sales price dropped to $965,000 as 53% of all sales last month occurred under $1 million. The sales to list price ratio reached 98% for the first time since I began tracking these stats in 2013! Nearly 30% of all November sales occurred at or ABOVE their listing price, with several other sales occurring very close to the listing price, an indication that our market remains very competitive with limited inventory. The average days on market increased to 157 days in November as a few older listings finally sold, including a unique inholding on Mormon Row in Grand Teton National Park, that was ultimately sold to the National Park Foundation. That being said, over 40% of property sales in November were on the market less than 90 days.


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Volta strives to make EV ‘Charging for all’ a reality
Volta aims to lead the charge of the EV revolution through education.
Volta aims to spark the interest of gas drivers about the all-electric future / Credit: Volta
Although electric cars and charging stations are becoming ever-more common sights, many gas drivers remain hesitant to make the switch. Volta, an electric vehicle charging company, is keen on sparking their interest with a new campaign.
Effective today and just in time for National Drive Electric Week, ‘Charging for All’ has launched across the Volta Media Network, Volta’s social channels and the company's website to encourage circumspect consumers to take part in the inevitable EV takeover. One slide boldly proclaims: “We’re all EV drivers – just some of us don’t know it yet.”
To further spread the word, the brand’s 2,900 EV charging stalls and 4,900 digital media screens – located steps from places frequented by millions – will broadcast content to debunk common myths about EVs and highlight the economic and environmental benefits of EV ownership. At the same time, Volta aims to pique consumer interest in renewable energy, which powers the brand’s own EV chargers and media screens.
Volta says its media network has more power to stimulate the rapid transition to electric mobility than any other EV charging company. “Volta’s highly visible chargers, located just steps from the front doors of the places millions of Americans regularly visit, continuously remind all passersby that owning and recharging an electric vehicle can be convenient,” Volta’s chief commercial officer Brandt Hastings said in a statement.
“The momentum of the EV revolution has never been greater than it is right now. Federal and state governments are committing billions of dollars to support an electric future, and Volta is also doing all we can to ensure this future is realized.”


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DETROIT (Reuters) -Nissan Motor Co said on Thursday it will invest $500 million to retool its U.S. assembly plant near Canton, Mississippi, to build two new electric vehicles, and a top executive said the automaker is looking for a U.S. site to build a battery factory.
Nissan said it plans to assemble electric vehicles for its Nissan and Infiniti brands in Mississippi starting in 2025. The automaker said it aims to have electric vehicles make up 40% of its U.S. sales by 2030. Nissan has outlined plans to invest $18 billion to expand its global electric vehicle fleet through 2030.
“We are investigating the right location and the right timing” to build the U.S. battery factory, Nissan Chief Operating Officer Ashwani Gupta said in an interview. “It should be soon.”
Nissan operates two assembly lines in Canton, one building light trucks including the Nissan Frontier and the other assembling Altima mid-sized sedans.
Gupta said the Altima assembly line will be redesigned to build both electric and combustion vehicles. Additional space in the Canton factory will be repurposed for battery pack assembly and other operations as Nissan aims for more vertical integration.
The 19-year-old Canton complex employs 5,000 people. Nissan said it will retrain 2,000 workers as part of the new investment.
The proposed models will have new lightweight architectures designed for battery-electric powertrains, and autonomous driving technology, Gupta said.
“A significant amount of time and money (will be) spent on upskilling the workforce,” he said.
The automaker said the investment in Mississippi is “one of several” planned over the next five years to expand electric vehicle production in the United States.
Nissan’s Mexican operations should also receive new investment related to electric vehicles, Gupta said. “Obviously, Mexico will be a part of it.”
Nissan is investing as it sees markets becoming ready for electric vehicles, he said. “We are not going for a big bang.”
Nissan has outlined plans to deliver 23 new electrified vehicles globally by 2030, including 15 battery electric models.
Nissan builds its compact Leaf electric vehicle at its complex in Smyrna, Tennessee, which gets electric motors from a Nissan factory in Decherd, Tennessee.
The Leaf, launched in 2010, put Nissan in the forefront of established auto manufacturers in the emerging electric vehicle market. But the Leaf, with 226 miles (364 km) of range, has been eclipsed in sales by Tesla’s Model 3 sedan which has 358 miles of driving range per charge, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
(Reporting by Joe White; Editing by Stephen Coates and Richard Chang)


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Meatless meat burger ketchups to Calgary vegan scene
Beyond Meat claims to be nearly identical to a real meat patty
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No cows were harmed in the making of this beef patty.
Well, technically it’s not a beef patty at all, but the Beyond Beef burger, claims to look and taste so close to a beef patty that you won’t be able to tell the difference.
It’s not just major grocery chains in Canada, but some Calgary restaurants have been importing it since last year, and say it’s a big indicator of how rapidly Calgary’s vegan movement is growing.
The Street Eatery on 4 Ave SW was one of the first restaurants in the province to import the vegan burgers last summer. Owner Karan Seth said they sold about 180 patties in the first week, and have seen no signs of slowing down since.
Instead of soy or tofu, the Beyond Meat burger uses a pea protein to imitate meat. Then, they put a bit of beet juice in the middle, so the burger appears to bleed and may even retain a pink line through the middle after being cooked. This gives it the texture of a real burger, and coconut oil and potato starch added for taste.
The company is gaining popularity in the U.S., with celebrities like Bill Gates and Leonardo DiCaprio counted among its investors.
While your mileage may vary, a few Metro reporters tried a patty, and we can say it’s patty darn close to a real burger.
“We actually had a lady a couple of weeks ago, she ordered the burger, and she actually came running back to the store after having a few bites saying, ‘I think you guys actually slipped me a beef patty,’” Seth recalled. “It was just the Beyond Burger. She couldn’t believe how close the texture was.”
The burger is helping draw more non-vegans to vegan or vegetarian restaurants, out of curiosity, or maybe an interest in a veggie diet.
Seth, who admits he’s only vegan ‘about 80 per cent of the time’ said it’s not about judgement, but sustainability and created options.
“We want to be that bridge to make it extremely easy for people,” he explained. “If today they want to have a vegetarian or vegan day, they can come here and we’ll satisfy them with the meal we have.”


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The Lithium-ion Battery is an electrochemical wunderkind. We use it for everything, whether it’s mundane gadgetry like phones and laptops or more extreme applications like electric ships and helicopters on Mars. The Li-ion battery is so important to modern life that it earned the trio of chemists who invented it a Nobel Prize last year. But somewhere along the way, the battery industry developed a cobalt dependency.
Cobalt is a scarce, toxic, and lustrous mineral that is found in the negatively charged electrode—or cathode—of almost all lithium-ion batteries used today. It’s expensive, heavy, and linked to unethical mining practices, wild price swings, and a tenuous global supply chain. It’s no wonder so many battery manufacturers want to kick their cobalt habit. But the material plays a crucial role in stabilizing batteries and boosting their energy density. Although experimental cobalt-free cells exist, they’ve all had major performance issues like limited lifetimes and slower charge rates—until now.
In July, a team of three researchers from the University of Texas reported the results from tests using a new cathode chemistry that eliminates cobalt entirely. They used their nickel-rich cathode in a small experimental lithium-ion pouch cell about the size of a deck of cards. Although the battery had a slightly lower energy density than typical cobalt batteries, it was able to operate at higher voltages and at similar charge rates. Even after 1,000 full charge-discharge cycles—the typical lifetime for a commercial battery—the experimental cell performed as well as comparable cells with cobalt cathodes.
“A number of people say cobalt is essential, and that if you remove it you won’t be able to get the same kind of performance,” says Arumugam Manthiram, the director of the Texas Materials Institute at the University of Texas, Austin, and the lead author of the paper. “We are the first to show that it’s possible to eliminate cobalt without compromising performance.”
Cobalt can account for a fifth of the material in a lithium-ion cathode, which typically comes in one of two flavors: NMC (nickel manganese cobalt oxide) or NCA (nickel cobalt aluminum oxide). The cobalt in these batteries has a stabilizing effect and prevents cathode corrosion that can lead to a battery fire. It can also boost a battery’s charge rates, but the raw material is pretty expensive and hard to come by. It has some social problems too. Nearly two-thirds of the world’s cobalt is mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo as a secondary product of large-scale nickel and copper mining. But the DRC also has a large contingent of independent or artisan miners that effectively operate without any oversight. This has led to a multitude of human rights abuses in Congolese cobalt mines, including the use of child labor
The cathode developed by Manthiram and his colleagues sidesteps cobalt by increasing nickel content; it makes up 89 percent of the metal in the cathode by weight. Their cell combines the ingredients of NMC and NCA cathodes to create a cobalt-free NMA (nickel manganese aluminum oxide) cathode. Although the team is not the first to develop a cobalt-free or
high-nickel cathode, Manthiram says it’s the first one that doesn’t also have major performance drawbacks like short battery life and low energy density.
Greg Less, the technical director at the University of Michigan’s Battery Lab, says that Manthiram’s cathode material “shows great promise.” He says there’s still more testing that needs to be done to address problems seen with other similar cathode chemistries, such as the tendency for manganese to dissolve at elevated temperatures, but that the results from the initial tests of the battery are encouraging. “A cobalt-free alternative that can compete
with cobalt-containing electrodes is very exciting,” Less says.
To make it happen, Manthiram and his team used specialized techniques to mix the ingredients just so at the nanoscale. This involves pumping solutions containing the nickel, manganese, and aluminum ions into a reactor where they’re mixed with another solution that combines with the metal ions. The result is a finely mixed powder of metal hydroxides that are baked with lithium hydroxide to create the material used for the cathode. The pumping rates and temperatures must be precisely controlled throughout the process to ensure that the resulting cathode material has the right structure and composition. “It took a good knowledge of the basic chemistry to design the cathode composition,” says Manthiram. “And we found a way to control the process so you can have atomic-scale mixing.”
Once Manthiram and his team mixed these elements together, they put the cathode in an experimental lithium-ion pouch cell with a conventional graphite anode. During tests, they found that its performance matched that of commercially available lithium-ion batteries with cobalt cathodes at different charging rates and across hundreds of charging cycles. Although the cobalt-free cathode had a slightly lower energy density, meaning it could store fewer lithium ions, Manthiram believes this gap can be closed by further refining its chemistry.
In the meantime, he’s focused on taking the battery out of the lab and into the real world. He recently founded TexPower to commercialize the cathode, and he says that it should be easy to integrate it with existing battery manufacturing processes. It could be used in batteries for a range of applications, such as consumer electronics, electric vehicles, and storage for the energy grid
Manthiram hopes that his cobalt-free cathode will hit the market within a few years. And he’s not the only one. A startup called Sparkz recently licensed a cobalt-free cathode from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory to commercialize the technology. More established players like Panasonic are racing to reduce the cobalt content in their batteries. Elon Musk has wanted cobalt-free batteries in Teslas, and many industry analysts expect him to announce a breakthrough in low-cobalt lithium-ion cells during the company’s “Battery Day” event next month.
Still, cobalt cathodes may be around for a while, says David Weight, the former president and current advisor of the Cobalt Institute, a nonprofit trade group representing producers. Aside from the stability and performance benefits that the metal gives lithium-ion batteries, the companies manufacturing them have spent years and billions of dollars perfecting their cathode chemistries. That means that any new player will have to overcome a lot of industry inertia. “We have to look a long way in the future before chemical systems that don’t require cobalt can become a commercial reality,” Weight says. “The move to a new technology won’t be overnight. Cobalt will be in batteries for the foreseeable future.”
A recent report from the World Bank forecasts that cobalt production will have to increase 500 percent in the next few decades to meet the growing demand for lithium-ion batteries. The DRC won’t be able to meet this demand on its own, and Weight says that there are several cobalt prospecting ventures underway around the world. The biggest cobalt deposits are found on the seafloor, although deep-sea mining remains a contentious issue. But even if supply turns out to be a nonissue, cobalt-free cathodes can still make lithium-ion batteries cheaper, less toxic, and more ethical than ever before.


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In the 2004 US budget, President Bush has earmarked more than US$123 billion for R&D funding for technological innovation, giving private industry the opportunity to earn dollars from the government in a tight economy.
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As China’s Currency Becomes Increasingly Global, Will Collectors Of Chinese Art Benefit?
In recent months, a number of high-profile Chinese and world economists have increased their calls for the creation of a truly “global currency,” which would diminish the US dollar’s role as the de facto international currency sooner rather than later. Although this concept is still far off, as these economists concede, definitely within the next 10-20 years the dollar’s primacy will be challenged, if not completely nonexistent.
Although this is not some kind of dollar apocalypse, but rather a readjustment of the global economy based more on a realistic global picture. In the post-Cold War, post-BRIC-growth world, we are seeing the world economy pluralize rapidly. So a global currency will require an accurate portrayal of this multipolarity — thus, it is unlikely that the next global currency will be “from” one country. Rather, it is likely to be a multi-currency basket, or “supracurrency” — as the governor of the People’s Bank of China, Zhou Xiaochuan, himself called for in March.


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Arm Intros Its High-End Processor Designs for 2021
May 26, 2020, 8:00 AM by Rich Brome @rbrome
Arm today announced a suite of new processing core intellectual property intended for the chips that will power high-end phones starting in 2021. The new designs are for the new, cutting-edge 5nm manufacturing process that is just becoming available for the most high-end chips. (Currently, the main chips for flagship phones are made with a 7nm process.) The new Cortex-A78 offers 20% more sustained general computing performance compared to the A77. The new Mali-G78 offers 25% better graphics performance compared to the G77. Up to 24 Mali-G78 cores can be used in a single chip design. The new Ethos-N78 machine learning core offers 25% better performance efficiency compared to the N77. The N78 can be configured in over 90 different ways, offering anywhere from 1 TOP/s to 10 TOP/s. Companies that design processor chips often license Arm designs and use them as a starting point for their own chips, customizing the Arm designs along the way. Arm is extending its collaboration with such companies in a program called Cortex-X Custom, to produce even higher-end CPU designs. The first result of this program is the Cortex-X1, developed with an unnamed partner. The Cortex-X1 will have a 30% peak performance increase over the Cortex-A77. Arm is also announcing the Mali-G68, a "sub-premium" GPU core that brings many of the modern features of the new Mali-G78 to "sub-flagship" phones; it supports up to six GPU cores in one chip.
source: Arm Limited
Nov 30, 2021
Qualcomm has announced the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, the company's flagship chipset to power 2022's top-end phones. The chip is the successor to the Snapdragon 888, but uses the new single-digit + generation naming scheme the company recently announced.
Nov 15, 2022
Qualcomm has announced its newest top-end chip, intended to power most flagship-level Android phones in 2023. As expected, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is more powerful and power-efficient across the board (compared to Gen 1), but the most impressive improvements and new features involve AI.
Sep 7, 2022
Apple has revealed the iPhone 14 series, with new features, improved specs, and new size options. In place of a Mini option, the iPhone 14 will come in the same 6.1-inch and 6.7-inch screen size options as the Pro models.
Feb 9, 2021
Qualcomm today introduced a suite of new modem and radio chips to power the next generation of higher-end 5G phones and devices. The company's new flagship 5G modem chip is the Snapdragon X65 5G Modem-RF System , which is the first in the world to support data rates of up to 10 Gbps.
Jan 13, 2021
Qualcomm has reached an agreement to acquire Nuvia, a company with "industry-leading expertise in high performance processors, Systems on a Chip (SoC) and power management for compute-intensive devices and applications". Qualcomm says it will use Nuvia's talent and chip designs for the CPU cores of future Snapdragon chips powering flagship smartphones.


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Black Friday sales failed to tempt shoppers on to high streets, casting new doubt over the wisdom of British stores’ adoption of the US retail event.
High street footfall was down 4.2pc on last year. Including retail parks and shopping centres, 3.6pc fewer shoppers bothered to seek out a bargain on Friday.
The figures, compiled by Springboard, were significantly worse than an expected decline of just 0.6pc.
Saturday footfall was more resilient, down 0.9pc, with retail parks busy with shoppers collecting purchases made online.
Springboard says that consumers have grown wise to the fact that discounting continues after Black Friday.
Meanwhile, the volume of online transactions in the week before...
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