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Blizzard's free-to-play MOBA continues to receive new heroes from across Blizzard's pantheon of franchises, and this time it's Diablo.
And the new character's aren't only from Diablo 3. For the first time, a Diablo 2 character (if you don't count Diablo himself) will be joining the battle in the form of Xul, the Necromancer. Joining Xul will be Li Ming, Diablo 3's wizard.
Li Ming will have a variety of options are her disposle, according to Metabomb.net, who spoke with Heroes of the Storm game director Dustin Browder. Depending on what talents players choose, Li Ming can be played as a mid-range assassin, a long range "poke" character or an in your face damage dealer thanks to her teleportation spells.
Browder says when adding a new hero to the game, they look at what makes them iconic in their home franchise.
"We definitely look for iconic abilities," Browder says. "We really felt like [Li Ming's] Disintegrate was an iconic ability from Diablo 3. There are certainly players who don't use that ability, but it's such an iconic ability, just how it jumps off the screen at you when you see someone using it."
Xul has long been requested as an addition to Diablo 3. Though it doesn't look like he will be joining Blizzard's latest game in the franchise any time soon, players can take him for a spin in the battlegrounds of Heroes of the Storm.
"...He is a well-loved Diablo 2 hero that didn't really come forward in exactly the same form in Diablo 3...He's been an often requested character from us by our players since we announced the game in 2013," he says. "At PAX, Gamescom and so on, people asked for Necromancer. We thought it would be fun to make a guy who can summon skeletons, can curse enemies, and really get that Necromancer vibe from Diablo 2."
No word yet on when exactly these characters will be added to the game, but expect more information in the coming weeks.


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Organised by the Binh Duong Furniture Association (BIFA), the four-day trade show is expected to attract 6,000 visitors.
Attending are machinery manufacturers from Italy, Germany, Denmark, South Korea, Japan and China, and timber suppliers from the US, Canada, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.
The biennial trade show is expected to unlock possibilities for local and foreign companies looking to tap into Vietnam’s potential.
With its plentiful labour and entrepreneurs and excellent connectivity with key timber areas in the southeastern and Central Highlands regions, Binh Duong has a favourable business environment.
The province, which has attracted many wood processing enterprises, has an annual economic growth rate of 12.6 per cent.
Vice chairman of the province People's Committee, Nguyen Van Danh, said Binh Duong’s exports in the first six months topped US$19 billion, a 10 per cent year-on-year rise.
Its wood industry’s exports were worth over $6 billion, 43 per cent of the country's total.
Binh Duong is considered the capital of the country’s wood industry, he added.
Vietnamese wooden and furniture products are exported to more than 120 countries and territories.
It is the world’s fifth largest exporter and top in Southeast Asia.
Seminars on automation in the wood industry, and wood materials from the US and Europe will be held during the trade show.
Visitors will also have the chance to visit the most modern wood factories in the province.
It will create a forum for domestic and foreign enterprises to network and establish long-term co-operation to foster the development of Vietnam’s timber sector./.

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TTEC Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTEC) a leading digital customer experience (CX) technology and services company for many of the world’s most iconic and disruptive brands and government agencies, has today announced its new CX service centre for Volkswagen Group UK, which includes the brands of Volkswagen, Audi, Škoda, SEAT and Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, has gone live.
Volkswagen Group UK’s five-year digitalisation plan aims to transform customer experience and drive improved loyalty, retention and advocacy. Currently delivered from work-at-home agents, the program intends to shift to a hybrid model utilising both work-at-home agents as well as the centre in Leeds.
TTEC’s solution includes an increased number and blend of channels, with both the Leeds-based contact centre agents and remaining home-workers delivering a greater customer experience via phone, live chat, messaging, social media and through a virtual showroom/live tour.
Adam Axelrod-Harash, Head of Customer Service Centre Operations at Volkswagen Group UK said; “Planning and implementing a transition with multiple parties involved at the best of times is a challenge, but when you put the current COVID-19 situation into the mix, it requires that extra level of detailed planning, flexibility and tenacity to ensure a smooth transition. I am very pleased to say we are now out of the planning stage and implementing an operational transition with TTEC, and on day one it has been as smooth and seamless as you would want. There has been excellent collaborative work from both the TTEC and Volkswagen Group UK project teams, and I look forward to a successful partnership over the coming years.”
Iain Banks, Regional VP, International Markets at TTEC, commented; “Digital transformation strategies are no longer optional when employees and customers need alternative avenues to work and shop. We’re very proud to partner with an industry leader like Volkswagen Group UK who have not lost focus on their customers’ needs during these challenging times. I would like to thank everyone that has been involved as the versatility shown is testament to the strength of this new partnership, our people and the technology that we have been able to rollout. We look forward to welcoming the team into our new state-of-the-art Leeds contact centre.”


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AMD has confirmed that its acquisition of server specialist SeaMicro has been completed.
The company said that it had committed some $334m for the deal which will include $293m worth of cash.
AMD only revealed its agreement to buy Sea Micro on 1 March.
The deal gives AMD a presence in the low-power server market and will play a central role in its push for the cloud datacentre market.
Low-power services have become a popular method for handling cloud computing operations and web applications.
Large-scale web platforms such as Facebook and Google have long sought to transform their datacentres through the use of stripped-down, low-powered systems.
Recently ARM made its own push for the market by introducing a version of its low-powered processors designed for server use.
"Our unique fabric technology is truly one of the crown jewels of the cloud," said AMD global business units senior vice president and general manager, Lisa Su.
"The combination of this innovative technology with our processor design expertise greatly enhances our ability to attack the fastest growing portion of the server market with industry-leading low-power, low-cost, high-bandwidth solutions."
Following the closing of the deal, SeaMicro will assume the title of AMD Data Center Server Solutions.
Geoengineering on the sea floor near glaciers would form a new ice shelf to prevent melting
Alterations in capillary blood flow can be caused by body position change
Curiosity rover is in 'normal mode' but not transmitting scientific data back to base
NatWest outage comes a day after Barclays' IT systems shut out customers and staff


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We’ve started a new, quasi-regular column on the Blog titled “Under The Tents”. The title is symbolic, as it’s representative of the times we all line up under the tents waiting for those big moments to happen inside Hall H or Ballroom 20.
Here’s the stuff you might have missed for today:
- Fans of the hit Syfy series Defiance, get ready for season two by picking up the Defiance MMO game. It’s 50% off this weekend at Green Man Gaming UK. Take an additional 20% off with code GMG20-JLKSA-7A8HA.
- Actress Bitsie Tulloch, who plays Juliette Silverton on NBC’s Grimm, tweeted the show will indeed be back at Comic-Con this year, its third year in a row appearing at the convention.
- Mark Millar continues to tease Kick-Ass 2 fans, saying the movie will have a “massive, exciting presence” at SDCC this year.
- WeLoveFine.com will be setting up a Pop-Up Shop across the street from the Convention Center where fans can purchase their licensed tees, meet some of the designers and get autographs and photos. The Pop-Up Shop will be at the Hilton Gaslamp throughout the weekend. A schedule of guests will be announced at a later date.
- The 501st Legion, the international volunteer and charity group of Imperial officers, has confirmed via Facebook its annual Droid Hunt will return to SDCC this year, and Hasbro has sponsored the hunt with 25 boxes of figurines as prizes.
- We’ve heard Syfy’s Haven would be returning to Comic-Con this year in some capacity, and now it’s been confirmed via its distributor Entertainment One with this tweet:
- Today’s RIPT Apparel t-shirt is a classic mash-up between the Justice League and Super Mario Bros. Take a look at The Mushroom League. It’s available only until midnight tonight, then it’s gone forever.


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Staten Island, NY's Coffee Holding Co. Inc. (Nasdaq: JVA) reported net sales of $63.9 million for its fiscal year, ended Oct. 31, 2021, a decrease of 14% compared with fiscal year 2020. CHC attributed the decrease in net sales to the pandemic's negative impact on the company’s green coffee customers who service the restaurant and foodservice industry who either closed or suspended their business operations.
CHC's cost of sales for the fiscal year was $47,9 million, or 75% of net sales, compared with $61.3, or 82% of net sales, for 2020.
The company's gross profit for its latest fiscal year was $16 million, rising $2.9 million from $13.1 million in 2020. Gross profit as a percentage of net sales increased 25% from 18%
The increase in gross profits was attributable to increased margins on CHC's roasted and branded products and green coffee sales in the last part of the year, partially due to the movement of lower cost green coffee inventory built up in previous quarters, which was partially offset by higher packaging costs due to increases in materials.
“Fiscal year 2021 presented both opportunities and challenges for our company. While coffee prices traded at ten-year highs during the fourth quarter of calendar year 2021, we were able to take advantage of our favorable green coffee inventory position to record $0.06 per share in earnings in our fourth quarter of fiscal year 2021, compared to a loss of $0.07 per share in our fourth quarter of fiscal year 2020," said CHC president and chief executive Andrew Gordon.
"For the fiscal year 2021, we earned $0.22 per share, compared to a loss of $0.02 per share for the fiscal year 2020," Gordon reported. "EBITDA for the fiscal year 2021 was approximately $3.4 million. Adjusted EBITDA for the fiscal year 2021 was approximately $4.2 million."


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Dai pai dong owners in Fo Tan may face eviction by 2024 due to government plans.By Victoria Fong Jerry has been working in Tai Yuen Dai Pai Dong in Fo Tan for over...
Vendors recall the good old days at the Yau Ma Tei Fruit Market ahead of an urban renewal plan that aims to revitalise the market into a tourist attraction. By Gloria Chan Yi-lam
Amid rising attention to Hong Kong cultural heritage by the young generation, the Central Market is newly opened to the public. By Felicia Lam Casper Yam Ming-ho is so passionate...
The 2021 Election Committee Subsector Ordinary Elections
Hong Kong’s unique urban landscape is featured in cyberpunk films and animations.
Fishermen in Bohai Bay are struggling with sharp decline in harvests and impact of COVID-19. By Laurissa Liu in Tianjin Fishermen hope a four-month moratorium from May to September can...
People shop for daily necessities and fresh products from the wild in street markets in Yunnan.
Cage-like iron nets have been installed on footbridges across the city amid anti-government protests.
A Taiwanese restaurant inside an industrial building is full of nostalgic sense with popular movie posters, old school furnitures and classic Japanese comics.
The Freedom Trail in Boston marks how people pursued freedom in the American Revolution, which is similar to what Hongkongers are going through.


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The new age Verna loaded with modern tech and features
Hyundai released a new teaser image of the new generation Verna sedan hinting its arrival a few months ago. The South Korean Auto manufacturer introduced their popular c-segment sedan back in 2009, and it even went onto become the best-selling vehicle in its segment.
Hyundai revealed the 2018 Verna as a concept at the 2016 Beijing Auto show, while later it was launched in Russia with a different name. The new Verna sedan is called Solaris locally in Russia while the same car is sold under the Accent nameplate in Canada. Thankfully Hyundai still retains the Verna nameplate for their vehicle in India. Do not forget the fact that the Verna is important to Hyundai like the City is to Honda or the Ciaz is to Maruti. The bookings for the fifth generation sedan have already commenced in our Country about a month ago, and finally, the car is launched here.
The sedan not only underpins a new platform but is also longer wider and has an increased wheelbase which automatically results in more interior space. What is even more interesting is also the fact that the sedan not only received cosmetic updates but mechanical updates as well.
Update 22.08.2017:- Hyundai launched the new generation Verna sedan in India. The prices and other details have been updated in this review.
Click past jump to learn more about the 2018 Hyundai Verna sedan
Bookings Already open for the soon to be launched sedan
The Verna has been one of the principal players of the game for Hyundai quite a long time. Now Hyundai is all set to introduce the fifth generation Verna sedan in India, and it also was unveiled recently by Hyundai at an event. Bookings for the car have also commenced, and the bookings will close on 21st August. The Verna is a worthy competitor to the other B-segment sedans of the Country like the Maruti Ciaz and the Honda City since its introduction back in 2006.
We have managed to gather some relevant information which will help you to know this soon to be launched sedan soon.
If you are planning to buy your first car this is the best time to get your hands on one
In our previous article about GST, we have explained to you all the details of the SUVs which have received the biggest price cut post-GST. In this section, we will inform you about five budget cars which have relieved most significant price cut post-GST in the Indian market. As a result of that owning a budget, car has now become even more affordable.
For all your kind information all the sub-4 meter cars which have an engine capacity below 1.2 Litre petrol and 1.5 Litre diesel will now attract 28 percent tax rate along with 1 percent cess for petrol engines and 3 percent cess for diesel engines.
Below provided are the list of 5 budget cars which has received the maximum price cut post-GST
A Fresh new design and lot of Hyundai’s new technology has been added to this Crossover
Hyundai had released a teaser image of their soon to be launched Kona SUV a few weeks ago. Now after almost few weeks Hyundai finally took the covers off the much-awaited sub -compact SUV Kona. This new Sub-compact will join some other SUVs of the Hyundai lineup which includes Grand Santa Fe, Santa Fe and the Tucson. The Kona is expected to adopt Hyundai’s new design language and will also be the auto manufacturers first B-segment SUV to launch in 2017. According to Hyundai, this SUV will create a unique proposition in the sub-compact SUV segment.
The name Kona has derived from the Kona district on the Big Island of Hawaii. The compact SUV will be positioned below the Tucson and Santa Fe in their SUV lineup, and there is a fair possibility of it launching in the Indian market towards the end of this year or early 2018. Some reports state that the upcoming Hyundai Kona compact SUV will share lots of its components with the new Elite i20. The Kona SUV will take on the Ford Ecosport, Mahindra TUV300 and some other small SUV’s when it finally launches here.
The Kona SUV underpins the companies B-Platform and has a new and distinct styling which sets it apart from the rest of the Hyundai SUV’s. Now this particular SUV has been designed for the markets of Europe and US, however, we do feel that Hyundai surely has plans to launch it in the Indian market as well soon.
Click past jump to learn more about the new Hyundai Kona SUV
Will most probably get few cosmetic updates to the exterior and a new set of alloy wheels
A pre-production test mule of the upcoming 2018 Hyundai Elite i20 facelift was recently spotted caught being tested in India. The test mule was covered in heavy camouflage but what caught everyone’s attention was the new set of fancy alloy wheels. The design of the new alloy wheels looked identical to that of the Mercedes CLA Sport’s 17-inch 5-spoke unit.
The test mule was covered in heavy camouflage, but the facelift i20 apparently will continue with the same fluidic design language of the current generation hatchback. The premium hatchback will continue with the same hexagonal shaped grille towards the front with chrome slats. However, we do feel that the facelift variants front bumper will be tweaked while it will most probably also gets a redesigned headlamps as well. We will be happy if Hyundai launches the facelift variant of the hatchback equipped with a fancy set of alloy wheels. Towards the rear expect the hatchback also to get a redesigned rear bumper and taillamps. Although the test mule was covered and the interiors were not visible expect it to get an updated seat upholstery and a multi-information display in between the twin instrument cluster pods and a new touchscreen infotainment system as standard across all its variants.
New styling, updated interior and upgraded diesel unit is what sets it apart from the rest
Hyundai has recently launched the facelift Xcent compact sedan in India after they introduced the facelift Grand i10 hatchback. Initially, before the Xcent was launched we all thought that the Xcent would also receive the same cosmetic changes that the Grand i10 has received but that were not the case. The Xcent now that it has been launched gets a refreshed styling, better equipment list and off course an updated powertrain.
Below provided are 5 quick points on why you will actually love the new facelift Xcent compact sedan.
The online bookings for the cars started from 2nd May 2017 Onward
Hyundai Motor India Ltd (HMIL) has started taking online bookings for its range of cars to reduce the efforts and help their customers across India. The bookings could now be made through www.hyundai.co.in.
The new online reservations will help give the customers a virtually effortless buying experience. The customers will now be able to book the any of their selected or preferred Hyundai cars by registering and paying a token amount in between the range of INR 5,000 to INR 1 Lakh, depending on the model and their prices. The payment can be made to the preferred dealerships without even visiting the dealership personally. The online bookings have already commenced from 2nd May 2017 onward and will be available on Hyundai Corporate and Mobile website.
The steps of booking are actually quite easy once you choose your preferred model all you have to do is fill out the necessary details. Once the details are filled a deposit will be requested for the model that you choose and after you made the payment online the order of your car will be approved by the Hyundai dealer then. Then the dealer themselves will notify and share the further details with the customers. They will perhaps even set a test drive if the customer wants one. However, to submit the documents and payments the customer will have to visit the branch and take the delivery of the car by themselves.
Hyundai Sante Fe Takes Over Antarctic Becomes First Passenger Vehicle To Achieve The Unthinkable: Video
The Car has received few mods to survive the harshest terrain
The expedition began with Sir Ernest Shackleton who tried to reach the South Pole three times 100 years ago but failed because of the unforgiving climate. But after a Century his great grandson has successfully achieved the feat in the grandest way of them all. Patrick Bergel made his name into the History books by driving a standard Passenger Car across the Continent of Antarctic. The Journey began from Union Camp to McMurdo and back again at the starting point.
The mission was completed in December 2016 which was also the time to remember the heroic Trans-Antarctic expedition of 1914-16. Driving a passenger car across the Antartic was Hyundai’s idea. The Auto manufacturer went to Sir Ernest Shackleton Great Grandson. Weeks of preparation went behind turning the standard 2.2 Litre Hyundai Sante Fe into a Machine which could take on the harshest condition of the Antarctic region.
For all your information there were some modifications made to the Sante Fe. to survive the unforgiving terrain and climate. The entire suspension setup of the car was rebuilt, including the suspension, suspension links, mounts and axle shafts. All these parts were re-engineered to make driving in those harsh terrains possible. The gear ratios of the SUV too were lowered. Hyundai has also installed an engine heater to make sure that the SUV can start in such cold weather. Apart from that Hyundai has also used a bigger fuel tank and also installed larger snow tyres which replaced the smaller tyres. However, no changes were made to the engine though, and it was powered by the same 2.2 Litre CRDi Diesel Engine which is capable of producing g about 194.3 Bhp of peak power and 420 Nm of torque.
Find out where the upcoming Dzire stands against its rivals
The sub-compact sedan segment is definitely buzzing with some new launches and some upcoming cars which definitely will leave their mark. Tata recently introduced their latest product the Tigor styleback. This is a compact sedan which is based on their popular Tiago hatchback. Besides that Hyundai too recently launched the facelift variant of their popular compact sedan the Xcent. But that entire buzz is about one particular car which already attracted plenty of attention even before its launch. Yes, you guessed it right we are talking about the new generation Dzire which Maruti showcased recently at an event. The compact sedan will launch here on 16th May.
Now there is still some time for its inception, but today we are here to give you an idea of what you could expect from this already launched and upcoming sub-compact sedan and also find out where they stand against each other.
The Eon will be the second entry level hatchback after Renault KWID which offers a touchscreen now
Hyundai has silently introduced a sports edition of their entry level Eon hatchback. The Eon Sports edition gets some styling updates on its exterior while the big surprise comes in the form of a new touchscreen infotainment system inside the cabin. The prices for the Hyundai Eon Sports edition start at INR. 3.88 Lakhs (ex-showroom Delhi) for the Era plus trim while the Eon Magna Plus trim priced at INR. 4.14 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi).
The changes to the exterior look minimal; this special edition model get a side body moulding which will help protect the side profile from any scratches; the other change comes in the form of new roof rails. On the inside, this trim now gets an entirely new touchscreen infotainment system. The 6.2-inch touchscreen system AV system gets phone link which means the occupants inside can connect their Smartphone and access the navigation system and also play music directly.
The touchscreen system definitely will enhance the convenience and style quotient of the hatchback. The hatchback introduced back in 2011, and this is the first time that Hyundai has included a touchscreen infotainment system. The Eon is the second entry level hatch now after the Renault KWID which offers a touchscreen infotainment system now.
There are no mechanical changes made to this edition, and thus the Eon continues to be powered by the same 0.8-litre iRDE three-cylinder petrol engine that produces 56 PS at 5,500 rpm and 74.53 Nm of torque. The engine paired to a 5-speed manual transmission. The more powerful 1.0 Liter unit surprisingly does not get this option. The hatchback offered in base D-Lite, D-Lite+, Era+, Magna+, Sportz+ and Magna+ (O) (O) trim levels. However, the Sports trim is provided with Era+ and Magna+ trim levels only.
The White Polar is the only colour option available with the Hyundai Eon Sports edition.
The list includes some much awaited sedans and hatchbacks
We started the year 2017 on a positive note, in the past three months car enthusiasts have seen plenty of new launches from some of the renowned manufacturers. The car sales too have gone up which definitely is also good news for the car manufacturers.
Below provided are the list of cars which will be launching within the next two months in India. We must inform you that there are plenty of exciting cars which are entering the Indian market and we have thus differentiated all these cars according to their price and segment.
The best selling SUV from Hyundai has just recieved subtle updates and a completely new trim level
Hyundai has launched the updated 2017 Creta SUV in India. The updated Creta SUV now gets cosmetic as well equipment upgrade to it. Apart from getting exterior as well as interior update, Hyundai who also happens to India’s second largest car manufacturer has decided to add an exclusive diesel trim in the form of a new Executive variant ‘E+ trim while there is one more trim in the form of SX+ which gets dual tone trim to it.
Unfortunately, Hyundai has decided not to make any changes under the hood and thus this popular SUV still offered with 1.6-litre Dual VTVT petrol, 1.6 Litre CRDi VGT diesel unit and 1.4L CRDI U2 diesel engine options.
Click past jump to read more about the 2017 Hyundai Creta
The premium hatchback from Hyudai has recieved subtle cosmetic updates for both its exterior as well as interior
Hyundai has updated their premium hatchback offering the i20 for the Indian market. There is no doubt that the Elite i20 hatchback attracted a lot of attention when it was launched but the sales figures dipped south when Maruti introduced the Baleno in India because it offered the better package at that price point. But Hyundai is unwilling to leave the competition yet and thus decided to updated their current premium hatchback.
Although the changes are subtle both inside and outside the additional equipment now added to the hatchback surely has made the current hatchback a better value for money product for certain. So without any further due let’s get straight to the point, shall we?
Click past jump to read more about the all new 2017 Hyundai Elite i20
Find out where the newly launched Tigor stacks up against its rivals
Tata launched their compact sedan the Tigor yesterday in India, and surprisingly the car not only looks good but also is priced quite competitively as well. But does it have everything to compete with some of its already established rivals who have been ruling the Compact sedan of India for quite some time now Well, let’s find out?
The Tata Tigor is the compact sedan variant based on their popular Tiago hatchback and like you all already know it was showcased at the 2016 Auto Expo as a concept. But now that it’s finally launched here we can surely provide you all with the facts and figures. But before we just go into anything else let us inform you that the car uses the same but slightly modified XO platform which also underpins the Tiago hatchback. As far as the drivetrains are concerned the compact sedan shares the same petrol and diesel units with the Tiago hatchback. So before we dig deep into the facts let us also inform you that the TIgor hasn’t received any option of an AMT yet and thus both the powertrains are paired to a 5-speed manual transmission.
The Tigor competes directly with the Honda Amaze, Maruti Suzuki DSWift Dzire, Hyundai Xcent, Ford Figo Aspire and the Volkswagen Ameo So without any further due let us get straight into the spec comparison of the Tigor vs. its rivals.
The new cars will hit the Indian market within the next two years and some already did
Remember the good old times, not more than a decade ago, when the Indian car market was much lesser crowded than what it was. The first 10 years of the 21st century saw the advent of most of the big giants in the country, which initiated their journey with some world class products which were much popular overseas. However, call it the end of their long lifecycle, their much-ahead-of-the-time or their ill fate of not being received with open hands, most of these globally hit cars died off after a time frame.
Thankfully, all their parent manufacturers still have some soft corners in their hearts for these cars, which is why some of them are making a full-fledged comeback, in all new generation models. These cars will now feature massive changes in and out and are planning to now shake up the well-settled up segment, rather than just creating them what their previous generation models did. Following is a list of seven such previously available cars which are making a comeback in 2017 in the Indian car market:-
8 new products, hybrid and automatic transmission and new technologies Hyundai surely stored plenty of surprises for us
According to the recent reports, Hyundai soon will be expanding their product portfolio in the Indian market. They have plans to introduce not one not two but a total of eight new products by the year 2020. Expect all the upcoming products to be technologically advanced, while three of these vehicles will be new segment products the rest will be full model changes apart from regular facelifts and updates.
However, the Hyundai company officials also made sure that besides just introducing new models they will also focus on bringing new technologies as well. These technologically advanced products will include "mild" and "full" hybrid, manual and automatic transmission and a turbo petrol engine.
The officials also said that they would showcase the Strong Ioniq Hybrid in India at the 2018 Auto Expo while they will also be launching the three new segment oriented products followed by the suv-4 meter SUV towards the first half of 2019.
Now, this is what brings us to our main discussion here. The new sub-4 meter SUV that Hyundai is talking about is most probably the production variant of the Carlino concept which was showcased at the 2016 Auto Expo. The SUV caught all our attention when it showcased at the last year’s show.
So we are here to provide you with some interesting facts about this upcoming compact SUV which will be launched here in 2019.
Things really going to heat up because the list also includes a supercar as well
The year 2017 started on a positive note; we already have witnessed a couple of new launches from some of the most influential auto makers of our country. Now that we are stepping into the third month of this New Year, we are happy to inform you that we all will witness plenty of new cars launching in the next month as well.
The two biggest launches, however, will come from the stable of our homegrown auto manufacturer Maruti and the renowned Italian supercar manufacturer Lamborghini. So we can assure things are going to heat up in the next month.
So without any further due let us provide you all with the list of new car launches that will take place in the month of March 2017 in India:-
The facelift hatchback gets cosmetic updates and a new diesel engine under the hood
Hyundai Motors India LTD launched the facelift Grand i10 in India; the hatchback was unveiled for the first time in UK last year. While the hatchback is sold in the European market as the new generation i10 the same car is sold alongside its predecessor in the Indian market.
The facelift hatchback which was launched yesterday promises redefined exterior styling, Hi-tech Features, improved performance and Fuel Efficiency. Priced in between INR 4.58 Lakhs – to INR 7.33 Lakhs (ex-showroom Delhi), this new hatchback surely brings a lot on the table.
Click past jump to read more about the updated 2017 Hyundai Grand i10 facelift
The sedan will launch soon after Hyundai introduces the hatchback in February 2017
Only recently we have reported that Hyundai is all set to introduce the Grand i10 hatchback facelift in India. It was already spotted at a local dealer and we have provided you all the details of this upcoming hatchback. Now Hyundai will also be launching the facelift Xcent sedan as well which is actually based on the Grand i10 hatchback.
What is interesting is the fact that the facelift Xcent sedan was spotted testing on the Indian road recently which actually gives us an idea that Hyundai won’t be waiting much longer to launch the facelift sedan in India. It looks like after Hyundai introduces the facelift Grand i10 hatchback they will be launching the sedan as well.
As far as the changes are concerned expect the sedan to receive the same cosmetic updates which will be seen on the Grand i10 hatchback.
For all your information expect the Xcent sedan to get an updated front grille while the front bumpers too houses new fog lamps. The side profile however will remain identical to the pre-facelift variant though what it might get are perhaps new set of wheels. Just like the front profile, expect the rear profile too to also get an updated rear bumper and perhaps slightly tweaked rear taillamps.
The complete list of hatchbacks under the Crossover skin
Given the fact of immensely rising popularity of compact SUVs and crossovers in the Indian market, it is a no surprise how deeply we Indians have a thing for owning SUVs. It is this serious love for SUVs among Indian customers of today, which is why all the manufactures, especially the global ones, have gone back to their design tables and come up with models which are designed in India for the world. Such is the fascination for SUVs among Indians, that the automakers are not shying off from coming up with hatchback based crossovers.
A category of vehicles rather unheard globally, the hatchback based crossovers come with some added design elements and changes inside and out, which make them look more rugged than their hatchback counterparts. Though, it doesn’t mean that they are off-road ready, for the changes are just aesthetic rather than being functional. The majority of the automakers have taken this rather unique step to raise their sales in the market, which surprisingly is paying them as well.
In this feature story, we are throwing some light on all those hatchback based crossovers, which have turned to be game changers for their respective parent manufacturers. Following is a complete list of all such hatchbacks which look like jacked up SUVs.
The official launch will take place this February
Hyundai is all set to introduce the Grand i10 facelift in India in the month of February; this will be their first major launch for the Indian market in the year 2017. Details of the soon to be launched hatchback now have surfaced online including information about its new updated engine and pricing.
According to the recent reports the facelift Grand i10 prices will start from INR. 4, 58, 000 for the base ERA petrol trim while the top end Asta diesel is expected to be priced at INR. 7.33 lakh(ex showroom). The best thing is that the facelift variant base variant will now be atleast INR. 30,000 cheaper than the existing variant. Apart from the revised pricing the hatchback facelift also gets a revised lineup as well. The Asta(O) trim has now been discontinued in favour of standard Asta trim, while two new trims are also being added to the current lineup which includes Sportz(O) and the Sportz(O) AT which is available exclusively with the petrol variant.
Coming to the cosmetic changes the soon to be launched Grand i10 will get a wider front grille, repositioned front fog lamps and a new rear bumper to go with the frontal changes. Unfortunately there are no other big changes made to the hatchback.
They may be small in size but provides the same amount of thrill
We Indians buy cars for majorly enhancing or depicting our social status and growth among others, which is a hard fact but truth. No matter whatever our need is, we want the best possible package in the minimum possible price range, which has made almost all the automobile manufacturers scratch their brains and come out with unique and different products from the models available globally. Thus, there is no surprise to the admission of almost all the automakers that India is a tough market to understand.
Take for instance, the segment of compact SUVs. Now, previously, the SUVs were perceived to be an epitome of perennial success achieved by the elite class, as a result of which SUVs were totally out of reach for all the common man and middle class of the country. However, times have changed, and today, we have a huge range of compact SUVs and crossovers to choose from, which offer the versatility and road presence of large SUVs, but at a price of a premium hatchback or a C-segment sedan, making them good options for upgrading from an entry level hatchback or a sedan. Lately, we have also seen a handful of sub four meter SUVs from notable manufacturers, which was almost an unthinkable concept few years ago.
In this feature story, we have noted down all the compact SUVs and crossovers, both sub four meter and above four meter of length, which have dramatically changed the scenario of automobile manufacturers in the country. Such is the popularity of this segment in India, that all the models mentioned here are among the bread earners of their respective makers. Here’s a list of all the compact SUVs and crossovers available in the Indian market today:-
The soon to be launched hatchback updates will not only be limited to cosmetics!
According to the recent reports on the internet the upcoming facelift Hyundai Grand i10 will get a slightly bigger and updated diesel engine under its hood. The facelift Grand i10 debuted at the 2016 Paris Motor show and already introduced in the markets of UK.For all your information the updated Grand i10 will be called i10 Prime and this will also be their first product which will launch this year in India.
This is not the first time that Hyundai used the ‘Prime’ iteration. The South Korean auto maker used to use it for their now discontinued Getz hatchback as well.
The Grand i10 hatchback which is sold as the next generation i10 in some other International markets was introduced back in the year 2013 and it was able to sell in impressive numbers as well. This will be the hatchbacks first major facelift since its introduction in the Indian market. Apart from getting few cosmetic updates on its exterior and interior the Grand i10 hatchback will also get a completely new diesel drivetrain under its hood.
Currently the pre-facelift variant gets a 1.2 Litre Kappa Dual VTVT petrol unit, this 4 cylinder oil burner is capable of producing about 83 Ps of peak power and 11.6 kgm of torque. The engine is paired to a 5 speed manual transmission while there is also a 4 speed automatic transmission available as an option. The diesel unit on the other hand gets the slightly older second generation 1.1-litre 3-cylinder engine that churns out about 70 BHP and 160 Nm of torque. The engine is paired to a 5 speed manual transmission.
According to the recent reports by Team-BHP Hyundai has decided to upgrade the existing 1.1 Litre CRDi engine with a slightly more powerful 1.2 Litre unit. This unit is actually the updated version of their existing diesel unit and uses the same 3 cylinder. But the increase in displacement capacity has helped the engine to gain slightly more power advantage over the existing 1.1 Litre unit.
The reports also states that the new facelift i10 Prime diesel mill will generate around 71 Bhp of peak power and 190 Nm of torque. Besides the minor hike in power and torque output expect the diesel unit to also get return an impressive fuel efficiency figures as well.


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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Trade Commission will not appeal its loss in federal court in its fight to stop Meta Platforms from buying VR content maker Within Unlimited, but could still pursue the case with an internal FTC administrative law judge.
Judge Edward Davila of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California last week declined to stop Meta from acquiring the VR content maker, rejecting the regulator's concerns the deal would reduce competition in a new market.
An FTC official said that no decision had yet been made as to whether the agency would try to stop the deal in a process before an FTC administrative law judge.
Meta declined to comment on the decision not to appeal last week's ruling in federal court.
A December trial to decide if Meta could go forward with the relatively small deal was seen as a test of the FTC's bid to head off what it sees as a repeat of the company acquiring small upcoming would-be rivals to dominate a market, this time in the nascent virtual and augmented reality markets.
(Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Aurora Ellis)


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In more franchise hotel green building news, Marriott has announced that the Courtyard Charleston/Summerville in South Carolina will be the first hotel built using Marriott International’s green hotel prototype, in partnership with the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). This move will contribute of the hotel giant’s goal to have 300 LEED hotels in operation by 2015.
Last fall, Marriott announced its plans to develop a green hotel prototype for its Courtyard brand that would operators $100,000, six months in design time, and up to 25 percent energy and water savings . Their prototype was guided by the Courtyard Pittsburgh Settlers Ridge in Pennsylvania, which will open this fall and is registered for LEED certification. The company partnered with the USGBC and designated Marriott suppliers to test fixtures that save energy and water and measure the results.
The Courtyard Charleston/Summerville will open in early 2012 and will introduce the first phase of The Parks of Berkley, a community consisting of 5,000 acres and one of the largest planned developments in the Southeastern United States. It will join nearly 50 LEED certified or registered Marriott hotels in Maryland, North Carolina, Georgia, Massachusetts, Texas, Nevada, California, and Oregon. Marriott currently leads the hotel industry in LEED green buildings.


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Indianapolis (IN) – In an exclusive interview with Tom’s Hardware Guide, one of Microsoft’s lead representatives on the DVD Forum Steering Committee said that decisions regarding whether his company and Intel would back and promote HD DVD as a high-definition video disc standard, were determined only within the last few days. Prior to some critical recent developments and announcements, both companies – which had proclaimed neutrality – may have been ready to back Blu-ray.
“Until now, we viewed ourselves more as a technology provider for both groups,” said Jordi Ribas, Microsoft’s director of technology strategy for Windows Digital Media, and a key developer of the VC-1 codec currently in use by both HD DVD and Blu-ray. He revealed that Microsoft and Intel had produced a list of what he called “key requirements for the success of next-generation DVD.” For several months, while those requirements were being circulated, both companies worked on developing key standards to be implemented by both formats. Ribas said he was directly involved with implementing the VC-1 codec, and also worked jointly with Disney to produce the iHD interactive layer considered by both camps, but eventually adopted only by HD DVD (Disney is a member of the Blu-ray Disc Association.) During that time, Intel and Microsoft both maintained their public neutrality. But very recently, from the two companies’ perspective, things started unraveling unexpectedly for Blu-ray.
“Our decision is based mainly on where the formats are today,” Ribas said, referring to Microsoft. “A year and a half ago, both format organizations had very similar goals, and to some extent, the story of Blu-ray was actually very powerful. It had higher capacity, it had what we would consider benefits at the time. But then as time went on, and we’d seen what’s the reality of both formats today, and what were promises versus what’s proven and what’s real, that’s when we decided to make the decision.”
Blu-ray failed the Intel/Microsoft test in six critical areas, Ribas told us, referring to a document listing those areas that a Microsoft spokesperson provided to Tom’s Hardware Guide:
First, and perhaps foremost, is the ability for a consumer to make authorized copies of a legally obtained disc, in order to store the content on a hard drive and stream it to devices around the house. Intel particularly wants this capability for its Viiv home entertainment platform, announced last month. “We think it’s a great consumer win, and it’s a great industry win, to be able to ensure that with good copy protection, you can have so much functionality for the user,” Rivas told us. But when recently questioned about its support for these features, Ribas said, although Blu-ray had appeared supportive at one time, its current stance is now uncommitted.
Support for hybrid discs that can be read in both current DVDs and future players, was the second critical element. This would “future-proof” new releases, enabling consumers to buy DVDs that can play in today’s players, while also providing high-def content for tomorrow’s. “That’s something that both promised,” said Ribas, “but HD DVD delivered, and Blu-ray has not – and it seems it’s nowhere in sight. [Blu-ray has] claimed they have it in the lab, but to go from the lab to mass production is like night and day. There’s a lot of effort that needs to happen. So as of now, there’s nothing that leads us to believe that that’s going to be possible [from Blu-ray] at this point.”
Microsoft has doubt’s about Blu-ray’s disc capacity
Maintaining low production costs is a critical factor, which has been a key HD DVD talking point in light of current revelations about factory upgrade costs for Blu-ray. “For a long time, we actually thought that the Blu-ray Group had the upper hand in costs,” Ribas said, mainly because of the involvement in Blu-ray of most of the major Japanese CE manufacturers – Sony, Matsushita (Panasonic), Pioneer, and Sharp – as well as Philips. Here is where recent events played a critical role: In a development that was brought to light only this morning, two of the world’s leading China-based DVD player production facilities announced their support for HD DVD over Blu-ray. In press statements, these companies cited the relative openness of the DVD Forum compared to the Blu-ray Disc Association. “Now that we see China embracing HD DVD,” said Ribas, “we actually see that on the cost side, HD DVD will have an advantage, because the Chinese have been the ones who have lowered the prices, via the competition, for HD DVD players.” As much as 75 percent of DVD players sold in America today come from China, he added.
Maintaining low disc replication costs affects the consumer price for media, said Ribas, which would play into any price/performance evaluation. A disc production factory can make minor upgrades to its equipment, he stated, with the result being equipment that can produce both conventional DVD as well as HD DVD. Citing figures circulating this week throughout the industry, Ribas said it would cost as much as $1.7 million per production line to install Blu-ray disc production equipment, and as much as $2.0 million for each new mastering system installed. That’s a significant expense, he explained, for a business which only turns over a 10 percent margin.
The surprise entry in Microsoft’s and Intel’s list of failures is disc storage capacity. On paper, Blu-ray appears to have the advantage. But the two companies looked beneath the paper: Capacity, said Ribas, “used to be the biggest advantage of Blu-ray, and we believed it. We thought, they’ll get 50 GByte BD-ROM discs working, but it’s not happening, and it’s nowhere in sight. There are not even pilots. It’s only in the lab that they are building these discs.” With regard to demonstrated capacity, he told us, HD DVD-ROM actually leads BD-ROM by a score of 30 GByte to 25 GByte.
The final entry is interactivity standards. Although Microsoft and Disney jointly developed the iHD interactivity layer, based on XML – which is the glue that holds together the “Vista vision” of Microsoft’s future Windows platform – and even though Disney is a Blu-ray proponent, the Association chose instead to endorse BDJ, an implementation of Sun-s Java Mobile Edition. Ribas told us that the major studios – either publicly or quietly – are opposed to BDJ, citing its relative complexity and its lack of compelling new features compared to iHD. An optional commentary track for videos, for example, that superimposes the speaker’s image on-screen as well as providing audio, is one key iHD feature that BDJ will support only as an option, maybe. “Which means nobody will use it,” said Ribas.
“Intel was looking at similar issues,” said Ribas, “and [we] realized, ‘We are getting very close to getting these things into the market, we have to stop hoping or expecting or believing promises. We have to look at what’s real and what’s not.’ That’s where our decision came from.”
Ribas told us more about his and his company’s expectations for the future of video disc technologies and interactive media in general. Stay in touch with Tom’s Hardware Guide for more of our interview this afternoon with Microsoft’s Jordi Ribas.
Tom’s Hardware Guide has contacted the Blu-ray Disc Association early Tuesday for comment on today’s developments. So far, the organization has not responded to our inquiries.


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The digital services tax has reaped almost £360m from US tech giants including Amazon, Google and Apple in its first year, raising more from most of the digital businesses than they have been paying in UK corporation tax.
A National Audit Office (NAO) report has found the UK’s digital services tax, which was introduced in April 2020 and imposes a 2% charge on the gross revenues made by digital titans running search engines, social media services and online marketplaces, hauled in 30% more than the government had forecast in 2021.
The government, which believes the tax could cumulatively bring in more than £3bn by 2024-25, outperformed its first 2020-2021 annual target of £275m because of the huge online sales boom during the pandemic.
“The digital services tax has succeeded in raising more tax from some big digital companies and has brought in more money than forecast in its first year,” said Gareth Davies, the head of the NAO. He said UK authorities have not identified any firms failing to comply with the new tax, but that “HMRC could still face challenges enforcing compliance, especially among groups without a physical presence in the UK”.
The tax is levied on gross revenues from digital advertising sales, and e-commerce sales companies including Amazon, Apple and eBay make from third party sellers on their sites, but does not capture direct online sales to consumers from retailers such as John Lewis and Tesco.
It is targeted at the largest firms, those with worldwide digital revenues over £500m and with revenues derived from UK users over £25m.
Tech giants such as Amazon, Google and Meta-owned Facebook have historically paid relatively little corporation tax in the UK because they typically ensure their British operations make very little profit, instead funnelling earnings through low-tax jurisdictions such as Luxembourg and Ireland.
The NAO said that overall the 18 businesses that paid the DST, which was first announced in the 2018 budget,…
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Read more from original source here…


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Blinkbox, the UK video on demand site, has unveiled a movie streaming service for Playstation 3 in the UK.
The service will allow Playstation 3 owners to stream recent releases such as The Hangover, Sherlock Holmes, Up In The Air, and US TV series including Gossip Girl, Heroes, and 30 Rock from an archive of 6,000 movie and TV titles.
According to blinkbox the PS3 streaming service is the first British equivalent to the streaming of movies to games consoles popularised by Netflix in the USA.
Michael Comish, CEO of blinkbox, said: "We are committed to ensuring that blinkbox.com remains ahead of the game when it comes to watching the best movies on the home TV screen. The PS3 is the first of a number of devices to which we will be bringing blinkbox: enabling customers to use our service on their TVs for instant streaming of new blockbuster movies—available on the same day as their release on DVD—as well as a growing library of free ad-supported titles."
DTG Staff | 10.05.2010


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Hops at Hop Head Farms
Grueling work during harvest season keeps Michigan craft beer local.
All photos by Kevin Gibson.
Justin Dieleman is tired. Harvest time at his family business, Pure Mitten Hops, is always exhausting.
Pure Mitten is part of a growing crop of lupulus farmers in what can be a difficult industry and a challenging, at times, climate. Hop Farms in Michigan generally employ a core group of people to run the day-to-day business, hiring seasonal workers when needed. Autumn harvest is one of those times, but day-to-day operations are still particularly challenging, with long days and nights. “I worked 93 hours last week,” he tells a group of visitors to the 11-acre farm in Coopersville, Mich. “I’ll probably do about the same this week. We’re so close to being done; I’m ready for it to be done.”
Harvesting hops at Pure Mitten
At Hop Head Farms in Baroda, Mich., hopyard manager Matt Gura takes a group into a small control room just above where the crop from his 190-acre farm are drying, preparing to be pelletized and shipped. A small couch is where he often has slept; under a table is a box of video games for down times. During harvest, those games go untouched. Drying, he explains, can make or break a harvest season and, potentially, even an entire business. “For 35 to 40 days,” he says, “I don’t leave here.”
During the week when this tour of beer writers visited from around the country, the weather in Western Michigan was rainy – this followed a hot, humid summer stretch. Humidity of whatever kind makes drying hops evenly a difficult task, which makes it even more imperative he is on hand nearly around-the-clock.
Matt Gura of Hop Head Farms sniffs the hops for quality
One of the crops at Hop Head is Cashmere, a hop that is good for both bittering and aromatics, showcasing smooth bitterness with notes of lemon, lime and melon. Gura opens a bale to show us what a properly-done “wet” hop looks and smells like. Quality, not just processing, is always the hop farm’s primary goal, from planting to final pelletizing. Hey, craft beer drinkers only want the best.
He breaks open a cone and rubs it in his hands, taking in the resulting aromas and encouraging all in attendance to gather around and join in. “It’s just like the human body,” Gura says. “Good nutrition means your immune system is going to be strong.”
Good farming means better beer
While Washington state, in particular Yakima Valley, is America’s top producer and supplier of hops, Michigan’s farms are catering primarily to those breweries who are interested in keeping their beers as local as possible.
Founders Brewing Company of Grand Rapids is using Michigan hops to brew this year’s Harvest Ale, sourcing from several farms, including Hop Head, Pure Mitten and MI Local Hops in northwestern Michigan. Competition is fierce, especially when talking about classic hop varieties such as Cascade and Centennial, with prices at all-time lows.
“It’s $2 a pound, and it’s only getting worse,” says Mike Moran, the sales and marketing manager for MI Local. So, selling to Michigan breweries – and there are plenty – is the perfect angle. “Everyone wants to promote local these days,” Moran says.
Justin Dieleman talks hops at Pure Mitten
“The Michigan hop industry is so young,” says Diamond Deschaine, research and development brewer at Founders. However, a quality control board involving many of the state’s breweries is helping it down the path. Farmers and brewers alike stand to benefit from the Michigan hop industry being successful, especially with the growing demand for hops.
Deschaine tells the story of having bales of wet hops – hops that haven’t been pelletized to become “dry” hops – shipped from the West Coast, only to open them and find many of them to be unusable. At the Michigan farms, he says, “They’ll pick them at 6:30 in the morning, drive them to the brewery, and we’ll be brewing with them by 9:30.”
Back at Pure Mitten, Dieleman and a couple of workers are demonstrating how their hops are harvested – it’s an old-school method involving a tractor and a wooden lift – a three-person job wherein vines are cut from rows upon rows of trellises. When they’re brought back to the processing plant, they go through a picker that separates the cones from the vines. They then go through quality control, which essentially consists of the hops going down a conveyor belt while two women pick through to take out any bad ones. It’s a small, family operation right down to the core.
“The ladies doing quality control are some ladies my mom knows,” Justin says in passing. Mom Mary Dieleman and Dad Morrie also are involved, as well as Justin’s brother-in-law, Jay Camp. As he speaks, the day’s harvest is going through the picker and will soon go into the dryer – which Justin and Jay built by hand. Everyone down on the farms in Michigan will sleep well on this night, and even better once harvest season is over and the hops are sold.
“We’ll be out of here by nine,” Justin says, then laughs. “It’s an early day.”
Thanks a bunch for sharing this with all people you actually recognize what you are talking about!


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Fisker, an electric car startup, announced that it will have to halt the production of its EV cars while it attempts to raise a whopping $150 million in emergency funds. The funds are needed because it is grappling with a cash crunch sparked by low demand for EVs, low demand that comes despite federal incentives and regulations meant to push people toward EVs.
As background, Fisker is an electric vehicle design and production company based in California. Its goal is, according to its mission statement, to “create the world’s most emotional and sustainable electric vehicles.” Despite that expansive goal, the company has managed to produce only about a thousand vehicles for the year.
Announcing the current state of things in a statement, Fisker said, “The company has approximately 4,700 vehicles in its current inventory, carried over from 2023 and including 2024 production.” It continued, “While it has not completed an NRV analysis for 2024, Fisker believes the completed vehicle value for its inventory as of March 15, 2024, is in excess of $200 million.”
Continuing, the company noted that it would be pausing production for about a month and a half as it tries to find financing to keep going and tries to “along inventory levels,” which likely means selling off some of those thousands of unbought cars. It said, “Fisker will pause production for six weeks starting the week of March 18, 2024, to align inventory levels and progress strategic and financing initiatives,”
According to Reuters, the Fisker announcement came after it missed an interest payment on its debt. Apparently, the missed payment, totaling $8.4 million, came because Fisker wanted to use the 30-day grace period for the missed payment to discuss changing Fisker’s capital structure with investors. The company says it had the necessary liquidity to pay the interest.
Its capital structure solution is to offer $150 million in convertible notes. Reporting on the details of those notes, Reuters noted, “The senior secured convertible notes will have a 10% original issue discount for gross proceeds of up to $150 million” and “The notes are being sold to CVI Investments, which is working through Heights Capital Management, and the Warsaw-based investment fund can convert the debt into equity in Fisker.”
Fisker’s trouble is coming during a nadir in consumer interest in EVs, with some of their battery problems rising to the fore thanks to bitterly cold weather over the winter, such as in Chicago, and people generally seeing more issues with EVs, particularly surrounding range and charge times, than with traditional, combustion-powered vehicles.
That distrust of EVs comes despite Biden Administration regulations prioritizing EV production. Sen. Ted Cruz, commenting on that regulation and the threat to American living standards it poses, said, “Biden’s latest ban on gas-powered vehicles and replacement with electric vehicles is another direct assault on consumer choice and the American way of life.”
Continuing, Sen. Cruz added, “It ignores the needs of American families in order to appease the radical environmental lobby at the expense of millions of jobs supported by the automotive industry. It’s time to put an end to this regulatory overreach.”
Featured image credit: By Alexander-93 – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=137749938
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- Sherlock brings together a plethora of siloed data sources such as analytics on ecosystem data, blockchain data, market data, sentiment analysis of social media, and news into one platform
- Data quality on current retail data repositories like CoinMarketCap is known to be an issue
Fidelity announced today that it has launched Sherlock, a digital assets analytics solution geared towards fund managers and other institutional investors.
“It’s been exciting to see the tremendous growth in the digital assets data space over the past few years, and while the market is maturing rapidly, we’ve heard from institutional investors that there’s still a need for a comprehensive and accessible data solution,” said Kevin Vora a VP of Product Management at the Fidelity Center for Applied Technology (FCAT), its development house.
Similar to a Bloomberg terminal, Sherlock brings together a plethora of siloed data sources such as analytics on ecosystem data, blockchain data, market data, sentiment analysis of social media, and news into one platform.
“As a quantitative asset manager, we require rich data for making trading decisions, and Sherlock goes above and beyond in delivering that,” said Junaid Ghauri, CIO and co-founder, Pareto Technologies. “We’ve found the development data provided by Sherlock to be among the core differentiators from comparable platforms.”
Fidelity’s Sherlock isn’t the only platform in this category on the market. Former CoinDesk managing director Ryan Selkis launched institutional-investor geared Messari in 2018.
Data quality on current retail data repositories like CoinMarketCap is known to be an issue, which is why institutional investors likely are steering clear and prefer tools like Messari or Sherlock. In March 2019, CoinMarketCap admitted that concerns over the quality of the data on its platform are “valid” and when Binance purchased the site in 2020 there were promises to address this.
A mid-2019 report from CoinDesk showed that there are a number of firms openly advertising that they will manipulate trading data for certain digital assets enhancing their placement on CoinMarketCap.


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Apr. 5, 2012 (China Knowledge) - Haier Group, a leading Chinese white goods manufacturer, yesterday announced that it led the global market leader of white goods, including refrigerator, washing machine and air conditioner, with a 7.8% share in 2011, up from 6.8% in 2010.
This was the third consecutive year Haier Group dominated the global white goods market, said a person familiar with the matter.
Last year, the market share of LG Group was 4.9%, Whirlpool 4.5%, Midea Group, the parent co of GD Midea Holding Co Ltd<000527
> 3.4%, South Korea-based Samsung Electronics 3.4%, Electrolux 2.9% and U.S. power and technology giant General Electric Co 2.9%, sources reported.
In 2011, Haier Group's operating revenue increased by 11% year on year to RMB 150.9 billion, principally boosted by increased sales in the overseas market.
The Chinese white goods maker, the parent co of Qingdao
Haier Co Ltd<600690
> and Haier Electronics Group Co Ltd<1169
>, saw Qingdao
Haier's operating revenue up 13.86% year on year to RMB 73.66 billion last year.
Net profit attributable to shareholders of Qingdao
Haier surged 20.09% from a year earlier to RMB 2.69 billion in 2011.


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Skipton Building Society is relaunching its two- and five-year additional borrowing fixed rate products for residential and buy-to-let and is cutting rates by up to 0.34 per cent.
The changes come in tomorrow.
The residential range includes two-year fixes at 3.65 per cent to 75 per cent LTV and 4.89 per cent to 90 per cent LTV.
The range also includes five-year fixes at 4.59 per cent to 75 per cent LTV and 5.45 per cent to 90 per cent LTV.
The 5.45 per cent product has been cut by 0.34 per cent.
Buy-to let-borrowers can access additional borrowing at 4.49 per cent to 75 per cent LTV for a two-year fix, and 5.19 per cent to 75 per cent LTV for a five-year fix.
There are no completion fees on these products.
Skipton head of products Kris Brewster says: “We have made additional borrowing even attractive by lowering rates on our range of fixed rate products.”
These refreshed products are available through the Society’s Skipton Direct customer service centre and branches.


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Ajay Banga, in his former senior executive roles at Mastercard, waged a decade-long “war on cash.” Under his tenure, the company did more than just about any other to demonise the role of physical money around the world.
Almost exactly two months ago, on February 23, the Biden administration unveiled its nomination for the next president of the World Bank, the Washington-controlled Brettons Wood lending institution. That choice was Ajay Banga, a former CEO of Mastercard Inc and senior executive of Citigroup. In a statement the White House praised Banga for his “extensive experience leading successful organizations in developing countries and forging public-private partnerships to address financial inclusion and climate change.”
As Vijay Prashad noted at the time, there will be no other official candidates for the job since — by convention — the US nominee is automatically selected for the post:
This has been the case for the 13 previous presidents of the World Bank—the one exception was the acting president Kristalina Georgieva of Bulgaria, who held the post for two months in 2019. In the official history of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), J. Keith Horsefield wrote that US authorities “considered that the Bank would have to be headed by a US citizen in order to win the confidence of the banking community, and that it would be impracticable to appoint US citizens to head both the Bank and the Fund.”
By an undemocratic convention, therefore, the World Bank head was to be a US citizen and the head of the IMF was to be a European national. Therefore, Biden’s nomination of Banga guarantees his ascension to the post.
And so it has proven to be. When nominations for the post closed three weeks ago, there were no other publicly declared candidates. Which begs the question: Who is Ajay Banga? And more specifically, what could his appointment mean for the global war on cash?
A “Davos Type of Globalist”
Apart from his Indian heritage, Banga is hardly an atypical choice for World Bank president. He comes from the private sector, has next to no prior experience of development finance and investment, and is closely tied to both Wall Street and corporate America. Up until now his entire career has been spent working for international corporations, from his early days at Nestle in India to later stints at Citigroup and US payments processing giant Mastercard, where he served as president and CEO before being made executive chairman.
On leaving Mastercard in December 31, 2021, Banga joined the growth equity firm General Atlantic. He is chairman of the Partnership for Central America, a public-private partnership ostensibly focused on economic development in the “northern triangle” of Central America. Banga was also the longest-serving chairman of the U.S.-India Business Council (USIBC) representing more than 300 of the largest international companies operating in India, and until recently was chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce.
He has long been a fixture at major events like the World Economic Forum. “He’s very much the Davos type of globalist,” said Bright Simons, an analyst with Imani Africa, a think tank based in Accra, Ghana. And in the eternal spirit of the WEF, Banga plans to leverage public-private partnerships in his new role at the World Bank, recently telling the FT that he will turn to the private sector for both funds and ideas.
As Prashad notes, Banga’s resume is not dissimilar from that of most US appointees to head the World Bank:
The first president of the World Bank was Eugene Meyer, who built the chemical multinational Allied Chemical and Dye Corporation (later Honeywell) and who owned the Washington Post. He too had no direct experience working on eradicating poverty or building public infrastructure. It was through the World Bank that the United States pushed an agenda to privatize public institutions. Men such as Banga have been integral to the fulfillment of that agenda.
Banga has also played a major part in the global war on cash, particularly during his more than 10-year tenure at Mastercard. For payment companies like Mastercard and Visa that generate fees from facilitating money transfers between banks accounts, cash is their number one rival. In 2010, just months into his now job as CEO, Banga openly declared war on cash:
“In today’s terms, only 3% of retail spend in India or in China are through electronic payments. The rest is cash. I have declared war on cash; I believe MasterCard will grow by growing against cash. If you keep looking at 3%, everybody’s a rival; if you look at the remaining 97%, everyone’s a partner.
The strategy appears to have paid off, at least for Mastercard shareholders: During his 11-year tenure, the company tripled revenues, increased net income sixfold and grew its market capitalization from under $30 billon to more than $300 billion.
By 2017, Banga was calling for companies to work together “to take cash out,” albeit not quite completely. In other words, to kneecap it. From Livemint:
Eighty-five percent of the world’s retail payments—person to merchant are in cash. It is 95% plus in this country [India] even after demonetization. It’s 80% in Japan. So it is not a developed country versus developing country thing. It is a huge open marketplace. And no one company can win it by itself. It is going to need lots of companies focusing on taking out cash because cash is expensive and cash is not useful the way it used to be.
It shouldn’t be zero. It’s got a role to play, it’s anonymous and people like anonymity, its fungible and people like fungibility. I am respectful of that but why should it be 95%. So who do I view as my competition? Cash. I don’t view another network, I don’t view Paytm, I don’t view Apple as competition. We are actually working with all of them. They all need our technology.
A Decade of Demonising Cash
Both Mastercard and Visa have played arguably the biggest role in demonising cash over the past decade or so. As Brett Scott documents in his book Cloud Money, the payments industry has “consistently cast card payments as being safer, cleaner and higher status than cash, thereby slowly associating the latter with crime, disease and low status.”
The demonisation campaign hit a whole new level when cash became erroneously associated with COVID-19 infections. In early March 2020, a WHO spokesperson said:
“We know that money changes hands frequently and can pick up all sorts of bacteria and viruses … when possible it’s a good idea to use contactless payments.”
Media outlets, payment card companies, fintech start-ups and big-box retailers seized on the WHO’s comments and magnified them, sparking fears over the safety of cash.
But for Mastercard this was nothing new. The company has been stoking the global public’s fear of cash as a vector of bacteria and disease for at least ten years. In March 2013, the Banga-led firm sponsored an Oxford University “trial” into the germ loads found on the banknotes of a selection of global currencies. Mastercard reserved the exclusive right to present the findings of the trial as well as the results of a highly misleading survey on public perceptions of the health risks of cash, which it did in gaudy glory.
In his 2021 article, “How Mastercard Invented the Health Hazard of Cash“, the German financial journalist Norbert Häring presented a sample of the resulting press releases:
CNN, March 28: “If you thought dirty money was only found in offshore bank accounts, check your wallet instead. But you may want to wash your hands afterward. […]. An Oxford University study found an average of 26,000 bacteria on bank notes.” Source
Blick, March 26: “Disgusting money: many Swiss find cash unhygienic[.] 64 percent of Swiss people find their cash unhygienic. No wonder, since it is particularly dirty.” Source
The Local, March 27: “[…] a study by researchers at Oxford University concludes that legal tender in Switzerland is among the dirtiest in Europe […].” Source
Le Monde, April 1: “Is Cash Dirty?” Source
Metro, March 26: “More than half of Brits fear germ risk from filthy money – with good reason[.]” Source
Infosaulus, March 26: “63% of Spaniards consider coins and banknotes to be the dirtiest items[.]” Source
DR, March 26: “Banknotes and coins are dangerous germ bombs[.] Danish banknotes are so dirty and filled with harmful bacteria that they can pose a health risk.” Source
Komsomolskaya Pravda, March 27: “Each Russian banknote has 30 thousand bacteria on it[.] […]. Our Ministry of Finance plans to introduce restrictions on large payments in cash. […]. Officials say that this way it is easier to fight those who do not pay taxes. […]. Now, there is another reason to get rid of cash […]: hygiene.” Source
Svobodnaya Pressa, March 26: “Even new banknotes are home to thousands of bacteria[.]” Source
CNN Japan, March 31: “An independent study conducted […] by Oxford University scientists found that there are an average of 26,000 bacteria on each banknote.” Source
Irorio, April 2: “Banknotes are the dirtiest thing you can touch, according to a survey by Mastercard[.]” Source
Later that year, as the winter flu season loomed, Mastercard doubled down with the following tweet:
— Mastercard News (@MastercardNews) November 12, 2013
Fostering “Financial Inclusion” Across Africa
At the same time, Mastercard was driving cashless initiatives across Africa and other parts of the “Global South”, all in the name of “financial inclusion”.
In 2012, the company provided seed funding for the Better Than Cash Alliance, (BTCA), a UN-hosted partnership of governments (all of them in the so-called “Global South”), companies and international organizations that promotes cashless initiatives in Africa. Its mission, in its own words, is “to accelerate the transition from cash to digital payments globally.” Other sponsors include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Citi, Ford Foundation, Omidyar Network, the U.S. Agency for International Development and Visa Inc — again, mostly US companies, philanthropic foundations and government bodies.
In 2013, Banga visited Nigeria where he heaped praise on the central bank’s “Cashless Nigeria” program:
“MasterCard’s close collaboration with the CBN and other stakeholders in Nigeria has proved that collaboration between public and private sector organizations is the key to driving meaningful change in any economy.”
The Central Bank of Nigeria’s “Cashless Nigeria” program culminated earlier this year in a disastrous cash swap program that has wroughtimmeasurable damage on the country’s already fragile economy. The Center for the Promotion of Private Enterprise [CPPE] said the cash shortages had not only stalled economic activity in the country but had become a major risk to the livelihoods of Nigerians:
Nigerians have not been this traumatized in recent history. The economy is gradually grinding to a halt because of the collapse of payment systems across all platforms. Digital platforms are performing sub-optimally because of congestion; physical cash is unavailable because the CBN has sucked away over 70 per cent of cash in the economy and the expected relief from the supreme court judgement has not materialized.
The “Financial Inclusion” Myth
In 2016, Banga spearheaded a partnership with a partially World Bank-owned data services firm, Net1 and South African Social Security Agency (SASSA), to use MasterCard debit cards for welfare grant distribution. The project was ostensibly aimed at promoting “financial inclusion” by providing millions of unbanked South African citizens with basic financial services. But as a recent article by the Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt (CADTM) documents, the ultimate beneficiaries were not the low-income citizens, but the fintech CEOs, their shareholders and investors and, of course, the economies of the Global North, in which their operations are invariably headquartered:
While Banga had rapidly rolled out 10 million cards, Net1 was building subsidiary companies to sell financial inclusion products to grantees, including loans (Moneyline), insurance (Smartlife), airtime and electricity (uManje Mobile) and payments (EasyPay).
As a monopoly service provider, Net1 controlled the entire grant payment stream from the state Treasury to recipients. It was well positioned to not only transfer the grant payments, but to sell financial products and extract repayments at the same time as grant payments were made.
There was no possibility for grantees to default on their debts because repayments were deducted automatically, and no longer depended on consumer behavior. As repayments to Net1 whittled away the promised value of social entitlements, grantees turned to other formal and informal lenders, many of whom were also repaid automatically through Net1’s same debit-order powers.
While Net1 claimed to offer credit without interest, their monthly “service fees” were typically over 5% interest per month. Though technically allowable under the National Credit Act, these interest rates amounted to over 30% on a standard 6-month loan. At the time, interest rates on a credit card were slightly over 20% per year. Through their high-priced credit, Net1 gained more income from financial inclusion products than from the distribution of social grants from 2015-17.
Arguably the most insidious aspect of the program was that Net1, with Microsoft’s help, essentially developed a shadow banking system that did not, in reality, bring grantees into the former financial sector but instead segregated them in a monopolistic digital payment space outside of state oversight and control:
The partnership between Mastercard and Net1 was novel because they created a debit card that ran two parallel payment systems: Europay-MasterCard-Visa and the Universal Electronic Payment System (UEPS). The former worked online with a PIN number as it does throughout the world; the latter worked offline with biometric security and was specifically designed for South African grantees.
The implication of this dual system was that the vast majority of transactions by social grant recipients were through the offline UEPS system, either at Net1 paypoints or retailers using Net1 point of sale devices. Instead of these transactions being settled through the National Payment System, thereby becoming visible to the country’s Treasury and Reserve Bank, they were settled internally by Net1.
Most of these deductions for Net1 products happened outside traditional financial structures. This led to significant financial predation by a monopoly service provider.
This example underscores the myth of financial inclusion often peddled by Western banks, fintech companies and payment processers. As the article notes, the real motives of the companies seeking to expand digital financial services to the world’s unbanked have much more to do with advancing their own financial interests and promoting a particular ideological worldview, than addressing structural economic injustice:
Even leading CEOs in the fintech sector, such as PayPal’s Dan Schulman, now readily concede that financial inclusion is simply a euphemistic ‘buzzword’ for recruiting as many new clients as possible, the better to be able to quietly extract a never-ending stream of value from intermediating their trillions of dollars’ worth of tiny financial transactions.
Like Banga, Schulman also claims that Paypay’s biggest competitor is the “hugely inefficient” use of cash, which still accounts for 85% of global retail payments. Banga himself has repeatedly claimed that maintaining cash networks and infrastructure costs around one to two percent of GDP. But as the Paris-based not-for-profit association Cash Essentials notes, this is simply wrong:
A number of central bank studies have looked into the social costs which vary from 0.12% of GDP in Finland to 0.58% in Belgium. A 2019 Deutsche Bundesbank study found that the average cash payment costs €0.24 vs €0.33 for a girocard and €0.97 for a credit card. A separate academic study found that across 52 countries, the average cash transaction cost $0.54 vs $1.52 for a debit card transaction.
As Banga prepares to take the helm at the World Bank, it would be remiss to overlook the unveiled hostility he has consistently held toward cash, which remains the most inclusive payment method in both the global south and north.
He now takes the reins of one of the world’s most powerful international financial institutions, which itself has been instrumental in driving digital identity programs across developing countries through its Identification for Development (ID4D) program. That program has been “linked to severe and large-scale human rights violations in a range of countries around the world, affecting social, civil, and political rights,” according to a recent paper by the NYU School of Law’s Center for Human Rights and Global Justice (CHRGJ). As for Mastercard, it is pushing its tentacles into biometric payments and ID systems, smart city projects and even pilot projects for Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs).
If there is one possible silver lining to all of this, it is that Banga appears to have tempered his views on cash in recent years — at least in his public statements. In an October 2020 interview with TED journalist Whitney Pennington Rodgers, he acknowledged that cash would not and, more importantly, should not go away: “I think cashless, actually, is something we are not going to get to, and we probably shouldn’t.” Banga correctly noted that many people depend on cash because they are on the wrong side of the digital divide or lack proof of identity.
It is also true that the influence of the World Bank and its sister institution, the IMF, may well be on the wane as the world shifts toward a multipolar order. For the first time since their creation in 1944, the two Brettons Wood institutions face serious competition — first, from China, which in 2017 became the world’s largest official creditor since 2017, surpassing the World Bank, IMF and 22-member Paris Club combined; and second, from the Contingency Reserve Arrangement, established in 2015 by the BRICS countries as an alternative to the IMF, and the New Development Bank (NDB), popularly known as the BRICS Bank.
As Vijay Pashad notes, the CRA and NDB have a markedly different outlook from their Bretton Woods counterparts:
These new institutions seek to provide development finance through a new development policy that does not enforce austerity on the poorer nations but is driven by the principle of poverty eradication. The BRICS Bank is a young institution compared to the World Bank, but it has considerable financial resources and will need to be innovative in providing assistance that does not lead to endemic debt. Whether the new BRICS Think Tank Network for Finance will be able to break with the IMF’s orthodoxy is yet to be seen.


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Microsoft Forefront business security products featured in worldwide integrated marketing campaign that combines advertising, Web experience, customer engagement and PR.
REDMOND, Wash. — April 9, 2007 — Microsoft Corp. is addressing customer frustration with the complexity of security products in a new integrated marketing campaign launched today called Easy, Easier (http://www.easyeasier.com). The Microsoft® Forefront™ line of business security products is featured in a campaign that combines print and online advertising, a creative Web experience, integrated customer relationship marketing (CRM) and public relations. The campaign uses humorous metaphors to illustrate how defending against security threats with Forefront is easier than defending against virtually anything else — including far-fetched threats from aliens, ninjas and zombies.
The Forefront brand was launched 10 months ago, and since that time Microsoft has rolled out a series of new products under the Forefront name, including Forefront Security for Exchange Server, Forefront Security for SharePoint®, and Forefront Client Security (currently in beta). The Forefront family also includes Microsoft’s edge security products, Internet Security and Acceleration Firewall (ISA Firewall) and Intelligent Application Gateway (IAG) 2007, which will be re-launched under the Forefront brand with the next generation of products.
For more information:


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28 Jun 2019
Posted in Banking
Czech Republic embracing contactless payment technology supported by wide merchant acceptance and improved infrastructure, says GlobalData
Czech consumers are adopting contactless payments in ever-increasing numbers, with almost every individual now holding a contactless card, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.
GlobalData’s latest report, Payments Landscape in the Czech Republic: Opportunities and Risks to 2022, reveals that the number of contactless cards in the Czech Republic is set to increase from 10.3 million in 2018 to 11.8 million by 2022.
Nikhil Reddy, Payments Analyst for GlobalData, comments: “Czech consumers and financial institutions have embraced contactless, which is becoming a mainstream payment option at supermarkets, grocery stores and restaurants. The technology has been supported by wide merchant acceptance and improved payment infrastructure, with around 90% of the country’s point-of-sale terminals now supporting contactless payments.”
The increasing adoption of contactless cards drove the overall number of card payments in the country, which grew significantly from 483.7 million in 2014 to 1.1 billion in 2018. This number is expected to reach 1.9 billion by 2022. According to the European Payments Council, around 70% of all card payments in the Czech Republic are contactless.
Meanwhile, the use of contactless for public transport is also gaining traction. Major cities and towns such as Litomerice, Pilsen and Ostrava have already integrated contactless payments into their public transport systems, with Brno set to implement this functionality by the end of 2019.
The growing preference for contactless payments among Czech consumers has paved the path for near field communication (NFC) mobile wallets and wearables. Capitalizing on this opportunity, international players such as Google, Garmin and Fitbit have entered the market with their mobile wallets. Apple Pay was the latest to launch in February 2019.
Reddy concludes: “Over the coming years, although contactless cards are expected to remain dominant in the contactless payment space, they are likely to be complemented by NFC mobile wallets and wearables, resulting in a further rise in contactless payments in the country.”


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Today, iOS users can update to the latest version and fix the bugs caused by iOS 15.
iOS 15.0.2 has been released to the public via OTA download on Settings. Release notes say that the update addressed several issues, including the one where Apple’s leather wallet case with AirTag or MagSafe doesn’t show up in Find My or one where Photos are removed from Messages if the thread was deleted.
Other fixes mentioned were restoration failure when using iTunes or Finder on the iPhone 13 and CarPlay not working with audio apps.
The 15.0.2 update was released a week after 15.0.1, which addressed several bugs in the newly launched iOS 15. Once the kinks are ironed out it’s expected that the Cupertino-based company will start working on iOS 15.1, which may have lossless audio support for the HomePod mini and HomePod, as well as a Wallet app that can store COVID-19 vaccine records.


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Apple has cut orders for LCD screens and other parts for the iPhone 5 this quarter due to weak demand, the Nikkei reported. In other news, U.S. unemployment is expected to fall this year and chairman Ben Bernanke will give his first policy speech of the year later today.
Rolls-Royce CEO Torsten Muller Otvos takes Reuters for a ride in his Phantom to explain why global balance is the key to luxury success. The luxury end of the auto market is doing so much better than the mass market for the company because it is "very properly globally balanced," says Otvos.
MakerBot CEO Bre Pettis shows off the company's latest 3-D printers and says they want to make 3-D printing more approachable for users. He explains that MakerBot is an innovation company, and they make machines that help other people become innovative and make things.
Tactus Technology has developed a keyboard that rises up from a touchscreen when you need to type. Tactus Technology CEO, Greg Ciesla, demonstrates the technology that gives users all the advantages of a touchscreen, but converts to a tactile surface to make it easier to type.
For 2013, Honda came out with a competely redesigned Civic and the new 2013 Honda Civic makes the prior year's model look like an unfortunate rough draft. The Civic was 2012's best selling compact car in America, but CNN Money Senior Writer Peter Valdes-Dapena says those buyers should have waited.
ESI International, the world's leading project management training company, has released its top 10 trends in project management for 2013. The 2013 trends reveal that expert leadership is lacking in all areas of project management, portfolio management, and program management.
Tens of thousands of gadgets, including the new wave of high-definition televisions, are on display in Las Vegas at the biggest tech show in the industry. This year's show is missing two of the biggest tech giants - Google and Apple. CBS News' Bigad Shaban has a first look at what's hot at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show.
What could new troubles mean for the future of Boeing's 787 Dreamliner? Are these problems growing pains or something more significant? CBS News travel editor Peter Greenberg speaks to the "CBS This Morning" co-hosts about the continuing issues.
Selling about 500 smartphones a minute, Samsung has convinced millions that its handhelds are indeed the droids they are looking for. And despite rising challenges, that doesn't look like it will be changing anytime soon for the South Korean tech giant.
Now that home construction is picking up, and state and local government layoffs are leveling off, there is reason for optimism in 2013. Many economists are saying that the economy is now poised to pick up steam. NBC’s Tom Costello reports.
Scientists from the University of Warwick are undertaking research into the use of optical wireless in cars, technology that can send data signals with light. The researchers say optical wireless could replace most wiring within vehicles, providing an eco-friendly solution that cuts fuel and maintenance costs. Reuters' Jim Drury reports.
In 2012, the PC went from being the butt of jokes to suffering the ultimate indignity - being left for dead by Wall Street Bible Barrons. PC shipments dropped by more than 8 percent in the third quarter of 2012 and are forecast to be down for the full year for the first time in more than a decade. Is the PC dead?
The Phantom Eye is a hydrogen-powered, unmanned airborne vehicle (UAV) designed to serve as an eye in the sky for surveillance, disaster relief, search and rescue, and a multitude of other uses. For more information visit www.boeing.com.
A Las Vegas startup, Computer Choppers, personalizes any electronic gadget with unique designs in precious metals and stones. Specializing in Apple products, the company can take an iMac or tablet and strip it down to bare metal, engrave or personalize it for a customer, and then plate the gadget 24K gold, platinum, or other finishes.
Despite being recognized as a world leader in robot design, Japan is playing catch-up to develop robots capable of dealing with the crippled nuclear power plant in Fukushima. Authorities have had to rely on American made machines to assess the damage inside the reactors. But now the country's big three manufacturers are building their own versions of durable, remote-controlled robots for hazardous environments.
Millions of people around the globe toasted the new year with a glass of one of Scotland's best exports but only one traditional whisky also provides fuel for your car. Ivor Bennett reports from the Scottish distillery, Tullibardine, which has gone into business with Celtic Renewables, part of Napier University, to convert its whisky leftovers into auto fuel.
In this video from consulting firm PwC, US Industrial Products leader Bob McCutcheon discusses seven key factors that will affect a resurgence in American manufacturing, from shale gas, to talent, to demand, and more. Check it out here.
IMTSTV's Penny Brown interviews Angel Martinez, Advanced Manufacturing Engineering Manager at Caterpillar on how tax reform can boost manufacturing, improving U.S. infrastructure and importance of workforce development; Pat McGibbon interviews Richard Aboulafia with Teal Group on the fiscal cliff as it relates to the aerospace industry; and more. Brown says 2012 was "a fantastic year for manufacturing."
The Surface is Microsoft's attempt to break into the tablet market that the iPad has been dominating since it came out nearly three years ago. The first tablet the PC company has made, Microsoft's Surface tablet's healthy profit margin could make it a big winner.
With one of the busiest holiday travel seasons of the year about to begin, air traffic control procedures are set to receive a 21st century face lift. Aircraft industry giant Boeing is in the final stages of testing out a new system that gives airplanes tailor-made landing paths, a technology they say will decrease airlines delays and cut harmful fuel emissions significantly.


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Win £500 off your next Cuba holiday!
Don't miss the opportunity to have your holiday partly paid by us! Enter our prize draw for a chance to WIN £500 for your next Cuba holiday, honeymoon or wedding. Share your name and email address with us and we'll select a random winner each month!
We post our Travel ExperiencesRecent articles from the Blog
We regularly update our blogs with the top things to do in Cuba, the must-see places and the most stunning attractions locations.
What's going on in cubaRecent news from cuba
Havana, Cuba is preparing to celebrate its 500th anniversary next year, and numerous events are scheduled. The Telegraph recently provided readers with ideas for travel to the island, including some of the capital city’s most famous attractions.
Melia's newest hotel gem in Cuba has opened its doors and started welcoming its first guests. The New Paradisus Los Cayos in Cayo Santa Maria is the Spanish hotel chain's latest luxury beach resort in the island and its first in this part of Cuba. Set in the heart of the Buenavista Biosphere Reserve, this eco-resort seamlessly blends elegance and sophistication with natural beauty, standing in perfect harmony with its lush surroundings.
Melia renews licences for its Cuba hotels up until 2024 and announces $400 million dollar investment
If there was ever any doubt that Melia Hotels International was in Cuba to stay, the Spanish hotel chain has just renewed its licence with the Cuban government to continue managing all of its current properties in the island for the next 23 years. At the same time, the company announced a whopping investment of $400 million US dollars to continue building more hotels in Cuba.