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Twitter is opening its Advertising API (Application-Programming Interface), which will enable marketers to better use Twitter data streams to manage campaigns and improve targeting. For now it’s only open to five bid management technology suppliers (Salesforce’s Buddy Media, Adobe, TBG Digital, Hootsuite, and SHIFT). Mindshare use Saleforce’s BuyBuddy as our preferred partner and early results from limited beta test campaigns show promising results. A wider roll-out is expected in the near future.
The API will enable advertisers to layer in additional analytics, trends and insights as well as performance data to compile new audience profiles. In addition, the dashboards will take full advantage of the real-time reporting data, which will make targeting and set-up of multiple audiences a lot more manageable. Access to performance data and the rise and fall of trends will make for better and more engaging advertising, and marketers will be able to compare the performance of Twitter campaigns side-by-side with campaigns on other platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn.
Twitter specifically highlighted that the launch of the API has had no effect on its actual algorithms. A good user experience is still the main focus of the company; bad performing tweets will still be pulled, and the number of ads served won’t change.
As the Twitter platform becomes more attractive from a marketing perspective, users can expect more real-time ads that capitalize on trending topics such as Oreo’s rapid response to the recent #blackout during the Super Bowl. The net effect will be Twitter further cementing its emerging position as the “second-screen” of choice for advertisers and consumers. Given that simultaneous TV and smartphone usage is on the rise (85% of US smartphone users watch TV and use their mobile phones at the same time), Twitter’s scale in mobile users, and the fact it’s an experience built for small screens, gives it an edge in this space. Twitter’s recent acquisition of Bluefin (a social TV measurement tool) is a further demonstration of its intent to maintain its perceived leadership position over Facebook when it comes to second-screen advertising.
For advertisers, the API also means efficiencies both in terms of time spent managing Twitter campaigns, and better return of investment. The flip side is that lowering the entry barriers and increasing efficiencies will drive up competition. On an auction based platform, competition means increased cost of inventory. First movers will undoubtedly harvest the highest returns, while later adopters will find that their competitors have built quality, history and learning that could be costly to outbid.
The launch of the Twitter API is good news for marketers, and is expected to further accelerate the already robust growth in advertising spend on the platform. Twitter users should also get more engaging and timely ads, particularly ones like Oreo’s ‘dunk in the dark’ that react to trending topics in real-time. Now expect the next move in the social wars from Facebook.


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GM Europe Gets Traction
There was a time when the execs at General Motors Corp. could expect nothing but trouble from their European operations. GM Europe piled up $3.9 billion in losses over the past five years, a result of lackluster styling, quality problems, and high labor costs.
But now the beleaguered Detroit auto maker is finally getting some traction on the other side of the Atlantic. GM Europe, which includes the German Adam Opel unit and Swedish Saab, posted a $36 million operating profit in the second quarter of this year, on sales of $8.5 billion. Analysts expect GM Europe to just about break even this year.
That's just one sign GM Europe Chairman Frederick A. "Fritz" Henderson's restructuring plan -- GM's second in four years -- is finally yielding dividends. Opel and its sister company, Vauxhall Motors Ltd., have successes to brag about. The latest generation $19,600 Astra compact, introduced in 2004, is closing in on the VW Golf in the race for the title of best-selling car in Europe, and the new $24,000 Zafira compact van is off to a strong start. These new models -- along with strong sales of Korean-made Chevrolets -- nudged up GM's share in Europe to 9.7% in the third quarter, from 8.6% three years ago.
Next year, GM will launch an Astra convertible, an athletic-looking crossover sport-utility vehicle called the Antara, and a Corsa subcompact to replace a boring model that lost out to sharper-looking competitors. "The products coming to market now and those in the pipeline show the true spirit of GM," Vice-Chairman Robert A. Lutz told the crowd at the Frankfurt Motor Show on Sept. 12.
After losing $2.5 billion in North America in the first half of the year, GM sure could use a pickup in Europe. But don't call this a full-fledged turnaround yet. GM is challenged by resurgent French carmakers PSA Peugeot Citroën and Renault, fast-growing Toyota (TM ), and Korean upstart Hyundai.
What's more, the American giant is weak in the luxury market. "The second-quarter profit is nice, and it's a start," says Henderson, who successfully patched up Isuzu Motors Ltd. (ISUZF ) and stanched the bleeding in GM's Latin American business. But, GM's Mr. Fixit adds, "we have a lot more work to do."
EDGY GOOD LOOKS
At least Henderson can count on spruced-up models to rev sales. GM had been losing ground in Europe since the mid-1990s because of slipping quality and dull styling. But quality is up across the board, according to J.D. Power & Associates, and the styling on the new Astra compact -- which has a sporty stance sculpted with a dash of avant-garde edginess -- has won converts. The 240-horsepower Astra OPC performance car also has added spark to GM's image.
The launch of the new Astra Twin Top convertible -- a popular segment the company joined late -- could drive sales of the Astra to well over 500,000 next year, says GM President Carl-Peter Forster, the executive who initiated the face-lift for the European lineup. That's 25% higher than the previous generation sold in its last year. The car has the Astra's edgy looks and a hard top that automatically retracts at the push of a button.
One area to watch is GM's efforts to promote Cadillac in Europe, where sales of the luxury marque number only a few thousand. Cadillac will have a serious European entry next spring with the launch of the BLS, a new midsize sports sedan with brash American styling and the lithe frame and diesel engine Europeans crave. Says GM'S Forster: "We have to build the brand step by step." If GM can sustain its momentum in Europe, it may generate enough profit to build the brand even faster.
By David Welch in Frankfurt

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Albany Auto Center Inc. Joins Forces with U-Haul
Press release from the issuing company
Monday, June 30th, 2014
Albany Auto Center Inc., located at 3115 Sylvester Rd., recently added U-Haul products and services to its business.
Growth is essential for any business to stay one step ahead of the competition. To maximize profits and keep customers satisfied, businesses must explore all options. Simply put, if you're not improving, you're regressing.
Tori Tucker, owner of Albany Auto Center Inc., recognized the need for improvement of her used car dealership and partnered with U-Haul for the increased visibility and brand recognition U-Haul offers. "We wanted to get some extra traffic flow in," Tucker said, "so we are hoping that U-Haul will bring more exposure to the company." Tucker was also able to better utilize the dealership's large property, maximizing extra space she already had. "I have 3.5 acres of space so I wanted to get U-Haul to fill that up," she noted. Improvement by expansion can be a risky proposition, but Tucker believes the transition has been seamless. "It's been two months," Tucker remarked, "and U-Haul has already brought quite a bit of traffic through my doors. More people come in looking at the U-Haul equipment and they see our stuff too."
For more information, or to rent your moving equipment today, call (229) 431-0037 or visit Albany Auto Center Inc online at uhaul.com. Business hours of operation are: Monday - Friday:9 a.m. – 5 p.m. Saturday: 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. Sunday: Closed.


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Friday, November 10, 2006
A headline you don't see every day, from today's Associated Press: 20 Eunuchs to Collect Taxes in India:
One cash-strapped Indian city has launched a unique collection service to dislodge payment from tax deadbeats: Door-to-door eunuchs. Eunuchs -- a term used in India to describe transvestites, postoperative transsexuals and hermaphrodites -- traditionally make a living on tips for dancing at weddings or for blessing newborns. They frequently refuse to leave until they are given money.
Patna, the capital of Bihar state in eastern India, hired scores of them Wednesday to compel shop owners to pay their back taxes. "We are confident that their reputation and persuasive skills will come in handy for the municipal authorities to collect taxes from defaulters," said Bharat Sharma, a revenue officer....
The eunuchs get 4 percent of what they collect from defaulters, and will soon be asked to help collect outstanding taxes from homeowners, Prasad said.


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Motorola's poppin' out Android phones Kate Gosselin-style this month. Just days after announcing its new Motorola Flipout, Moto has taken the wraps off the Milestone XT720, dubbed as "one of the most powerful phones" in the company's current Android lineup.
Milestone, you may remember, is Motorola's branding for what we in the States know as Droid. The original Milestone is the European and Canadian equivalent of the Motorola Droid; the Droid name itself is licensed specifically by Verizon and can't be used by other companies.
So for all practical purposes, the new Motorola Milestone XT720 is a cousin of the Droid smartphone family. Here's the lowdown on what the device is all about and how it might fit into America's Android future.
The Motorola Milestone XT720
The Motorola Milestone XT720's standout feature is its flash -- and no, not that kind of Flash (though it should eventually support that, too). The XT720's flash is part of its hardware: The phone features an 8-megapixel camera with built-in Xenon flashing capabilities.
A Xenon flash is comparable to what you'd find in a regular digital camera: As opposed to simply shining an LED, as most smartphone cameras do, the Xenon flash uses actual gas to generate a short, bright burst of light when you snap a photo. It's more powerful than an LED flash, meaning you can get photos in darker situations and from farther distances. The XT720 is the first Android phone to use it.
That aside, Motorola's Milestone XT720 boasts the ability to record high-def video and view it directly on an HDTV, thanks to its built-in HDMI port. And, unlike Sprint's recent HTC EVO 4G release, the XT720 even comes with its own HDMI cable -- a nice little perk in the purchasing process.
Some other noteworthy specs for the Milestone XT720:
• The XT720 has a 3.7-inch, 480-by-854-pixel FWVGA screen. That should sound familiar: It's the same size and resolution as the original Droid's display.
• The phone is similar in overall size to the Droid, too, though it's slightly thinner -- by about a tenth of an inch -- due to its lack of physical keyboard. It also weighs 9 grams less.
• The new Milestone ships with Android 2.1 and, from the looks of it, some form of Motorola's Motoblur interface. The XT720 supports five home screen panels and, in Motorola's first video advertisement, appears to be running a custom skin.
• Though Motorola's official spec sheet conspicuously leaves the "processor" field blank, unofficial reports suggest the Milestone XT720 runs on a 550MHz ARM Cortex A8 CPU -- the same chip the Motorola Droid uses. Like the Droid, the XT720 also has 256MB of RAM.
• The Milestone XT720 ships with an 8GB storage card. It supports cards as high as 32GB.
The Milestone XT720 and America's Droids
So will Motorola's new Milestone XT720 be America's next Droid? Not necessarily. For now, the phone is launching only in the UK. And it may or may not ever reach our shores. The XT720, after all, is basically a slightly tweaked version of Motorola's Motoroi, which launched in South Korea early this year. Motorola frequently experiments with different models in different countries.
That's not to say Motorola won't be bringing new Droids to the States soon -- quite the contrary. The company is expected to launch two new Droid-branded smartphones on Verizon sometime this summer. A recent report in The Wall Street Journal says Motorola even struck a deal with Verizon to make sure the devices will be "heavily promoted."
Plenty of people are expecting one of those summer Droids to be the long-rumored Motorola Droid Xtreme (also sometimes called the Droid 2, Droid Shadow, and that phone some dude lost in a gym). The Droid Xtreme, according to unofficially leaked info, will feature a 4.3-inch TFT FWVGA screen, a 720MHz processor, and a mini-HDMI-out port. The phone is believed to have an 8-megapixel camera, either 8GB or 16GB of internal storage, and support for up to 32GB of external storage. It's rumored to run on Android 2.1 or 2.2.
Especially given the fact that the Xtreme may have a physical keyboard -- notice the slider-like ridge in the alleged photo above? -- everything about it looks and feels like a natural successor to the original Moto Droid. The leaked info suggests it could land on Verizon around July or August, which would make it a perfect fit for one of those two mysterious summer launches. As far as rumors go, this one's looking more and more like it might have merit.
As for Verizon's second new summer Droid, guess away. It could be an American edition of the Milestone XT720; it could be a lower-end version of the Motorola Xtreme. Or it could be some other device altogether -- one that has yet to be lost at a bar, a gym, or in Lady Gaga's hair.
This story, "Motorola's Milestone XT720: Is This The Next Droid?" was originally published by Computerworld.


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Australia’s breweries are sticking up for each other and their customers.
The Webinar will allow members to ask questions about the evolving crisis.
CEO Peter Filipovic has warned of the risks of an enforced shut-down of brewing.
Beer lovers can buy beers at bottleshops, breweries or by delivery.
New and interesting brews from across Australia are here!
Asahi has proposed divesting some cider and beer brands as part of the transaction.
The ASX-listed beer company has issued $300,000 worth of unlisted options.
We speak to this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award winner.
Get hold of the new year’s beers.
What you can be doing to help Australia’s breweries struggling in the bushfire catastrophe.
After weeks of rumours, CUB has acquired the Gold Coast’s Balter Brewing Co.
Collaborative beers being launched across Australia.
The results of the 2019 Craft Beer Survey are in.
The results of the 2019 Australian Craft Beer Survey by Beer Cartel has been released.
Malt Shed becomes the ninth brewery in the Victorian group.
Licensing rules in both states are said to be currently incompatible with the CSF regime.
Beers from Glass House, Stone & Wood, Stomping Ground, Two Birds, Wayward, Little Bang, Bargara.
We chatted to BrewCon speakers Stephen Beaumont and Jim Withee about their upcoming talks.
The program of speakers and events at BrewCon 2019 has been released.
Our Regional Brewery Series returns for a trip to the ‘wine-making’ regions around Adelaide.
Peroni is launching its most significant global brand makeover since 2005.
This year’s Awards introduced a Best Cider Maker category for the first time.
2017/18 was a momentous year for the association, but more challenges lay ahead.


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Heat and weight are the two biggest enemies to cars. But while on the topic of the latter, weight is more of an enemy as cars grow bigger, retain a more comprehensive options list and more powerful power and drivetrains. That said, carbon fiber has been the automobile industry’s next best friend because of its light weight, yet strong construction. Carbon fiber however, is also the industry’s worst enemy for its high commanding manufacturing price.
As we’ve come to learn, as time progresses and technology advances, the more expensive inventions get cheaper and so far, carbon fiber has been around for quite some time now, which means its relatively cheaper. Hence, BMW AG announced that it will begin high-volume production of its carbon fiber parts around 2013-2014.
Around that time, BMW will begin production of their i3 electric city car, whose design is composed of many carbon fiber parts to save weight. When the BMW i3 goes into production, rumor says that around 30,000 of them will be produced. If this is a true statement, the i3 will be one of the world’s first mass-produced carbon-fiber intensive automobiles for a reasonable price.
“We have developed a very flexible production plan,” said Joerg Pohflman, BMW’s managing director involving prospects with carbon fiber. “We are prepared to manufacture many more cars if demand is higher than our conservative estimate.”
Part of this increase in carbon fiber comes thanks to BMW’s new manufacturing process, called resin transfer molding. This means that the carbon fiber fabric is placed in a mold where resin is directly injected under a high pressure and temperature chamber. Formerly, the parts required 20 minutes to make and the new process cuts that time by half because of automation. Thanks to these processes, money could be saved for BMW’s R&D for future models. Let’s just hope this “cost-cutting” doesn’t affect the build quality of their cars.
“For the M3, we could afford to have a few workers put the parts in the form,” Pohlman concluded. “We were only making a few thousand a year. But now we’ll be making tens of thousands of parts. So there is a whole lot more automation.”
– By: Chris Chin


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Snapchat Beats Super Bowl Numbers With One Ad
Gatorade made a big splash on Super Bowl Sunday and not just on the field at Levi’s Stadium. The sports drink company created a “sponsored lens” for Snapchat that received a record number of views for the ad product.
The ad, which launched Sunday morning, allows Snapchat users to have eye black and dunk themselves with a Gatorade container over their selfie. The lens received more than 100 million views, Gatorade announced via Twitter on Monday.
The views came from Snapchat users using the filter and sharing it privately to their friends, posting it on their Stories and also contributing to two publicly-viewable Live Stories for the Super Bowl. Snapchat says there are more than 100 million daily active users on the app and that more than 60 percent of 13 to 34-year-old smartphone owners in the U.S. use Snapchat.
— Gatorade (@Gatorade) February 8, 2016
Gatorade nor Snapchat did not disclose how many unique viewers saw the lens or any demographic information on the users. It is available in the United States as well Mexico, Argentina and Colombia, and the product is still running for the next 24 hours.
Regardless of how many unique users it reached, Snapchat’s statistic is still impressive given that it was one ad product on one social network. Facebook reported more than 60 million people discussed the Super Bowl last night with more than 200 million posts, comments and likes about the Super Bowl on Sunday. These statistics failed to beat last year’s number. Instagram reported 38 million people having 155 million interactions. Twitter has yet to release its own numbers.
— Grant Gurewitz (@GrantGurewitz) February 8, 2016
The attention on Snapchat doesn’t come cheap. Sponsored lenses are reported to be worth $750,000 per lens for holidays, according to Re/code, which could mean the Super Bowl. Weekday lenses are estimated to cost $500,000. Previous advertisers include Fox Studios for “The Peanuts Movie” for Halloween and Apple’s Beats.
Lenses is one of several ad products Snapchat offers, in addition to sponsored geofilters and video advertisement on Live Stories and the Snapchat Discover network. Previously, Snapchat allowed users to purchase lenses from an in-app store, but it discontinued the feature in November.


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Point At Issue: Are Streaming Services Killing The Movie Theater?
Hollywood produced 868 films in the last year, according to statistics on Box Office Mojo. The films collectively made around a staggering $11.8 billion at the domestic box office, with the movie Black Panther leading the charts, with revenues close to $700 million. What was also remarkable about the movies in 2018 was the diversity on display at the movies, with movies like Black Panther and Crazy Rich Asians featuring a star cast dominated by Black and Asian actors respectively.
2018 was also notable for fighting the steady decline in the number of tickets sold. After a high in 2015, the number of tickets sold seemed to be on the downward curve. It could be attributed to the rise in the cost of the average ticket price. However, subscription services like MoviePass, which charged users $9.99 per month in exchange for watching one movie a day, might have contributed to the upswing, especially since the company still paid the theaters the full price, but subsidized the rates for their subscribers. At their peak in the beginning of summer, MoviePass had about 3 million subscribers.
Things don’t look good for MoviePass right now, but regardless of that, it has changed the way Americans watch movies at theaters. Movie theater chain AMC Theaters has come up with a subscription model of its own, called Stubs A-list, which offers moviegoers a chance to watch up to 3 movies per week, on a subscription fee of $19.95 per month. The subscription model for theaters might be just a way to compete with the real competition for audiences: the streaming service.
As far as streaming services are concerned, the audiences are spoiled for choice. Besides the giants i.e Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, there’s Hulu and HBO Now. There are others waiting in the offing. Disney and WarnerMedia are all set to launch streaming services of their own sometime in late 2019, while Apple’s streaming services are also likely to be offered to viewers in the first half of 2019. Besides these, there’s YouTube and Instagram and other apps that compete for viewer’s attention. In the midst of all this, will the audiences continue to flock to theaters, or will theater-going become a yesteryear thing?
It isn’t just that people are choosing to watch streaming services for long-form content like TV shows. Viewers also have the choice of watching their favorite movie stars feature in movies made specifically for streaming services. Several big-name Hollywood stars, like Will Smith, have made movies specifically for streaming services, like the movie Bright (2017), that featured Smith in a leading role. The movie was released only in select theaters, but it found its audience online, which was a whopping 11 million, according to a report published in Gizmodo, a technology and science fiction website. The movie was such a hit that Netflix is planning a sequel to the film too.
Besides Will Smith, many other movie stars have also featured in content made exclusively for a screens-that-viewers-choose. In fact, executives at streaming services like Netflix have started taking concentrated efforts to shift their focus towards movies. While traditional movie studios like Warner Bros. and Universal were behind 49 and 23 movies in 2018, Netflix was not far behind, with more than 40 films premiering on the service. For 2019, Netflix has a wealth of works in store, with movies from Hollywood giants like Martin Scorsese and Guillermo Del Toro. With the release of Roma (2018) by Alfonso Cuarón, which is generating Oscar buzz, Netflix seems to have made good on its promise.
Is it just paranoia of seeing people spend more time with their face into screens? Or do the numbers of streaming services have any correlation with the movie watching habit? If we go by a December 2018 study sanctioned by the National Association of Theater Owners (NATO) and conducted by accounting firm Ernst & Young, it is only good news. EY QUEST conducted a survey of about 2500 people and found that viewers who visited a movie theater 9 times or more in the last year also streamed content for 11 hours a week. The results were uniform across all age and race demographics.
The study is a great sign for filmmakers who believe in the very definition of a film being for a big screen. In the past, filmmakers like Christopher Nolan and Steven Spielberg have criticized films produced by Netflix. In an interview given to Indiewire during the release of Dunkirk (2017), Nolan criticized Netflix’s model of having a film released simultaneously in theaters and online, saying that Netflix has “a bizarre aversion to supporting theatrical films.” Spielberg, on the other hand, said in an interview to ITV that he considers Netflix movies to be “TV movies” and that they shouldn’t be nominated for Oscars.
But other filmmakers like Martin Scorsese and Alfonso Cuarón were more appreciative of the streaming services. Scorsese wrote in an email to The New York Times, stating that the streaming services were “actually making our movies” and “that means everything.” Cuarón stated that he thought that streaming services would “bring back diversity to cinema.”
With filmmakers on both sides of the spectrum, it remains to be seen whether artists will drive the next generation of moviegoers to theaters or streaming services. The choice of whether movie theaters and the movie going experience will survive all depends upon how the viewers want to view their movies.


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Posts filtered on Category
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced the recall of about 447,000 infant carriers/car seats on Friday. The recall, which the CPSC says was prompted by “77 reports of the child restraint handle fully or partially coming off the car seat/carrier resulting in at least three injuries to infants including bumps, bruises and a head Read More
If you’re looking for information on the large-scale recall of window blinds, you can get it from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission here.
Image via Wikipedia According to this report, several parents have filed lawsuits against Maclaren, the popular stroller maker that was subject to a large-scale recall recently. The hinges on the side of the strollers apparently posed the possible danger of finger amputation during the folding of the stroller. While I understand being mad about product Read More
Here’s my story from today’s newspaper on the recent crib recall and the government’s harder look at crib safety.
Although originally this announcement was supposed to come on Tuesday, it just broke today. The recall affects 2.1 million drop-side cribs made by Stork Craft and sold in the United States and Canada. According to the CNNMoney.com story: About 1.2 million of the cribs have been distributed in the United States and 968,000 units distributed Read More
Jen Smith has the news release with the Maclaren stroller recall details, which fortunately, doesn’t list our version of the Maclaren in the recalled products.
Here’s a news release from the Plum Organics baby food company: Plum Organics announced today that it is taking the precautionary measure of voluntarily recalling one particular batch of its 4.22 oz. Apple & Carrot Portable Pouch baby food with the best by date May 21, 2010 and marked with the following universal product code Read More
Check your medicine cabinets. Tylenol is recalling several of it’s children/infant products because bacteria was detected in one of the raw materials used for the inactive ingredients. The medicines were manufactured between April and June 2008. No contaminates were found in the finished product. The recall is a precautionary measure. If you have one of Read More
Two additional infant deaths have caused the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission to reannounce a recall from last year at this time. According to The Los Angeles Times: The recall includes more than 900,000 bassinets sold as far back as 2001 and as recently as last year. The hazard in the Simplicity 3-in-1 and 4-in-1 Read More
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has announced the recall of about 220,000 Psyclone Essentials and React Wii™ 4-Dock Battery Recharge Stations because the “battery pack can overheat, posing a burn or fire hazard to the consumer.” Find more information here. Also making the CPSC’s recall list were about 43,000 Circo booster seats sold at Read More


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[ Update 2011-10-13: New information has been provided regarding the new date of the Samsung Mobile Unpacked 2011 event originally intended for this week at the CTIA Enterprise and Applications conference. The post has been updated accordingly. ]
[ Update 2011-10-11: We’ve heard chatter of a precise expected release date for the famed Nexus Prime. This article, originally published on October 7, has been updated to reflect the new information. ]
Samsung and Google did promise to only postpone (not completely cancel) their joint product announcement of “something big”–presumed by most folks to be the Nexus Prime, whose likely name would [...]
The Samsung handset rumored to transform into the Nexus Prime upon release has received the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) stamp of approval just recently–and FCC documents suggest that not only is it compatible with AT&T, T-Mobile, and Canadian networks but is also as big as the Samsung Galaxy S II.
The Samsung GT-I9250 appeared in recently published FCC reports, which showed that the handset carries communications equipment compatible with GSM 850, GSM 1900, WCDMA II, WCDMA IV, and AWS 1700 bands.
No hints of CDMA or LTE support were reported, but the FCC information does suggest that the GT-I9250 (FCC ID A3LGTI9250) would work with the 3G [...]
A tipster who asked to remain anonymous has unleashed what could potentially launch a new wave of rumors and speculations about the Nexus Prime. In a nutshell, the Samsung GT-I9250 is the Nexus Prime, and it comes with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, a 5-megapixel primary shooter, and a 1,750-mAh battery.
Just a few hours ago, two conflicting reports of alleged Nexus Prime official specs leaked out, sending the blogosphere afrenzy over more rumors and speculations regarding the yet-unconfirmed upcoming Google flagship reference phone for Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. But, here’s the freshest and the juiciest so far–straight from Romania:The version number [...]
Samsung decided this week to tease everyone with its “perfect combination” video, which almost everyone claims to be definitely referring to the Nexus Prime. Alas, the video does not seem to show signs of a release date for the Nexus Prime, but if leaked tips were to be believed, we can see the Nexus Prime on Verizon Wireless on October 27.
Droid Life got hold of a copy of a schedule of release dates purportedly being circulated within Verizon. The list of release dates shows this:
Device Launch Information
Please note Launch Dates Are subject to change:
Motorola Xoom 4G LTE Tablet – 10/6 Pantech Hotshot – 10/6 Samsung Stratosphere [...]
Just this week, Samsung released a teaser video that showed a quick glimpse of what almost all Android fans suspect to be the Nexus Prime. And, if you look close enough at the frames in the video’s last few seconds, it looks as if the Nexus Prime is hanging on to something very slim, interesting, and curved.
While everybody else was still drooling over the teaser video, Joe Lancaster had an epiphany, and it goes a little something like this:
• I think we are looking at the side of a phone, possibly the Nexus Prime • I think the 3 dots suggest a landscape docking mode • I think there is another device behind it • I think that is a TABLET • This would make [...]
A person allegedly employed by Samsung showed the Nexus Prime to a few people at the ARIA Resort and Casino yesterday. According to the Samsung employee, the Nexus Prime has a dual-core Texas Instruments OMAP processor, an 8-megapixel primary camera, a 2-megapixel camera, Near Field Communication (NFC) capability, MHL, and HDMI.
“The Droid Guy,” who writes for Android blog The Droid Guy, saw the device himself after persuading the said Samsung employee. “The Droid Guy” was with an unspecified number of companions at the Verizon Developers Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, where they stumbled upon the Samsung employee toying around with a curious [...]
Verizon has several new Android devices lined up to replace older models for the holidays. According a photo of a list leaked by a tipster, the new upcoming Verizon devices include the HTC Thunderbolt 2 (replacing the HTC Thunderbolt), Samsung Stratosphere (replacing the Samsung Fascinate), and the Samsung Prime (replacing the Samsung DROID Charge), among others.
A member of Android Forums who claims to be working for Best Buy allegedly received from a Verizon representative a copy of a list of upcoming phones slated for release on Verizon for the holidays.
Of note on the list are the HTC Thunderbolt 2, the Samsung Stratosphere, and the Samsung Prime (whose [...]
The Samsung GT-I9250 has been a hot item in the news lately, chiefly because it is almost everyone’s primary suspect for the upcoming Google reference phone, the official name of which has not yet been officially made known. But, a tipster has said that the upcoming Google phone from Samsung will be called the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, rather than the Nexus Prime, Nexus 3, Nexus Plus, or some other rumored name being floated around.
The tipster, allegedly a “well-informed source from the industry,” told GSMArena.com the final name of the first Android smartphone to come out as the reference device for Android 2.4/4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS).Screen [...]
The Samsung GT-I9250, rumored to be the upcoming Google Nexus Prime, was spotted appearing on Samsung’s official support page.
A tipster pointed out the page to AndroidGuys and was able to provide a screenshot.
Assuming authenticity of the tip, the presence of the GT-I9250 on Samsung’s support site practically confirms the existence of the GT-I9250. Such confirmation will bring us one step closer to knowing more about whether it is or is not the Google Nexus Prime rumored to be running out of Samsung’s stables in October.
Handset model GT-I9250 appeared on a leaked list of upcoming Samsung devices and was shown on the list as the only [...]
Google’s reference phone for the upcoming Android 2.4/4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich exists. It will be called Nexus Prime, not Nexus Plus or Nexus 3. Samsung is going to manufacture the Nexus Prime. Firmware for the Nexus Prime leaked out. Someone got hold of the firmware. Samsung doesn’t want him/her to release it or disclose it publicly without Samsung’s consent.
Samsung’s own legal department confirmed these juicy tidbits about the Nexus Prime–that is, if the cease and desist letter that Geek reported about earlier today is authentic.
A developer apparently got hold of leaked firmware purported to be that of the Nexus Prime. When Samsung [...]


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Sensinode and Host Virtual announce delivery of the world’s first cloud-based Machine-to-Machine (M2M) stack, using Sensinode’s industry leading M2M platform and Web applications to leverage secure and efficient CoAP and 6LoWPAN communications that can be deployed anywhere in the world in just minutes.
Sandy Bhargavi, Sr. Vice President of Host Virtual, Inc, said:
“Sensinode has been a technology pioneer in M2M, actively developing and promoting open standards as a member of the IETF, ZigBee Alliance, ETSI, OMA and the IPSO Alliance. Sensinode’s technology enables the Internet of Things.”
“We’re pleased to partner with them to deliver their software products on our worldwide IPv6 cloud platform.”
Sensinode provides end-to-end software products that extend IP and web services all the way to the end node, combining highly optimized embedded client software with a scalable management and web applications platform. Sensinode’s software brings web services to the most demanding enterprise applications in the Internet of Things.
“Our technology brings M2M into the Web age; making embedded devices part of Web-based services has never been easier.” said Zach Shelby, co-founder of Sensinode.
“With Host Virtual we’ve made it even easier, with instant cloud deployment of M2M services on a world-class IPv6 infrastructure.”


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By Xu Lingui
SINGAPORE, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- Washington is ready to further engage with Asia through trade and hopes a closer linkage with the world's fastest growing economies will help the United States recover sooner from the recession, a senior U.S. official said here Saturday, as President Barack Obama is on his maiden visit to the region.
"If we want to create the jobs Americans need, we must gain access to Asia-Pacific markets," U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk told businessmen attending the CEO Summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in Singapore. "It is clear that Asia-Pacific economies are critical partners."
The top U.S. trade official also announced that Obama, who is leaving Japan for Singapore late Saturday on his first Asian trip, has promised Washington's commitment to engage in the four-member Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a trading framework believed to have the potential to develop into a sweeping cross-Pacific free trade pact.
Signed by New Zealand, Chile, Singapore and Brunei in 2005, the Partnership is aimed to promote regional trade and economic integration.
"We believe a high-standard regional trade agreement under the Trans-Pacific Partnership can help bring home to the American people the jobs and economic prosperity," said Kirk, encouraging future participants to help bring the TPP into a platform to successfully integrate the Asia-Pacific economies.
Among 42 bilateral and regional free trade agreements signed between 21 APEC members -- which account for 50 percent of the world's output and 40 percent of the global trade -- the U.S. participates in just six, according to official data and media reports.
On the other hand, trade dispute between the United States and China has been rising over the past few months. Washington is being accused of taking up protectionism measures as it decided to slap anti-dumping duties on China-made steel pipes and tyres, a move believed to protect jobs at home.
Obama's first Asia trip, including his attendance at the APEC summit Sunday, is widely expected to accelerate Washington's efforts to engage with East Asia and solve trade issues with China, the powerhouse in the current global economic recovery.
The International Monetary Fund expects Asia to grow 2.75 percent in 2009 and 5.75 percent in 2010. On the contrary, in the U.S., the economy barely expanded 0.9 percent in the third quarter this year and the jobless rate hit a 26-year high of 10.2 percent in October.
Kirk said it is important for Asia-Pacific economies to cooperate at a time of crisis.
"We are confident and comforted by the reality that we are slowly turning the corner on the crisis, but we are sobered by the reality that we still have challenges ahead," Kirk said. "To bring the world back from the economic brink, we must all work together."
He said it is "imperative" for all Asia-Pacific economies to "break down long-standing barriers to trade and investments as well as newer impediments that obstruct trade and slow economic integration."
Obama, who is arriving in Singapore late Saturday, is expected to join other regional leaders -- including China's Hu Jintao, Japan's Yukio Hatoyama and Russia's Dmitry Medvedev -- to renew their commitment to an APEC vision to achieve free and open trade by 2010 among developed members, and by 2020 by developing members.
Leaders are also expected to pledge a political commitment to resume the World Trade Organization (WTO)-sponsored Doha Round of global trade talks which started in 2001 but repeatedly missed deadlines to complete over wide disputes on agriculture.
The reluctance of the U.S. and Europe to substantially roll back farm subsidies is blamed for the lack of progress of the Doha Round of trade talks, which aims to help poor countries prosper through global trade.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, among others, have called on Washington to advance the trade talks -- stalled after the U.S., Europe failed to agree with developing countries such as India and Brazil on agricultural trade.
"It is imperative to complete the Doha Round by next year. And we are seeking some real leadership by advanced countries, particularly the United States to bring the successful conclusion of the Doha Round," Najib told the APEC forum on Friday.
Special Report: Global Financial Crisis


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Last summer, Dolby Laboratories
"This panic is downright silly," I said at the time. "Dolby shares have never looked more attractive."
After all, even if Dolby support weren't explicitly written into Windows 8, consumers would still demand the technology because it is so widely used. Without it, you can't expect to play standard DVD or Blu-ray discs or enjoy digital media streams from many of the leading services. So if Dell
Since then, Dolby's shares have slowly climbed back to more reasonable valuations. As of last night, an investment in Dolby shares made during that moment of Windows-induced panic would have produced a market-beating 30% return. But then, Mr. Softy showed up to tell us that the fears were unfounded in the first place. Yesterday the company announced that Dolby Digital Plus will be a standard technology included with every Windows 8 tablet and PC, eliminating the need for the system builders to negotiate separate deals with Dolby, as Microsoft stepped in as a middleman.
As a result, Dolby shares soared 20% in pre-market trading (I'm an early riser) to $45 and change -- prices not seen in the last 11 months, but still far short of the nearly $70 all-time highs set in 2010. With prices sitting at $61, master investor Tom Gardner expected massive returns over the next 10 years.
On a truly long-term investing scale like that, the whole Windows 8 brouhaha was merely a blip on the radar -- and a short-lived buying opportunity. Tom Gardner never lost sight of the outsized opportunity, and Dolby was recently featured as a "best buy now" to Stock Advisor subscribers. Grab a free 30-day trial pass to our flagship newsletter service and see for yourself why Tom still carries a big flaming torch for Dolby.
Fool contributor Anders Bylund holds no position in any of the companies mentioned. Check out Anders' holdings and bio or follow him on Twitter and Google+. The Motley Fool owns shares of Microsoft. Motley Fool newsletter services have recommended buying shares of Dolby and Microsoft. Motley Fool newsletter services have recommended writing covered calls on Dell and creating a bull call spread position in Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
We Fools may not all hold the same opinion, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days.


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Companies from sectors that are consumer driven — like FMCG, retail focused banks, passenger vehicles and cement — are the most consistent in creating wealth for shareholders in the long term. Of these sectors, banking and financial services companies have been emerging as the fastest wealth creators of late, according to a study by leading domestic financial services house Motilal Oswal.
The study also noted that Titan, the Tata Group company that’s a major player in the watches and jewellery sector, is the most consistent wealth creator in India, followed by Godrej Consumer. Both the companies are majority-owned by Parsi families, known for entrepreneurship and long-term business acumen.
The study also showed that HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries and TCS were the biggest wealth creators for their shareholders in the last five years, starting fiscal 2013, while Indiabulls Ventures, Dalmia Bharat and TVS Motors were the fastest wealth creators during the same period. The annual wealth-creation study, with market capitalisation as the proxy for wealth, is in its 23rd year.
The study found that between these five fiscals, private sector banking major HDFC Bank had created about Rs.3.25 lakh crore worth of wealth for its shareholders, followed by Reliance Industries (Rs.3.1 lakh crore) and TCS (Rs.2.5 lakh crore). Indian Oil Corp is the only PSU in this list that created about Rs.1 lakh crore worth of shareholders’ wealth.
It also showed that Indiabulls Ventures nearly doubled its stock price every year during the last five fiscals, while Dalmia Bharat’s stock price, on an average, went up by 81% every year. For TVS Motor, the corresponding figure was 80%. The top 100 companies on the BSE that were considered for this study together created value worth nearly Rs.45 lakh crore.


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Broadbase Software (Nasdaq: BBSW) plans to issue issue 35.1 million shares of stock as part of a deal to buy a privately-held maker of software for online services.
After market close Monday, Broadbase unveiled a plan to buy Servicesoft for 35.1 million shares, with options and warrants to buy stock. Stockholders of Servicesoft would own 36.5 percent of Broadbase under the agreement.
At Monday's closing price of 18.375 for Broadbase, the deal is worth more than $645 million.
Companies use Servicesoft's technology to provide customer service online. Broadbase would add Servicesoft's products to an existing line of software for customer analysis, online marketing and e-commerce.
Servicesoft has more than 180 customers, the companies said. Adding Servicesoft's product line lets Broadbase offer a "complete" suite of software for online customer relationship management, executives said.
"We definitely think this will increase our growth rate," CEO Chuck Bay said, during a Monday afternoon conference call with analysts.
Executives expected the deal to close by the end of the year. Broadbase plans to offer the newly integrated suite in the first quarter of 2001.
Shares of Broadbase have fallen nearly 53 percent since closing at 39 on July 13. The stock remains 78.6 percent below its all-time high, reached in early March when the overall Internet sector peaked.>


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Legal Cannabis Market Predicted To Triple By 2021 And Generate More Revenue Than The NFL
The new great frontier might not be a tech company or idea, but rather weed. The U.S. legal cannabis market is currently worth about $8 billion, but the industry is expected to blow up in a major way. So much so that legal medical and adult consumer sales will be higher than the NFL. Arcview Market Research is predicting that the U.S. legal cannabis sales will triple in size by 2021. Making the weed business a more profitable industry than even the mighty NFL, which had approximately $13 billion in revenue in 2016 and projects to reach $25 billion in total annual sales by 2027. North American sales of marijuana are projected to exceed $20.2 billion by 2021, based on a compound annual growth rate of 25%.
Legal marijuana sales in the U.S. and Canada grew by an unbelievable 30% in 2016 to an astounding $6.7 billion according to a new report by Arcview Market Research. Legal U.S. pot sales soared to $5.4 billion for 2015, up 17.4% from $4.6 billion in 2014, according to ArcView Group. In 2017, Colorado surpassed $1 billion in marijuana sales in a mind-blowing eight months. In 2016, Washington’s tax revenue was $256 million, Colorado had $200 million, and Oregon brought in $60 million in Oregon according to VS Strategies.


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Romanian deep tech startup Humans announced that it attracted $9 million financing through a private sale of cryptocurrency. Among the investors are major blockchain investors as the entrepreneur Răzvan Munteanu and company Elrond Research. The investment comes shortly after the company announced the launch of a world-leading technology called Proof-of-Human.
Humans is a platform that integrates data and technology to generate unique AI models with an initial focus on the generation and manipulation of digital DNA, generating synthetic media. The new Proof-of-Human technology validates that there is a person behind every decision of the AI and uses blockchain technology to encapsulate each AI in an NFT (token non-fungible).
“Our plan is to continue our investment in innovation so that we can allow anyone to create anything they can imagine, without any constraints on time, space, budget or skills, combining blockchain technology and Artificial Intelligence (AI). We will do everything based on governance and transparency for all AI models generated on the humans.ai platform,” CEO Sabin Dima said, as quoted in a company press release.
“At the intersection of artificial intelligence and blockchain technology there is an enormous universe of opportunities. We are pleased to support the Humans initiative to create technologies and products that will expand people’s ability to express themselves, cooperate and trade creatively,” adds Beniamin Mincu, CEO of Elrond.


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EAST WENATCHEE – Free agriculture clinics at Coastal Farm & Ranch – an outfitter for farm and ranch supplies in East Wenatchee – have been drawing ever-growing crowds from around the Wenatchee Valley the past few years. One of their latest clinics on bee-keeping is one that has seen tremendous growth over the last couple years.
Brian Roth, a corporate buyer for Coastal Farm & Ranch, has been leading the clinic, “Bee-Keeping 101,” for the third year at the East Wenatchee store. The store has been selling bee-keeping supplies and bees for four years.
Roth says that with recent news about the dwindling populations of bees all around the world, more hobbyist and farmers have taken a closer look at bees. A main reason for the sudden interest is that bee-keeping increases pollination of trees, gardens and crops. And, of course, they
also produce honey, which is in short supply here in the United States. Roth stated that each year the U.S. consumes million of pounds more honey that it can produce.
In a story published by BeeInformed.org, beekeepers across the United States lost 44 percent of their honey bee colonies during the year spanning April 2015 to April 2016.
According Roth, the demographics of the back-yard poultry-keeper match closely with that of an average bee-keeper. Regardless of what you may have heard, he says that once you’ve got the basic of bee-keeping they are less work than your pet dog and a little more work than your average cat.
Roth says that more people are finding that producing honey and selling it at farmers markets
is easier than they think. The rules that producers need to abide by are fairly simple. A resource that more people are turning to is the North Central Washington Bee Keepers Association. It’s a group that provides Chelan and Douglas counties support for beekeepers, pollinators, farmers, the general public and, of course, honeybees. The group has grown from 12 members in 2013 to over 125 in 2017.
Coastal Farm & Ranch hosts other agriculture clinics throughout the Spring and Summer. Prior to “Bee-Keeping 101” they hosted a clinic on back-yard poultry. The store currently has a variety of chicks including chickens, turkeys, ducks, and guineas.
For more information on upcoming clinics you can contact their East Wenatchee store at (509) 886-1560 or visit their website at CoastalFarm.com
- Video: Interview with Brian Roth, Coastal Farm & Ranch, on bee-keeping
- Coastal Farm & Ranch Website
- North Central Washington Bee Keepers Association Website


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Video streaming has been one of the most successful avenues in the Indian content consumption sphere. With prices dropping lower and lower, companies are focusing more on data-mining than driving profitability through their venture. Theyâ€™re raising capital from international investors and making a huge dent in the Indian content market.
With companies such as Hotstar and Prime having huge backing, there is no sector left untouched and no content category yet unexplored. From regional content to international movies, online streaming services have been enabling the increasing youth population to explore new cultures through content.
Companies like Amazon started out with offering video content on demand but have a stark edge over the competition. Theyâ€™re also in the hardware space, making it easier for them to leverage economies of scale. With the launch of the Fire Stick and TV, theyâ€™re making it easier for Indians to search and consume content. There is a vast Indian landscape of people that donâ€™t own a laptop or a Smart TV. This is the perfect device thatâ€™s propelled much of what we see in the Indian streaming sphere.
â€śWe started Prime with unlimited fast delivery and then added unlimited access to Prime Video at no additional cost. Now, the Fire TV Stick transforms TV viewing and makes the Prime experience even better,â€ť said Amit Agarwal, senior vice president and country manager of Amazon India.
As a result, the Prime video app is among the top five entertainment apps in the country.
However, leading the pack in this space is Hotstar, which is generally considered to be the most popular streaming app in the country. It has reached the pinnacle of success in the space, with itâ€™s marketing-first approach and providing more options to consumers. Hotstar ensures that it has a wide reach across various content circles in the country.
The market itself is said to be around $280 million in size, with more than 100 million Indians streaming across content areas. Much of that attention goes to Hotstar, which has about 75 million of those users streaming. With a mix of free and paid content, Hotstar and others are reaching deeper to the Indian consumer.
Voot, which runs on an advertising-based model, is owned by Viacom 18. Much like the competition it is giving Hotstar, itâ€™s also vying for the top spot. Right now, it is reaching around 22 million subscribers, with its original content and online-only exclusives.
The streaming industry came to fruition with broadcasting rights. Catching exclusive deals with top-tiered content providers was the key for many Indian brands to flourish. Take Game of Thrones for example. Itâ€™s one of the most successful titles created in recent memory, and Hotstar got the exclusive rights to publish their content. Voot, on the other hand, focussed on local integrations with Bigg Boss, MTV, Roadies, etc. so that it could attract the youth of India to watch this content on any device at any location. Voot wanted to solve the problem of accessibility, whereas Hotstar was aiming for exclusivity.
Alt Balaji has been a truly innovative app in the Indian content space. Not only has it provided consumers exclusive content on itâ€™s app, itâ€™s done so with an edge. The content here is truly youth-focused. This has a bonus positioning factor that attracts younger audiences that donâ€™t typically watch daily serials. This web-series & alt content mashup is a brilliant strategy executed by Alt Balajiâ€™s app venture.
â€śFor us, itâ€™s original exclusive Indian content which can be accessed on our app only. We have got established TV actors like Ram Kapoor and Sakshi Tanwar plus Bollywood actors like Nimrat Kaur and Rajkumar Rao doing shows for us. Our shows stretch across psychographicsâ€”related to the tendency of a person to consume contentâ€”and across geographies,â€ť said Nachiket Pantvaidya, chief executive at ALTBalaji.
Itâ€™s been a similar story for many of the local players to compete with the big-leagues like Amazon and Netflix.
Companies like Netflix and Amazon Prime, although international players, have different strategies when it comes to the Indian market.
Netflix is one of the highest revenue earners in India, while being ad-free. International expansion has been a key focus area for the company, which is testing out new forms of content on its platform.
â€śThere is no change to that strategy, which has worked around the world. Whatâ€™s unique about the Indian market is the evolution of pay television. It is extremely inexpensive, and advertisement supported. So, basically everything at home has a lot of ads in it, while Netflix is the only ad free network,â€ť said Reed Hastings, Netflix CEO.
Streaming does have a long way to go in India but with local and international players giving Indian consumers what they want, the space is poised for rapid development.


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Marketers have expressed overall optimism about the economy for the first time since 2015, in the latest IPA Bellwether Report.
Overall, 41.2% of those surveyed for the Bellwether said they were more confident about the financial prospects of their sector than three months ago, with only 15% less so, giving a net balance of 26.2%, compared with -5.8% three months ago.
It is the first time this figure has risen above zero since the end of 2015, and the highest it has been since the start of that year.
Likewise, a net balance of 36.6% of marketers were more confident than last quarter about their own company's prospects, compared with 12.0% in Q4 2020. This measure, which consistently shows higher levels of confidence than its sector-wide companion, is also at its highest level for six years.
Budget cuts slowing
Cuts in marketing budgets eased in the first quarter of 2021, the Bellwether shows, hinting that conditions are continuing to stabilise as lockdown measures ease across the UK.
A net balance of -11.5% reported a contraction in total marketing budgets during the first quarter of 2021 – an improvement on the net balance of -24.0% in the previous quarter.
One in four (25.7%) surveyed businesses saw a decrease in available adspend during this period – most of which has been blamed on the ongoing coronavirus pandemic – while 14.2% recorded an increase.
Other contributors to falling marketing budgets include softer demand conditions, ongoing closures and cost-cutting programmes.
“Despite remaining in negative territory overall, the vital signs from this quarter’s Bellwether Report are looking ‘V’ encouraging for a bounce back in UK marketing investment,” Paul Bainsfair, director general at the IPA, said.
“With companies’ confidence levels regarding their financial prospects soaring and with almost three-quarters of UK companies either revising their marketing budgets upwards or keeping them the same this quarter versus last, the trajectory is very much moving in a positive direction and at a good pace.”
All seven segments of marketing spend suffered a further decline in budgets in the quarter. Events was again hit hardest with a net balance of -43.2% – though this was notably better than the -62.9% in Q4 2020 and -64.1% in Q3.
PR remained the strongest discipline in terms of revisions to budgets (above), followed by main media advertising and direct marketing.
Among main media advertising, video adspend returned to growth in the first quarter with a net balance of 3.3% (compared with -3.5% in Q4), while "other online spending" recorded a net balance of 0.0% (down from 0.7% in Q4) – meaning equal numbers of businesses are increasing and decreasing spend.
Bainsfair continued: “As the nation comes out of lockdown, consumers will be actively seeking out new products, experiences and entertainment, for which it will be more important than ever for companies to build and rebuild their brand awareness.”
Growth in annual budgets
A net balance of 17.4% surveyed businesses have budgeted for increased spend this financial year (compared with 12% in the previous quarter), signalling the strongest growth expectations for ad spending since 2018.
Main media advertising is tipped to improve in the next financial year, with 10.1% of participating firms budgeting higher expenditure compared with other broad marketing categories. Budgets in events, however, are set to decline (-28.4%).
Eliot Kerr, economist at IHS Markit and author of the report, said that it was “positive to see a further trend towards stabilisation”, while upbeat forecasts from UK marketers for the coming financial year “bolsters expectations for a post-pandemic recovery and bodes well for the UK economy.
“Without a doubt, the improvement in budget plans from the previous survey period will have been supported by the release of the UK governments' roadmap to relaxing restrictions.
“It has allowed businesses to look beyond the current climate and begin to build towards a time when demand will recover. If all goes to plan, a strong economic recovery should see adspending rise sharply in the second half of the year."
Adrian Coleman, group chief executive and founding partner at VCCP, said: “With growth expectations at their strongest since 2018, continued government assistance and a positive vaccine roll-out scheme, cautious optimism points to us being on the home straight.
“As we continue to navigate this period of transition and uncertainty whilst redefining ourselves as a post-Brexit nation, we need to keep our foot on the accelerator and support our clients more than ever before, in more agile, creative and cost-effective ways.”
Bellwether research is carried out by IHS Markit and involves a panel of about 300 marketers, primarily from the UK’s top 1,000 companies.
The report forecasts that UK adspend will have fallen in total by -15.7% in 2020, while consumer spending and business investment are down by -11.0% and -8.7% respectively.
Coleman continued: “As an industry we’re brilliant at renewal, reinvention and revolution, and we need to go forward questioning our models, looking with fresh eyes at our ecosystems and taking advantage of new opportunities.
“Despite the continued, many challenges of Covid-19 and declining marketing budgets, it’s in our reach to come back harder, better, faster, stronger.”
A version of this article first appeared on PRWeek sister title Campaign


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|By PR Newswire||
|February 24, 2014 07:01 PM EST||
BARCELONA, Spain, February 25, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --
Executives of leading communication and mobile technology makers in Taiwan- Advantch, ASUS, D-Link Corporation, E Ink Holdings Inc. and Waltop International Corp have presented their newest technological products during the Mobile World Congress.
ASUS introduced the ASUS ZenFone series that features Corning® Gorilla® Glass 3 screens for incredible scratch resistance and durability. Now available is the ZenFone 4, ZenFone 5 and ZenFone 6. The PadFone mini combines the pocketability of a smartphone with the screen size of a tablet. With a powerful Intel Atom Z2560 processor with Intel Hyper-Threading Technology, 8GB of internal storage, and up to 64GB micro SD card support, PadFone mini has all the power and resources needed for both phone and tablet apps. Furthermore, the Company has introduced Z ZenUI, the all-new user interface exclusive to ASUS mobile devices, first available on ZenFone and PadFone mini.
Advantech has presented the 1U Rackmount Network Application Platform. This product has highly cost effective mid range appliances. It integrates processor flexibility from Intel® Xeon® E3, Intel® Core™ down to Intel Celeron® thus enhancing scalability, security, and reliability for networking applications.
D-Link presented the DSP-W215 mudlink Wi-Fi Smart Plug. This is a multi-purpose and easy-to-use device that allows you to monitor and control your home electronic devices from wherever you are. It also introduces the EyeOn™ Baby Camera DCS-825L that transforms your mobile device into a versatile, yet easy to use baby monitor and The D-Link DWR-932 LTE Mobile Router is a compact, portable solution for sharing your LTE mobile broadband connection among multiple devices, with downlink speeds up to 150 Mbps.
E Ink Holdings Inc. introduced the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite 2, with the latest standard for eReaders and the most recent electronic ink technology, the YotaPhone, a smartphone with a unique dual screen design and features, and the Sony Digital Business Device, a full size 13.3" reading and note taking device that weighs only 358g, and the Sonostar Smartwatch.
Waltop International Corp. presented the Innovative Stylus Solution for Mobile Devices that provides a native writing experience with high precision and high resolution design and 1024 (or above) levels of pressure sensing, which altogether make writing on digital devices as intuitive as a native pen-paper writing experience. Waltop also introduces the Software Development Kit for Stylus Applications, which helps mobile device makers to address growing end-user demand for effective drawing and writing functionality via various applications.
For more information, details and pictures click here http://prioritygate.com/?page=frontoffice§ion=ver&id=894&t=taiwan-products-launch-at-mwc-2014
SYS-CON Events announced today that IDenticard will exhibit at SYS-CON's 16th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 9-11, 2015, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. IDenticard™ is the security division of Brady Corp (NYSE: BRC), a $1.5 billion manufacturer of identification products. We have small-company values with the strength and stability of a major corporation. IDenticard offers local sales, support and service to our customers across the United States and Canada...
Apr. 27, 2015 12:00 AM EDT Reads: 5,277
“With easy-to-use SDKs for Atmel’s platforms, IoT developers can now reap the benefits of realtime communication, and bypass the security pitfalls and configuration complexities that put IoT deployments at risk,” said Todd Greene, founder & CEO of PubNub. PubNub will team with Atmel at CES 2015 to launch full SDK support for Atmel’s MCU, MPU, and Wireless SoC platforms. Atmel developers now have access to PubNub’s secure Publish/Subscribe messaging with guaranteed ¼ second latencies across PubN...
Apr. 27, 2015 12:00 AM EDT Reads: 3,883
SYS-CON Events announced today that On the Avenue Marketing Group, a sales and marketing firm that utilizes events to market and sell products to consumers, will exhibit at SYS-CON's 16th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 9-11, 2015, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. On the Avenue Marketing Group (OTA) is a sales and marketing firm that utilizes events to market and sell products to consumers. On behalf of our clients, we attend thousands of fairs, festivals, exp...
Apr. 26, 2015 07:30 PM EDT Reads: 3,507
Containers and microservices have become topics of intense interest throughout the cloud developer and enterprise IT communities. Accordingly, attendees at the upcoming 16th Cloud Expo at the Javits Center in New York June 9-11 will find fresh new content in a new track called PaaS | Containers & Microservices Containers are not being considered for the first time by the cloud community, but a current era of re-consideration has pushed them to the top of the cloud agenda. With the launch ...
Apr. 26, 2015 07:00 PM EDT Reads: 2,892
While DevOps most critically and famously fosters collaboration, communication, and integration through cultural change, culture is more of an output than an input. In order to actively drive cultural evolution, organizations must make substantial organizational and process changes, and adopt new technologies, to encourage a DevOps culture. Moderated by Andi Mann, panelists will discuss how to balance these three pillars of DevOps, where to focus attention (and resources), where organizations m...
Apr. 26, 2015 05:15 PM EDT Reads: 2,051
“In the past year we've seen a lot of stabilization of WebRTC. You can now use it in production with a far greater degree of certainty. A lot of the real developments in the past year have been in things like the data channel, which will enable a whole new type of application," explained Peter Dunkley, Technical Director at Acision, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at @ThingsExpo, held Nov 4–6, 2014, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
Apr. 26, 2015 05:00 PM EDT Reads: 4,492
of cloud, colocation, managed services and disaster recovery solutions, will exhibit at SYS-CON's 16th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 9-11, 2015, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. TierPoint, LLC, is a leading national provider of information technology and data center services, including cloud, colocation, disaster recovery and managed IT services, with corporate headquarters in St. Louis, MO. TierPoint was formed through the strategic combination of some of t...
Apr. 26, 2015 04:30 PM EDT Reads: 1,667
SYS-CON Events announced today that Column Technologies, a global technology solutions company, will exhibit at SYS-CON's DevOps Summit 2015 New York, which will take place June 9-11, 2015, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. Established in 1998, Column Technologies is a leader in application performance and infrastructure management for commercial and federal markets. The company is headquartered in the United States, with a diverse and talented team of more than 350 employees around th...
Apr. 26, 2015 04:00 PM EDT Reads: 1,807
SYS-CON Media announced today that @WebRTCSummit Blog, the largest WebRTC resource in the world, has been launched. @WebRTCSummit Blog offers top articles, news stories, and blog posts from the world's well-known experts and guarantees better exposure for its authors than any other publication. @WebRTCSummit Blog can be bookmarked ▸ Here @WebRTCSummit conference site can be bookmarked ▸ Here
Apr. 26, 2015 03:00 PM EDT Reads: 2,515
Health care systems across the globe are under enormous strain, as facilities reach capacity and costs continue to rise. M2M and the Internet of Things have the potential to transform the industry through connected health solutions that can make care more efficient while reducing costs. In fact, Vodafone's annual M2M Barometer Report forecasts M2M applications rising to 57 percent in health care and life sciences by 2016. Lively is one of Vodafone's health care partners, whose solutions enable o...
Apr. 26, 2015 03:00 PM EDT Reads: 1,535
SYS-CON Events announced today that Ciqada will exhibit at SYS-CON's @ThingsExpo, which will take place on June 9-11, 2015, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. Ciqada™ makes it easy to connect your products to the Internet. By integrating key components - hardware, servers, dashboards, and mobile apps - into an easy-to-use, configurable system, your products can quickly and securely join the internet of things. With remote monitoring, control, and alert messaging capability, you will mee...
Apr. 26, 2015 03:00 PM EDT Reads: 1,934
SYS-CON Events announced today that GENBAND, a leading developer of real time communications software solutions, has been named “Silver Sponsor” of SYS-CON's WebRTC Summit, which will take place on June 9-11, 2015, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. The GENBAND team will be on hand to demonstrate their newest product, Kandy. Kandy is a communications Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) that enables companies to seamlessly integrate more human communications into their Web and mobile applicatio...
Apr. 26, 2015 02:00 PM EDT Reads: 2,752
Public Cloud IaaS started it's life in the developer and startup communities and has grown rapidly to a $20B+ industry, but it still pales in comparison to how much is spent worldwide on IT: $3.6 trillion. In fact, there are 8.6 million data centers worldwide, the reality is many small and medium sized business have server closets and colocation footprints filled with servers and storage gear. While on-premise environment virtualization may have peaked at 75%, the Public Cloud has lagged in ado...
Apr. 26, 2015 02:00 PM EDT Reads: 1,322
Dave will share his insights on how Internet of Things for Enterprises are transforming and making more productive and efficient operations and maintenance (O&M) procedures in the cleantech industry and beyond. Speaker Bio: Dave Landa is chief operating officer of Cybozu Corp (kintone US). Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Dave has been on the forefront of the Cloud revolution driving strategic business development on the executive teams of multiple leading Software as a Services (SaaS) ap...
Apr. 26, 2015 02:00 PM EDT Reads: 1,579
The best mobile applications are augmented by dedicated servers, the Internet and Cloud services. Mobile developers should focus on one thing: writing the next socially disruptive viral app. Thanks to the cloud, they can focus on the overall solution, not the underlying plumbing. From iOS to Android and Windows, developers can leverage cloud services to create a common cross-platform backend to persist user settings, app data, broadcast notifications, run jobs, etc. This session provide...
Apr. 26, 2015 02:00 PM EDT Reads: 1,429


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Violations such as making or selling fake drugs could see companies lose their business licenses
The penalties for companies that produce or sell fake or substandard pharmaceuticals in China are to be increased, according to a draft amendment to the country's Drug Management Law.
Manufacturers that operate without the required permit will face fines up to 30 times the value of their products. Under the current law, the maximum fine is five times the value.
The proposed amendment, now under review by the National People's Congress Standing Committee, the top legislature, states that violations such as making or selling fake drugs could see companies lose their business license.
Business executives and drug supervision officials will also face heavier punishment in cases involving pharmaceuticals, while supervision of certain drugs, such as vaccines, will be intensified to ensure safety and quality.
Jiao Hong, head of the National Medical Products Administration, said the draft aims to improve supervision of drugs following the vaccine scandal at Changchun Changsheng Biotech, a major vaccine producer in Jilin province.
The administration fined the company 9.1 billion yuan ($1.3 billion) for fabricating production records and using expired materials to manufacture a human rabies vaccine.
Source: China Daily
Click here for the complete issue.


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Swedish home furnishing retailer IKEA said it will hire 15,000 co-workers in India in next 7-8 years, of which half would be women.
According to the furniture major, it will contribute an additional Rs 1,50,120 to each of its Indian co-workers’, who work for at least five years, pension fund (PF) for its Indian co-workers as part of TACK programme.
Tack is a group’s ‘Loyalty Programme’ to show appreciation for co-workers, who continue working for the success of the business. According to the company, all co-worker gets the same amount regardless of position or salary, and part-time co-workers are rewarded in proportion to their hours worked.
“Our co-workers should know how much we value their experience and commitment,” said IKEA India Country HR Manager Anna Carin Mansson in the statement.
IKEA plans in India
At present, IKEA has close to 400 co-workers in India and plans to have 15,000 co-workers by 2025, of which 50 percent will be women. It is recruiting 500-700 co-workers for each store.
In late November, the Swedish furnishing retailer, opened its first experiential centre IKEA Hej (Hello) Home close to the IT hub of Hyderabad in India. After the Hyderabad store, the second store will open in Mumbai during 2019, followed by Bengaluru and Delhi NCR.
It has marked almost 49 Indian cities, where it wants to set up physical stores.
In India, Ikea will look to sell what it thinks the local market needs, offering pressure cookers alongside its iconic Billy bookcases. It is also thinking about tailoring stores to cities. The one in Hyderabad, for instance, could present products differently (and also offer different products) from the one in Mumbai because average home sizes in the two cities are vastly different.
IKEA says it has conducted extensive research on how its products will be received in India, with its executives visiting over 500 homes across the country. The company claimed to have tested products ranging from couches and mattresses to kitchens and bathroom accessories to see how they withstand the weather, especially humidity.
In India, the home furnishings market grew at a compound annual growth rate of 10.9% between 2011 and 2016, according to Euromonitor data.
IKEA has 403 stores around the world and has a presence in 51 countries. It will invest Rs 10,500 crore in India.


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Despite making significant gains in the past week, Coinbase’s share price on the stock exchange has continued in its almost inexorable descent, losing 11% in the past five days.
History of Coinbase’s listing on the stock exchange
For sure, the listing of the Coinbase exchange, which got off to an encouraging start a little over a year and a half ago, immediately skyrocketed its stock above $340. Yesterday Coinbase closed on the exchange at just over $63.
The negative cryptocurrency market has certainly affected the stock quite a bit, but some internal problems at the exchange have also led to a loss of investor confidence in Brian Armstrong‘s company.
For example, the recent investigation opened by the SEC against it for allegedly selling unauthorized securities. Merely the news of the investigation opened in July this year sent the stock price plunging 21% in a single day.
Yet in August, in the wake of news of a deal with US asset management giant Blackrock, which would open the digital currency market to institutional clients, Coinbase had posted a 62% gain in a week, up from a paltry +3.5%.
According to some experts, the decline in recent weeks is also due to the fact that Nasdaq recently decided to launch a custody service for cryptocurrencies. According to the Financial Times, this move would be just the first step toward opening up the largest tech market to the cryptocurrency sunset.
And it is clear that this could represent a heavy blow to those like Coinbase that are making cryptocurrency trading their business. For all these reasons, Coinbase announced in recent weeks a drastic staff reduction plan
Coinbase launches trading without fees
Perhaps partly to address these difficulties, the company has decided to launch a new trading service without fees.
This involves trading on the USDC stablecoin. In some ways, this move seems rather sensational, given that more than 90% of Coinbase’s business comes precisely from trading fees. But it will allow more users around the world to trade USDC on Coinbase’s fast and secure platform in almost every region where Coinbase operates.
So this is yet another fantastic move to broaden the user base in all the countries in which it operates and yet another attempt to counter increasingly fierce competition.
Peter Stilwell, Head of Business Operations & Strategy (EMEA) at Coinbase, commented on this decision:
“Developing a decentralized financial system that works for all is an aim that sits at the core of Coinbase’s mission. By removing friction points from USDC trading, we help to better serve our users and reinforce the principles of borderless financial systems. Our decision levels the playing field for users around the world by allowing them to buy and sell USDC without additional fees, and will come as welcome news to many.”
The partnership with Google
Another important step toward greater cryptocurrency adoption is the important partnership closed with the web search juggernaut Google to accept cryptocurrency payments starting next year.
According to news that appeared on CNBC, a few days ago Google has decided to use Coinbase’s cryptocurrency custody tool.
According to what are the first rumors, the Google Cloud Platform service will initially accept cryptocurrency payments from some customers in the Web3 world, thanks precisely to an integration with the Coinbase Commerce service, said Amit Zavery.
Thanks to this news, Coinbase’s stock managed to gain 4.6%, after rising as much as 9%.


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Suzuki has announced an incentive program to increase customer completion of a front brake master cylinder recall service on select GSX-R models.
For a limited time, Suzuki will provide eligible customers a $100 Prepaid Visa card upon completion of the recall service.
Motorcycles affected are select 2004-2013 Suzuki GSX-R600 and GSX-R750, and 2005-2013 GSX-R1000 models. Owners can find out if their motorcycle is affected by visiting suzukicycles.com/recalls.
The eligible period for the incentive runs from September 1, 2018, to November 30, 2018.
“Safety is our number one priority and we want to ensure every affected GSX-R is repaired,” said Steve Muthig, SMAI Vice President of Service. “We recognize that taking your motorcycle to the dealer for any recall service can be inconvenient and with the $100 Visa card we hope to offset that inconvenience to our valued customers.”
Eligible customers are being notified, and the program requires them to bring their motorcycle to an authorized Suzuki dealer for recall repair completion between September 1 and November 30, 2018.
After the recall is complete, customers can register the repair at a special website and once that claim is verified, the Visa card will be sent to them.


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Wayô Records have launched a Kickstarter campaign for the recording of a new Chrono Cross piano collection album titled “Across The Worlds”.
The album will be arranged by Masashi Hamauzu, Mariam Abounassr, and Akio Noguchi and performed by Benyamin Nuss.
The vinyl release of the album will be a 2LP on 180g dark blue colored vinyl. It will be housed in a gatefold jacket with new art by Kiyoshi Arai. It will come with a booklet with liner notes and comments by the team involved with the project.
The campaign runs from June 7, 2020 and ends on July 7, 2020 and is looking to raise €25,000. The cheapest vinyl tier is priced at €50. If the campaign is successful they are expecting to release the album in December, 2020.
Wayô Records have just announced their next upcoming release, which is the soundtrack to the classic JRPG Grandia and accompanying arrangement album Vent together in one box set. Alongside this set they are also releasing a new Noriyuki Iwadare tribute arrangement album titled Twelve Doors.
The Grandia/Vent release will be a 180g 3LP box set. The box features new game art by Toshiaki Hontani and will include printed inner sleeves and a 20-page booklet featuring artwork and liner notes from the game’s development team.
It will be available in a standard edition on mint green vinyl as well as a limited edition on “Saturn” green marbled vinyl, which is limited to 500 copies and also includes a piano sheet music for the game’s main theme and a shikishi print with art by Toshiaki Hontani.
Twelve Doors will be a 180g 2LP set. It will include a 12-page booklet.
The Grandia standard set is priced at €60, the limited at €67.50 while Twelve Doors is €30. They are all scheduled to release in Summer, 2020.
Wayô Records will be releasing a selection of tracks from Benyamin Nuss’ piano arrangement album “Benyamin Nuss Plays Uematsu” for its 10th anniversary. The album features piano renditions of music from Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey and the Final Fantasy series as well as two tribute pieces that Nuss and Uematsu wrote for each other.
The album will be a single LP housed in a regular LP jacket. It will be available in two variants – a standard black variant, and a collector’s edition variant on black and white split colored vinyl. The collector’s edition will be limited to 300 copies and also comes with a photograph signed by Benyamin Nuss.


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The Convergence of Big Emerging Tech & Music; How Blockchain Will Restore Digital Trust In 2018 &…
Inside Discussions At CES On The Convergence of Big Emerging Tech And Music — www.forbes.com Insiders talk about the impact of new tech…
Inside Discussions At CES On The Convergence of Big Emerging Tech And Music — www.forbes.com
Insiders talk about the impact of new tech such as AI, VR and AR on the music industry
Deezer unveils first batch of Deezer Next 2018 artists — musically.com
Jorja Smith will be the first global artist promoted as part of streaming service Deezer’s ‘Deezer Next 2018’ initiative.
Music streams and sales for The Cranberries have skyrocketed in the wake of the death of front woman, Dolores O’Riordan.
Spotify’s Daniel Ek and Troy Carter Named UJA’s ‘Music Visionaries of the Year’ — www.billboard.com
Spotify executives Daniel Ek and Troy Carter have been named “Music Visionaries of the Year” by the influential philanthropic group UJA-Federation of New York.
How Blockchain Will Restore Digital Trust In 2018 And Beyond — www.forbes.com
Over the next three years, blockchain will embark upon a journey that will change the way our data is stored, tracked and verified to restore digital trust.
Apple has lots of great pieces, and they’re going to start coming together in 2018.
Everything that goes out of fashion seems to make a resurgence at some point or another. This trend is no different in the music scene.
Would Stefanie Sun still be a pop superstar if she started out in today’s AI-driven music industry? — www.scmp.com
Machine learning programs serve up new playlists to China’s 520 million music app users, providing openings for unknown talent but disrupting the traditional system of superstars backed by major labels and distributors
This Music Streaming Service Can Help Eliminate Distractions and Boost Your Productivity — interestingengineering.com
Focus@Will offers over 50 streaming music channels curated specifically to help you focus better.
The company is calling 360L “SiriusXM’s next generation of in-car audio entertainment.” The new platform will include products for subscribers via both satellite and streaming.
No Level of Copyright Enforcement Will Ever Be Enough For Big Media — torrentfreak.com
On an almost continual basis rightsholders are calling for tougher anti-piracy measures on top of more restrictive and punitive copyright law. It’s undoubtedly a threat to current Internet freedoms as we know them.


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County looking for new business partners at Fort Gratiot County Park
Last year, several business approached the St. Clair County Parks and Recreation Commission about selling products and services in Fort Gratiot County Park.
This brought food concessions, kayak rentals and fitness classes to the park, which was well received by residents, said Mark Brochu, St. Clair County Parks and Recreation director.
This year, the commission is issuing a call for businesses to apply to sell and work within the park. Brochu said the commission would like to bring back the services that have already proven popular, like the kayak rentals and concessions, but is also is looking to hear new ideas.
"We're open minded," Brochu said.
Last year was the first year the commission allowed businesses to operate in the park. Otta Da Box sold concessions and paid the county $100 to set up in the park for the month of August.
Happy Dog Paddle Sports also opened up shop in the park last year, renting out items and doing fitness classes. The business worked out agreements with Fort Gratiot County Park as well as others in the area, operating a number of locations around the county.
The agreement led to them paying the parks commission $1 per fitness class and rental.
Fort Gratiot County Park's call for vendors this year is a pilot program. And the practice of business partnerships could expand to other parks in the future, Brochu said. Fees from the business partnerships go into the commission's general fund.
Brochu said accepted proposals would be summer only contracts, but that could change in the future.
Those interested in submitting a proposal must include the following minimum information:
- Name of business owner
- Business name
- Experience of business owner
- relevant certifications and licenses
- proof of insurance for the business
- description of proposed services
- description of employees who would provide the service
- equipment used for the service
- proposed fees to charge for the service
- proposed fees to be paid to the St. Clair County Parks and Recreation Commission
Proposals can be sent to the commission's office at 200 Grand River Ave., Suite 107
Port Huron, MI 48060. Anyone seeking more information can call the commission at (810) 989-6960.
Contact education reporter Jeremy Ervin at (810) 989-6276 or firstname.lastname@example.org. Follow him on Twitter @ErvinJeremy.


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SOPA Images / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Gett
More than 30 states have accused Google of operating as an illegal monopoly by abusing its power over developers and eliminating competition in how people download and pay for apps on their Google devices.
“Google uses anticompetitive barriers and authorizations to protect its monopoly power,” said the attorney general Wrote In the lawsuit filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California on Wednesday.
The lawsuit was filed by 36 states — including New York, California, Tennessee, North Carolina and Utah — and the District of Columbia.
It’s the latest government attack on the massive power wielded by Google amid a tsunami of legal and regulatory challenges that have been piling up for major tech companies in recent months. Since last year, prosecutors at both the Department of Justice and statewide have filed four more lawsuits against the company over other parts of its business.
App Store commissions — typically 30% — are charged to developers, who typically pass the cost on to consumers who buy apps or make purchases in things like mobile games.
The states’ complaint touches on Google’s use of those fees, alleging that Google’s anticompetitive policies have deprived developers of profits and raised prices for consumers.
The lawsuit states that “to collect and maintain this exorbitant commission, Google has used anticompetitive methods to reduce and discourage competition in the distribution of Android applications.” “Google not only targeted potential competing app stores, but also ensured that app developers themselves had no reasonable choice but to distribute their apps through the Google Play Store.”
One difference between how Apple and Google operate their devices has to do with what’s known as “sideloading,” the ability to download apps to a browser, rather than through the App Store. Arguing security concerns, Apple bans this practice, while Google allows it. Google also allows third-party app stores to be downloaded to its devices, which Apple doesn’t.
However, in the lawsuit, states attorneys point out that the Google Play market share of apps downloaded on Google devices is more than 90%, which, according to the lawsuit, indicates that Google “faces no credible threats.”
Moreover, Google prohibits downloading competing app stores through its own Google Play Store, but competing app stores can be ported to Google devices, a process that state lawyers describe as “unnecessarily cumbersome and impractical.”
The complaint goes on to state that: “Google’s behavior has prevented new entry and/or prevented potential competitors from achieving scope that may limit Google’s power,” according to the lawsuit.
Google did not respond to a request for comment.
The Coalition for Applications Justice, an advocacy group that opposes big tech companies that have sole control over how payments are processed, said in a statement that the states’ actions are encouraging.
“App stores have been given a free pass to abuse their dominant market position for far too long,” said Alliance CEO Megan DeMusio. “Their anti-competitive policies stifle innovation, inhibit consumer freedom, inflate costs, and limit transparent communication between developers and their customers.
Epic Games brought Fortnite maker Apple to try this year on how to run its App Store. The federal judge has yet to rule on this case. Epic has also sued Google in a similar case, and is awaiting trial.
Editor’s note: Google is among NPR’s financial backers.


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Arlington Real Estate now plans to develop the next phase of the project, an 80-acre business and residential community to the south of the City of Durham. This will include a retail element.
To date, the Durham Gate development has 500 homes, with another 50 planned. Business tenants include Stanley Black & Decker, Thorn Lighting and Partner Construction. An additional phase of office development in the northern quarter of Durham Gate includes a new £4m headquarters for training business Learning Curve Group.
Arlington also plans to enhance the amenity facilities with more landscaped green space.
Arlington Real Estate managing director Allan Cook said: “Having completed the purchase of Carillion’s share I am delighted that we are now the sole developer of DurhamGate and am looking forward to progressing the next phase of the scheme.
“Our partnership with Carillion which began back in 2007 was instrumental in helping to transform this former industrial site into what is now recognised as a thriving residential and business location. To date we have delivered office, industrial and residential space but Retail has always been a key element of our masterplan and I feel we are now in a position where we have sufficient critical mass to attract retailers which will further enhance the offer to both our existing and new residents as well as the surrounding community.”
Carillion fell into liquidation in January 2018.


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All Things D: A new report from NPD says Apple is the undisputed leader in sales of mobile PCs, a category which includes both tablet and laptop sales. Apple shipped 17.2 million mobile PCs in the first quarter of 2012, enough for a 22.5 percent market share. The number two mobile PC maker, HP, shipped only 8.9 million mobile PCs — an 11.6 percent market share. Rounding out the top five were Acer, Lenovo and Dell.
The iPad contributed heavily to Apple’s ranking; 13.6 million of its 17.2 million mobile PCs shipped were iPads. Not surprisingly, NPD also ranked Apple as the top tablet manufacturer, followed by Samsung, Amazon, RIM and Asus, in that order.


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NEW YORK (dpa-AFX) – The US stock exchanges noticeably curbed their significant losses from early trading on Thursday. Most recently, the leading index Dow Jones Industrial fell by 0.38 percent to 30,912.07 points. The market-wide S&P 500 reduced its daily minus at 3809.21 points to 0.25 percent, while the technology-heavy selection index Nasdaq 100 fell by 0.45 percent to 11,606.22 points.
For the first half of the year, which is coming to an end, the worst price developments in decades are emerging: the three US stock market barometers are heading for steep price drops of 15, 20 and 29 percent for this period.
The risk of further rising interest rates and a recession triggered by them continues to have a firm grip on the US stock markets. Market traders point out that US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and his counterparts from the euro zone and Great Britain warned at a forum on Wednesday that inflation would last longer. This has fueled the debate “that continuing to raise interest rates to combat inflation will ultimately lead to a recession,” wrote market strategist Jim Reid of Deutsche Bank.
When prices rise, consumers try to curb spending. This is also confirmed by the less sharp rise in spending by US consumers in May than expected. In addition, according to revised data, spending in the previous month had risen more slowly than previously known.
The sluggish buying mood was felt on the stock exchange by the shares of the car manufacturer: Ford, General Motors (GM) and Stellantis lost between two and three and a half percent. As a comparatively expensive consumer product, cars are often the first to slip off private shopping lists. In addition, with rising capital market interest rates, purchase financing becomes more expensive – also for important corporate customers.
Shares in the Walgreens Boots Alliance pharmacy chain fell almost six percent and were the biggest losers in the Dow. Analyst Lisa Gill from the bank JPMorgan referred to a below-expected profitability in the third fiscal quarter.
Papers from the Corona beer brewer Constellation Brands lost a good four percent. A trader justified the losses with a cautious outlook for the second business quarter.
On the other hand, Biontech and Pfizer were among the daily winners with premiums of around seven and 3.3 percent, respectively. The US government is ordering further corona vaccines from the two companies on a large scale for a planned booster campaign in the fall. According to Pfizer boss Albert Bourla, it is also about agents that are intended to protect against newer virus variants such as Omicron./gl/men
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