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WASHINGTON — The 2007 Farm Bill has sufficient support in the House and Senate to pass in its current form, despite President Bush's veto of the bill last Wednesday.
This month, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the 2007 Farm Bill with a 318-106 vote, and the Senate followed by approving the bill 81-15, in both cases garnering sufficient majorities to override the presidential veto.
The bill's critics, led by President Bush, have argued that the $300 billion piece of legislation remains far too generous with government subsidies allocated for corn, soybean, wheat and cotton growers, among others.
“Today's farm economy is very strong, and that is something to celebrate,” Bush said earlier this month, in a statement explaining his veto threat. “It is also an appropriate time to better target subsidies and put forth real reform. Farm income is expected to exceed the 10-year average by 50% this year, yet Congress' bill asks American taxpayers to subsidize the incomes of married farmers who earn $1.5 million per year. I believe doing so at a time of record farm income is irresponsible and jeopardizes America's support for necessary farm programs.”
Some industry groups, including the Grocery Manufacturers Association, agreed with this assessment. Cal Dooley, president and chief executive officer of GMA, earlier this month sent a letter to Congress urging legislators to oppose the bill.
“Farm Bill negotiators included no meaningful limits on who can receive subsidies or the amount a producer can receive,” Dooley wrote. “In fact, Congress increased subsidies for some farmers, including costly new subsidies and protections for sugar producers that will increase the cost of food at a time of record food inflation.”
However, despite these problems, the passage of several less controversial aspects of the bill were cause for celebration in other corners of the food industry. Notably, produce industry groups, including the Produce Marketing Association, Newark, Del., and the United Fresh Produce Association, Washington, both fought hard to include reforms to country-of-origin labeling requirements, which are set to go into effect Sept. 30.
If Congress overrides the president's veto of the current bill, retailers will not be liable for any COOL misinformation or mistakes caused by their suppliers. And in general, liability for retailers is significantly reduced unless it can be proven that they are willfully violating the laws of the program. Retailers also won't be required to keep a separate set of records for the program. Also, labels that signify a U.S. state or locality — including state department of agriculture programs such as Pride of New York or Minnesota Grown — will automatically be compliant with COOL regulations.
The bill also includes an unprecedented level of support for produce industry programs, including $1 billion for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's fruit and vegetable snack program for schools; $230 million for specialty crop research; $377 million for pest and disease detection; $33 million to promote farmer's markets and local agriculture programs; $105 million for organic produce programs; and $466 million in block grants set aside for state and regional programs.
“This bill provides more funding for fruit and vegetable industry programs and priorities than any other farm bill in history, attention that is well deserved and has been long awaited, and signals that the times are changing,” PMA President Bryan Silbermann said in a release. “It also provides some much-needed relief from what would have been overly burdensome COOL regulations.”
Past farm bills have offered little support for produce industry programs, focusing instead on major commodity crops such as corn, wheat and soybeans.
“This is landmark stuff,” said Julia Stewart, public relations manager for PMA. “You're finally starting to see specialty crops, including fruits and vegetables, getting the attention they deserve. It's very clear that Americans should be eating more fruits and vegetables, and we need as much help on that front as we can get.”
Representatives at the Organic Trade Association were excited as well.
The $105 million set aside for organic agriculture during the next five years “was four times more money for organics than there had been previously,” noted Holly Givens, communications director for the OTA. That money will go toward a broad range of goals, including research programs, programs that help farmers transition acreage to organic production, and an elimination of the premiums that organic farmers pay for crop insurance.
In one last attempt to force concessions from Congress on commodity crop subsidies, President Bush vetoed the 2007 Farm Bill on Wednesday, and sent it back to the Senate and House for additional review.
However, industry experts contacted by SN felt confident that measures benefiting the produce and organic agriculture industries would survive any further alterations of the bill, and that legislators in Congress were unlikely to reverse their earlier votes.


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Truck accidents can cause catastrophic injuries and harm to victims, which is why it is essential for truck accident victims to be familiar with the legal protections available to them. Legal protections could help them with the physical, financial and emotional damages they have suffered.
It is becoming all-too-common to hear of semi-truck accidents occurring in Virginia and across the nation. Despite tightening federal regulations on trucking regulations, one report indicates that over the past 10 years, the number of deadly large truck accidents in the United States is growing. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that between 2009 and 2017, the number of deadly accidents involving large trucks rose 42%. In 2017, approximately 4,800 individuals lost their lives in such accidents.
Virginia roads and highways are often traveled by commercial drivers who, in their rigs and massive trucks, carry the goods that residents want and need. Trucks and their drivers are integral parts of the cycle of commerce in the United States, and through trucking many businesses are able to deliver their products to stores, customers, and wholesalers. Although trucking is an important means of transport for retail and commercial items, it can be a dangerous practice when truck drivers fail to meet their duties of care.
We all get tired from time to time. This is often due to lack of sleep. And for some individuals in Virginia and elsewhere, the source of their fatigue is due to being overworked. A fatigued driver is dangerous to have on the roadways. However, it may be even more risky for an overworked and tired truck driver to be on the roadways. While federal trucking regulations seek to reduce hours of service violations, fatigued truck drivers are the cause of truck accidents every day.
Large trucks are very useful to society. Whether it is a semi-truck making a shipment, a delivery truck delivering packages, a construction carrying material to a job site or a garbage truck making its runs, these massive trucks share the road with other motorists. While it is common to travel by these types of trucks without any issue, the reality is that these vehicles do pose some risks. If a truck driver is not properly trained, overworked, distracted or intoxicated, this could result in a serious even fatal truck crash.
Most Virginia residents are used to sharing the road with large trucks. These massive vehicles play a major role in commerce, as they are tasked with transporting goods and deliveries to their final destinations. While these large vehicles are not going anywhere, they do continue to pose great risks on the roadways. Federal trucking regulations have been passed with the purpose of addressing these concerns, yet, truck accidents still occur.
During the winter months, residents in Virginia and elsewhere tend to see a spike in large truck traffic. Semi-trucks and tractor-trailer trucks are used to transport goods, many of which as purchased as gifts. Because of this, these large trucks fill the roads in an attempt to get these products to their final destinations. However, truck drivers can be under a lot of pressure, causing them to work long hours and travel long distances.
Nowadays, individuals in Virginia and elsewhere rely on shopping for things on-line. It is not only convenient to go to the store on the weekends or after work, making on-line shopping one's go-to for most things that they need. Because of this, goods are shipped all across the state and nation, and the trucking industry is relied on to get these deliveries to their final destination on a timely basis. While large trucks, such as semi-trucks and tractor-trailers is an efficient way to ship goods, this can cause many risks on the roadways. When a truck driver or trucking company does not follow federal trucking regulations, this could be the cause of a serious and even fatal truck crash.
Virginians have done it at one point or another: push through a task when they are tired. The days get busy and our schedules get overloaded, but there is a difference between working on a school assignment or a work project late into the night and driving through the night to make a delivery or shipment. Unfortunately, truck drivers are often tasked with traveling long distances, meaning they drive long hours. This creates a great concern for fatigued driving. Although federal trucking regulations address this, they unfortunately do not prevent it from occurring and causing truck crashes.
With millions of commercial trucks traveling on the roadways across the nation, it is no wonder that motorists in Virginia and elsewhere are used to sharing the roads with the massive vehicles. These large trucks are beneficial and valuable to society, as they provide a adequate and favorable method to transport goods and products. However, commercial trucks pose many risks, even causing serious and fatal truck accidents.

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As ALTBalaji completes three years in the OTT space, Nachiket Pantvaidya, CEO, ALTBalaji and Group COO, Balaji Telefilms, in conversation with BestMediaInfo.com, says the journey has been positive and the platform has grown due to innovative business strategies.
Call for entries open for BuzzInContent Awards 2020
ALTBalaji had said in a statement that they had seen a 60% increase in subscriptions since the lockdown was announced. “ALTBalaji is witnessing a strong uptake of digital subscriptions with an average of 17,000 subscriptions added per day post-lockdown versus an average of 10,600 in March 2020 pre-lockdown, a growth of 60%. As of date, the platform has over 1.7m active direct subscribers,” it said.
The statement said the shows that have been added at the beginning of the year continued to perform well on the platform. “Since February we have added five shows, including the runaway hits such as ‘Mentalhood’ and ‘It Happened in Calcutta’. Shows launched in earlier months continue to see good engagement as consumers are now watching more of the library that we have successfully built. The ALTBalaji library as of date is at 60 shows and has the most popular shows for mass Indian audiences. ALTBalaji is very well placed to add more shows once the lockdown is lifted,” it added.
Speaking about the current situation due to the Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on the platform, Pantvaidya says they are in the position of launching 25-30 shows this year, including a few shows lined up for the upcoming months. “We are certain we will achieve our targets of launching 25-30 shows this year as well. However, our topmost priority is to keep everyone around us safe, be it our production teams or the office employees. We have enough content in our library currently to keep everyone entertained,” he said.
He says there has been a 15-20% surge in terms of viewership due to the lockdown and that the current surge will help OTT players in retaining audiences. He said the current situation will also influence future content consumption habits of consumers.
“I believe now is the time for OTT platform players to sit back and rethink their content strategy. Though this growth is due to a phase right now, we believe this lockdown phase will act as a catalyst in changing the content consumption habits of the audience to some extent while making some of them the avid followers of original content.”
As ALTBalaji completed three years this month, how has the overall journey been so far? What changes have you witnessed in the OTT space in these years?
Having set milestones and breaking new grounds for over three years, our journey has been fairly business positive and will continue to do so. Since its inception, ALTBalaji has been on top of the consumer’s mind for its unique narratives and clutter-breaking original Hindi content and we have aggressively grown on the back of innovative business strategies. Moving from strength to strength, we’ve today become a major player in the Indian OTT industry and gained further encouragement by the massive increase in subscriber base.
With a substantial bouquet of original content across genres that keeps viewers engaged, our app has consistently ranked among the top three grossing video streaming apps in the country across the app store (Source: App Annie).
According to a recent report by PwC, the OTT market is set to grow at a rate of 22% to reach Rs 12,000 crore in the next four years. The soon-to-arrive 5G networks will only work as a shot in the arm for OTT platforms to scale further heights. Digital is an ever-evolving medium and when it comes to OTT players, competition across the industry is soaring high with everyone at their toes trying to secure their places in the minds of consumers.
Has the Covid-19 crisis affected this target in any way in terms of show production and revenue?
The pandemic has affected the economy at large and the businesses, including our industry but we are glad that we are still in the position to launch some new shows in the next 1-2 months’ time. We are certain that we will achieve our targets of launching 25-30 shows this year as well. However, our top-most priority is to keep everyone around us safe, be it our production teams or the office employees. We have enough content in our library currently to keep everyone entertained.
A lot of OTT players are focusing on regional content. What does the regional content strategy look like for ALTBalaji?
We, at ALTBalaji, are currently focusing on capturing the Hindi-speaking market and gradually move towards other regional markets. A host of our Hindi offerings have also been dubbed in Indian and international languages like Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Bahasa, Arabic, etc. among others. We shall continue to focus on expanding our language content library in the coming years.
You also partnered with Zee5. Do you think this collaborative model is helping you as it might also create confusion in audiences' minds?
With our collaboration with Zee5, we aim towards leveraging each other’s strengths in the OTT domain, to co-create original content. This association is a collaborative process of co-understanding consumer insights and co-marketing to serve the viewer better while reaping in increased dividends for both. ALTBalaji and Zee5 have established their content strength globally, and the synergy resulted in two of the largest homegrown video streaming platforms coming together to expand their subscription base and grow the binge-watching culture globally.
How much of an uptick in user traffic are you seeing in the lockdown compared to a regular day? Has there been any growth in the number of subscriptions?
The current predicament that we face today sees audiences now having more time at their disposal. This excessive free time usually ends up being channelised in spending time with family, household chores and consuming content via OTT platforms. With an increase in appetite to consume our diverse bouquet of originals, we have witnessed a 15-20% surge across the industry in terms of viewership. In addition to the above, we have noticed a substantial rise in the time spent consuming our content across urban and rural cities.
In the current scenario, our primary objective is to not let our operations be compromised, so as a responsible platform, we are also urging our viewers to shift from HD to SD quality to reduce the stress on the telecom network infrastructure. As we encourage our viewers to practice social distancing, we shall continue to serve quality entertainment at their fingertips.
The Covid-19 crisis is said to have helped OTT players turn into viewers’ habit in the absence of fresh content on TV. How much audience from these temporarily migrated viewers will stay with OTT even after the crisis is over?
OTT content consumption has witnessed a steady growth throughout and will continue to do so, on its own. The lockdown period has indeed scaled up the OTT content consumption game and I believe now is the time for OTT platform players to sit back and rethink their content strategy. Though this growth is due to a phase right now, we believe this lockdown phase will act as a catalyst in changing the content consumption habits of the audience to some extent while making some of them the avid followers of original content.
Also, our premium shows including ‘Kehne Ko Humsafar Hain’ season1 & 2, ‘Karrle Tu Bhi Mohabbat’, and ‘Baarish’ season 1, that made its way to television recently, has been garnering a great response from viewers. As the audience is being exposed to the exclusive content now available on digital, it is opening more avenues for both consumers as well as OTT players.
We are confident that having sampled our portfolio of exciting, original web series, viewers will subscribe for more such content.
As restrictions on producing content continue, television platforms have resorted on ticking the 'nostalgic' factor. What options can OTT players explore?
During this unfortunate lockdown, India has become more digital-savvy with more and more people coming on the internet. This phase is going to teach OTT players to leverage and utilise their content library. According to a market research firm techARC, India had 502.2 million smartphone users as of December 2019.
The time spent on phones has substantially increased especially during this phase. According to KPMG’s recent report titled ‘Covid-19: The many shades of a crisis’, the penetration of subscription-based digital models is set to accelerate. One cannot assume that all of them have seen our content. From a content segmentation and a subscription acquisition point of view, one needs to start looking at these newer people to acquire. What works for us is to concentrate on consumer segmentation behaviour, understanding how to retain the customers better and working on on-boarding the new segment that have just been acquainted with internet. To sum it, we are working towards utilising our library. Meanwhile our next slate of shows is getting ready for the launch.


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BMW Motorrad gets new address in Delhi
BMW Motorrad has opened its newest dealership in the country, Lutyens Motorrad, which will service the Delhi-NCR region. With the addition of Delhi, BMW Motorrad now boasts presence in as many as five cities in India, others being Pune, Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Bangalore. The Delhi dealership though is the last addition for 2017, and BMW Motorrad will be looking at further expansion only in 2018.
Lutyens Motorrad in New Delhi is the newest BMW Motorrad dealership in India
That said, we expect BMW Motorrad to look at expanding even more aggressively next year, considering that it will launch the G310R and G310GS in India in the second half of 2018. The G310R is easily the most anticipated motorcycle in the country currently as it will mark BMW Motorrad's foray into the high volumes entry-level performance motorcycle segment, a category that's dominated by the KTM 390 Duke currently. The G310R is also strategic for BMW Motorrad in India considering it is the first motorcycle developed in collboration with TVS Motors. The brand could thus extend its reach to other popular cities like Hyderabad, Cochin, Chandigarh Kolkata and the like next year.
BMW Motorrad's range in India currently only includes high capacity machines imported directly via the CBU route
Currently BMW Motorrad's product line-up in India only includes CBU products across various segments such as the S1000R, S1000RR, S1000XR, R1200GS, K1600GT, K1600GTL, R NineT, R NineT Scrambler and so on.
Starts Rs 2,35,931
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The first interior images with the brand new Citroen DS 6WR have recently ended up onto the web as they have been posted by the Chinese automotive media.
After being officially introduced during the 2014 Beijing Motor Show, last month, the brand new Citroen DS 6WR is being placed into the spotlights once again, this time with the help of its first interior images. These have been posted out on autohome.com.cn and they are showing some metallic accents, lots of leather wrapped bits and pieces and a flat bottomed steering wheel, amongst others.
The Citroen DS 6WR has an attractive exterior design with some plastic body cladding, LED daytime running lights, xenon headlights, glossy black mirror caps, side chrome bar and more. The model in question is 4,55 meters long, 1,86 meters wide and 1,61 meters tall, sitting on 19-inch alloy wheels and riding on a 2,73 meters long wheelbase. The DS 6WR is sharing the same platform with the DS5 and the DS 5LS and it will be produced exclusively in China by the Changan-PSA joint venture. The model will go on sale later on this year for an estimated equivalent of 19,000 euros.


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In an effort to make AFL content available to iOS users the league has teamed up with Telstra and hurriedly released updated AFL iPhone and iPad apps for the 2012 season. The iPad version is one of the most bug ridden apps I’ve ever used. The issues are mainly centered around video playback errors and broken design display.
I’m surprised Apple approved such a shabby release. It’s a blessing and a curse that Apple approves all of the App Store apps but one of the benefits is that there is an expected level of quality that comes with an Apple App. The recent AFL iPad release highlights how the league has prioritised speed to market over quality and decent user experience.


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Following record increases in 2021, the Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index (MUVVI) ended 2022 at 219.3, a slight increase from November due to the seasonal adjustment, but down 14.9% year over year. This was the largest decline within one year in the series’ history.
On the non-adjusted side, the price change in December was a decline of 1.9% compared to November, moving the unadjusted average price down 13.1% year over year. Wholesale used-vehicle prices (on a mix, mileage, and seasonally adjusted basis) increased 0.8% in December from November.
“It’s undeniable that 2022 culminates with unprecedented declines in the MUVVI, but it’s important to look at the bigger picture,” said Cox Automotive Chief Economist Jonathan Smoke, in a Jan. 9 news release. “These last three years have been extremely volatile for the market, and these declines follow record increases. In December 2021, we were up 47% year over year. The pre-pandemic levels will likely never return, but all indicators point to reaching equilibrium in the second half of 2023.”
Manheim Market Report Values See Declines
In December, Manheim Market Report (MMR) values saw larger-than-normal declines, culminating in a 2.2% total decline in the Three-Year-Old Index over the last four weeks. MMR is a valuation tool that tens of thousands of vehicle consignors and dealers use to assess millions of trade-ins each month. It is designed to be highly stable and avoid overreacting to short-term market ups and downs to provide an accurate measure of vehicle valuations regardless of market conditions.
In December, daily MMR Retention, which is the average difference in price relative to the current MMR, averaged 98.6%, meaning market prices were below MMR values. The average daily sales conversion rate increased to 50.7% but remained below normal for the time of year. For example, the daily sales conversion rate averaged 52.2% in December 2019. The lower conversion rate indicated that the month saw buyers with more bargaining power than what is typically seen for this time of year.
Used Retail Vehicle Sales Decline in December, Harken Back to 2021 Patterns
Leveraging a same-store set of dealerships selected by Dealertrack to represent the country, initial estimates are that used retail sales declined 7% in December from November and that used retail sales were down 10% year over year, mirroring November’s performance.
Using estimates of used retail days’ supply based on vAuto data, December ended at 52 days’ supply, down from 54 days at the end of November but slightly higher than how December 2021 ended at 51 days. Leveraging Manheim sales and inventory data, wholesale supply is estimated to have ended December at 31 days, up two days from the end of November and up five days from December 2021’s 26 days.
Last month’s total new-light-vehicle sales were up 4.9% year over year, with the same number of selling days as December 2021. By volume, December new-vehicle sales were up 12.2% from November. The December sales pace, or seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR), came in at 13.3 million, a 4.7% increase from 2021’s 12.7 million but down 6.3% from November’s revised 14.2 million pace.
Used and Wholesale Vehicle Market Forecast and Outlook for 2023
Used-vehicle values will see above-normal depreciation for the second-straight year. After historic value increases in 2020 and 2021, followed by above-average depreciation for most of 2022, used-vehicle values are likely to see another year of above-normal depreciation, especially in the first half of 2023. Price trends should normalize in the year’s second half as constrained wholesale supply supports used values and used retail prices fall into a normal relationship with new prices. The Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index is forecast to be down 4.3% year over year in December 2023.
2023 Poised to Set Electric Vehicle Sales Records, Manheim Prepares for Influx of Electric Vehicles
It’s anticipated that more than one million new electric vehicles will be sold in the United States this year, setting a record. Manheim volumes generally reflect new-vehicle sales, with a time lag of about three to four years, and the company has been preparing for increased EV sales for several years.
In 2021, Manheim invested nearly $100 million in facility, innovation, and process improvements to deliver a more connected client experience. EV infrastructure and initiatives were a key piece of this investment.
Efforts underway include a Manheim- and Cox Mobility-trusted battery health score poised to lead the industry in measuring battery health and safety equipment and training for 850 EV technicians.Through the third quarter of 2022, Manheim processed 144,000 EV and hybrid units, representing around 3% of the volume. There are already more than 700 chargers across 67 Manheim locations that serve the roughly 16,000 EVs on auction lots on any given day.
Originally posted on Vehicle Remarketing


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Stock markets in the US, Europe and Asia plunged Monday after US President Donald Trump threatened to increase tariffs on Chinese products this week, escalating the ongoing trade fight between the world’s two largest economies.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 186 points, or 0.7 percent, to 26322, easing off of session lows after falling more than 450 points in early trading. The S&P 500 shed 0.7 percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.9 percent.
The Shanghai Composite plunged more than five percent, with the Chinese yuan also taking a battering. Hong Kong tumbled 2.9 percent, Singapore was off 3.1 percent and Taipei shed 1.8 percent, while Sydney dropped 0.8 percent and Wellington was one percent down.
Mumbai, Manila and Jakarta were also sharply lower. Tokyo and Seoul were closed for holidays. Europe’s pan-continental Stoxx Europe 600 lost 1.2 percent.
Oil prices also tumbled on Trump’s remarks, as negotiations to end the months-long trade war were thrown into doubt.
Trump warned Sunday that he would increase tariffs on Friday on $200 billion of Chinese goods to 25 percent from the current 10 percent, reversing a decision he made in February to retain them at 10 percent as the two sides made progress on trade talks.
Trump also warned he would impose tariffs on all Chinese exports to the United States.
The sudden escalation caught investors badly off guard. Not only had US and Chinese officials signaled a trade deal was imminent, but hopes for trade peace helped drive US stocks sharply higher this year.
The Wall Street Journal reported earlier that China was considering cancelling this week’s meetings in Washington in light of Trump’s comments, which took Chinese officials by surprise.
Trump appeared to defend his decision in a tweet early Monday, slamming the US-China trade deficit and vowing not to lose out to Beijing.
A less-than-rosy update from US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, including details that China was pulling back from some previous commitments, prompted Trump’s decision.
“The Trade Deal with China continues, but too slowly, as they attempt to renegotiate. No!” Trump said in a tweet.


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Porsche has just unveiled the 2021 editions of its four-door Panamera sedan series, giving the car both performance upgrades and style enhancements. The series will carry four models, including the Panamera 4, the Panamera GTS, the Panamera Turbo S, and the Panamera 4S E-Hybrid.
Not much has changed for the standard 4 model, but Porsche has focused on pushing its Turbo S variation to even greater heights in performance, replacing the car’s previous 550 horsepower engine with a new 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8, capable of generating 620 horsepower and 604 pound-feet of torque. This power translates to a 0-60 mph time of just 2.9 seconds and a top speed of a staggering 196 mph.
Aside from these upgrades, the German automaker is also introducing an all-new hybrid model named the Panamera 4S E-Hybrid. The car will carry a 2.9-liter twin-turbo V6 that pushes out 552 horsepower and 553 pound-feet of torque with the help of a 17.9kWh battery. 0-60 mph takes roughly 3.5 seconds, and top speed will max out at 185 mph.
Take a closer look in the gallery above while you wait for the car to release sometime next spring, with orders being taken beginning early 2021.
Elsewhere in the automotive world, GehoCab has created a chassis-mount camper for the new Land Rover Defender.


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UK inflation has hit a 40-year high. Here's what that means for Australia
Another major economy has just recorded a large increase in inflation — a key measure of the cost of living.
The UK Consumer Prices Index (CPI) rose by 9.1 per cent in the 12 months to May 2022, up from 9 per cent in April.
UK inflation is now sitting at a 40-year high.
Over the year to May, the CPI rose 7.9 per cent.
Gas, electricity bills a major contributor to inflation in UK
According to the Office for National Statistics, the items in the "basket", or collection of goods and services, that make up the CPI that contributed the most to the overall increase in the index were gas and electricity bills, as well as petrol.
In early June, financial markets plummeted on news US inflation had also soared to a 40-year high.
The hike raised concerns the US Federal Reserve — the equivalent of Australia's Reserve Bank — would need to raise interest rates sharply to cool demand in the economy and bring inflation under control.
Those fears were realised on June 15 when the Federal Reserve increased its benchmark interest rate by the highest amount since 1994.
Unlike in Australia, wages growth in the US is playing a part in the inflation picture.
But the war in Ukraine and supply constraints generated by the pandemic are the biggest culprits.
That is because it is costing businesses more to secure inventory and supplies and they are passing those costs on to customers.
What about Australia?
But Australia is also suffering from these inflation pressures.
Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe indicated on Tuesday that while much of the lift in inflation was being fuelled by overseas factors like the war in Ukraine and the pandemic, it was increasingly being generated locally.
One of the biggest increases in the cost of living domestically is stemming from the east coast energy crisis.
Aging coal-fired power plants are breaking down, which is making it difficult for energy generators to reliably supply power.
The power producers are scrambling to fix the problems with their power plants, but the parts required to repair them are not always readily available due to shortages.
That has caused havoc in the spot market for wholesale electricity in recent weeks.
The spot market is where energy generators and retailers meet to help determine the price households pay for power by assessing the demand and supply of power available for customers.
The market operator, AEMO, stepped in last week and took control of the market.
Since then the market has stabilised, leading the AEMO to gradually pull back and allow the companies to work out the prices they charge for themselves.
Expect energy bills to increase
The supply of power remains a big issue, however, and that will likely lead to further increases in power bills.
Medium-term solutions, including the capacity mechanism the government is currently working through, could help secure a portion of power supplies but they might put further upwards pressure on energy prices.
The AEMO Reserve Capacity Mechanism recently announced by the federal government will see gas retailers — the ones that appear on your energy bill — paying the power generators to keep gas in reserve for when there is another supply emergency.
Analysts say the retailers will pass that cost on to customers, producing higher energy bills.
"And, as a consequence, that insurance is something that we as consumers will all pay for because we are going to get reliable power," Grattan Institute energy and climate change program director Tony Wood said.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers warned Australian households the cost of living was set to get worse before it got better.
Australia's inflation rate, or CPI, is currently 5.1 per cent.
The next CPI will be released by the Bureau of Statistics on July 27 this year.Loading...


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According to the initial estimates net electricity production at PGE generating units in first half of 2017 amounted to 27.9 TWh, distribution volume reached 17.5 TWh and sales to final off-takers came out at 19.8 TWh.
Consolidated EBITDA the first half of 2017 amounted to approximately PLN 3,445 million; including:EBITDA of Conventional Generation segment PLN 1,612 million,EBITDA of Distribution segment PLN 1,222 million,EBITDA of Supply segment PLN 422 million,EBITDA of Renewables segment PLN 169 million.
Consolidated net profit attributable to equity holders of the parent company amounted to approximately PLN 1,497 million (i.e. earnings per share of PLN 0.80). Semiannual CAPEX amounted to PLN 2,595 million.Estimated net debt as at June 30, 2017 was PLN 4,718 million.
Average electricity wholesale price realized by Conventional Generation segment in the first half of 2017 amounted to PLN 163.3 per MWh.
Disclaimer: Presented values are estimated and may change. Consolidated financial statements of the PGE Group are still in the process of preparations. The annual consolidated report for the first half of 2017 will be published on August 8, 2017.


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KFC Pop-up Hotel With Free Chicken Button, $154 a Night
- KFC will open a pop-up hotel in London where guests can get up to $139 of free chicken.
- One-night stays will cost $154, and the hotel will operate for 11 nights in August, KFC said.
- Each room has free room service via a “press for chicken” button.
KFC is opening a fried-chicken-themed pop-up hotel with a “press For chicken” button in every room.
A one-night stay will cost $154 (£111), it said, and guests can get up to $139 (£100) worth of free chicken during their stay.
The fast-food chain said in a press release Wednesday that its “House of Harland” hotel would open in London for 11 nights between August 18 and 29 — a reference to the 11 herbs and spices that go into its chicken. Harland is a reference to Colonel Harland David Sanders, KFC’s founder.
A black Cadillac, which KFC calls the “Colonelmobile,” will pick up guests and take them to the pop-up hotel, where their own “chick-in” clerk will greet them, the company said.
Guests will have access to a private cinema, a “hot-winger arcade machine,” and a “chicken-concierge service” — they just have to push the “press for chicken” button and wait for free chicken to be delivered to their room, KFC said.
Guests have a $139 allowance during their stay for chicken orders to “prevent over consumption,” KFC told Insider in an email.
Guests can book only one-night stays for a maximum of two people, according to Hotels.com, which will take the hotel’s bookings from August 11.
Guests can book for six of the 11 nights, KFC told Insider in an email. Two nights are reserved for select KFC guests, and one is for a KFC competition winner. It’s not clear what happens on the other nights.
Read more: Fast-food workers are gaining millions of TikTok followers with on-the-job videos, but the trend has muddied the relationship between brands, creators, and consumers
All the money raised from the promotion will go toward the KFC Foundation, KFC said in its press release.
“Expect to see drumsticks in the detail, from bedding to wallpaper to an Arcade Machine and towel — fried chicken will never be far from your thoughts,” KFC said in the release.


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The Jaguar I-Pace Concept is the biggest sign of company’s move into electric vehicles – and perhaps the most significant attempt at making a pretty car that just happens to be electric.
Unveiled Tuesday at a Jaguar event ahead of the 2016 Los Angeles Auto Show using both virtual reality goggles and sitting on a turntable, the I-Pace was shown to journalists in the flesh, presented in part by designer Ian Callum.
The Jaguar Design Director explained the intentional move to make a sporty little SUV with a cab forward design to take advantage of the superior packaging of putting the batteries under the floor. It’s a little weird, but special-looking like a Jaguar should be.
While the company’s officials are adamant it’s an SUV, the I-Pace looks like an SUV in the same way the Infiniti QX30 and Mercedes-Benz GLA do, and they look like hatchbacks. The sharply sloped rear glass and stubby deck make it look sedan-like from some angles. But overall, it’s an attractive car that should still look attractive when it’s toned down slightly for production.
The benefit of all this, however, is that there is a lot of space inside, far more than its footprint implies. A panoramic roof gives off on the concept gives off an airy feel, too. Legroom is said to be on par with rivals from the midsize class and the cargo hold is surprisingly long and deep. The I-Pace looks to be an immensely practical package.
Powering the concept are electric motors at the front and rear axles. The two motors produce a combined 400 horsepower and 700 Nm of torque with permanent all-wheel drive. A 90kW battery and rapid charging allow for a targeted 500 kM range (310 miles) – in the ballpark of what the Tesla Model 3 and Chevrolet Bolt target.
Also pulling a page from Tesla, Jaguar is already taking reservations on their website, Jaguar.com, although they aren’t taking $1,000 deposits for the car that’s about two years away from dealerships. Still, it’s likely this will be the first Jaguar with a big online sales push.
Jaguar officials said the production I-Pace would be shown next year at an auto show, with the car set to go on sale in the second half of 2018 – in all 50 U.S. states, too. It may be a brother to the hot-selling F-Pace, but the I-Pace is so much more than a small Jaguar SUV. Its style, packaging and whole mission in life will be significant towards securing JLR’s future in an increasingly electrified automotive world – and a truly desirable luxury EV, at that.
Photos: Zac Estrada and Jaguar


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Peyton, Eli Manning's popular Monday Night Football broadcast could see a bidding war, per report
Peyton and Eli Mannning have enjoyed success during their “ManningCast” alternate broadcast of Monday Night Football games, and now ESPN may have to fight off a competitor to keep them.
ESPN’s three-year deal with Omaha Productions is up after the 2023 season, and Amazon is eyeing the Mannings for an alternate telecast of “Thursday Night Football,” according to a report from Front Office Sports.
The Mannings are contracted to call 10 alternate “Monday Night Football” telecasts each season from 2021-2023. The report suggested that as usual in talent situations, ESPN would probably get an exclusive window to renew its deal with the Mannings before Omaha opens talks with other suitors. The talks are expected to kick off sometime in 2022.
Andy Jassy, the new president and chief executive officer of Amazon, is a “huge sports fan” noted one sports TV executive. With 2020 sales of $386 billion, Amazon could pay whatever it takes to land the brothers as it takes over exclusive national coverage of TNF in 2022.


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* Sees 2013 revenue growth in the high-single digits
* Q4 adjusted EPS $0.92 beats estimates of $0.82
* Shares up 5 percent to life high
Jan 22 (Reuters) - Kansas City Southern's quarterly
profit beat Wall Street estimates, boosted by strong intermodal
and automotive volumes, and the railroad company forecast 2013
revenue growth in the high-single digits.
The company's shares rose 5 percent to an all-time high of
$91.81 on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday morning.
Kansas City Southern said it expects 2013 to be a "bridge
year" as it awaits a significant increase in volumes in 2014
from new automobile plants in Mexico.
"No one should interpret the term "bridge year" as
suggesting that Kansas City Southern will be in a low-growth
environment," Chief Executive David Starling said on a
post-earnings conference call.
The fourth-largest public railroad operator in the United
States said it expects 2013 revenue to grow at high-single
digits and volumes to grow in the mid-single digits.
Kansas City Southern is generally considered to be in a
better position than most railroads as it gets a boost from
cross-border trade. Other U.S. railroads have been hit by lower
shipments of coal due to a warm winter and low natural gas
The company is banking on four new auto factories coming up
in Mexico to boost volumes. Mexico accounts for about 45 percent
of Kansas City Southern's total revenue.
The factories are set to open in the first quarter of 2014
and will increase Mexican production by 25 percent to 30
percent, the company said on the call.
Kansas City Southern's net income fell to $92.5 million, or
83 cents per share, in the fourth quarter, from $96.0 million,
or 87 cents per share, a year earlier.
Excluding debt-retirement and other costs, the company
earned 92 cents per share. Revenue rose 7 percent to $568.4
Analysts had expected earnings of 82 cents per share on
revenue of $565.2 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Total carloads in the quarter rose 2 percent.
Revenue from intermodal volumes - which refers to the
shipment of goods in containers that can be shifted from one
form of transportation to another, such as from train to truck -
rose 14 percent. Automotive revenue jumped 33 percent.
Kansas City Southern is the first major U.S. railroad
company to report fourth-quarter results. CSX Corp and
Norfolk Southern Corp report results later on Tuesday,
while No. 1 U.S. railroad Union Pacific Corp reports on
Shares of Missouri-based Kansas City Southern, which has a
market valuation of about $9.6 billion, have gained about 30
percent since the beginning of 2012.


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This tale is element of, CNET’s search at how the earth will proceed to evolve starting off in 2022 and beyond.
Cryptocurrency designed lots of of the strangest headlines of 2021. Boosters touted digital currencies as a earth-switching technologies with the likely to produce new economies and empower people today who you should not have accessibility to bank accounts. Critics pointed to crypto’s, as effectively as its attractiveness in on-line crime. The chasm involving these views will be hard to bridge.
Significantly of the cryptocurrency marketplace functions as a hype-monster, driven by oddball memes of sweet pet dogs and outer-room emoji. The similar marketplace features a staggering amount of money of funding from venture capitalists and personal fanatics, alongside with true specialized improvements that could radically alter the way we interact with income. And, as it usually goes with innovation, what we get might not be what we be expecting. CNET asked experts to help us navigate crypto’s journey to new lands in 2022. This is what they informed us.
1. Crypto moves even further into the mainstream
Significant providers are striving to figure out how cryptocurrency suits into their enterprise. Every person from hedge fund supervisors to Starbucks executives are earning moves that could influence how we use digital funds this calendar year.
When we hear about cryptocurrency in the headlines, it can be usually about Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s tweets, right away millionaires, costly electronic art and hacks. Still the much larger, essential modifications are often considerably less flashy and attention-grabbing than whatsoever crypto-buzz machine dominates Twitter at any presented moment.
“I hope we’re heading to see a ton additional concentrate on utility,” said Denelle Dixon, CEO of Stellar Growth Foundation. “In its place of concentrating just on a handful of use conditions that produce a great deal of hype, we are going to see more target on the use instances that generate real price. And more dialogue all-around money inclusion.”
2. NFTs create new possession options, and remix outdated kinds
NFT, or nonfungible token, is a buzzy term that a lot of of us read for the very first time in 2021. A new way to determine ownership of electronic property utilizing a blockchain ledger, NFTs are progressively preferred in the art and collectibles scenes. A single of the most notable NFT collections of 2021 was identified as. Go figure.
But the likely of NFTs goes much over and above eccentric digital artworks. NFTs are also applied forand for ownership, licensing and publishing. Some observers see a upcoming in which NFTs present obtain to unique gross sales or confined-edition goods. How about employing a NFT as a live performance ticket? Or when you log into your favorite online video activity on the net? Anticipate to see all of that in 2022.
“The prospects of NFTs are endless, since they can be used to log ownership of any exceptional asset,” Alex Atallah, co-founder of OpenSea, said in an electronic mail. “We are previously observing early use-situations of NFTs staying used as party tickets, software licenses, fan club memberships, or in any other case tied to interactive activities.”
Some of America’s biggest manufacturers, like Nike, are presently working on expanding the application of NFTs. But NFTs applied in buyer products might only be the tip of the iceberg. How about making use of an NFT to establish you are you?
“We have viewed some movement from the artist-pushed NFTs to NFTs that are concentrated on accessibility or authorization,” claimed Stellar’s Dixon. “There was a occasion in New York not long ago in which individuals received accessibility to the social gathering by acquiring an NFT. So I surprise if we will see some focus on leveraging NFTs for electronic id.”
The $85 billion movie recreation field may be one particular of the most fertile places of possible for NFTs. Some of the much larger studios are previously . And with all the chat encompassing the metaverse, an which is been proposed by Meta (previously Fb) CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other movers and shakers in the tech market, NFTs could provide as setting up blocks for a up coming-era digital globe.
“Avid gamers are now accustomed to caring about digital merchandise, so the probable for NFTs is enormous: a couple million NFT people when compared to almost 3 billion players,” reported Atallah. “We are seeing some interesting developments when it arrives to the intersection of NFTs, gaming and the metaverse.”
3. Bigger hacks and even larger ransoms
Cryptocurrencies had been applied to facilitateof ransomware payments in 2021. That is since digital currencies consist of attributes that make them appealing to criminals. They are difficult to keep track of, they’re borderless, and when the payment goes by means of, it really is practically extremely hard to unwind.
“We should really hope to see a lot more criminals turning to cryptocurrency and products and services that assure to obfuscate illicit cash thanks to the misunderstanding of whole anonymity,” Gurvais Grigg, a senior tech officer at Chainalysis, explained in an e-mail. “Bitcoin is interesting to criminals for the same explanations it appeals to all those employing them for legitimate uses: It is cross-border, instantaneous and liquid.”
Grigg and other individuals be expecting decentralized finance, a nascent but blossoming business on the cryptocurrency frontier, to befor cybercriminals in 2022. Decentralized finance, or DeFi, will involve finance that operates independently of a central authority or institution. As a substitute of relying on a financial institution or credit rating card network, people today can link specifically with DeFi merchandise on a dispersed community.
Though the field is even now in its early days, DeFi is a quickly-evolving, highly technical room with incredible probable. As these types of, it is captivated a great deal of notice and financial commitment, creating it ripe for legal exercise.
“Criminals are most likely to examine DeFi as each a focus on for hacking and as a indicates to attempt laundering funds by means of,” said Grigg. “Mainly because of how new DeFi is, and the explosion in adoption in created marketplaces, these platforms are easy targets for professional criminals who have performed very similar hacks in advance of.”
4. You may listen to more about stablecoins
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have grabbed headlines simply because of their volatility. You can turn out to be a millionaire or eliminate it all at the hyper pace of the internet. But consider obtaining a latte with bitcoin, and that volatility can make factors confusing speedy.
Enter. This subcategory of cryptocurrency, which is tied to an fundamental asset, mitigates significantly of that volatility. Stablecoins could engage in a critical role in turning cryptocurrency into anything we can effortlessly use to perform the common transactions of everyday lifestyle.
“Men and women should start off shelling out attention to trends in stablecoins both of those as a medium of payments and as a dollar electronic forex. The use scenarios for cross-border payments, support relief, immediate settlement payments are starting up to flourish in 2021 and we will see much more of that in 2022,” Rachel Mayer, a vice president of product at fintech company Circle, stated in an e-mail.
Transferring assets far more effectively is one of the central values of a stablecoin. This value is strong for providers that have to have to shift electronic property and money speedily and proficiently.
“On the payments facet, additional industries will start adopting stablecoins as a additional successful way to make payments,” Omid Malekan, writer of The Tale of the Blockchain and a professor at Columbia Business enterprise Faculty, reported in an email. “Stablecoin volumes will proceed to expand, but the share of that volume that is only involved in crypto buying and selling will go down.”
5. New crypto policies show up on the horizon
Washington lawmakers perception that cryptocurrency is a huge and essential matter. But they are struggling, perceptibly, to recognize it. It might only be a subject of time in advance of crypto will get its “” minute from a hapless representative out of their ingredient.
In December, executives from 6 cryptocurrency corporations have been referred to as to testify ahead of the Dwelling Monetary Expert services Committee, where they mentioned probable paths for long term legislation. Lawmakers in the US have expressed interest in a range of subjects — whether stablecoin issuers should really be regarded as banking companies, when to tax cryptocurrency and how to craft practical policies in a extremely technical and sophisticated marketplace. This is difficult things. Creating the proper criteria will just take time.
“I think there is heading to be a lot much more conversations around crypto and blockchain,” stated Dixon, one particular of the executives who testified in advance of the Property committee. Dixon beforehand testified on the challenge of net neutrality prior to a Home committee through her tenure at Mozilla in 2019 and harbors no illusions when it comes to regulating new engineering. Some discourse will be good and some will be negative, “but I just assume that [by] having these discussions, we are going to see policymakers and regulators be much more concentrated, and hopefully, more regular companies will be additional centered on that.”
There could be a lot more milestones to arrive at just before Americans see a comprehensive framework for crypto-centered laws. But if business leaders and elected officers can perform together, typical cryptocurrency end users and buyers could advantage whilst environmental and safety issues are resolved.
“It is really important to recognize that the cryptocurrency market desires to be regulated, but needs to guarantee that proposed regulatory frameworks are feasible,” said Grigg. “Governments globally are doing the job with sector players to create laws that protects buyers and fosters innovation.”
As the cryptocurrency marketplace grows up, it will carry on to change in techniques we are unable to still consider. But just one issue is apparent: Crypto will be a section of our long run.


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Sony Mobile has started to roll out an update to three of its Xperia smartphones Xperia XZ Premium, Xperia XZ1 and Xperia XZ1 Compact. All the three phones will be updated to the new firmware build number 47.1.A.12.235 from 47.1.A.12.205. The update primarily adds July 2018 Android security patches. The update has been rolled out almost a week after Google released it for Nexus and Pixel smartphones.
“Sony Mobile has updated the Xperia XZ PremiumWhere to buy> 36900> 49990> 59990, Xperia XZ1 and Xperia XZ1 Compact to new firmware build number 47.1.A.12.235 (from 47.1.A.12.205), which adds July 2018 Android security patches. The update is currently rolling to all handsets, including the dual SIM variants. If you’ve noticed other changes, please let us know in the comments below,” the company said in a blog.
The July security patch resolved 11 issues in the update dated 2018-07-01 and 32 for 2018-07-05. “Vulnerabilities range from high to critical, with the most severe relating to the media framework and a remote attacker possibly executing arbitrary code through a crafted file," Google had said. There are no reports of users being hit by these security flaws. In its 2017 year in review of Android security, Google said that 30 per cent more devices are getting patches compared to the prior year.>Digit NewsDesk> email@example.com
The guy who answered the question 'What are you doing?' with 'Nothing'.
Radiuniverse Samsung S9 For Free
Source : https://www.digit.in/security-software/sony-rolls-out-july-android-security-patches-to-select-xperia-phones-42103.html


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Bruster’s Real Ice Cream has always been keen on giving back at the store level to its local communities. Coming into 2020, and when the pandemic hit, Bruster’s wanted to do something bigger, broader, more impactful. Feeding America and its Hunger Action Month efforts were the perfect partnership to reach those in need in the communities Bruster’s serves.
Preliminary partnership discussions were held in fall 2019 when the two companies came together to see how they could work together to make a big impact in local communities – resulting in Bruster’s Cones for a Cause event held September 12, 2020.
Together with customers and franchisees, Bruster’s raised $24,500 via the one-day event. For every fresh made waffle cone sold, Bruster’s donated $1 to the cause. With the addition of a generous $20,000 corporate match, Bruster’s is donating $44,500 to Feeding America in total, which will help provide 890,000 meals to communities nationwide. And it will go down in the Bruster’s history books as one of the largest philanthropic efforts made by the company to date.
“With the determined support of our franchisees, customers and corporate office, we exceeded expectations of our fundraising goal,” says Jennifer Brinker, VP of Marketing at Bruster’s. “This was an extraordinary effort by all involved and we couldn’t be happier to provide nearly 1 million meals.”
With the wind at its back, Bruster’s is standing strong as the company approaches the fourth quarter. Its record-setting sales numbers and spike in franchise growth show positive signs all around. Plus, the company is reintroducing some of customers’ favorite apple and pumpkin fall seasonal flavors on rotation at shops nationwide.
“I’m so proud of our entire system,” Bruster’s CEO Jim Sahene says. “This marks one of our largest donations of all-time and in times like these, it’s wonderful to see people come together to help one another. We’re glad to partner with Feeding America and look forward to making an even larger impact in 2021.”


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The Kenyan government in partnership with Trade Mark East Africa (TMEA) has committed Sh1.4 billion for construction of a Jumuiya market in Busia County to boost cross-border trade.
East African Community (EAC) Principal Secretary Kevit Desai who was flanked by Busia Governor Sospeter Ojaamong and Matayos legislator Geoffrey Odanga on Wednesday erected a beacon on the 40 acre piece of land donated by the County Government for the market at Marachi estate.
Addressing the press, Desai said the cross-border market is part of the government’s vision of empowering communities straddled along the Kenya-Uganda border to trade safely, legally and profitably across the EAC partner states.
He added, “It is also aimed at enhancing livelihoods, structure trade, formalize informal trade and enhance revenue collection by improving the cross border trading environment.
“The project also targets to transform the lives of Busia County residents and neighbouring counties by providing a suitable environment to participate in cross border trade under the EAC Common Market Protocol.”
Desai urged the business community to capitalize on the government initiative and join hands under the public private partnership to make the project a success in all the three phases.
“We strongly believe the private sector can own part of phase 2 and 3 by investing in facilities that will enhance access of their products in the EAC and the rest of Africa.
“The market will provide a suitable place for value addition within the manufacturing sector and the agricultural value chains targeting the EAC, The Horn of Africa and Central African countries which are keen to join the EAC trading bloc,” he explained.
Governor Ojaamong said the Jumuiya market is a welcome idea that will benefit both Kenya and other EAC partner states.
“The idea of the Cross-Border Market was mooted in 2015 when we hosted the then British High Commissioner to Kenya, Christian Turner. My administration is ready to offer any necessary support to ensure the market is completed within the set time frame. Hence let us all support the initiative which will create jobs for our youths and expand market for our agricultural products,” Ojaamong said.
Odanga thanked the national and county governments for the initiative saying it will address the many challenges that have bedeviled the informal sector traders in Busia.
Traders who spoke during a consultative meeting said the market is a timely idea and it should be fast tracked. The Busia border point is strategically located along the Northern
Corridor making it an important gateway into the East and Central African region.
According to Desai the EAC region accounts for 25 percent of Kenya’s export earnings making it an important market. Available data indicates that trade between EAC partner states
increased by 60.75 percent from $3.72 billion when the Common Market Protocol was launched in 2010 to $5.98 billion in 2018.
Due to increased business with Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda, Kenya’s trade registered an increment of 4.7 percent from $1.86 billion in 2017 to $1.95billion in 2018, with Uganda remaining Kenya’s biggest trading partner accounting for 28.6 percent of her total exports to
In the first three months of 2020, Kenya’s exports to EAC partner states grew by 30 percent to Sh42.9 billion from Sh.32.92 billion in the same period in 2019.
By Melechezedeck Ejakait/Maureen Kwena


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Toshiba announced an expanded recall of lithium ion battery packs from Panasonic due to burn and fire hazards when overheated.
This expanded recall involves battery packs sold separately or as replacement parts for various models of Toshiba laptops from June 2011 to November 2016.
As of January 4, no incidents were reported in Canada, unlike the United States where 5 cases of overheating and melting were reported. No injury however.
“Consumers can continue to use their Toshiba laptops without the battery packs by plugging into the AC power”, said Toshiba.
For more information, consumers can contact Toshiba Client Solutions Canada Limited at 1-800-663-0378 or visit the Toshiba Canada’s website
Photo source: https://www.cpsc.gov/Recalls/2016/toshiba-recalls-laptop-computer-battery-packs
Source: Health Canada


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Disaster as another vital manufacturing plant relocates to China.
At its peak, The Creative Christmas Company, in Langley Park, County Durham, employed 40 people and had a £2m turnover.
It will now move to smaller premises and become an import business with its three remaining staff.
The company was founded 10 years ago by Tom Baker, who has been making tinsel since 1978.
He said: "The Chinese currency is linked to the dollar, the dollar has got cheaper every year, we have been having cheaper holidays in America and enjoying that, but it also has the effect of making their products from China cheaper."
It's not just a question of the immediate job losses. Vital technical know-how will also be lost. You can't create skilled tinsel makers with two weeks training. Not only that, but the supporting industries won't be there. If there was war with China (and if there are any Christians left) the nation's trees will be bare.
Latest BBC news counts - "factory close job loss" - 1,001 stories, "factory open new job" - 425 stories - and most of those are about new jobs overseas.
10 hours ago


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Super League Gaming, has appointed Samir Ahmed as its new chief technology officer. Ahmed is an accomplished engineer who brings to Super League over a decade of senior leadership experience in the digital entertainment industry. Most recently, he served as head of consumer technology for IMDb, an Amazon company that is the world’s most popular and authoritative website about movies, television and celebrities. While at IMDb, Ahmed oversaw the company’s critical systems, provided strategic direction on technology initiatives, developed project teams, and created and launched a technical solution that resulted in a significant increase in advertising revenue.
Previously, Ahmed was chief architect and vice president of technology at Fandango, where he led the acquisition transition and rebranding of M-GO to FandangoNOW. While in this position, he also provided guidance on various engineering initiatives to ensure the Fandango platform was being developed to support future expansion and scale. Ahmed joined Fandango after the company acquired M-GO, a digital entertainment services company, where he served in several senior roles, including chief technology officer.
“Samir’s wealth of knowledge and expertise in building advanced technological solutions and leading implementation efforts to expand digital entertainment platforms will be an invaluable asset to our management team,” said David Steigelfest, founder and chief product officer of Super League. “The timing is perfect for us to expand our executive team and to take our platform to the next level in terms of developing new and innovative ways to increase the number of touchpoints we have with gamers and rapidly growing esports audiences.”
Commenting on his appointment, Ahmed said “Esports platforms have proven to be explosive growth engines in the digital entertainment industry as they have made their way to mainstream audiences. Building off this momentum, Super League has created a unique platform that provides an exceptional user experience and is well positioned to capture a substantial portion of the gaming industry – amateur gamers of all ages. I plan to utilize my background in creating, enhancing and scaling various entertainment platforms to ensure Super League is in the best position to continue capitalizing on the industry’s growth going forward.”
Ahmed holds a master’s degree in computer science applied to business services from the University of Rennes 1. He also owns 10 patents related to video technology.


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The rapid rise of technology has changed how the world works in every aspect. It has changed how we shop, how we interact with others and how we go on with our day to day lives. As technology grows at a fast pace, it tends to kill off certain trends and norms we are accustomed to and brings about new trends as fast. For those wanting to stay at the top of their game and ahead of the competition, it is of utmost importance that they be aware of the future trends.
Artificial Intelligence is the latest tech development that is being heavily marketed by leading tech companies such as Google, Facebook, Apple and even Tesla. Artificial intelligence is already baked into most smartphones, smart speakers, car info systems and it is every soon going to be in everything we know such as hidden cameras and your pen camera. While the negative effects of AI – like Skynet – are up for debate, this is a trend which will not be halting any time soon.
The cryptocurrency frenzy swept the world off its feet on 2017 and while it has calmed down to some extent, it is here to stay. There is still a lot of suspicion and confusion about crypto currency, how it works and its safety but now that its popularity has grown, companies and people are dipping their fingers into the trade. According to experts the total value of cryptocurrency is currently at a tune of three hundred billion US Dollars.
Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality
Another feature being marketed as the breakthrough tech by many companies, Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality promises a range of benefits to consumers as well as bringing a much more interactive experience across all industries including the gaming sector, the educational sector and the advertising sector.
What was sparked off by the release of the Echo by Amazon has resulted in a large and growing market. A number of companies have rushed to get into the smart speaker market which has actually created a saturated market as of now. The advanced voice assistants and the fact that the smart speaker is right in our houses make it easy to ask questions and do other related activities. Analysts project that smart speakers will soon be a major mode through which users will ask questions and do their shopping.
This is somewhat related to the growth of artificial intelligence. As the machines are made smarter, they are able to take on more tasks and manage them more efficiently and do it faster too. Over time, numerous jobs and industries will be handled by automated machines. For an instance, the production of Tesla’s latest car, the Model 3, is almost completely being handled by machines. The only humans present just oversee the task to ensure that everything is done in a smooth manner. For now, the first few jobs targeted by machines will be dangerous and repetitive tasks but over time, machines will start to handle a multitude of other tasks too.
This Article is related to:
Future Digital Technology, Technology Trends, Smart Speaker, Automation, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Cryptocurrency, Artificial Intelligence, Digital Innovation, Latest technology news


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TRENTON – A chemist has admitted stealing company secrets, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office here.
The former research chemist with global pharmaceutical company sanofi-aventis admitted stealing sanofi’s trade secrets and making them available for sale through Abby Pharmatech Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of a Chinese chemicals company, the Attorney’s office reported.
Yuan Li, 29, of Somerset, N.J., a Chinese national, pleaded guilty to one count of theft of trade secrets. Li entered her guilty plea before U.S. District Judge Joel A. Pisano in Trenton federal court.
According to a release from the U.S. Attorney’s office:
“Li worked as a research scientist at sanofi’s Bridgewater headquarters from August 2006 through June 2011, where she directly assisted in the development of a number of compounds that sanofi viewed as potential building blocks for future drugs. These compounds were sanofi’s trade secrets, and had not been disclosed outside of sanofi in any manner, including by means of a patent application.
“While employed at sanofi, Li was also a 50 percent partner in Abby, which is engaged in the sale and distribution of pharmaceuticals.
“Li admitted that between October 2008 and June 2011, she accessed an internal sanofi database and downloaded information related to a number of sanofi compounds, including their chemical structures, onto her sanofi-issued laptop computer. She also admitted she then transferred the information to her personal home computer by sending it to her personal e-mail address or via a USB thumb drive.
“Li acknowledged that she made the stolen compounds available for sale on Abby’s website.”
The charge to which Li pleaded guilty carries a maximum potential penalty of 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000. Sentencing is scheduled for April 23.


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So much forjoined up government and minimising burdens on business. Having just forcedlarge retailers to spend almost £16 million refitting stores to hide tobaccoproducts the Government is now confirming it’s considering legislation onpackaging. That’scrazy and completely against the Government’s own better regulation principles.If a decision is taken to go ahead with plain packaging, concealing productsfrom view in shops becomes irrelevant.
More top news
Ten people have been taken to hospital and another two treated for injuries after a bus crashed into a tree in east London.
Cloudy skies for most as the Bank Holiday weekend begins - with brighter breaks through the south-east, the Midlands and East Anglia.
Six people have begun living in a dome in Hawaii to simulate what life would be like on Mars.


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Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has a warning for Tim Cook and his executives: stay cool, or you'll have trouble.
Speaking to Bloomberg in an interview published today, Wozniak said that while Apple is still "really good at setting a standard with a new device," it's starting to lose its standing as the coolest company in the technology industry.
"We used to have these ads, 'I'm a Mac and I'm a PC,' and the Mac was always the cool guy," Wozniak told Bloomberg. "And ouch, it's painful, because we kind of are losing that."
According to Bloomberg, Wozniak said that Apple's products are no longer able to easily trump competing devices from Amazon and Google because those companies "all have great ideas." He added that Apple should at least consider opening iTunes to Android and Windows Phone users.
Wozniak has been surprisingly outspoken about Apple over the last several months. In October, he called the company "arrogant" and lamented that it believed it was "the only one with the right clue." In November, he said that he was worried that Apple is "just used to cranking out the newest iPhone and falling a little behind." He also took a jab at the late Steve Jobs, saying that he didn't have "to be as much of a real rugged bastard, put people down, and make them feel demeaned."
Despite the negative talk, Wozniak told Bloomberg that he was hoping Apple would launch the rumored iWatch -- a device, he said, he would definitely buy.


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IKEA has asked customers who purchased HEROISK* or TALRIKA* plates, bowls of mugs that were bought between August 2019 and May 2021 to stop using them.
IKEA has received reports of the plates, bowls, and mugs breaking, which could cause potential burns due to any hot contents.
The products have since been withdrawn from sale and a recall has been put in place.
Customers have been asked to return them to an IKEA store for a full refund, proof of purchase such as a receipt is not required.
Hertfordshire Trading Standards, Tweeting the announcement earlier today.
A list of the affected items can be found here on the IKEA website.
Let us know your thoughts on this article in the comments section below.


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Hang Seng Index hits two-year high as Geely Auto jumps on Volvo venture and Tencent climbs to record
Hong Kong stocks closed at a two-year high on Monday, as Geely Auto surged after the Chinese car maker said it will form a joint venture with Volvo to develop electric car technology, and tech giant Tencent Holdings advanced to a record high.
The Hang Seng Index added 0.5 per cent, or 140.74 points, to 26,846.83 at the close, the highest level since June 2015. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index, also known as the H-share index, gained 0.3 per cent, or 33.82 points, to 10,820.95.
During the past two weeks the Hang Seng Index posted its longest winning streak in more than four years with nine straight days of gains. The city’s stocks are still 21 per cent less expensive than mainland China equities, according to a measure tracking the price difference of the two markets.
“The biggest advantage for Hong Kong shares is that the market is still cheap in terms of valuation,” said Wei Wei, a trader at Huaxi Securities. “The momentum will continue.”
Geely Auto led gains in blue-chip stocks, rallying 5.9 per cent to HK$18.62.
Several investment banks have maintained their positive ratings for the stock, including Nomura and Daiwa Capital, after Geely Auto said last week that it will deepen ties with its subsidiary Volvo Car and establish a 50-50 joint venture to produce systems for electric cars.
Index heavyweight Tencent added 1.8 per cent to HK$302.20, reaching a record for the stock. Chinese developer Sunac China, owned by tycoon Sun Hongbin, also closed at a record, rising 1.8 per cent to HK$20.10 after Sun said in a Weibo post that he will pay close attention to “cash flows” and put “the company security” as his priority. The stock closed the morning session at HK$21.1, up 6.9 per cent.
Last week, Sunac China entered into a deal to buy 13 tourism projects in China from Dalian Wanda for 43.8 billion yuan (US$6.48 billion). Separately, Sun became the new chairman of the listed arm of LeEco, a Chinese tech group facing mounting debt and losses, after spending billions of yuan to bail out the company.
Casino stocks jumped after JP Morgan raised its target prices for four players in the industry, including Galaxy Entertainment, Sands China, SJM Holdings, and Wynn Macau.
Galaxy Entertainment advanced the most among the sector, rising 3.6 per cent to HK$47.80.
Cheung Kong Infrastructure gained 3.7 per cent to HK$72.25 after a group of investment banks, including Credit Suisse and Daiwa Capital, raised their target prices for the shares after the company said first-half profit rose 2.7 per cent on year.
Mobile phone carrier China Unicom added 2.3 per cent to HK$11.68 after saying it was in negotiations to introduce strategic investors.
Previously, a Reuters report said Baidu and JD.com will join other big Chinese tech firms to jointly invest about US$12 billion in China Unicom’s Shanghai-listed unit.
On the mainland, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index edged up 0.4 per cent, or 12.62 points, to 3,250.60. The large-cap CSI300 also added 0.4 per cent, or 14.87 points, to 3,743.47.
Gauges of consumer-staples and consumer discretionary stocks rose at least 0.9 per cent as the biggest gainers among industry groups after data showed mutual funds increased holdings of liquor producers and home appliance makers in the second quarter.
Midea Group, the nation’s biggest appliance maker, added 3.6 per cent to 43.42 yuan and liquor producer Wuliangye Yibin advanced 2.2 per cent to 55.91 yuan.
The ChiNext Price Index, a gauge of China’s start-up stocks, lost 0.2 per cent, or 3.71 points, to 1,686.44.
Qtone Education Group tumbled 6.1 per cent to 10.47 yuan in Shenzhen. The China Securities Regulatory Commission opened a probe into its controlling shareholder Chen Zhichang and Lin Xiaoya, the shareholder acting in concert, for allegedly breaching rules of information disclosure, the ChiNext-listed company said in an exchange filing.
Additional reporting by Laura He


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Fresh from its initial unveiling and then its release to the US market in the Autumn, late last month Google’s latest streaming device – the Nexus Player – hit the UK shelves. The device, retailing at £79.99 (roughly the same price as Amazon’s competitor Fire TV streaming box), is – significantly – the first to use the new Android TV operating system (OS), coming later this the smart television screens of Sony, Sharp and TP Vision. It comes complete with the “cast” technology offered by Google’s content-less Chromecast, its Wi-Fi streaming dongle, and also offers content and services through apps from the Google Play store, among others.
As we described in a piece on these pages back in October (What are Google up to in TV?), we consider the Nexus Player to be the “true inheritor” to the old Google TV’s position in the market, and a “direct competitor” to other content and streaming device plays, among them Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and Roku, in a way that Google Chromecast simply wasn’t. It goes without saying that the streaming device market is an extremely congested one, one that is growing its share of online VOD consumption (at the expense of PCs and tablets) according to our own research, but – as we argued last year – the Nexus Player seems to have shifted the goalposts slightly. The third plank in what we deemed Google’s “three-pronged re-entry” into TV has now slotted into place (we give more detailed thought to this in October’s here). Now seems like an opportune moment to reflect upon what this all could mean.
The ASUS-made Nexus Player’s been warmly received by the UK market in its first few days in UK living rooms and in the demo rooms of our sister company iBurbia Studios. It has an intelligent voice search functionality, not too dissimilar from that offered by Amazon’s Fire TV and soon-to-be-released Amazon Fire Stick, and connects to a TV set in a simple fashion via an HDMI cable. It has a small, but nonetheless functional, 8GB of storage (four times the size of Fire TV), and Android smartphones can be used as remotes should a user prefer that to the supplied, deft-looking remote control. One stark contrast to its nearest competitors, Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV, is that the device lacks an Ethernet port. The internet connection – and any anticipated streaming – is therefore wireless and wireless alone.
In terms of content, the device comes pre-loaded with apps including Netflix and YouTube, as well as the Google Play Store. To complement a growing games offering (something Amazon are expected to develop with the release of the Firestick), an optional gamepad acts as a games controller for the Nexus Player should the remote control prove too limited.
And, of course, it comes loaded with the Android TV OS. Speaking of which…
The Android TV operating system (including CES)
Putting to one side all the talk of drones, virtual reality headsets and wearable tech at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, we at Decipher were left frustrated by a series of announcements from two television manufacturers that were little reported and yet indicative of some of the growing pains smart TV has encountered heretofore. An announcement from a third heralds new promise in the confused and confusing smart television OS landscape.
The first announcement came from Samsung, which until recently has used its own Smart TV platform. In all of its latest smart television models it said that it would default to its so far troubled Linux-based Tizen OS, promising an “integrated entertainment experience that is at once streamlined and powerful”. Tizen, revealed to the world almost two years ago at the Mobile World Congress, has had a less than auspicious honeymoon period, finding its way into just a handful of smartwatches, digital cameras and – after one aborted attempt (does anyone remember the Samsung Z?) – into the Z1 smartphone. Developers looking to get apps on a Tizen-powered homescreen (see right) will need to work within the framework of its Tizen Software Development Kit.
Tizen is seen by industry commentators as Samsung’s attempt at a strategic “glue” that marries together smart devices and the wider potential its push into the “internet of things” – indeed, one Samsung exec articulated it to be the “OS of everything”. To this end, the new Tizen-driven smart televisions will automatically search for nearby Samsung mobile devices, connect to them, and allow for content to be shared seamlessly across the home broadband network.
This all sounds promising, except when you learn that the OS won’t be made available as a software upgrade for many of its older smart TVs, and – for owners of sets that can be upgraded – an “Evolution Kit” will need to be purchased to facilitate the change. It remains to be seen whether Samsung’s grand ambitions for its proprietary OS can be realised.
Up next was Panasonic, which announced its latest sets will run a Firefox-based OS, having in the past experimented with the Viera Cast and Viera Connect operating systems. As part of a partnership with Mozilla, the developers of Firefox, the new system will be built on open standards, and users will be able to share content from any smartphone, tablet or PC with a Firefox browser or compatible app across the home broadband network. It promises, perhaps clunkily, to “unlock the power of the web as the platform across [an] expanding ecosystem of partners and devices”. We’ve been told that Panasonic’s user interface has been adapted to improve ease of navigation to live television, apps, websites and content streamed from other devices. Our fingers are crossed, but sadly telling is a line in Mozilla’s corporate blog announcing its partnership with Samsung for the coming year, describing the Firefox OS as empowering “developers, operators, hardware manufacturers and even (my italics) consumers to create customised and innovative, connected experiences”.
Last but not least was a glimmer of light from Sony, which announced that all of its 2015 smart TVs will be powered by the new Android TV OS (as right), leaving behind the Smart TV suite it had used previously. Sony of course has history with Google in the shape of Google TV, but this new development augurs well for Sony smart televisions as a product. Running the Android 5.0 “Lollipop” OS, developers will be able to use Google’s Android TV SDK Kit to optimise their apps for the platform. The software provides easy access to streaming services, allows for multiplayer gaming, and comes equipped with Google Cast – allowing users to “throw” content up to the television screen from connected mobile devices. In recent weeks, Sharp and TP Vision have announced similar plans to incorporate Android TV into their latest smart sets.
Some final thoughts
What all this comes back to, as we’ve observed on numerous occasions in the past, is how screen manufacturers in recent years have wanted to develop their own proprietary operating systems, thinking it gave them a sense of strategic advantage or control over users’ media habits. In the recent past, it has been just too difficult for third-party developers to create bespoke apps beyond the iOS, Android and Windows environments to sit on smart television screens. The consumer experience, in terms of functionality but also in terms of interoperability across these different environments, has been extremely and dispiritingly poor.
The prospect of several notable manufacturers clustering around a single operating system is an exciting, welcome and long overdue development for the evolution of smart television, whose gardens have been too walled and too complicated for consumers to navigate for too long. Developers will be able to optimise apps for multiple, rather than individual, manufacturers. Barriers to entry will be reduced. Innovation will be encouraged, not stymied. Presentation, content and functionality will be consistent, whether my set is made by one manufacturer or a close rival. And, as we opined in October Android TV gives Google a new class of device that favours other fellow Android devices around the home.
To return to Google’s Nexus Player, it’s our understanding that Google view it as a “trial platform” for developers wanting to experiment with apps destined for mainstream Android TV smart televisions and set-top boxes, not as a product with its own long-term rationale. In this sense, both as a neat consumer proposition and as a “test bed” for wider innovation around Android TV, its arrival is most welcome.
As if this wasn’t all perplexing enough, and as if to demonstrate the practical effects of the strategic headaches manufacturers have been causing themselves in recent years, it emerged in the industry press during the Consumer Electronics Show that owners of one of LG’s 2014 webOS TV models cannot upgrade to its latest operating system, webOS 2.0. Only 2015 models are able to do so.
This is just one example of how those manufacturing hardware have slipped up on the software. It’s simply no wonder that consumers’ conceptual understanding of what “smart” television is, and what it can offer, has stalled.


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Beef supplier Nebraska Beef Ltd. is recalling over 500,000 pounds of ground beef it produced in the last two months because the meat has been linked to an E. coli outbreak in Michigan and Ohio that has triggered lawsuits against The Kroger Co.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service said the beef supplier was identified as the source of meat implicated in the E. coli outbreak, which is suspected as the cause of at least 38 confirmed illnesses in Michigan and Ohio. As a result, Nebraska Beef is recalling about 531,700 pounds of ground beef that may be contaminated with the E. coli 0157:H7. USDA assigned the situation as a Class I recall, which means it carries a high health risk.
Investigators traced the meat to Nebraska Beef after several people in Ohio and Michigan became ill in central Ohio in mid-June amid a sharp increase in E. coli cases around the same time in Michigan. By June 20, officials had genetically linked many of the Ohio and Michigan cases to ground beef purchased from Kroger stores.
Kroger had already issued its own recall of beef, with sell-by dates of May 21 to June 8, that it sold in both Michigan and Ohio.
However, Nebraska Beef said it distributed some of the contaminated products also to accounts in Illinois, New York, and Pennsylvania, while additional beef products were sent to Colorado and Texas for further processing. It was not immediately clear whether potentially contaminated beef was also sold in other stores those states.
Government investigators expect more illness reports to follow, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that for every reported E. coli incident, 20 go unreported.


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New soda tax may not be enough to deter consumers: expert
VANCOUVER -- With the unveiling of the new provincial budget this week, British Columbians discovered they will soon be paying more for soft drinks.
Pop has, in the past, been exempt from provincial sales tax in B.C. - considered a grocery store essential. But the health effects of the sugary drinks have become clear in study after study, and Canadian health experts have been calling for more taxation for a long time.
“This has been a recommendation… for the last seven consecutive years,” a spokesperson for the Ministry of Finance told CTV News Vancouver in an emailed statement. “This is a step that health professionals have long supported.”
The seven per cent PST will be added to soda sales on July 1st of this year, and the provincial government is hoping it will be a deterrent to those who drink the most pop - teenagers between 14 and 18 years old.
But the chair of the Childhood Obesity Foundation says it may not be enough to actually change consumer habits.
“Sales taxes really aren’t evident until you’ve gone to the checkout and you’ve looked at your sales receipt, because you don’t see it on the sticker price on the shelf,” Dr. Tom Warshawski says, adding the real impact comes when you see a higher price tag.
“When the consumer goes to the shelf and they look at a sugary drink and they see - ‘Oh, this is $1.20 a litre,’ and then they look at the non-sugary drink and see that it’s $1 a litre, they’re nudged toward the healthier choice. The price sends an additional reminder that the healthier choice is the cheaper choice.”
He says while B.C. adding PST is a good first step, only a federal excise tax, which would show up on the price tag, would change buying habits.
“It really does shift behaviour. The evidence is very strong. When sugary drink taxes have been introduced in Mexico, France, Hungary, you see a shift in behaviour to purchasing the healthier choice,” Dr. Warshawski says. “B.C. doesn’t have the ability to do this, the federal government does, and that’s what we hope will be the next step.”
In the meantime, the provincial tax will apply to drinks in vending machines and soda fountains in fast food restaurants, in addition to pop purchased at the grocery store. And while it may not be enough to change British Columbians’ choice of beverage, it will bring in some money.
The Ministry of Finance says removing the exemption will bring in $27 million in the 2020/2021 fiscal year, even though it doesn’t go into effect until July.


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Healthcare Patent Filing Outsourcing Market Value Expected to Reach US $ 4,567.2 Million by 2027, Covering Pre and Post COVID-19 Market Analysis: Acumen Research and Consultation
Acumen Research and Consulting, a global provider of market research, in a recently published report titled “Healthcare Patent Filing Outsourcing Market – Global Industry Analysis, Market Size, Opportunities and Forecast, 2020-2027”
LOS ANGELES, April 27, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) – The Global Healthcare Patenting Outsourcing Market is expected to grow at a CAGR of around 5.5% from 2020 to 2027 and achieve a market value above US $ 4,567.2 Mn by 2027.
In 2020, Asia-Pacific dominated the market, registering the largest market share. During the forecast period, the region is expected to remain at the forefront. This large share is due to the large number of patents filed in the region, as well as the availability of low cost outsourcing services. China is the source of a significant number of patents filed in the Asia-Pacific region. According to the World Intellectual Property Organization, China filed 1,327,847 patents in 2019, while Japan filed 452,130 and India filed 34,015 patents, respectively.
DOWNLOAD EXAMPLES OF PAGES FROM THIS REPORT @ https://www.acumenresearchandconsulting.com/request-sample/2590
Impact of COVID-19 on the Healthcare Outsourcing Patent Filing Market
Due to the mandatory shelter-in-place from the COVID-19 pandemic, patent filing processes around the world have been disrupted. Under the CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security) Act, the USPTO has authorized a 30-day extension for patent filing processes with an expiration date between March 27 and April 27, 2020 The USPTO issued notices for additional patent extensions and trademark expiration date on April 28, 2020. In 2021, the USPTO promised the introduction of an end-to-end patent search tool (PE2E) as well as the continuation of the peer research collaboration pilot program.
The increasing demand for cost-effective and fast patent filing process is expected to drive the market growth. Growing innovations in medical devices, along with strong pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical pipelines, will drive the market during the forecast period. For example, the number of artificial intelligence (AI) applications in healthcare is increasing. With new and innovative products, several start-ups are thriving in the healthcare sector. This will help the market during the forecast period. In addition, the increase in the number of patent applications filed by established players such as Novartis, Covidien, Boston Scientific, Ethicon, Olympus Corp. and others will drive the demand for outsourcing of patent filing in the field of health during the forecast period.
SEE THE TABLE OF CONTENTS OF THIS REPORT @ https://www.acumenresearchandconsulting.com/healthcare-patent-filing-outsourcing-market
The global healthcare patent filing outsourcing market is segmented on the basis of field, service, and origin. By field, the market is categorized into medical and pharmaceutical technology. Medtech is further sub-segmented as assistive devices, consumables and disposables, diagnostic and imaging devices, drug delivery devices, surgical devices, and wearable medical devices. By service, the market is segmented into pre-filing, filing and prosecution, and post-issuance. By origin, the market is divided into residents and non-residents.
The medical technology segment dominated the market and accounted for the largest share of the revenue, which can be attributed to the increasing technological advancements in the medical device industry. In 2016, Medtronic, Olympus, and Boston Scientific, for example, filed for 182, 150, and 225 patents, respectively. Medtronic filed a patent for a valve delivery device on November 6, 2020, and it was published on February 25, 2021. Similarly, Boston Scientific received a patent for the 15 MHz Opticross 35 Peripheral Imaging Catheter on April 17. 2020. Such advances by medical device manufacturers present huge opportunities for outsourcing of patent filing in healthcare.
The filing and prosecution segment dominated the healthcare patent filing outsourcing market, accounting for the majority of revenues. This share can be attributed to the complexity of filing and prosecution, as well as the profitability achieved by outsourcing these tasks. Filing and prosecuting in-house will also take a lot of time and internal resources. As a result, the time savings provided by healthcare outsourcing companies in filing and lawsuits will drive segment growth over the forecast period.
Browse upcoming market research reports @ https://www.acumenresearchandconsulting.com/forthcoming-reports
Some of the main competitors are Clarivate, ipMetrix Consulting Group, CorporateDir.com, Patent Outsourcing Limited, Synoptic Intellectual Patents (P) Limited, Dennemeyer, Powell Gilbert, Bristows, HOYNG ROKH MONEGIER, CARPMAELS & RANSFORD LLP, and among others.
Some of the major observations regarding the healthcare patenting outsourcing industry include:
- In July 2020, United Health Products Inc. announced that it had filed a non-provisional patent application with the US Patent and Trademark Office for the hydrocolloid (gel) format of its oxidized regenerated cellulose product HemoStyp, and also filed an application separate under the Patent Cooperation Treaty with the World Intellectual Property Organization.
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Before the iPhone X launched, Apple claimed the device’s Face ID system was very unlikely to be fooled. But according to Vietnamese cybersecurity firm Bkav, Apple’s technology was spoofed using a mask that cost only $150 to make.
Bkav claims their attempts began on November 5, so it only took the company about a week to bypass the iPhone X’s security. You can see Face ID being tricked in the video below. The company uses the mask to unlock the device, followed by a researcher’s face. It works without issue.
According to Bkav, the mask was created using a combination of 3D printing, makeup, and 2D images, along with a specially sculpted nose.
When Apple introduced the iPhone X in September, the company touted Face ID’s advanced security, saying it worked with professional mask makers and makeup artists in Hollywood to protect against attempts to spoof Face ID.
Here’s what Apple said in its White Paper about the technology:
Facial matching is performed within the secure enclave using neural networks trained specifically for that purpose. We developed the facial matching neural networks using over a billion images, including IR and depth images collected in studies conducted with the participants’ informed consents.
We tried unlocking the device using a mask but Apple’s system wasn’t spoofed. However, Bkav’s tests prove that with plenty of determination Face ID can be broken into. Apple has already admitted that Face ID isn’t perfect, conceding there’s a 1 in 1,000,000 chance it can be unlocked by a random person.
Bkav said their test is simply a proof of concept, so iPhone X owners shouldn’t be worried. In any case, you can see Bkav’s tests up above.