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In March 2013 the blockchain temporarily split into two independent chains with different rules. The two blockchains operated simultaneously for six hours, each with its own version of the transaction history. Normal operation was restored when the majority of the network downgraded to version 0.7 of the bitcoin software. The Mt. Gox exchange briefly halted bitcoin deposits and the price dropped by 23% to $37 before recovering to previous level of approximately $48 in the following hours. The US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) established regulatory guidelines for "decentralized virtual currencies" such as bitcoin, classifying American bitcoin miners who sell their generated bitcoins as Money Service Businesses (MSBs), that are subject to registration or other legal obligations. In April, exchanges BitInstant and Mt. Gox experienced processing delays due to insufficient capacity resulting in the bitcoin price dropping from $266 to $76 before returning to $160 within six hours. The bitcoin price rose to $259 on 10 April, but then crashed by 83% to $45 over the next three days. On 15 May 2013, US authorities seized accounts associated with Mt. Gox after discovering it had not registered as a money transmitter with FinCEN in the US. On 23 June 2013, the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) listed 11.02 bitcoins as a seized asset in a United States Department of Justice seizure notice pursuant to 21 U.S.C. § 881. This marked the first time a government agency had seized bitcoin. The FBI seized about 26,000 bitcoins in October 2013 from the dark web website Silk Road during the arrest of Ross William Ulbricht. Bitcoin's price rose to $755 on 19 November and crashed by 50% to $378 the same day. On 30 November 2013 the price reached $1,163 before starting a long-term crash, declining by 87% to $152 in January 2015. On 5 December 2013, the People's Bank of China prohibited Chinese financial institutions from using bitcoins. After the announcement, the value of bitcoins dropped, and Baidu no longer accepted bitcoins for certain services. Buying real-world goods with any virtual currency had been illegal in China since at least 2009.
Charts can be a very useful tool for those looking to trade or invest in Bitcoin. Prices are available on numerous time frames, from as little as a minute to monthly or yearly charts. Short term traders may use shorter-term charts to try to profit from buying and selling of Bitcoin. Long-term investors may use charts to try to identify areas f support and resistance. When the market declines into support levels, investors may see that as a solid buying opportunity and look to buy Bitcoin on dips.
In January 2012, bitcoin was featured as the main subject within a fictionalized trial on the CBS legal drama The Good Wife in the third-season episode "Bitcoin for Dummies". The host of CNBC's Mad Money, Jim Cramer, played himself in a courtroom scene where he testifies that he doesn't consider bitcoin a true currency, saying "There's no central bank to regulate it; it's digital and functions completely peer to peer".
Bitcoin has been criticized for the amount of electricity consumed by mining. As of 2015, The Economist estimated that even if all miners used modern facilities, the combined electricity consumption would be 166.7 megawatts (1.46 terawatt-hours per year). At the end of 2017, the global bitcoin mining activity was estimated to consume between one and four gigawatts of electricity. Politico noted that the even high-end estimates of bitcoin's total consumption levels amount to only about 6% of the total power consumed by the global banking sector, and even if bitcoin's consumption levels increased 100 fold from today's levels, bitcoin's consumption would still only amount to about 2% of global power consumption.
Legal Gray Area. Major governments have largely remained on the sidelines, and this has created both a sense of potential and apprehension for Bitcoin proponents and critics respectively. Bitcoin isn’t backed by a regulatory agency and a government would technically be ceding power by supporting a decentralized currency. This has been largely officially unaddressed. Bitcoin’s price, however, tends to be very sensitive to any news concerning the US government’s opinion of cryptocurrencies. For example, when the SEC denied the approval of bitcoin-based exchange-traded-products—essentially bitcoin-backed assets on the stock market—in 2017, Bitcoin’s price dropped 18%. Yet while the price and adoption of Bitcoin would be affected by government action, governments are unable to criminalize Bitcoin. In fact, governments such as the United States and China have invested in it at some capacity.
In 2013 and 2014, the European Banking Authority and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), a United States self-regulatory organization, warned that investing in bitcoins carries significant risks. Forbes named bitcoin the best investment of 2013. In 2014, Bloomberg named bitcoin one of its worst investments of the year. In 2015, bitcoin topped Bloomberg's currency tables.
The receiver of the first bitcoin transaction was cypherpunk Hal Finney, who created the first reusable proof-of-work system (RPOW) in 2004. Finney downloaded the bitcoin software on its release date, and on 12 January 2009 received ten bitcoins from Nakamoto. Other early cypherpunk supporters were creators of bitcoin predecessors: Wei Dai, creator of b-money, and Nick Szabo, creator of bit gold. In 2010, the first known commercial transaction using bitcoin occurred when programmer Laszlo Hanyecz bought two Papa John's pizzas for 10,000 bitcoin.
The price of bitcoins has gone through cycles of appreciation and depreciation referred to by some as bubbles and busts. In 2011, the value of one bitcoin rapidly rose from about US$0.30 to US$32 before returning to US$2. In the latter half of 2012 and during the 2012–13 Cypriot financial crisis, the bitcoin price began to rise, reaching a high of US$266 on 10 April 2013, before crashing to around US$50. On 29 November 2013, the cost of one bitcoin rose to a peak of US$1,242. In 2014, the price fell sharply, and as of April remained depressed at little more than half 2013 prices. As of August 2014 it was under US$600. During their time as bitcoin developers, Gavin Andresen and Mike Hearn warned that bubbles may occur.
News drives attention, and attention drives understanding. While many people have flocked to cryptocurrencies purely in search of financial gain, there are a ton of people that are simply curious. Some peoples are sticking around and trying to understand what cryptos are all about. While more users increases Bitcoin’s network effect, more people forming in-depth understandings of cryptos also strengthen the active Bitcoin community.
Bitcoin is the first cryptocurrency, a concept that was discussed in the late 90s. The first Bitcoin specification and proof of concept was published in 2009 in a cryptography mailing list. The concept was presented by a person or group known as Satoshi Nakamoto. The real identity of Nakamoto has been a mystery since that time, with various theories on who the individual or group may be.
A wallet stores the information necessary to transact bitcoins. While wallets are often described as a place to hold or store bitcoins, due to the nature of the system, bitcoins are inseparable from the blockchain transaction ledger. A better way to describe a wallet is something that "stores the digital credentials for your bitcoin holdings" and allows one to access (and spend) them. Bitcoin uses public-key cryptography, in which two cryptographic keys, one public and one private, are generated. At its most basic, a wallet is a collection of these keys.
Several news outlets have asserted that the popularity of bitcoins hinges on the ability to use them to purchase illegal goods. Nobel-prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz says that bitcoin's anonymity encourages money laundering and other crimes, "If you open up a hole like bitcoin, then all the nefarious activity will go through that hole, and no government can allow that." He's also said that if "you regulate it so you couldn’t engage in money laundering and all these other [crimes], there will be no demand for Bitcoin. By regulating the abuses, you are going to regulate it out of existence. It exists because of the abuses."
Bitcoin turns 10 — how it went from an abstract idea to a $100 billion market in a decade CNBCBitcoin is 10 years old today — here's a look back at its crazy history Business InsiderFactbox: Ten years of bitcoin Reuters10 years later, we still don't know what Bitcoin is for Telegraph.co.ukIt's Bitcoin's 10th Birthday. Here's What People Are […]
The Bank for International Settlements summarized several criticisms of bitcoin in Chapter V of their 2018 annual report. The criticisms include the lack of stability in bitcoin's price, the high energy consumption, high and variable transactions costs, the poor security and fraud at cryptocurrency exchanges, vulnerability to debasement (from forking), and the influence of miners.
According to the European Central Bank, the decentralization of money offered by bitcoin has its theoretical roots in the Austrian school of economics, especially with Friedrich von Hayek in his book Denationalisation of Money: The Argument Refined, in which he advocates a complete free market in the production, distribution and management of money to end the monopoly of central banks.:22
The bitcoin blockchain is a public ledger that records bitcoin transactions. It is implemented as a chain of blocks, each block containing a hash of the previous block up to the genesis block[a] of the chain. A network of communicating nodes running bitcoin software maintains the blockchain.:215–219 Transactions of the form payer X sends Y bitcoins to payee Z are broadcast to this network using readily available software applications.
Exchanges, however, are a different story. Perhaps the most notable Bitcoin exchange hack was the Tokyo-based MtGox hack in 2014, where 850,000 bitcoins with a value of over $350 million suddenly disappeared from the platform. This doesn’t mean that Bitcoin itself was hacked; it just means that the exchange platform was hacked. Imagine a bank in Iowa is robbed: the USD didn’t get robbed, the bank did.
In July 2013, a project began in Kenya linking bitcoin with M-Pesa, a popular mobile payments system, in an experiment designed to spur innovative payments in Africa. During the same month the Foreign Exchange Administration and Policy Department in Thailand stated that bitcoin lacks any legal framework and would therefore be illegal, which effectively banned trading on bitcoin exchanges in the country. According to Vitalik Buterin, a writer for Bitcoin Magazine, "bitcoin's fate in Thailand may give the electronic currency more credibility in some circles", but he was concerned it didn't bode well for bitcoin in China.
Behind the scenes, the Bitcoin network is sharing a massive public ledger called the "block chain". This ledger contains every transaction ever processed which enables a user's computer to verify the validity of each transaction. The authenticity of each transaction is protected by digital signatures corresponding to the sending addresses therefore allowing all users to have full control over sending bitcoins.
While there is certainly the possibility of making short-term profits in Bitcoin, many market participants are viewing an investment in Bitcoin as a long-term play. If the cryptocurrency were to eventually become a favored form of global payment and remittance, there is no telling just how high prices could go. Some have even suggested that the price of Bitcoin could hit $50,000 in 2018 and eventually $1 million.
To be accepted by the rest of the network, a new block must contain a so-called proof-of-work (PoW). The system used is based on Adam Back's 1997 anti-spam scheme, Hashcash. The PoW requires miners to find a number called a nonce, such that when the block content is hashed along with the nonce, the result is numerically smaller than the network's difficulty target.:ch. 8 This proof is easy for any node in the network to verify, but extremely time-consuming to generate, as for a secure cryptographic hash, miners must try many different nonce values (usually the sequence of tested values is the ascending natural numbers: 0, 1, 2, 3, ...:ch. 8) before meeting the difficulty target.
If fewer people begin to accept Bitcoin as a currency, these digital units may lose value and could become worthless. There is already plenty of competition, and though Bitcoin has a huge lead over the other 100-odd digital currencies that have sprung up, thanks to its brand recognition and venture capital money, a technological break-through in the form of a better virtual coin is always a threat.
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have been identified as economic bubbles by at least eight Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences laureates, including Robert Shiller, Joseph Stiglitz, and Richard Thaler. Noted Keyensian economist Paul Krugman wrote in his New York Times column criticizing bitcoin, calling it a bubble and a fraud; and professor Nouriel Roubini of New York University called bitcoin the "mother of all bubbles." Central bankers, including former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, investors such as Warren Buffett, and George Soros have stated similar views, as have business executives such as Jamie Dimon and Jack Ma.
A fork referring to a blockchain is defined variously as a blockchain split into two paths forward, or as a change of protocol rules. Accidental forks on the bitcoin network regularly occur as part of the mining process. They happen when two miners find a block at a similar point in time. As a result, the network briefly forks. This fork is subsequently resolved by the software which automatically chooses the longest chain, thereby orphaning the extra blocks added to the shorter chain (that were dropped by the longer chain).
In June 2014 the network exceeded 100 petahash/sec. On 18 June 2014, it was announced that bitcoin payment service provider BitPay would become the new sponsor of St. Petersburg Bowl under a two-year deal, renamed the Bitcoin St. Petersburg Bowl. Bitcoin was to be accepted for ticket and concession sales at the game as part of the sponsorship, and the sponsorship itself was also paid for using bitcoin.
Bitcoin’s popularity has undeniably been its number one advantage over the numerous other cryptocurrencies. By gaining a large number of adopters and users, Bitcoin has achieved a network effect that attracts even more users. Users who would otherwise be more apprehensive investing in a relatively unknown and unproven digital currency are reassured by Bitcoin’s performance over time, its growing community, and the fact that people they know are adopting cryptos.
In case you haven't read any of my Bitcoin Value Indicator reports, you can get caught up here. The idea is that since Bitcoin is a log scale phenomenon, and the organic growth of the network can be modeled using several proxies, then we can estimate a range of values that may be appropriate by using this data and creating meaningful visualizations with it.
Bitcoin's journey continued slowly at first, but it hit the mainstream in 2013 after the first of several hyperinflation incidents occurred in the currency. In late 2013, the cryptocurrency spike in value from around $100 per coin to $1,000 in just over a month, before halving in value over the next three or four months. Bitcoin would not hit $1,000 again until 2017.
More recently, at a congressional hearing on Capitol Hill, global economist and New York University professor Nouriel Roubini said, "Crypto is the mother or father of all scams and bubbles." He called out "swindlers" who tapped into investors' fear of missing out and took them for a ride with "crappy assets that went into a bust and crash — in a matter of months — like you have not seen in any history of financial bubbles."


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To ensure active participation by Turkish women entrepreneurs in Turkey's export operations and business life, the Trade Ministry has launched projects to pave the way for businesswomen to benefit from support packages and various incentives, Trade Minister Ruhsar Pekcan announced.
The minister said that the Department of Women and Young Entrepreneurs Exports has been established under the ministry's operations to increase the role of women in Turkey's export operations and encourage them to benefit from incentive programs. Thus, the department will act as a bridge between women entrepreneurs and the ministry, Pekcan said.
"As part of our initiatives to support businesswomen, we will bring together Turkish and Spanish women entrepreneurs. We will plan how they could engage in common trade operations via the 'Women in Trade' project," Pekcan said in a statement to Anadolu Agency (AA).
The Turkish Exporters' Assembly (TİM) has only one female board member as opposed to 12 male members, including the chairman. However, in October 2018, to support more women and increase the number of women exporters, TİM established a women's council.
During the G20 Trade and Digital Economy Ministers' meeting in Japan, Pekcan and Spanish Trade Minister Reyes Maroto met and discussed ways to deepen Turkish-Spanish commercial ties, expand bilateral trade volume and increase investments.
Pekcan noted that Spain is a significant European Union country with which Turkey has strong economic and trade relations. Last year, Turkey's exports to Spain stood at $7.7 billion, with imports of $5.4 billion.
"To invigorate our relations with Spain in new fields, we would like to see our businesswomen more actively involved in this process. Therefore, we will hold meetings bringing together Turkish and Spanish businesswomen. Spain's Trade Ministry and the Department of Women and Young Entrepreneurs Exports will jointly carry out the project," Pekcan said, stressing that the Spanish government consists of 10 women ministers and seven male ministers. Women ministers at the Spanish government oversee finance, economy, trade and industry operations, she added.
Pekcan also stressed that she discussed signing a protocol for a Joint Economic and Trade Commission (JETCO) at a meeting in the fall.
Netherlands, Turkey to discuss 'women's cooperation' at JETCO meeting
Trade Minister Pekcan pointed out that the Netherlands is one of Turkey's leading economic partners both in terms of trade and investment, recalling that the trade volume between the two countries rose from $4.6 billion in 2006 to $8.1 billion in 2018.
Pekcan noted that the Dutch direct investments reached $24.2 billion and that Turkish investments in the Netherlands surpassed $12 billion, stressing the Turkish-Dutch Joint Economic and Trade Commission Meeting (JETCO) constituted the most crucial pillar of commercial relations with the Netherlands. "We will hold the second installment of this meeting and the roundtable meeting in Istanbul in September. We think that new projects should be developed in addition to classical methods to improve our bilateral trade relations with the Netherlands," Minister Pekcan continued. "At this point, major roles fall on our women entrepreneurs. One of the topics of the JETCO meeting with the Netherlands will be to strengthen the cooperation between women entrepreneurs of the two countries. For this reason, a significant number of women entrepreneurs will participate in the meeting, explain their activities, and offer suggestions on cooperation areas."
Meanwhile, Pekcan said that in the JETCO agreement signed with Canada in Japan, they also included an article about women for the first time. "We aim to empower all segments of society, especially women, to create a positive impact on economic growth and contribute to reducing inequality and poverty," she added.
Pekcan stressed that the issue of women's economic empowerment was included for the first time in a text signed on bilateral trade and economic relations and cooperation. "We will continue to support and enlarge our exports. For this purpose, as the ministry, we will offer our support and guidance to exporters for international women's cooperation," Pekcan said.
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The National Basketball Association has struck a renewed and enlarged multiyear marketing and content agreement with Verizon Media-owned Yahoo Sports that will see the company deploy NBA games in virtual reality and create new betting-related content.
The deal designates Yahoo Sports as an official marketing partner of the league and Ryot, a sister company to Yahoo Sports under the Verizon Media corporate umbrella, as a live virtual reality production partner during the NBA’s resumption of the 2019-20 season beginning July 30 in Orlando, Florida.
Ryot will produce NBA League Pass Virtual Reality games live from the league’s restart in the immersive video format that will be distributed to fans via the Facebook-owned Oculus Venues platform between July 31 and August 14.
As a result, Ryot takes over the NBA League Pass Virtual Reality production rights that had been previously held by NextVR. That company was acquired by Apple earlier this year for about $100m (€84.5m), less than the $115m in venture funding that NextVR previously raised for NextVR.
The NBA retains an active partnership with Oculus, where the NBA League Pass Virtual Reality games are distributed, as well as a separate immersive media partnership with Intel.
“NBA League Pass in VR is exactly the kind of innovative solution we love to create with our partners,” said Guru Gowrappan, Verizon Media chief executive. “Working with the NBA to redefine the fan’s experience of the game has amazing implications for the future of sports and entertainment.”
Yahoo Sports, meanwhile, expanded its content development and distribution in partnership with the NBA. Among the specific planned efforts are additional distribution of the NBA League Pass out-of-market game package, rights to create sports betting content around the league, and the development of digital video programming focused on fantasy and betting to coincide with the conference finals and NBA Finals.
Yahoo Sports will also continue to produce the exclusive season-long fantasy game of the NBA, and will gain additional brand exposure on NBA television and digital media assets that are co-managed by the league and AT&T’s Turner Sports.
“With everything from fantasy games, sports betting integrations, gaming-focused content and NBA games in VR, there will be no shortage of opportunities to get closer to the game,” said Bill Koenig, NBA president of global content and media distribution.
Financial terms were not disclosed, but a prior deal between Verizon and the NBA struck in early 2018 was estimated at about $400m.
The Yahoo deal closely follows a separate pact the NBA struck with Olympic Entertainment Group to designate that company an official betting partner for the Baltics and Slovakia.


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Driven by economic growth in the country, by increased income and by expanding the availability of credit, the Brazilian retail sector is going through a time of great change.
This moment provides new opportunities such as network consolidation transactions, expanding into unexplored areas, development of electronic retail and development of complementary services, transforming the reality of retailing.
In addition to the growth and consolidation, the sector is becoming more professional, and the trend is that this momentum will continue for years to come.
Consumers, on the other hand, are increasingly demanding and connected to advantages offered, causing a fundamental impact on retail development.
These facts raise important challenges for retailers, as sustainability and growth are vital. To this end, innovation, productivity, transparency, financial management and risk management will be in increasing demand.


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1 - Siemens signed MoUs on decarbonization
Siemens Limited signed a Memorandum of Understanding with NTPC Limited, India’s largest power utility, to identify, evaluate and set up reference use cases of hydrogen sector-coupling for various upstream and downstream applications. The collaboration is aimed at developing innovative technologies, solutions and techniques to reduce the dependence on Hydrocarbons in India.
Siemens Limited signed a separate MoU with TERI for collaboration on technologies to support the energy transition in India including sector-coupling.
2 - ADB to give $451 mn for Chennai-Kanyakumari Industrial Corridor power links
The Asian Development Bank will provide a $451 million (about Rs 3,200 crore) loan to strengthen power connectivity between the southern and northern parts of the Chennai-Kanyakumari Industrial Corridor (CKIC) in Tamil Nadu. The total cost of the project is $653.5 million, of which the government will provide $202.5 million.
The project is estimated to be completed by the end of 2024. CKIC covers 23 of the state's 32 districts and 70% of the state population.
3 - Coal India to produce one billion tonne of coal by 2024
Coal India Limited (CIL) has set a target to produce 750 million tonnes of coal by the Financial Year 2020-21 and would further produce one billion tonne of coal in the financial year 2023-24. The CIL is currently given the target to produce 660 million tonnes of coal amounting to 82% of the country’s coal output.
CIL today is the single largest coal producer in the world. Operating through 82 mining areas CIL is an apex body with 7 wholly owned coal producing subsidiaries and 1 mine planning and consultancy company spread over 8 provincial states of India.
4 - OECD expects slower growth in India, Southeast Asia, China
According to the OECD's (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) economic outlook presented at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit, the regional GDP GDP growth of the economies of India, Southeast Asia and China is expected at 5.7% over 2020-24, down from 6.7% in 2013-17.
OECD has projected India's growth over the next five years at 6.6%, compared to 7.4% in 2013-17. For Southeast Asia, it forecast a growth of 4.9% over 2020-24 while China's growth was projected at 5.6%.
5 - IOCL gets environmental clearance to set up 2G ethanol plant in Panipat
Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has given environment clearance to Indian Oil Corporation Limited to set up new 2G Ethanol plant at Panipat in Haryana. The estimated investment in setting up the plant is Rs 766 crore.
The IOCL had submitted a proposal seeking environment clearance for its proposed 100 KLPD Ligno-Cellulosic 2G ethanol plant. Ethanol produced will be used for blending in transportation fuel.
6 - Khadi India’s flagship store in CP records high sales of Rs 3.44 core
Khadi India’s flagship store at Connaught Place in New Delhi has recorded higher sales of 3.44 crore rupees. The store belongs to Khadi and Village Industries Commission, KVIC. The sale from April to October 2019 has recorded 36.47 crores rupees as compared to 33.03 crores rupees during the same period in 2018.
On October 2nd 2019, the store registered highest ever sale of Rs. 1.28 Crores in a single day beating previous record of Rs. 1.25 Crore on 13th Oct 2018.
7 - Government allocated unique HS code for Khadi
In order to give impetus to the export of Khadi, the government has allocated a separate Harmonized System (HS) code for this fabric. According to Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) Chairman Vinai Kumar Saxena, allocation of HS code to the khadi will help the government to plan the export strategies effectively.
Earlier, Khadi did not have exclusive HS code and all the export data regarding this fabric used to come under the normal fabric head.
8 - Tech Mahindra acquired New York-based BORN Group for $95 million
Tech Mahindra Ltd (Tech M) acquired BORN Group, a New York-based digital content and production agency, for $95 million to bolster creative capacity. Of this $95 million enterprise value, $25 million will be linked to the achievement of financial targets for the year ending December 31, 2019. Tech Mahindra will acquire the Indian subsidiary of Born Group - Born Commerce Private Ltd.
The deal will help Tech Mahindra Ltd utilize BORN’s services such as consulting, content creation, maintenance and hosting services, digital and social marketing, among others.
9 - Moody’s changed India’s economic outlook to “negative” from “Stable”
Moody's Investors Service changed the outlook on the Government of India's ratings to negative from stable and affirmed the Baa2 foreign-currency and local-currency long-term issuer ratings. Moody's affirmed India's Baa2 local-currency senior unsecured rating and its P-2 other short-term local-currency rating. The Baa2 rating balances the country's credit strengths including its large and diverse economy and stable domestic financing base for government debt, against its principal challenges including high government debt, weak social and infrastructure and a fragile financial sector.
Moody's decision to change the outlook reflects increasing risks that economic growth will remain materially lower than in the past.
10 - NCAER Survey: Business Confidence fell by 15%
110th Round of the Business Expectations Survey (BES) carried out by NCAER, said the National Council of Applied Economic Research unveiled that business confidence across the industry declined in the September quarter by 15% due to an all-pervasive worsening of business sentiment. It stood at 103.1 in the second quarter of 2019-20. Other component of present capacity utilisation dropped 86.2% to an all-time low since July 2009.
BCI of all five sectors i.e. consumer non-durables, consumer durables, intermediate goods, capital goods and services, showed a deterioration of business sentiment.
11 - Retail inflation jumps to 4.62% in October
Retail inflation surged to 4.62% in October 2019 mainly on account of higher food prices. According to government data released, the inflation in the food basket spiked to 7.89% in October 2019 as against 5.11% in September 2019.
The inflation based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) was 3.99% in September and 3.38% in October 2018. The Reserve Bank mainly factors in the CPI-based inflation to arrive at its bi-monthly monetary policy. The RBI has been asked to keep the retail inflation at around 4%.
12 - Wholesale inflation eases to 0.16% in October
Wholesale prices based inflation eased further to 0.16% in October, as against 0.33% in September. Government data showed subdued prices of non-food articles and fall in prices of manufactured items.
Annual inflation, based on monthly wholesale price index (WPI), was at 5.54% in October last year. For manufactured products, the wholesale inflation was at -0.84% in October 2019. However, retail inflation for the month hit a 16-month high of 4.62% due to soaring prices of food articles, including fruits and vegetables.
13 - NCAER forecasts India’s GDP growth at 4.9% for FY20
National Council of Applied Economic Research predicted India’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth for 2019-20 at 4.9% as against 6.8 % in 2018 (or FY-19) due to fall in consumption demand. Cargo movement across rail, ports and airways has also shown a substantial fall.
Real private consumption expenditure growth has fallen from 9.8% in Q2FY19 to 3.1% in Q1FY20, while real government fixed capital formation growth has gone from 11.7% in Q3FY19 to 4% in Q1FY20.
14 - SBI’s economic research team revised India’s FY20 GDP forecast to 5%
SBI's economic research team in its report ‘Ecowrap’ revised India's FY20 GDP forecast to 5% from its earlier estimate of 6.1% for the Fiscal Year 2020 (FY20) due to low automobile sales, deceleration in air traffic movements, low consumption demand, flattening of core sector growth and declining investment in construction and infrastructure.
Real private consumption expenditure growth has fallen from 9.8% in Q2FY19 to 3.1% in Q1FY20. The report predicted pick-up of growth rate pace in 2020-21 to 6.2%.
15 - MELPL Indo-French collaboration became largest FDI project of Indian Railways
Indian Railways has entered into Procurement cum Maintenance Agreement with Madhepura Electric Locomotive Pvt. Ltd. (MELPL), a joint venture of Indian Railways and M/s Alstom. As part of largest Foreign Direct Investment project of Indian Railways, Ministry of Railways and Alstom came together in 2015 to transform the heavy freight transportation landscape of the country. A landmark agreement worth 3.5 billion Euro was signed to manufacture 800 electric locomotives for freight service and its associated maintenance.
Alstom has redesigned the complete locomotive including bogies. This is the first time such High Horse Power locomotive is being tested on Broad Gauge network in the World by any Railways.


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Submitted by Angela Cato. Thanks, Angela!
The Autumn Benefit Powwow will be held on Saturday, Oct. 22, at the Mid-America All-Indian Center at 650 N. Seneca near downtown Wichita.
The powwow will include gourd dancing from 1-5 p.m. and a grand entry of intertribal dancers at 6:30 p.m. The closing song is scheduled for 10 p.m.
The Autumn Benefit Powwow is free and open to the public. Donations, however, will be accepted. All money raised from the powwow will be used to help fund the 2012 American Indian Festival at Century II.
This year, the powwow will include a Book and Art Sale, with books, magazines, CDs, posters that relate to American Indians as well as other topics. Proceeds from the Book and Art Sale will be used to purchase artwork for the Indian Center museum as well as new books and media for the museum’s reference library.
Both the Book and Art Sale and the Autumn Benefit Powwow will take place indoors at the Indian Center, 650 N. Seneca. The hours for the sale are 1-8 p.m.; the powwow will take place from 1-10 p.m.


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Northwest Illinois residents and businesses are invited to participate in the upcoming recycling collection.
Curbside recycling has been added to this event. For a fee of $5 per household, a single stream recycling dumpster will be available. Eligible items for drop off include consumer glass bottles and jars, consumer plastics and metal cans, cardboard and paper including magazines, junk mail and newspapers.
No paint, no tires, and no household hazardous waste items will be accepted.
The event has been organized by the Jo-Carroll Solid Waste Agency. For more information or questions, please contact Mark Maidak, at 815-718-0238, or via e-mail at email@example.com.


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By Kiyimba Bruno
The chairman board of trustees for the International Women Coffee Association Victoria Sekitoleko has urged wives to convince their partners to take more coffee.
While giving her remarks on the fourth International Coffee Day celebrations that took place at Mukono Zonal Agricultural, Research and Development Institute (MUZARD) on Thursday, Ms Sekitoleko added that coffee is ‘a medicine that relieves one from over forgetting’.
“Let us have a small battle with our men at home about coffee. They must love and appreciate the role we play though coffee,” noted Sekitoleko.
“When you turn 50 years of age, you start to forget. But when you take coffee, you won’t have a better medicine for this disease.”
She highlighted that women play very many roles in the coffee industry; from the time of planting, harvesting but when it comes time for selling, men join in and women end up gaining the least penny.
It is on this note that Sekitoleko urged all women to always get involved in various dialogues to help them push their voice.
The function was graced by the minister for Agriculture, animal industry and fisheries Hon Vincent Bamulangaki Sempijja who commended the women for the good work done towards moving the coffee industry.
Sempijja said that the size of Uganda’s economic growth has increased from USD1.6billion in 2017 to USD25.9billion as of 2017. According to Sempijja, 80 per cent of the strength in this growth is brought about by women.
Do you have a story in your community or an opinion to share with us: Email us at email@example.com


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What Is Pure Watercraft?
Pure Watercraft is a startup working heavily in electric boating technology. What has driven attention toward the startup so far is the development of their electric outboard motor system which could easily change the entire makeup of the present-day boating industry.
The basic premise of the technology is the creation of an electric motor for smaller boats that would replace the current motor technology that is still heavily reliant on gasoline. Beyond simply creating the motors, the technology the startup has developed, comes with a variety of features making it even more valuable. Among those features, the highlights are rapid charging with speeds up to 90 minutes for a half charge on a 240V outlet, GPS enabled throttle, a modular battery system, completely silent propulsion, and a fully sealed engine resulting in no need for outward maintenance.
Pure Watercraft’s electric outboard has propulsion capabilities equivalent to a 50 HP gas outlet. However, one of the major hallmarks for the company is that it produces an electric outboard motor known for its 100% clean electricity, therefore resulting in zero emissions.
The company’s products include simply the outboard system and a collection of different boats such as bass boats, rigid inflatables, pontoon boats, and coaching launches. These products have been available for pre-order for many years; However, the first production will be launched and delivered to the public during the first part of 2021. The pricing for the outboard motor products will be $6,000 for the motor, $8,500 for the battery, and $2,000 for a charger. The products developed and soon to be launched by Pure Watercraft have created a serious group of investors excited about the startup.
Pure Watercraft’s Recent Funding Round and Future Plans
In Pure Watercraft’s Series A funding round, the startup raised a total of $37.5 million. The funding round was led by hybrid venture capital and private equity firm L37. Due to the firm’s contributions, Managing Partner of L37 Randall Ussery will join the startup’s board of directors.
Pure Watercraft plans to use the new funding to scale up its operations to become more commercially available as a viable alternative to traditional gas-powered outboards.
Pure Watercraft is a startup with a new product that could bring clean energy to an entirely new sector of consumer items.The fact that boating is a fairly untapped market in comparison to the automotive industry, the development of a zero emission outboard with strong propulsion is a huge step in the right direction. Adding to the startup’s products being set to launch this year, is a Series A funding round, which shows genuine enthusiasm for what is being created. Adding up all of these factors, the company looks comfortably set to find major success in the future especially as the world becomes even more environmentally conscious.
About the Author
Tom Price is a writer focusing on Entertainment and Sports Features. He has a degree from NYU in English with a minor in Creative Writing. He has been previously published for Washington Square News, Dignitas, CBR, and Numbers on the Boards.


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– Ayshwaria Lakshmi
AMK Krishna, one of the leading rice brands in India, has plans to install a new factory in two years in Kangeyam, Tamil Nadu as to meet the demand in both domestic and international markets. The company exports contributed to 15 percent of total revenue in 2019 and 23 percent in 2020. This factory is expected to increase the capacity five times more than what they have and in the international standards.
“We also have plans to increase our sale percentage in the international markets,” said D Arun Chandran, Managing Director, AMK Krishna. “We will penetrate our brand deeper into the existing markets. As of the newer markets, the highest rice consuming markets like Sri Lanka, we get orders for the food grain exporters in these regions,” regarding the geographical expansion plans, Mr Chandran added.
He went to tell us about the current reach in the international market wasn’t a smooth process. It started as a gradual process, where would do one or two consignments at a time. The company would take part in food expos and others like it to get visibility. This recognition helped them infiltrate into the international markets. Currently, the brand has a presence in Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Qatar, Dubai, South Africa, and Australia.
AMK has its market segment split into 5 – Retail stores, Wholesale, Institutional sale, Export, and private labeling segment. The Institutional sale is about 11 percent of the total revenue.
“This is a difficult segment to invade and hold the customer. There are more factors present in this, like the output weight of the end product and credit terms. Holding a relation for over two years a tough task in this segment.” said Mr. Chandran.
The needs of this segment would differ from the rest, as they would need a good product at the lowest price. Despite the factors like output weight of the end product and credit terms, the biggest players in this are the pricing. With the rice industry, a very vast industry with more players, it is difficult to match the needs and penetrate deep into this segment. The other issue is a particular brand is famous only in a particular region in this industry.
Even with AMK being one of the leaders in the industry, the unorganized factor of the industry adds to the difficulty. Despite all this, the company has one of the best supply chains in the industry. Mr Chandran and the team made sure they could provide rice to all their customers during COVID lockdown.
Interested hotel owners and chefs across the world looking for collaboration and sampling can reach out to Mr. Arun at +91 +91 98427 20723 or email at email@example.com.
ADVERTISEMENT– Are you a food product company looking for the best digitizing solution? AXN Infotech We are the *One and Only Master Tally Assessment Partner in Tamil Nadu* food product companies. For more details call +91 96773 99377 or firstname.lastname@example.org


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Practices can increase their business through memberships, patient financing, and mobile rewardsRead more...
Twitch is resetting all user passwords, though it is not saying how many were affected
(Come mingle with hundreds of top venture capitalists representing $10B-plus in capital under management, including Khosla Ventures, Greylock and Javelin Venture Partners, and learn from founders/CEOs including Marco Zappacosta, Co-founder & CEO of Thumbtack and Adam Goldenberg, CEO of JustFab, Slava Rubin, Founder & CEO of Indiegogo, at Vator Splash Oakland on April 22nd and 23rd. Get your tickets here!)
After so many different companies were hacked in 2014, this year seemed to be much slower on that front. Except for Uber, which has 50,000 of its drivers hacked in February, I can't think of another incident that has occurred in 2015. That is, until now, of course.
"We are writing to let you know that there may have been unauthorized access to some Twitch user account information," the company wrote. "For your protection, we have expired passwords and stream keys and have disconnected accounts from Twitter and YouTube."
As a result, the company said, its users will also be prompted to create a new password the next time they attempt to log into their Twitch account. In addition, the company also told users that it recommend that they change their password on any other website where a similar password is used. Considering that most people use the same variation of password for almost every site, that's kind of a tall order.
Twitch says that it "will communicate directly with affected users with additional details."
Obviously there are a lot details about the breach that Twitch is so far leaving out, including how many users were affected, what information may have been accessed and how the company first became aware of any problems with user accounts. Beyond asking users to change their passwords, there is also no indication of what else, if anything, Twitch is doing to protect its users going forward.
VatorNews reached out to Twitch for more information, but the company would not comment beyond its blog post.
Twitch, which allows gamers to record live broadcasts of their video games, was spun-off from Justin.tv in 2011. Founded in 2006, Justin.tv was originally a 24/7 broadcast of the life of founder and CEO Justin Kan. Eventually it became a platform for over 60 different channels for people to broadcast their live videos.
Twitch was originally though to be bought by Google before Amazon came and scooped it up. Prior to its acquisition, Twitch had raised a total of $35 million in venture capital funding, most recently a Series C $20 million investment led by Thrive Capital with participation from WestSummit Capital and Take-Two Interactive Software in October 2013. Other investors included Alsop Louie Partners and Felicis Ventures.
(Image source: twitch.tv)
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The initiative will monitor patients hospitalized for bone marrow transplant and hematology as wellRead more...
The company will use the funding to mass produce its “peel & stick” microarray technologyRead more...


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ALZENA GOMES, public relations officer, Grain SA
Launched in 2016, the Grain SA Learner Project, hosted annually during the NAMPO Harvest Day, once again proved extremely successful in its third year running. Since its inception, Grain SA’s digital media partners, Lumico, invited local Grade 11 and Grade 12 learners to attend a digital and social media short course hosted during the NAMPO Harvest Day.
The world’s media is ever changing and digital media is not just the future of communication, but also changes the modus operandi of the media landscape, small businesses, corporate enterprises and entrepreneurial endeavours.
Learning a wide range of basic digital and social media skills, the introductory course covers photography, videography, interviewing, social media platforms, advertising on social media and earning an income from the digital media landscape. Following a short coursework stint each morning, learners navigate the Harvest Day grounds and crowds to create video and audio material which are then utilised on the NAMPO digital media platforms. Staying up to date with what is happening in the media world, learners are taught digital media principles and are given smartphones with which to capture those special moments as photos, animated videos or audio recordings.
The purpose of this initiative is to further Grain SA’s involvement in the community. Always looking for ways to uplift, contribute and involve the local community, this Grain SA initiative equips these learners with the skills to assist small businesses and entrepreneurs with establishing a unique digital footprint. By training learners in effective use of social media as a medium, they are also given the opportunity to earn extra pocket money by promoting and advertising their newfound skills back home.
Learners from both Diphetoho Secondary School and the NAMPO Agriculture Combined School have enrolled in the programme and each one became a valuable member of the digital content team during the NAMPO Harvest Day. They practised their newfound skills daily, showed immense progress throughout the week and graduated with pride as the Harvest Day drew to a close.
Publication: July 2018


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Michael Jordan announced today that the Charlotte Bobcats are going to grab its old name back because New Orleans has abandoned it. So from now on, the Bobcats are not the worst team in professional basketball. That honor goes to the Hornets.
I don’t want to be too snarky here. Changing the brand name from Bobcats is a vocal notice that things are changing. No one, not even MJ, believes that the Charlotte NBA problem is the name or that changing that name will solve it. But at least something is changing.
Let’s hope Charlotte does not believe that a brand is just a name or a teal color pallet. Brand promises the prospect and the loyal customer something about themselves when they choose to support the team. No one can promise winning, but Charlotte could promise something more than it has shown in the court in the last few years.


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Thousands of costumes from the long-running television show Midsomer Murders are being sold off to boost the funds of Oxford hospice
Helen & Douglas House
. Bentley Productions has donated all types of clothing used in the show. However fans who want to pick up any DCI Barnaby items will have to travel. They are only on sale at the hospice’s Aylesbury shop.


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Porsche claims that the next Porsche Panamera Turbo will be faster than their Carrera GT, a legendary car that is praised even to this day. This claim certainly has been steering a lot of buzz in the car community. This is precisely what the Panamera model line director Gernot Döllner wants.
Autocar was invited to test drive the new Panamera in South Africa. Döllner mentioned various things about the car during the testing of the car, and casually snuck in the bit about the Nurburgring time being faster than the Carrera GT. If all this wasn’t enough, the new Panamera will also have greater trunk space, and there was a mention of a possibility to the 928 successor.
The Carrera GT ran the Nurburgring in 07:28.71. which put the Carrera GT to be faster than the mighty Lexus LFA. Assuming the Panamera is really able to beat that time, hopefully by a few seconds, then it will be able to join the cars that are currently in the big league. There sure are high expectations that will need to be fulfilled. Regardless, we cannot wait to see the final Panamera Turbo be released.


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financial report (translated here by Dr. Serkan Toto) Osaka-based publisher GungHo Entertainment announced that its mobile puzzle-RPG Puzzle & Dragons grossed over $113 million in April.
To put that in perspective, GungHo's catalog-wide earnings for April totaled ¥12 billion ($119 million) – a 1,142.8 percent increase over its performance in April 2012. Puzzle & Dragons currently generates $3.76 million in daily revenue, and boasts 13 million players in Japan.
Puzzle & Dragons originally launched for iOS and Android devices last year. A Nintendo 3DS adaptation is slated for release in Japan this winter.


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It looks like owners of smart speakers have something else to worry about. According to an article over at Forbes, the device can easily be hacked with a laser.
Researchers from the University of Electro-Communications were able to test this by aiming lasers at the microphone, where an electrical signal is made. They were able to use “light commands” to basically mimick a voice.
What’s worse is these attacks can be done on almost anything – not just smart speakers. The researchers successfully tested the idea on the Facebook Portal, the Fire TV Cube, a Galaxy S9, and even the Google Pixel 2. Who knows – this vulnerability could even be used on other untested devices.
In the video above, they were able to ask Google the time. However, more malicious actions could easily be done. Hackers could unlock doors, turn on lights, and so much more. For this to be fixed, the design of the microphones will have to be changed. Thankfully, the researchers are working directly with Amazon, Apple and Google to help solve the problem.
Thankfully, there are some things we can do to help protect ourselves now. You can turn on “speaker recognition”, which limits access to users who have registered their voice.


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Orbotix Rolls Out Next-Gen Sphero, Considers Possible New Directions
The ball, reinvented, has itself been reinvented—and that means changes could be on the horizon for Orbotix, the Boulder, CO, startup that took the ball and put a robot inside it.
Orbotix this morning launched Sphero 2.0, the next generation of the Sphero robotic ball that’s controlled by iOS and Android smartphones and tablets. Sphero is completely self-propelled, and users can drive it through obstacle courses, play augmented reality games, or program it to do tricks or travel in patterns.
The new Sphero features improved hardware and firmware, and Orbotix has given a major facelift to the interface for the app that drives Sphero, according to Orbotix co-founder and chief software architect Adam Wilson.
The hardware improvements are in addition to the strides Orbotix made over the past year in developing augmented reality games for Sphero. Its two mobile games in that category, Sharky the Beaver and The Rolling Dead, blend Sphero’s ability to navigate in the real world with games and characters in the digital world.
About three years have passed since Orbotix began working on Sphero, and the company realized it had greater potential.
The original Sphero “was really great, but we thought there could be more,” Wilson said.
But now with the rollout of Sphero 2.0, Orbotix might have pushed Sphero as far as it can go, according to Wilson.
“It’s kind of our finale with Sphero,” he said.
Faster and Smarter
What new spheres (so to speak) might the company investigate next? Before addressing that and how Orbotix reached this point, a bit more about the new product.
The new Sphero will be about twice as fast as its predecessor, clocking in at seven feet per second. It can distinguish the type of surface it’s on, so it can keep a consistent speed when it rolls from thick carpeting to a hardwood floor, for example.
The LED lights inside the new Sphero also are brighter, and it comes with ramps for jumps. Users also can buy accessories, like a “nubby cover” that improves traction.
For the launch, Orbotix has created a promotional video that’s almost as amped up as the trailer for a Hollywood movie.
Orbotix also has made Sphero smarter—or at least smart enough to teach new users and challenge power users. In its out-of-the-box state, some of Sphero’s capabilities, like the ability to drive at full speed, are locked down. As new users master the ball—in other words, stop crashing into walls and furniture—those restrictions will be lifted.
“As you play with Sphero, you level it up,” Wilson said. “The hope is it progressively will teach you a lot of the other tricks.” Sphero’s sophisticated enough that the most advanced users would be able to do what Wilson likened to the ollies and flip tricks performed by skateboarders.
The apps that control Sphero also have been upgraded, with an emphasis on making the device more engaging.
“The user interface is changing pretty dramatically to create more of a personality for Sphero,” Wilson said. “There’s going to be a huge change in the way you interact with Sphero.”
The hope is that the new interface will make it appealing for a younger market segment. The ball has received very good reviews in the tech press, but Orbotix would like to broaden its appeal beyond tech-savvy adults, Wilson said.
Sphero 2.0 will cost $129.99, the same as the original version. The original Sphero will be available for a reduced price of $109.99, Wilson said.
Orbotix is taking pre-orders now on the Sphero website, and retail partners like Brookstone will start selling it Aug. 31. The Apple Store will sell a special edition with clear plastic that allows users to see into Sphero’s gears, motor, and other components. That will be available in September.
Building a Ball and Building a Company
More than 100,000 Spheros have been sold, Wilson said, and that’s come despite production problems in the past.
Sphero’s white plastic shell and cute logo hide the fact it’s a very sophisticated robot that’s about the size of a baseball. It is packed with an accelerometer, antenna, battery, circuit board, gyroscope, LED light, motor, and more inside a durable plastic shell that can survive being hurled against a wall or immersed in water.
That presented engineering, manufacturing, and distribution challenges. Finding the right manufacturers in China was a problem early on, and Orbotix had trouble keeping up with demand.
“Last year, the good news was we sold everything we made. The bad news was we sold everything we made as fast as we could make it,” Orbotix CEO Paul Berberian said. That meant expediting delivery by air, which cut into Orbotix’ bottom line.
Now, Orbotix won’t be playing catch up, Berberian said when I visited the company’s headquarters in May. At the time, Orbotix was putting the finishing touches on The Rolling Dead, and early versions of Sphero 2.0 were being tested around the office and in the building’s underground parking lot.
The company also had just closed a $4 million Series D equity round (Orbotix has raised a total of $15 million) that allowed it to stock up on inventory over the summer. So it should be able to keep up with holiday orders, Berberian said.
The big push toward the all-important holiday season was on, and that meant expanding Sphero’s market beyond early adopters.
“Those who are looking for cool stuff like this have already seen it, or may have seen it and not purchased it yet. Now we have to deliver on the bigger picture,” Berberian said.
Enthusiastic reviews in the tech press, a savvy social media campaign, and an amazing bit of guerrilla marketing that got President Barack Obama to test drive Sphero during a 2012 campaign stop helped build the company’s momentum. It all culminated in Wilson and Bernstein landing a spot on Inc. Magazine’s 30 under 30 list earlier this year.
But now Orbotix knows it needs to get the attention of average consumers and the wider media.
“You have to start going out and telling the story to the average Joe about why they want a Sphero. That early hype and momentum will take you so far, and then you have to make the transition and start building a real business around it,” Berberian said.
Internally, Orbotix has had to grow up a bit. In 2010, when it emerged from Techstars, it was a small startup. Wilson and Ian Bernstein, who is the chief technology officer, had founded the company (then known as GearBox) just before being admitted to the startup accelerator.
That’s where they connected with Berberian, the Techstars entrepreneur in residence that year. Prior to Techstars, Berberian had founded Raindance Communications, a Colorado-based web and voice conferencing company. As CEO, Berberian took Raindance public. It was acquired by the West Corp. for a price reported to be between $110 million and $160 million.
Since Techstars, Orbotix has added a marketing director who worked for Parrot AR, which makes a quadricopter, and a sales consultant who has worked with Apple, Slingbox, and other consumer electronics companies. Berberian said working with experienced staffers and consultants has put the company “through charm school” and taught it how to work with retailers.
Everything looks to be coming together, Wilson said in an interview yesterday.
“We’re cranking along, unless we totally flop for Christmas, which I can’t see happening,” Wilson said.
Beyond the Ball
With the launch of Sphero 2.0, Wilson said there’s a bit of a feeling within Orbotix that it has pushed its product and the concept to their limits, at least in terms of the hardware. The next step for the company might be to develop something new.
“We love Sphero and the robotic ball, but there are other things to do with the technology,” Wilson said.
Wilson didn’t go into much detail, but said the robotics inside the ball, the software that controls it, and its ability to do advanced augmented reality could make the leap to additional consumer electronics or beyond.
The software developer kit for Sphero will let third-party developers continue to develop games around Sphero and expand on its capability for augmented reality, and apps and games for Sphero should keep improving.
“When we started we wanted to create this really cool experience around a physical device. When we built Sphero, and we didn’t initially plan for it, it turned out Sphero was a device where we really bridged the gap between the physical world and the digital world for gaming,” Bernstein said in May.
“I look at Sphero sort of like this Atari for the new generation of gaming,” Bernstein said then. “We’re at the beginning stages of something really cool in the world of gaming.”
But with the work that’s gone into the hardware for Sphero 2.0, the vision is expanding, Wilson said yesterday.
“Our technology is extremely deep. That could be missed by people who only see us as a gadget-maker,” Wilson said. “Putting (parts of) our system in any robot will make it better.”
To a degree, Bernstein and Wilson have been here before. When they got into Techstars in 2010, they didn’t really have a clear vision of where they were headed.
“It was two really, really smart guys working on something robotics-related,” said Brad Feld, managing director of the Foundry Group venture capital firm and a member of the selection committee that year. “They really had no idea what they [would be] doing, there wasn’t a business thing they were trying to do, or even a product. It was just ‘Hey, we’re cool, smart software and hardware hackers, we know robotics, and we’re really excited about doing something neat.”
When they met with Feld at the start of Techstars, they had three product ideas, which included an electronic door lock and what would become Sphero. The lock looked to be the product with the biggest market opportunity and the clearest way forward from a technical standpoint.
As for the smartphone-controlled robotic ball idea, it wasn’t quite clear how it would work or who would want it. But it only took a little prodding to see that was what Wilson and Bernstein had their heart set on.
“‘It’s an incredibly hard problem, if we do it well it could be amazing, there are so many different things we could do with it. Some could be stupid, some could be great, some we haven’t even thought about yet,’” Feld recalled them saying. “What Adam was showing at that point was just obsession.”
Feld soon became a member of Orbotix’s board of directors, and Foundry Group is a major investor.
Bernstein said they came up with the idea for Sphero during a late night brainstorming session during the first week of Techstars. The starting point was doing “something neat” and ambitious with robots.
“We wanted to change the way people interact with physical devices and create an amazing experience around that,” Bernstein said.
They rejected several ideas, like remote controlled cars and planes, before thinking about a ball.
“We liked the ball because it was a blank slate. There were just so many different things you could do with it,” Wilson said. “I’d say within that night, we came up with the idea for augmented reality…and the idea for the apps kept coming and coming.”
But finding the vision might have been the easiest part. Since that night the company has had to master hardware and software development, mass manufacturing, retail marketing, and the other challenges of creating and growing a startup.
“From our point of view, I didn’t think we had any idea how hard it would be to get there,” Wilson said.
All of that work reinventing the ball means that with its next products, Orbotix shouldn’t have to reinvent the wheel, Wilson said Tuesday.


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( Worldcarfans ) - An interesting new concept hits Los Angeles from today, somewhat ahead of next month's LA Show. This smart new idea won't however be on a show stand near you anytime soon - but it could be right up your street. 'Bolstering' the smart's January launch into the American market will be a 'smart house' - an exclusive studio building on Abbot Kinney Boulevard - showcasing the funky smart brand to the equally-hip residents of Venice Beach, California.
The temporary new showroom, to be open until the end of January when the smart hits the market, will be showcasing the new fortwo to customers, journalists and VIPs as a car that is more than just economical, compact and safe.
"The smart house will present the world and lifestyle of a typical smart driver", says Anders Sundt Jensen, responsible for brand management at smart. "[The house] convey the intrinsic values of this unique city car, showing visitors that bigger is not always better."
The smart house aims for the brand to build on its growing reputation for 'the arts and the pulse of the age', being associated with innovation, unconventional ways of thinking and collaboration with artists, musicians and fashion designers since its inception in 1998.
Visitors to the four-month-long space will meet four smart fortwos with test drives and sales consultation available, as well as the ability to order their new car on the spot. Prospective buyers will join over 30,000 American consumers already having made the 'smart decision'.


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Dunkin? Donuts is banking on the theory that having thousands of commuters pass by your store twice a day is a good thing.
Kadar Sodagar will have the chance to find out when his new store opens today in the CTA station at 4800 W. Lake St. at Cicero. Sodagar's store is one of five stores opening this month in CTA stations and another seven scheduled to break ground this fall.
?This is the first major concerted effort to open a significant number of Dunkin? Donuts stores in CTA stations," says Mike Lavigne, director of development for Dunkin? Donuts. ?The reasoning is simple?our product line is a good fit for their customers.
"Part of our decision to develop stores in CTA stations was driven by studies showing that more than 30 percent of breakfasts are eaten away from home--how much easier can we make it than by meeting customers on their way to work!? Lavigne said. ?We actually hope to see CTA commuters twice a day in the CTA stores?once on their way in to work, and again on their way home," Lavigne added.
"Quality concession areas help to anchor CTA stations in the surrounding neighborhoods," said Chicago Transit Board Chairman Carole Brown. "We are pleased to partner with Dunkin? Donuts to bring new investment into these communities."
CTA President Frank Kruesi added that ?the CTA is delighted to see these new stores open for our customers. We?re pleased to be able to provide long term leases to Dunkin? Donuts and in turn, the stores are making much needed improvements to each space. This is good for Dunkin? Donuts and good for CTA and our customers."
All new Dunkin? Donuts/CTA station stores are scheduled to be full-service. Currently open are the Lake and Cicero store and a store at 1901 N. Western Ave., both in Chicago. Scheduled to open later this month are stores at 5801 N. River Rd., Rosemont; 1713 W. Polk St., Chicago; and 4645 N. Western Ave., Chicago. In addition, scheduled to break ground in September are stores at CTA stations at 1612 N. Benson in Evanston; and 1710 W. 18th St., 3528 S. Leavitt, 800 N. State, 230 S. State, 1200 N. Milwaukee, 5550 N. Harlem, all in Chicago.
In addition to this group of new stores, Lavigne says there are three other Dunkin? Donuts stores in CTA stations, the first store having opened in 1999.
Founded in 1950, Dunkin? Donuts, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Allied Domecq PLC, is the leading retailer of coffee-by-the-cup in America, selling 2.7 million cups a day. Dunkin? Donuts is also the largest coffee and baked goods chain in the world and sells more donuts, coffee, bagels and muffins than any other quick service restaurant in America.
Dunkin? Donuts is headquartered in Randolph, Massachusetts. Currently, there are more than 350 Dunkin? Donuts stores in Chicago and surrounding suburbs.# # #


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CHICAGO (PRWEB) August 01, 2018
A new restaurant is coming to Yorktown Center. Yorktown Center, a popular 1.5 million-square-foot Chicagoland shopping and dining destination, recently announced the first winner of its Taste For the Space™ culinary event hosted in June. Berwyn-based Ofrenda won an opportunity to open its dream restaurant at Yorktown Center as well as 6 months free rent plus $50,000 to put toward their new space – a prize package worth $140K.
Brothers Fernando and Ernesto Torres first created Ofrenda, a contemporary Mexican-style food truck, in 2014, specializing in gorditas and handheld masa cakes filled with carnitas, green chilies and cilantro topped with pico de gallo and avocado puree. Not strangers to the restaurant business – as their parents have been in the industry for the past 30 years – this new opportunity will enhance the Ofrenda concept.
“Winning Taste for the Space™ gives my brother and I the chance to open Ofrenda Restaurant – a huge dream of ours — and share the food we create on a daily basis,” said Ernesto Torres. “Ofrenda translates to ‘offering’ and is a collection of objects and food placed on a ritual altar during El Dia De Los Muertos in Mexico. With our new restaurant, we plan to create an environment where you can experience the tradition that is celebrated every year on November 2. We plan to showcase the quality and consistency of our Contemporary Mexican Cuisine.”
Ofrenda is looking to be one of the great food and beverage restaurants in the Shops on Butterfield area joining the likes of DOC Wine Bar and Capital Grille.
“It was an exciting and tough competition between all 12+ chefs, but Ofrenda was the fan favorite and had a unique taste that we know will thrive here at Yorktown Center,” said Najla Kayyem, senior vice president of marketing for Pacific Retail Capital Partners, the operating group for Yorktown Center. “Taste for the Space™, the first culinary and community event of its kind at Yorktown Center, brought together the community to support its local culinary scene. Because of this event, there is an exciting possibility of having one or two other contestants join the line up at Yorktown Center.”
Taste for the Space™, a family-friendly, community-focused culinary event, took place on Saturday, June 16 featuring a cooking competition and experience that brought together food trucks, local restaurateurs and chefs to showcase signature dishes to the local community, and share why their taste should win the space. The event also featured games, kids’ activities, beverages from D.O.C Wine Bar, entertainment and more. Taste for the Space™ was sponsored by U.S. Foods, who generously provided all food and paper products for the competing chefs on event day. For more information about Yorktown Center and the Taste for the Space™ winner, please visit https://www.yorktowncenter.com.
About Yorktown Center
Yorktown Center, a 1.5 million square-foot two-level shopping center with over 150 specialty stores and 15 restaurants, is located in the heart of Chicago’s western suburbs. Anchored by a top-performing Von Maur, JCPenney, Last Chance (by Nordstrom) and its new Self-Care Precinct, Yorktown Center offers a wide array of convenience and destination shopping, dining, fitness studios and entertainment.
See original story HERE


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The Housing Market is in a Big Chill. Shaina Mishkin outlines economic dynamics, including high mortgage rates and affordability issues, that could lead to a stalled real estate market in 2023, according to a report by Shaina Mishkin.
BYD can take the lead in EV Deliveries. In a More Important Race, by Al Root, Tesla Will Pass Toyota in a More Important Race looks at why China's BYD Company ADR BYDDY may be positioning itself to overtake Tesla Inc TSLA to become the biggest EV maker in the world.
If Twitter CEO Elon Musk wants to be a hero, he should ban the account of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, according to Richard Goldberg and Bryan E. Leib.
In Coinbase, like Elon Musk, takes issue with Apple's App Store Fees, Jack Denton explains why Coinbase Global Inc COIN is concerned about Apple Inc.'s AAPL App Store fees and how it's impacting NFT transfers on iPhones.
DoorDash's Competitive Gap With Uber Is Narrowing, Analyst Says. The stock gets a downgrade by Angela Palumbo, which details why an analyst thinks DoorDash Inc DASH is losing its competitive edge over Uber Technologies Inc UBER.
The Boeing stock is surging. A Big United Airlines Order May Be Coming, Al Root wrote that the shares of Boeing Co BA climbed higher this week after news that the aircraft manufacturer may be getting a big order from United Airlines Holdings Inc UAL.
You can see Bulls And Bears Of The Week: Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, and Why Doge coin is showing resilience Amid FTX Aftershock
The author had no position in the mentioned equities at the time of writing.


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ALi unveils Android 4.4 KitKat set-top box SoCFriday, March 14th, 2014
ALi Unveils Smart STB Solution M3932 Based on Latest Android 4.4 KitKat at CCBN 2014
TAIPEI, Taiwan — ALi Corporation, a leading Set-Top Box (STB) solution provider, today announced the launch of M3932, a high definition smart STB SoC solution based on the latest Android 4.4 KitKat, targeting applications including smart DVB or IPTV set-top boxes, OTT multimedia players, hybrid set-top boxes, and TV dongles. Mass production of M3932 is scheduled in Q2 2014.
M3932’s dual-core ARM® Cortex™-A9 processor allows the set-top box to run Android 4.4 KitKat, which can support 512MB DDR SDRAM, offering optimized cost structure, and faster APK loading speed, providing enhanced user experience. With M3932’s efficient system core architecture, boot-up time is reduced to less than 20 seconds.
Advancing with the multi-screen video sharing trend, M3932 supports DLNA that allows media content to be distributed across devices within the home network. M3932 also enables wireless display mirroring by supporting Miracast, enabling users to echo display from a small-screen device such as a smartphone or tablet onto a TV in real-time via a Wi-Fi Direct connection.
By integrating a high-performance hardware video decode engine, M3932 supports various broadcast and web-based video standards, thus providing an ideal platform for seamless enjoyment of innovative entertainment services.
M3932 features ALi Security Engine (ASE), which provides robust protection by implementing a chain of trust including secure boot, secure upgrade, in addition to a variety of latest attack resistance mechanisms.
Jim Li, General Manager of ALi’s China Business Unit, comments, “ALi leverages our mature hardware, software, and security expertise to launch M3932. By building a highly-integrated and flexible platform based on Android 4.4 and supporting customers with development, testing, and mass production tools, M3932 significantly reduces development time and effort for customers, which translates to faster time-to-market.” “Furthermore, M3932 provides customers the ability to offer diverse services and brings consumers true freedom to enjoy high definition content across devices,” adds, Jim Li.
At CCBN 2014, to take place on March 20-22, 2014 in Beijing, ALi will showcase M3932 as well as another new product, M3381T-B, a high definition DTMB set-top box solution fully supporting AVS+, which is a new generation video compression standard being nationalized in China to support high definition and a key official requirement for set-top boxes addressing the Chinese market. Demonstrations of ALi platforms will be available at ALi’s stand #1B201.


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• From the Associated Press:
"US employers posted fewer jobs in June, a sign that the red-hot demand for workers that has been a key feature of the post-pandemic economy is cooling a bit.
"Job openings dropped to 9.6 million in June, the Labor Department said Tuesday, down slightly from the previous month but much lower than the 10.3 million in April and the fewest in more than two years. The government’s report also showed that the number of people who quit their jobs in June fell sharply to 3.8 million, from 4.1 million, another sign the job market is slowing.
"The Federal Reserve is seeking to cool hiring because if companies are less desperate to add workers, and fewer people are quitting to seek higher-paying positions elsewhere, then businesses will be under less pressure to raise pay to find and keep workers. Smaller pay hikes could help lower inflation, since businesses won't have to lift their prices to offset higher labor costs.
"Tuesday's report means there are 1.6 jobs for every unemployed worker, down from a peak of 1.9 earlier this year. But that is still much higher than before the pandemic. Since the economy first emerged from the pandemic, job openings have soared — reaching a record 12 million in March 2022. Before the pandemic, they had never topped 7.6 million.
"Overall, Tuesday's report, known as the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTs, still paints a picture of a healthy economy, with employers seeking to hire more people. The number of workers quitting is still slightly above pre-pandemic levels, suggesting that many Americans continue to find better-paying opportunities at new jobs."
• Publix Super Markets said that Q2 sales were $14.1 billion, an 8.9% increase from $12.9 billion in 2022. Same-store sales for the period were up 6.2 percent.
Net earnings for the quarter were $1.1 billion, compared to $628 million in 2022, an increase of 74.7 percent.
• Starbucks yesterday reported Q3 results, saying that net revenues were up 12 percent to $9.2 billion, with same-store sales up seven percent in the US and 10 percent globally.
Net income was $1.14 billion for the quarter, up 25% from the same period a year earlier.
The company said that its active membership rewards customer count was up 15 percent to 31.4 million.
• From Eater New York:
"A New Yorker filed a class action lawsuit in the Eastern District Court of New York on Monday, claiming that Taco Bell is misleading customers by offering dishes like its Crunchwraps, with half the filling shown in its advertisements … the inciting incident took place in September 2022, at a Ridgewood, Queens Taco Bell, where the defendant Frank Siragusa claimed he overpaid for a Mexican Pizza that did not match photos … the lawsuit hopes to win $5 million for affected New Yorkers who have been similarly duped."
“Taco Bell’s actions are especially concerning now that inflation, food, and meat prices are very high and many consumers, especially lower income consumers, are struggling financially,” the attorney for Siragusa, stated in the suit.


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Research group IDC believes that China will ship in more than 450 million smartphones in 2014. That’s up from an estimated 360 million this year.
Though Chinese authorities haven’t yet set a date for a nationwide 4G rollout, IDC estimates that 120 million 4G smartphones will help boost 2014’s numbers.
Samsung leads China’s smartphone market in terms of sales, with Huawei and Lenovo battling it out for second and third place.
Data from other sources suggest that Android dominates China’s smartphone landscape, with an estimated 300 million active Android phones being used by the end of this year.
(Editing by Paul Bischoff)


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SYDNEY – Jan 24 (Reuters) – Australian miners like to say iron ore is the new gold. How about the new iPhone?
Iron ore, needed to make steel, long ago replaced gold as the most profitable mineral to mine in the Australian outback. And while sales of iPhones have become a disappointment for Apple Inc, mega-mining companies such as BHP Billiton are projecting strong growth in iron ore sales for decades to come – at margins even an Apple or smartphone rival Samsung Electronics would drool over.
BHP and rivals Rio Tinto and Fortescue Metals are seeing profit margins often exceeding 100 percent on sales of hundreds of millions of tonnes of ore. Apple Inc earned gross margins of 49 to 58 percent on its U.S. iPhone sales between April 2010 and the end of March 2012, according to court filings obtained by Reuters.
Apple on Thursday missed Wall Street’s revenue forecast for the third straight quarter as iPhone sales came in below expectations, although earnings topped forecasts.
Production costs under $40 a tonne mean margins at Rio Tinto and BHP are comfortably above any of their other businesses with iron ore selling for nearly $150 a tonne, explaining why they continue to invest to expand their operations in Western Australia’s vast Pilbara iron ore belt.
“The margins on iron ore are fantastic,” said David Lennox, a mining analyst for Fat Prophets. “These margins will only improve through economies of scale when these companies become even bigger in iron ore.”
This time next year, Rio Tinto wants to be mining iron ore at a rate of 290 million tonnes a year, up from 253 million in 2012.
Iron ore is forecast to deliver 80 percent of Rio Tinto’s 2012 earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, which is estimated to average around $19 billion, according to Thomson Reuters Starmine data.
For the rest of this article, please go to the Reuters.com website: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/24/australia-ironore-profits-idUSL4N0AT2P120130124


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With their relatively high prices, electric cars and hybrids have struggled to gain a foothold in the U.S. market. Automakers are hoping that lowering prices will spur sales of the all-electric Nissan Leaf and Chevrolet Volt extended range plug-in hybrid.
The Associated Press reports, "Nissan is offering cheap leases and big discounts on the Leaf because of slow sales of the all-electric car." According to the AP, in August, Nissan offered discounts that were $2,400 more than the discounts on the Leaf in January. The Leaf currently leases for as low as $219 a month for 36 months in some areas.
"Leaf sales in the United States are down 56 percent from April through August, and down 31.5 percent this calendar year," writes Reuters. They add that "General Motors Co's Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid car has come up short of expectations, forcing the U.S. automaker to idle the plant that makes the car." The AP reports that GM has been discounting the Volt by up to $10,000.
According to sales data from Automotive News (subscription required), Nissan only sold 685 Leaf models in August, the most recent month for which sales data is available. That's a 50 percent drop in sales from August of 2011. Chevrolet sold 2,831 Volt models in August 2012, up from just 302 in August of 2011. However, the Volt was in limited release in 2011, which explains the low sales. Sales for both the Volt and the Leaf trail the Toyota Prius, which sold 21,111 models in August of 2012. This year's release of the Prius Plug-in, which operates in much the same way as the Chevy Volt does, could negatively impact both Volt and Leaf sales.
The Volt and Leaf discounts don't include up to a $7,500 federal tax credit for buying an electric car. If you’re interested in buying a Leaf, which starts at $35,200 (before destination fees) and are able to get the full $3,250 in discounts, the price would drop to $31,950. If you then applied the full federal tax savings to the price of the car, the price would bottom out at $24,450, which is close to the price of a Nissan Altima coupe.
[Interested in a Leaf or other Nissan? Check out the current Nissan Deals.]
The Chevrolet Volt starts at $39,145. Combining the $10,000 discount the AP is reporting with the full $7,500 federal tax credit effectively lowers its price to $21,645. That's a lower price than the Chevrolet Malibu. Chevrolet is also offering zero-percent financing for up to 72 months on the 2012 Volt. The 2013 Volt is available for lease at $299 per month for 36 months with $1,529 due at signing.
[Interested in a Volt or other Chevy? Check out the current Chevrolet deals.]
Car makers have tried to convince buyers that electric cars are a good deal because of their lower operating costs. Since electricity tends to be cheaper than gas, the cost per mile to drive a Leaf or a Volt is much lower than driving a conventional car. Still, because electric cars tend to be priced so much higher than gasoline-powered cars, it takes a while for consumers to see the savings. When the purchase price of an electric or plug-in hybrid car is less than a similar gasoline-powered car, however, the savings begin for buyers immediately. If you're looking to save some money on gas, huge discounts mean now is a good time to consider a Nissan Leaf or Chevrolet Volt.
Shopping for an electric car or hybrid? Check out the U.S. News rankings of this year's best cars. Then, look for a great deal on a new car by checking out this month’s best car deals. You can also find the best local prices in the area by using our Best Price Program. Also, be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.


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Dec 3 (Reuters) - U.S. supermarket operator Kroger Co raised its 2020 same-store sales forecast on Thursday, as a resurgence in COVID-19 cases has prompted customers to stock up on cooking and household essentials.
Kroger said it expects same-store sales, excluding fuel, to rise around 14%, compared with its prior forecast of a more than 13% growth. Analysts on average were expecting a 13.08% rise.
Sales, excluding fuel, at stores open for more than a year rose 10.9% in the third quarter ended Nov. 7, compared with Refinitiv IBES estimate of a 10.21% rise. (Reporting by Praveen Paramasivam in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.


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Boston – Today, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a policy guidance outlining the “responsibilities” of credit bureaus and furnishers (i.e., creditors and debt collectors) during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The following is a statement in response from Chi Chi Wu, staff attorney at the National Consumer Law Center:
“The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) utterly failed in its job to protect consumers with this guidance, simply telling the credit bureaus and furnishers that they must comply with the newly enacted CARES Act and even getting wrong the meaningless protection for consumers in that Act. Contrary to what the CFPB says, the CARES Act only helps a consumer avoid negative information on their credit report if they are not already behind in their payment when the creditor grants them relief.
“Instead of protecting consumers whose credit reports are being battered through no fault of they own, the CFPB is more concerned about relaxing deadlines for creditors, debt collectors and credit bureaus to fix problems when consumers dispute errors in their creditor reports. I don’t even know if the CFPB has the legal authority to do given that without engaging in formal rulemaking, and even the Bureau acknowledges that the guidance is non-binding.”
“The CFPB’s guidance does not provide one iota of assistance to consumers who are unable to reach their creditors because of long phone hold times, who are too overwhelmed by job losses or dealing with COVID-19 personally or helping afflicted family, or whose creditors are heartless enough to deny them relief. Instead, the CFPB provides a helping hand to creditors, debt collectors and credit bureaus, even though the latter are the number one source of complaints to the CFPB’s own Complaint Database. This is shameful beyond belief at a time when so many families and individuals are suffering, and it will make it much more difficult for them to recover financially for many years to come.”


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Restaurant chain TGI Fridays has opened a tech-laden location in the U.K. and is using scannable QR codes to fast track customer payments.
The Manchester, U.K. restaurant aims to serve express meals, delivering food within 10 minutes of ordering. Menu items now have corresponding QR codes that let customers order from their smartphone, according to Mobile Commerce News.
There's also free Wi-Fi, lots of electrical sockets and USB charging stations.
The test is expected to be the first of several at TGI Fridays, and is a revival of a failed experiment with a similar concept in New York. All the wireless technology there, it seemed, actually slowed down this ordering process and meal time, rather than speeding it up.
This comes as no surprise to anyone who read the story of a restaurant in New York that reviewed 15-year-old surveillance footage to figure out why customers were increasingly complaining about slow service and long meal times.
It turns out that smartphones were to blame. Patrons engrossed in their phones delayed ordering, took photos of their food and each other, and in general added nearly an hour to their meals compared to 15 years earlier.
While TGI Fridays, and other restaurant chains, seem determined to better leverage mobile technology, none have hit on the right formula.
-See this Mobile Commerce News story
-See this Gothamist story
Quiznos uses gamification to build mobile loyalty
Marriott to geotarget millennials with mobile offers
Lord & Taylor pushes mystery coupons to mobile phones
7-Eleven hosts 'Pizza for Life' mobile sweepstakes
Apps dominate mobile as web browsing declines


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July 9, 2013
Tim Hortons partnership latest entry into the quick service food category for American Express
TORONTO--Tim Hortons is now offering customers American Express card payment options. The payment is available at most locations across Canada. In addition to offering consumers this payment option in store, consumers can also now reload their Tim Hortons Card online with their American Express Card.
"We are very happy to welcome American Express to Tim Hortons, bringing even greater payment convenience to our consumer and business guests alike," says Roland Walton, President, Tim Hortons Canada.
As a proud Canadian employer for 160 years, American Express is thrilled to work with such an iconic Canadian brand. Tim Hortons has built a reputation for quality, value, service and community leadership - traits that align with American Express' core values.
"We're excited to share this news with our Cardmembers," said Jennifer Hawkins, Vice President and General Manager, Merchant Services, American Express Canada. "We know that our Cardmembers want to use their Amex, not just for big ticket items but for everyday purchases like filling up their car, shopping at the pharmacy or grocery store and picking up a coffee and Panini at Tim Hortons. We're proud to say that now they can."
The relationship with Tim Hortons further expands American Express' reach into the "everyday spend" category of quick service restaurants. American Express has recently made great strides in growing its merchant base adding numerous merchant accepting locations from a variety of different sectors. Additionally, American Express has specifically sought out new merchants that give Cardmembers even more places and ways to use their Card - from Canada's toll highways and grocery stores to insurance payments and apartment rentals.
To support the American Express and Tim Hortons announcement, an integrated radio, digital and social media marketing campaign is being launched. Creative, media buying and PR and social media elements were provided by partner agencies, Ogilvy, Mindshare and High Road Communication respectively. The integrated marketing campaign will be in market from July 8th until August 18th.


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Monday, October 11, 2010
Internet TV is Important for Local TV Broadcasters
Local media broadcasters can dramatically benefit from Internet TV distribution if they know how to monetize the content. During my interview with Rick Ducey from BIA at the OTTCon trade show, he explained that he has seen dramatic changes, challenges, and most important, new opportunities. Rick explained that some local broadcasting companies view Internet as a potential challenge when in actually can be a great revenue generation tool. Local broadcasters can dramatically benefit (much higher CPM ad rates) from highly targeted and measurable Internet TV while also producing new revenue streams.


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US stock futures are moving lower hours before the opening bell on Wednesday, as Wall Street awaits earnings reports from Home Depot and Macy’s.
|Me: DJI||DOW JONES AVERAGES||31521.69||+27.37||+ 0.09%|
|I: COMP||NASDAQ COMPOSITE INDEX||13533.048339||-341.41||-2.46%|
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 fell 0.8% to 3,876.50, extending its losses to a fifth day in a row. The benchmark was split almost evenly between winners and losers, but tech stocks and companies that rely on consumer spending took the brunt of sales. Apple fell 3%, Microsoft fell 2.7%, Tesla plummeted 8.5% and Amazon lost 2.1%.
The Dow Jones industrial average gained 0.1% to 31,521.69. The Nasdaq lost 2.5% to 13,533.05. The Russell 2000 Index of smaller companies fell 0.7% to 2,251.07.
GAMESTOP STOCK RETURNS AS ROARING KITTY DOUBLES ITS SUPPORT
Stocks began to lose some of their gains last week after a strong start to February, as rising interest rates and the potential for future inflation dampened some of the enthusiasm on Wall Street, although major stock indexes they remain near their all-time highs.
“Stock investors are finally paying attention to the bond market,” said Mike Zigmont, director of trading and research at Harvest Volatility Management. “With rising returns, there is a lot of nervousness in the equities arena.”
Investors remain focused on the future of global economies severely affected by COVID-19 and the potential for more stimulus to fix them. The US House of Representatives is likely to vote on President Joe Biden’s proposed stimulus package before the weekend. It would include checks of $ 1,400 for most Americans, additional payments for children and billions of dollars in aid for state and local governments, as well as additional help for businesses affected by the pandemic.
But the sheer amount of stimulus being injected into the economy has caused some investors to pause, reviving concerns about inflation that have been almost non-existent for more than a decade. Yields on US Treasuries and bonds have risen in recent weeks as investors are betting that the recovery will bring more inflation.
“There are some risks,” said Gary Schlossberg, a global strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute. “The problem is whether we are normalizing back to where we were before the pandemic or are we talking about a radical change.”
Tech stocks have enjoyed big gains during the pandemic as investors bet consumers who spend more time at home will increasingly rely on mobile devices, PCs, streaming video, and other tech products and services.
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Meanwhile, Asian markets were mixed on Tuesday after a sell-off of tech stocks on Wall Street.
With Tokyo closed for a national holiday, South Korea’s Kospi fell nearly 0.2% to 3,074.76. Australia’s S & P / ASX 200 gained 0.9% to 6,839.20. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 1.0% to 30,618.85, while the Shanghai Composite lost 0.5% to 3,623.99.
“Fortunately, for society in general, there is more optimism than fear today, with vaccines showing scientific results on the ground validating efficacy and effectiveness on transmission, bringing the world back to normal as of soon.” said Stephen Innes, chief strategist for global markets a taxi.
Although the world’s economies have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, the deployment of COVID-19 vaccines is raising hopes of recovery.
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In energy trading, US benchmark crude rose 76 cents to $ 62.46 a barrel in e-commerce on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It gained $ 2.44 to $ 61.70 a barrel on Monday. Brent crude, the international standard, rose $ 1.14 to $ 66.38 a barrel.
In currency trading, the US dollar rose to 105.09 Japanese yen from 105.08 yen. The euro costs $ 1.2167, compared to $ 1.2157.
AP business writers Damian J. Troise and Alex Veiga contributed.


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If you missed the news last week, NVIDIA has finally unveiled the new generation of its gaming-centric graphics cards which is positioned under an all-new series called GeForce RTX. Immediately after the announcement, several OEMs have announced their support for the new cards including Dell.
While Dell has plenty of gaming desktop products under its wings, the new cards will be made available only on Alienware Area 51 and Alienware Aurora for the time being. This doesn’t really come as a surprise though since these two models are generally among the most powerful gaming desktop systems made by Dell.
According to the company, both models will be receiving all three cards from the GeForce RTX series: the RTX 2070, RTX 2080, and RTX 2080 Ti. However, the exact details regarding their specs and pricing are not available at the moment.
Then again, Dell has stated that it will be releasing the Alienware Area 51 with the new GeForce RTX options starting from early September onwards while pre-order for the GeForce RTX-based Alienware Aurora will also be opened at the same time. As for their release in Malaysia, we’ll keep you posted once we heard any update from Dell.
(Main image: Alienware.)