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Online sales of vaping products could be banned in the U.S. as federal regulators look for ways to beat back an epidemic of adolescent vaping and nicotine addiction.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said a ban on online sales of vaping products is “on the table” and is something the agency is “very clearly looking at.” Mr. Gottlieb made his comments Tuesday, Sept. 25 at a panel discussion on vaping hosted by the media company Axios in Washington D.C.
Mr. Gottlieb’s comments indicate that the FDA may be preparing to escalate its crackdown on the vaping industry. Earlier this month, he announced that the FDA gave vape manufacturers 60 days to demonstrate how they will keep their products out of the hands of children and teens. Failing that, the agency says it is prepared to ban flavored e-liquids – the nicotine-infused fluids used in vaping devices.
Until recently, Mr. Gottlieb’s FDA has been relatively friendly to the vape industry, maintaining that the devices provide a less harmful alternative to adult smokers trying to quit smoking conventional tobacco.
Now, faced with a soaring number of adolescent vapers, Mr. Gottlieb says that providing an alternative to adult smokers cannot come at the expense of creating whole new generations of nicotine addicts.
According to CNBC, preliminary data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that vaping among high school students has rocketed 75 percent. According to CNBC, the data comes from the CDC’s latest annual National Youth Tobacco Survey, which has not been publicly released.
Those disturbing numbers could explain Mr. Gottlieb’s and the FDA’s sudden aggressive stance on the vaping products and the vaping industry in general.
Last week, the FDA announced the launch of its new “The Real Cost” Youth [Vaping] Prevention Campaign aimed at educating kids and teens about the dangers of vaping niotine.


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The Blockchain Affiliation, which represents cryptocurrency buying and selling platforms, blockchain networks and buyers, has been working to get the provisions dropped or narrowed. They are saying the language continues to be so broad that it may apply to companies that signify just one step within the transaction course of, don’t have buyer relationships and couldn’t present this form of info to the IRS.
The group doesn’t need digital asset-related companies added to the definition of dealer in any respect, however could be open to related necessities for info reporting on digital currencies that Treasury’s Monetary Crimes Enforcement Community has proposed for banks and different fee companies.
“Whereas some minor enhancements have been made, the newest language nonetheless poses elementary considerations and questions on sure phrases and definitions used within the provision,” Kristin Smith, government director of the Blockchain Affiliation, stated in a press release Monday morning.
“As this invoice continues to maneuver by way of the Senate, we urge Senators to make clear that the language doesn’t seize non-custodial entities within the digital asset ecosystem,” she stated, including it stays unclear to the trade how the availability would apply.
The Blockchain Affiliation and Chamber of Digital Commerce have been lobbying Senate places of work to alter the dealer reporting items of the laws. The requirement for reporting transactions over $10,000 seems to be the principle revenue-raiser. Treasury had in its unique proposal estimated that dealer reporting guidelines would generate negligible income, whereas the $10,000 threshold was in a bundle of provisions anticipated to boost billions.

domain: news


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Top stories on just-style this week...
Top stories on just-style this week include a report on accusations that girls are working under slave labour conditions in southern India, Inditex's first quarter results, and a story about new guidelines for assigning serialised identification numbers to individual items.
INDIA: Clothing firms accused of slave labour conditions
Textile and garment firms in southern India who supply dozens of major European and US brands and retailers, including Marks & Spencer, Mothercare and supermarket giant Tesco, are accused of selling clothing made by girls working in slave labour conditions.
SPAIN: Inditex "heads pack" after Q1 profit surge
Global fashion retail giant Inditex has recorded strong increases to first quarter profit and revenue, placing the Spanish company ahead of other international businesses, according to one analyst.
US: Guidelines agreed for item level tagging in apparel
Major American retailers, brands and technology providers have agreed on a set of guidelines for assigning serialised identification numbers to individual items - a move that is expected to drive the uptake of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology across the apparel supply chain.
UK: Tesco Q1 "solid" despite weak domestic sales
Tesco, the UK's largest retailer, today (11 June) described its first quarter performance as "solid," despite seeing a drop in domestic like-for-like sales and subdued consumer confidence across Europe weighing on the performance of its clothing lines.
Comment: Inventory intelligence key to omnichannel retailing
Integrated inventory intelligence is central to delivering on the promise of omnichannel retailing as apparel retailers strive to build deeper shopper relationships and improve the in-store experience, explains Jim Caudill, senior director of global retail marketing at Tyco Retail Solutions.
An interactive databank with intelligence on the major apparel sourcing countries
From toxic T-shirts to virtual fitting rooms, defamatory garments and compostable shoes, the clothing and textiles industry in 2012 was anything but dull....
Textile-making countries came up against a range of labour, economic and environmental issues in 2012, including the worsening Eurozone crisis which dampened demand in key export markets. While some s...
Weak consumer spending, difficulties in securing credit, competition from China and the Far East resulted in factory closures and subsequent layoffs in 2012. But ramping up labour and sustainability s...
Faced with continuing challenging trading conditions in 2012, retailers responded with a number of different strategies to try to grow their businesses. International expansion, new and larger format ...
Levi Strauss, the world's largest jeans manufacturer, has pledged to phase out hazardous chemicals from its supply chain by 2020, following pressure from environmental group Greenpeace....
The most read stories on just-style this week include Delta Galil USA acquiring the LittleMissMatched brand, Sri Lankan apparel manufacturers facing continuing challenges, and Ethiopia's ongoing effor...
- TPP trade pact in milestone signing by 12 nations
- Cheap polyester contributes to cotton import shift
- US apparel retailers' January 2016 sales roundup
- Combating the new normal – 10 trends for 2016
- Under Armour defends questions over strategy
- Bangladesh factory fire renews worker safety fears
- China factory activity continues to deteriorate
- Southeast Asia – a strategic sourcing review
- H&M and Primark price rivalry reaches equilibrium
- PVH to take control of Tommy Hilfiger China unit
- Southeast Asia strategic sourcing review – a focus on Cambodia, Vietnam and Myanmar
- Wearable technology: The future market potential for smart garments and e-textiles
- Global market review of denim and jeanswear – forecasts to 2021
- Wearable Technology Market by Product, Application, Type, & Geography - Global Forecast to 2020
- E-Textiles: Electronic Textiles 2014-2024


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A new GamesBeat event is in the corner! Learn more about what comes next.
The success of hypercasual games is being measured in hundreds of millions or billions of downloads. And that’s why we’re focusing on Freeplay, a Belarus-based game studio in Minsk, Belarus.
Since December 2019, Freeplay has had over 420 million downloads of its hyperacusual games, including Join Clash (developed by Freeplay and published by Supersonic Games), Count Masters and Fidget Toys Trading 3D.
Freeplay is growing rapidly and supports a team of dozens of developers who are testing new hypercasual game ideas every few weeks, CEO AVJ Sidorov said in an interview with Gamesbeat.
Join Clash, which debuted in December 2019, and this year it has 135 million downloads and 280 million. Count Masters has had over 100 million downloads since March, and Fidget Trader has just crossed the 40 million mark. Those numbers are good enough to put games in the top 10 most downloaded titles during the last few months of last year. In August, Fidget Trading was the most downloaded game, according to AppMagic. Games often fly themselves into viral fashion, and they earn revenue through advertising.
Three top investment pros open up on what your video game needs to get funded.
Look at the demand
Other companies that have found success in hyperacusual games include Voodoo, Homa Games, Ducky, Rolic (owned by Zinga), Segams, Azure Games and Supersonic Games. It is not surprising that some of these companies, such as Freeplay, are located in Eastern Europe. The Games Fund estimates that there are more than 5,000 game studios in Eastern Europe, and the fund is concentrating its investments in that area. Minsk itself owns many successful game companies such as Wargaming and Playrix. There is political turmoil in Belarus, but Sidorov said it did not disrupt the company at all.
And companies like Nexters, which have just gone public, are also focusing on buying companies in Eastern Europe.
Sidorov and his game developer friends started the studio a few years ago. He worked in mobile apps for years and switched to Game Studio in 2016. The early studios were not successful. They experimented with different approaches, different games and different genres. Then, in August 2019, he started focusing on hyperacusual sports and raised some angel funds. They experimented for a while and formed teams in both Belarus and Moscow. Sidorov enjoyed keeping the team small.
Launched in December 2019, their first project was Connection Clash. Supersonic games released it and helped it grow. Join Clash has 280 million downloads so far. Freeplay self-published his second hit, Count Masters.
“This was the first step in understanding how we can make something bigger,” Sidorov said. “We realized we could make some great mobile games. We made a lot of mistakes, figured out how to promote games, and learned how to make games. ”
The company now has more than 52 in-house workers, a combination of developers and marketers. A team of three people comes up with the prototype, and then it goes through the test. The duration of the test lasts about three weeks. If that doesn’t happen, the team moves on to a new idea. If it works, the freeplay can add up to 10 people to a team.
“We focus on the quality of the experience,” Sidorov said. “We are constantly watching the trends and trying to stick to the top position in the market.”
To come up with three big games, the company brainstormed through something like 15 to 20 ideas.
Over time, the company hopes to expand its presence in genres such as midcore games, which have hardcore themes but can be played in shorter sessions. The company hopes to acquire another studio and hire more people to work on its own projects.
“We put all our souls into making games, and that’s the key to our success,” Sidorov said. “We really love what we do.”
Gamesbeat’s cult “where passion meets business” while covering the game industry. What does this mean? We want to let you know how important the news is to you-not just as a decision maker in a game studio, but as a sports fan. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, Gamesbeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy connecting with it.
How do you do that Membership includes access access:
- Newsletters, such as Deanbeat
- Stunning, educational and entertaining speakers in our programs
- Networking opportunities
- Only interviews, chats and “open office” events for special members with Gamesbit staff
- Chatting with community members, Gamesbeat staff and other guests at our discord
- And maybe even one or two fun prizes
- Introduction to like-minded parties
Become a member


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In the first episode of Beach Weekly’s eleventh season, Lei Madrigal welcomes new and returning students to Long Beach State with campus updates.
The Back to the Beach events will be held next Tuesday and Wednesday from 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. at the Student Union Southwest Terrace where students can learn more about services and programs on campus. Tuesday also marks this semester’s first weekly Farmer’s Market which takes place in front of the Student Recreation and Wellness Center every Tuesday from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.
The university bookstore used to have a satellite store on 2nd Street in Belmont Shore that sold Long Beach State merchandise and other school items. Over the summer on June 19, the store permanently closed after 15 years of service so the Beach Shops department can increase its focus on the remaining on-campus stores.
Long Beach State has adopted a new, alternative version of the Elbee mascot that features the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower, a symbol that someone with a hidden disability might use to share that they have a condition that is not immediately apparent. Hats, shirts, and other merchandise that have the Long Beach State Hidden Disabilities Sunflower will be available for purchase at the bookstore by the beginning of the semester.
Parking permits this year will remain the same prices as last year and not increase as they were previously expected to. Also, there is now a cell phone waiting area located at the South Campus turnaround where drivers can wait up to 15 minutes without buying a parking permit while they wait for who they are picking up.
The University Police Department has over 1,000 free bike locks to give to students who register their bikes. The UPD is also increasing foot patrols in areas on campus that experience the most theft aiming to mitigate car break-ins. In another effort to increase campus safety, Beach Building Services is looking to add electronic locks to building entrances that will only allow college-approved users into buildings after normal business hours.
Host: Lei Madrigal
Editor: Aidan Swanepoel
Producers: El Nicklin, Aidan Swanepoel
Like, comment, and follow us on your favorite platform for more content!


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In a surprising turn of events, Unilever, the multinational consumer goods company, has issued a recall for five specific batches of its popular Magnum ice cream products. The recall was triggered by the discovery of metal fragments in the ice cream, posing a potential health hazard to consumers.
The product in question is the Magnum Classic Chocolate Ice Cream, sold in packs of three. Unilever has warned that these packs may contain small pieces of metal, making them unsafe for consumption.
The company has released a product recall notice, identifying the affected batches by their pack size (3x100ml) and batch codes. The codes to look out for are L3324, L3325, L33326, L3327, and L3328. This issue extends to all ice creams with best-before dates up to November 2025.
Customers can locate the batch number and best-before information on the side of the box. While the cause of the issue remains unknown, Unilever urges customers who have purchased these products to refrain from consuming them and to reach out to the UK careline for further guidance.


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People have often voiced their opposition to animal testing and campaigns have been launched from many angles. Recently, however, the campaign leaders of a global anti-animal testing campaign in the cosmetics industry have taken an important step towards an animal testing ban.
A debate was held about Britain’s role in the global animal testing ban, led by Dr. Lisa Cameron (member of the Scottish National Party). This was very well-received by all parties in their appeal to stop animal testing. Cruelty-Free International, which has long awaited progress on this important issue, was particularly pleased about this.
A spokesman said: “Animal testing in the cosmetics industry has been banned in the UK since 1997 and in the EU since 2013. This already saves thousands of animals and prevents unnecessary animal suffering. Despite this encouraging development, over 80 percent of countries worldwide still allow the cosmetics industry to carry out animal experiments”.
New testing methods are more reliable
Cameron also added that modern testing methods without the use of animals are even more relevant and reliable. These methods make it possible, for example, to predict allergic reactions much more specifically and accurately.
Cameron also received encouragement from her party colleague Patricia Gibson, who acknowledged that a British animal testing freeze did not yet mean a worldwide freeze but was nevertheless “a strong and forward-looking step in the right direction.” These statements were prompted above all by the increasing ethical demands that consumers are already making today. As a result, the cosmetics industry will soon have to follow customers’ wishes.
All parties agreed that solutions are now being sought to help the United Nations enforce global laws. These directives should be appropriate for industry, animals and consumers alike and put an end to the cruel, unnecessary and outdated practice of animal testing.


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“With the fresh capital, we are now looking forward to announce our next overseas operation base in the USA, Mauritius and Singapore,” Subrat Parida, founder of Bengaluru-based Racetrack.ai, said. “We further plan to raise our Series A by the end of this year.”
The 50-member startup, founded in 2015, offers two flagship products —a chatbot for sales and support, and a business accelerator that helps in better business planning and execution.
“This move will help us delve into newer business verticals like retail, banking and healthcare. This boost in our physical presence will open new doors for us to partner with intercontinental brands and decision-makers while helping us to create global footprint in the AI industry,” Parida said in a statement.
In the booming $100 billion AI market, Racetrack.ai is targeting business verticals like BFSI, education, health, hospitality, and real estate, according to Parida.
A study by Accenture in December said AI could add $957 billion to the Indian economy or increase the country’s income by 15% by 2035 by changing the nature of work to create better outcomes.
In the first half of 2018, India recorded overall flow of $3.6 billion through external funding rounds made across 411 deals in startups.


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WASHINGTON — In public, Toyota is running apologetic TV ads and vowing to win back customers’ trust. Behind the scenes, the besieged carmaker is trying to learn all it can about congressional investigations, maybe even steer them if it can.
It’s part of an all-out drive by the world’s biggest auto manufacturer to redeem its once unassailable brand, which was hit anew on Tuesday as Toyota’s global recall ballooned to 8.5 million cars and trucks. The company recalled 440,000 of its flagship Prius and other hybrids worldwide. That includes 147,500 U.S. hybrid vehicles — the 2010 Prius and 2010 Lexus HS250h.
The company’s president read a statement in English pledging to “regain the confidence of our customers” — underscoring a determination to keep buyers’ faith from sinking to unrecoverable depths.
There have been about 200 complaints in Japan and the U.S. about a delay when the brakes in the Prius were pressed in cold conditions and on some bumpy roads. The delay doesn’t indicate a brake failure. The company says the problem can be fixed in 40 minutes with new software that oversees the controls of the anti-lock brakes.
At Ventura Toyota, Parts and Service Director Scott Bada said: “We are currently taking waiting list appointments as the software update will not be available until Thursday of this week.”
Thousand Oaks Toyota is doing the same — “taking names,” said General Manager Andy Robles. “But we’re pretty well swamped.”
Ventura County has four Toyota dealerships, with the others in Oxnard and Simi Valley — both part of the DCH Auto Group.
“The voluntary safety recall for the 2010 Prius is a simple and quick process. It is just an update to the vehicles anti-lock brake system software,” said Steve Chapman, general manager of DCH Toyota of Oxnard and Simi Valley. “I would encourage concerned customers to bring their Prius in so that we can take care of it for them. With our expanded hours, which now include Sundays, we are working to make this process as convenient as possible for our customers.”
At a news conference in Tokyo, President Akio Toyoda said: “Let me assure everyone that we will redouble our commitment to quality as the lifeline of our company.”
In Washington, facing congressional inquiries and government investigations, Toyota through its lawyers and lobbyists is working full-speed to salvage its reputation. The confidential strategy — Toyota will say little publicly about its efforts — includes efforts to sway upcoming hearings on Capitol Hill and is based on experiences by companies that have survived similar consumer and political crises — and those that haven’t.
Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich, said Toyota representatives visited his offices seeking to learn all they could.
“They’re probing us. ‘What are you going to ask us, where are you going with this whole thing?’ ” said Stupak, who is chairman of a House subcommittee looking into Toyota’s problems.
Toyota, which reported spending more than $4 million on lobbying last year, declined to discuss details of its plans. The company has “beefed up our team” by hiring additional lobbyists, lawyers and public relations experts to “work with regulators and lawmakers collaboratively towards a successful recall effort, ensuring proper, diligent compliance,” spokeswoman Cindy Knight said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.
Rough headlines for Toyota continued Tuesday. In other developments:
- State Farm, the largest U.S. auto insurer, said it had informed federal regulators late in 2007 about growing reports of unexpected acceleration in Toyotas. That disclosure raised new questions about whether the government missed clues about problems.
- Congressional investigators cited growing evidence that not all the causes of Toyota’s acceleration problems have been identified. A staff memo from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which had planned an oversight hearing for Wednesday, said there was substantial evidence that remedies such as redesigned floor mats have failed to solve problems. The hearing was postponed until Feb. 24 due to snow in Washington.
- Federal safety officials said they were examining complaints from Toyota Corolla owners about steering problems.
Toyota faces at least two congressional hearings besides Stupak’s, including the one delayed by snow. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee and a longtime supporter of Toyota, said his panel will hold a hearing after the two by the House.
Their focus: floor mats that get caught under accelerators, sticky gas pedals and brake problems, and what the company and federal regulators knew about them.
Professionals who have waged major damage-control struggles say the best strategy for Toyota mixes apology, openness, details about a specific fix — plus a little help from friends on Capitol Hill. In recent days, American TV viewers have seen ads in which a soft-spoken announcer talks about Toyota’s dedication to safety and its customers.
“We’re working around the clock to ensure we build vehicles of the highest quality, to restore your faith in our company,” one spot says.
Toyota is expected to turn to its natural allies — lawmakers from states with Toyota plants or offices, which include Texas, Missouri, Indiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky and West Virginia. Republicans are considered especially likely to back the company, whose workers are not unionized.
Toyota has been encouraging dealers to contact local members of Congress, according to Bailey Wood, spokesman for the National Automobile Dealers Association. About 60 of the 1,200 U.S. Toyota dealers planned to visit Washington this week, weather permitting, said Cody Lusk, president of the American International Automobile Dealers Association. Their message: Toyota employs 34,000 people in the U.S. and accounts for 164,000 other jobs at dealerships and parts suppliers.
“They provide a lot of jobs, a lot of the tax base, and they want members to know,” Lusk said.
Toyota also flew 23 workers from plants around the country to Capitol Hill to meet with lawmakers’ staffs, emphasizing that the people who make the parts and build the vehicles care about quality.
One worker who tests cars and trucks said he takes it personally that he never found the gas pedal problem.
“I feel that I failed customers by not finding this issue,” said Jim Shuker, who works at Toyota’s Arizona Proving Grounds in Wittmann, Ariz. “We were not able to duplicate it.”
— AP writers Ken Thomas and Malcolm Foster and Star staff writer Stephanie Hoops contributed to this report.


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The Closed Loop Fund will provide millions of dollars to help scale up a PP recycling technology in Ohio.
The organization, which finances recycling infrastructure projects, announced a $3 million loan to PureCycle Technologies. The investment comes nearly a year after PureCycle broke ground on a recycling facility in Ironton, Ohio.
A new company, PureCycle is commercializing a PP recycling and purification technology developed and licensed by Procter & Gamble (P&G).
“Our (consumer packaged goods) partners want post-consumer recycled PP, but we need technologies like PureCycle’s to ensure enough material is available at the specifications brands need. We anticipate significant market opportunity for PureCycle,” Ron Gonen, CEO of Closed Loop Fund, stated in a press release. Funded by major brand owners, Closed Loop Fund was founded in 2014 with a goal of investing $100 million by 2020.
The technology is described as a mechanical recycling process that involves purifying colored and contaminated PP in multiple steps. According to PureCycle, it can generate recycled PP with virgin-like properties. Although it is starting with a smaller scale evaluation unit, PureCycle is planning a facility capable of processing 100 million pounds per year.
Plastics Recycling Update took a closer look at the company and technology in July 2017, when the project broke ground.
“This is a case where a hundred-billion-dollar industry required new technology to meet a compelling, unmet need,” Mike Otworth, CEO of PureCycle Technologies, stated in the release. “Until now, recycled PP had limited applications. We’re single-handedly removing those limitations and giving companies the choice to use more sustainable, recycled resins.”
For its part, P&G has emphasized several times how important the project is to opening up the supply of recycled PP for its use.
“P&G has been using recycled plastic in our packaging since the late 1980s, but our use of recycled PP has been limited due to a lack of availability of high-quality material,” the company’s 2017 citizenship report states. “We needed a solution, so one of our scientists invented a technology to remove the color, odor and contaminants from recycled PP. We are scaling up this innovation with PureCycle Technologies and look for it to unlock the potential for billions of pounds of high-quality recycled PP to replace virgin materials for P&G and many other companies.”
Photo credit: Josep Curto/Shutterstock
More stories about PP
- Recycled plastic end user reports higher sales
- Arizona partnership micro-factory will process PP, PE
- TotalEnergies kicks off chemical recycling in Texas


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Congratulations to VendScreen with their big announcement during the PIE Demo Day in Portland. Not only have they received $5 million in orders from their first two customers, they have received $12 million in funding from investors.
VendScreen makes an Android based product that retrofits into current vending machines. It allows for cashless transactions, provides nutritional information, as well as provides a new advertising platform. Watch the YouTube video of Paresh Patel’s presentation at the end of this post.
Mega Tech is delighted to be working with VendScreen, it is exciting to be involved with an innovative product that is revolutionizing an industry that has seen very little in the way of technological advances over the past 3 decades.
Follow VendScreen on Twitter to stay up-to-date with their progress.


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The Atlanta-based parcel giant reported increased revenues in all of its business segments, and surpassed analyst expectations with an earnings per share of $1.32 for the quarter.
The port terminal operator arm of China COSCO Shipping saw earnings sink 65.6 percent to $37.6 million in first quarter 2017 despite a 7.5 percent increase in container throughput compared with the same 2016 period.
The London-based shipping research and consulting firm said that even though freight rates fell seasonally in the first quarter of 2017, they are better than they were in 2016.
Registration takes less than 1 minute.
DHL Global Forwarding launched a weekly less-than-container load service that offers 9-day port-to-port transits from New York to Cartagena, Colombia.
DHL Supply Chain will acquire Polar Transportes, which provides transportation services to the Life Sciences and Healthcare industry in Brazil.
Twill, the new digital freight forwarding start-up, will officially be open to new customers from April 10, allowing users to instantly place bookings, manage documentation and track shipments.


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Digital transformation is having a significant impact on the Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) and Fast Casual Dining industry like never before. The shift to technology driven by restaurants’ response to the pandemic.
Customers are driving their own ‘customer journey’, and they are embracing technology to decide what they want, where they want it and when they want it.
This has created significant changes in marketing, loyalty and operations as restaurant chains respond to these emerging customer demands.
Ira Gleser from Microsoft was joined by Bruce Hoffmeister, CIO of Cracker Barrel Old Country Store and Colin McGuire, Vice President of Corporate Systems, Chipotle Mexican Grill.
Cracker Barrel is an American chain of restaurant and gift stores with a Southern country theme. Since its launch in 1969 in Tennessee, it has grown to over 663 stores across 45 US states.
Chipotle launched in 1993and the chain has now grown to over more than 2,000 locations across the US, employing more than 45,000 team members.
The panel discussion held at the Food Service Technology Stage explored what restaurants might look like in the next five years.
The panel looked back briefly at 2022, suggesting ‘dine-in’ traffic was back, post pandemic. However, it had not been a smooth transition. There were ups and downs – impacted by various waves of COVID outbreaks, and inflationary pressures.
Hoffmeister noted that even before the pandemic, there had been a ‘slow erosion’ of dine-in traffic. Where once people would dine out, they were shifting to ‘take-out’, accelerated by the comfort and convenience of meal delivery apps, like Uber Eats, and Menu Log.
In a response to the pandemic, Hoffmeister’s Cracker Barrel chain, had moved to ‘heat and serve’ options, to grow their business. Freshly prepared in store, ordered as far out as 4-6 weeks out. Customers simply drop in and collect. An offer continued today.
This option particularly spiked around ‘Thanks-Giving’ and Christmas. Where, time poor customers wanted larger family events catered, rather than preparing meals themselves.
The panel agreed, over the next 5 years, technology is expected to impact the QSR and Fast Casual Dining industry greatly.
The customer is demanding more control and they want individuality. Rather than arriving and waiting, customers will want to join the wait list, before they arrive at the restaurant. Speed will be the point of competition.
It will become the norm for waiters to use tablets to take orders – direct from the floor to the kitchen, instantaneously. No errors, no missed orders.
All restaurants will enable ‘pay at table’. But importantly, this must be individual experience. Customers will demand options. Some will want to wait and talk to a team member and pay at counter, others will want to order and pay at the table.
There will be a need to blend high-tech, with high-touch.
QSR and Fast Casual will have smaller footprints. The removal of dine in areas completely, in response to meal delivery apps and dark kitchens.
Kitchens will use AI cameras and computer vision to track food during preparation, ensuring only the most uniformed, highest quality product leaves the kitchen.
Computer vision and AI in kitchens will also help to reduce waste. Systems watching chefs and cooks prepare – alerting when too much of an ingredient is being used and suggesting waste reduction practices. Also tracking when not enough of an ingredient is being used, which may result in diner dissatisfaction.
The biggest issue is labour – attracting, recruiting, and retaining team members. Digital timetabling and rosters will enable team members to switch shifts online, via apps.
Speed to recruit will be an important factor in recruiting the best candidates. QSR and Fast Casual will need to take action to quickly hire people and on-board team members.
McGuire indicated, “we need to be faster. If it takes a week, to book and interview, call referees and job offer, it’s a week too long”.
He suggested a move to SMS to speed up recruitment. Potential young employees are not reading emails. Once recruited, they don’t want to spend a day doing induction videos. There will be a need to ‘compress’ recruiting and on-boarding time. Shorter training videos, no more than 2-4 minutes.
Hoffmeister predicted that in the next 5 years restaurants will need to give more control to customers.
McGuire expected restaurants will use smart technology to make it a compelling place to work. Using technology to remove pain points, taking away jobs that no one wants to do. Automation can ‘augment’ labour.


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Hybrid x Coronary heart’s Masamune Kuji Launches New Manga in November
The November problem of Kadokawa‘s Dragon Age journal revealed on Friday that author Masamune Kuji and artist Kōichi Kōzuki are launching a brand new manga titled Honey Entice Sharehouse within the journal’s subsequent problem on November 9. The journal teases the manga with the tagline “The quintessential spy device: the honey lure.”
Kuji wrote the Hybrid x Coronary heart Magias Academy Ataraxia gentle novel collection. The writer launched the collection in 2014, and ended it with the 14th quantity in September 2019. The novels impressed a manga adaptation by Riku Ayakawa, which launched in Kadokawa‘s Month-to-month Comp Ace journal in June 2015, and led to January 2018. Kadokawa printed the manga’s fourth and ultimate quantity in March 2018. Yen Press licensed the manga and launched the fourth quantity in November 2018.
A tv anime adaptation of the novels premiered in July 2016, and Crunchyroll streamed the collection because it aired in Japan. FUNimation Leisure deliberate to launch the collection on dwelling video in 2017, however canceled the discharge and mentioned it will replace on a distribution plan for 2018.
Supply: Dragon Age‘s web site


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The Electronics group Densitron Technologies warned investors yesterday that profits for this year would fall short of expectations after a customer in Japan cancelled an order.
The alert sent shares in the company, whose core business is designing and making display screens for gadgets including fixed-line telephones and mobile phones, down 3.5p to close at 29p.
Densitron blamed the shortfall on the cancellation of an order from Japan for technology that powers sophisticated arcade computer games machines. The Biggin Hill-based company also admitted it had seen "softer than expected" demand for its core display products.
Analysts at the company's broker, Peel Hunt, more than halved their profit forecast for 2003 to £600,000 from the £1.3m profit they had been expecting. Last year, the company made a loss of about £5.3m.
Peter Joseph, an analyst at Peel Hunt, said about 80 per cent of the cut to forecasts related to the cancelled Japanese order, while the balance concerned weakness in the company's display products. "It's unfortunate but it's not the end of the world. They're doing all the right things but they've had a bit of a kick in the teeth," Mr Joseph said.
Densitron said it expected to report a "small" profit for the first half of the year when it publishes its figures on 10 September. It made a £3.5m loss in the first half of last year.Reuse content


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Jamie Dimon, the chief executive officer at JP Morgan, a global bank, uses ‘inflation’ 15 times in his annual letter to shareholders. He argues that the US would need to raise interest rates and make a ‘massive’ shift to quantitative ‘tightening’ from quantitative ‘easing’. He is not just an analyst. He heads a bank with a balance sheet size of $3.7 trillion, bigger than India’s gross domestic product. Stock markets in America have not had a positive day since 4 April when he sent out the letter. Undoubtedly, there is nervousness across financial markets.
As far as equity markets are concerned, expectations of future profits of businesses are now probably heading back to more realistic levels. As interest rates rise to tame inflation globally, concerns are now starting to emanate about future profit growth.
While the world reels amidst the chaos of conflict due to the war in Ukraine and rising oil prices, India cannot escape the stress. India depends on imports to meet energy needs. Indian markets also rely on foreign capital flows that are witnessing a selloff. Thankfully, domestic institutional investors are buying into Indian equities and offsetting the impact of the relentless selling by foreigners.
However, make no mistake – inflation is real! It affects companies across sectors. The Reserve Bank of India’s monetary policy committee left key borrowing rates unchanged. It also kept the ‘accommodative’ monetary policy stance while agreeing to withdraw it to keep inflation in check if needed. Words like ‘inflation’ and ‘prices’ dominate the monetary policy statement. Rising inflation would push the Reserve Bank of India’s monetary policy committee to end the ‘accommodative’ credit policy stance sooner than later. India’s interest rates are likely to hold firm or even rise over the next couple of years.
Most stock market analysts have predicted steady growth in profits for frontline companies in most sectors. However, from automobiles to the consumer sector, all businesses are facing the heat of rising input costs.
In that backdrop, sectors that are not affected by consumer price inflation could focus on exports of services or those witnessing high demand. Themes that are likely to do well in the current environment include direct underlying plays on the underlying commodity price boom, Service oriented Industries and Investment related themes.
While we are on the subject, we urge you to check out some of our outperforming alphamatters such as the “Dividend Compounders”, “The Perfect PSU Alphamatter”, “Kisan Aur Kheti Alphamatter”, “India Unlock Alphamatter” and “India Capex Alphamatter”. Performances of these are displayed below. So go and check it out on www.alphaniti.com today!
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|3 MONTHS||6 MONTHS||1 YEAR|
|Dividend Compounders alphamatter||10.098||3.587||38.832|
|The Perfect PSU alphamatter||15.353||10.323||35.574|
|Kisan Aur Kheti alphamatter||13.679||22.395||48.355|
|India Unlock Alphamatter||15.429||16.764||72.386|
|India Capex Alphamatter||6.475||11.847||–|
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There were leaks last month showing what might have been our first look at the Spotify iPad app, but today the company officially launched its long-awaited app with a blog post and the video above. The free app has already landed in the App Store as a universal download (an update for users of the iPhone app), and the service offers a 48-hour free trial for non-Premium subscribers with the ability to increase it to 30 days.
Our iPad app looks great. We’ve included Retina graphics and high-definition album art to make browsing a pleasure. Enjoying all the world’s music instantly on your iPad has never been easier. And with the brand new full-screen view and AirPlay integration, Spotify and your iPad are perfect for each other, both as your pumped-up living room stereo and your lean, green music machine when you’re on the move.
Compared to Spotify’s iPhone experience, the iPad app has been completely redesigned with a layered UI more familiar to Facebook iPad app users and packs most of the service’s features apart from the recently launched Web apps. It also includes a new full-screen mode with Retina graphics to take advantage of the device’s display and AirPlay support. Missing is “Collection” view and few other features only accessible through the online service.
The full set of features, as described by Spotify community manager Andres Sehr, is below:
expand full story


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Purplebricks says its performance in the UK “is currently showing double-digit growth year-on-year in monthly instructions.”
In a brief UK trading update - attached to confirmation that it would be expanding into Germany - Purplebricks this morning says that “with further market share gains, in what continues to be a challenging market … Purplebricks' share of the UK online market remains above 70 per cent.”
The next formal update on Purplebricks' performance in the UK will be on November 6.
Meanwhile this morning's statement also confirmed a Sky News story that was reported on Estate Agent Today last evening, that Purplebricks would be entering a 50-50 partnership with Axel Springer - which is already a big investor in the hybrid agency - to form NewCo, a joint venture company.
NewCo will spend €25m on buying a 26 per cent stake in Homeday, a German digital estate agency which has a 50 per cent share of that country's online estate agency market.
In July, in an interview with the Press Association, Purplebricks' global chief executive Michael Bruce suggested that following his agency's acquisition of the Canadian firm DuProprio/ComFree, it was ripe for further international expansion - and Germany was considered the most likely, given the Axel Springer involvement.
Under the deal revealed by Sky, Purplebricks and Axel Springer would also have an option to buy another 28 per cent of Homeday next summer, for €20m, potentially giving NewCo a controlling stake within a year.
Sky says Homeday had revenues of about €4m in 2017, with that figure expected to double in 2018.
This morning's statement from Purplebricks says: "Launched in 2015 by founder and CEO Steffen Wicker and based in Berlin, Homeday operates a transaction-based digital real estate agency platform in Germany that helps customers to buy or sell real estate. The Homeday model has some similarities to Purplebricks, combining a technology platform with an expanding number of local agents, referred to as 'realtors', operating across 65 German residential markets including Berlin, Hamburg, Munich and Cologne. The realtors are typically sub-contractors rather than employees. The customer proposition and service level provided by Homeday are well regarded, as evidenced by a Trustpilot average score of 9.3 from over 850 reviews."


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iOS Users Can Now Share Content via Cisco Webex Meetings App
Under a new partnership, iPhone and iPad users can now share content from the rear-facing or front-facing camera via the Webex Meetings app.
Apple’s Tim Cook Details New Enterprise Security Partnership with Cisco
Apple CEO Tim Cook made a surprise appearance at a Cisco event in Las Vegas on Monday.
Apple Partners with Cisco to Deliver iOS Enterprise Solutions
Apple has announced it has partnered with Cisco to deliver enterprise solutions.
Cisco 2014 Security Report Shows 99% of Mobile Malware Targets Androids
The Cisco 2014 Annual Security Report reveals that 99% of all mobile malware in 2013 targeted Android devices.


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The Nasdaq Composite jumped to a record high yesterday as investors rotated back into growth-oriented stocks. Investors are giving growth and tech stocks another chance as bond yields come down. The 10-year Treasury fell below 1.43%, a three-month low.
According to the Commerce Department Retail sales fell slightly last month, as consumers spent less on goods and more on activities like travel, an industry that had been hobbled by the pandemic. The 1.3 percent decline in retail spending in May follows months of ups and downs in consumer spending, driven by the persistence of the coronavirus that had kept many people away from airports and restaurants.
Come July 15, the IRS will start issuing payments to people eligible for the expanded child tax credit as part of the coronavirus relief package. Rather than wait until taxpayers file their 2021 tax returns, the agency will start sending monthly advance payments worth half of the total credit. Payments will come on the 15th of the month for six months. Then taxpayers can take the rest of the credit on their 2021 return. But there may be good reasons for some taxpayers to refuse to take the monthly tax experts said. If your eligibility changes over the course of the year because you earn more income, you will have to pay back any overpayments when you file your 2021 tax return.


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Inflation Reduction Act will offer hefty subsidies for low- and moderate-income shoppers
By Alan Wolf, YSN
Buried within the Biden administration’s sweeping Inflation Reduction Act is a new sales incentive for buyers and sellers of electric appliances.
The initiative, which was signed into law last summer, represents the largest federal outlay ever to fight climate change, with $369 billion earmarked for tax credits, rebates and other policies that promote efficient and earth-friendly energy consumption.
A lesser-known provision within the law, called the High-Efficiency Electric Home Rebate Act (HEEHRA), will provide point-of-sale rebates of up to $840 to low- and moderate-income buyers of electric and induction ranges and electric heat-pump clothes dryers, which operate more cleanly and efficiently than their gas counterparts.
But don’t start loading up on inventory just yet. The $4.5 billion program, which is funded by the feds but managed by individual states, still has a ways to go: the Department of Energy must issue new rules for running it before states can apply for federal grants and build an administrative infrastructure. Best guess: next summer at the earliest before dealers can begin issuing range and dryer rebates.


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BANGKOK — A well-designed chair, public transport station, and green spaces are the keys to better living in Thailand – at least, that’s the message of the upcoming art festival.
Bangkok Design Week 2020, under the theme of “Resilience: New Potential for Living,” will be held Feb. 1 to 9 this year, showcasing dozens of events ranging from exhibitions, design, workshops, markets, and more in events mostly in the Charoen Krung area as well as citywide.
See what a “safe zone” from PM 2.5 looks (and smells) like at one of their exhibitions running all week at the Grand Postal Building.
A workshop about designing your own boat stations will be held by popular public transpo advocacy page Mayday to highlight the need for wheelchair access in Bangkok’s mass transit system.
Get to know the people of the area better through photo exhibitions of Charoenkrung family portraits.
Watch indie films outdoors about Bangkokian’s lives in yesteryear at the Kenkoon Thong Lor Showroom.
The second-ever Pinkoi Market, with over 50 craft vendors from all over Asia, will also be part of the design week from Feb. 1 to 4. At their debut in 2018, we interviewed a Malaysian brand’s debut selling in Thailand.
See even more Southeast Asian design handiwork at another event sponsored by the French embassy.
Most Bangkok Design Week 2020 events are concentrated in Charoen Krung Area, but the dozens of events are held all throughout the city – check their website for full details of the venues and schedule.


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Affiliate marketing business Bojoko has launched in New Jersey after securing a licence from the US state’s Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE).
The launch will allow players in New Jersey to filter and compare online gambling sites licenced to operate in the state.
Approved operators in New Jersey, as well as game developers targeting the state Jersey and wider US market, can also create their own listing on the Bojoko site.
The launch in New Jersey marks Bojoko’s debut in the US, with the brand having also applied for affiliate licences in a number of other states such as Pennsylvania and Michigan.
“This really is a milestone moment for Bojoko and we are incredibly excited about leveraging the tremendous opportunities we believe the New Jersey and the wider US market have to offer,” the affiliate’s chief business officer Joonas Karhu said.


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Lucky Color For New Year 2021
We reached out to the top celebrity colorists to learn about the most popular hair colors coming our way for the rest of 2021. Click here to see all nine. Jill and Mike Landry use their Marshfield business, Beach Plum Floral, to share a love of nature across New England. Square Enix has revealed a new trailer of the upcoming Life is Strange game by Deck Nine Life Is Strange: True Colors.
The new mask rules only apply to vaccinated people — so every parent of a child under 12 has to convince them to keep a mask on for the foreseeable future. “The Rock Eaters,” “Alien Worlds” and “Terminal Boredom” turn critical and humorous eyes toward immigration & more
I was completely burned out by the constant need to prove myself,’ says Dear Evan Hansen star Ciara Elyse Harris of her pre-pandemic life. Days ahead of their expected launch and seemingly before official review embargoes lift, one lucky customer has already gotten their hands on
Lucky Color For New Year 2021 : Sony announced it will launch versions of its DualSense controller for the video game console in “cosmic red” and “midnight black.” A boisterous Gold Coast space, popular with locals and the occasional celebrity, last week debuted a new restaurant with luxurious options like champagne, caviar, and American wagyu. Mansion on Rush The PS5 is a rare and elusive beast that you’re going to have a tough time getting hold of, even with our PS5 stock tracker. We’re six months down the line from its November launch when it debuted


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In a release to the media, the KitKat maker said it was the highest nine-month rise (cutting the impact of currency movements and acquisitions) since 2008 and was driven by higher prices aimed at offsetting rising costs.
Mark Schneider, Nestlé CEO, said:" We delivered strong organic growth as we continued to adjust prices responsibly to reflect inflation. The challenging economic environment is a concern for many people and is impacting their purchasing power. That's why we aim to keep products affordable and accessible while considering the interests of all our stakeholders.’’
Analyst Jon Cox of Kepler Cheuvreux told Reuters that growing organic sales was a "decent" result for the company given the continued price increases even if third-quarter volumes dipped.
For the nine months to end-September, Nestle posted sales of 69.1 billion Swiss francs ($69.4 billion), beating the 68.9 billion francs forecast.
Most of the organic growth increase came from higher pricing, accounting for 7.5 percentage points of the 8.5% increase, while volumes increased by 1 percentage point over the period.
As a result Nestle raised its full-year outlook, saying it now expected organic growth of "around 8%" for 2022, up from a 7% to 8% increase previously.
The Vevey-headquartered company also confirmed its target for a trading operating profit margin of approximately 17% and raised its full-year guidance.
“Our real internal growth remained resilient despite a high base of comparison and continued supply chain constraints, with limited demand elasticity. At the same time, we continue to invest in R&D, marketing and sustainability initiatives, as demonstrated by the recent launch of our Nescafé Plan 2030. We remain confident in the strength of our brands, operational execution and underlying category dynamics which position us well for future growth," said Schneider.
- Organic growth reached 8.5%. Pricing was 7.5%, reflecting significant cost inflation. Real internal growth (RIG) was resilient at 1.0%. Organic growth was broad-based across most geographies and categories.
- Total reported sales increased by 9.2% to CHF 69.1 billion (9M-2021: CHF 63.3 billion). Net acquisitions had a positive impact of 1.2%. Foreign exchange decreased sales by 0.6%.
- Portfolio management on track. In the third quarter, Nestlé Health Science completed the acquisitions of Puravida in Brazil and The Better Health Company in New Zealand.
- Full-year 2022 outlook updated: we now expect organic sales growth around 8%. The underlying trading operating profit margin is expected around 17.0%. Underlying earnings per share in constant currency and capital efficiency are expected to increase.


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A Toyota bZ4X on display at the New York Auto Show, April 13, 2022.
Scott Mlyn | CNBC
Toyota Motor said it sold its 200,000th plug-in electric vehicle during the second quarter, triggering a phase out of U.S. tax credits of up to $7,500 for people who buy the cars.
The Japanese automaker joins Tesla and General Motors in initiating a phase-out of the credit for future consumers who purchase an all-electric or plug-in hybrid electric vehicle. The milestone comes at an inopportune time, with Toyota ramping up production of its new all-electric bZ4X.


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A serious bug in the default Apple iOS Mail application can be easily exploited to show extremely realistic-looking pop-up prompts and trick users into sharing their Apple iCloud login credentials, security researcher Jan Soucek warns.
He discovered the flaw in January 2015, and notified Apple of it, but the company has yet to deliver a patch for it. Soucek decided to publish proof of concept code in order to force their hand.
The vulnerability lies in the fact that the app does not ignore the HTML tag in e-mail messages.
He also published a video demonstrating the attack both on an iPad and on an iPhone:
Effectively, all an attacker needs to mount a successful attack is to send an email with the aforementioned HTML tag to the target, and a server that hosts the bogus login prompt.
The pop-up prompt looks pretty legitimate.
The code can be modified to show the victim’s email address in the username field. Also, the password field has autofocus enabled, so once a user clicks OK the dialog field is hidden.
Finally, as any Apple user knows, Apple’s OSes are known for displaying login prompts at random times, so seeing it while you open an email will not trigger suspicion with many users.
At the moment, users can protect themselves against this type of attack by declining to enter their password if they are asked to do so after having opened an email via the Mail app. Hopefully Apple will soon deliver a patch solving the issue for good.


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What got recently caught was Lexus’s new NX SUV which literally means Nimble X-over and hence the name. The new spy shots tell us the car is being paced through development and testing. The new-gen will soon be replacing the long aging NX which has been on roads since 2014. With this new one, it is not just the styling that sees styling here but it would also have updated powertrain options. Lexus has most of the cars hybridized and electric setups might see a change too. The new trims can include NX250, NX350 and NX350h, the names Lexus just registered/filed for.
It will slot in between Lexus’s crossovers UX and the RX and coming as the 2022 model year NX will mostly compete with models such as the BMW X1 and Audi Q3. Also, the new version will be taking a lot from the Toyota RAV4 as speculated. A probable transition onto the front-wheel-drive GA-K version of the Toyota New Global Architecture. This also means it might grow slightly in size, with a longer wheelbase and wider track. And hence better space inside and improved dynamics.
Right now there are only two variants on sale: NX300 and NX300h with the new trademarks the trims will be joined by the NX250, NX350, and NX350h. The NX250 will most likely have a naturally aspirated 2.5-liter inline-four, Lexus could also possibly use the 302 hp plug-in-hybrid setup from the Toyota RAV4 Prime. The 350 lineup on the other hand, can come with a 3.5L naturally-aspirated V6 motor but that is just a guess for now that will be confirmed by Lexus later.
The upcoming new 2022 NX is expected to come with a host of modern features including a modern touchscreen infotainment system, as opposed to the button-laden units found in the current generation of the NX. What will likely remain unchanged is the 2-row and 5 seat configuration.
With an expected price to start at under $40,000, the NX will come as a 2022 model and will be revealed late this year or early 2021.


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Blaze Fast Fire’d Pizza is deploying the Qu unified commerce platform, a cloud-native system, to improve ordering and operational efficiency across its entire franchise system.
The technology provides better order accuracy and kitchen fulfillment, which can reduce the cost of labor as well as food waste, according to a press release.
Qu will support Blaze’s plans for aggressive expansion over the next five years with a solid, unified data foundation and effortless user experience on the front end.
The decision to begin a systemwide rollout of Qu’s platform was finalized after the success of a pilot program involving corporate and franchised locations.
“The advanced and forward-looking nature of Qu’s cloud computing and real-time access to data makes it so much easier to get a holistic view of our operations and efficiency,” Beto Guajardo, CEO of Blaze Pizza, said in the release. “We’ve already seen a marked improvement in revenues and guest experience through fewer lost orders and higher order accuracy.”
Blaze Pizza was established in 2011 by Rick and Elise Wetzel, the co-founders of the Wetzel’s Pretzels chain.


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Givaudan’s cost-cutting efforts have clearly paid off as the flavors and fragrance producer announced an 11.2 percent increase in net profit for the first half of 2015. Net profit for the six months to June 30 rose from CHF305 million in 2014 to CHF339 million this year.
Earnings also beat expectations, gaining 0.6 percent to reach CHF566 million. Analysts had predicted a decline to CHF531 million as the world’s largest fragrance and flavors maker has been hit by the appreciation of the Swiss Franc, ‘distorting’ its efforts make cost savings through relocating its flavors manufacturing facility to Hungary and revisiting its pension scheme.
The positive news was reflected in the markets, as Givaudan’s shares gained as much as 5.8 percent on Friday, the highest jump since January 2014.
Sales were flat for the first half of 2015, rising 1.3 percent on a like-for-like basis to CHF2.2 million (a decrease of 0.3 percent in Swiss Francs). Sales for the company’s fragrance compounds division, which includes both fine fragrances and consumer products) increased by 1 percent on a like-for-like basis, helped by a good performance in developing markets on the consumer products side, although weak sales in Latin America affected growth in the fine fragrance division, which put on 0.8 percent thanks to a strong performance in Asia and the Middle East.
A number of Givaudan fragrances were recognised at awards ceremonies in the first half of the year, including Bottega Veneta Knot (Coty), Tom Ford’s Velvet Orchid and Mandarino Di Amalfi (Estée Lauder), Miss Dior Blooming Bouquet (Christian Dior/LVMH), and Narciso by Narciso Rodriguez (BPI).
The company’s acquisition of Soliance helped boost its fragrance and cosmetics ingredients division, which grew 4 percent in local currency when Soliance’s first-half sales are taken into account. Product transfers to Givaudan’s production site in Mexico and a joint venture in China will help the group remain competitive going forward.
CEO Gilles Andrier is currently in the process of preparing the company’s strategy for the next five years and is expected to update shareholders in August. The plan for the five years to 2020 is expected to be broadly similar to the previous five-year outlook. “It’s not going to be an upside-down revolution,” said Andrier. “We believe we have a good business model which we can build on.”


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Honda rolls out new zero-emission fuel cell car
A new zero-emission, hydrogen fuel cell car rolled off a Honda production line in Japan on Monday and is headed to southern California, where Hollywood is already abuzz over the latest splash in green motoring.
The FCX Clarity, which runs on hydrogen to generate electricity, emits only water from its tailpipe and none of the gases believed to cause global warming. It is also two times more energy efficient than a gas-electric hybrid and three times that of a standard gasoline-powered car, the company says.
Honda expects to lease out a "few dozen" cars this year and about 200 more within a year. In California, a three-year lease will run $600 US a month, which includes maintenance and collision coverage.
Among the first customers are actress Jamie Lee Curtis and filmmaker husband Christopher Guest, actress Laura Harris, film producer Ron Yerxa, as well as businessmen Jon Spallino and Jim Salomon.
"It's so smooth," said Harris, who played villainess Marie Warner on the hit TV show 24. "It's like a future machine, but it's not."
Few hydrogen fuel stations
The biggest obstacles standing in the way of wider adoption of fuel cell vehicles are cost and the dearth of hydrogen fuel stations. For the Clarity's release in California, Honda said it received 50,000 applications through its website, but considered only buyers living near hydrogen fuel stations in Torrance, Santa Monica and Irvine.
"This is indeed a historic day for both Honda and American Honda — a new chapter in our nearly 50-year history in America," said John Mendel, a senior vice-president at America Honda Motor Co. at a morning ceremony here.
'If Honda can invest in no-gasoline vehicles, GM could do it too, and do it right here in Canada, where we have the people, the skills and the know how.'
"It's an especially significant day for American Honda as we plant firm footsteps toward the mainstreaming of fuel cell cars."
Initially, however, the Clarity will go only to a chosen few starting July and then launch in Japan this fall. Although Honda Motor Co. was the first Japanese automaker to launch a gas-electric hybrid vehicle in the U.S. in 1999, it has been outpaced by the dominance of Toyota's popular Prius.
Toyota announced in May that it has sold more than one million Prius hybrids, while both the Honda Insight and the hybrid Accord have been discontinued due to poor sales.
The FCX Clarity is part of Honda's plan to keep pace with rivals in green technology. It also plans to launch a gas-electric hybrid model, as well as new hybrid versions of the Civic, the sporty CR-Z concept and Fit subcompact.


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PERU: Room For Growth In Textile Market Says Report
Textile and apparel exports rose 57 per cent between 1994 to 2000, although Peru's economy was negatively affected by El Nino in 1998. Exports were up 21.56 per cent in 2000 to $700m, or 10.31 per cent of Peru's total exports and 66 per cent of total sales of Peru's textile and clothing industries.
In the short term, Peru should benefit from the high quality in its products, according to the report. In addition, Peru's textile chain is highly integrated from raw cotton to apparel.
Cotton's production declined from 1996 to 1998 before rising again in 1999 and 2000. Output was up 21 per cent last year to 163,000 tons. Peru produces high-quality fibres but is still forced to import cotton to satisfy its industry's requirements.
Last year's cotton imports fell to 34,000 tons, however, from 44,500 tons in 1998. The lack of cotton could curb the growth in textile and garment production, the report said.
Peru mainly exports cotton apparel to the United States which accounts for 50 per cent of total shipments. Duties could be removed by next December if the US Congress agrees in including textiles and garments in the so-called ATPA (Andean Trade Partnership Act).
The EU already offers duty-free entry to Peruvian products, accounting for 23 per cent of shipments.
- Steps to piloting living wage in garment factories
- How to ensure sustainability is more than a slogan
- US apparel retailers' November 2016 sales roundup
- Trump blows the case for Brexit out of the water
- Why do modern robotics elude sportswear makers?
- US Q3 in brief – Sears, Vince Holding, Genesco
- Esquel efficiency drive continues to boost brands
- Taiwan textile maker investing in first US plant
- Outdoor apparel sector set for double-digit growth
- Myanmar garment industry "lacking labour rights"


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Sam Altman, Peak XV, and Daniel Gross and Nat Friedman’s AI grant are among backers of an AI startup, founded by two teenagers, that’s aiming to assist businesses in automating numerous wo
The core technology is a proprietary ledger capable of processing more than 50 million transactions per second and a network of interconnected real-time payment rails.
Caesar Sengupta has worked on, and overseen, several category-defining projects in the past decade and a half. As a product lead at Google, he was in charge of ChromeOS, the company’s desktop operat
As fintechs become more efficient, so too do fraudsters. “Faster instant payments mean faster fraud,” Sardine CEO and co-founder Soups Ranjan told TechCrunch. That’s the thesis behin
Travel and tourism are slowly starting to move again in the wake of COVID-19 crashing over the world and sending us to shelter in place. Today a company focused on experiences — museum visits, s
SPACs, or special purpose acquisition companies, are all the rage right now, and people are emerging from all corners to raise them. Among the latest entrants — and someone who might be of inter
As I interviewed founders about the most valuable learning resources that allowed them to grow into the leaders they are today, I realized that many leaned heavily on carefully-crafted approaches to a
RealityEngines.AI, the machine learning startup co-founded by former AWS and Google exec Bindu Reddy, today announced that it is rebranding as Abacus.AI and launching its autonomous AI service into ge
The last two decades have ushered in significant change and transformation. I believe the 2020s will be dispositive in redefining the pillars of our economy, and COVID-19 magnifies this greatly.
There’s yet another new rocket launch startup throwing its hat in the ring — Astra, an Alameda-based company that’s actually been operating in stealth mode (though relatively openly,
RealityEngines.AI, an AI and machine learning startup founded by a number of former Google executives and engineers, is coming out of stealth today and announcing its first set of products. When the c
Finding the right product/market fit is challenging for any company, but it’s just a little harder for hardware startups. I recently visited the San Francisco offices of Nebia to chat with co-fo
Robotics, AI and automation have long been one of the hottest categories for tech investments. After years and decades of talk, however, those big payouts are starting to pay off. Robotics are beginni
On Friday, China announced that it would complete its competitor to the U.S.-operated global positioning system network by the first half of next year, increasing the pace of its decoupling from U.S.
Google and its flagship search portal opened the door to the possibilities of how to build a business empire on the back of organising and navigating the world’s information, as found on the int
RealityEngines.AI, a research startup that wants to help enterprises make better use of AI, even when they only have incomplete data, today announced that it has raised a $5.25 million seed funding ro
Google’s parent company Alphabet announced that two board members, Eric Schmidt and Diane Greene, will not be seeking re-election when their terms expire on June 19. Schmidt has been on the comp
Innovation Endeavors, the fund backed by Google’s Eric Schmidt, has for years now been taking a novel approach to working on difficult and still-evolving problems, like cybersecurity and food sh
Ellevest, a digital investment platform specifically focused on helping women meet their financial goals, has raised an additional $33 million in a new round led by Rethink Impact and PSP Growth. The
Blade, backed by Lerer Hippeau and Airbus, has begun chauffering the Bay Area's elite.


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“Apple just posted its 2012 Supplier Responsibility Report highlighting its efforts to audit and improve working conditions within its supply chain. As part of the report, Apple also posted a list of 156 companies currently supplying components for Apple products that make up over 97 percent of all ‘procurement expenditures for materials, manufacturing, and assembly’ of its entire product line globally,” Jordan Kahn reports for 9to5Mac.
“The list includes Toshiba Mobile display, who is currently not supplying displays for Apple products that we know of. There were rumors in May that Toshiba was working on a 4-inch retina display and also rumors last month that Apple and Toshiba are building a plant for display production, which was later debunked by the increasingly unreliable DigiTimes,” Kahn reports. “It also includes Sharp, who was recently rumored to be ruled out of iPad 3 panel production due to quality concerns but also supplies other components to Apple.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dan K.” for the heads up.]


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More articles the bitcoin
Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies what digital money really.
Bitcoin mining pool organizers can dishonestly take more bitcoin mining shares for themselves. Eris industries appointed.
Download our official wallet app and start using bitcoin today. Bitcoin traders gaze.
Bitcoin technology the guardian.
Marketplaces called bitcoin exchanges allow people to buy or sell bitcoins using different currencies. Australian who says he invented bitcoin ordered to hand over up to 5bn.
Shame on those politicians who question the valour of our jawans. Australian who says he invented bitcoin ordered to hand over up to.
Tenx supports various blockchain assets across multiple blockchains including bitcoin, dash, ethereum, ethereum erc20 tokens (rep, cvc, omg) with more in the works to be added soon. It is worth noting that after satoshi secretly implemented the 1mb cap on block sizes, he said we can phase in a change later if we get closer to needing it.
Bitcoins economist - world news, politics, economics.
Read more to find out how bitcoin transactions are processed and how bitcoins are mined, what it can be used for, as well as how you can buy, sell and store your bitcoin. Mining talks project.
Gox being the biggest example, the people running unregulated online exchanges that trade cash for bitcoins can be dishonest or incompetent. They believe their approach is more closely aligned with the true vision of satoshi.
Digital money thats instant, private, and free from bank fees. In addition, users get rewards from transactions and card holding (.).


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Now that government has already put regulatory conditions on all sorts of products, it is imperative to ensure that the brand does not end up taking someone’s life.
Of course, it is not the original product that would do such. It is some counterfeiting racket who would tarnish the brand’s name and spell a disaster.
Anti-Counterfeiting Technologies have been predicted to a 5.3% CAGR
which will rise to 3.6 billion dollars regarding industrial growth.
Inevitably, it goes to show that globally, it is being taken as a serious issue.
Among them, track-and-trace is the kind of technology that dominates the global anti-counterfeiting surge. With 37 percent market share, it also has the fastest growth among other technologies and will soon outsmart others. Since track-and-trace depends on a lot of printable features of anti-counterfeiting, integrating them within a framework of tracking is much easier.
Also, such technology allows a close inspection all through the supply line and will inform the manufacturer at every point of the shift. In fact, tamper-evident tracing processes will be immediately detected and informed so that the manufacturer can be aware of the loopholes in the supply system.
Often, inducing simple techniques to stop counterfeits may not work across borders, but a tracing method will obviously do. These advantages put this new technology at the helm of things.


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As Facebook continues to ramp up its mobile efforts, the social network has redesigned its mobile Pages to enable users to more easily find brand information.
Hurrah for facebook – and some might say – about time too.
Maybe it’s time to buy, buy, buy them Facebook share. Surely there is an app for that.
As they say themselves MOBILE is massive for them as “Each day, millions of people visit Facebook Pages—with almost half accessing them from their mobile phones. This is why we developed a new mobile Pages layout tailored to the way people look for information on their mobile devices,” Facebook said in a blog post.
“A Page is a business’s identity on Facebook, so we’re making it easier for your current and potential customers to interact with your Page in a way that’s both efficient and useful.”
The redesign features a “cleaner, simpler look” and puts user interaction front and center placing actions such as Like, Call, Message and Share at the top of mobile pages.
“We’re delivering on what people want when they’re getting to the page, beyond just seeing a list of the page’s posts,” Matt Idema, head of product for Pages at Facebook, told Bloomberg Businessweek. “It really allows people to take actions and connect with those businesses.”
Pages now also highlight business information and photos more prominently, Facebook said. In the old version of Pages, visitors had to make extra clicks or scroll down to get business information.
The revamp enables businesses to share offers, videos and photos more prominently, allowing businesses to “pin” this content at the top of the Page. It also provides simpler mobile management, giving business Pages owners the ability to easily switch between public and admin views directly from their mobile Pages and/or devices.
Facebook is definitely serious about mobile. The social network recently turned off its internal website for a week, forcing employees to “think mobile first,” according to Fast Company.
While Facebook already rakes in a lot of advertising dough, it is setting its sights on grabbing even more dollars via mobile. A recent eMarketer forecast predicted that Facebook will net $954.9 million in mobile ad spending this year and seize nearly three in 10 dollars in the mobile display market.
The Pages updates are immediately accessible via mobile browsers and the Facebook iOS app. New mobile Pages on the Android app are coming soon, Facebook said.
Nice work facebook – now if you could then mix this with a little more analytics information 🙂


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Cooking up an economic recovery? Reviewing Rishi's plan
Rishi Sunak’s summer statement was found to be underwhelming by many professional economists, with many of the macroeconomic decisions left for the Autumn budget. Rather, Sunak focussed on sector-specific interventions to ensure the economy survived through the summer. One of these sector-specific interventions was a glamorous sounding but relatively cheap scheme: Eat Out to Help Out. Customers throughout August received 50% off up to £10 every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday The scheme came in relatively cheaply for the government, making up around 2% of the total spending announcements, however the societal impact is large. August has become a mini food festival with foodies and restaurants benefitting, however the scheme has been criticised for threatening a second wave.
The primary logic behind this scheme is to give the struggling food and drink industry a boost after the COVID-19 lockdown. These sector-specific interventions are commonplace during a recession to boost key strategic industries, usually to protect against surges of unemployment. The “cash for clunkers” scheme in 2009 is one example: when you scrapped your old car you’d receive a £2,000 subsidy split 50:50 from the government and the manufacturer to buy a new car. It is unusual however to see such a scheme applied to restaurants, this is because restaurants, and services generally, have been very resilient over the last few decades and historically are a small fraction of total employment. Both these facts have been challenged recently. Even before COVID-19 restaurants were struggling with increasing rents, business rates and decreasing footfall in town centres, being forced to close for lockdown threatened, and still threatens, to be a final fatal blow to many businesses. In the last ten years there has been a 50% increase in restaurant employees, and with now over a million workers the sector is getting the attention it deserves from the Treasury. This led to a much needed rescue mission: £522 million was subsidised giving the industry much needed respite and protecting low-paid staff from unemployment.
Not only did the scheme give vital assistance to the restaurant sector but it kickstarted the UK to move out of its lockdown slumber. For many, the end of lockdown appeared daunting and when shops and restaurants opened they stayed away. By reducing the price of restaurants Sunak enticed these people out of their homes, into restaurants and hopefully into town centres.This crucially helps boost the bricks and mortar businesses who have suffered during lockdown and whose decline threatens the High Street at the heart of local communities. This festival feeling brought back a sense of normality and comfort to the British people, restoring the confidence to head to the high street - evidence by the 7% year on year growth in consumer spending.
While Sunak’s scheme has undoubtedly been an economic success the attached health effects are worrying. Fully booked restaurants with expectant diners caused stressful weeks for low-paid hospitality staff who worked in conditions ripe for the spread of infectious diseases: enclosed, crowded and close-range conversations. As autumn approaches there appears to be more signs of a second wave emerging, and if this comes to fruition we may look back on the scheme as one that bred complacency rather than confidence.
Eat out to Help out has symbolised Sunak’s chancellorship thus far: politically canny, economically shrewd but PR driven. Assisting a vital economic sector with a wide spillover effect to the broader economy partnered with a carnival feeling was always going to please the public. However, the scheme’s popularity relies on avoiding a second COVID wave this Autumn, something that is far from guaranteed.
Image - Flickr (HM Treasury)


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Iran Air says signs deal to buy 80 Boeing passenger planes
DUBAI, Dec 11 Iran Air said it signed a deal on Sunday to buy 80 passenger planes from U.S. aircraft maker Boeing, state news agency IRNA reported.
Oct 31 (Reuters)- Panasonic Corp CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS 6 months ended 6 months ended Year to Sep 30, 2013 Sep 30, 2012 Mar 31, 2014 LATEST YEAR-AGO COMPANY RESULTS RESULT FORECAST Sales 3.71 trln 3.64 trln 7.40 trln (+1.9 pct) (-9.2 pct) (+1.3 pct) Operating 146.59 87.37 270.00 (+67.8 pct) (+83.5 pct) (+67.8 pct) Pretax 207.41 loss 278.67 210.00 Net 169.33 loss 685.17 100.00 EPS 73.25 yen loss 296.39 yen 43.26 yen Ann Div nil -Q2 Div 5.00 yen nil -Q4 Div nil NOTE - Panasonic Corp is one of world's largest consumer electronics makers selling products under 'Panasonic' and 'National' brands, among others. For latest earnings estimates made by Toyo Keizai, please double click on .
* Some job cuts when merger completed; not in operations (Adds detail, context)
LOS ANGELES, Dec 10 With a new band of rebels and a high-stakes journey, "Star Wars" ushered in a new chapter on Saturday by bringing a galaxy far, far away to the heart of Hollywood for the "Rogue One" premiere.


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As everyone knows by now, the massive number of apps available on both iOS and Android has lead to a discoverability problem for new apps, and games are suffering as much or more than any other category. Now we’ve got some numbers to help gauge the problem, as app analytics firm adjust has just released their “App Competition Retrospective Report” on the subject. Adjust says that app competition toughened in 2014, and that 82.8 percent of all apps in the App Store are what they term “zombie apps”: Apps that do not rank in the top lists and are effectively invisible in the app stores. This is up from 74 percent at the beginning of the year, a worrying trend.
“If this trend continues — and nothing indicates it wouldn’t — we’ll see less than a tenth of apps attracting any kind of organic user attention by the end of the year, and those that do gain attention will be apps that already have significant traction,” says Christian Henschel, CEO and Co-Founder of adjust. “The app store, as a source of organic acquisition, has finite capacity. When that’s reached, the app store will be dead.”
The number of Zombie Apps — those that are not visible in the app store — has almost doubled in 2014 from 657,778 in January to 1,136,501 in December. During this time, the App Store grew by 54.3 percent, increasing from 889,231 to 1,372,371 apps. The report also notes that the Chinese app market has seen 77 percent growth in 2014, while the Japanese market has seen 54.4 percent growth.
The [a]listdaily spoke exclusively with adjust CEO Christian Henschel about the issue of zombie apps, and specifically how it applies to games.
Does the discoverability situation for games appear better or worse than for other apps?
Games, as a category, is bigger and tougher to compete in than other categories – no question about it. It’s also highly diverse, with many developers large and small doing great work and placing a lot of attention on high-quality apps. At the same time, the ecosystem is much larger and there are more opportunities outside the Store than for other verticals.
Should game developers list their games only in subgenres, or also in the main game category? Is there a drawback to listing a game in multiple categories?
Our data indicates that the sub-genres, in terms of competition, provide lower thresholds to be listed. Counter this with the perhaps lower “foot traffic” passing through these lists. Where to list your games is something to carefully deliberate about, and this is something we’ve looked at particularly for this report.
Is there anything that Apple can do to make this situation better in the App Store? Do you think Apple is likely to make any major changes to help apps get discovered?
Yes, we believe this situation can be improved, and there are definitely some very promising initiatives and developments on Apple’s side. For instance, better and more increased curation for more categories, and improved discovery features in iOS8 will all improve the store to provide more for the end user and better conditions for the developer.
The App Store still is only one format and one place though. It’s great for distribution, but discovery can really benefit from more different formats, contexts and conversations outside the Store.
How does the zombie situation in the App Store compare to the Google Play store, and the Amazon appstore? Is it similar, better, or worse?
This is in many ways difficult to compare directly as the metrics vary considerably between Stores, and the data provided is sometimes low quality. Generally, we have seen trends toward a higher flux on Android than on iOS — the top listed apps vary more often over time.
For third party stores on Android, like the Amazon Store, the rule is that the smaller, the easier it is to get a good spotlight in the Store. Again, you have to counter this with a more limited audience. We’ve not yet seen really innovative approaches to discovery in the third party stores, but this is sure to be a topic going forward. Top lists don’t work for discovery — they didn’t for web in the long run, why should they for mobile
What’s your advice to a game developer seeking to avoid their game becoming a zombie?
One area we recommend developers carefully look at is the right categories for their game. The better you can categorize your game to hit an audience, the more eyeballs you’ll attract.
All the same, even with the exact right categories, App Store organic discovery is a multiplier. It’s not a very good source for discovery in and of itself. If you don’t have users, you won’t get more.
Looking at the data in our report, it’s hard to entirely believe “organic-only” acquisition strategies. We must think that paid acquisition is requisite to some extent to find an audience for every app. Ads don’t have to be terrible drivers of traffic, and they shouldn’t. Shop around, educate yourself — especially in games, where there are countless options to achieve a high bang for your buck in marketing.


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The EBA CLEARING has announced that it will launch a taskforce to examine the requirements needed to create a pan-European instantpayment processing service that could be potentially functional by 2018.
The new task force is addressing concerns raised by the ERPB(Euro Retail Payments Board) and the ECB (European Central Bank) around marketfragmentation for euro processing offerings only, where the emergence ofmultiple national solutions like the UK’s Faster Payment system and the lack ofany pan-European initiative would indeed lead to a fragmented situationcontradicting the achievements made through SEPA. Furthermore, the ERPBsuggests that there should be at least one pan-European instant payment solutionfor the euro open to any payment service provider (PSP) in the EU.
Commenting on the announcement, Erkki Poutiainen, chairmanat EBA Clearing said, “We have resolved to contribute to the supply side effortthat a Europe-wide move to instant payments will require and we feel that apan-European collaborative effort is the best way forward to respond positivelyto the call for action by the ERPB and the ECB.”
The announcement follows increasing industry support andinterest in instant payment processing services and should help push for thecreation of a broadly available European platform in the near future however itis important to note that financial messaging network Swift is also consideringa cross-border system after recently winning a contract to provide a system inAustralia with partner, Fiserv.
Overview by Tristan Hugo-Webb, Associate Director, Global Payments for Mercator Advisory Group
Read full story at Finextra


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Apple after a 28-year gap is finally going to showcase its products at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. The last time Apple participated in CES was back in 1992 in Chicago, where then CEO, John Sculley launched the Newton devices.
According to a new report by Digitaltrends, the company's senior director of global privacy, Jane Horvath will appear on a panel called the Chief Privacy Officer Roundtable on January 9. The roundtable will also include executives from Facebook, Proctor & Gamble and the Federal Trade Commission.
Facebook and Proctor & Gamble will attend to collect detailed information for advertising purposes, whereas, Apple is looking to promote its HomeKit smart home platform by discussing how companies can establish privacy protections in terms of size, regulation and consumer demand.
All of the company's own HomeKit smart home devices will be showcased, however, unlike its 1992 show, it is not expected to be launching any new products.
Apple with participation in this roundtable will help people have better digital lives as it will be publicly pressuring the industry into taking user privacy more seriously. This will help slow down or might even stop companies that are increasingly interested in collecting vast amounts of user data without a focus on protecting that data from bad actors.
Other than CES, Apple is expected to launch its next gen iPhone 12 lineup in September. There is still some time in that, however, product leaks have already started rolling in. It is being said that the upcoming 5G variant of the iPhone 12 will come with an advanced image sensor-shift stabilisation technology that will help users in clicking stable images without distortion when there is excessive motion.


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Canada’s Glance Pay [CSE:GET OTCQB:GLNNF] has quickly made a name for itself as a mobile payment solution that irons out pain points between buyer and seller by making payments faster, more efficient and more secure. The company’s next revolution is a full pivot to blockchain technology, marrying the benefits of Glance Pay to Glance Coin, a new cryptocurrency designed to reward customer loyalty and provide access to exclusive offers.
Glance Pay was originally launched almost two years ago.
“The payment space wasn’t broken, but it wasn’t as efficient as it should have been,” says Penny Green, president and COO of Glance Technologies Inc. “Even with chip and PIN card payment, it takes an average of eight minutes between the time you get your restaurant bill and then pay and leave. Using other mobile payment solutions still requires you to make contact with a big chunk of merchant payment hardware that looks like it escaped from the 1980s.”
Customers simply download the free Glance Pay app and link it to their credit card. Using a mobile phone to pay a restaurant, hair salon or other bill can be as simple as photographing the bill and allowing Glance to calculate the tip and handle the payment. Glance Pay not only speeds up the payment process, but also leverages opportunities to offer rewards to customers, while building loyalty to businesses accepting the payment system.
We...believe that our cryptocurrency rewards platform could become the first mainstream, widely-adopted application of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology that can impact the lives of everyday people.Penny Green, Glance Technologies Inc.
“There’s no cost to the customer to use the app,” says Green. “And they receive customized digital coupons and special offers that are built into the app and can be redeemed with the merchant. At the same time, they’re collecting any rewards associated with using their credit card.”
The app also allows users to track their expenses and rewards while browsing other businesses offering Glance Pay. Those merchants can earn additional business by offering customized offers that can be time stamped or geo-tagged.
And Glance Pay handles all of these functions securely. The system’s fraud record to date? Zero per cent — a point of pride for the company.
But if mobile payments are the future of commerce, blockchain technology is the future of mobile payments, combining rock solid privacy and security with an expanded range of functionality. At the same time, a recent Nielsen Global Retail Loyalty-Sentiment Survey notes that 85 per cent of Canadians already participate in one or more customer loyalty programs. Their favourite rewards? Rebates and cash back, followed by free products.
“We believe that the time is right to take advantage of the huge opportunities in both these areas by launching a rewards-based cryptocurrency in the form of Glance Coin,” says Green. “We also believe that our cryptocurrency rewards platform could become the first mainstream, widely-adopted application of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology that can impact the lives of everyday people.”
The Glance team is working on integrating the Glance Pay functionality with an existing end-to-end blockchain solution and are very pleased with their progress. The combination of the Glance Pay technology with blockchain has the potential to majorly benefit consumers.
“If customers are already using Glance Pay, using Glance Coin will feel like second nature to them,” says Green. “Some people see cryptocurrency as deep, dark and unfathomable tech. Glance Coin has the potential to tip the scale into usability by humanizing and simplifying blockchain technology. We couldn’t have asked for a better gift from the tech world than cryptocurrency, because it enhances everything we’re doing.”
Green isn’t underestimating the novelty factor of owning cryptocurrency, but Glance Coin will take that experience up a notch by making it easier to spend it as well. The new currency will also encourage customer engagement by offering a whole new range of specialized offers that reward loyalty, meaning that more participation in the ecosystem means more value. For example, in addition to providing merchants with an off-the-shelf loyalty program, Glance Pay can sweeten the deal by rewarding customers with Glance Coin cash back offers.
“We envision a broadening ecosystem in which Glance Coin can be used for business-to-business transactions,” says Green. “It can also build communities by operating like a social network. Imagine a university where all of the students are signed up and linked to area merchants. Merchants could make digital offers directly to students, students could chat with each other and pass offers to their friends and it could be used as a peer-to-peer money transfer system, all the while earning crypto rewards for users within the Glance Pay ecosystem. Where we’re going is very exciting.”
Glance expects to make the fully integrated blockchain technology and the launch of Glance Coin available to consumers later in 2018.
This story was created by Content Works, Postmedia’s commercial content division, on behalf of Glance Technologies Inc.


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93: Game Time: How PUBG ban hits India's emerging esports community
Last week, as India-China tensions flared up along the LAC in eastern Ladakh, the Indian government banned 118 apps with Chinese links, citing concerns over threats to India’s safety and sovereignty. This included India’s most popular video game PUBG Mobile, whose publisher Tencent is a Chinese conglomerate. In this episode, hosts Mihir Vasavda and Gaurav Bhatt, along with producer Shashank Bhargava, talk about this decision’s impact on India’s esports community, what it takes to make it big in the field, the difference between esports and traditional ones, the announcement of the new Indian game FAU-G, and more.
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The cryptocurrency bear market is over, and the majority of retail investors missed the accumulation phase while agnostic traders and long-term investors dominated the market, according to a report from digital assets fund Adamant Capital.
Per the report, the Bitcoin accumulation phase occurred between the price corridor of $3,000 and $6,500, indicating that this phase is now over and we are well into the bull market territory.
Big Players Have Already Accumulated
The report’s researchers say that Bitcoin whales were accumulating quietly as retail traders left the market throughout 2018 and the beginning of 2019.
Further explaining, the report says:
“During the accumulation phase, the market will trade in a range: the weak hands, who are trying to get out of the market, take profit during rallies and thus create the resistance, and the strong hands, looking to accumulate, buy at the bottom of the range which eventually creates a floor in the piece.”
Now, it’s obvious that the market is no longer trading in a range because large Bitcoin whales have stopped taking profits and pushing the price down. It appears that they are now holding on to the majority of their Bitcoin stacks and further reducing the circulating supply.
This, along with increased interest from both retail and institutional investors has pushed the price higher and higher.
Do you think the Bitcoin whales will suppress the price to accumulate more or are we only going up from here? Let us know what you think in the comment section below.