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The dawn of next generation storage is only three years away, IBM claimed last week, as holographic technology advances.
IBM told PC Week that it expects to have storage products based on holographic storage in 2002, which is three years earlier than industry pundits had been predicting.
Holographic storage promises to dramatically reduce the physical size of storage devices and increase the speed at which data can be stored, so that the same amount of data that now takes milliseconds would take microseconds to write to disk. Data is written to optical media using lasers and stored in a compact three-dimensional form that could potentially be as small as an atom.
There is no need for mechanical moving parts in such a system, and all the information in each page is accessed simultaneously, speeding up access times remarkably.
E-commerce is increasing the demand for storing larger quantities of data, and enabling it to be accessed more quickly, while complex multimedia data is increasing the size of the data to be stored.
Despite its pioneering efforts in holographic storage, IBM does not expect the market to mature for a few years after the first products appear, explained Christoph von Gamm, communications manager at the IBM Technology Group. That is why IBM continues to invest in current technology, such as digital tape and RAID controllers, that will be redundant if holographic storage takes off.
Last week, the company bought low-end RAID controller maker Mylex for $240 million (£152 million). "RAID controllers will dominate for at least ten years and digital tape is having a great revival - it will be the standard for permanent storage for the next ten or 20 years," claimed von Gamm.
IBM also launched a new cross-platform disk storage system last week, which it called Shark (see p13). "(Shark) is good news for IBM: it gives (the company) a product to compete with EMC, but it would have been better if (IBM) had it two years ago," said Claus Egge, senior storage analyst at research firm IDC.
A smartphone maker fiddling its benchmarking scores? That's unusual, isn't it?
'We are making good progress on 10nm,' claims Intel
Engineer calculates that Chengdu's plan to replace streetlights with artificial moonlight would cost $100bn
Research could also apply to other 'space weather' events involving hot, fast-moving plasma


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The Buckle (BKE) Comps Fell 14.8% in August 2016
- Wall Street hits new high as post-election rally roars ahead
- ECB to scale back asset buys as it extends to end-2017
- lululemon athletica (LULU) Tops Q3 EPS by 4c; Adj.-Comps Outpaced Views
- Oil rises above $50 despite doubts over OPEC output cut
- Pre-Open Stock Movers 12/08: (VYGR) (TLRD) (LULU) Higher; (OHRP) (VRNT) (CMTL) Lower (more...)
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The Buckle, Inc. (NYSE: BKE) announced that comparable store net sales, for stores open at least one year, for the 4-week period ended August 27, 2016 decreased 14.8 percent in comparison to comparable store net sales for the 4-week period ended August 29, 2015. Net sales for the 4-week fiscal month ended August 27, 2016 decreased 14.0 percent to $87.2 million compared to net sales of $101.4 million for the prior year 4-week fiscal month ended August 29, 2015.
Comparable store net sales year-to-date for the 30-week period ended August 27, 2016 decreased 11.6 percent from comparable store net sales for the 30-week period ended August 29, 2015. Net sales for the 30-week fiscal period ended August 27, 2016 decreased 10.8 percent to $542.9 million from net sales of $608.8 million for the prior year 30-week fiscal period ended August 29, 2015.
Please note that net sales for the 4-week and 30-week periods ended August 27, 2016 are reported net of the impact of both reward redemptions and accruals for estimated future rewards related to the Company’s new Guest Loyalty program, which launched during the fiscal quarter ended April 30, 2016.
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This year we find ourselves in the midst of a global pandemic, an economic downturn and uncertainty about what the rest of 2021 will bring. Parents are stressed. Kids are restless. And we are all looking for new strategies and tools to find balance, connect in meaningful ways, and keep our spirits up during various phases of lockdown.
It is with this unprecedented background, that today we mark Safer Internet Day, an annual, global celebration that began in Europe in 2004 and which has now spread to 170 countries, including the United States. This day provides us all a moment to reflect on the state of the online world and how we are doing in response to the many and varied risks, harms as well as potential rewards that our digital lives bring.
In our recent research report, Tools for Today’s Digital Parents, we found fascinating differences between older and younger parents. Amongst Baby Boomers, top concerns included outside threats and online predators. Gen X parents reported that harmful content was their worst worry. But it was Millennial parents who signaled that their biggest fear was that their children would experience bad behavior online or that their kids would be the perpetrator.
When asked if parents had the most responsibility to keep their kids safe online, 57% of Boomer parents agreed, whereas 43% of Gen X parents said the same, while just 30% of Millennial parents felt they held the chief responsibility – instead stating that industry, government and schools should also share the burden of online safety.
That is a dramatic shift across the generations and bears out our own concept of a Culture of Responsibility, in which government, law enforcement, the tech industry, parents, teachers and kids themselves have different but overlapping areas of responsibility for online safety.
What also became clear in our study is that there is a growing set of online safety tools that have been developed by apps and social media sites to be used by teens and young people rather than parental controls that are imposed from above. Teens’ attitudes to these tools are nicely summed up by one of our respondents who said:
“When I think about 'online safety tools,' I think about personal safety and being smart. However, when I think of 'parental controls', I think of strict, overbearing, and invasive.” – Brianna C., age 16
In other words, these tools that allow kids to block, report, silence or filter out what they don’t want to see or experience give young people agency over their online lives. It provides them the means to recover from a bad experience and thus build a sense of resiliency.
Parents, on the other hand, particularly of kids aged between 7 and 11, feel overwhelmed by the sheer range of devices, websites, apps and online games they are trying to understand and monitor. While three quarters of parents give themselves high marks for the online safety discussions they have with their kids, two thirds of them feel unsatisfied with the tools they have to keep their kids safe online. That’s a challenging indictment of the tech industry and a plea to ISPs, social media platforms, game makers and apps to make their parental controls easier to find and easier to use.
In the meantime, the vexed issue of screen time has been eclipsed by the challenges of Covid-19 and the need for kids to be online for school, to socialize, and to just chill out while stuck at home. Parents report that they have relaxed their views on screen time and are more likely to make the distinction between screen time and screen use. A ten-year-old spending an hour on her tablet speaking to her grandmother is vastly different to spending the same time mindlessly scrolling through unboxing videos.
One silver lining to the pandemic is the increased freedom kids are being given to explore on their own outside, without screens. They are using their imaginations to overcome their boredom and build resilience without the overbearing presence of their parents and caregivers.
So, while we reflect on where we are and the tough year we’ve all come through, let’s look with hope and optimism on 2021 and the coming years, as we gradually emerge from the hardships and restrictions of Covid-19. Let’s bring our new understandings about remote learning and remote working to better equip our kids for the digital skills and knowledge they will need in their careers.
As adults and parents, let’s model healthy online habits and resiliency for the young people in our care. And let’s work together with our kids, not just for a better Internet, but for a more sane and balanced way of life, as we create a path to a new normal in a post-pandemic world.


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All you need to know about the 4G rollout schedule in the UK
The UK only has one 4G LTE mobile broadband network, but that's going to change over the coming months. Here's everything we know about the 4G rollout schedule in the UK. Updated on 27/03/13.
With multiple 4G networks from various operators will come competitive pricing and more choice for consumers so we say bring it on. However, you're probably wondering 'when will I get 4G on my network?'. See: What is 4G? A complete guide to 4G.
A lot of details are vague at the moment but here’s everything we know about the rollout of 4G networks in the UK. We'll update this article as and when we hear any more specific information and dates.
See also: 4G vs 3G network hands-on speed test.
4G rollout schedule: EE
EE is currently the UK's only live 4G network. The service was switched on and launched on 30 October and the firm has had a monopoly in the 4G market ever since, although it has been heavily criticised for it expensive price plans with limit amounts of data.
At the time of writing EE's 4G LTE network is available in a total of 27 towns and cities across the UK accounting for coverage of 45 percent of the population.
Looking forward, EE plans to reach 70 percent of the UK by the end of 2013 and 98 percent by the end of 2014.
See also: EE 4G in the UK: what you need to know
4G rollout schedule: Vodafone and O2
The reason EE is still the only 4G network in the UK is because it was given permission by regulator Ofcom to use exiting spectrum (1800MHz) which it already owned.
Ofcom said it was giving EE a head start to ensure consumers in the UK got 4G as quickly as possible for their own benefit. It said there was "no material risk that those benefits would be outweighed by a distortion of competition".
Other mobile operators, including Vodafone and O2, had to wait for Ofcom to hold an auction in which they could purchase 4G spectrum (800MHz and 2.6GHz). This auction has now ended and both Vodafone and O2 won spectrum.
O2 purchased 800MHz lots and Vodafone won both 800MHz and 2.6GHz lots. See also: Ofcom announces 4G auction winners.
The word from Ofcom is that UK mobile operators will be able to roll out their 4G networks in 'late spring' or 'early summer' once fees have been paid and licences granted.
4G rollout schedule: Three
Three has signed a deal with EE to use part of its network for 4G services. EE was obliged to do this as part of a commitment with the European Commission.
A Three spokesman told us the network will go live when the spectrum has been handed over from EE. This is likely to take place in September.
However, Three is also taking part in the 4G auction which we've mentioned so it's possible the firm will buy its own spectrum and use that ahead of the deal with EE.
Importantly, Three has announced that its customers won't be charged extra for 4G. Neither will they have to change tariff as 4G will be standard on all price plans.
See also: Three to offer free 4G LTE broadband
Three won 800MHz spectrum in the 4G auction but has said it's in no rush to rollout 4G, stating that it will wait until the fourth quarter after rival networks have launched.
4G rollout schedule: Phones 4U
In a similar deal to Three's, Phones 4U will launch a virtual 4G network using EE's infrastructure. The service, called LIFE Mobile, will launch in March as 3G only and will be upgraded to 4G sometime later in the year.
Read more: Phones 4U to launch 4G mobile network
4G rollout schedule: Orange and T-Mobile
Orange and T-Mobile are owned by EE and use the EE network. Customers wishing to use 4G must upgrade to an EE price plan.


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Ceradyne Inc. recently announced that it has received a delivery order for approximately $36.2 million for enhanced small arms protective insert (ESAPI ) ceramic body armor plates. Ceradyne says it will begin shipping this ESAPI production release in the fourth quarter of 2011, with full shipment expected to be completed early in the first quarter of 2012.
The release was issued under the $2.37 billion indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (ID/IQ) contract originally issued in October 2008 and scheduled to expire in September 2013. A balance of approximately $2 billion remains on the ID/IQ contract.
“We are extremely pleased to have been awarded this ESAPI contract,” said David P. Reed, president of North American Operations. “We anticipate meeting the government’s quality and delivery requirements with this delivery order shipped complete early in Q1 2012.”
For more information, visit www.ceradyne.com


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Besides Covid-19, they make a lot of other stuff there including apparently hyper sonic missiles! They can do this because the world is buying there stuff. Biden thought that this would lead to China becoming a democracy but the left handed media is covering his flanks by reporting that no one could have predicted how powerful Chinese Chairman Xi would become! Absolutely ridiculous when you consider that his predecessor Chairman Mao was way more powerful that Xi!
What western leaders need to do is implement a plan that begins to source products that are Made in China with products that are made elsewhere. The West also needs to hold each other accountable for not meeting those alternative sourcing goals. Lastly someone in the West needs to develop a website that will help the consumer identify alternative products to Made in China products. For my part I will pay more attention to where products are being made!
And that is all I’m going to say about that!


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Global 100 corporate knights. Sustainability is increasingly a mainstream business concern, with mounting pressure to tackle the climate crisis coming from the top down and the bottom up.
This past year saw the publication of two startling reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), warning of the worsening impacts of climate change threatening food supplies, infrastructure and already fragile global water supplies. At the same time, the United Nations reported that the “emissions gap” – the gap between the greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions that will limit temperature increases to the 1.5C that climate scientists say is safe and the GHGs that we are actually emitting – is growing. With nations failing to make progress at the COP25 climate talks in Madrid in December, corporate action on the climate has never been more important. The science tells us that bigger emissions cuts are needed as the impacts of the climate crisis become ever more apparent and alarming. Angolan captured $2bn empire. The complex financial schemes that helped Africa’s richest woman amass a fortune at vast cost to the Angolan state can be revealed for the first time after a huge leak of confidential documents from her business empire.
Trump bans US transactions with Chinese-owned TikTok. Donald Trump has issued a pair of executive orders that would ban any US transactions with the Chinese companies that own TikTok and WeChat, saying the US must take “aggressive action” in the interest of national security.
Executive orders issued late on Thursday would prohibit “any transaction by any person, or with respect to any property, subject to the jurisdiction of the United States,” with the companies, beginning in 45 days. Hunter Walker (@hunterw)BREAKING: President Trump just issued an executive order "on Addressing the Threat Posed by TikTok.
" It takes effect in 45 days, prohibits "any transaction" with ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, and will almost certainly face legal challenges. pic.twitter.com/Ma9XOfYgOBAugust 7, 2020 The video-sharing app has come under fire from US lawmakers and the Trump administration over national security concerns. Leila janah. American businesswoman Leila Janah (October 9, 1982 – January 24, 2020) was an American businesswoman.
She was the founder and CEO of Samasource and LXMI, two companies which share a common social mission to end global poverty by giving work to people in need. Samasource's 11,000 employees have worked under contracts with companies including Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Walmart, Getty Images, Glassdoor and Vulcan Capital.  Early life
Coronavirus money. Aurait-on trouvé de l’« argent magique » ?
Depuis quelques semaines, une avalanche de milliards est annoncée par les dirigeants du monde pour faire face aux conséquences économiques du Covid-19. Arnaque au carbone. Depuis lundi 14 août, Le Monde propose une série en cinq épisodes sur l’escroquerie gigantesque qu’a été l’affaire des « quotas carbone ».
Les sommes envolées donnent le tournis : au moins 1,6 milliard d’euros de pertes pour la France en moins d’un an, 6 milliards pour les pays de l’Union européenne. L’idée de départ se voulait vertueuse : pour limiter l’émission des gaz à effet de serre, l’Etat français crée en 2007 un grand marché des quotas carbone, BlueNext. Chaque année, des quotas étaient attribués aux entreprises les plus polluantes, qui pouvaient les revendre si elles n’avaient pas atteint leur plafond ou racheter ceux des entreprises qui n’avaient pas dépensé les leurs.
Pour être encore plus citoyen, le marché s’ouvre à toutes les sociétés, qu’elles soient ou non identifiées comme pollueuses. Sans contrôles sur la réalité des acheteurs et des vendeurs. Amazon grip. Amazon antitrust paradox. Abstract.
Amazon is the titan of twenty-first century commerce. In addition to being a retailer, it is now a marketing platform, a delivery and logistics network, a payment service, a credit lender, an auction house, a major book publisher, a producer of television and films, a fashion designer, a hardware manufacturer, and a leading host of cloud server space. Although Amazon has clocked staggering growth, it generates meager profits, choosing to price below-cost and expand widely instead. Through this strategy, the company has positioned itself at the center of e-commerce and now serves as essential infrastructure for a host of other businesses that depend upon it.
Elements of the firm’s structure and conduct pose anticompetitive concerns—yet it has escaped antitrust scrutiny. Amazon code commerce. Amazon empire. Amazon warehouses. Indonesia richest 4. The four richest men in Indonesia own as much wealth as the country’s poorest 100 million citizens, despite the nation’s president repeatedly pledging to fighting “dangerous” levels of inequality..
Oxfam on Thursday highlighted Indonesia as one of the most unequal countries in the world, where the number of dollar billionaires has increased from one in 2002 to 20 in 2016. The development charity worked out that the four richest Indonesians – led by brothers Budi and Michael Hartono – control $25bn of assets, which is roughly equal to the wealth of the poorest 40% of Indonesia’s 250 million population. 5 minutes musk. World richest sixty-two. Credit crisis visualized.


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Apple enjoyed the largest share of smartphone sales in the past three years with loyalty rates exceeding 90%
Smartphone brands compete in an interesting and complicated US marketplace. Despite the apparent dominance of iPhones, most brands compete within the Android operating system environment, in addition to competing with Apple in the overall smartphone market. CIRP analyzed this brand marketplace as of the September 2021 quarter.
Within this marketplace, over the past three years we have seen Apple maintain the largest overall share. It has kept this share as customers largely remain loyal to either the Apple iOS or Google Android operating system, and iOS is exclusive to Apple, of course.
Within the Android operating system, Samsung has a similarly strong position as Apple does within the overall smartphone market. Motorola has maintained a meaningful share, but has much lower loyalty rates compared to Samsung. Before it announced its exit from smartphones, over the last three years LG had a slightly larger share and similar loyalty and switching to Motorola.
Apple enjoyed the largest share of smartphone sales in the past three years, with 43% of US smartphone sales in the year ending with the September 2021 quarter.
(Click on image to Enlarge)
Samsung had the next largest share, at 31% of US smartphone sales. This is also the dominant share among brands using the Android operating system, with Samsung accounting for 54% of all US Android smartphone sales. LG and Motorola are the only other Android brands with significant share. Note that the LG share of 9% reflects sales in the twelve months ending in the September 2021 quarter, and that in April 2021 LG announced it would discontinue smartphone sales, with a planned sunset during this September 2021 quarter.
Shares were roughly consistent over the past three years. Apple experienced a measurable increase in share in the twelve months ending September 2020, while Samsung saw its share move within a very narrow range during the entire three-year period shown.
Brand loyalty helps explain trends in overall shares. Apple has had the highest brand loyalty, measured as the percent of customers purchasing a new Apple iPhone whose previous smartphone was also an iPhone. Apple has seen loyalty rates exceed 90% for the past three years (Chart 2)
(Click on image to Enlarge)
Switching brands within the Android operating system is easier than switching between Android and iOS, and loyalty to each operating system has remained at about 90% for the past several years. Even so, within Android smartphones, Samsung has the highest loyalty, with around two-thirds of Samsung buyers having owned another Samsung immediately previously. As Samsung maintained its loyal users, Motorola and LG saw lower loyalty a somewhat downward trend since the year ending September 2019.
For more on this, review the full Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP) report.


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You are here
Meet the Rolls-Royce of the future
Engineering mule will now be set loose on the public roads ready for 2018
Look up. That camouflaged prototype holds the foundation for all future Rolls-Royce models, including the brand-new ‘Cullinan’ SUV we’re likely to see in the next few years.
Rolls has announced that its brand new, aluminium space-frame architecture will now begin testing in public around the world, ready for the next generation of RR models arriving from 2018.
The architecture was announced a year ago, and will now be tested on a variety of surfaces to ensure the “magic carpet ride” of RR remains, and in “extreme weather conditions”.
“It is time to take the next step in the luxury journey,” explains RR CEO Torsten Müller-Otvos. “On-road testing of our all-new proprietary architecture is beginning. This new architecture of pure luxury represents considerable investment in the future of our great brand.”
Though RR hasn’t mentioned it, expect the new architecture to be able to incorporate hybrid technology. Peter Schwarzenbauer, the BMW board member in charge of RR, told TopGear.com a while ago that though a full electric model isn’t viable for a RR, plug-in hybrid is something it needs to consider.
“In future more and more cities will have zero emission zones, so a Rolls-Royce will need 20-30 miles of electric range,” he said.
And of course, being part of the BMW Group means access to all sorts of astonishing tech: safety, connectivity and possibly the gesture control as seen in the new 7-Series and the new i8 Vision Future Interaction concept.
What does this all mean, you might cry? That the next generation of Rolls-Royce models promises to be even better and more luxurious. Oh yes.


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By SUSAN LAHEY
Reporter with Silicon Hills News
• If you hope to raise real money from a venture capitalist—more than $3 million—don’t do a friends and family investment round. It only confuses things when the VC comes in.
• Never offer percentages of the company to employees during the startup phase.
• VCs will want to see that you have skin in the game. If you’ve quit your job and have no other source of income, that counts as skin in the game.
Booth, whose most recent startup, Luminary Micro, sold to Texas Instruments in 2009, was the featured speaker at AWT’s Intelligent Talks with Smart Women Dinner at Chez Zee. About 50 AWT members attended.
Booth has nearly 30 years experience in high tech including P&L business unit management to marketing; product definition; systems, software, and applications engineering; silicon development engineering; and operations and product engineering.
Luminary Micro created Stellaris® microcontroller (MCU) platform and the first to market with ARM® Cortex™-M3-based microcontroller solutions. Before Luminary, Booth was an executive founder and marketing head for startup Intrinsity—bought by Apple in 2010– and was part of the management team for startup Exponential Technology. She has a bachelor’s in electrical engineering from UT and a masters in computer engineering from National Technical University. She left TI in November 2011 after serving as General Manager for TI’s Stellaris products.
Besides some of the obvious requirements of being an entrepreneur, such as tenacity and thick skin, Booth said, you have to have other things like the support of your family.
“Expect to hear 20 no’s for every yes,” she said. “You’ll go in to a meeting with this idea and expect everyone to be excited about it. But in fact they’ll all tell you why you can’t do it.”
With that kind of discouragement, and 80-hour workweeks, you’d better have complete buy-in from your family. Booth’s companies invited families of prospective employees to come in and interview the company, in fact.
An entrepreneur has to be able to weather every storm of knowing that, in the beginning, every single decision you make could kill the company.
“You have to be able to deal with the fact that one day it’s a great day; the next day, we’re dead; it’s a great day! We’re dead….”
An entrepreneur has to be able and willing to empty the trash, lease office space, plan the company picnic, buy health insurance for everyone, build a website, understand SEO….
Anyone who doesn’t know if she’s cut out to be an entrepreneur, Booth said, should take a job at a startup—but only if she believes in the company’s vision.
“Startups sell the payoff, “ she said, “maybe that will happen and maybe it won’t. You must believe in their vision enough to happily work 80 hours a week for it. You must expect and demand openness in leadership. You deserve to know how the funding is going, how the company is doing. You have to be able to go home and say “I’m meeting the commitment we made when we joined this company.”
You know you’re not cut out to be an entrepreneur, she said, if you need structure, regular raises and reviews, HR training and leadership development and if you prefer to avoid conflict.
Anyone interested in being an entrepreneur should use her network, she told the group, even if they’re not in tech.
“The fundamental issues in business are the fundamental issues in business.”
Look for mentors, ask specific questions. If an advisor is helping, ask him or her to be on your advisory board. If not, don’t continue to meet with them.
You need a good lawyer, she said, but don’t believe the ones who promise they’ve got the VC contacts and can get you funding.
“I don’t know anybody who got funded because of their lawyer,” she said.
When you hire people, Booth recommended, offer shares, not percentages. But make sure you retain most of the shares of your company.
“The person who owns the vision drives the company,” she said. “With Luminary, I chose not to be the CEO. But make no mistake, I had the most shares.”
That’s especially important for entrepreneurs who have the idea but not the technical know-how to bring it to fruition.
Finally, Booth said, you need luck. If you have a great idea but the economy tanks, you aren’t likely to succeed.
Booth, who “loves creating products and bringing them to market” said she will create another company, but she hasn’t figured out yet what that will be.
In the meantime, she’s scuba diving.


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Online shoppers fraud worries increase
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
The latest survey by secure online shopping directory, Shopsafe.co.uk has revealed an increase in the number of online shoppers worried about the risk of fraud. The autumn survey, which analysed data from more than 600 respondents who regularly use the internet to buy goods, found that 53% of shoppers had concerns about using their credit or debit cards online. This compares with just 45% in early 2007.
Shopsafe director, Simon Crisp says there are a couple of reasons why online shoppers are becoming more wary.
"The number of e-commerce websites has risen rapidly over the past few years, providing greater opportunities for criminals to commit online fraud," says Mr Crisp. "This popularity growth has also meant that more people are hearing stories at first hand from victims of identity fraud, which has obviously raised awareness about the potential pitfalls."
Online shoppers can safeguard their accounts by following a few simple rules, adds Mr Crisp.
"Use your credit card, rather than your debit card, because your credit card offers better legal protection. If you are unlucky, and a criminal uses your credit card details to buy goods, you can claim the money back," he says. "Online shoppers are also advised to stick with trusted companies, or use a shopping website that only lists e-commerce sites that have been thoroughly vetted. They should also print and save payment receipts."
- Shopsafe.co.uk is a web directory listing more than 4,000 personally vetted secure UK online shopping sites.
- Shopsafe is ranked 2nd of all Shopping Directories in the UK by ranking.com and helps over 350,000 unique visitors every month.
- The site monitors and updates discount codes every day as well as emailing new codes to 1000ís of subscribed users
- The website compares the prices of millions of products and has 100ís of Buy Guides and Gift Ideas


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LANSING - Michigan's two largest electric utilities have proposed new rates or transmission services, answering the state's call to open energy competition.
But Detroit Edison Co. and Jackson-based Consumers Power Co. said their offers, filed last week with the state Public Service Commission, hinged on the resolution of other issues linked to electric-utility deregulation proposed by the Michigan Jobs Commission, including possible recovery of past investments.
``Detroit Edison is concerned that a piecemeal approach to implementation of the Jobs Commission framework is not conducive to a resolution which is fair to Detroit Edison's employees, customers and shareholders,'' Edison's filing states.
The company will offer, effective Jan. 1, a ``retail wheeling'' service, through which certain industrial and commercial customers could negotiate directly with electric suppliers other than Edison - on the condition that the PSC address all issues identified by the Jobs Commission, including recovery of so-called stranded investments in its plants and transmission infrastructure.
Utilities want a way to recoup these fixed investments if customers switch to another electricity supplier. The Jobs Commission recommends that retail wheeling - the ability for customers to buy power from a provider other than their local utility - be made available by Jan. 1 to some companies with new demands for electricity and to all industrial and commercial businesses by 2001.
Edison also proposed to immediately offer an interim, discounted economic-development rate to new industrial and commercial customers. These customers would have new electrical demand of at least 3,000 kilowatts and meet several other criteria defining their type of business and electrical needs.
The discount would be 30 percent for firm service and 40 percent for interruptible service during the contract's first 12 months, gradually declining to 15 percent for firm service and 25 percent for interruptible service in the contract's final, fourth year. Edison requested PSC approval of the economic-development rate ``expressly with the condition that it not be amended'' and that it could withdraw its request otherwise.
Consumers Power proposed a rate and structure for providing transmission services to new commercial or industrial electric customers and certain existing customers-including a 3,000-kilowatt requirement of new electric load by some customers and a 10,000-kilowatt requirement of new load for others. Eligible customers could purchase new electric load from another supplier, and Consumers would deliver it.
The monthly transmission rate would be based on a host of charges, including a $3,000 per-customer charge for the first connection the supplier makes to Consumers system and $500 for each added connection. Consumers also would charge to reserve capacity on its transmission system, among other things.
The new service would be available only after the PSC resolves near-term objectives identified by the Jobs Commission.
``Most importantly, a workable plan must be in effect that will authorize full recovery of stranded costs associated with . . . industry restructuring,'' Consumers said in its filing.
The PSC ordered regulated utilities in April to file plans to initiate retail wheeling.
Gary Kitts, executive assistant to PSC Chairman John Strand, said Thursday the commissioners had not had an opportunity to study the filings. The commission's options are to approve the applications, schedule them for hearings or return them to the utilities. Consumers Power and Edison had until May 15 to file their plans; other regulated electric utilities must file by June 14. No other schedules have been set.


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The Data & Marketing Association (DMA) reveal the results of its second ‘Coronavirus – The Impact on Business’ survey, highlighting the key concerns, challenges and needs of businesses during this difficult time. The findings show that 56% of businesses have applied to the UK Government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme already, with a further 8% saying they definitely will apply over the coming months.
Those surveyed continue to report their organisations’ as running at just over half ‘Business as usual’ (56.9%), while a third of businesses (36%) believe they won’t last longer than six months in the current conditions – with a further 20% not sure how long they might last.
The impact on the UK’s freelancers is clear too as 46% of businesses report they have already or will definitely not retain freelance or short-term staff – a further 29% conceded this was a likely or possible necessity in the coming months too.
“The results from our latest barometer of businesses in our community highlights the continued impact on revenues that the pandemic is having. It’s clear that many businesses have welcomed the government support in an attempt to retain their staff through furlough,” says Chris Combemale, CEO of the DMA, “However, we are continuing to call for an extension of the job retention scheme. Even once restrictions are lifted it could take months for revenues to return to normal and it is essential businesses can plan for a phased return to work, to avoid inevitable redundancies.”
Nearly three-quarters of businesses are looking to government schemes for support (74% definitely/likely to apply or have done so for at least one). Looking at those businesses that have already or will definitely utilise these schemes, the Job Retention Scheme is most popular (64%), followed by deferring VAT payments (30%) and reclaiming Statutory Sick Pay (28%).
Most people surveyed in April continue to agree they have the technology they need to easily (92%) and productively (89%) work from home. Staff feel organisations are putting their health and wellbeing first during the pandemic (91% agree), which may well be the reason that confidence in their senior leadership team increased from 86%, in March, to 92% in April.
However, just half of businesses (50%) are offering skills development and training opportunities during the lockdown to staff – whether furloughed or not. To help those furloughed or that have been made redundant as a result of Coronavirus, the DMA and DM Trust announced the release of new funding last week. The ‘DM Trust Home Learning Fund’ will offer UK-based professionals on furlough or made redundant access to fully funded training and professional qualifications.
Combemale continues: “Skills development is a great way for people to enhance their long-term personal development during these challenging times. We’re proud to be spearheading an initiative that will add tangible value to both the individuals in the data and marketing industry and the businesses that comprise it.”
Further information about the ‘DM Trust Home Learning Fund’ and details on how to apply can be found here: https://www.theidm.com/blog/dm-trust-home-learning-fund


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Gold prices drop for 6th session on sluggish demand
Standard gold (99.5%) prices dropped by Rs200 to finish at Rs28,065 per 10 grams from Tuesday’s closing level of Rs28,265
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Mumbai: Gold prices dropped for the sixth session at the domestic bullion market in Mumbai due to reduced buying from stockists and retailers in spite of global higher cues. Silver also moved down owing to lack of buying support from industrial users.
Standard gold (99.5%) slumped by Rs200 to finish at Rs28,065 per 10 grams from Tuesday’s closing level of Rs28,265. Pure gold (99.9%) also dropped by a similar margin to conclude at Rs28,215 per 10 grams as against Rs 28,415 earlier.
Also Read: Gold prices lose Rs250 on US rate hike bets
Silver (.999 fineness) dropped by Rs240 per kg to end at Rs40,640 compared to Rs 40,880 previously.
In global trade, gold prices edged up on safe-haven buying due to uncertainty over the outcome of Dutch elections, while markets waited for clues on the pace of US interest rate hikes this year.
Spot gold edged up 0.4% to $1,203.31 per ounce in early trade. Spot silver rose 0.5% to $16.92 an ounce.


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The rumored launch of the TELUS Motorola Milestone (GSM version of the Motorola Droid) will ... Android News forum
Best Buy confirms Milestone launching February 18th!
The rumored launch of the TELUS Motorola Milestone (GSM version of the Motorola Droid) will be Thursday, February 18th! Best Buy has now confirmed this.
Hayden. I was searching for this information just last night. Leave it to the Pinstack crew to be the first to bring the news, again.
So does this mean that we will be able to use this phone on AT&T's network?
If you unlock it. Yes. It runs 3G 850 & 1900 MHz


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China already has the world's fastest supercomputer and has now built a crude quantum computer that could outpace today's PCs and servers.
After decades of research, the first quantum computers are now up and running. The question now is: what do we do with them?
A new services program called Q at IBM will be remarkable: in a few years it will have a quantum computer with more than 50 qubits, which should push conventional computers one step closer to the trash heap.
SK Telecom and Nokia have developed a prototype quantum cryptography system that combines the South Korean company's quantum key server with an encryption device from Nokia.
When the first true quantum computer is one day realised, it will be completely useless. For it to prove its worth as a potentially world-changing problem solver, it will need to run software.
Microsoft is accelerating its efforts to make a quantum computer as it looks to a future of computing beyond today's PCs and servers.
Diamonds are among the most expensive gems in the world, but they could also serve as a building block for quantum computers.
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Lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives are pushing to introduce a stablecoin bill draft this week before the House breaks for August recess, according to four unnamed sources “familiar with the plan” cited by The Block.
See related article: Hold onto your crypto bags, the regulators are coming
- The proposal on stablecoin regulations had previously been delayed due to unresolved negotiations, The Block reported.
- If lawmakers’ pre-recess push is unsuccessful, it will join a bipartisan cryptocurrency bill to face delays in the U.S. Senate this year.
- The U.S. Senate is unlikely to vote on the cryptocurrency bill this year, as it may be difficult for lawmakers to digest given the large scope of the bill, Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis, who drafted the bipartisan proposal, said last Tuesday.
- “I think there is an issue about retiree investment in something like stablecoins and that has affected retail investors,” Ben Emons, a managing director of macro strategy, Medley Global Advisors, told Forkast. “There’s actually, for that reason, a need to have better regulation of crypto or stablecoins. In this case, it fortunately turned out not to be a financial systemic issue.”
- Emons said that with the August recess round the corner, the lawmakers “want to push it through,” especially because the passage for legislation to advance between August, November and December is narrow.
See related article: Financial Stability Board calls for high regulatory standards for stablecoins


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updated 01:50 am EDT, Tue October 5, 2010
Soon to be 4th most popular electronics buy
Despite a spate of critical press reports on launch that didn't seem to understand the device, the iPad has won the hearts of the public, and its adoption rate is much higher than was the case for the iPhone or the DVD player when they were introduced, says CNBC's market analysis program Fast Money.
The adoption rate for the iPad is remarkable in light of the fact that it was a new category of product. When the iPhone was first introduced to massive hype and buyer excitement, it sold a million units in its first quarter -- hailed as exceptional. The DVD player, the most quickly-adopted non-phone product, sold a mere 350,000 units in its first entire year.
The iPad sold three million units in its first 80 days of release, and its current sales rate is 4.5 million units per quarter, with better sales to come as the holiday season approaches and new markets (and outlets) open up. At its current rate, the iPad will surpass gaming hardware and regular cell phones as the device with the fourth-fastest acceptance rate, beaten only by TVs, smartphones and notebook computers with 2011 sales topping $9 billion.
Analysts give credit both to Apple's marketing as well as the fact that the iPad builds on the foundation of technology and high-quality reputation forged by the iPod and iPhone, despite being in a different and somewhat more-expensive category. Wall Street believes the iPad has "first mover" momentum, plus a reputation for innovation that will keep the iPad ahead of rivals soon to flood the market. Recent reports have cited representatives from Best Buy claiming that not only are iPads cutting into netbook sales, but are having some impact on other electronics sales, from notebook computers to TVs.
The figures come on the heels of news that Apple's market capitalization is on track to surpass that of the S&P index's current most-highly-valued company, ExxonMobil.


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Shipments of U.S. fluid power products ended 2020 at $18.2 billion. Of that total, 75% of shipments were hydraulics products amounting to $13.6 billion. The remaining 25% were pneumatics products, which shipped $4.6 billion worth of goods.
Those figures were down from $22 billion in U.S. shipments in 2019, of which $16.9 billion were hydraulics products and $5.1 billion were pneumatics products, according to the Industry Brief.
The 2020 reductions in exports and shipments of fluid power products were the result of the COVID pandemic, NFPA president and CEO Eric Lanke told Fluid Power Journal.
“Based on the data we’ve seen,” Lanke said, “the drops in exports and shipments seen in the updated report were largely created by issues related to the pandemic, such as supply chain issues and general uncertainty, which caused delays in production and shipments and limited international orders.”
He said that NFPA and other economists expect that the worst of the pandemic-related downturns are behind us.
“The latest NFPA data as well as information from our speakers at the recent Industry & Economic Outlook Conference show that growth is expected overall through 2021 and moving into 2022,” Lanke said.
As an industry, fluid power has a downstream impact on the U.S. economy, the Industry Brief said.
“Key industries that depend on fluid power include construction machinery, agricultural machinery, automotive (including light trucks), class 4-8 trucks (including vocational trucks), material handling (including conveying), industrial machinery, and many more,” the report said.
Based on 2019 figures, the Industry Brief reported that 26% of hydraulics sales were from the construction machinery market, 14% were from agricultural machinery, 11% were from automotive markets including light trucks, 9% were from material handling markets including conveying, and 5% were from oil and gas markets. Those five markets represented 65% of all sales of hydraulics products in 2019.
The top five markets for pneumatics products in 2019 were automotive including light trucks, food processing, packaging machinery, medical equipment, and semiconductor. These markets represented 32% of all pneumatics products sales in 2019.
Based on data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2019, the Industry Brief estimated that the industries that use fluid power products “employ 847,634 people with an annual payroll of at least $60 billion,” it said.
“These fluid power-dependent employers reside in nearly all 50 U.S. states. The ten states with the highest number of employees are Michigan, California, Ohio, Texas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Iowa,” the report said.
The Industry Brief estimated that at least 744 companies manufacture fluid power pumps, motors, valves, cylinders, actuators, and hose fittings. Those companies employ 64,936 people with an annual payroll of at least $4.4 billion, according to the Industry Brief.
The figures point to fluid power’s significance to the global economy, Lanke said.
“Fluid power has a huge impact on the world as we know it,” he said, “both economically speaking from all of the industries that it touches, but also in the diverse applications of fluid power technology that are everywhere around us.”
The Industry Brief shows “that the industry is a resilient one that is well equipped to grow and thrive moving into the future,” he said.


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MasterCard has used a submission to a Senate inquiry to argue for Australian regulators to move against the pseudonymity of digital currencies such as Bitcoin.
“Any regulation adopted in Australia should address the anonymity that digital currency provides to each party in a transaction,” the company’s submission (PDF) states. “Contrary to transactions made with a MasterCard product, the anonymity of digital currency transactions enables any party to facilitate the purchase of illegal goods or services; to launder money or finance terrorism; and to pursue other activity that introduces consumer and social harm without detection by regulatory or police authority.”
Mastercard’s fear of Bitcoin is well-founded as they would like to create a global payment service, and use Bitcoin within that umbrella, rather than be cut out by Bitcoin’s overall superior costs. Mastercard makes billions of dollars in charging people worldwide much higher fees for service than Bitcoin ever would. Mastercard certainly couldn’t compete with Bitcoin on costs (average transaction cost for using Bitcoin is 0.0004 Bitcoin or about $0.15 USD), so they have two options. Co-opt them into their business model, a la PayPal, or get them centralized and rerouted from their current course of drastically lower costs and simple peer-to-peer transactions for all. The chances of them getting much traction with Plan A are not very strong, so try to overpower leaderless Bitcoin through the legal system is a safe bet.
Coinmetrics has done a daily transaction measure of all the global payment services, and Bitcoin is moving at over $70M USD daily, based on a 7-day average. Obviously, Bitcoin is growing rapidly, given Bitcoin was not invented until January 3rd of 2009, and the other services have noticed. Bitcoins volume is almost one-third of Western Union’s volume of $216M daily. Western Union has only been in business since the invention of the Mule Train. PayPal and Discover are also within reach in the short-term. Mastercard generates almost $10 Billion in daily transactions, so their fear of Bitcoin is noteworthy, since they stand at the top of payment services pyramid, only eclipsed by Visa (over $16 Billion daily)
Mastercard even had the audacity to imply that Bitcoin’s innovative peer-to-peer system is not better or much less expensive, but just unfair to Mastercard:
“All participants in the payments system that provide similar services to consumers should be regulated in the same way to achieve a level playing field for all.”
Bitcoin was not invented to conform to flawed economic paradigms such as the the rather ancient debit card payment system. It was created to replace it. And it is an option for people who don’t want to be taken advantage of by established multi-nationals like Mastercard. Bitcoin is not perfect, but it has many advantages over Mastercard, and that is what bothers them. The innovation and savings are their real problem. Mastercard is a 20th-century design fighting to survive the 21st century. Mastercard sees the handwriting on the wall, and it scares them. Thus, they pen a desperate plea for help from little Bitcoin. Like a mouse scaring the elephant.
This reminds me of a century-old quote that is applicable to any battle between innovation and progress, and the establishment’s need to maintain their control of the status quo:
“First, they ignore you. Then, they laugh at you. Then, they fight you. Then you win!” – Mahatma Gandhi
The fight has begun.
What do you think of Mastercard? Should Bitcoin play Mastercard’s game, or stay peer-to-peer? Share above and comment below.
Images from Wikimedia Commons, Credit About, Ti_ser and Shutterstock.
Last modified: March 4, 2021 4:41 PM


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Madurai: Thirty jewellery shops in Madurai have been booked for allegedly using faulty weighing machines which showed more weight than the actual weight of the jewels, officials said.
The labour department has initiated action against the owners of these shops after the fraud came to light during an inspection of 72 jewelleries.
The inspection was carried out by a team of labour department officials led by Assistant Commissioner of Labour N Govindan, the officials added.
Story first published:
May 27, 2012 18:59 IST


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Swiss-Singaporean software company Acronis will inaugurate an office in Romania’s capital Bucharest by the middle of 2020 and plans to open a sales office in Turkey, Ivan Doudin, regional sales director Balkans and Turkey, told SeeNews.
Acronis expects the overhaul of its office in Romania to be completed in April-May but delays caused by travel restrictions due to the novel coronavirus disease (CVOID-19) pandemic are likely, Doudin told SeeNews in a recent interview.
The company registered Acronis Romania as a legal entity in November of last year. The Romanian unit currently employs 12 people working out of leased premises in Bucharest.
Depending on the local market and the available talent pool, Acronis intends to hire up to 100 experts in its Romanian office by the end of this year, Doudin said.
The planned office in Turkey will serve sales and representative functions, employing four or five people.
In September, Acronis received a $147 million (131.7 million euro) investment round from New York-headquartered banking, securities and investment management firm Goldman Sachs. The investment round set the valuation of Acronis at over $1.0 billion and enabled the company to expand its engineering teams in Singapore, where the company was founded, along with Bulgaria and the US state of Arizona as well as invest in acquisitions and development of new products.
The company is rapidly expanding its team in Bulgaria and plans to increase the headcount at its research and development (R&D) centre in Sofia, a core one for the company, to 1,000 by the end of 2022 from around 300 at present, CEO Sergei Beloussov told SeeNews in an interview last month.
Percentage-wise the search for research and development (R&D) engineers is higher, but customer support specialists and inside sales specialists are also needed, Doudin said.
After the successful implementation of the company’s hiring plans a half of Acronis’ global headcount will be based in Bulgaria.
As far as new acquisitions are concerned, Acronis is always looking for opportunities, Doudin said.
“Part of investment we received from Goldman Sachs will go to acquisition of companies, another part – to development of new products. We are on a constant lookout for companies which can be a good fit to us, and if we find such – yes, we will plan an acquisition,” Doudin said.
Acronis has set its sight on a possible acquisition in Southeast Europe (SEE), Beloussov said in March, adding that he could not reveal any details yet.
Acronis describes its business strategy not only in Bulgaria but in the whole region as “expansion, growth and perfectly supported customers”, according to Doudin.
“We are very much focused on growth – the plan is for 50% growth in revenue this year and a further 50% next year,” the regional manager said.
In order to do so, the company has to provide a perfect customer support, Doudin explained.
“We pay great attention to detail – everything that is being done and the speed of doing it.”
Acronis expects to grow its revenue from operations in the Balkans and Turkey by 61% in 2020 – a plan which still has not been changed despite the COVID-19 crisis. However, Acronis acknowledges the severity of the current situation and believes that with 50% or even 40% growth this year it will manage to meet its aggregate target for 2020-2021, Doudin said.
“In any case, we must double the business within two years,” he said.
Acronis sees opportunities for its business arising from the COVID-19 pandemic – a lot of companies are working from home now and home networks are not well protected which may lead to increased demand for Acronis’ services. For the time being, Acronis’ has not noticed a rise in demand as companies are still trying to adapt to the new working conditions, Doudin said.
Acronis, founded in 2003, is active in cyber protection and hybrid cloud storage technology. Enhanced by AI-based Active Protection technology, blockchain-based authentication and hybrid-cloud architecture, Acronis protects all data in any environment, including physical, virtual, cloud, mobile workloads and applications.


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13 September 2009 by by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub
Years ago I heard rumors Disneyland and Disneyworld were going to update the Star Tours ride. After all, the ride was exactly the same since it launched back in 1987 and it definitely needed a paint job. But the prequels came and went, and the ride stayed the same. Until now.
At this weekend’s D23 convention, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Chairman Jay Rasulo announced plans to update the ride and it’s going to launch in 2011 and it’ll be in 3D. While I’ve fallen out of love with “Star Wars”, I always liked the Star Tours ride and with the technology now available at Lucasfilm and Disney, I’d like to think the new ride is going to be awesome. Anyway, while we have to wait another two years to take it for a spin, Disney has launched a brief trailer and it’s after the jump:
And if you’re wondering, the new ride will be at Disneyland and Disneyworld.


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Swiss National Bank boosted its stake in shares of TAKE-TWO INTERACTIVE SOFTWARE, INC (NASDAQ:TTWO) by 23.3% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 440,007 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 83,100 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank’s holdings in TAKE-TWO INTERACTIVE SOFTWARE were worth $52,189,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.
A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of TTWO. Huntington National Bank increased its position in TAKE-TWO INTERACTIVE SOFTWARE by 37.5% during the 4th quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 455 shares of the company’s stock valued at $56,000 after buying an additional 124 shares in the last quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC increased its position in TAKE-TWO INTERACTIVE SOFTWARE by 170.2% during the 4th quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 681 shares of the company’s stock valued at $83,000 after buying an additional 429 shares in the last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC increased its position in TAKE-TWO INTERACTIVE SOFTWARE by 4.6% during the 4th quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 4,949 shares of the company’s stock valued at $606,000 after buying an additional 217 shares in the last quarter. Campbell & CO Investment Adviser LLC bought a new position in TAKE-TWO INTERACTIVE SOFTWARE during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $344,000. Finally, First Midwest Bank Trust Division increased its position in TAKE-TWO INTERACTIVE SOFTWARE by 2.1% during the 4th quarter. First Midwest Bank Trust Division now owns 4,600 shares of the company’s stock valued at $563,000 after buying an additional 96 shares in the last quarter. 88.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.
In related news, CEO Strauss Zelnick sold 216,665 shares of TAKE-TWO INTERACTIVE SOFTWARE stock in a transaction on Monday, April 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $118.97, for a total transaction of $25,776,635.05. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Lainie Goldstein sold 16,933 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $135.01, for a total value of $2,286,124.33. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 260,474 shares of company stock worth $31,648,198 over the last quarter. 1.20% of the stock is owned by company insiders.
A number of analysts have commented on the company. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on TAKE-TWO INTERACTIVE SOFTWARE from $145.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. SunTrust Banks reduced their target price on TAKE-TWO INTERACTIVE SOFTWARE from $133.00 to $129.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 10th. Stephens lifted their target price on TAKE-TWO INTERACTIVE SOFTWARE from $110.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday. MKM Partners lifted their target price on TAKE-TWO INTERACTIVE SOFTWARE from $124.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Co assumed coverage on TAKE-TWO INTERACTIVE SOFTWARE in a report on Sunday, April 19th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $150.00 target price for the company. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. The stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $140.44.
NASDAQ TTWO opened at $140.51 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $15.67 billion, a PE ratio of 37.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.86 and a beta of 0.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a quick ratio of 1.63 and a current ratio of 1.71. The business’s fifty day moving average is $125.95 and its 200 day moving average is $121.09. TAKE-TWO INTERACTIVE SOFTWARE, INC has a fifty-two week low of $100.00 and a fifty-two week high of $149.28.
TAKE-TWO INTERACTIVE SOFTWARE (NASDAQ:TTWO) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 20th. The company reported $1.50 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the Thomson Reuters’ consensus estimate of $0.90 by $0.60. The company had revenue of $729.42 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $585.27 million. TAKE-TWO INTERACTIVE SOFTWARE had a return on equity of 18.22% and a net margin of 13.09%. TAKE-TWO INTERACTIVE SOFTWARE’s quarterly revenue was up 49.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.78 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that TAKE-TWO INTERACTIVE SOFTWARE, INC will post 3.14 EPS for the current year.
About TAKE-TWO INTERACTIVE SOFTWARE
Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc develops, publishes, and markets interactive entertainment solutions for consumers worldwide. The company offers its products under the Rockstar Games and 2K labels, as well as under Private Division and Social Point labels. It develops and publishes action/adventure products under the Grand Theft Auto, Max Payne, Midnight Club, and Red Dead names through developing sequels; and offers downloadable episodes, content and virtual currency, and releasing titles for smartphones and tablets.
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What a result! We couldn’t believe our eyes when we logged onto the Taste of the West website this morning, to find that all eleven fudge flavours we had entered for consideration had won an award!
Last year we won four Gold awards, and this year we’ve topped it with FIVE Gold awards.
Eleven new awards means we now have forty awards since we first entered Taste of the West back in 2009. Thank you to all our supportive Roly’s Fudge fans who make this possible!
New Gold winners…
Three of our traditional flavours have won a Gold award, including Lemon Meringue Fudge, Christmas Pudding Fudge, and Chocolate Fudge.
Our Chocolate Fudge has never won an award before, so we are really happy this overlooked flavour now has an awards of its own! Lemon Meringue Fudge and Christmas Pudding Fudge have previously won big but are long overdue new awards – particularly as Christmas Pudding is the seasonal pride and joy of our fudge flavours.
Plus we have two new products for 2018 that have now won Gold! Our Dairy-Free Salted Maple & Pecan Fudge, recently accredited by the Vegan Society, has won its very first award, just months after being released. We are so humbled to win this, as it’s been a long process to make the perfect dairy-free fudge.
Also now a Gold winner is our Salted Caramel Fudge Sauce, which hit shelves for the first time last year! It’s our first product to win an award that isn’t pure fudge, so we are over the moon.
New Silver and Highly Commended winners…
But that’s not all! We also have Silver for Sea Salt, Rum ‘n’ Raisin, Maple and Walnut, and Vanilla Clotted Cream Fudge. Sea Salt Fudge and Vanilla Clotted Cream Fudge are long-time award-winners but our traditional flavour Rum ‘n’ Raisin Fudge has never won an award before!
Highly Commended goes to another new entry, Dairy-Free Maple & Cashew Fudge, as well as our Honeycomb Fudge.


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The latest edition of the HME Business eBook celebrates innovation in the home medical equipment industry during a landmark year of change.
The issue features a pictorial of the HME Business 2023 New Product Award Winners, as well as a recap of 2023 and a look forward to 2024 from the perspectives of experts in policy, funding, advocacy, accreditation, and business management.
Industry leaders shared what they think 2023 will be remembered for, and also made predictions on the topics and technology segments the home medical equipment industry will be making headlines in the new year.
“While the HME market continues to be full of policy and funding challenges, providers’ dedication to serving their patients and customers triumphed this year,” said HME Business Editor Laurie Watanabe. “Among the leaders we talked to for this issue, there was a clear tone of optimism and a feeling that the HME industry is being more often seen as a critical component of the healthcare continuum.”
Subscribing to the e-Source newsletter includes a subscription to HME Business eBooks, currently published four times per year.


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Anthem executive producer, Mark Darrah, has confirmed the E3 conference demo for Anthem, Bioware’s upcoming sci-fi title, was running on dual Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti graphics cards to hit the holy grail of 4K at 60fps. He also confirmed the devs will be working right up until launch day to get the game optimised further.
Jetpacking around open-expanses and blasting alien intruders to bits with a menagerie of weapons is thirsty work, even for your graphics card. Anthem’s E3 demo was exceptionally pretty, all thanks to the capable Frostbite engine, but required two of Nvidia’s finest Pascal graphics cards, assumedly utilising a makeshift SLI profile, to deliver all those pixels on time.
Unhappy with your frame rates? Here are the best 4K graphics cards we could corral.
These 4K recommended specs are far from final, however. Darrah confirms Anthem will continue to be optimised right up until its release date on February 22, 2019, when the game will be launching across both PC, PS4 and Xbox One – so I’m afraid the devs aren’t going to be focused solely on PC performance.
Also worth noting is that SLI isn’t the most consistent performer – both SLI and Crossfire’s days are numbered, after all. SLI profiles are notoriously sketchy at best, even when Nvidia signs them off itself, and second GPUs can vary wildly in their actual performance depending on the title. The second GPU in the system often contributes less than half its standalone performance, and if that’s the case with the latest Anthem demo, a single GTX 1080 Ti may still be plenty capable of 4K at well over 30fps.
There’s still hope for DX12’s multi-GPU features leading the way for dual-GPU systems. However, titles that support these features through the latest Microsoft API are thin on the ground, even in 2018.
Frostbite is a DX12-capable graphics engine, as shown by the latest Battlefield and FIFA games, but whether mGPU support will be included with Anthem is still very much up for debate.
It was 2 1080TIs
It was running 4K 60 https://t.co/I9TU5tk98n
— Mark Darrah (@BioMarkDarrah) July 10, 2018
New graphics tech should make high-fidelity 4K a little less bothersome, and while you’ll likely still need to splash out on high-end graphics tech, hitting the pinnacle of 4K 60fps gaming in the latest titles should be a little less troublesome for your bank account, too.


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2020 has been a hard year across the board, but perhaps no industry has been hit as hard as the travel industry.
There’s nothing like a global pandemic to put people off exploring the world, and while some businesses have found ways to entice people to follow their wanderlust, even industry titans such as Airbnb have felt the coronavirus pinch.
So, with a new year approaching, what can travel businesses do to convince people it’s not just safe to travel but that 2021 is the perfect year to make up for lost time (if that’s even possible)?
Take safety seriously
Safety will be the number one concern of all travelers as we enter another year with COVID-19.
Without precise and convincing safety measures in place, travel businesses can’t hope to attract anywhere near the kind of business they were pre-pandemic.
While there are people willing to take risks (a customer base you probably shouldn’t encourage right now), the majority of consumers will want to be assured of their safety throughout their trip.
That means hotels have to provide service from a social distance, holiday-goers will only find themselves in spaces that respect mask-wearing habits and all other precautions are being taken to avoid positive cases.
While assuring safety is one of the hardest parts of operating in a COVID world, it’s also the most important. This should be the starting point all businesses work back from.
Offer unique incentives
Travel, of course, is not limited to people going on luxury holidays.
Every year people spent a significant number of days traveling for work, an act that has also been mostly halted by coronavirus and the subsequent rise of video calls.
2021 will be a year where businesses will look to make up for lost ground, repair relationships and expand themselves beyond digital reaches.
For travel businesses to attract B2B opportunities, they need to both offer a safe experience and entice travellers with unique incentives.
While experience was once the selling point of business travel, with many using it as an excuse to eat at nice restaurants or experience local attractions, convenience may fill that role in a COVID travel world.
The key is finding industry specific perks and incentives. Car hires, for example, could offer customers a fuel card (never heard of them? Check out this selection from iCompario) when they use their business, giving them access to unique fuel deals and a more streamlined expenses system.
Alternatively, travel companies could offer businesses travel packages, giving companies the opportunity to wow clients safely in the knowledge they’re providing a COVID-safe experience.
Earning the trust and faith of the B2B consumer will be just as crucial as ensuring the average family vacation goes ahead, and going the extra mile might just be the key.
Consider new marketing strategies
Like most industries in our increasingly digitized world, travel has fully integrated itself with the monolith that is social media.
Spend a few minutes looking up flights, hotels or beachside activities and you’ll soon be bombarded with ream and ream of ads for travel companies during your next Facebook browsing sessions.
Yes, travel agencies and their competitors are no strangers to ‘shareable content’.
To combat the anxieties of COVID-era travellers we will likely only see an increase in these efforts. This increase could, in particular, be centered around social media influencers. These confident, reassuring and trusted voices have already been used to sell all kinds of products and services and being sent away to demonstrate the safety and enjoyment of a travel destination could be the next step. Travel influencers such as Our Next Flight will play a huge role in legitimising the services of particular businesses.
Influencers have passionate and highly loyal audiences, and winning over these consumers is much easier to do through a familiar face than a brand identity. Expect to see all your favourite Instagram celebrities receiving a lot of free holidays come mid 2021.
Accept more flexible terms
Living in such trying and unpredictable times, it’s important that businesses operate with heightened flexibility.
While important strides are being made towards a light at the end of the COVID tunnel, the challenges facing the travel industry won’t erode all at once. Certain countries will take longer to get a handle on the virus, while hotels, resorts and tourist traps will be forced to re-figure their services.
The travel industry on a whole must be willing to adapt to customer expectations and continually developing government advice. Following guidelines effectively and having the infrastructure to change operations on the fly will be the difference between a travel company that thrives throughout 2021, and one that shines bright before burning out.
In many cases this has already started. Luxury travel companies such as Audley Travel began offering customers the opportunity to cancel their flights up until two weeks before they’re set to take place in an effort to win back cautious optimists throughout 2021.
Likewise, travel businesses need to keep an eager eye on market trends, learning from localised institutions and how they’re updating their services to customer expectations.
The travel business faces a significant uphill climb throughout 2021, one that will define whether or not the industry survives in its present state.
Innovations and concessions are both inevitable and necessary. As eager as many customers are to start exploring the world again, they’ll need some coaxing out of the safety of their own homes.


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By Chris Roberts |
In the cookie industry, the windswept stretch of Mission Street past Silver Avenue in the Excelsior is prime real estate, says Carol Lei. This is her second year in a row that she’s been lucky to stand with her 14-year-old daughter Danielle under the soft neon green glow of a storefront here in the twilight of a Sunday evening.
In the past two hours, Danielle has sold 200 boxes of Thin Mints, Samoas, and Tagalongs — about the best and fastest sales rate you can hope for selling Girl Scout Cookies in San Francisco, Carol says.
Like everything else in town, selling the $5 boxes of famous baked goods is competitive. There are more cookie sellers than there are excellent cookie spots. The only way to get a seat in front of a busy Safeway or hungry FiDi office drones is to win a lottery.
But if an area isn’t in the lottery, it’s the Wild West: claim it and it’s yours. However, unclaimed prime grass is a rarity.
So the Leis were the first to make a connection with what now sounds like common sense: In 2012, they were the first to attempt to sell Girl Scout Cookies for a licensed medical cannabis dispensary. And despite the success – and the worldwide headlines last year after Mashable’s story about the Leis strategy of selling cookies outside medical cannabis dispensaries went viral – only one other Scout mom has asked if it’s wise to sit outside a weed club, and cautiously .
Carol Lei didn’t reassure her—in fact, she shook off the competition. “I said, ‘Find your own place,'” she says to me with a smile, her cap embroidered with shiny, sequined letters that read “I LOVE COOKIES” and glittered emerald in the neon glow of the illuminated cross that marked the old SF pharmacy The showcase of the Green Cross.
Today, in the cannabis world, ‘cookies’ are immediately reminiscent of the ‘other’ Girl Scout Cookies: the current breed of high-quality boutique flowers. About a mile down Mission Street from where we were standing in either direction are two dispensaries that both use the name “Cookies” in their company names.
These days you can buy “Cookies” hats, t-shirts, grinders and accessories. Carol’s homemade hat, however, was not authentic Cookies clothing, the brand promoted by the local weed seller turned rapper and businessman Berner (his Cookies family runs the club near Geneva Avenue).
To our knowledge, neither club has had a “real” Girl Scout Cookies sale on their doorstep so far. The real Cookies-Cookies ultimate meeting of the brands has yet to take place. Other Girl Scouts, take note.
And the hustle and bustle of last year doesn’t seem to be repeating itself. I was one of the many newscasters invited to watch the Leis show on Sunday that a pot club in the Excelsior is a perfectly adequate place for a 14-year-old to be in the dark (supervised, of course). I showed up ten minutes before the sale ended at 6pm and was told no news crews had appeared. [Update: our friends at Smell The Truth were onto it, of course, and did a story as well].
Now this is old news, without drama. Northern California Girl Scout Cookies officials said last year that they’d have no qualms about selling a girl cookies in any location, as long as it’s appropriate and she’s not alone there. And Green Cross, which hasn’t had a complaint even for double parking (which was serious enough to have evicted the pharmacy from its original location at Fair Oaks near Noe Valley a few years ago), seems to exemplify the theory. that cannabis pharmacies do not cause crime.
Carol Lei has heard that theory before and has reason to believe it: She met industry players like Green Cross president Kevin Reed while serving as committee secretary for the city’s short-lived Medical Cannabis Task Force. She learned firsthand that these are serious business people — and after a task force member bought an armload of cookies from her after a meeting, the idea of a partnership clicked.
By the way, Girl Scouts’ goal is to sell 1,000 boxes of cookies during the month-long fundraiser. Danielle got 20 percent of the trip outside a cannabis dispensary in two hours.
And she plans to come back Saturday for Valentine’s Day.
In this city, a kid selling cookies outside of a cannabis dispensary is no longer a problem.


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Kawasaki will offer a West Coast version of its “Times Square Takeover” event held last fall in New York. The “Gaslamp Takeover” will be held Saturday, Sept. 7, in San Diego’s Gaslamp District.
From 7-10 p.m., J Street will be closed from 7th Avenue to 9th Avenue The event is free and open to the public.
Visitors can expect DJs, big screens, fashion shows, appearances by championship racers, a military tribute, new product displays, historical motorcycles, motorcycle stunt shows, giveaways and more.
The Gaslamp Takeover is being held in conjunction with Kawasaki's National Dealer Business Meeting in San Diego.


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RIYADH, TGO: The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is characterised by a strategic and important geographical location through overlooking the Arabian Gulf and Red Sea, making it a big connection between the three continents of Asia, Europe and Africa and a main transport hub for the land, air and sea commercial routes, which was invested by the Saudi Vision 2030 that relied on diversifying the non-oil economy.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has launched the National Transport and Logistics Strategy – which is one of the basic aspects for the 2030 Saudi Vision – that contributes to enhancing the human and technical capabilities in the transport and logistics services sector, boosting connection with the global economy, enabling the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to invest its geographical location amidst the three continents in diversifying its economy through establishing advanced industries of logistic services.
The strategy aims at making Saudi Arabia a global centre for transport and logistics services, and increasing the contribution of the sector to 10% of the GDP up from its current rate of 6%, in addition to make the Saudi Arabia among the top 35 countries on the cross-border commerce index, and to become among the top 6 countries in the quality of roads, and ship more than 4.5 million tons through air annually, as well as increasing destinations to over 250 international destinations.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has 13 ports on the Arabian Gulf and Red Sea, where 13 percent of the global trade pass through them, and these ports contribute to the access of 70% of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s imports and 95% of its exports through 291 docks.
According to data released by General Authority for Statistics, the total value of non-oil exports from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 2021 reached SAR 187,950,268,805, while the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s imports in the same year reached SAR 343,665,939,711.
CEO of the Saudi Ports Authority (Mawani) Omar Al-Hariri, speaking to SPA, said that Mawani has endorsed is new corporate strategy in a way that supports commerce and economic development in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, noting that the attractiveness and status of Saudi ports have made the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia realize the fifth quickest country in the world in dealing with container ships.
As a result of the unlimited support of the wise leadership to the ports sector, the size of handling tons of goods during the first quarter of 2022 increased by 7.18% with a total of more than 74 million tons, where the number of shipped containers increased by 5.91% with around 1.5 million standard containers, when compared with the same period of 2021.
Saudi ports also recorded hikes in several other operational indicators, such as the increase in the number of cars by 12.85% with a total of 219,488 cars, the increase of passengers by 61.7% to 258,076, and an increase in the number of ships by 0.28% to a total of 3,186 ships.


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- iPhone 14 Pro Max: 6.7-inch display
- iPhone 14 Pro: 6.1-inch display
- iPhone 14 Max: 6.7-inch display
- iPhone 14: 6.1-inch display
“We reiterate our previous key specifications forecast for 2H22 iPhone models, namely that Apple will launch two high-end iPhones (6.1-inch and 6.7-inch) and two low- end iPhones (6.1-inch and 6.7-inch) in 2H22,” the analyst wrote in his note.
He also predicts that the iPhone 14 Max with its 6.7-inch display will be priced somewhere south of $900, making it at least $200 less expensive than the iPhone 12 Pro Max, also with a 6.7-inch screen. That could prove a popular option for iPhone buyers who want a bigger screen, but don’t necessarily need or want to spend over a grand on a more premium feature-set.
Beyond the screen size predictions, Kuo says Apple will inject an under-display Touch ID sensor into its phones, though don’t be surprised if it only materializes in the two higher end (and higher priced) Pro and Pro Max models. The sensor will be based on Apple’s own technology, the note says.
The higher end models could also see a jump to a 48-megapixel camera sensor for primary shooting duties. For comparison, the iPhone 12 Pro Max sports three 12-megapixel sensors (primary, ultra-wide, and telephoto), along with a LiDAR depth sensor and LED flash. So an upgrade to a 48-megapixel shooter would be a big upgrade, in terms of resolution.
In the past, Kuo also suggested Apple could move away from a notched design in favor of a punch-hole cutout on the front of its iPhone 14 series. But like all the rest of the predictions, we’ll have to wait and see.


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Eddie Stobart has wrestled a £15m Cemex contract from Wincanton after promising to deliver it using fewer sub-contractors. Stobart will pick up the work, which Wincanton has held since 2013, from next month, after which it will deliver packed cement from Cemex production sites to customers around the UK. Cemex told MT that it had changed service provider because Eddie Stobart was able to move a much higher proportion of goods with its own fleet rather than via sub-contracted vehicles. […]
Wincanton drivers working for Argos have voted to accept a deal offered to them by the operator to prevent them from taking planned strike action.
Culina Logistics has won a chilled warehousing and primary distribution contract with Gu Desserts, part of the Noble Foods Group. The Shropshire logistics firm says it won back the Gu Desserts business, which was a previous customer of Culina, due to a collaborative arrangement splitting operations between the food manufacturer’s Walthamstow site and its own Haverhill DC. Simon Grant, supply chain manager at Gu Desserts, says: “Culina was able to demonstrate the various positive opportunities available in the redesign of […]
Operators’ fears of a driver-shortage-fuelled capacity crisis this Christmas have been backed up by new research revealed today by the Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC).


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BURGETTSTOWN — Miranda Lambert and Animal Friends have partnered on a pet food drive at KeyBank Pavilion.
The Fill the Little Red Wagon promotion, now through Aug. 16, will collect pet food donations for the Pittsburgh area companion animal resource center and shelter.
Live Nation Pittsburgh, co-partners in the program, said pet food donations will be accepted at these shows at the Burgettstown concert venue:
Friday, Dierks Bentley.
June 23, Keith Urban.
July 27, Rascal Flatts.
Aug. 17, Miranda Lambert with Little Big Town
Each donation earns an entry for a chance to win a meet-and-greet with Lambert and a pair of premium tickets to her Aug. 17 show.
Additional donations may be dropped off at Animal Friends' Retail Store at 562 Camp Horne Road in Kilbuck Township.
Animal Friends will donate the pet food to local food pantries with the goal of enabling animal lovers to keep their four-legged family members at home, even during challenging times.


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NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Transgenomic today reported a 4 percent increase in third-quarter revenues alongside an improved net loss compared to the year-ago period.
For the quarter ended Sept. 30, Transgenomic's net sales from continuing operations climbed to $5.4 million from $5.2 million during the comparable period of 2007.
R&D spending increased 3 percent to $2.8 million from $2.7 million in the third quarter of 2007, while SG&A spending fell 5 percent to $684,000 from $720,000 year over year.
Transgenomic trimmed its third-quarter net loss by 63 percent, to $499,000, or $.01 per share, from $1.3 million, or $.03 per share, for the third quarter of 2007.
Craig Tuttle, president and CEO of Transgenomic, noted that the quarterly net loss followed two consecutive quarters of profitability. “Historically our third quarter has been slower for our instrument and service businesses due to summer laboratory closures in Europe and heavy vacation schedules in the US,” he said.
Tuttle added that Transgenomic remains “confident” in its financial performance, and that the company expects to expand its services “as we evaluate in-licensing, collaboration, and acquisition opportunities that have the potential to create additional value and accelerate growth.”
The company’s cash and cash equivalents totaled $4.8 million as of Sept. 30.


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I’ve been watching the recent weather woes, first in London and now in the eastern United States, with great interest, given that a week from now I’ll (hopefully) be on a plane to Las Vegas for the annual Consumer Electronics Show. I’m pretty nervous about my flight given that I have a stop-over in Chicago, which isn’t exactly renowned for its good weather.
I will, however, stop right there because I learned my lesson earlier this year about trying to forecast my flying experiences. Let’s just say I’m working on plans B and C to get to Las Vegas in time for the show, just in case.
I’m actually very much looking forward to CES this year, largely because I won’t be on a deadline to cover the big headline stuff. This year, I’m going to be combing the floor for the stuff that isn’t likely to get as much attention, and perhaps looking for tech that’s going to be big in the near future, not necessarily right now. Aside from that, I’ll also be looking at the main stories from a bit of a different perspective. CES thus looks to be a very different - and potentially fun - experience for me this year.
For the last couple of years, I’ve also dipped my toes into that other show, the Adult Entertainment Expo - for professional purposes, of course. One thing I’ve wanted to do in previous years out of pure curiosity but haven’t is check out the big Adult Video News awards, also known as the Oscars of porn. This year, I’m finally going as part of a story I’m writing for AskMen.com. I may never go to the real Oscars, so this is going to be the next best thing. I’ll have full reports here, of course.
One interesting trend I’m already seeing is how adult companies are ramping up efforts to court reporters covering CES, although not in the ways you’d expect. We all know that a porn expo isn’t exactly a hard sell to the nerds who cover technology, but this year porn companies are getting practical. One of the typical problems with CES are the facilities set up for media to get their stories out - there often aren’t enough computers or internet connections for laptops in the press rooms, and the wi-fi is crappy at best.
To that end, I’ve seen invitations from at least two AEE exhibitors - Pink Visual and sex toy maker Fleshlight - offering up their facilities to journalists looking for a hook-up. (An internet hook-up, that is.) If the CES press room is full, these companies are telling reporters to come on over and use the connections at their booths.
That’s actually very smart. If you can’t lure the nerds with porn, why not give ‘em what they really want: internet access.


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INTC >>> Target Price: 42
Intel CEO Joins Trump To Announce New High-tech Chip Factory In Arizona
SANTA CLARA (dpa-AFX) - US tech giant Intel has announced plans to open a high-tech chip manufacturing facility in Arizona, which the White House claimed as another example of 'the real-world results that the Trump administration is getting in its pro-jobs agenda.'
Intel CEO Brian Krzanich unveiled plans for $7 billion chip factory in Chandler, Arizona, in the presence of President Donald Trump at the White House Wednesday.
Krzanich said the modern factory -- Fab 42 -- will make the most advanced 7-nanometer semiconductor chips.
Fab 42 will employ approximately 3,000 direct high-paying, high-wage, high-tech jobs at its peak, and over 10,000 people in the Arizona area in support of the factory.
The Intel chief said the factory will produce the most powerful computer chips on the planet, powering the best computers, the best data centers, and autonomous cars.
He made the announcement in support of the tax and regulatory policies that the Trump administration is pushing forward that makes it advantageous to do manufacturing in the U.S.
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer termed it as 'the latest wave in economic optimism that's sweeping the country following the President's victory.'
He noted that last quarter, confidence among CEOs of U.S.-based companies jumped by 4.2 percent points in the YPO Global Pulse Survey.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX


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Exertis Micro-P has announced a partnership agreement with mobile phone manufacturer, Kazam.
The deal will see the companies developing joint propositions for selected target markets.
Exertis Micro-P said that it chose Kazam because of “its focus on a complete service wrap for customers”.
Kazam currently offers customers Kazam Rescue, a call centre remote access service which aims to fix consumers’ devices in a single call, and Kazam Screen Repair, where consumers can have a cracked screen replaced for free in the first year of a device’s life.
Simon Woodman, mobile sales director at Exertis Micro-P, commented: “We are excited to get Kazam onboard.”
“It’s a new brand with a fresh view of the market, and we are very taken with its innovative approach to services.”
“We will be looking at jointly developing propositions for certain areas of the market to enhance that service value-add.”
“Kazam’s devices are of excellent design and are high quality, and are set to create a healthy proposition for the first smartphone user that wants a device that looks and acts like a high end phone, but that is affordable, and the older mobile phone user that wants to be able to communicate and stay safe.”
“Exertis Micro-P expects Kazam to make a strong impact in the UK teenage and senior market.”
Rakesh Odedra, UK and Ireland sales director at Kazam, added: “For us it’s about finding the right kind of partnership.”
“As a challenger brand Kazam is at the start of the journey; everyone has been excited with our propositions and portfolio but it is now about taking it to the next level.”
“We were impressed by the way Exertis Micro-P approached our business. As a company it shares a lot of the same values as Kazam, and we’re very happy to be working with the team.”
Kazam was founded by former HTC executives Michael Coombes and James Atkins in November 2013.


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American automobile ford plans to sell to china BYD According to the newspaper, it has a vehicle assembly plant in Saarlouis, Germany. wall street journal, It is a factory for which Ford has no plans to produce cars after the middle of the decade when the useful life of the Ford Focus ends.
According to the American newspaper, Members of Ford management in Germany to visit China To continue talks with the manufacturer which has plans to expand into Europe with the offering of electric vehicles. In Spain, for example, BYD plans to launch with the offering of three models during the first quarter of this year: BYD Atto 3, BYD Tang and BYD Han, the latter being said to be the flagship of the Asian car industry. Which will cost around 72,000 Euros.
Talks between BYD and Ford are still in the preliminary stages. In addition to the Chinese company, Ford has received interest from 15 other potential investors. including manufacturers and financial investors who may partner with the manufacturer.
The sale of this plant is part of Ford’s plan to return from Europe, where the company plans to reduce its workforce by 3,200 people cut that will be made on top of its operations in Germany (where it has its headquarters and main European plant in the city of Cologne, in addition to the aforementioned factory in Saarlouis).
The Saarlouis factory was left on the line in the middle of last year after it was confirmed that Ford would study production of electric vehicles in Almusafs (Valencia), leaving the German plant without a model beyond the middle of the decade. The two electric models will arrive at the Spanish factory, with some cars expected like rain in May at a factory that has lost several vehicles and in which an ERE is expected this year. These layoffs are due to a reduction in workload, in addition to model losses, which will mean the arrival of electric cars from 2026.


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Costco is a big, bright, beautiful business.
But it also has an ambitious mission, one that it says is at the heart of its long-term future.
The grocery giant is making its mark on the U.S. retail industry, as well as in other countries, with its online, brick-and-mortar and specialty stores, as it continues to grow its online business.
Costco says it will expand its online sales to 10 million stores by the end of 2020, and it’s looking to the future.
Costco’s vision of a more open, global, transparent, inclusive and inclusive economy is something the company believes can benefit consumers, employees, and the communities that sustain it.
Costos CEO Jim Cramer recently told investors in his earnings call that Costco has a mission to “take the retail business back to the people.”
He noted that Costco’s goal is to be “the most transparent and the most transparent company ever.”
He also said Costco plans to focus on making its business “more transparent and more transparent” over the next three to five years, and he added that Costco plans “to have a lot more people working at the store and a lot less employees” over that time.
Costoreks retail business is expected to generate $13 billion in annual revenue by the 2020s.
It employs more than 7,500 people and sells goods to more than 1,300 stores.