text:
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Etsy(ETSY) - Get Report stock is declining by 7.52% to $10.20 in after-hours trading on Tuesday, after the company announced its third quarter 2015 earnings results after the market close today.
The company, which operates marketplaces for homemade items, reported a loss of 6 cents per share for the most recent quarter, up from a loss of 15 cents per share for the year ago period.
Revenue increased by 37.9% year over year, to $65.7 million from $47.6 million in the 2014 third quarter.
Etsy had been forecast to post a loss of 6 cents per share on revenue of $66.2 million by analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters.
"During the third quarter the growth in the Etsy Economy continued, and we generated more than $1.6 billion in GMS year-to-date and supported more than 1.5 million active sellers and 22.6 million active buyers," CEO Chad Dickerson said in a statement.


text:
Siegel+Gale helped its client, now called Curvature, develop its new name and brand identity.
The short-term home rental company Airbnb has a new logo, created by the London consultancy Design Studio, that has people reverting to their seventh-grade selves.
The design consultancy Mark has created a new identity for LeftCoast meant, in all ways, to “emphasize leftness,” according to Mark creative director Mark Lester.
Applied Materials, Inc. and Tokyo Electron Limited have merged to form Eteris, a new company that will focus on “creating and enabling technology innovations that improve the way people live.”
Just as rival Google has done for many years, Apple introduced a modified logo to support the San Francisco Pride parade earlier this month.
After two years of development, the Big XII Conference is splashing out its new identity, just in time for the new school year this fall.
Walmart, together with Women’s Business Enterprise National Council and WEConnect International, have created a symbol that will be set on all products created by women-owned businesses.
The brand consultancy Colourful has created an illustration-based awareness campaign and identity for the conservation group People’s Trust for Endangered Species.
When Cooper Hewitt introduced its new identity a couple weeks ago, it made an unorthodox offer: anyone could download and use its new typefaces and source files.
Venture capital firm First Round has a much-needed new identity, thanks to Pentagram.

domain: news


text:
SAGUACHE — The cause of the July 16 overnight fire in the lobby of the Moffat Post Office in Saguache County has been ruled as arson, according to Sheriff Dan Warwick with the Saguache County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO).
Although SCSO continues to be involved in the case, investigation of the incident is being conducted by the US Postal System (USPS) and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) due to the fire occurring at a federal installation.
“There is a suspect, and he has been spoken to,” says Sheriff Warwick, but he was unable to comment further as it is still an active investigation.
Damage to the post office, located at 166 S. Alder Avenue in Moffat, was sufficient enough to warrant moving delivery of mail from the Moffat Post Office to the post office in Crestone, which impacts about 150 post office box holders.
“The mail is safe with us and we’ll hold it until the repairs are made,” Crestone Postmaster Susanna Silva was quoted as saying the day mail service was transferred.
According to a postal worker in Crestone, they are continuing to provide that service but no further details could be provided.
Mail delivery to the two rural routes that operate out of Moffat is being sorted at alternate locations and regular mail delivery service to rural route customers reportedly resumed the next day after the Moffat Post Office was closed.
This is a developing story and more details will be reported as they become available.


text:
G-Star Raw is set to move into a new 2500sq ft flagship store in Sheffield’s Meadowhall shopping centre as part of an ambitious expansion drive. The fashion retailer will open its sixth UK store in the newly refurbished shopping centre, marking the start of a push to double its store estate to 10 by the end of the year.
Tell us about the Reichelt story. Reichelt was founded in May 1969 by Angelika Reichelt and her husband. Its first item for sale was an antenna amplifier
Timothy Oulton is poised to open the doors to its new worldwide flagship store in London’s posh Chelsea neighbourhood next month. The furniture and interiors brand will takeover the Bluebird Garage space, located on-site with the Bluebird Café, on King’s Road. The new 7200sq ft store will mark Timothy Outlon’s largest retail display of their products globally.
The North and Yorkshire regions represented the highest portion of Google searches for the second quarter of 2018, with 26 per cent compared to Greater London’s 23 per cent.
Barbour is set to launch a new brand dubbed Barbour Beacon as the heritage British retailer takes aim at a younger audience. According to Drapers, the new 40-piece menswear range set for this autumn, will be sold through its own direct-to-consumer website barbourbeacon.com, as well as through third party retailers including Selfridges, Topman and Barbour’s flagship store on Carnaby Street, London. READ MORE: “Meghan effect” boosts Barbour profits It will include everything from £8 caps to £91 waxed jackets, including logo emblazoned t-shirts and polo shirts and even tracksuit bottoms
B&M has bolstered the diversity of its board of directors with the appointment of two women, Carolyn Bradley and Tiffany Hall, as non-executive directors. Bradley will be part of the audit and risk and nomination committees, while Hall will be join the discount retailer’s remuneration and nomination committees.
Overall shop prices decelerated at the lowest rate in eight months, primarily due to a surge in food prices as the cold spring and recent heatwave affected fruit and vegetable prices.
Aldi has asked its food suppliers to begin contingency planning in case the UK crashes out of the EU with no deal. According to The Sunday Times , the UK division of the German discount grocer emailed suppliers last month to say it wanted to work with them “to help understand the potential implications” and to “mitigate any negative impacts”
The British chain is reportedly preparing to open a chain of smaller, low-price stores in response to Aldi and Lidl.
Marks & Spencer is set to refresh its energy offering in an ambitious bid challenge the UK’s Big 6 gas and electricity providers.


text:
Due to the size of the market, increasing disposable income and smartphone addiction China is an attractive market for European app developers who are wishing to expand to new markets. European app developers should, however, pay attention to protecting their IP rights in the country, because IP infringements are still commonplace in China.In today’s blog post we’re taking a closer look at how European app developers could best protect their business against IP violations in China.
China has increased the per person spending on games and other apps 10 times since 2014. This rapid growth, stimulated by the release of the iPhone 6 and 7 and heavy investment in Apple’s retail presence in the country, has pushed China to the top spot for App downloads worldwide.
Asia is leading a mobile revolution, replacing older, less transportable technologies with a ‘mobile-first’ tech culture. Smartphone penetration in China is far deeper than anywhere in the West, many new users skipping desktop computing entirely in their adoption of smartphones and tablets. In China alone it is estimated that there are more than 700 million active smartphones and there is still potential for further growth as lower cost alternatives increasingly cater for the lower end of the market.
These statistics, coupled with recent developments in Chinese mobile user payment structures makes China a very attractive market for existing and potential app developers, with content creators flocking to take advantage of the newly minted market. Continue reading “IP Protection Strategies for App Developers in China” »


text:
Arab Israeli Conflict
Middle East News
Hi Tech News
Whether business expert or celebrity style, an expert status, greatly lowers the
barriers to obtaining new clients.
Here are three strategies and investment recommendations: Impact Investing (II), Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), and Sustainable Investing (SI).
The government bill would mandate that every disposable plastic bag would cost consumers 40 agorot.
Please insert a valid email address


text:
Have you been reading all the news about the Uzbek dictator's daughter and how labour and human rights campaigners were able to convince the organizers of Fashion Week to cancel Gulnara Karimova's fashion show?
This seemed like an impossibility at one time, as Karimova was here last year and backed by powerful Fashion Week sponsor Mercedes Benz. Yet the organizers responded to the pleas of the cotton campaign and disinvited this symbol of Uzbek repression.
There's much more we need to do to raise awareness and get action to stop the sourcing of Uzbek cotton by Western companies that help prop up Uzbekistan's dictatorship.
During Fashion Week (September 8-15), if you live in the New York area, you can take part in a picket in New York to urge the apparels industry to pledge to refrain from sourcing their cotton in Uzbekistan.
You can also call on Cipriani, the events space where Uzbek dictator's daughter Gulnara Karimova is now rescheduling her disgraced fashion show, not to provide her a space either. (Cotton campaign protests have been successful in getting IMG, the organizers of Fashion Week, to cancel her show at Lincoln Center).
Already 60 brands and a major industry association have pledged not to source cotton in Uzbekistan as forced child labour is used there, thanks to the work of Responsible Sourcing Network (RSN). The International Labor Rights Forum (ILHR) has already successfully petitioned Gymborree, A Child's Place and other companies recently who have responded to thousands of signatures and changed their policies.
Campaigners are looking for more signatures for new campaigns now addressing these brands:
o Forever 21
o Urban Outfitters
o Toys 'R Us
If you're a parent of children or teenagers like me, you know at this back-to-school time these are exactly the shops that your kids go to for clothes, accessories and toys. So sign the petition and tell your children that kids just their age are forced to miss school and work in the cotton fields. If you have a teen aged 13 or older, they can help raise awareness and sign these petitions as well at Change.org (you must be 13 or older to use this site) -- it's a great way to help young people understand the connected world they live in. High schools often ask students to find a community service project to work on -- learning about forced child labour and signing these petitions to the companies where they shop could be just such a project.


text:
Apple on Friday sent an email to AppleInsider and other press outlets, inviting them to an educational event in Chicago scheduled for 10 a.m. local time on March 27.
"Let's take a field trip," the email reads. "Join us to hear creative new ideas for teachers and students." The event will happen at the Lane Tech College Prep High School.
Apple has yet to provide other details, but the custom logo used in the invitation resembles the sort of pen stroke an iPad Pro owner might make with an Apple Pencil.
In December, the company announced a partnership with Chicago Public Schools and the City Colleges of Chicago, intended to introduce Swift programming curriculae to the city. That program is due to launch this spring, and indeed the March 27 event could be meant to kick it off.
Though it's now open-source and has other uses, Swift was developed primarily by Apple for use with iOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS. Encouraging its adoption may mean more apps for the company's platforms, and possibly better recruiting opportunities.
Apple could conceivably use the event to announce one or more new iPads. While new Pro models are more likely to ship towards the summer, the company could revamp its $329 "budget" iPad, often aimed at schools. The current model lacks Pencil support, which would be a natural addition for the educational market.
An updated iPad app for teachers — Classroom 2.2 — is in beta testing.
The company has also been rumored as preparing a 13.3-inch Retina MacBook, possibly intended to replace the aging MacBook Air.
A 2012 educational event in New York City saw Apple introduce iBooks 2 for the iPad, but no new hardware.


text:
The Jordan Brand has unveiled its newest signature sneaker, the Air Jordan XXXII. The sneaker will be worn this season by Russell Westbrook, Jimmy Butler, Kawhi Leonard, and Carmelo Anthony.
Is Russell Westbrook the best face for Jordan Brand?
SI Now co-hosts Maggie Gray and Robin Lundberg look at whether Russell Westbrook's new deal with Jordan Brand will affect where he signs his next NBA contract. ...read more


text:
A shortage of Apple's iPhone 4, newly introduced in China, is fueling a grey market for imported phones and anger among genuine customers plagued by scalpers, hoping to sell the phones on for profit.
According to AFP, Apple was forced to temporarily close one of its stores in Beijing after arguments broke out between scalpers and Apple store customers frustrated and disappointed at missing out on the handsets.
Scalpers have been reportedly charging an additional 300-600 Yuan ($45-90/£28-£56) to those desperate to get their hands on Apple's latest iPhone.
As Macworld previously reported, a lucrative grey market for iPhones being shipped back to China from the U.S., U.K., and elsewhere has also inflated prices.
China Unicom announced this week it had sold close to 100,000 iPhone 4s in the four days since the smartphone was launched in China last Saturday, 25 September.
Apple has said more iPhone 4s will be made available in China soon and that customers should check back with their local store for updates. China Unicom expects the second shipment of the iPhone 4 to arrive in China today, 1 October, during the country's National Day Holiday.
Apple has priced its iPhone 4 without a contract at 4,999 Yuan ($744/£468) for the 16GB model and 5,999 Yuan ($893/£562) for the 32GB model. China Unicom offers the iPhone 4 with a new two-year contract.
AFP adds China has at least 420 million web users and is the world's largest mobile market with more than 800 million subscribers as of the end of June 2010, according to official data.
This story, "China's iPhone 4 Shortage Keeps Grey Market Lively" was originally published by Macworld U.K..


text:
Thanks shockz...On Monday, Microsoft will reveal that its next-generation Windows Media products, code-named Corona, will be marketed as Windows Media Series 9 when released later this year. Windows Media Series 9 consists of new versions of Windows Media Player, Windows Media Audio and Video codecs, Windows Media Encoder and a new Windows Media Software Development Kit (SDK). Each of these products will be available in beta form to the public beginning September 4, when Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates hosts a Windows Media Series 9 launch event at the Hollywood and Highlands Complex in Los Angeles, California.
"Digital media has the potential to redefine the possibilities for new experiences and services over the Internet, in the living room and in companies around the world," says Will Poole, the vice president of the Windows Digital Media Division at Microsoft. "Windows Media 9 Series is designed to deliver the major step forward in functionality and performance the industry needs to realize this potential."
News source: WinInfo
View: The Full Story


text:
24 Nov 2017 By Paul Yandall
Ports of Auckland will impose new passenger levies to pay for the city council’s $10m plan to accommodate larger cruise ships.
The council announced yesterday that the city would soon be able to cater for larger vessels after approving the construction of two outer dolphin mooring structures off Queens Wharf.
However, the estimated $10m cost of the dolphins would be recovered through cruise ship passenger levies imposed and collected by Ports of Auckland. There is already a passenger levy for the use of equipment, repairs and maintenance of Queens and Princes wharves.
A spokesman for Ports of Auckland said the details of the levies had not been finalised but he confirmed it would be a new charge because it would be paying for new infrastructure.
“How much it is, which vessels have to pay for it, which passengers have to pay for it – that hasn’t been decided yet. We will work with the cruise industry to come up with a fair levy,” he said.
New Zealand Cruise Association chief executive Kevin O’Sullivan said he did not want to see a new charge imposed.
“But the cruise industry may well support a reasonable levy provided it is for cruise-related infrastructure. When that infrastructure is completed that levy should be dropped,” said O’Sullivan. “The unfortunate thing about levies is once you put them in they tend to stay there indefinitely.”
The two outer dolphins would be located around 80-85m off the northern edge of Queens Wharf and be ready to use for the 2019-2020 cruise season.
Auckland Council said they would be connected by a walkway and allow 350m-long ships to berth at the wharf, boosting the $220m and 4,000 local jobs the cruise industry already adds to the region’s economy.
“This decision has taken a long time but it is an important one,” said O’Sullivan.
“It gives the cruise industry an important signal that Auckland is ready to become a major hub in the South Pacific. Cruise ships are getting larger and we must be able to welcome them in order to reap the economic benefits from the fast-growing cruise sector.”
O’Sullivan said that becoming a major cruise hub would offer huge benefits to Auckland’s economy, as cruise ships would be more likely to choose the city to begin and end voyages, attracting passengers and crew before and after their cruises. Ships would also reprovision in Auckland, creating jobs and demand for local produce.
Auckland Council said the city was an increasingly popular stop on the South Pacific and Australia cruise ship circuit. Ship visits had grown from 40 in 2006 to 135 in 2018 and passenger numbers from 60,000 to 220,000 over the same period.
The international trend for larger cruise ships had seen the size of the largest vessels visiting Auckland grow from 294m in 2006 to now over 350m long, which are too big to berth safely at Auckland’s wharves. Half of the new ships on order today by cruise companies are too big to berth at the city, said the council.
Independent assessors found the council’s preferred choice of an inner dolphin at the end of Queens was unsafe for vessels over 300m long to moor.
The assessors also recommended future proofing cruise infrastructure for growth in accommodating the new 362m-long Oasis class of ships, which are expected to visit Auckland in 5-10 years.
Auckland Council said resource consent for the plan would be lodged early next year.
25 May 2018 Registrations open for NZ Cruise 2018 Conference
24 May 2018 Watch: Queenstown’s $37m Amway bonanza


text:
Smoothie King Center exterior undergoing major changes
Over the past 12-plus months, New Orleans’ NBA franchise has undergone dramatic changes, including the unveiling of a new nickname, colors, logos and uniforms. This summer, it’s time for the team’s home arena to also benefit from a brand-new look.
In Phase II of a two-year renovation project at the Smoothie King Center, the venue will receive a long-awaited, updated color scheme on its exterior.
In addition, construction is under way on a grand entrance that will be completed during this basketball offseason. Other major 2014 summer improvement projects include an expanded team store that will double in size from its previous location; a 2,000-square-foot sports bar on the main concourse above the new entrance; an expanded box office located next to the main entrance; an exterior lighting package; and an LED board above the main entryway.
After a Phase I that largely consisted of interior renovations to the Smoothie King Center, current construction will be significantly more noticeable to those who attend Pelicans home games in 2014-15.
“This phase will affect everyone who attends a game,” said Ed Lang, Pelicans senior vice president and chief financial officer. “The new grand entryway will directly affect about 80 percent of our fans (who’ve entered the building through the previous Girod Street entrance in the past). The expanded box office will make it a faster process for fans to pick up will-call tickets or purchase tickets before a game. “Through Adidas, the larger team store will have a wider selection of merchandise and products for fans.”
A detailed look at several of the major renovations that are taking place at the Smoothie King Center this summer:
Color Change To Exterior
Smoothie King Center opened in 1999, but its exterior bluish-green color is more reminiscent of 1970s-era design.
“It will be a much improved look over the current appearance of the building,” Lang said.
The repainting will be completed prior to the 2014-15 NBA season.
Not only will the main entrance be considerably larger, featuring more open space for fans once they’re inside, but it will be shifted toward the corner of Girod Street and Le Rouge Lane. That enabled the Pelicans to add more square footage to the entryway.
“It will be a two-story atrium,” Lang said. “That should add much more light to the entryway, based on the way it’s configured.”
When the Smoothie King Center first opened for the then-Hornets in ‘02, team officials anticipated that most basketball fans would enter at the second level (as Saints fans do for games at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome), but in reality, the vast majority have instead gone in at the Girod Street level. That partly necessitated the expansion and improvement of what had unexpectedly become the facility’s primary entrance for NBA games.
The box office is shifting from its previous location on Girod to being set up right next to the main entrance, along Le Rouge Lane. It will also be much larger, which will result in shorter wait times in line for Pelicans fans.
“In the past, the box office has been kind of tucked into the back of the building,” Lang said. “It’s a very small area that could get very crowded. We’re relocating the box office just to the side of the front entryway. It will be able to accommodate more people, which will allow us to get more people in and out, through will call and single-game purchases.”
Adidas Team Store
“It’s going to be almost double in size from what it currently is,” Lang said. “It will greatly expand the merchandise that we carry in the store.”
The store is also undergoing a major makeover. Located near the new main entrance, fans will be able to see the store as they enter the building. The store will feature a glass wall, allowing Adidas to more effectively and visibly display items.
Second-Level Sports Bar
The 2,000-square-foot bar will feature inside seating and an outdoor balcony that overlooks the eastern side of the Smoothie King Center, allowing fans a view toward Champions Square and downtown New Orleans. It can be accessed from inside the arena or the Superdome level and is open to anyone who has purchased a ticket to the game.
Construction has already begun on several aspects of the project. Through early August, the Smoothie King Center remains open for business and will be hosting numerous events, including concerts and New Orleans VooDoo football games. Following a Justin Timberlake concert Aug. 4, the building will close for two months in order to wrap up renovations, but will re-open in October (a Katy Perry concert is slated for Oct. 8). The first Pelicans event in their renovated home building likely will be a home preseason game in mid-October.


text:
NVIDIA’s new gaming GPU the RTX 3080 Ti is now available worldwide, and starts at $1,199. The RTX 3070 Ti will be available next week starting at $599. Both of these graphics cards mean faster and more efficient workflows for video editors.
Premiere Pro is a staple in the video editing, NLE space. Many editors are looking to jump in and learn the program to it's fullest extent, to better elevate their skill level and craft.
Let's Edit MC's Kevin P McAuliffe goes over the Avid Media Composer interface, basic settings, and the new Bin Container window in his latest tutorial. Whether you're a new or experienced Media Composer editor this tutorial will get you set to start your editing!
With the world slowly transitioning back to normal since the pandemic, remote work seems to be staying, especially in the production field. Companies like Levity Live, who work with shows on Food Network and HGTV had to worry about post-production once the pandemic hit, but fortunately the company was prepared. With technology, such as hard drives, Levity Live was able to have their employees work remotely to get the post-production done.
The landscape of content creation has been changing rapidly, as more and more mobile platforms become available for content to be viewed. This has expanded from live streaming and into the post production world. Avid has released a great guide on creating content for major mobile phone apps like Quibi!


text:
A&P has new chairman, discusses finances with unions
* Greg Mays is seen as outgoing Chairman Ron Burkle's pick.
Greg Mays, a former board member of Pathmark, and an A&P board member since 2007, has replaced Ron Burkle as chairman of the board of the struggling supermarket chain.
Executives at Montvale-based A&P declined to comment on the Mays appointment Friday. That appointment was revealed this week when union leaders met with A&P executives for a briefing on the company's financial condition.
Burkle, the former chairman, is the head of investment firm Yucaipa Cos., which invested in A&P and has taken the lead in orchestrating the company's turnaround after it emerged from bankruptcy last year. Mays, a Yucaipa representative on the A&P board, and a former CEO of Yucaipa-controlled companies, is seen as Burkle's pick for the chairmanship.
Mays was chairman and chief executive officer of Wild Oats Markets Inc., a Boulder, Colo.-based supermarket chain that was sold to Whole Foods Market Inc., and CEO of Source Interlink, a publishing company.
John Niccollai, president of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 464A in Little Falls, said in a message for members posted online Thursday that he was surprised to learn of Mays' appointment, but that Mays has a good track record in turning around floundering companies.
Harvey Whille, president of UFCW Local 1262, said it is too soon to say what impact Mays will have, but that previous management changes at A&P haven't yet translated into improvements that make store workers confident about the future of their jobs.
"Until the A&P and Pathmark company realizes that the real face of their company is the people who work in their stores, and until those people see an improvement in their status, we will remain cautious," Whille said. A&P purchased Pathmark in 2007.
Union leaders said A&P executives told them Wednesday that the company's sales are improving, but the company has not yet achieved profitability. Union leaders asked when their members — who agreed to wage and benefit cuts to enable the company to emerge from bankruptcy a year ago — would benefit from improved sales. They said they were told the company first had to invest in store improvements before it could restore salary concessions.
Whille said A&P executives said they plan to implement a price reduction program that will make A&P and Pathmark stores, as well as the other chains operated by the company, more competitive.


text:
Lawsuit questioning Taco Bell's beef is dropped
1 of 1
Taco Bell launched an advertising campaign to fight back against a lawsuit charging its taco filling isn't beef. Taco Bell announced today that the lawsuit has been dropped.
Photos: Sentry Aloha fighter jet exercises, Jan. 26
Photos: H.S. Soccer: Waianae vs. Moanalua, Jan. 26
Photos: Mitsubishi Electric Championship, Jan. 25
More Photo Galleries »


text:
The start of another week and news of another UK fashion retail chain seeking a CVA and planning to close a raft of stores with Monsoon Accessorize having struggled for some time against a weak retail environment.
The long-running story around the decline of what once were some of the most important brands in UK womenswear looks like it's reaching its end with administrators having failed to find a buyer for Calvetron Brands.
News last week that Gerry Weber Group executive Norbert Steinke was stepping down from the management board has been followed up with an announcement that he is also quitting as Hallhuber managing director.
Over 1,700 jobs appear to have been saved at Style Group after a group of investors including Harold Tillman mounted a successful rescue bid for the troubled womenswear firm and hinted at a possible move into menswear.
Retail veteran Harold Tillman may have been frustrated in his attempt to win back the Jaeger brand he once owned, but reports suggest that he could lead a group of investors working on a rescue deal for Style Group.


text:
Polish regulative authorities will be decreasing utilize to an optimum of 1:25.
Polish regulative authorities have taken additional target at forex (FX) policies, presenting brand-new legislation to decrease utilize to an optimum of 1:25 too a wider required to openly alert financiers to any unapproved activity. The efforts show Poland’s increased focus on securing customers and positioning its guidelines on par with other nations.
Polish regulators have likewise started to wield more power, helping with harsher charges on unlicensed entities. In its newest quote to fortify the FX market, the Polish Financial Supervision Commission (KNF) is changing the optimum utilize readily available for retail customers. Formerly the optimum utilize was pegged at 1:100 with a margin of 1 percent– the brand-new policies will enforce an optimum utilize of 1:25 with a margin of 4 percent.
In addition, the KNF will set up a brand-new system for external judicial control which will enable the regulator to communicate with other telecoms providers (web, phone, and so on) to get any essential details relating to unlicensed brokers (names, phones, addresses, and so on).
The KNF will likewise get brand-new powers relating to notifying financiers and Polish customers of possible rip-offs. The regulator will be entitled to consist of the names of companies in a promoted domain list, even if no notification of a believed criminal offense has been launched, as long as the operations in concern are targeting Polish customers. This capability will help the KNF to preserve its jurisdiction locally.
The current procedures make up the Polish regulator’s broadening legal required to police the domestic FX and monetary services market. Previously this year, the KNF executed brand-new steps to reduce access to the marketplace for unapproved forex brokers. The guard dog has since been empowered to routinely upgrade and preserve a list of uncontrolled business that are targeting Polish customers, and prohibit their access to the marketplace by means of web service suppliers.
The Polish authority likewise enhanced its power to great business that are offering monetary services in the nation unlawfully. Formerly the KNF had the ability to impose charges of approximately PLN 5 million ($1.35 million), and it has since proposed a doubling of the optimum fine.
Undoubtedly, several EU nations have been the target of unapproved brokerages for a number of years now, without any lack of techniques released versus a susceptible client base. Polish regulative authorities have noticed this pattern and have decided to strengthen the procedures offered versus such activities. Poland represents among the very first circumstances in the EU of a regulator actively taking part in traffic filtering from such uncontrolled sites to safeguard retail customers in the nation.


text:
Ford, Jaguar, Nissan, Infiniti recall in UAE; yours on list?
Japanese, American and British carmakers have recalled a number of vehicles in the UAE due to faults in steering column, fuel injectors and fuel pump.
Nissan, Infiniti, Ford and Jaguar have announced recalls in coordination with the UAE’s Ministry of Economy – Consumer Protection Department – to conduct a review of all the products in the country and provide customers with the required protection.
Among the Japanese vehicle that have been recalled are Nissan’s GT-R and Infiniti’s EX and FX models imported into the UAE in 2008-09 because an excessive play of the steering column could occur due to the upper bearing damage caused during outer tube production process.
The companies will replace the steering column free of cost. Nissan has also recalled Qashqai 2012 models sold in the UAE because if a driver applies a high load to the steering wheel, it could separate from steering column. It will replace the steering wheel in the affected vehicles without any cost.
The company didn’t say how many affected vehicles are being recalled.
Automobile giant Nissan last month recalled its three sport utility vehicles (SUVs) X-Trail, Pathfinder, Patrol and popular sedan Sunny also, which were manufactured in 2003 and sold in the UAE due to potential defect in the airbag inflators used in the passenger airbag.
US automaker Ford has also recalled certain 2015 Transit vehicles equipped with 2.2-litre engine and manufactured in Turkey for fuel injector check.
In the affected vehicles, the injectors may have an incorrectly assembled internal valve which can fail and result in a loss of fuel rail pressure which may result in the engine shutting down. The company, estimating that 31 vehicles to be affected in the UAE, will contact the customers to inform about the recall while the fuel injector valves will be inspected and replaced – if required – free of charge.
British luxury carmaker Jaguar has also announced voluntary recall of its certain 2013 FX vehicles manufactured in the United Kingdom for the installation of the link lead where it has omitted.
“Jaguar has identified some 2013 FX vehicles in which the required fuel pump link lead that supplies electrical power supply to the fuel tank pump may not have been installed.
"This may lead to insufficient fuel supply to the engine, resulting in vehicle cut out at high speeds,” the company said. A total of 10 vehicles are estimated to be affected in the UAE.
Jaguar distributor Al Tayer Motors and Premier Motors will contact the customers and ask them to get the vehicles inspected and the link lead will be installed where it’s been omitted.
Last month, Honda and General Motors also announced recalls in the UAE.
The Japanese firm recalled nearly 1,700 Civic and Jazz, multi-purpose vehicle Stream and SUV CR-V vehicles of 2003-04 models because the passenger side airbag inflator could rupture during deployment due to abnormal pressure and push metal fragments through the airbag.
The US carmaker recalled 2004-2012 Chevrolet Malibu and Cadillac ATS 2013-2015 models.
Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.


text:
Overview of current CPI inflation rate
Inflation, measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), in the United States has fallen to its lowest level in over a year, driven largely by a sharp drop in energy prices. According to the US Labor Department, the CPI was 6.5% over the 12 months to the end of December, down from 7.1% in November. This marks the sixth consecutive month that the pace of inflation has dropped, and some items such as oranges and bananas even saw outright price falls in December compared to November. The overall drop of 0.1% in prices was driven by a fall in petrol prices.
Impact on consumers
This is welcome news for consumers as it means they will have more “breathing room” and a break from the cost-of-living pressures. However, analysts have noted that the price relief is not spreading to other items as quickly as they had hoped. Clothing prices, for example, rose 0.5% from November to December, and were up 2.9% compared to a year earlier. This suggests that goods deflation is not broadening out as quickly as expected.
The fight against inflation, measured by the CPI, has been a major concern for authorities in the US. Inflation took off in 2021 as the economy roared back to life after pandemic lockdowns and companies facing shortages and rising costs hiked prices. The war in Ukraine, which hit food and energy supplies, made the problem worse, sending inflation to 9.1% in June – the highest rate in more than four decades.
Efforts to combat CPI inflation
The US central bank, the Federal Reserve, responded last year by raising interest rates at the fastest pace in decades, in an effort to try to return inflation, measured by the CPI, to the 2% rate it considers healthy. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said last month that the bank would start to move less aggressively to see how the moves are playing out in the economy. By boosting borrowing costs, the Federal Reserve is expecting to dampen demand for expensive items such as homes and cars, helping to slow the economy and ease the pressures pushing up prices.
However, this fight is also closely watched as the slowdown from higher rates also risks tipping the world’s largest economy into a recession. Thursday’s report from the Labor Department showed prices for petrol were 1.5% lower in December compared to a year earlier. Costs for used cars and trucks also fell 8.8% year-on-year.
The report has been described as a “little underwhelming” by Seema Shah, chief global strategist at Principal Asset Management. She said that while evidence is building that inflation, measured by the CPI, is cooling and will continue to do so over the coming months, the real question will come in late Q2 as inflation tries to move below the 4-4.5% handle. If it plateaus there, the Fed will have very little space to cut rates this year and markets will face renewed challenges. And if it falls steadily through that threshold due to growing economic weakness, permitting Fed loosening, markets will still be challenged due to earnings concerns.
Treasury yields fell on Thursday as investors digested the key inflation report that showed a small decline in price pressures. The yield on the benchmark 10-year was down by about 5 basis points at 3.508%. The 2-year Treasury yield was trading nearly 6 basis points lower at around 4.17%. Yields and prices move in opposite directions and one basis point equals 0.01%.
Conclusion and future considerations of the CPI.
In conclusion, the recent drop in inflation, measured by the CPI, is welcome news for consumers as it means they will have more “breathing room” and a break from the cost-of-living pressures. However, analysts have noted that the price relief is not spreading to other items as quickly as they had hoped. The Federal Reserve’s fight against inflation, measured by the CPI, is closely watched as the slowdown from higher rates also risks tipping the world’s largest economy into a recession. The drop in inflation has also led to a decrease in Treasury yields, which could have a ripple effect on the economy as a whole.
It is important to note that while the drop in inflation, measured by the CPI, is a positive development, it is still well above the Federal Reserve’s target of 2%. This means that there is still a long way to go before inflation is fully under control. The Federal Reserve will continue to closely monitor the inflation rate, measured by the CPI, and make adjustments to interest rates as necessary to keep inflation within their target range.
In addition, it is important to note that while the drop in energy prices has contributed to the overall decrease in inflation, it is not the only factor. The Federal Reserve will also consider other indicators such as wages and labor market conditions to make decisions on interest rates.
Overall, the recent drop in inflation, measured by the CPI, is a positive sign for the economy, but the Federal Reserve will continue to closely monitor the situation and make adjustments as necessary to maintain stability and keep inflation within their target range.
Read our next article:


text:
|By Hugh MacLeod||
|August 5, 2008 03:30 PM EDT||
Hugh MacLeod's "Gaping Void" Blog
In the last couple of months I've been getting increasingly aware of "Cloud Thinking." It's seriously interesting to me. As far as I can tell, all three of the big tech companies I know best, Microsoft, Sun and Dell, seem to be betting a lot of their future on The Cloud. It was even just announced recently that Dell was applying to trademark the term, "Cloud Computing". Microsoft is now seriously planning for the post-Windows era, and you guessed it, The Cloud features heavily.
About a year ago, I was at a geek breakfast in London with Steve Clayton and some other folk, including a few people from Microsoft.
Steve and some other geeks were talking about "The Cloud". At the time Steve was making the transition from working in the UK Partner Division, to working in the "Software & Services" division of Microsoft, which is how the conversation came up.
Right then and there I drew the cartoon above. Steve saw it, and right away asked me if he could use the picture for his business card, which he now does.
That was the first time I really started paying attention to the term, "The Cloud".
I would by no means call myself an expert or an authority on the subject, but in the last couple of months I've been getting increasingly aware of "Cloud Thinking". It's seriously interesting to me.
As far as I can tell, all three of the big tech companies I know best, Microsoft, Sun and Dell, seem to be betting a lot of their future on The Cloud. It was even just announced recently that Dell was applying to trademark the term, "Cloud Computing". Heck, even my friends over at Techcrunch are looking to get a piece of the action.
A Sea Change in Computing
Some analysts say cloud computing represents a sea change in the way computing is done in corporations. Merrill Lynch (MER) estimates that within the next five years, the annual global market for cloud computing will surge to $95 billion. In a May 2008 report, Merrill Lynch estimated that 12% of the worldwide software market would go to the cloud in that period.
Those vendors that can adjust their product lines to meet the needs of large cloud computing providers stand to profit. Companies like IBM, Dell (DELL), and Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), for instance, are moving aggressively in this direction. On Aug. 1, IBM said it would spend $360 million to build a cloud computing data center in Research Triangle Park, N.C., bringing to nine its total of cloud computing centers worldwide. Dell is also targeting this market. The computer marker supplies products to some of the largest cloud computing providers and Web 2.0 companies, including Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, and Yahoo (YHOO). "We created a whole new business just to build custom products for those customers," Dell CEO Michael Dell says.
I was also recently really surprised and delighted about all the discussion my last post, "The Cloud's Best-Kept Secret", seemed to generate. Not just the amount of discussion, but the quality of it, from some of the smartest people I know on the planet. People like Tim O'Reilly, JP Rangaswami, Dennis Howlett, James Governor, all piping in. Rock on.
What does this all mean? Frankly, I have no idea. I have no intention of becoming a "Cloud Blogger" or whatever, I'm just start to feel a connection here. Connections are my lifeblood. One of my favorite cartoons ever exists simply because I saw a connection between ego, emotion and typography. In 2005 I was the first person to see a connection between $5K English suits and the blogosphere [which back then, I can tell you, A LOT of people thought that was a bit of a stretch]. In 2006 I saw a similar connection between a small South African wine brand and the geek community of Silicon Valley.
This year I'm feeling the same sort of connection between all of the work I've been doing in the last year. It's hard to explain- it's visceral; it's like you can just smell it, even if it remains so far invisible. It's just there. A feeling, not quite yet a fact. And a wee voice keeps telling me that The Cloud is at the center of it somehow. Wait and see.
[This post appeared originally here and is republished in full by kind permission of the author, who retains copyright.]
|Jeremy Geelan 08/05/08 02:15:00 PM EDT|
Have you looked at this little venture - screenwriting meets cloud computing! Here's the link: http://www.scripped.com.
All major researchers estimate there will be tens of billions devices - computers, smartphones, tablets, and sensors - connected to the Internet by 2020. This number will continue to grow at a rapid pace for the next several decades. With major technology companies and startups seriously embracing IoT strategies, now is the perfect time to attend @ThingsExpo, June 9-11, 2015, at the Javits Center in New York City. Learn what is going on, contribute to the discussions, and ensure that your enterprise is as "IoT-Ready" as it can be
May. 25, 2015 01:15 PM EDT Reads: 1,754
The security devil is always in the details of the attack: the ones you've endured, the ones you prepare yourself to fend off, and the ones that, you fear, will catch you completely unaware and defenseless. The Internet of Things (IoT) is nothing if not an endless proliferation of details. It's the vision of a world in which continuous Internet connectivity and addressability is embedded into a growing range of human artifacts, into the natural world, and even into our smartphones, appliances, and physical persons. In the IoT vision, every new "thing" - sensor, actuator, data source, data con...
May. 25, 2015 01:00 PM EDT Reads: 6,109
Container frameworks, such as Docker, provide a variety of benefits, including density of deployment across infrastructure, convenience for application developers to push updates with low operational hand-holding, and a fairly well-defined deployment workflow that can be orchestrated. Container frameworks also enable a DevOps approach to application development by cleanly separating concerns between operations and development teams. But running multi-container, multi-server apps with containers is very hard. You have to learn five new and different technologies and best practices (libswarm, sy...
May. 25, 2015 12:00 PM EDT Reads: 1,780
SYS-CON Events announced today that DragonGlass, an enterprise search platform, will exhibit at SYS-CON's 16th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 9-11, 2015, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. After eleven years of designing and building custom applications, OpenCrowd has launched DragonGlass, a cloud-based platform that enables the development of search-based applications. These are a new breed of applications that utilize a search index as their backbone for data retrieval. They can easily adapt to new data sets and provide access to both structured and unstruc...
May. 25, 2015 12:00 PM EDT Reads: 1,719
There's Big Data, then there's really Big Data from the Internet of Things. IoT is evolving to include many data possibilities like new types of event, log and network data. The volumes are enormous, generating tens of billions of logs per day, which raise data challenges. Early IoT deployments are relying heavily on both the cloud and managed service providers to navigate these challenges. In her session at Big Data Expo®, Hannah Smalltree, Director at Treasure Data, discussed how IoT, Big Data and deployments are processing massive data volumes from wearables, utilities and other machines...
May. 25, 2015 10:00 AM EDT Reads: 3,984
Buzzword alert: Microservices and IoT at a DevOps conference? What could possibly go wrong? In this Power Panel at DevOps Summit, moderated by Jason Bloomberg, the leading expert on architecting agility for the enterprise and president of Intellyx, panelists will peel away the buzz and discuss the important architectural principles behind implementing IoT solutions for the enterprise. As remote IoT devices and sensors become increasingly intelligent, they become part of our distributed cloud environment, and we must architect and code accordingly. At the very least, you'll have no problem fil...
May. 25, 2015 10:00 AM EDT Reads: 1,715
SYS-CON Events announced today that MetraTech, now part of Ericsson, has been named “Silver Sponsor” of SYS-CON's 16th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 9–11, 2015, at the Javits Center in New York, NY. Ericsson is the driving force behind the Networked Society- a world leader in communications infrastructure, software and services. Some 40% of the world’s mobile traffic runs through networks Ericsson has supplied, serving more than 2.5 billion subscribers.
May. 25, 2015 09:45 AM EDT Reads: 1,051
The 4th International Internet of @ThingsExpo, co-located with the 17th International Cloud Expo - to be held November 3-5, 2015, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA - announces that its Call for Papers is open. The Internet of Things (IoT) is the biggest idea since the creation of the Worldwide Web more than 20 years ago.
May. 25, 2015 09:00 AM EDT Reads: 1,459
The worldwide cellular network will be the backbone of the future IoT, and the telecom industry is clamoring to get on board as more than just a data pipe. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Evan McGee, CTO of Ring Plus, Inc., discussed what service operators can offer that would benefit IoT entrepreneurs, inventors, and consumers. Evan McGee is the CTO of RingPlus, a leading innovative U.S. MVNO and wireless enabler. His focus is on combining web technologies with traditional telecom to create a new breed of unified communication that is easily accessible to the general consumer. With over a de...
May. 25, 2015 06:00 AM EDT Reads: 4,629
Disruptive macro trends in technology are impacting and dramatically changing the "art of the possible" relative to supply chain management practices through the innovative use of IoT, cloud, machine learning and Big Data to enable connected ecosystems of engagement. Enterprise informatics can now move beyond point solutions that merely monitor the past and implement integrated enterprise fabrics that enable end-to-end supply chain visibility to improve customer service delivery and optimize supplier management. Learn about enterprise architecture strategies for designing connected systems tha...
May. 25, 2015 05:00 AM EDT Reads: 5,816
Cloud is not a commodity. And no matter what you call it, computing doesn’t come out of the sky. It comes from physical hardware inside brick and mortar facilities connected by hundreds of miles of networking cable. And no two clouds are built the same way. SoftLayer gives you the highest performing cloud infrastructure available. One platform that takes data centers around the world that are full of the widest range of cloud computing options, and then integrates and automates everything. Join SoftLayer on June 9 at 16th Cloud Expo to learn about IBM Cloud's SoftLayer platform, explore se...
May. 25, 2015 04:45 AM EDT Reads: 3,033
SYS-CON Media announced today that 9 out of 10 " most read" DevOps articles are published by @DevOpsSummit Blog. Launched in October 2014, @DevOpsSummit Blog offers top articles, news stories, and blog posts from the world's well-known experts and guarantees better exposure for its authors than any other publication. The widespread success of cloud computing is driving the DevOps revolution in enterprise IT. Now as never before, development teams must communicate and collaborate in a dynamic, 24/7/365 environment. There is no time to wait for long development cycles that produce softw...
May. 25, 2015 04:15 AM EDT Reads: 4,002
15th Cloud Expo, which took place Nov. 4-6, 2014, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA, expanded the conference content of @ThingsExpo, Big Data Expo, and DevOps Summit to include two developer events. IBM held a Bluemix Developer Playground on November 5 and ElasticBox held a Hackathon on November 6. Both events took place on the expo floor. The Bluemix Developer Playground, for developers of all levels, highlighted the ease of use of Bluemix, its services and functionality and provide short-term introductory projects that developers can complete between sessions.
May. 25, 2015 04:00 AM EDT Reads: 6,139
From telemedicine to smart cars, digital homes and industrial monitoring, the explosive growth of IoT has created exciting new business opportunities for real time calls and messaging. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Ivelin Ivanov, CEO and Co-Founder of Telestax, shared some of the new revenue sources that IoT created for Restcomm – the open source telephony platform from Telestax. Ivelin Ivanov is a technology entrepreneur who founded Mobicents, an Open Source VoIP Platform, to help create, deploy, and manage applications integrating voice, video and data. He is the co-founder of TeleStax, a...
May. 25, 2015 04:00 AM EDT Reads: 6,269
The Internet of Things (IoT) promises to evolve the way the world does business; however, understanding how to apply it to your company can be a mystery. Most people struggle with understanding the potential business uses or tend to get caught up in the technology, resulting in solutions that fail to meet even minimum business goals. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Jesse Shiah, CEO / President / Co-Founder of AgilePoint Inc., showed what is needed to leverage the IoT to transform your business. He discussed opportunities and challenges ahead for the IoT from a market and technical point of vie...
May. 25, 2015 04:00 AM EDT Reads: 6,617
With major technology companies and startups seriously embracing IoT strategies, now is the perfect time to attend @ThingsExpo in Silicon Valley. Learn what is going on, contribute to the discussions, and ensure that your enterprise is as "IoT-Ready" as it can be! Internet of @ThingsExpo, taking place Nov 3-5, 2015, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA, is co-located with 17th Cloud Expo and will feature technical sessions from a rock star conference faculty and the leading industry players in the world. The Internet of Things (IoT) is the most profound change in personal an...
May. 25, 2015 04:00 AM EDT Reads: 2,392
The 3rd International @ThingsExpo, co-located with the 16th International Cloud Expo – to be held June 9-11, 2015, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY – is now accepting Hackathon proposals. Hackathon sponsorship benefits include general brand exposure and increasing engagement with the developer ecosystem. At Cloud Expo 2014 Silicon Valley, IBM held the Bluemix Developer Playground on November 5 and ElasticBox held the DevOps Hackathon on November 6. Both events took place on the expo floor. The Bluemix Developer Playground, for developers of all levels, highlighted the ease of use of...
May. 25, 2015 03:00 AM EDT Reads: 3,325
Grow your business with enterprise wearable apps using SAP Platforms and Google Glass. SAP and Google just launched the SAP and Google Glass Challenge, an opportunity for you to innovate and develop the best Enterprise Wearable App using SAP Platforms and Google Glass and gain valuable market exposure. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Brian McPhail, Senior Director of Business Development, ISVs & Digital Commerce at SAP, outlined the timeline of the SAP Google Glass Challenge and the opportunity for developers, start-ups, and companies of all sizes to engage with SAP today.
May. 25, 2015 03:00 AM EDT Reads: 4,907
Enthusiasm for the Internet of Things has reached an all-time high. In 2013 alone, venture capitalists spent more than $1 billion dollars investing in the IoT space. With "smart" appliances and devices, IoT covers wearable smart devices, cloud services to hardware companies. Nest, a Google company, detects temperatures inside homes and automatically adjusts it by tracking its user's habit. These technologies are quickly developing and with it come challenges such as bridging infrastructure gaps, abiding by privacy concerns and making the concept a reality. These challenges can't be addressed w...
May. 25, 2015 02:45 AM EDT Reads: 6,564
The industrial software market has treated data with the mentality of “collect everything now, worry about how to use it later.” We now find ourselves buried in data, with the pervasive connectivity of the (Industrial) Internet of Things only piling on more numbers. There’s too much data and not enough information. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Bob Gates, Global Marketing Director, GE’s Intelligent Platforms business, to discuss how realizing the power of IoT, software developers are now focused on understanding how industrial data can create intelligence for industrial operations. Imagine ...
May. 25, 2015 02:00 AM EDT Reads: 5,017


text:
Present day organizations possess intricate networks of info, connecting data like purchaser behavior to marketing and advertising strategies or fraud detection. But, to run beneficial AI predictions on the information frequently requires untangling the net of knowledge connections. A new Stanford-bred startup states it has a answer working with a new class of synthetic intelligence to address that dilemma.
Kumo declared alone to the entire world on Thursday with $18.5 million in Sequence A funding that it hopes will help it come to be the go-to program for AI prediction in the “modern info stack,” a established of cloud computing resources to shop and harness massive quantities of knowledge. Sequoia Money led the round at a valuation of $100 million added participation arrived from Ron Conway’s SV Angel and his son Ronny Conway’s A Money.
The Mountain Perspective, California-based mostly startup was launched four months ago by founders Vanja Josifovski (previously main technology officer at Pinterest and Airbnb’s Houses business), Hema Raghavan (an ex-LinkedIn engineering director) and Stanford professor Jure Leskovec, who was also previously Pinterest’s chief scientist. The firm will come as the culmination of five a long time of academic investigation performed by a Stanford workforce that includes Leskovec, in conjunction with Germany’s Dortmund College. They concentrated on a budding kind of AI, termed “graph neural networks,” which ways device finding out by treating the knowledge as if it have been a intricate graph community. More mature kinds of neural networks have turn out to be fantastic at responsibilities with “structured details,” like graphic recognition or speech detection, but are hampered by knowledge with unordered connections.
The analysis led to the enhancement of PyG, an open up resource device for graph neural community mastering that was initial launched five many years in the past. In the intervening time, Kumo’s founders implemented the technologies at Pinterest and LinkedIn. “LinkedIn is like one huge graph,” as Josifovski, the CEO, puts it, in advance of contending that graph neural networks have “the prospective to revolutionize equipment finding out in a identical way that deep mastering revolutionized speech.”
But while large tech providers have the means and manpower to establish these instruments with in-residence groups, most organizations are not able to do the exact. That’s where by Kumo will come in. The company’s software leverages the tech from PyG as the foundation for its computer software that can help customers to extra easily craft complex predictive styles from their business enterprise details. “Today, you can discover out how a lot of consumers churned after 30 days,” Josifovski says. “Kumo is aiming to supply the identical operation for the future—the following 30 times.” Kumo’s product or service is made principally for knowledge analysts and information scientists, and Josifovski says it ought to be usable even for workforce with no tech skills. “Every company is acquiring complications selecting details researchers,” he suggests. “If we’re equipped to deal in a buyer-centric way, it will have a profound impact on the computing environment.”
Kumo will use the funds it elevated to scale up the product attributes and go on to target on analysis and improvement. The startup at the moment employs more than 20 people, most of them engineers from the Stanford-Dortmund community with experience in graph neural networks. But so significantly, the startup has not created any significant profits. The membership-based mostly products is in beta screening, getting utilized by “select consumers,” claims Josifovski, nevertheless he will not share any names, nor does he have a time line for when the product will grow to be commercially out there. According to Konstantine Buhler, the Sequoia partner who led the funding, Kumo has been seeking for shoppers between the public market’s most significant enterprise corporations. “There’s a sucking audio listed here,” he suggests. “The marketplace needs this.”
Still, Kumo will have a tall job to carry graph neural networks into the mainstream. Businesses valued in the billions of pounds, like Databricks, DataRobot and Dataiku, have now proven profitable corporations on unique ways to information science. Josifovski states Kumo is resolving equivalent challenges for some of all those firms. “But, we intend to make equipment learning an buy of magnitude less complicated,” he states. “We are fundamentally attempting to leapfrog the present-day condition of AI and render obsolete recent methods.”


text:
Releasing the company’s third quarter cash flow statement, Kogan said strong trading momentum has continued in the third quarter, with the business exceeding revised management budgets and producing net operating cash flows of $1.1million.
Kogan founder and chief executive Ruslan Kogan said the company was pleased with the strong performance in 3Q17.
“We are pleased to deliver cash flows that demonstrate better than forecast operating results for Kogan.com’s third quarter of trading as a listed company. This has led to a further upgrade in our full-year earnings outlook.
“With the funds raised at the IPO, our consumer offering is stronger than it’s ever been and our customers are happier than they’ve ever been. We look forward to maintaining this momentum as we scale and continue to delight our customers.”
The company paid a maiden dividend of 3.9 cents per share last month and plans to pay a final dividend at the end of the 2017 financial year.


text:
As an entrepreneur and part-time truck driver, Mark Miller observed a trucking industry trend that he saw creating an unnecessarily heavy workload for Capital Region businesses. He saw a promising opportunity for his next business venture.
More and more businesses were turning to freight brokers and “load boards,” online marketplaces where companies could search for carriers to ship their products.
“Why would they go through all that when they could just call a local trucking company and work directly with the owners?” said Miller.
Enter Magnet Transport Group, the Kingsbury-based business started by Miller and his stepson Drew Trombley to provide cargo and freight solutions to businesses seeking to move their product around the region and across North America.
Magnet offers FTL (full truckload) and LTL (less- than-truckload) service, as well as flatbed, step-deck, and hotshot deliveries. They have expertise in carrying over-sized loads, both long and wide.
“In more than 30 years of building businesses, my experience has been that people prefer to work with people they know, like and trust,” said Miller, who purchased an Americlean residential pressure washing franchise in 1986 and grew the business into Performance Industrial, a commercial and industrial cleaning, painting and flooring system contractor, which he sold to his daughter-in-law, Karen, and son, Bill, just months before starting Magnet.
“Magnet has something that no other company has. It has me and Drew, and when we say we’re going to do something, we do it. Our motto is, ‘Exactly as promised, the first time, on time, every time. Period.’”
Miller has had a love of long-haul trucking and a commercial driver’s license since shortly after graduating from high school when he hit the road for the first time. He put long-hauling in his rearview mirror in 1986 and purchased the Americlean franchise in order to spend more time at home with his young son, but the itch to get back on the road resurfaced in his later years at the helm of Performance Industrial.
He began driving on a part-time basis for a friend who owns a trucking company, including a series of three trips that brought him to all 48 continental states.
“I realized I didn’t want to just drive a truck, I wanted to start and grow another company,” he said.
When Miller told his stepson his idea, Trombley quickly expressed interest in partnering with him. Trombley had been driving professionally for several years and was enthused by the idea of building a business.
For more information about Magnet Transport Group, call (518) 769-0205 or email email@example.com.


text:
- Apr 12, 2001
9to5Mac has received information from a source that suggests the MacBook Air updates that are expected at WWDC will ship soon after the keynote, perhaps with updated AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule wireless base stations that support a new, faster wireless standard.
These leaks line up with a report from KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo who said in April that the MacBook Air update expected at WWDC would ship very soon after the event, while the Retina MacBook Pro would ship later due to production bottlenecks on the advanced displays.
The site also says it received pricing for three new accessories that could be new AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule models. If accurate, these would likely support the new 802.11ac-wireless standard.Today, we have received specific pricing for the aforementioned SKUs, and the price-points correspond to Apple's current pricing for the 11-inch and 13-inch MacBook Air models. We have yet to receive pricing information that points to the imminent availability of new MacBook Pros (as some had hoped), but perhaps the next refresh to Apple's Pro portables will arrive in the coming months. Supply constraints to the Retina MacBook Pro line seems to infer that...
As we wrote in our WWDC rumor roundup earlier today, the notebook updates are likely to be the hardware highlight of WWDC, with new MacBook Air and Retina MacBook Pro models announced.
Expected upgrades include a shift to Haswell processors, a possible slimmer design for the 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro, a new full HD (2.0-megapixel) FaceTime camera on the Retina models, and a dual-microphone system on the MacBook Air.
Article Link: Pricing Leak Suggests MacBook Air Release at WWDC, Retina MacBook Pro Update Shipping Later?


text:
HP has confirmed plans to merge its PC and printer businesses into one division, in a major restructuring of the company.
The IT giant announced that its HP’s Imaging and Printing Group (IPG) and its Personal Systems Group (PSG) will now be united to create the Printing and Personal Systems Group (PPSG).
Combining these two entities is intended to rationalise HP’s go-to-market strategy, branding, supply chain and customer support worldwide, the company said in a statement.
The realignment is expected to provide HP with opportunities for cost savings, as well as the ability to drive combined sales of hardware by making it easier for HP customers to purchase printers and PC systems at the same time.
"This combination will bring together two businesses where HP has established global leadership," said HP chief executive Meg Whitman.
"By providing the best in customer-focused innovation and operational efficiency, we believe we will create a winning scenario for customers, partners and shareholders."
As well as combining PSG and IPG, HP also is taking steps to streamline key business functions, merging the Global Accounts Sales organisation with the newly named HP Enterprise Group, and unifying marketing functions across business units.
The move follows an abortive plan by HP last year to spin off its PC division entirely, which would have seen the company follow IBM's 2005 decision to get out of the desktop and laptop market altogether and focus instead on enterprise services.
That decision proved controversial and HP soon backtracked, ultimately resulting in the replacement of chief executive Léo Apotheker with Meg Whitman after the former served just a year in the post.
However, the company last month blamed declining sales from its PC business for a seven per cent drop in its quarterly revenues.
Like many other vendors HP has seen demand fall as businesses delay upgrading their desktop fleet and consumers have been drawn to other devices such as tablets.
Despite this, HP remains the largest PC supplier in Western Europe, so the firm is likely to want to keep that revenue stream rather than see it go to rivals such as Dell or Acer.
Whitman said she expects the results of the reorganisation to be "a faster, more streamlined, performance-driven HP that is customer focused and poised to capitalise on rapidly shifting industry trends."
Cotton seedling freezes to death as Chang'e-4 shuts down for the Moon's 14-day lunar night
Fortnite easily out-earns PUBG, Assassin's Creed Odyssey and Red Dead Redemption 2 in 2018
Meteor showers as a service will be visible for about 100 kilometres in all directions
Saturn's rings only formed in the past 100 million years, suggests analysis of Cassini space probe data
New findings contradict conventional belief that Saturn's rings were formed along with the planet about 4.5 billion years ago


text:
Gaming Attorney Giulio Coraggio on Italy's Gaming Market: "The Outlook is Positive"
While online poker in Italy has been declining for years, the industry is not as disastrous for online gaming operators as many may imagine, as both online casino and sports wagering verticals are on the rise.
To help combat declining online poker revenues the country is considering new legislation to reduce taxes and allow shared liquidity with other European countries. It is believed that both measures could reign in some of the grey market activity while simultaneously serving as a win-win-win for operators, players, and the country.
PokerNews spoke with DLA Piper gaming attorney Giulio Coraggio about the state of affairs for online poker and gaming in Italy. We asked Coraggio about why online poker was declining and whether 2015 is meeting the country's expectations.
The success of Spin and Go's tournaments show that innovation is the key
"Apparently casino has 'eaten' tournament and cash poker leaving poker players with empty pockets," Coraggio shared. "The Italian online poker market has been paying the global crisis of the whole poker market. However, the launch of the Spin & Go games by Italy's market leader, PokerStars, created more interest around the game. This shows that innovation is the key for the success in any type of game. And this is true also for more "traditional" games like poker. The challenge will be not only in identifying innovative poker products but also on the channels of distribution of products with wearable technologies becoming an interesting field for fast poker games."
When asked about how the outlook is for the future across the various verticals of online poker, casino, and sports wagering, Coraggio also pointed out that things were looking great for the country.
"The outlook of the market is quite good," Coraggio proclaimed. "The gross gaming revenues (GGR) of online casino and sports betting respectively grew of 32% and 22% compared to the same period of last year, and the turnover of sports betting doubled compared to last year. This growth was led by the entrance of new operators in the market such as Bet365 and more flexible sports betting regulations that are now allowing a more attractive product offering."
While the country's Internet gaming sector continues to grow, the Italian regulator is not sitting tight when there is potential money being left on the table due to declining online poker revenues. Coraggio explained a bit about the proposed amendments to the Internet gaming laws, what they are, if (or when) they are expected to pass, and what the expected impact might be.
Coraggio shared that changes were likely to happen sooner rather than later, and that they are centered around a proposed lower tax rate.
"The main change will be the new taxation for tournament poker and sports betting," he stated. "As a consequence of such change, the 20% GGR tax will be applied across all the main online gaming products which might considerably boost the sector allowing higher prizes which might further reduce the black market. The timing of such change is still uncertain, but I am confident that it will happen with effect from January of next year at the latest."
The approval of live poker regulations has been delayed for several years so far, but Italians are unpredictable!
In addition to the proposed changes, it is believed that there could be other things Italy can do to help boost online poker. Coraggio pointed out that online poker is hampered by the lack of popularity in live poker due to regulations, and that legislators should approve live poker regulations to help grow the market.
"My point of view is that the approval of live poker regulations would considerably foster the growth of online poker," said Coraggio. "Indeed, poker was very successful in Italy at the time when it was initially launched since players wanted to replicate the results of famous poker players, and poker tournaments had a very large TV coverage. The launch of live poker with more opportunities to meet and challenge famous players might make poker popular again and recover it from the current crisis. The approval of live poker regulations has been delayed for several years so far, but Italians are unpredictable!"


text:
Quibi, lessons learned
Like many media observers, I was intrigued by the initial Quibi (for “quick bites” and pronounced quibby) offering. The next big thing was going to be a platform dedicated exclusively to scripted mobile content capitalizing on the ever-growing amount of time consumers were spending on their phones and tablets.
I was so taken by the concept that I even wrote an article about it.
Quibi finally saw the light of day, championed and led by masterminds Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman, in early 2020, just a few short weeks after the pandemic really got underway, with the lights going out a mere six months later and US$2 billion from investors gone with the wind.
Sad to say that the only next big thing Quibi turned out to be, was one of the biggest audiovisual fiascos in history.
No business know-how
What’s really surprising was how world-renowned executives like Katzenberg (co-founder of DreamWorks Animation) and Whitman (former CEO of Hewlett Packard) failed so miserably in a venture that seemed so much in line with the spirit of the times.
Surprising at first that is, but considering the decisions made in the months before and after the launch, not surprising at all.
Indeed, Quibi’s downfall was the result of too much capital going into an initiative that should have been nurtured on more modest means. The audiovisual landscape is gorged on content, scripted and unscripted, produced by creators and distributed worldwide, that manages to attract huge audiences at a fraction of the cost.
Quibi appropriated that model then turned it on its head. Katzenberg and Whitman also recruited Hollywood producers and Hollywood stars at Hollywood prices to produce TV-type episodes lasting 5 to 10 minutes. According to Bloomberg Businessweek, Quibi’s marquee projects cost up to US$125,000 per minute to produce. The #FreeRayshawn series, produced by Antoine Fuqua and starring Laurence Fishburne and Stephan James, came in at US$15 million for 15 episodes...of 10 minutes each.
It was a case of world-class executives with decades of experience running massive multinational corporations believing that you could create a successful startup by simply injecting colossal sums of money into it without any kind of market validation whatsoever.
First off, Quibi’s launch as a subscription-based streaming platform on April 6, 2020, was a major disappointment. Americans in lockdown had quickly changed their content consumption habits, moving in droves to platforms like Netflix, Hulu, HBO Go, Disney+, or Apple TV+ that were available on their big-screen TVs.
Quibi’s founders stuck to their guns insisting that their content could be viewed only on mobile and making it impossible to take screenshots while viewing. Which made it impossible for consumers to share their viewing experiences on social media or even with family and friends.
For many observers, including Christian Stadler at Forbes, Quibi made the fatal error of positioning itself mid-market – halfway between streaming services and platforms like TikTok – without even really knowing the reasons why or how.
A platform with zero social media potential, badly positioned, and counting on rapid growth during a major health and economic crisis, simply didn’t have what was needed to succeed.
An odd way of dealing with risk
Every start-up comes with its share of risk. But for Katzenberg, Whitman, and the investors whose US$2 billion evaporated like the morning mist, the mismanagement of risk, from launch to bankruptcy, reached stratospheric levels rarely seen even in the audiovisual sector.
Oddly enough, while Quibi was risking huge sums willy-nilly in its speculative business model, very little risk was taken in terms of content. Name producers and actors, working together with time-tested formulas, without any originality or any risk, guaranteed that there would be little to nothing to remember after they turned off the lights for the last time.
Unlike once-emerging platforms like YouTube and TikTok, which showcased new talent and new forms of expression, Quibi’s scripted and creative edge was dull all around. Quibi’s double-or-nothing bet was made on force-fitting run-of-the-mill Hollywood formats into 7-minute segments, an unfortunate value proposition that managed to attract only a few million free subscribers, of which a paltry 100,000 switched to paid format after 6 months.
As Tom Jarvis wrote in The Drum, with more than a touch of irony, “Quibi sold Betamax tapes as hard as it could.”
Quibi is the hard to believe yet true story of how some really smart people sank $US2 billion into a business that ended up generating the sales of a mom-and-pop operation. It’s a reminder of just how important it is to first define a market, and then validate and test its business model, before making a major investment in an innovation that really wasn’t that innovative after all.
The bigger they are, the harder they fall.


text:
With her experience in generating commerce and ad revenue, she should be able to help Google deliver. As of 2013, more searches are done on YouTube than on any other search engine other than Google itself. The video placements on YouTube, which help Google bring the most targeted demographics to the most appropriate advertisers, have the potential to grow exponentially.
GOOG data by YCharts
Notice how far that red line has plunged since the middle of 2012. It hasn't hurt the share price yet, but free cash flow and its yield are important financial metrics. YouTube again to the (potential) rescue!
If you've watched YouTube lately, you may have noticed a new, more diversified look and feel to it. Having purchased a production studio called NextNewNetworks, YouTube now has video-making technologies and the marketing prowess to attract a lot of people, including some remarkable video producers. Two years ago, YouTube announced it would spend $100 million to help finance 100 new and original channels.
Around that time, FORTUNE dubbed the $100 million investment as the most efficient spend in history after talking to Collective Digital CEO Reza Izad. Collective Digital represents some of the most biggest names on YouTube, including Madonna and NBA legend Shaquille O'Neal. When Izad said, "They planted a very big flag and got a lot of people's attention," he wasn't exaggerating.
In promoting a new YouTube CEO with an extensive background in both eCommerce and generating ad revenue, Google's determination to maximize the benefits of its YouTube acquisition has not abated.
Investors should be heartened by Wojcicki's promotion, and it won't be long until the results are felt both on the top and bottom lines.
At the time of publication the author had positions in GOOG.
This article represents the opinion of a contributor and not necessarily that of TheStreet or its editorial staff.


text:
There has been much anticipation since first revealed details last year of the new middleweight parallel-twin adventurer-tourers from Yamaha and KTM.
Now pricing and Australian availability have been released and all indications are that this market segment is going to get the biggest shake-up it’s seen in a decade.
Both new models are out there to prove that sub-800cc class can offer as much as any large-capacity adventurer-tourer.
BMW is leading the way with its revamped F 750-F 850 GS parallel twins. Larger fuel capacity, better rider weather protection and ergonomics have brought the “baby GS” closer to the level of refinement and comfort of the R 1250 GS.
Pricing begins at $13,590 (plus on-road costs) for the F 750 GS and $17,990 for the F 850 GS. BMW announced last December that there would be seven variants for the Australian market so riders can choose the specification that most suits their needs.
With KTM hosting its world launch of the 790 Adventure, Yamaha uncharacteristically announced pricing a full nine months before its end-of-year release. The Ténéré 700 will be priced from $15,499 (plus on-road costs), while KTM will start the bidding from $21,195 (ride away) for the 790 Adventure.
KTM 790 Adventure
With an unrivalled number of wins in the Dakar rally, KTM prides itself on the ability to deliver a lightweight high-performance enduro-style motorcycle. The 790 Adventure is the Austrian giant’s brave attempt to rewrite the book on middleweight on-road, off-road touring. It created a huge stir when first unveiled last year and goes on sale in Australia in June.
A new generation, 70kW, in-line twin-cylinder engine has two balancer shafts to stifle vibration. It has long service intervals of 15,000km. KTM claims a riding range of up to 400km with a 20-litre fuel tank.
To reduce dry weight to 189kg the engine acts as a stressed member of the tubular frame. WP suspension is fully adjustable and includes a steering damper. Spoked wheels are an 18-inch rear and a 21-inch front. Suspension travel is 200mm, ground clearance is 233mm and seat height is 850mm. A low-slung fuel tank helps keep weight low. There is a height-adjustable two-part seat and a high windscreen for rider and pillion comfort.
KTM has poured a lot of effort in rider aids. Selectable ride modes combine with a lean-angle-sensitive traction-control system. A cornering ABS system allows riders the full power of their brakes while taking the lean angle of the motorcycle into account. It has an advanced off-road mode that can also be turned off.
Yamaha Ténéré 700
It’s been a long time coming, with a prototype first seen in Australia a year ago as part of the Ténéré World Raid Tour. Now buyers can put down a deposit with a delivery date of December 2019. Yamaha already leads Australia’s off-road bike segment, followed by Honda and KTM, but its sales have been reliant on its single-cylinder enduro and trail models. This is new territory but a lot of the technology is based on Yamaha’s experience in off-road rallies around the world.
Yamaha’s proven 689cc parallel-twin engine has been tweaked to produce maximum torque at 6500rpm and deliver good fuel economy, vital for a backroads tourer. Peak power is 54kW at 9000rpm. Yamaha claims 350km from the 16-litre fuel tank.
Experience on major rallies has resulted in an all-new, tubular frame that makes the Ténéré slim and agile. Suspension travel is 210mm, ground clearance 240mm and seat height 880mm. Yamaha doesn’t list dry weight. A design emphasis has been on allowing the rider to easily shift bodyweight forward or back, or stand on the pegs, to suit more extreme off-road riding. Spoked wheels are an 18-inch rear and a 2-inch front.
Compact but comprehensive instruments in a rally-style panel. Remotely-adjustable rear suspension. ABS can be turned off for extreme dirt riding. But that’s it and accounts for the five or so grand price advantage over the higher-tech European models.


text:
BEVERLY GROVE, Calif. (FOX 11) - Police said 10 suspects were being sought after a smash and grab burglary of several high-end items at a pop-up store in Beverly Grove.
The burglary was reported around 3:10 a.m. Monday at a pop-up site for AMUZE.com, which sells designer labels like Tom Ford, Chanel, Christian Louboutin and more on its website.
Investigators said 10 suspects pulled up in four separate vehicles and smashed the front window with a sledge hammer, stealing purses, shoes and other items.
The suspects fled southbound on Robertson Boulevard, police said.
Video of the aftermath showed shattered glass on the sidewalk and purses strewn all over the floor of the shop.
Portions of video used in this story are restricted to the Los Angeles area.


text:
- Recently the Union Cabinet has approved an ordinance to amend The Essential Commodities Act, 1955, to deregulate commodities such as cereals, pulses, oilseeds, edible oils, onion and potatoes.
- The ordinance, once assented by the President of India and notified in the gazette, will become law. The text of the ordinance has not been made public so far. Here is what we know.
Essential Commodities Act: What is the amendment?
- Sources at the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution said that the ordinance has introduced a new subsection (1A) in Section 3 of The Essential Commodities Act, 1955.
- The amended law provides a mechanism for the “regulation” of agricultural foodstuffs, namely cereals, pulses, oilseeds, edible oils, potato, and supplies under extraordinary circumstances, which include extraordinary price rise, war, famine, and natural calamity of a severe nature.
What is the definition of an ‘essential commodity’?
- There is no specific definition of essential commodities in The EC Act. Section 2(A) of the act states that an “essential commodity” means a commodity specified in the “Schedule” of this Act.
- The Act gives powers to the central government to add or remove a commodity in the “Schedule.” The Centre, if it is satisfied that it is necessary to do so in public interest, can notify an item as essential, in consultation with state governments.
- At present, the “Schedule” contains 9 commodities — drugs; fertilisers, whether inorganic, organic or mixed; foodstuffs, including edible oils; hank yarn made wholly from cotton; petroleum and petroleum products; raw jute and jute textiles; seeds of food-crops and seeds of fruits and vegetables, seeds of cattle fodder, jute seed, cotton seed; face masks; and hand sanitisers.
- The latest items added to this schedule are face masks and hand sanitisers, which were declared essential commodities with effect from March 13, 2020 in the wake of Covid-19 outbreak.
- By declaring a commodity as essential, the government can control the production, supply, and distribution of that commodity, and impose a stock limit.
How and under what circumstances can the government impose stock limits?
- Under the amended EC Act, agri-food stuffs can only be regulated under extraordinary circumstances such as war, famine, extraordinary price rise, and natural calamity.
- However, any action on imposing stock limits will be based on the price trigger.
- Thus, in case of horticultural produce, a 100 per cent increase in the retail price of the commodity over the immediately preceding 12 months or the average retail price of the last five years, whichever is lower, will be the trigger for invoking the stock limit for such commodities.
- For non-perishable agricultural foodstuffs, the price trigger will be a 50 per cent increase in the retail price of the commodity over the immediately preceding 12 months or the average retail price of the last five years, whichever is lower.
So, why was an amendment needed in The EC Act?
- The EC Act was legislated at a time when the country was facing scarcity of foodstuffs due to persistent abysmal levels of foodgrain production. The country was dependent on imports and assistance (such as wheat import form US under PL-480) to feed the population.
- In this scenario, to stop the hoarding and black marketing of foodstuffs, The Essential Commodities Act was enacted in 1955.
- But now the situation has changed.
- A note prepared by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution shows that production of wheat has increased by 10 times (from less than 10 million tonnes in 1955-56 to more than 100 million tonnes in 2018-19); during the same period, the production of rice has increased more than four times from around 25 million tonnes to 110 million tonnes.
- The production of pulses has increased by 2.5 times, from 10 million tonnes to 25 million tonnes.
- In fact, India has now become an exporter of several agricultural products. With these developments, the EC Act has become anachronistic.
What will be the impact of the amendments?
- The amendments will remove commodities such as cereals, pulses, oilseeds, edible oils, onion and potatoes from the list of regulated essential commodities.
- The move is expected to attract private investment in the value chain of these commodities.
- While the purpose of the Act was originally to protect the interests of consumers by checking illegal trade practices such as hoarding, it has now become detrimental for investment in the agriculture sector in general, and in post-harvesting activities in particular.
- The private sector has so far hesitated investing in cold chains and storage facilities for perishable items as most of these commodities are under the ambit of the EC Act, and can attract sudden stock limits. But now the situation can change.
Source: Indian Express


text:
InXile & Thirdverse's Frostpoint VR: Proving Grounds has finally received a PCVR release date. The game is now set for a December 1st 2020 launch.
We've been covering InXile Entertainment & Thirdverse's new VR multiplayer shooter, Frostpoint VR: Proving Grounds, with some interest since it entered an open beta earlier this year.
Now, the title has finally had an official release date set - December 1st 2020. That's right, in just over one week the VR shooter will launch on PC VR devices, with native support for Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Valve Index and Windows VR Headsets.
Frostpoint VR is a 10-on-10 multiplayer shooter, featuring expansive maps and multiple game modes. When it releases, it'll be available from Steam and the Oculus PC Store.
The game has had an interesting development cycle which we've been following for some time...
In an interesting move, the developers had launched a "play-to-own" offer, where the the developer gave out 9000 free copies of the game during its three week beta.
Then, in early October, Thirdverse Inc. announced that they had secured over $8.5 million USD in Series A investment - allowing the developer to commit to the expansion of their VR development.
This was particularly impressive given the fact that the company was only founded earlier this year. In less than twelve months, they've gone from start-up to their first mainstream release. That's pretty impressive!
While you wait, why not check out the latest Quest 2 deal: all new purchases will receive the award-winning Asgard's Wrath absolutely free! Oh, and be sure to check back next week for VRFinal's exclusive review of the Frostpoint VR: Proving Grounds.


text:
Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (ASE, 日月光半導體) has acquired a semiconductor assembly and testing factory from Toshiba, taking advantage of the recent weakness in Japanese semiconductor firms.
ASE, the world’s biggest chip packager and tester, said in an e-mailed statement yesterday it had agreed to pay Toshiba Semiconductor (Wuxi) Co [東芝半導體 (無錫)] 70 million yuan (US$11.4 million) for its 100 percent holding of Wuxi Tongzhi Microelectronics Co (無錫通芝微電子).
The deal was first disclosed on Wednesday last week in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange. The Greater Kaohsiung-based company said its Shanghai subsidiary, ASE Assembly & Test (Shanghai) Ltd (日月光封裝測試[上海]), has entered into a share transfer agreement with Toshiba Semiconductor (Wuxi), which is a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Toshiba Corp.
The move will allow the company to “strengthen the capability of its Shanghai subsidiary in providing IC assembly and testing services,” ASE said in yesterday’s statement.
Japanese semiconductor firms have been struggling to survive as their losses pile up in the face of intensifying competition from South Korean and Taiwanese companies.
ASE’s latest deal follows its purchase of Shanghai-based Global Advanced Packaging Technology Ltd ( 威宇科技 ) for US$60 million and its US$21.6 million joint venture with NXP Semiconductors in Suzhou, China, in 2007 to expand its business scope in China.
UBS Securities Ltd Taipei yesterday said the latest deal was consistent with ASE’s strategy and would help strengthen the Taiwanese firm’s relationship with Toshiba. ASE has been trying to secure orders from the Japanese company for years with little progress.
“We believe the deal could further help ASE in gaining Toshiba’s outsourcing orders as Toshiba accounts for the bulk of Wuxi Tongzhi’s revenue for packaging consumer-related chips,” UBS analyst Jonah Cheng (程正樺) said. “The closer cooperation should also strengthen Toshiba and ASE’s relationship in the long term.”
Wuxi Tongzhi was established in 2010 with a capital of 73.5 million yuan. With Yoshiyuki Taguchi as chief executive, the company has about 250 employees, according to ASE’s statement.
Shares of ASE fell 0.38 percent to NT$25.90 yesterday. The stock has risen 2.78 percent since the beginning of the year, underperforming the TAIEX, which has risen 8.8 percent over the same period, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.


text:
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Alaska's fledgling commercial seaweed industry is growing, with producers excited about this year's harvest.
There were no commercial seaweed farmers in Alaska five years ago, though there have long been subsistence seaweed harvests along Alaska coasts. Now, there are 16 aquatic farming operations permitted to culture species of seaweed in the state, said Cynthia Pring-Ham, the aquatic farming coordinator for the Commercial Fisheries Division of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
Ten of those operations have permits to grow seaweed plus oysters and other shellfish, while six have seaweed-only permits, she said. According to the World Aquaculture Society, seaweed is a $6 billion business worldwide. Most seaweed is harvested in Korea, Japan and China, dried and used for seasoning.
Blue Evolution, a California-based company at the fore of the developing Alaska's industry, has worked with researchers at the University of Alaska Southeast on ways to farm kelp commercially rather than harvest wild kelp beds, reports the Anchorage Daily News. Lexa Meyers, who co-owns Kodiak Kelp Co., said the technique involves collecting wild kelp plants and breeding them to produce tiny floating "seeds" that attach themselves to "grow lines" of string farmers suspend in the ocean in late November.
Blue Evolution sells seed stock to some Alaska farmers and buys back the mature kelp. It is processed and sold as a blanched and frozen product, with food service at corporations, colleges and other cafeterias as the main clientele so far.
Meyers and her husband sell to Blue Evolution.
Lia Heifetz co-owns Barnacle Foods, a Juneau company that makes kelp salsas, pickles and other products and has used wild harvested bull kelp. The company has expanded enough to buy commercially farmed kelp from a growing operation near Ketchikan. "(Our business) gave him the confidence to scale his harvest up," Heifetz said. "No one has a desire to grow kelp and have nowhere to sell it. We're at a scale now it made sense for him to make the jump and be confident we can buy it."
Barnacle plans to buy about 25,000 pounds of kelp. Meyers said development of a market will be important for the industry to grow, along with community acceptance. Meyers believes a growing seaweed industry could be a boon to fishing families. The seaweed harvest cycle occurs when other big fisheries are at a lull. Seaweed is harvested in late April and early May.
"There's not a lot of opportunities for folks to gain income over the winter months," she said. "It's been really nice to see something else creep up."


text:
Capitalizing on a recent string of press and conservative acclaim, the Duck Dynasty family is teaming up with a gun manufacturer to offer a new line of firearms.
Mossberg guns announced Thursday that they have entered into an agreement to begin manufacturing and selling a line of guns with Duck Commander, the company started by the Robertson family that stars in the popular reality television show set in Louisiana. The line includes a dozen different models for adults and youths, including nine different shotguns, two semiautomatic rifles, and a semiautomatic pistol.
"The long-term agreement with the Robertson family and the hugely-popular Duck Commander franchise includes a focus on the family's passion of waterfowl hunting, promotion of the shooting sports, and family values as well as a series of Mossberg 'Duck Commander' firearms," Mossberg said in a press release.
The Duck Commander online store already sells hunting accessories, including lanyards and ammunition storage, and the family company has endorsed Mossberg products on its site as well.
The announcement follows a number of controversial statements from the show's star and patriarch, Phil Robertson, including a high-profile GQ interview in which he made homophobic comments and spoke about "blacks" with whom he worked on cotton fields being happier in "pre-entitlement" days.
Those comments, in which Robertson spoke at length about the bible and sin, and compared homosexuality to bestiality, led A&E to temporarily suspend him from the show. The network reversed that decision in an announcement made late last week, following criticism from a number of prominent Republicans including Sarah Palin, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal.
Robertson more recently came under fire for comments made on video encouraging men to marry underage girls.