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Despite positive indications, such as seen in various recent Purchasing Manager’s Indices, Manufacturing Circle executive director Philippa Rodseth is urging South Africa to firmly grasp the opportunity presented by Covid-19 in becoming less reliant on global value chains and single-source suppliers.
She explains that, while a lot has happened since Covid-19 arrived on South Africa's shores, it is important to understand the volatility and changes in terms of manufacturing production in the industry.
“Looking back at a later point in time, it may indicate a very difficult time, but we need to understand that manufacturing is very responsive to its environment,” she notes, referring to the decrease and increase in manufacturing production levels as South Africa moves through the various levels of its risk-adjusted lockdown-levels approach to Covid-19.
Rodseth also laments the “significant impact” on the manufacturing space as the industry was impacted by not just the various lockdown levels, but also general demand constraints and lower gross domestic product and global growth.
Gauteng Growth and Development Agency (GGDA) group CEO Mosa Tshabalala says the GGDA, under the Department of Economic Development, implements economic strategies targeting trade and investment in an attempt to alleviate some of the manufacturing sector’s constraints.
She adds that the GGDA also focuses on the promotion of the Gauteng province, and that it facilitates trade through export readiness programmes, management and the development of economic infrastructures, “which is needed for manufacturers to be sustainable”.
To this effect, the GGDA will, over the next five years, launch a multitier special economic zone approach which will “support manufacturing as a province”.
This approach, she says, will be key to ensuring the sustainability of jobs in the manufacturing sector and ensuring that more jobs can be created under the current economic circumstances.
GGDA subsidiaries that support and participate in the approach include the Automotive Industry Development Centre, various innovation hubs and the industrial development zone (IDZ) in the OR Tambo precinct.
“In our SEZ strategy, we provide land, infrastructure development, and it’s all about ensuring that we bring manufacturers and various investors into locations where they can benefit from value chain advantages with each other, as well as skills development, technology transfers and more,” she explains.
More IDZs are being rolled out across each of the five corridors in the province.
“The real purpose [of the strategy] is to provide necessary economic infrastructure and to provide necessary policy and advocacy,” Tshabalala says, noting that support to encourage participation in the space “in a more meaningful way” is critical.
She notes that 55% of goods that are exported from South Africa are manufactured in Gauteng, and that “one in every nine formal jobs” is in the manufacturing space.


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Elon Musk Claims He Didn’t Sell His Bitcoins
Elon Musk made an announcement on his Twitter page that he didn’t sell his Bitcoins. It was his answer on David Portnoy’s words about him. The famous comic jumped to a conclusion that Elon Musk is getting profit on Bitcoin’s pump and dump.
Recently Tesla sold 10% Bitcoins from their balance sheet, benefiting $272 millions from this. They also started accepting payments for their cars in Bitcoins and announced they are not going to convert this profit into fiat money.
Musk assures that the goal of Tesla selling these assets was to actually prove that Bitcoin’s liquidity makes an alternative to just holding cash on the balance as people usually do. He doesn’t disclose the amount of Bitcoins he owns but made it clear that no matter how much he has, he has no intention to sell them.

domain: news


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Banff (AB), Canada – Both Mt. Norquay and Lake Louise will open for skiing this week, kicking off the ski season in western Canada.
Mt. Norquay will open first with its Cascade lift on Thursday. Skiers and riders looking to make their first turns of the 2015-16 season can do so alongside two-time Olympian Ken Read as he attends the ski hills opening day in celebration of its 90th anniversary. With the Canadian Rockies’ oldest ski resort turning 90, Mt. Norquay is celebrating with an updated trail map, new ski runs, Tube Town expansion, and the launch of a celebratory 90th anniversary craft brewed beer.
“Mt. Norquay is the birthplace of skiing in the Canadian Rockies,” says GM Andre Quenneville. “We are about to reach this significant milestone and are exceptionally proud to have been providing family fun for 90 years.”
Boasting Banff National Park’s newest ski run, Mt. Norquay’s extensive trail work during summer 2015 will provide skiers and riders with the Bow Valley’s newest skiable terrain. The brand new blue run Wiegele’s (50) is accessible from Mystic Chair and named after heli-ski pioneer Mike Wiegele.
Lake Louise will follow Mt. Norquay and open for the season on Friday. The Glacier Express Chair will start turning at 9 a.m. and three runs will be open: Bald Eagle, Wiwaxy and Easy Street. Four new Prinoth snowcats will be prowling the slopes of Lake Louise this season, ensuring pristine surfaces at the beginning of each ski day.
This season, Lake Louise has attracted executive chef Scott Green from Las Vegas, and in addition to revamped menus throughout the resort featuring menus featuring Ahi tuna, Alberta raised wild boar, bison short ribs, pan-seared pheasant and seafood risottos, Green is adding a brand new sushi bar in what used to be Lake Louise’s Great Bear Room, and a new smokehouse in Kokanee Kabin.
The third Banff-area ski resort, Sunshine Village, is planning on a mid-November opening.
The title for first to open in Canada this year, however, goes to Mont-Saint-Sauveur in Québec, which opened a single run on October 19th. That resort has subsequently re-closed while awaiting a return to colder weather.


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After the successful launch of the capsule collection of the Kim Kardashian brand Skims and the Fendi brand, which allowed designers to earn a million dollars in one minute, Kardashian announced the release of the second joint collaboration on her personal blog.
"This is the last chance to own a part of the revolutionary collaboration," Kim wrote on her Facebook.
View this post on Instagram
According to Hypebeast, the collection will include bodysuits, underwear and shapewear sets, and leather dresses in pink and Skims' signature neutral shades.
Photo: Getty Images
14:19, May 20Ed Sheeran becomes father for 2nd time
13:12, May 20Uma Thurman's daughter Maya Hawke to star with mother in 'The Kill Room'
12:13, May 20Plus-size model Ashley Graham launches line of lingerie
23:06, May 19Rihanna and A$AP Rocky become parents
18:29, May 19Sarah Jessica Parker says she hasn't spoken to Chris Noth after allegations of abuse
17:03, May 19Teaser released for Boris Johnson's 'This England'
16:12, May 19Meghan Markle and Prince Harry to film reality show about their lives
15:16, May 19Euphoria star sued by swimwear brand
14:11, May 19Squid Game director reveals details of second season: There will be more games
12:33, May 19Johnny Depp is suspected of having affair with his lawyer
11:11, May 19Charlize Theron dates Kim Kardashian's ex-boyfriend
09:01, May 19Tom Cruise wins honorary Palme d'Or at Cannes Film Festival


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Mobile phones with touchscreens will become standard in years to come, a new study from analysis group Canalys forecasts.
It is also anticipated by experts that virtually all portable devices will use touchscreen technology of one kind or another, signalling the virtual death of physical keypads.
However, the Canalys report fails to make the distinction between mobile phones that have touch only controls and those that go for a hybrid; combining touchscreen technology with full QWERTY keypads.
The Motorola Milestone is a good example of such a hybrid and has sold well to business users, as well as text-hungry consumers.
Throughout 2010 the number of touchscreen mobiles is set to rise significantly as AMOLED screen technology becomes more prevalent and touch-friendly versions of Windows Mobile and Android emerge.
The battle for supremacy in the smartphone market will also revolve around the level of competence of the competing operating systems in handling touchscreens.
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Springville, UT, May 28, 2011 --(PR.com
)-- Five Star Franchising and Franchises for Sale are merging together in what they hope will create a stronger overall experience for consumers interested in franchising opportunities.
“We’re bringing together our core strengths. Franchises for Sale has strong content optimization and networking that will help give us exposure to thousands of consumers interested in franchising opportunities,” Five Star Franchising CEO, Scott Abbott said. “In turn, we bring our strong social media, public relations and online marketing strategy.”
Five Star Franchising, founded 2008, is a holding company for various franchise concepts. Five Star partners with established businesses considering the franchise model to expand their operations.
Franchises for Sale, founded in 2009 by Richard Simtob (CEO) and Gail Parker (president), is the first lead generation site company of its kind focusing on educating prospective franchise candidates with more content and only charging franchise brands for leads that close.
“We focus on giving more information online including franchise fees, royalties, minimum/maximum investments, etc. The Franchisor pays nothing until the lead closes,” Simtob said. “For serious franchise candidates this is the #1 resource with all the detailed up to date information.”
Abbott and Simtob, longtime friends, have been looking for an opportunity to go into business with each other for years. With the current growth and expansion of both their companies they saw this as a great time to merge the companies.
“We have been trying to find ways to work together for years and have finally found something we can have some fun with,” Abbott said. “We’re excited about this merger and being able to create a stronger resource for the consumer.”


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MONTREAL — A Bâton Rouge restaurant is now open in Quebec City. Located at Place Ste-Foy, the 455-seat location has three private dining rooms for conferences, meetings and special events. There is also a VIP lounge for patrons 18 and over. An official grand opening party is scheduled for June 15.
“The brand new concept and decor represent a notable transition for the brand as they are part of our plan to rejuvenate and revitalize the banner and further build on its modernized identity,” says Frank Hennessey, president and CEO of Imvescor — Bâton Rouge Steakhouse & Bar’s franchisor company.
The design by Qanta Architecture and Lucier Tremblay intérieurs offers a modern, casual look and features a large patio which wraps around two facades.
Daniel Tremblay is the owner of Bâton Rouge Ste-Foy and also serves as president of Le Groupe D Resto.


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(all times U.S. eastern).
10:20 a.m – U.S. auto supplier jobs are on the rise (Industry Week)
10:15 a.m. -Japan recorded its first trade surplus in six years in 2016, pushed by automotive exports to the U.S. (WSJ)
10:10 a.m. – U.S. auto workers’ bonuses surge as companies post gains (WSJ)
10:05 a.m. – WIX Filters announces technical, associate sponsorship of Kalitta Motorsports for 2017 NHRA season (aftermarketNews)
10 a.m. – AutoZone hiring 12,000 across U.S. this spring. Yes, that’s 12,000! (Brake & Front End)
9:45 a.m. – Report: Despite slow start, 2017 might be another record year for auto industry (PR Newswire)
9 a.m. – Aftermarket Auto Parts Alliance names Penray as exclusive supplier for private-label aerosol service chemicals (aftermarketNews)
Have a news tip or something you’d like to share? Click here to let Mark know!


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It’s taken Kenyan businesses a while to realize the best way to advertise their products is through branding celebrities. ‘Safari Pure Water’, a Kenyan mineral water company, has surprisingly caught the drift and given Willy Paul a contract to brand them. The gospel artist who is popular for his music and endless controversies said he signed a year renewable contract with the company. Willy Paul said to Radio Citizen’s presenter.
“Mamillioni kidogo si vile ni kama one yr bt its renewable they wanted 10yrs but hata mimi mwenyewe sijui 10yrs nitakua wapi so nikaona one year iko tu sawa.”


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A high flying 17-year-old entrepreneur has found an author to write his autobiography and share his story.
Ollie Forsyth from Pury End in Towcester began his search last month and has now enlisted Rick Siderfin to help write his life story.
At just six years old, Ollie would charge his parents 20p for cups of tea and doubled the price if it needed reheating.
Ollie left school at the age of 16 following a turbulent time in which he suffered from bullying.
Speaking to the Advertiser last month, he said: “I was badly bullied at school and told I would never succeed in life.
“But I was determined to prove those bullies wrong.
“I am determined to get to the top and one day one of those bullies will come along and ask me for a job.
“Well, they will not be getting one, they shouldn’t have bullied me.
“They can be my cleaner instead.”
He now studies at the Peter Jones Enterprise Academy, founded by the former Dragons Den panellist and is aiming to make £100,000 from his self-help magazine and online fashion shop this year.
Asked why he chose Mr Siderfin to be the author of his book, Ollie said: “I advertised in the national newspapers and the e-mails were streaming in and I received this one from an entrepreneur who runs a similar magazine to mine.
“He wanted me to get in contact and I had the idea of getting companies to collaborate with me, with a certain fee involved.
“We met, we got talking and we collaborated.”
“I am very excited about the book being written because I have been wanting to do this for a while.
“The book is going to be called along the lines of My Light Bulb Moments.
“We have some incredible entrepreneurs who are also being featured in the book, along with a potential billionaire fashion designer from America.”
The book comes out on June 1.
Ollie is also launching his own business directory on May 1 to complement his own self-help magazine he has launched.
The magazine entitled ‘The Budding Entrepreneur’ offers hints and tips to youngsters on how to follow in his footsteps.
Anyone with a business idea can get in touch with Ollie via e-mail at firstname.lastname@example.org.
He also has an online shop which makes him £13,000 a year selling belts, cufflinks, wallets and necklaces for teenagers.


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For years, Apple has heavily touted the iPhone as the most secure, private smartphone on the market. Despite that claim, Israel’s NSO Group was able to compromise the iPhones of some of the most important people in the world remotely — raising questions about how secure the iPhone really is.
Apple is quick to update the iPhone’s software whenever one of these attacks is uncovered and supports its devices for far longer than any of its competitors, but these types of revelations reveal the cracks in how the company releases updates.
Unlike the apps on your phone, which update automatically from the App Store as they’re released, iOS updates are monolithic; the operating system must be updated all at once, and the phone restarted, rather than updating the individual apps that need fixing.
This method of updating feels outdated and doesn’t make much sense in 2021; you wouldn’t expect an update that adds new features or security to Slack’s chat app to require a computer reboot, yet iOS requires this for every update to the core apps on your phone, and is likely why many people put off updating until they get tired of tapping the ‘update later’ button.
Google’s Android operating system uses a modular approach to release updates to core apps without requiring a system update. If the phone app needs an update, for example, this is updated via the Play Store instead of an entire operating system release.
Google’s record on updating smartphone software isn’t great due to the sheer amount of smartphone manufacturers using Android and their lackluster attitude toward long-term support. But, this approach allows the company to quickly patch its apps for security flaws or add new features without a phone reboot — even if the manufacturer hasn’t updated the device to the latest operating system.
This has a huge advantage: Google can rapidly fix security flaws and make improvements, without needing to convince people to reboot their phones, or really know the update was installed at all. They get security fixes constantly, regardless of if the flaw is in the Messages app or the Phone app.


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Pennsylvania will be the first jurisdiction to launch a new iLottery game called Monopoly Property Payout later this year. The traditional game of Monopoly has served as the theme for many a PA online slots machine and lottery contest for years.
Now, Scientific Games has announced it is about to introduce an all-new online lottery iteration of Monopoly – called Monopoly Property Payout – which will include a progressive jackpot and a simulated 3D digital play experience. The game will debut at the North American Association of State & Provincial Lotteries 2023 Conference, which is slated for Oct. 30 to Nov. 2 in Milwaukee.
More About The Monopoly Progressive Jackpot iLottery Game
The progressive jackpot concept for mobile gaming will be a familiar one to those folks in the Keystone State who play PA online casino games.
“We’ve built a premium iLottery game showcasing the iconic elements of the Monopoly brand that players across the globe know and love,” Steve Hickson, vice president of Digital Games for Scientific Games, said in a news release. “The simulated 3D game board offers an immersive Monopoly gameplay experience that stays true to the brand. Players can unlock multiple themed bonus rounds, such as Chance and Free Parking, along with special features where players have the chance to win cash prizes.”
In its announcement, Scientific Games explained the new Monopoly Property iLottery game this way:
“The innovative, three-dimensional game layout featured in Monopoly Property Payout is an evolution of the ever-popular connect-style iLottery game mechanic. The progressive jackpot adds yet another level of excitement and anticipation for players as the jackpot continues to grow in real time while they play.”
Scientific Games went on to say, “SG Studios is well advanced with the planning of a second Monopoly iLottery game which has the potential to be offered as a linked progressive jackpot series, with both games contributing to the same jackpot.”
Online Lottery is one part of a gaming scene in the state, and a slew of operators offer PA casino bonuses as part of the effort to draw in customers.
Legendary Monopoly Board Game Debuted in 1935
A Hasbro executive emphasized the reach of the board game, which was patented in 1935 and originally had just one dynamic element – the dice that players rolled to move their pieces around the board that represented Atlantic City streets.
“The Monopoly brand continues to demonstrate its strength in attracting fans to our partners across everything from analog to digital, from Monopoly Go! on mobile to this new expression in iLottery from our long-time partner Scientific Games,” said Eugene Evans, Senior Vice President of Digital Strategy and Licensing for Hasbro.
The evolution of Monopoly to now include online Pennsylvania Lottery would certainly astound its creators and developers. Charles Darrow of Philadelphia sold the game to Parker Brothers after being initially rejected. But an oft-identified precursor of the game appears to be something called The Landlord's Game, created by Elizabeth Magie, an economics activist who was using it to demonstrate the harmful impacts of real estate monopolies.


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SocGen to sell 23% of ALD
Up to 23% of ALD Automotive will be offered for sale in the initial public offering (IPO) planned for later this month, Société Générale (SocGen) announced on Monday, with both the French Retail Offering and the International Offering starting immediately.
An IPO of that size would bring in as much as €1.6 billion for the French bank, and parent company of ALD. That would make it the biggest IPO in France in more than a year and a half.
The bank said an initial sale of 80.8 million shares, i.e. 20% of ALD's share capital, would generate gross proceeds of €1.15 billion and 1.4 billion. Assuming the overallotment option – which allows underwriters to issue 15% more shares than originally planned (i.e. an extra 2.1 million shares) – is exercised fully, the total size of the global offering will range between €1.32 billion and €1.62 billion.
The indicative price range is between €14.2 and €17.4 per share. That corresponds to a total value for ALD of between €5.74 billion and 7.04 billion. An announcement on share prices is expected for June 15. Shares are expected to start trading in Euronext Paris from June 16.
The offering period for the French Retail Offering will start on 5 June 2017 and is expected to close on 14 June 2017 at 5 pm (Paris time) for orders made at the branches of financial institutions and 8 pm for orders placed online. The offering period for the International Offering will start on 5 June 2017 and is expected to close on 15 June 2017 at 1 pm.
SocGen has said the IPO will help ALD generate both the visibility and the funds needed to accelerate its development. The bank has confirmed that it intends to remain ALD's controlling shareholder.
Image: ALD Automotive
| 05/06/2017 | Frank Jacobs


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Product Updates Digest
Cloudfresh Expands Cloud Portfolio with Microsoft Partnership
We are pleased to announce that Cloudfresh, a Global Google Cloud Premier Partner, Zendesk Premier Partner, Asana Solutions Partner, and GitLab Select Partner, has officially partnered with Microsoft, a renowned technology company.
This partnership marks a remarkable convergence in two pivotal domains: Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Azure products. Through this synergistic collaboration, we are not merely aligning ourselves with advanced technology; we are unlocking a vast realm of possibilities for our clients, offering them customer-centric solutions that empower their businesses.
By uniting forces with Microsoft solutions, Cloudfresh takes a giant leap forward in its mission to deliver best-in-class cloud solutions. This alliance equips us to provide our clients with the latest and most cutting-edge innovations in cloud technology, opening doors to new opportunities.
As we embark on this exciting journey into the future of cloud technology, we invite you to stay tuned and be a part of this transformative experience. You can harness the full potential of cloud solutions for your business’s growth and success by reaching out to our team.


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O Forn&Cer 2015 will be 16 to 19 June at the headquarters of ASPACER and SINCER. The eighth edition aims to exceed the expectations of participants and visitors. Well-known companies have already confirmed their presence: Cardall, Liebherr, Gruppo Minerali and Pneuac. Ensure the space of your company at this important meeting of coating ceramic and mining suppliers. More information: email@example.com.
Forn&Cer last day: international exhibitors, the fair brings together innovative products for the ceramist sector
The city of Santa Gertrudes received during that week, businessmen from various fields of expertise to present the coating industry and ceramic floors what is most modern and sustainable to optimize production processes. Parallel to the 6th Congress Industrial Ceramic, the ASPACER and sincer promote the 8th edition of Forn & Cer, which features exhibitorsRead more
The official opening of Forn & Cer was held on Tuesday, dia16, with ribbon cutting and with the participation of political authorities and representatives of the ceramic industry. Highlighting the presence of: Aldo Demarchi – State Representative, José Fernando Bruno – Mining Secretary, Ricardo de Oliveira Moraes – Managing Director of the DNPM (National DepartmentRead more
More partners. This is another alternative that ASPACER and sincer – promoters prepared to make the event even more interesting. “We conducted a marketing event and business and seek the support of weight entities to market and sector. The visibility of the exhibiting companies will be infinitely greater, “says the commercial manager of the entity,Read more


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What was (A)I made for?
Is artificial intelligence bringing about a new world? Or is it all the old human problems cloaked in a new hoodie?
The real A.I. threat? Not some future Matrix turning us all into rechargeable batteries, but today’s A.I. industry demanding all of our data, labor, and energy right now.
The vast tech companies behind generative A.I. (the latest iteration of the tech, responsible for all the hyperrealistic puppy videos and uncanny automated articles) have been busy exploiting workers, building monopolies, finding ways to write off their massive environmental impacts, and disempowering consumers while sucking up every scrap of data they produce.
But generative A.I.’s hunger for data far outstrips that of earlier digital tools, so firms are doing this on a vaster scale than we’ve seen in any previous technology effort. (OpenAI’s Sam Altman is trying to talk world leaders into committing $7 trillion to his project, a sum exceeding GDP growth for the entire world in 2023.) And that’s largely in pursuit of a goal — A.G.I., or “artificial general intelligence” — that is, so far as anyone can tell, more ideological than useful.
Karen Hao, who’s covered the A.I. industry for MIT Technology Review, The Wall Street Journal, and most recently The Atlantic, is one of the few writers who has focused specifically on the human, environmental, and political costs of emerging A.I. technology. Below, she tells us about the very physical supply chain behind digital technologies, the mix of magical thinking and profit maximization that drives A.I.’s most influential advocates, how A.I. advances might jeopardize climate goals, and about who stands to gain and lose the most from widespread adoption of generative A.I.
The support of readers like you makes The.Ink possible. We’d be honored if you’d become a paid subscriber. When you do, you’ll get access each week to our regular posts and our conversations with the smartest people out there about politics, culture, and the arts.
A lot has been promised about what A.I. will supposedly do for us, but you’ve been writing mostly about what A.I. might cost us. What are the important hidden costs people are missing in this A.I. transition that we’re going through?
I like to think about the fact that A.I. has a supply chain like any other technology; there are inputs that go into the creation of this technology, data being one, and then computational power or computer chips being another. And both of those have a lot of human costs associated with them.
First of all, when it comes to data, the data comes from people. And that means that if the companies are going to continue expanding their A.I. models and trying to, in their words, “deliver more value” to customers, that fuels a surveillance capitalism business model where they’re continuing to extract data from us. But the cleaning and annotation of that data requires a lot of labor, a lot of low-income labor. Because when you collect data from the real world, it’s very messy, and it needs to be curated and neatly packaged in order for a machine learning model to get the most out of it. And a lot of this work — this is an entire industry now, the data annotation industry — is exported to developing countries, to Global South countries, just like many other industries before it.
Have we just been trained to miss this by our experience with the outsourcing of manufacturing, or by what's happened to us as consumers of online commerce? And is this really just an evolution of what we've been seeing with big tech already?
There’s always been outsourcing of manufacturing. And in the same way, we now see a lot of outsourced work happening in the A.I. supply chain. But the difference is that these are digital products. And I don’t think people have fully wrapped their heads around the fact that there is a very physical and human supply chain to digital products.
A lot of that is because of the way that the tech industry talks about these technologies. They talk about it like, “It comes from the cloud, and it works like magic.” And they don’t really talk about the fact that the magic is actually just people, teaching these machines, very meticulously and under great stress and sometimes trauma, to do the right things. And the A.I. industry is built on surveillance capitalism, as internet platforms in general have been built on this ad-targeting business that’s in turn been built on the extraction of our data.
But the A.I. industry is different in the sense that it has an even stronger imperative to extract that data from us, because the amount of data that goes into building something like ChatGPT completely dwarfs the amount of data that was going into building lucrative ad businesses. We’ve seen these stories showing that OpenAI and other companies are running out of data. And that means that they face an existential business crisis — and if there is no more data they have to generate it from us, in order to continue advancing their technology.
Connecting these issues seems like the way people really need to be framing this stuff, but it’s a frame that most people are still missing. These are all serious anti-democratic threats.


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Combined PS4/Xbox One Sales Reach 60 Million, EA Exec Says
There are now around 60 million combined PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles out there, according to EA CFO Blake Jorgensen. This is up from his estimation of 55 million console sales at the end of 2015.
The executive shared the number at a Morgan Stanley Technology, Media, and Telecom Conference today when discussing virtual reality. He referenced the console figure as context for why EA isn't jumping on board fully with VR at the moment. It's simply because VR is unproven, with a small install base today because the platforms aren't even out yet.
He said before a company like EA would consider spending $50-$100 million to build a full game for VR, the market size needs to grow to the level of consoles. He described the console markets today as "large," estimating PS4/Xbox One to make up 60 million and 150 million-plus for PS3/Xbox 360.
Jorgensen also teased that EA is working on smaller, "vignette"-style VR games, though these have not been announced. Additionally, he said if VR does indeed take off, EA is well-suited to bring content to the devices because it has consolidated its game engine and development processes.
With close to 36 million units sold worldwide, the PS4 is the global sales leader. If Jorgensen's 60 million estimation is correct, that means PS4 accounts for a much larger chunk than Xbox One.
Also during the presentation, Jorgensen revealed that about 25 percent of all EA game sales are full-game downloads. This figure can vary by title and geography, as well as bandwidth speed and cashless transaction availability. It is up from the 20 percent figure disclosed by EA in November, though that figure (expected to grow to 40 percent in the coming 3-4 years) pertained specifically to PS4 and Xbox One.
"We want the consumer to decide," he explained. "We have great retailer partners; we want to continue to maintain those great retail partners. And they perform a lot of discovery and marketing services for us. We believe there is a world where the retail partners are always going to be around.
"But also a lot of consumers, just like music and books and movies and TV have adopted the way to download digitally is ultimately the way of the future. We try to make sure we're available in any place where people want to buy and consume games."
Also during Jorgensen's talk today, the executive teased future Star Wars games and more.
The products discussed here were independently chosen by our editors. GameSpot may get a share of the revenue if you buy anything featured on our site.


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Amanda Calabrese ’19, Greta Meyer ’19 and Elijah Zenger ’19 are on a mission to create a more comfortable, more sustainable, leak-free tampon. Their idea, which originated in the “Technology Entrepreneurship” class last fall, quickly gained attention from professors and funders, and will, they hope, turn into a marketable product soon.
Stanford Women in Design (SWID) hosted its second-annual conference n the d.school from Nov. 15-16. The 2018 conference focused on the topic of Navigating Design.
In ME 325: “Making Multiples: Scaled Manufacturing Tooling,” undergraduate and graduate students engage in injection molding, a manufacturing practice used for making reproducible plastic products using molten plastic.
The Cool Product Expo is an annual exposition of innovative products, hosted by the Stanford Graduate School of Business. This year, more than two dozen entrepreneurs came from Silicon Valley and beyond to demonstrate groundbreaking hardware, software, consumer tech, wearables and more!
Facebook is one of the world’s most popular social media sites and uses different methods to maintain its popularity. Julie Zhuo ’06, Vice President of Product Design at Facebook, visited Stanford on Wednesday to discuss Facebook’s core creative framework for evaluating new ideas.
These days, when we think about purchasing new toys, we usually look to Apple or TechCrunch. But three product design engineers are changing the way both kids and adults play by taking their customers back to the basics. Through their capstone product design class, the goal of which is to design a product and bring…
osted by the U.S. Department of Energy, Solar Decathlon is a competition that brings together 19 teams from around the world, each tasked with creating a sustainable home and presenting the work in Orange County, which took place this past October. Stanford participated in the competition for the first time this year.
When Thomas Pauly ’12 and Rebecca Hecht ’12 needed funding for their senior project, a theatrical production titled “The Ones Left Behind,” they took an unconventional approach to raising the funds. After receiving a generous but insufficient Angel Grant — a $3,000 grant provided by Undergraduate Advising and Research (UAR) to assist students in producing public creative works — the pair created a project on Kickstarter, a popular “crowd-funding” platform that allows individuals to seek funding for creative projects.


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Actress Sarah Jessica Parker said she is "disappointed, saddened and deeply concerned" after the price of the EpiPen soared hundreds of dollars.
The price of the product, which was less than $60 in 2007, rose to more than $600 recently. It is independently supplied by Mylan Pharmaceuticals.
"I do not condone this decision, and I have ended my relationship with Mylan as a direct result of it," Parker wrote on Instagram. "I hope (Mylan) will seriously reconsider the outpouring of voices of those millions of people who are dependent on the device, and take swift action to lower the cost to be more affordable for whom it is a life-saving necessity."
Parker, who was previously part of a campaign with Mylan, has a 13-year-old son, James, who has peanut allergies.
"The Epinephrine auto-injector is a vital part of our family's healthcare, as it is for the many who are at risk," Parker wrote.
The drugmaker responded to criticism Thursday by announcing it would offer discounts for the EpiPen, including coupons covering up to $300 "for patients in health plans who face higher out-of-pocket costs." Critics maintained that an unchanging list price would ultimately leave consumers bearing most of the costs.


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Google is rolling out a new firmware update for the Pixel Watch i.e. the June 2023 update. Featuring the firmware version RWDC.230605.004 the update brings several new changes including the latest Security Patch and other fixes. The update is already out and may take some time to reach each unit. So, the users need not worry, if they have not received the update until now.
Pixel Watch June 2023 update even features some improvements, however, Google has not detailed on improvements. But, you can look at the Security Bulletin to know more about the security patches.
Below is the official changelog of the RWDC.230605.004 update.
What’s Included The June 2023 software update includes the latest security patches, bug fixes and improvements for Pixel Watch users.
Apart from this update, the search giant showcased several new features at Google IO 2023 that will become part of the WearOS in the coming time.


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BNZ recently released its Online Retail Sales Index, which showed that online retailing grew at three times the rate of traditional bricks and mortar last quarter. And that’s both frightening and exciting, depending on which side of the fence you sit on.
A flurry of related articles appeared to support the data, like this one about Brent Cooper from Jet. I’ve known the Coopers a very long time and I can tell you that they are extremely switched on. They’re excellent retailers. But they have found the market shifts just too difficult to justify the expense of a ‘bricks and mortar’ retail outfit. Basically, online killed the retail star.
When you start to examine the numbers, you can see how it happened. Absolutely phenomenal figures are being reported. New Zealanders spent nearly $2.8 billion online last year alone (and 42 percent of that went to offshore websites). ‘Show-rooming’ is a real thing. I’ve seen it in action.
With online shopping up 13 percent in the last quarter (compared to the same period, year previously), there’s now absolutely no doubt that people are rapidly shifting to online from bricks and mortar. As it was reported and suggested, unless you are a very well known ‘chain’ store (check out the excitement around Zara moving to New Zealand in this post), you’re going to struggle to remain relevant, even in a mall with a huge amount of foot traffic.
The message is clear: you must build your online business. This is no longer solely about marketing your brand, this is about a fundamental shift in consumer behaviour. Recently I was invited to speak to the global chief executives of a very large New Zealand business, who for years have operated under a ‘make product, advertise it on TV, get sales, make next product’ business cycle. My message to them was, “the new world order suggests that your model will not work for much longer”. Consumers have become incredibly savvy, they are looking to get more bang for their back. Entrepreneurial and challenger brands understand this and are capitalising on it by also being relevant and interesting in a socially-led world.
But hey, don’t be up and arms about ‘bargain hunters’. This isn’t about the ‘cheap’ set of people who don’t value quality. It’s not that at all. In fact, the trends are shifting away from deals and into value. That’s where we’ve been successful at Flossie.com. We don’t focus on a ‘daily deal’ approach. In fact, we avoid it. It’s about how do we ensure our customer gets the best value for their money. Value to them means the best service, the best treatment and outcome (of where they feel great, for the best price). They understand inherently that if you pay peanuts, you’ll get monkeys, but they also know that they have more bargaining power than ever before. Where once they were told ‘you need to book weeks in advance’, they now have choice and can opt for last minute. This suits today’s lifestyle.
As a service-based business you’re not excluded from any of this. The choices people are making online include booking with your business. According to the nzgirl.co.nz insights monitor (October 2013), 86 percent of all purchases made are being researched and decided in the online world. So even if you do operate a traditional bricks and mortar operation, your ability to put bums on seats is utterly down to your ability to market and sell yourself online. How easily accessible are you? How are you positioning yourself to get some of the $2.8 billion in online sales?
Let’s take a closer look at what’s going to be happening in the online service market: right now you’ll find that a lot of emphasis has been placed around online retailing of physical products (clothing has experienced massive growth). We predict the next mega trend will be in driving services to be booked via online. Once the domain of just hotels and travel, the channels we’ll see pushing us to commit and pay for their services online (before heading to their physical location) will include hair, beauty, medical, fitness, mechanical and pretty much anyone who sells time.
The tools to help you sell yourself online are already here (most of the salon software systems have now gone ‘cloud’), but now the emphasis will be in trying to connect the dots. Creating customer funnels for the bookings—and more importantly re-bookings. Bringing customers towards your business when they’re interested (having a handle on what they need, when they need it and how you can deliver it). Making life easier for your customer.
Some savvy salons have their heads around this. But for most it’s a minefield of seemingly overwhelming tech jargon wrapped up in a frightening moment of ‘where the hell will I find time to do this?’ Some are just throwing their hands in the air and choosing to rely on existing customers to book and come back when they’re ready. Hey, they’ve known you for years. You provide them with a service that is exemplary and you’re comfortable that the loyalty will be two way.
Sadly, we remain unconvinced that the approach will work in the long term. And that’s no slight on output or quality, but a reality of the convenience factor required of service-based businesses today.
- Jenene Crossan is a director at Flossie.com


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The LG V30, LG’s flagship smartphone for the second half of 2017, was announced on August 31 at IFA 2017. It launched in select markets in October, but it’s taken time for the flagship to roll out internationally. That’s especially true of India, where LG remained mum on the matter of V30’s launch three months after its announcement. But that all changed this week — LG recently sent invites to India-based press for an event on December 13 in New Delhi, where it’s expected to announce an enhanced version of the LG V30 — the V30+ — for the Indian market.
The LG V30’s high-end list of specifications includes Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 system-on-chip; 4GB of RAM paired with 64GB of storage (and support for expandable storage); and a 6-inch 18:9 display with a WQHD+ (2880×1440) resolution, 538 pixels-per-inch density, and LG’s P-OLED display tech. In a departure for LG’s V series, the V30 lacks a secondary display, instead shipping a software-based Floating Bar feature that approximates it.
The V30 has dual rear cameras: A 16MP 1.0-micron pixel sensor with a 71-degree lens, and a 13MP wide-angle 120-degree camera. It packs a Hi-Fi Quad digital-to-analog converter (DAC), and a 3,300mAh battery, and runs a version of Android 7.1 Nougat with LG’s custom UX skin. (LG’s rolling out an Oreo beta for V30 owners in South Korea ahead of a global rollout later this year.)
The LG V30+ was announced for the U.S. September, where it’s exclusive to T-Mobile and Sprint subscribers. It has double the storage of the LG V30 (128GB vs. 64GB) and comes with LG’s QuadPlay earbuds, but that’s all that’s different — in most respects, it’s basically the same as the V30.
In India, the LG’s likely to position the V30+ against premium flagships like the Samsung Galaxy S8+, Galaxy Note 8 and the Google Pixel 2 XL. Right now, there’s still no information about the pricing and availability of the device, but we’re expecting to learn more at the press event.
Via: NDTV Gadgets
Rojenx is a leading concept artist who work appears in games and publications
Check out his personal gallery here


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Long-term commitment of German companies to Taiwan also remains high. 84.2 percent of the companies stated to have established their Taiwanese entity more than five years ago. However, few newcomers were recorded over the past years, causing the percentage of companies established within the past five years to remain at roughly the same level of around 16 percent.
“This development may indicate a decline of market entry appeal, which could possibly deter German firms from entering the Taiwanese market. We recommend keeping a close eye on this trend and conduct further investigation,” stated Axel Limberg, Executive Director of the German Trade Office Taipei, during the presentation of the results at the GTO Economic Outlook 2022, which took place at the Shangri-La’s Far Eastern Plaza Hotel on February 22.
The poll also indicates that German companies were less affected by the COVID-19 pandemic compared to one year earlier. While it still puts pressure on 40.1 percent of the German companies operating in Taiwan, this percentage has decreased substantially compared to 2020, where 57.5 percent were negatively affected. However, besides a decreased demand for products/services and the cancellation of events and fairs, existing travel restrictions and quarantine measures still negatively impact business operations.
German companies were also not spared from the negative effects of decelerated global economic growth and supply chain disruptions. The results show that over two-thirds (69.7%) were faced with bottlenecks in 2021. These issues are also predicted to negatively influence the business results in 2022. While a record high of 64.9 percent of the German companies expects their turnover to increase this year, profit expectations remain comparatively low.
The survey also revealed that domestic topics are becoming increasingly important to German companies. Energy transition (34.2%) and digitalization (32.9%) were identified as those factors that will have a significant influence on the industry and business operations. Thus, the successful implementation of domestic policies will also be decisive for the future success of German businesses in Taiwan.
Nonetheless, the optimism in Taiwan’s economic growth remains very high. 61.3 percent expect the Taiwanese economy will continue to grow in 2022. Similarly, 63.1 percent forecast their own company to grow this year.
The Business Confidence Survey 2021/2022 Report was ceremoniously handed over to Ms. Wang Mei-hua, Minister of Economic Affairs (MOEA), during the GTO Economic Outlook 2022. Dr. Jörg Polster, Director General of the German Institute Taipei, was another guest of honor who delivered welcoming remarks. Mr. Alexander Hirschle, Director Taiwan and Philippines Asia-Pacific of GERMANY TRADE & INVEST provided an overview of Taiwan’s economic challenges and perspectives of 2022. Furthermore, five representatives of renowned German companies gave insights into the state and prospects of their business sectors. The speakers were:
· Mr. Rahil Ansari, Group Managing Director, Audi Volkswagen Taiwan Co., Ltd.
· Mr. Yu-Foong Chong, Country Manager - Offshore Wind, Taiwan RWE Renewables
· Mr. Erdal Elver, President & CEO, Siemens Ltd., Taiwan
· Mr. Pascal Thien-Ah-Koon, Foreign Legal Affairs Attorney, Tak Associes Taiwan
· Dr. John Lee, Managing Director, Merck Group in Taiwan
Other Key Findings of the Business Confidence Survey 2021/2022:
· 57.4% increased their EBIT margins, 41.0% even significantly (> 5%)
· 61.6% consider the reliability of business relations as the most valued aspect in Taiwan
· 94.7% stated to remain in Taiwan and not shift investments, 91% would restart their business in Taiwan again
· Investments in staff development and training (75.8%) ranked highest among those companies willing to invest within the next two years; The main reason not to invest is low expectations for market expansions (60%)
· Electronic components (semiconductors etc.) (38.9%) and electronic equipment (30.6%) will have the biggest relevance for German companies in the future. Other important future industry sectors include digitalization (27.8%), Industry 4.0/Smart Machinery (26.4%), and mobility (26.4%)
The Business Confidence Survey (BCS) 2021/2022 was conducted between December 6, 2021 and January 18, 2022. A response rate of 31% was achieved out of the 251 contacted eligible respondents.


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Today BMW has broken ground on the first tangible steps of producing the upcoming Megacity line of vehicles. They expect the first carbon parts to start rolling off the assembly line in about a year ‘s time culminating with final chassis components in 2013 (in time for the launch of the first Megacity vehicle).
Official Release: SGL Automotive Carbon Fibers – a joint venture of the BMW Group and SGL Group – broke ground today on the new greenfield carbon fiber manufacturing facility in Moses Lake, Washington. More than 70 guests from Moses Lake and Grant County, including the Governor of the State of Washington Chris Gregoire and Moses Lake Mayor Jon Lane were in attendance to celebrate the groundbreaking event.
The facility in Moses Lake is a fundamental component of the joint venture’s strategy to commercialize manufacturing of lightweight carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) for use in BMW Group’s future Megacity Vehicle. Carbon fiber technology is becoming increasingly important in the materials substitution process to lighter materials, which helps to improve fuel consumption and lower CO2 emissions.
“I congratulate SGL Automotive Carbon Fibers for developing this cutting edge technology, and welcome them to Washington State,” Governor Chris Gregoire said. “This new carbon fiber manufacturing plant means new jobs in Moses Lake, and is another indicator that Washington State will continue to lead in the green economy. I look forward to working with SGL Automotive Carbon Fibers to ensure its success, and building a lasting relationship.”
During the initial phase of development, BMW Group and SGL Group will invest US $100 million. 80 new local jobs will be created with an additional 200 for site construction. The state-of-the-art facility will be constructed on 60 acres of land. There is the option to purchase an additional 60 acres to cater future growth. The plant will initially run two carbon fiber lines, each with annual capacity of 1,500 metric tons. The first carbon fiber line will be commissioned in the third quarter of 2011.
“This carbon fiber plant, the most cost efficient of its kind worldwide, is a benchmark in the industry. The investment in Moses Lake underlines our strong commitment to the State of Washington and to the United States,” said Andreas Wuellner, Managing Director SGL Automotive Carbon Fibers. “We are on the verge of a major renaissance and paradigm shift for the automotive industry.Now, a key piece of the Megacity Vehicle has a base in the USA!”
“The decision to build the carbon fiber plant in Moses Lake was based primarily on the availability of renewable clean hydropower and competitive energy costs in the state of Washington,” said Joerg Pohlman, Managing Director SGL Automotive Carbon Fibers. “Favorable infrastructure conditions, existing utilities, a skilled labor force and fast permitting processes were also important contributing decision factors.”
The carbon fibers manufactured in Moses Lake will be used exclusively for BMW Group’s demand, the first application being the upcoming Megacity Vehicle. In February of this year, BMW Group announced that this new vehicle for urban mobility – set to be launched in 2013 under a BMW sub-brand – will be assembled in Leipzig, Germany.


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Ukrainian startup Adsme receives pre-seed funding
A group of Ukrainian investors has made a pre-seed funding round for Ukrainian startup Adsme, which specializes in predicting the success of advertising in Meta Ads using its own AI technology, according to AIN.UA.
- The amount of the round was not disclosed, but it is expected to allow the startup to expand its operations and grow to $100 million in revenue per year over the next five years. The startup didn’t report its current indicators.
- The angel investors are unknown.
- Adsme works on predicting the success of advertising campaigns in Meta Ads with the help of AI of its own development. These forecasts should help businesses use their advertising budgets more effectively.
- The fresh funding will be used to hire new employees: developers and machine learning experts. The team also plans to invest in research and development of its own artificial intelligence technology for big data analysis to collect more accurate data for SME clients and advertising agencies.
“We are glad to receive the support for our mission from investors. Our goal is to help businesses around the world effectively use advertising budgets and get maximum profit,”Danylo Orlov, co-founder of Adsme, commented on the deal.


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CITY DIARY: HSBC's (very) big brother Matthew Westerman is watching
HSBC's vastly wealthy head of global banking Matthew Westerman has been throwing his ample girth around since arriving from Goldman Sachs in May.
Having cleared out several senior members of staff, he's now ruffled feathers by implementing an Orwellian-sounding system, which tracks how bankers use their time, how many clients they visit and how many deals they bring in.
Is pinguid Westerman, 51, carefully setting out his stall? He's mooted as the bank's next chief when brusque Stuart Gulliver finally shuffles off.
The fate of British steel, battered by cut-price Chinese imports, is of great concern to the Queen.
I'm reliably informed HM has instructed courtiers to keep her abreast of developments in the crisis-hit industry.
Did the bungling Duke of York raise the subject during his visit to China this week, I wonder?
We must excuse steelworkers who aren't entirely brimming with confidence if so.
Barclays £8.25million-a-year boss Jes Staley was chatty and affable with journalists as he announced the bank's third-quarter results yesterday.
Quite unlike his equally well-remunerated Lloyds counterpart, Antonio Horta-Osorio, who the day before made his first media appearance since his alleged tryst with sexy femmes d'affaires Dr Wendy Piatt. Tetchy and irritable, the erstwhile smoothy, 52, behaved like he had a hornet in his tights.
Trouble a casa Antonio?
Deutsche Bank trader Selasi Gbormittah, who was eliminated from the BBC's Great British Bake Off semi-final, was said on this week's final episode to be embarking on an 'epic motorbike trip around Europe'.
Has the charming Ghanaian packed in his job in the city? 'No comment,' says a Deutsche spokesman.
Faced with a whopping £11.5bn fine for mis-selling securities, it's possible there may be more pressing matters being dealt with at the struggling bank.
Incoming Moneysupermarket boss, stylish ex-John Lewis retail director Mark Lewis, says he's looking forward to delivering 'a clear mission' to customers of the price comparison website.
In which case, first item of business should be a new TV campaign. Those disturbing ads featuring hotpanted businessmen twerking in high heels have delighted us long enough.
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AFTER 22 years at the helm of ladies’ fashion shop Pandora in Midhurst, Elizabeth Hamilton has drawn up the shutters for the last time.
She announced she had decided to retire last July and hoped to find someone to take over the business, but was unsuccessful and closed on Saturday.
Thanking her many loyal customers, she said: “I am disappointed it’s not going to carry on as a fashion shop, but I have enjoyed running the business and the customers, who came from a wide area, have been lovely.
She paid tribute to her long-serving sales assistant Belinda Murphy, who joined her in 1999: “Everyone loved her and her sunny disposition.”
Elizabeth has represented Easebourne on Chichester District Council for the past eight years. She said she would be standing again in the coming election in the hope of representing a ward closer to where she now lives in Birdham.
In addition to her council work, with B&B guests and six grandchildren, she said there would be no shortage of things to do.
A new business will reopen at the premises in mid-March, selling antiques and collectables.


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Over the past decade, the rise of online shopping has fundamentally changed the expectations consumers have for their favourite brands and retailers. But while eCommerce has seen remarkable gains in recent years, that growth has been surpassed by enterprise marketplaces — eCommerce sites that offer products from multiple sellers. According to the 2021 Enterprise Marketplace Index by Mirakl, marketplaces grew at more than double the rate of overall eCommerce growth.
The State of Online Marketplace Adoption1 , a new consumer survey from Mirakl, reveals that Singaporean shoppers are clear in their preference for online marketplaces. According to Singapore survey respondents, nearly half (45%) of their online shopping happens on marketplaces, with 54% reporting their use of marketplaces increased in the past 12 months. The future is just as bright: 94% of Singaporean consumers expect to use marketplaces at the same rate or more going forward. Notably, marketplace adoption among Singaporean consumers has remained steady from its remarkable rise in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic: in 2019, 40% said they shopped “exclusively” or “a lot” on marketplaces; that figure rose to 65% in 2020 and then again to 66% in 2021 – a 65% increase since 2019.
Download The State of Online Marketplace Adoption Whitepaper


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Rolls-Royce would produce and seriously considering entering the market crossovers and SUVs. According to rumors, the company did studies and found that 50% of the auto market will be dominated by these types of vehicles.
Ford released the teaser of a new global compact car concept, announcing its presentation to the public for the Hall of New Delhi next week. Although the automaker did not officially disclose the name of the model, it is the Ka Sedan concept.
The Vauxhall brand of General Motors focused on the UK market, showed on Monday (27) Special Editions Black & White for the new Adam. Described by the brand as "smartphone on wheels", the models come with starting price of 14,995 pounds.


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Last Updated on 25th April 2012
Looks like it’s all about the designer transport this week. On Monday, we told you that Victoria Beckham helped design a limited edition rose gold Range Rover, but today we move onto a more eco-friendly mode of transport…
Italian fashion house Dolce and Gabbana has launched a leopard print “Animalier” bicycle, although it’s being marketed as “only for girls”. Guess the boys will have to stick to those Boris bikes for the time being!
Although the price of the bike is currently unknown, the fact that it comes with 24 karat gold gilding makes us believe that investing in a car would probably be the more affordable option. The Animalier bike also features an aluminium basket and best of all, a black bell complete with its own Dolce and Gabbana logo! Now that’s surely better than any car, right?
The bikes are only available for a limited time only and are being sold in select Dolce and Gabbana boutiques worldwide, including London, Paris, Milan, Madrid and Tokyo.


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Apex Trader Funding (ATF) - News
Goldman Sachs Has 3 New Staple Stock Favorites
Consumer staples stocks had a difficult 2023, although the picture has somewhat brightened this year.
Goldman Sachs argues that despite some ongoing challenges, a few household product makers could really clean up in 2024—although ironically not Clorox.
The S&P 500 rose more than 24% last year, and the Nasdaq Composite soared 43% as big tech stocks saw massive gains that characterized investor appetite for risk.
The speculative mood and higher interest rates were a double blow to staples—their slow-but-steady performance shines during uncertain times, and dividends looked less attractive as bond yields were rising.
The upshot was the Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR ETF went nowhere all year amid the broader market rally.
However, the fund has turned over a new leaf with the calendar—XLP is up about 2.2% year to date. That is still behind the S&P 500’s gains, but at least it is progress, and analysts have been getting somewhat more upbeat about the space. High profile players such as PepsiCo, Anheuser-Busch InBev, and Church & Dwight have been upgraded in 2024.
Goldman Sachs analyst Bonnie Herzog assumed coverage of a number of household product makers on Friday, and writes the group still has headwinds to work through. But that doesn’t mean investors need to ignore the sector.
Part of the problem is that for such a staid category, staples have had a roller coaster few years. Demand soared for cleaning and household products during 2020 and 2021, when the pandemic had everyone at home and frantically disinfecting.
That swiftly gave way to supply chain constraints and inflation, which allowed companies across the board to take up pricing. That didn’t always protect margins, however, and eventually led to consumers buying less to stick to their budgets.
As the dust clears in 2024, staples stocks are likely looking at fewer price hikes this year, although that should allow people to once again buy more, lifting volumes. For her part, Herzog cautions discounts and promotions, common prepandemic, are likely to return in this new normal, “as supply chains are restored and the competitive environment heats up.”


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The inspection 'Leefomgeving and Transport' handed out 1,1 million euro in fines to house owners. The owners did not apply for an Energy label when selling their house. This is mentioned by the inspection who hands out these fines to BNR.
"We have sent over 59.000 people a warning", says the spokesman of ILT in the broadcast of BNR. "After this a large group has filed for the Energy lable correctly". In the end, we handed out 2660 fines of 405 euro." The Home owners association claims to have no idea why this group receives a fine for over 400 euros while applying for an Energy label is quick and easy.
It is mandatory for home owners to register an Energy label when selling or renting out a house, since january 1, 2008. The Energy label gives the new buyer or tenant insight in how economic a house is. The label is meant to stimulate energy saving measures.


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- Wednesday | 27th September, 2023
- Friday | 28th July, 2023
- Friday | 26th May, 2023
- Thursday | 25th May, 2023
- Thursday | 18th May, 2023
CARS24, India`s leading e-commerce platform for pre-owned vehicles, is set to transform how used automobiles are bought by putting the entire process online. A first–of-its-kind in the Indian pre-owned automobiles industry, CARS24 will offer home delivery; a 6-month warranty and a no questions asked 7-day return policy, much like buying any other product online. With this launch, the brand aims to lead with ‘clicks over bricks’ culture in India while encouraging consumers to embrace the simplicity and convenience of buying their next car entirely online.
The company has already built India’s largest assortment of over 10,000 cars. Buyers are provided with a wide selection of cars so they can find the exact model in the exact condition and exact colour they want as against being forced to choose something sub-optimal. Additionally, transparent pricing and a technology enabled catalogue allows buyers to quickly browse through thousands of cars and choose the right one that suits them the best.
CARS24 owns and fully reconditions thousands of quality used cars at its state-of-the-art workshop to ensure the cars are as good as new before offering them for sale. It is also investing heavily in technology based refurbishment centres in order to provide customers with good quality cars. In 2021, the brand will set up 7 refurbishment facilities across 50 acres land in top Indian metro cities. Around 20,000 cars per month will be refurbished at these facilities allowing the brand to fulfill its promise of delivering highest quality customer experience and satisfaction.
Commenting on the new proposition, Vikram Chopra, Co-Founder & CEO, CARS24 said, “The widely accepted process of buying a car is outdated, tedious and tiresome, and definitely not fit for today’s consumers. The future of car buying is entirely online as it allows the buyers to buy what they like; and what they like is what they get on CARS24. To close the trust gap, we now equip our consumers with a no questions asked 7-day return on the car. Our customers love the proposition and hence, our online sales are growing rapidly. We look forward to continuing our mission of delivering the best car buying experience for consumers by providing better selection, quality, transparency, convenience and peace of mind making it no different to buying any other product online today.”
Over the past few months, CARS24 is extensively using technology to revolutionize the way customers shop for cars. It has made huge investments in cataloging cars to allow the customer to make an informed buying decision. Buyers can now inspect high quality, 360- degree images from the comfort of their home while simultaneously enjoying an immersive experience, just like a test drive. As part of this investment, 20 car studios across 10+ locations in the country are operational cataloging 400 cars a day.
With customer centricity at its core, CARS24 ensures each car that is listed on the platform for sale has passed 140 points inspection; the company does not list any car which does not pass these stringent quality tests. For the prospective buyers of pre-owned cars, CARS24 has also simplified the financing process by providing customised financing options; again fully contactless with video KYC and near real time processing of loan.
CARS24 is pioneering the shift to online car buying in India. It offers consumers the choice to choose from thousands of top quality cars listed on the platform from the comfort of their homes or on the go via their smartphones. Every CARS24 car comes with a 6-month warranty and a no questions asked 7-day return policy coupled with a promise of delivering the vehicle to the customer’s door in a branded delivery truck. Since the launch of the new business model, CARS24 has sold more than 5000 cars to date.
Your support to NYOOOZ will help us to continue create and publish news for and from smaller cities, which also need equal voice as much as citizens living in bigger cities have through mainstream media organizations.


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Talks of saving the environment and the ocean have become louder, with many countries pledging their support to save the wild/marine life. Tanzania is among these countries. Effective from July 1, 2019, Tanzania’s national ban on the use and production of plastics came into force. This decision which is part of an effort to tackle pollution in the East African country, is projected to see the price of paper bags drop to 60 percent.
Following the ban, the manufacturing of plastic bags in Tanzania can lead to a two-year prison sentence or a fine of up to $400,000 and anyone found carrying a bag can be subject to an on-the-spot fine of $13. While environmentalists are celebrating the move, manufacturers are having a hard time adjusting to the shift in business.
With the ban in place, the use of alternate packaging in the likes of paper bags has skyrocketed. Tanzania’s Environmental Minister, January Makamba, noted that less than a month into the ban, Tanzanians have fully (100 percent) adopted the use of new products, making the ban one of the most successful initiatives in the country.
Globally, plastic makes up around 13 percent of the waste stream, representing 32 million tons of waste. Just about 9 percent of these plastic goes into recycling programs while the remainders enter landfills and seas where it takes up space and often hurts wildlife.
Each year, over 8 million tonnes of plastic goes into the oceans. It is estimated that by 2050, there will be more plastic than fish in the world. The sea presently contains about 51 trillion microplastic particles – 500 times more than stars in our galaxy.
In the bid to phase out non-biodegradable plastics in the East African region, Tanzania’s ban has given rise to higher prices of eco-friendly bags. However, enforcing a ban on plastic bags is not a guarantee of attaining a friendly and aesthetic ecosystem neither does it solve Tanzania’s waste and pollution problem.
“We are aware of the price-challenge but I can assure people that we are working to ensure that by September this year, more paper bags will be available in markets and prices will drop. Presently, paper bags are sold at Sh5OO ($0.22) but in the next two months, it will be sold between Sh200 (0.09) and Sh300( $0.13),” January Makamba stated.
Certainly, there are benefits to phasing out plastic bags. However, Tanzania’s challenge is more of a management issue than a plastic issue and even with the use of paper bags, without proper disposal, the East Africa country would still have a waste issue. Like many other countries across Africa, 80-90 percent of plastic waste is inadequately disposed of in Tanzania.
Plastics come in many other forms other than bags and are used for packaging many other products. Currently, plastic bottles have surpassed plastic bags as the biggest threat to oceans and rivers in many regions.
This above data shows the prevalence of plastics in European freshwater environments alone, meanwhile, Europe has lesser river plastic inputs than Africa.
Analysis carried out by Greenpeace shows that top beverage brands produce the greatest numbers of plastic bottles. Each year, Coca-Cola alone produces more than 100 billion disposable plastic bottles that are used just once.
While a ban on plastic is a welcome development, it is too early for Tanzania to toot their horn as their pollution problem will not be solved by eliminating plastic bags alone.


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Last-minute shoppers hit stores on Christmas Eve in a surge that is expected to top off an unexpectedly strong holiday shopping season in the U.S.
Among them was Len Boswell. At a CVS drugstore in Decatur, Georgia, on Saturday morning, he picked up candy and a neck pillow for his wife. He had started shopping at 6 a.m. at Starbucks, where he bought a mug. He planned to be finished shopping well before his Christmas Eve dinner at 6 p.m.
"I should have done this a couple of weeks ago," acknowledges Boswell, 68, a director of book publishing at a non-profit.
Stores are expected to ring up $469.1 billion during the holiday season, and the final week before Christmas can account for up to 20 per cent of sales for the season. Retailers tempered their expectations heading into the season because Americans were still worried about the weak economy. But sales have been so brisk during the two-month period that the National Retail Federation, the industry's big trade group, upgraded its sales forecast a full percentage point to 3.8 per cent.
"We're seeing good traffic, good sales, not over-the-top sales, but a nice 3 per cent to 4 per cent increase over last year." said Sherif Mityas, a partner in the retail practice at A.T. Kearney, a management consulting firm. "Even with all the bad news and hesitancy in terms of the economy, consumers are still opening up their wallets more than last year, which is good news."
But at a time when Americans are worried about the weak economy, retailers weren't willing to leave anything to chance on the last day to shop before Christmas.
Macy's and Toys R Us were open for 24 hours in the days leading up to Christmas. At malls, Abercrombie & Fitch offered a blanket 50 per cent off on all items while J. Crew and Madewell offered 30 per cent off. And promotional emails from retailers were up 34 per cent from a year ago, according to Responsys, which tracks email activity from more than 100 merchants.
"They're clearly putting best foot forward on promotions right now," said John Morris, analyst at BMO Capital Markets, who estimates sale activity is up about 7 per cent compared with last year, taking into account the level of mark downs and the amount of goods marked down.
"The key here is the last few days and week after Christmas," for retailers, Mityas said. "How much they can capture that customer for their second or third trip. Getting that last procrastinator trip is great but now you want them to come back in for returns, gift cards, and spend a little bit more." That will mean "getting that extra percentage point of sales that happens the last six or seven days of December
The sales and incentives — or plain old procrastination— are drawing at least some last-minute shoppers in on the final days.
About 150,000 shoppers were expected at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, on Friday, a 50 per cent increase from a normal day shopping.
"We're getting good foot traffic, a lot of people seem to be on a mission," said Dan Jasper, Mall of America vice-president of public relations, on Friday. He added that the new release of Nike Air Jordan XI Retro Concords boosted traffic. About 8,000 people were lined up for the shoe when Mall of America opened its doors at 6 a.m.
Mae Anderson reported from Atlanta, Georgia.


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A luxury home in Wailea Golf Estates has sold for $4.75 million - one of several significant sales Island Sotheby’s agents have closed in recent weeks.
Volker Weiss, an agent with Island Sotheby’s, represented the buyers of the luxurious home, which is situated on a gentle slope that gazes to Maui’s azure, south-shore waters. The spacious estate is comprised of more than 3,200 square feet of living space with three bedrooms and three bathrooms.
“There are maybe a dozen and a half properties in all of Wailea that have this kind of a view,” said Weiss. “It’s is completely unobstructed, and it is impossible to ever be obstructed.”
The single-level home is located on the edge of the gated community, perched atop the 17th fairway of Wailea’s “Old Blue” golf course. With an open floor plan that truly epitomizes tropical, indoor-outdoor living, residents of the home can enjoy colorful south Maui sunsets, or watch migrating humpback whales in the winter months.
The home offers exquisite detailing including granite, expansive plantation-style doors and a luxurious chef kitchen. Soaring ceilings rise from the grand entry, while Italian porcelain flooring provides the ultimate luxury underfoot. Weiss said the new owners will continue to upgrade the home, and have hired an award-winning designer to start work immediately.
“The buyers are upgrading from a condominium location to this house,” said Weiss, adding that it will be the primary residence for the buyers.
The Wailea Golf Estates span across 30 acres of premier south Maui real estate, where residents enjoy unrivaled privacy in a gated neighborhood. Just minutes from the home, explore fine-dining, world-class shopping, spas and elite hotels in the heart of Wailea. In addition to championship golf courses, there are miles of white-sand beaches to enjoy while snorkeling, paddleboarding and swimming.


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Microsoft Kinect to be on TV’s? Why? Oracle caught overcharging or not? Apple iPad dooming the Netbook say experts. I doubt it. Looks like the PC business will boom this year. YouTube adding video editing in the cloud. $88 Tablet running Android. Broadsoft IPO bombed. Nokia warns that next quarter might suck. Nintendo may buy back the company. SF approves crackpot law to no avail. FBI going after iPad hackers. RIM tablet seen as a threat. Har!
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NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE, ON – Niagara This Week reports that a long-planned brewery in Niagara-On-The-Lake will be opening its doors to the public tomorrow (Friday January 22nd), just in time for this weekend’s tourist-heavy Icewine Festival.
The Exchange Brewery has been in the works for almost 3 years, with founder Robin Ridesic telling the paper that numerous delays due to zoning variances and construction has it opening later than hoped.
With a name that plays off of the fact that the building where the brewery is located used to be a telephone exchange, The Exchange will be launching with five core beers that also have phone-inspired names – #2 Amber, #3 Porter, #7 IPA, * Session Saison, and # Witbier – as well as a limited edition White IPA. The brewery plans to produce up to 30 different beers this year, including a number of sour and barrel-aged brands.
The Exchange Brewery will open at 11:00 AM tomorrow, with beer available for on-site sampling and to take away in 750 ml bottles and growlers. For more details, see the full Niagara This Week article, and the Exchange Brewery Facebook page.


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New Battlefield 4 patch for PC, PS4, and Xbox 360 in the works
DICE is currently working on a Battlefield 4 patch for several platforms, including PC, PS4, and Xbox 360. The previous PC patch did improve performance on the platform, but didn’t do much when it comes to the crashes and technical issues.
Last weekend, we reported that Battlefield 4 was crashing on the PlayStation 4 as well. DICE has confirmed that they are working to resolve this issue. Also, they have released a new server patch for the PS4 today, which should fix the major crash issue (error CE-34878-0) that many gamers have been experiencing.
The PS4 patch in the works will also fix the problem with the Conquest game mode, where PS4 players are unable to play Conquest on the console.
The Xbox 360 patch is in certification now and includes many of the fixes and tweaks from the last patch released on the PC a few weeks ago. There are also reports that the PS3 version of the patch should enter certification at Sony any day now.
Not much is known about the PC patch in the works, but we assume that DICE is further targeting the stability issues on the platform. PC players are still complaining about the same problems, mainly that the game crashes and disconnects randomly.
The Xbox One launches later this week with battlefield 4 as a launch title, and hopefully the game won’t be plagued by the same problems as the PS4 version.


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When it comes to online advertising, Google is king. When it comes to search marketing in particular, Google has no peer. While nearly every major company in the U.S. has now invested advertising dollars into internet marketing, smaller businesses can easily run into roadblock if they don’t have the expertise or personel to implement a successful strategy in this brand new world of marketing.
Today, Bright Park, strategic partner development manager at Google, spoke to a crowd of small business owners at a sales conference in Lexington, KY. The conference was sponsored by local NBC TV station affiliate LEX 18, a Google strategic partner that offers digital marketing services to local businesses. WebProNews attended the event, and was able to speak with conference attendees about how they are incorporating digital marketing into their sales strategies. [...]


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Electronic Payments Coalition |
Industry Statements on on Merchant, Payment Network Lawsuit Agreement
EPC STATEMENT: WASHINGTON – Electronic Payments Coalition (EPC) Executive Chairman Richard Hunt issued the following statement regarding the impact the interchange lawsuit agreement between U.S. merchants, Visa, Mastercard and other financial institutions has on the Durbin-Marshall credit card legislation: The agreement between merchants, Visa, Mastercard and financial institutions has been decades in the making and treats businesses of all sizes equally without government mandates or jeopardizing consumers’ data security and rewards programs. Merchants will also receive a host of other technical benefits that could have never been reached with legislation drafted by individuals who simply do not understand the intricacies of our global payment networks. The Durbin-Marshall bill has had no debate, no legitimate hearing and continues to be unnecessary. Ultimately, the agreement helps small businesses more than a haphazard, experimental piece of legislation that only benefits the largest corporate mega-stores ever would. Congress should put an end to the ill-advised Durbin-Marshall mandates and let the agreement merchants reached stand on its own.” VISA STATEMENT: SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Mar. 26, 2024– After nearly 20 years of litigation, Visa (NYSE: V) today announced it has agreed to a landmark settlement with U.S. merchants, more than 90 percent of which are small businesses, lowering credit interchange rates and capping those rates into 2030.


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New details have emerged about the iPhone 14 Pro, which is expected to be introduced to users this year.
In the past weeks, we have announced that SE 3, one of the favorites of the iPhone series, has started to work on the market. According to a rumor that emerged last week, it was stated that Apple started testing these new products in India, one of the places where the heart of technology beats.
Again, at the beginning of 2021, the first concept video for the iPhone 14 Pro was shared. According to the predictions of Waqar Khan, who is famous for his renders and concept designs, a camera will replace the notch on the iPhone 14 and the headset will be moved to the upper frame; it would allow the battery percentage to return to the status bar at the top of the phone. Other features of the iPhone 14 Pro have now been leaked.
iPhone 14 Pro Max to Come with 8GB of RAM
According to information leaked on a Korean blog site, it is highly likely that the iPhone 14 Pro smartphone will come out of the box with 8 GB of RAM. In the post, which points to the next September as the release date of the iPhone 14 family, it was also claimed that the price of the iPhone 14 Pro would be approximately $ 999. It is also among the possibilities that the iPhone 14 Pro will only come with E-SIM and be introduced with a 48 MP rear camera.
The iPhone 14 Pro is expected to be introduced with a 6.1-inch screen within the leaked information. The leak that the notch of the device will be changed is also on the agenda. It is worth remembering that this information is not exact, but as with previous models, this information may be correct.
For now, there is no leak about the battery of the iPhone 14 Pro. But as everyone will know, it is almost certain that it will be better than the iPhone 13 Pro last year. We will continue to keep you informed as rumors increase in the future.


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Palm Beach 'a special place': Gucci debuts new Worth Avenue store
Gucci made its long-awaited debut in its new Worth Avenue space Wednesday, opening its doors to Palm Beach shoppers who were eager to browse and buy.
The store has a wide collection of men’s and women’s ready-to-wear, shoes, handbags, luggage, small leather goods, jewelry, watches, and eyewear, the company said.
It also will feature an expanded boutique that is one of a select few in the country to carry the company's fine jewelry and precious leather accessories and handbag collections.
"Palm Beach has a special place in Gucci’s history as the location of our second-ever boutique in the United States," said Federico Turconi, Gucci Americas president and CEO. "We first opened our doors here in 1961, and in 2023, we are excited to continue our history on Worth Avenue. This incredible new boutique will allow the full expression of the brand’s creativity to come to life in a refined, welcoming setting for our clients."
Visitors to the store also can browse the Gucci Cruise 2023 collection, which was first presented in May 2022 in Puglia, Italy, the company said.
Gucci spent months renovating the former Brooks Brothers location at 225 Worth Ave. The space became available in 2020 after Brooks Brothers declared bankruptcy in July of that year and permanently closed 51 of its stores, including the Palm Beach location.
The 5,600-square-foot space is considerably larger than the 4,500-square-foot location that Gucci previously occupied at 150 Worth Ave. in The Esplanade, and it will give visitors more room to shop, a company official told the Town Council last August.
Related:Worth Avenue Association's popular walking tours combine architecture, history in Palm Beach
"The new store will provide much-needed additional space for additional styles on the sales floor so that customers have more of a selection of items available for an in-store experience," said Adnan Rangila, the senior director of finance for Gucci America.
Work on the new store was expected to be complete in January, but it was delayed because of damage to materials during the construction process. Those materials needed to be refabricated, delivered and installed, according to a letter provided to the Town Council by Rose Eustor, Gucci's vice president of store planning and facilities.
"During construction, a few of our finishes have sustained some damage and must be replaced — specifically, one of the metal panels above our entrance, marble floor slab in the client restroom and the main entrance," Eustor wrote. "We have also held off on installing our awnings as a result."
At its January development review meeting, the council approved a brief extension for interior and exterior renovation work to the store.
Gucci opened its original Palm Beach location in 1961 in Royal Poinciana Plaza. The store was the company’s second in the United States — the first was on Fifth Avenue in New York — and was operated by Aldo Gucci, son of the firm’s founders.
Gucci added a second store and offices at 209 Worth Ave. in the early 1970s and eventually expanded to a multi-store complex at 256 Worth Ave., rechristened the Gucci Building in 1974 with the company’s purchase of the historic courtyard structure.
In 1990, the Gucci Building was sold, but the boutique remained in operation at the site until April 2012, when it moved to The Esplanade. That store closed Monday.
The Gucci company over the years transformed from a family-operated firm into the flagship brand of a global luxury-goods entity renamed Gucci Group, acquiring such fashion labels as Yves Saint Laurent, Balenciaga and Stella McCartney, as well as several prestige watchmakers and jewelers in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
The company operates 104 locations throughout the United States and Canada, including 15 in Florida. Three of those are in Palm Beach County; the other stores are in Palm Beach Gardens and Boca Raton.
The Palm Beach location is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday. For more information, visit www.gucci.com.
Jodie Wagner is a journalist at the Palm Beach Daily News, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach her at firstname.lastname@example.org. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.


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Media ID: 55350933
Asim Mirza Al Rahmah, Majid Saif Al Ghurair and Ernesto Max Tonela at the opening. Dubai Chamber
Dubai- Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry continues seeking investment opportunities in Africa; considering this continent suitable for UAE’s investment projects as there are many factors available, including rise in the middle class society, presence of different...
Media ID: 55323793
File photo of Hamad Buamim, Director General of the Dubai Chamber of Commerce & Industry (Asharq Al-Awsat/Basil Hamawi)
Dubai, Asharq Al-Awsat—As Dubai increasingly positions itself as a hub for the global Islamic economy, companies in the Emirate have looked to expand abroad to take advantage of new trade and business ties. Supporting the Emirate’s businesses is the Dubai Chamber of...


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Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) SVP Jared Watkin sold 297 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.29, for a total value of $17,609.13. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 74,357 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,408,626.53. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website.
Shares of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE ABT) remained flat at $$58.99 during trading hours on Thursday. 2,053,759 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 7,481,413. The stock has a market cap of $102,700.00, a price-to-earnings ratio of 56.77, a PEG ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 1.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a quick ratio of 2.26 and a current ratio of 2.69. Abbott Laboratories has a one year low of $42.31 and a one year high of $64.60.
Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 24th. The healthcare product maker reported $0.74 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.73 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $7.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.38 billion. Abbott Laboratories had a return on equity of 13.80% and a net margin of 1.74%. Abbott Laboratories’s quarterly revenue was up 42.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.65 EPS. equities research analysts anticipate that Abbott Laboratories will post 2.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Cobblestone Capital Advisors LLC NY lifted its stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Cobblestone Capital Advisors LLC NY now owns 16,511 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $803,000 after purchasing an additional 56 shares during the period. National Planning Corp lifted its stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. National Planning Corp now owns 26,732 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $1,302,000 after purchasing an additional 83 shares during the period. Farmers National Bank lifted its stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 2.4% during the 2nd quarter. Farmers National Bank now owns 3,653 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $178,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares during the period. Flagship Harbor Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 0.7% during the 2nd quarter. Flagship Harbor Advisors LLC now owns 12,341 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $600,000 after purchasing an additional 87 shares during the period. Finally, Hedeker Wealth LLC lifted its stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 0.5% during the 2nd quarter. Hedeker Wealth LLC now owns 24,678 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $1,199,000 after purchasing an additional 116 shares during the period. 70.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.
A number of research firms recently weighed in on ABT. Bank of America upped their price target on Abbott Laboratories from $60.00 to $70.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. They noted that the move was a valuation call. Leerink Swann restated a “market perform” rating and issued a $68.00 price target (up previously from $60.00) on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a report on Thursday, January 25th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on Abbott Laboratories from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 25th. Evercore ISI began coverage on Abbott Laboratories in a report on Wednesday, January 3rd. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $64.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on Abbott Laboratories from $63.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 25th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company. The company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $65.47.
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Abbott Laboratories Company Profile
Abbott Laboratories is engaged in the discovery, development, manufacture and sale of a range of healthcare products. The Company operates through four segments: Established Pharmaceutical Products, Diagnostic Products, Nutritional Products and Vascular Products. Its Established Pharmaceutical Products include a range of branded generic pharmaceuticals manufactured around the world and marketed and sold outside the United States.
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The Wall Street Journal reports that Amazon employees have been bribed to leak corporate data – such as sales metrics and the personal details of reviewers – to sellers:
In exchange for payments ranging from roughly $80 to more than $2,000, brokers for Amazon employees in Shenzhen are offering internal sales metrics and reviewers’ email addresses, as well as a service to delete negative reviews and restore banned Amazon accounts, the people said.
Amazon is investigating a number of cases involving employees, including some in the U.S., suspected of accepting these bribes, according to people familiar with the matter
According to the WSJ, Amazon has confirmed that it is investigating the claims – and any staff found behaving inappropriately could face termination and potential legal action.
This story is a good reminder for all of us that not all data leaks occur because a hacker has managed to find a way to breach your network security.
Often the biggest problem is not the threat of external hackers, but rather internal staff to whom you have granted access to sensitive data and who might be tempted to exploit it for financial gain.
For more discussion on this issue, make sure to listen to this episode of the “Smashing Security” podcast:


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A rumor fresh out of BGR claims that iOS 4.3 may debut today at 10 AM Pacific Time. This release date is earlier than the March 11 date suggested last week when the gold master version of the mobile operating system was released to developers.
BGR also claims the widely-reported three device WiFi limit of the personal hotspot feature is incorrect. According to anonymous sources, the carrier determines the limit of personal hotspot connections and can allow five devices to connect if it so chooses. That's in direct contradiction to Apple's iOS 4.3 page, however, which says that the feature supports only three devices via WiFi plus an extra two devices via USB and Bluetooth respectively. It's possible that BGR's sources got the five-device number without realizing that Apple is counting Bluetooth and USB separately from the three-device WiFi limit.
[Interestingly, Verizon's version of the personal hotspot feature is listed as supporting five WiFi devices, full stop. That does lend some traction to the BGR five-device concept, but remember that VZW iPhones aren't running 4.3 and won't be for a while yet. –Ed.]
We can't confirm the validity of the iOS release time, so take it with a grain of salt. On the bright side, we shall know in a mere few hours if this is the real deal or merely a false alarm.
Update: The Loop is reporting that there will be no update today. It is also after 10 AM PT and the update has not materialized so this one is looking to be a false alarm.


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Lots of interesting new tabletop roleplaying games to look at, free downloads, playtests and Cyberpunk Red is getting even closer.
It has been another busy week of RPG news. Are you keeping up with the free to download material, new releases and headlines?
New product releases, all the Kickstarter news and a host of TTRPG news.
The latest news from D&D live, Rime of the Frostmaiden, free downloads and big money dice campaigns on Kickstarter.
The game will use a single D6 for its mechanic. The rules engine is Hicks' One Dice Determines Success system, but it's expected Those Dark Places won't reference it as such.


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As logistics labor challenges go, finding truck drivers is among the toughest nuts to crack these days. The latest numbers from the American Trucking Associations (ATA) show the nation is short about 80,000 drivers, so it’s probably no surprise that companies are sharpening their focus on getting more people behind the wheel.
One of the nation’s largest retailers recently expanded a pilot program aimed at doing just that. Walmart is extending its private fleet development program, a driver-training initiative launched last year in Delaware and Texas, to associates working in its stores, distribution centers, fulfillment centers, and transportation offices across the country. Employees working within 50 miles of a Walmart transportation office can now apply for the associate-to-driver program, a 12-week training course through which they can earn their commercial driver’s license (CDL) and a job as a full-fledged Walmart driver.The retailer, which wants to increase its corps of 13,000 drivers, expects to add 200 through the training program this year alone, according to Jennifer McKeehan, senior vice president for end-to-end delivery at Walmart. Speaking at an industry conference in Atlanta earlier this year, McKeehan called the program “a big investment that has paid off,” noting that the retailer already has a waiting list of associates who want in on the training. Earning potential is a big draw: Walmart raised drivers’ wages in 2022, with first-year drivers now earning up to $110,000 annually.
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