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"Chances are few New Yorkers think about places like Kansas, but at some of New York City's A-list restaurants . . . there's no place like it."
— A recent report on Creekstone Farms beef by Tyler Mathisen on CNBC's "Power Lunch," which has generated a lot of inquiries at the Arkansas City company


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About 90 commercial properties, many in the Clarendon area, will have their tax assessments reviewed after Arlington County said the value of their property jumped 50 percent or higher in the past year.
The retail businesses along Wilson Boulevard reported higher assessments that could add tens of thousands of dollars to their tax bills, an expense that many small restaurateurs would be hard-pressed to afford. The unusual change, in a year when commercial retail asssessments rose 12.4 percent on average, was first reported by the Arlnow.com blog.
Arlington County officials said Friday that it will review all commercial assessments with a 50 percent or greater increase from 2013. The review affects about 90 of the 3,300 commercial parcels in the county, and is expected to take 30 to 45 days. After the review is finished, property owners can still appeal the decision through the county Board of Equalization.
Assessments for this type of property in Arlington are based on the rents and expenses of the property and building in which the business is located, officials said.
“When there is new construction or a site plan or rezoning approval, you can see assessment increases of this magnitude,” said Michelle Cowan, Arlington’s chief financial officer. “We will look at them again ... we want to assure fair and equitable assessments for all property owners.”

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SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Pacific Sunwear psun said Wednesday evening that it will restate some of its financial results for lease-accounting corrections. The Anaheim, Calif.-based clothing retailer expects net income to be reduced by about $1 million for the fiscal year ended Jan. 29, 2005, by $300,000 for fiscal 2004, and by 600,000 for fiscal year 2003. The company said it expects the adjustments to increase net income for the fourth quarter 2005 by $200,000 and by $100,000 for the fourth quarter of 2004.
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The Locavore Group have revealed that they have a new restaurant concept – Herbivore – opening in their original downtown Ubud venue this December, and tables are now available to book. A permanent vegetation takeover of Locavore’s old home, Herbivore invites guests to a wildly different “all flora, no fauna” experience of their local-ingredients-only philosophy.
“Locavore always had a plant-based tasting menu available called ‘Herbivore’, and we are already pretty big on finding alternatives to animal protein as well as not using dairy. Taking the step to create a space that can focus on the celebration of local plants only makes a lot of sense to us,” said Eelke Plasmeijer Locavore’s chef owner.
Guests can choose from a five (lunch only) or seven course tasting menu created by head chef Arnaud Hauchon, with rice-based alcoholic beverage pairings or a seriously crafted non-alcoholic pairing.
Chef Arnaud says, “Our debut menu is designed to be generous and comforting – a gentle, first culinary exploration of local flora, with bold and clean flavours from the island’s most iconic ingredients mingled with lesser known and wilder ones. It’s a warm welcome to restaurant Herbivore.”
Locavore recently closed after 10 years as a small restaurant in downtown Ubud as they prepare to open their new project, Locavore NXT, in a different nearby location. Locavore NXT is also due to open in December 2023.
Restaurant Herbivore (by Locavore)
Jl. Dewisita No.10, Ubud, Kecamatan Ubud, Kabupaten Gianyar, Bali 80571


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Prince Jacob Adejorin, National Leader, Progressive Bakers Association of Nigeria (PBAN), says his group is not contemplating a 30 per cent increase in the prices of bread, biscuits and other items. He was reacting to the directive of the another group of bakers — Association of Master Bakers and Caterers of Nigeria (AMBCN) — to […]
Prince Jacob Adejorin, National Leader, Progressive Bakers Association of Nigeria (PBAN), says his group is not contemplating a 30 per cent increase in the prices of bread, biscuits and other items.
He was reacting to the directive of the another group of bakers — Association of Master Bakers and Caterers of Nigeria (AMBCN) — to its members nationwide to make such increase due to the economic downturn in the country.
The directive was part of the resolution reached at the end of the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of AMBCN, held in Abuja on Wednesday.
The AMBCN explained that the adjustment of price was as a result of the sudden increase in the cost of production as well as prices of sugar, butter, yeast and flour.
AMBCN called on the federal government to take immediate steps towards reducing the high price of flour, as it was killing their businesses.
Reacting, Adejorin told the correspondent in Lagos on Thursday that his own association had no immediate plan to add to the current cost of bread.
He, however, admitted that there was a challenge of increase in the price of flour and other baking ingredients.
Adejorin, the former Chairman, AMBCN, Lagos Chapter, said his own association, PBAN, broke out of AMBCN due to some internal irregularities.
“Notwithstanding the increase in cost of baking items, we have no plans to increase the cost of bread and other baking items from what it is currently.
“The cost of flour has increased drastically, that is the problem we have right now in the baking industry and that is what we are objecting to,” he said.
Adejorin added there were some other reasons not indicated why the AMBCN opted for the increase which his association did not agree with.
He spoke as some Lagos residents expressed displeasure at the proposed increase by AMBCN members, urging the government to intervene.
Mrs Vera Adikwu, a housewife, said that they were still contending with the increase in the price of a good loaf of bread from N300 two years ago to N450 presently.
She said that Nigerians could no longer bear the brunt of the increase in various food items.
Adiukwu urged the government to address the concerns and strife between the bakers and the millers to reduce the burdens of the masses.
“As it is, everything has become expensive, and if we say we want to start to bake at home ourselves, we would still face the same problems the bakers who do it as business are currently facing.
“Government should please address the issues they are having so that ordinary bread can be affordable for ordinary people,” she said.
Also, Mrs Funmilayo Makinde, a supermarket owner, urged government to stabilise the rate of foreign exchange and ensure ease of access to it, to help small business owners purchase raw materials that aid production.
A resident of Ipaja area of Lagos, Mr Solomon Omosuri, related that a particular brand of bread he bought had already gone up by N50 since last week, selling for N550 and N650, against N500 and N600 earlier.
In some other areas visited, the prices still remained unchanged.
Meanwhile, Mr Jude Okafor, National Secretary, AMBCN, said that there had been increase in price of flour and other baking ingredients since the lockdown.
Okafor explained that currently a bag of flour soared N16,000 from N11, 500, while a carton of butter rose from N9, 000 to N11, 500.
Similarly, a bag of sugar cost N19,000 from N17, 000 while a carton of yeast rose to N14, 500 from N13, 000.
Okafor urged government’s intervention over the actions of the flour millers, whom he said were taking advantage of the current foreign exchange irregularities to increase cost of flour.
He noted that majority of the bakers who operated as Small and Medium Enterprises had become heavily indebted while about 30 per cent of them had shut down.
“Our government need to call the flour milling people to order who have taken advantage of the dollar increase to increase illegally the cost of flour even when there is no need for that.
“When Dollar was N400, it was sold for less than N13, 000, and now they have increased to N16, 000 plus.
“Several bakers close down on daily basis and majority of them now heavily indebted.
“These small scale bakers bear the brunt more and we see multinationals trying to takeover the industry from Nigerians because of the advantage of access to foreign exchange to them and corporate machines that does not create jobs for anybody.
“We want a price control board to tackle the actions of the millers as there is no proportional relationship with the increase in dollar and the increase in price of flour,” he said.


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TuneIn has updated the Windows Phone 8 version of its TuneIn Radio app, enabling NFC phone users to share their favourite playlists via NFC. TuneIn offers music, sports and news from more than 70,000 AM, FM and internet radio stations around the world.
- Visa EMV transactions pass 1bn in the US
- Singapore banks add in-store QR code payments to mobile apps
- US Bank ties credit card points to mobile payments
- Mahindra Comviva explores the evolution of digital payments in India
- Amazon gets approval for digital wallet in India


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Peugeot has announced that production of the second generation of the 308 will increase as a result of strong demand. The new 308 has been doing successfully in Europe, considering that the model has received 60,000 orders since its introduction in October 2013.
The Chinese carmaker Qoros used the Geneva Motor Show to reveal the 3 Hatch to the public for the first time. Based on 3 Sedan, even keeping the same space wheelbase, the model will hit the European market in late 2014.
The Maserati GT should take the concept to the next edition of the Geneva Motor Show, which opens to the public next week. According to GT Spirit site, the model will be a preview of the GranSport, sporty new entry of the Italian brand.


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If you haven’t heard yet, now’s the time. Recently, the USDA – whether through strong-arming of corporations or a serious instance of poor judgment – completely deregulated the use of genetically engineered (GMO) alfalfa, a staple in the diet of farm animals. The reverberations of this are hard to overstate, but one simple fact is clear: consumers and advocates of organic food are in serious jeopardy.
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For anyone who is unfamiliar with the international agricultural biotechnology corporation Monsanto, you won’t be for long. Monsanto, in essence, develops genetically engineered seeds, specifically strains like cotton, soy, and wheat, to resist Monsanto’s favorite pesticide, Round-Up. In fact, as of 2010, 93 percent of soy, 86 percent of corn, 93 percent of cotton and 93 percent of canola (rapeseed) seed planted in the US was genetically engineered. Alfalfa is next on the list.
So what’s the big deal about GMOs? Despite the various ethical complications, researchers throughout the world – including the United States, Japan, Australia, and every country in the European Union – are concerned about the potential health risks – and that’s putting it lightly. Since their commercialization in 1992, GMO’s have had a startling correlation with the explosion in food borne illnesses, obesity, diabetes, and other food-related illnesses.
In addition to the health and ethical concerns, the quality and impact of farming, use of pesticides, and threat to native and natural specifies are other major issues. GMO’s allow for the breeding of super weeds that can both resist their pesticides and decimate the land. GMOs, in essence, stem from an infant science that has been thrust upon the world in the last two decades. Some of the countries mentioned, namely Japan and the entire European Union, have outright banned GMOs and products associated with them.
How does Whole Foods come into this? As mentioned above, the USDA has just recently made it official that there will be complete deregulation of GE alfalfa, but prior to this, they laid out three (or two, depending on how you look at it) options. According to The Atlantic News, “the USDA said that it was weighing three options: (1) complete deregulation of GM alfalfa; (2) allowing it to be planted but requiring five-mile buffers between it and non-GM alfalfa; and (3) allowing unrestricted planting except in seed-growing regions to prevent contamination.”
The “two” options were first to “completely deregulate and allow unrestricted commercial growing of the grass, [and secondly, to] restrict growing in order to protect non-genetically engineered crops.” Either way you look at it, it was bad news for organic farmers, consumers, and advocates. This is why so many people jumped the gun with Whole Foods – they supported the latter option, of not complete deregulation. Many people argued they “sold out” or “turned their back” on their customers (something that is reflected in their stocks for the last few days), but the reality is that they were only given two options, both being evil.
Interestingly, the USDA went with the worst option anyways, despite Whole Foods and other companies concerns, making it clear they were never really a player in the decision making process.
A statement was released on the Whole Foods blog, which reads:
“Because we supported the USDA’s approach of coexistence, certain consumer groups misunderstood our efforts and accused us of supporting big biotech, endorsing the proliferation of GE crops, and turning our backs on our shoppers’ and their desire to avoid GE food. Nothing could be further from the truth!…We will continue to work aggressively on this issue because we believe that GMO food ingredients should be clearly labeled, and that consumers who want to avoid them should have an actionable way to do so. While the USDA’s decision will make our work more difficult, we are as committed as ever to ensuring that non-GMO food remains available and we will continue to advocate for our farmers and for our shoppers on this issue.”
All in all, the USDA has clearly proven to be an agent of corporations, and not small businesses or consumers: classic David and Goliath.
As Christine Bushway, executive director and CEO of the Organic Trade Association, put it, “This creates a perplexing situation when the market calls for a supply of crops free of genetic engineering…[C]onsumers will not tolerate the accidental presence of genetic engineered materials in organic products, yet [genetically engineered] crops continue to proliferate unchecked.”
Many people, despite the huge setback and new opportunity for GE supporters to clamor for new laws/destruction of old laws, are still fighting against the USDA’s decisions, and Whole Foods is in the crowd.
Gary Hirshberg, Chairman, President, and CE-Yo of Stoneyfield Farms, powerfully stated, “We now need every ounce of energy, time, muscle and money to be directed to renewing the battle in the courts but also to letting the White House and indeed all of our congressional representatives know that we do not support this takeover of our agriculture by a handful of chemical companies.”
It has been a battle over the last few days, and unfortunately, we lost. However, there is still a war going on, and victor has yet to be determined. What we need to do now is pressure our government to start doing its job: represent the people, not the corporations.
See the USDA's press release here.


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Hundreds of thousands of customers have already placed a deposit on the Tesla Cybertruck in the United States and other international markets (including Australia), but it looks like the electric utility vehicle won’t be approved for sale in Europe unless serious changes are made.
The head-turning aesthetics that thrust the Tesla Cybertruck into the spotlight when it was unveiled last month may be the very thing that keep it off the streets of Europe and Australia.
Like Australia, the European Commission have strict automotive safety protocols that must be adhered to before a vehicle is approved for local sale. As it stands, the Tesla Cybertruck would fail a number of key safety protocols.
According to Stefan Teller, a TUV (roadworthy test) expert in Germany, the Cybertruck would need “strong modifications to the basic structure” before it could be approved for use in the European Union. Teller believes that while occupants may feel safe in the high-riding utility, the rigid structure of the Cybertruck poses a serious threat to passengers and pedestrians.
“Nothing is deformed in the event of an impact. Instead, enormous forces act on the occupants. Airbags no longer help”, said Teller.
In its current configuration, the rigid sheet metal used in the construction of the Cybertruck would almost certainly fail the EU’s increasingly stringent pedestrian and cyclist protection standards.
"The front of the vehicle must not be stiff," said Teller. "The bumper and bonnet must be able to absorb energy to protect the pedestrians."
In order for the Cybertruck to be approved for use in Europe — and likely Australia, it would need to be redesigned using different materials (and design cues) that are more sympathetic to impact for pedestrians and the vehicles occupants.
Passive protection which is tested by Euro NCAP and ANCAP is an important qualifying safety test for the European and Australian markets. However, because the Cybertruck qualifies as a light-duty truck in the United States, it is not subject to the same level of safety scrutiny as regular passenger vehicles.
It’s unclear whether Tesla CEO Elon Musk has plans to make the radical changes necessary for the Cybertruck to be sold in the European Union. On December 4, Musk proudly tweeted that the: “Model X Just earner 5 stars from EURO NCAP in safety testing”, so it is unlikely he is ignorant to the challenges that lay ahead for the Cybertruck in the EU.
Perhaps Musk is banking on success of the Cybertruck in the US market. Despite pre-orders remaining open, the Cybertruck is not expected to be available for sale in the European Union and Australian until late 2021 at the earliest.


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During its WWDC 2019 keynote presentation in San Jose, California, Apple revealed newer and redesigned versions of all its operating systems, including iOS 13, macOS Catalina, tvOS 13, and watchOS 6. The company also revealed a completely new platform, iPadOS, for its tablets.
For its media players, the Apple TV and the Apple TV 4K, the company revealed tvOS 13. The new OS brings a new home screen design, multi-user support, content personalization, support for PlayStation as well as Xbox game controllers, and new 4K HDR screen savers.
Apple tvOS 13 Features
The Apple tvOS 13’s new home screen suggests content, including apps, games, music, and videos, even from third-party apps. Third-party apps can even play full-screen videos on the home screen, which looks like something that Apple was inspired by Netflix’s app. There’s support for multiple users on the same Apple TV, which means that everyone in the family can have their own content synced with the device and access it right from the new sidebar. Since it also features iCloud Sync, tvOS 13 will recommend personalized content to each user.
The new Apple Music app also brings synced lyrics for millions of songs. Currently playing track can be accessed right from the Control Center. Thanks to multi-user support, everyone can have their personalized content, including Up Next, playlists, and radio recommendations. The company already has Apple Music, Apple Podcasts, and Apple TV+ apps for the tvOS, but newer apps will be even better. Apple is also bringing new 4K HDR video screensavers, which are all filmed under the sea in collaboration with BBC Natural History Unit (Blue Planet team) to tvOS 13.
This fall, when the public version of tvOS 13 will be released for the Apple TV and the Apple TV 4K, the company will also bring the Apple Arcade feature. Apple Arcade provides users access to over 100 new and exclusive games for up to six members in the family. Apple Arcade’s monthly subscription costs USD 9.99. Apple Arcade will also be available on iOS, iPadOS, and macOS. Speaking of games, users will also be able to pair and use Sony PlayStation DualShock and Microsoft Xbox controllers with Apple TVs running tvOS 13.
Greg Joswiak, Vice President of Product Marketing, Apple, said, “tvOS powers the Apple TV 4K experience and continues to set the standard for home entertainment. With more personalized features to enjoy your favorite TV shows, movies, photos and music, expanded gaming support and stunning new screen savers, tvOS 13 delivers the most complete entertainment experience to everyone in the home.”


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PRESS DIGEST- New York Times business news - Aug 25
Aug 25 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories on the New York Times business pages. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.
* Companies like Box Inc IPO-BOX.N, Dropbox and Hightail pioneered a new kind of internet service that allows people and companies to store all kinds of electronic files in an easy-to-use online locker. But as often happens, the much bigger companies like Amazon.com Inc and Google Inc liked the idea so much they decided to do the same thing, at a much lower price. To tackle the price issue, Box is trying to cater to special data storage needs, Hightail is trying to do something similar for customers like law firms, and Dropbox is trying to make sure that its consumer-minded service stays easier to use than what the big guys provide. (nyti.ms/1tJr3g8)
* Burger King Worldwide Inc may be home of the Whopper. But the fast-food chain may soon start calling Canada its new corporate residence. The restaurant operator said on Sunday that it is in talks to buy Tim Hortons Inc, the Canadian donut-and-coffee chain, in a potential deal that would create one of the world's biggest fast-food chains. (nyti.ms/1qEV2D7)
* The Swiss drug maker Roche Holding AG agreed on Sunday to buy InterMune Inc, which sells a drug to treat a deadly lung disease, for $8.3 billion, as pharmaceutical companies continue to seek new products to bolster their offerings. (nyti.ms/1zpCn2L)
* Goldman Sachs Group Inc is paying its largest bill yet to resolve a government lawsuit related to the financial crisis. The bank said on Friday that it had agreed to buy back $3.15 billion in mortgage bonds from Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp and Federal National Mortgage Association to end a lawsuit filed in 2011 by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the federal regulator that oversees the two mortgage companies. The agency estimates that Goldman is paying $1.2 billion more than the bonds are now worth. (nyti.ms/VK6epu) Continued...


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In what is being described as a first of its kind, Israel is set to sign a free trade deal with South Korea that excludes settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory and Syrian Golan Heights.
According to Ynet, the free trade deal is not only the first such deal to be signed between Israel and a "major Asian state", but it is also "the first time Israeli government has agreed to sign a free trade deal, the benefits of which wouldn't extend to the Jewish state's disputed [i.e. occupied] territories".
Reports say that the multi-billion-dollar deal will exclude Israeli settlements in occupied territory – all of which have been condemned as illegal under international law – from custom fees exemptions.
The Ynet article says that the deal – "which has been in negotiations for years" – is expected to be signed next week, during an official visit to Israel by South Korean Trade Minister Yoo Myung-hee.
"The deal with Seoul includes a provision where the goods originating from the Israeli settlements in the West Bank and the Golan Heights would not be exempt from customs fees," added Ynet.
Excluding settlements is seen as a price worth paying, since officials "believe the deal with South Korea has an immense strategic importance" as the "first free trade agreement signed with a major Asian country and is expected to pave the way for similar deals with other states in the region".
According to Ynet, "the financial benefits of the agreement are estimated to be in the billions of dollars," and it is also "expected to significantly contribute to reducing the cost of living for the Israeli public by lowering the price of exports."


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Ingersoll-Rand PLC (NYSE:IR) SVP Paul A. Camuti sold 1,800 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $95.00, for a total value of $171,000.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 59,290 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,632,550. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink.
Shares of NYSE:IR opened at $99.81 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a current ratio of 1.30. Ingersoll-Rand PLC has a 12-month low of $79.63 and a 12-month high of $100.06. The firm has a market cap of $23.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.13, a PEG ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 1.34.
Ingersoll-Rand (NYSE:IR) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 25th. The industrial products company reported $1.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.72 by $0.13. Ingersoll-Rand had a net margin of 9.28% and a return on equity of 18.11%. The company had revenue of $4.36 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.21 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.49 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 11.5% on a year-over-year basis. sell-side analysts forecast that Ingersoll-Rand PLC will post 5.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Flagship Harbor Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Ingersoll-Rand in the second quarter worth $106,000. Synovus Financial Corp bought a new stake in Ingersoll-Rand during the first quarter valued at about $118,000. Fort L.P. bought a new stake in Ingersoll-Rand during the second quarter valued at about $121,000. Smithfield Trust Co. boosted its holdings in Ingersoll-Rand by 374.5% during the second quarter. Smithfield Trust Co. now owns 1,376 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $123,000 after acquiring an additional 1,086 shares during the period. Finally, CWM LLC boosted its holdings in Ingersoll-Rand by 653.3% during the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,499 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $135,000 after acquiring an additional 1,300 shares during the period. 81.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Zacks Investment Research downgraded Ingersoll-Rand from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 27th. Argus boosted their price objective on Ingersoll-Rand from $100.00 to $114.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 31st. Barclays boosted their price objective on Ingersoll-Rand from $115.00 to $117.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 9th. Finally, Cowen initiated coverage on Ingersoll-Rand in a research report on Tuesday, June 19th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $111.00 target price for the company. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. The company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $106.23.
Ingersoll-Rand plc designs, manufactures, sells, and services industrial and commercial products. It operates through Climate and Industrial segments. The Climate segment offers building management, bus, rail, and multi-pipe HVAC, control, container and cryogenic, diesel-powered, ductless, geothermal, package heating and cooling, rail and self-powered truck refrigeration, temporary heating and cooling, trailer refrigeration, unitary, and vehicle-powered truck refrigeration systems.
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General Motors is the “official car provider” for the Republican and Democratic conventions. As such, it is lining up hundreds of hybrid and flex-fuel cars to shuttle officials around -– and to try to gain a positive buzz about its “green car” line-up.
The troubled automaker can use all the good publicity it can get. Just this week, it announced major cuts in its workforce, its health care benefits and its dividends, in light of plummeting sales.
For belt-tightening reasons –- and because of the new federal ethics rules -– General Motors will not be throwing the lavish receptions for delegates and politicians that is has in the past. Instead, it will be only showing off cars –- especially the fuel-efficient cars that the Detroit automaker is hoping will breathe new life into the company.
In Denver, General Motors will be providing 445 cars, 395 to the party itself and 50 to the host committee. Three hundred will be hybrids, including the Chevy Malibu and Saturn Aura, which are mid-sized five-passenger cars. The hybrid line-up also will feature the Saturn View, a small S.U.V., and a hybrid version of the full-sized Chevy Tahoe.
Another 135 cars will be flex-fuel cars, ones that can run either on gas or ethanol. In the case of Denver, the ethanol will be made from beer-waste, courtesy of an arrangement with Molson-Coors, which is providing the beer-waste, a byproduct of its beer production.
“This is a terrific venue to showcase our new cars and trucks,’’ said Greg Martin, a G.M. spokesman. “There is white hot attention on the conventions. And there will be a wide range of influential delegates, who are opinion leaders back in their home communities.”
General Motors has provided cars to the conventions since 1980. For the Republican convention in St. Paul-Minneapolis, the company is providing 285 cars to the party and 40 to the host committee. Of those, 170 are hybrids, and most of the rest are flex-fuel. But, in the case of the Republicans, no beer will be put into these cars. The ethanol will be made with Midwestern grain. Mr. Martin said the Republicans are getting fewer cars because they requested fewer cars.
When the conventions are over, the cars will be sent to dealers, where they will be marked down and sold as used vehicles.
Because of the problems at G.M., Mr. Martin said it was more important than ever that G.M. highlight its green fleet.
“We feel that we have to tell the story of a very strong and winning production plan that we have in place,’’ Mr. Martin said. “We want to increase awareness that G.M. has an aggressive plan and new technologies. This is a very visible venue and platform for us, and we want to continue this long-standing tradition.”
Mr. Martin added that the company, even with its financial woes, has no intention of giving up its position as official car provider: “If it weren’t us, other car makers would grab the space in a heartbeat.”


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According to survey findings, body, bumper and closure content grew by 58 percent between 2009 and 2012, with 30 percent of all hoods on 2012 vehicles being aluminum. By 2012, the survey expects 20 percent of all bumpers will be aluminum.
“New, stringent federal fuel economy regulations, coupled with consumer angst about high and unstable gas prices, is leading automakers to move quickly with a total rethinking of vehicle design as they also push ahead with alternate power trains, new technologies and advanced materials. In terms of boosting fuel economy and cutting tailpipe emissions, aluminum offers automakers the fastest, safest, most environmentally-friendly and cost-effective way to get the job done. Low-density aluminum is a game-changer and automakers are moving quickly to take full advantage of all the consumer benefits it provides,” Scheps says. Other Highlights from the Report include:
The average increase in aluminum content since 1975 has been seven pounds per year per light vehicle.
Automakers will, on average, seek to lower the weight of cars and light trucks by at least 10 percent by 2025.
Market factors already in place are projected to push aluminum content to 400 pounds per vehicle in 2015/2016.
Aluminum is gaining market share at the expense of both traditional and high strength steels, which are declining as a percentage of vehicle makeup.
Advanced High Strength Steels (AHSS) also are growing at the expense of inferior steels, but gauge reduction with AHSS provides limited weight savings potential compared to using lower density aluminum. Pound for pound, aluminum replaces more than twice as much weight as AHSS.


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The stock market soared in 2024.
The S&P 500, the index most people focus on their 401(k), hit a record high on Wednesday, with the index up 10% since the beginning of the year. The tech-heavy Nasdaq followed suit with 9% growth over the period, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose more than 5%.
Markets have benefited from a flurry of good news, including better-than-expected economic growth, advances in artificial intelligence, cooling inflation and an expected rate cut by the Federal Reserve, experts told ABC News.
“All of these things are coming together right now,” Mark Dizard, chief investment strategist at PNC Asset Management Group, told ABC News.
But experts say the good times may be short-lived, predicting an economic downturn in the coming months that could wipe out some of the gains.
“I wouldn't be surprised if there was some correction in the spring or summer,” Dizard added.
The U.S. economy has maintained strong growth despite straining under the weight of the highest interest rates in two decades.
U.S. job growth in February was much faster than expected, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics earlier this month.
Inflation-adjusted gross domestic product (GDP) grew at a solid annual rate of 3.3% in the final three months of last year, according to data from the U.S. Commerce Department.
Brett Kenwell, an investment analyst at eToro, told ABC News that the flexibility of the economy is driving the stock market higher, extending its gains far beyond the typical top performers such as tech companies and large corporations. He said he is doing so.
“There's strength throughout,” Kenwell said.
Still, his wide-ranging accomplishments are accompanied by stellar performances within the so-called Magnificent Seven, including Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Tesla, and Nvidia.
Experts say the jump in these companies' stock prices is largely due to enthusiasm for AI. For example, Microsoft owns a major stake in his company OpenAI, which developed ChatGPT. Meanwhile, Nvidia is producing the bulk of the chips behind his AI boom.
Nvidia is up 83% so far this year, more than eight times as much as the S&P 500. Microsoft is up 11%.
“There's a lot of hope in AI,” John DiFucci, a technology analyst at wealth management firm Guggenheim, told ABC News.
In another source of optimism fueling market gains, the Federal Reserve said at a meeting earlier this month that the turbulent inflation would not change its plans to cut interest rates three times this year.
Inflation has fallen significantly from its peak of 9.1%, but remains more than 1 percentage point higher than the Fed's target rate of 2%.
Lower interest rates lower borrowing costs for consumers and businesses, potentially triggering an explosion in economic activity through increased household spending and business investment.
“Rate cuts are on people's minds,” Kenwell said. “Everything plays a big role between the Fed's rate cuts and the underlying fundamentals.
Experts say that despite benefiting from positive economic trends, the market could turn lower in the coming months as traders shy away from high prices and companies struggle to maintain profits. He said it was highly sexual.
If inflation is higher than expected, the Fed could keep interest rates higher for longer than expected. The results will put downward pressure on the market, they said.
“It would be realistic to expect some dip,” Kenwell said. “The real issue is the scale.”
PNC's Dizard agreed. He said the market could fall 5% or 10% in the coming months.
“Having said that, we intend to earn 10% in the first quarter of this year,” Dizard added. “I like that.”


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Anonymized credit card data – only locations and times of purchases made – are enough to identify a person, a new MIT study shows. Shopping habits are so unique, that knowledge of only four transactions help tell who the buyer is.
Three months of credit card transactions carried out by 1.1 million people in 10,000 shops in one country were studied by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology team, which made the results public in a January 30 issue of Science journal.
The name of the country is not specified, it’s only designated as an Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) country. The source of the data is only mentioned as a “major bank.”


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Online tutorial platform Lido Learning has secured $3 million (Rs 22 crore) from new and existing investors, less than six months after it raised its Series A round.
“Considering the current global pandemic, learning online has become the need of the hour. This is pulling the Indian market towards adopting online tutorials much faster than initially expected,” said Lido founder Sahil Sheth.
Lido, owned by Quality Tutorials Pvt. Ltd, was founded in April 2019. It is a platform that sets up live tuition online for students between classes five and nine. It offers features such as interactive sessions, quizzes and games.
The company had secured $3 million in its Series A financing in November last year from Ronnie Screwvala, founder of Unilazer Ventures; and Ananth Narayanan, chief executive at e-pharmacy Medlife; among other affluent individual investors.
Deals in the ed-tech segment
The larger ed-tech segment in India has been the object of investor attention over the last few years. The most heavily funded startup is Byju's, which is part of the unicorn club of startups to be valued at $1 billion.
Toppr and Unacademy are among other ed-tech startups that have also raised significant funding.
Last month, GGV Capital, a venture capital firm with headquarters in the US, participated in the extended Series C round of interactive online tutoring platform Vedantu Innovations Pvt. Ltd.
In January, Gurugram-based DoubtNut raised $15 million in its Series A round of funding led by Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings. Sequoia's Surge was an early investor in DoubtNut.
The same month, growth-stage investor Iron Pillar led a Rs 60-crore (around $8.3 million) Series B round in Testbook, which operates a platform focused on government examination preparations.
In January, DSG Consumer Partners and Blume Ventures co-led an investment in Leverage EdTech Pvt. Ltd, which operates university admissions-focussed startup Leverage Edu.


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Norris Flowers Announces Retirement
After more than 15 years at the helm of Adams County's tourism industry, Norris Flowers has announced his retirement, effective April 1, 2021. As President & CEO of Destination Gettysburg, Flowers led the destination marketing organization and its partnership of more than 300 local businesses through a number of milestones, developments and accomplishments since he arrived in 2005.
"I am very proud of the work that Destination Gettysburg accomplished over the past 15 years," Flowers said. "We are a much different organization than we were when I arrived, and I believe we have become more recognized and respected, not only locally but outside of Adams County. We've remained focused on achieving our goals and objectives in making Gettysburg and Adams County a popular travel destination, and in turn, a significant contributor to the local economy."
Most notably, Flowers led his team through the 150th Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg and the Gettysburg Address in 2013, increased the lodging tax that visitors pay to support the organization's marketing work, rebranded the organization to focus on a variety of experiences beyond Civil War history, and expanded Destination Gettysburg's partnerships within the community.
Flowers announced his departure at a time when the global travel industry is preparing to recover from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has significantly impacted accommodations, restaurants, attractions and retail stores.
"The pandemic has been an enormous hit to the tourism sector, but the travel industry is strong and will rebound—not just across the country, but right here in Adams County," said Flowers. "I have the utmost confidence in the Destination Gettysburg team, our board, our partnership and our community leaders, that tourism will soon return as a vital economic engine in our community."
According to 2019 statistics provided by the Pennsylvania Department of Economic Development, in Adams County, visitors spend more than $735 million annually and tourism supports more than 5,000 jobs, in addition to generating $130 million in federal, state and local taxes.
Before coming to Destination Gettysburg—then known as the Gettysburg Convention & Visitors Bureau—Flowers was Director of Tourism with the Kansas City Convention & Visitors Bureau in Missouri, and then President and General Manager of Coach USA operations in Kansas City and St. Louis.
Rick Beamer, General Manager of the Dobbin House Tavern in Gettysburg, was among the board members of the Gettysburg Convention & Visitors Bureau in 2005 when Flowers started his post as President & CEO.
"Norris has taken the destination marketing organization and the tourism industry in Gettysburg to a new level," said Beamer, who is now the Chairman of Destination Gettysburg's board. "Destination Gettysburg and the tourism industry in Gettysburg is well respected locally and among fellow destination marketing organizations around the country."
Beamer said that Destination Gettysburg will soon conduct a national search for a new President & CEO. Applications and cover letters can be sent to [email protected].
Courtesy of Groups Today.
Photo courtesy of Destination Gettysburg.


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Sweets & Snacks Expo 2019
Sugarpova launches new gummy flavors at Sweets and Snacks Expo - watch
In one of the highlights of this year’s Sweets and Snacks Expo in Chicago was the unveiling of four new, all-natural gummy flavors including Pink Grapefruit, Strawberry Cream, Sour Blue Raspberry and Sour Tart Cherry, by Sugarpova, the company founded by tennis icon Maria Sharapova.
Established seven years ago by the five-time grand slam singles champion, Sugarpova is a premium confection line ‘that celebrates hard work’.
Sharapova said the idea for her company was inspired by her childhood, when she would reward herself after a long day of practice with a sweet treat.
Currently off the tennis circuit because of an injury, Sharapova attended the Sweets and Snacks Expo on day one and talked to Confectionery News about how she continues to lead the company and has a hand in every decision, overseeing each element of the business from creative branding and packaging to product research and development.
Liebe Grüße/Greetings from my heart<3
Posted by Lars,


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There has been a post-Brexit trend exhorting food shoppers to ‘buy British’. But just how feasible is it? And is it necessarily a good thing?
It is not just food. On the ‘Buy British’ Facebook group, recent requests for advice on UK-sourced homemade goods include everything from ‘leisure batteries’ to Lancashire sofa cushions. No, I didn’t know what leisure batteries were either: mostly, they are power sources for mobile homes.
Food, though, as it so often is, has become the foremost application in a new surge towards supporting British industry. Since Brexit, there has been a tectonic shift in consumerism as shoppers look to champion UK-made goods, aware as they are perhaps of the additional costs of trading with Europe, of the benefits of contributing to the national economy, and possibly also to supplement national pride.
Whatever the reason, this collective desire is plenty. Recently, there was concern in one Facebook group that Quaker Oats are apparently made in Dublin. Soon, other members were suggesting supermarket-own varieties, namely those produced by Aldi and Lidl, which are milled here on British shores, and are apparently still “smooth and creamy” when stirred with water as with milk.
Another social media post celebrated a bag of granulated sugar that displayed the words “proudly grown in Britain” on top of a Union Jack. One man shared a picture of a chocolate bar, going so far as to explain the fact it is not only manufactured in Stoke-on-Trent, but is also the work of a British-owned company. A double win, there, for British pride.
You would be right to say that supermarkets in Britain have long sold goods featuring Union Jack flags. They have espoused a homely agricultural ideal when it comes to beef, talking of ‘Welsh lamb’ and ‘West Country beef’, local cheeses and English wines. Today, they are maximising this output.
There has been an increasing number of flags on packaging. The retailers Aldi and Lidl, in a move maybe to counteract impressions they are German and reliant more on imports, have been heavier still with their trumpeting, it seems. Both have pages dedicated to British food on their websites, pledging to do more to buy from internal suppliers.
Traditionally, the paradigm of culinary culture has been firmly cast as seasonal and artisan. It is about looking to our close countryside, where fruit and vegetables grow and are packed into handsome delivery boxes, and it is about recognising the tireless endeavour of the farmers who bring us the tenderest of steaks, if not the Romanians who pick our summer strawberries, a job we only want to do on Saturday afternoons for fun.
Running alongside this now, however, is this apparent shift towards British food not just for its cultural relevance, not only as an ethical, sustainable choice, but as a distinct and robust lifestyle choice, reflecting a pro-Brexit stance. The link is very evident from the discussion sites exhorting people to buy British.
It might turn-off those who identify as Remainers, but isn’t it ultimately a good thing? After all, when it comes to sustainability, limiting food miles and making the most of our lush pastures, sought after since before the Roman empire, are only good. Yes, we should be elevating our food sector, which has, over recent decades, been evolving, diversifying, and improving in quality. And, as the pandemic has shown, there is much to be said for shorter supply lines.
But just far can the ‘buy British’ exhortations get us? If we applied it to all our purchases, would we have the food to get by?
In short, no. We would run out by August, according to experts. The National Farmers’ Union says we are just over 60% efficient, and that is talking generally. When it comes to vegetables, we grow less than 50% of what we consume, and fruit is even less: we produce just 15% of what we eat.
“For an island nation, being able to feed our population is absolutely critical,” NFU president Minette Batters said recently. “Even as a global trading nation, shocks can expose fragilities in any reliance on imports. We all experienced the impact of this during lockdown.
“Imports will always play a crucial role in our food system but our own self-sufficiency must be paid more attention by the government. It is stagnating. We sit now at only 64% self-sufficiency, having fallen from over 75% in the mid-1980s.”
There are lots of reasons for this fall, and, granted, some of them are down to cheaper goods, such as Danish bacon, and Polish apples, being shipped in. There are arguments to suggest concentrating on British pork and apples would be a positive repositioning of resources.
But since the 1980s, the British food system has also become a whole lot more adventurous. French Camembert is basically a staple now, and slices of Iberico ham are hardly luxuries. We should probably not regress.
The farmer and author Joe Stanley says there has to be balance: “Is buying British fundamentally better? Just because it’s grown here doesn’t make it more sustainable.
“There is a lot to be proud about when it comes to British produce. We have the highest welfare standards in the world, some of the highest quality meat. When it comes to sustainability, let’s hope people buy British, and shop local, and support our industry. British consumers have been traditionally concerned with price, which is a more American mindset than a European one. So there’s a lot to celebrate if people are paying more attention to food.
“But it’s also a huge shame that the buy British mindset, this Union Jack patriotism, is getting tied up with nationalism. The petty flag use we see in our government is altering things.
“We’re having these conversations about buying British, and at the same time we are straying into an unfortunate nationalistic territory. We’re witnessing the toxification of the British brand.”
Stanley says Europe is as important as ever, both when importing and exporting food.
“We absolutely need to nurture trade links,” he says. “There’s a reason America is so desperate to sign a trade deal with us – because we’re a wealthy nation that imports a lot of food.
“It’s taken generations to foster relationships with our European partners to get the food system we have. Liz Truss thinks, ‘oh, Kuwait eats a lot of lamb, let’s go there’. Europe is full of wealthy people, and we should want to sell them our food.
“I’m sure people don’t want to go back to a diet of potatoes and cabbage. We were a culinary backwater. Everyone expects to be able to access a decent range of food. Sure, we should buy seasonal, and be local, but it cannot be only about that, realistically.”
The farmer and broadcaster Gareth Wyn Jones says the ‘buy British’ discourse is largely positive. After all, he says, last year was one of the best years for lamb, which was “up £1 per kilo”.
“I think it’s a really good thing. People are getting behind British agriculture. It’s about bloody time. We have a lot of bridges to cross.
“We should be adding to it – salad, fruit, veg. We need to be building that British economy on what we’re growing and eating. In the bigger picture we’ll be more sustainable, more seasonal, and with no added cost. We shouldn’t have strawberries in December and French beans from Kenya.”
But Wyn Jones adds that while the buying British sentiment is a welcome one, so too is continuing to nurture links with Europe.
“Diversity is good for food. We do have to ask ourselves, when it comes to cheaper food, ‘how is that produced?’ Do we want avocados brought in from Mexico, where its popularity is causing problems.
“But yes, as some who put Welsh lamb into Europe, I don’t want trade to stop. It’s one of the best products in the world. That’s why it’s imported. And yes, it works both ways. French Camembert. Spanish ham. Wine.
“But carrots – there is no reason why all our carrots shouldn’t be British. I was a Remainer. I want to stay in Europe. I’m not Nigel Farage screaming about buying British. But I’m also a farmer who cares about the environment, so there is a valid point to be made, however it’s dressed up.”
When it comes to carrots, we’re pretty good, actually. The British Carrot Growers Association says the UK grows approximately 800,000 tonnes of carrots annually and is self-sufficient for 11 months of the year.
Patterns get a little more drastic when it comes to food that favours a warmer locale. British tomato production amounts to about 92,000 metric tonnes per year, which is about a fifth of the total volume sold in the country in that timeframe, according to the British Tomato Growers’ Association.
We need to import over 400,000 tonnes of fresh tomatoes every year to meet demand. “The retail value of British tomato production… is around £190 million out of a total retail market value of £740 million,” the organisation explains. So we’d need a hell of a lot more polytunnels to get anywhere near self-sufficiency. Our pasta sauces and our salads would suffer for quite some time, never mind the investment required.
Sheffield University’s professor Duncan Cameron is the co-director of the Institute for Sustainable Food. He says we should be thinking about the sort of food system we want rather than how that system is acquired.
“Personally, and academically, I think the issue of self-sufficiency is a classic case of the wrong question.
“We talk of an air of Little England, and quasi-nationalism in relation to food. That might be present. But with sustainability and food security, we need to think about what sort of diet we want.
“When we talk about buying British, it’s difficult to know what that actually means. We generally do with lamb, but we all still want to drink coffee and eat mangoes. It’s hard to see how far it can go.
“Certainly there is a logical case to be made for a more local and seasonal food system. That’s usually the more sustainable option, but it isn’t always, even when taking food miles into account.
“Tomatoes are grown under the sun in Spain – they’re more sustainable than tomatoes grown here in a polytunnel. It’s not always that local is best.
“Another overlooked point is where does the labour come from? Say we did all buy British exclusively, who would grow and pick the fruit and vegetables? Around 30% of food manufacturing is filled by EU workers. It’s more in the summer.
“We need these skills and we have a heavy reliance on EU workers. Our food industry wouldn’t exist without a migrant workforce.”
It ought to be supposed that there might be a degree of shortsightedness in this sudden, overarching premise of buying British, not only as a regenerative motion but as a political standpoint.
It works in some aspects but falls well short in others. And as it pushes on, the tide of Union Flags waving triumphantly atop joints of roast pork and summer strawberries, let us spare a thought for bananas, and olive oil, for supermarkets would be all the more boring without them.
Dominic Goudie, the head of international trade at the Food and Drink Federation, is a force of balance if I am not: “UK manufacturers are committed customers of UK farming, and also depend on imports of ingredients that aren’t produced domestically or not in sufficient quantity. These imports complement our use of UK-produced inputs and are key to delivering the world-leading choice, quality and value for money enjoyed by UK shoppers.
“Ultimately, the UK’s food and drink manufacturing sector is driven by consumer demand and over time consumers have come to expect foods and ingredients from across the globe. It would require quite fundamental changes to the food supply chain and a huge reduction in product choice to move to a self-sustained system.”


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Based on a statement by gizchina, it seems that AMD could start manufacturing mobile chipsets in collaboration with MediaTek in the near future. While there is no official information in regards to when will AMD release their first chipset, it does give us a better idea of what to expect from them in the near future.
However, this isn’t the first time AMD has been producing chips, because smartphones that are equipped with the Samsung Exynos 2200 chipsets come with AMD GPU embedded inside. With all that said, do take every bit of information with a grain of salt, due to the fact that AMD, as well as MediaTek has yet to provide an official statement on the leaked info.
Not only that, but there’s also no news on the Malaysia release date, local pricing, and exact tech specs of the phone that will come with AMD’s chipset. What are your thoughts on AMD potentially start manufacturing mobile chipset? Let us know on our Facebook page and for more updates like this, stay tuned to TechNave.com.


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Breaking ground with South Africa’s second traditional trend!
“Old Fashioned” Fish and Chips is reaching for new heights with the introduction of a new chicken brand, Chingos that launched this year into the fast food industry under the new umbrella company Traditional Brands Inc.
The ever popular and highly successful “Old Fashioned” Fish and Chips franchise opened their first franchised outlet just 5 years ago. Now opening their 350th outlet and doing so with another 150 outlets on the cards before December 2012 not only brings on the excitement of South Africa’s truly successful brand but a traditionally South African brand that will take global waters by storm with a new partnering brand.
Chingos Chicken will launch alongside the famous “Old Fashioned” concept under Traditional Brands Inc. as a strategic motivation for what the brands stand for …Value!
With the flagship Chingos store opening up alongside the “Old Fashioned” flagship in Elma Park, Johannesburg, South Africa in April 2012 it is of no doubt that the brand will be launching with many interesting personalaties attending the grand opening to ensure they are next in line for the deliciously famous chicken recipe. Without a doubt this new venture from the traditional De Sousa family will tickle the taste buds of eager investors and partners who see the value and return in today’s economic climate.
Chingos will serve ‘all things chicken’ and promises to build on the core principles that made “Old Fashioned” Fish and Chips the fastest growing franchised brand in South Africa: clinically clean stores, friendly service, great quality, low prices and a sound business model with that “moreish” encouragement to invest! A concept competitiors have attempted to replicate but are yet to deliver the originality that “Old Fashioned” and Chingos have and will do so for many years to come.
So how has the “Old Fashioned” Fish and Chips franchise managed to keep on growing in the current economic climate one may ask? The brand operates on a strong family ethos which is undoubtedly one of the main reasons why the franchise has been so successful and will continue to be so in the future. Despite the rapid expansion of the brand, the De Sousa family has been able to retain their personal touch in all aspects of the brand whether it is in the opening of a new store with CEO, Emilia De Sousa, alongside the franchisee or introducing a new line into the product range with Marketing Director, Nicolas De Sousa, putting the product through traditional trials in his very own kitchen.
“Old Fashioned” Fish and Chips would not be a success without the brand’s franchisees of course. Repeat investors is one of the contributing factors that has seen the “Old Fashioned” Fish and Chips brand opening up over 350 stores to date. Some franchisees have opened up to 10 stores each due to the impressive 8 – 11 month ROI (Return on Investment) and the efficiently structured planning of franchisee growth patterns.
“Old Fashioned” Fish and Chips has accomplished beyond what any other franchise has achieved. In a one year period alone, “Old Fashioned” Fish and Chips sold a total of 9 408 287 units of hake fish and 56 million kilograms of A-grade potatoes. Sure, these numbers are impressive from an investor’s point of view but what have they done for economic stimulation … how about over 8 000 new jobs created to date?! That is almost 10% of new job creation every year in South Africa alone. With the brand truly doing its part for the investor and the economy it would be hard to miss what it could do if it were a cause to cure hunger in South Africa. With the volumes sold in 2011 alone of core product, “Old Fashioned” Fish and Chips has the ability to feed each and every South African, every single day, twice a day for an entire year! Who knows, that may just be their next move, “Old Fashioned” for President.
With the comical idea of assisting the government in managing South Africa’s resources and governance it is often highlighted that they are in fact consecutive leaders in getting it right despite the humour of this family brand. With every year of operation being an acknowledgement of their achievement and success with various RASA Awards of Excellence and FASA Finalists for Brand of the Year, they most definitely are brands to keep an eye on.
So all that is left to ask is: will you have an “Old Fashioned” Fish and Chips or Chingos Chicken in 2012?
For more information about becoming an “Old Fashioned” Fish And Chips or Chingos Chicken franchisee, please contact:


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The expansion of Apple Inc. moving towards ‘buy now pay-later financing’ could be just the beginning of an attempt to shake up the traditional payment system.
The consumer electronics giant has done other financial services ventures before, including through its Apple Pay payment technology and a co-branded credit card with Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
BNPL launch, announced in June at the WWDC developer eventis notable because the company has decided to take on lending itself through a new internal financing arm.
The pursuit suggests that Apple may have bigger financial ambitions in the future and not just disrupt the BNPL market that players like Affirm Holdings Inc. includes.
and PayPal Holdings Inc.
but also the broader banking and financial technology landscape.
“It could be a tipping point in consumer lending,” said Tom Noyes, the managing partner of Starpoint LLP consulting and a Citibank veteran.
For Pay Later, Apple uses Mastercard payments, a program from the card giant that let lenders make installment offers to customers, and Apple’s new financial arm will retain government loan licenses. Goldman will be the issuing bank, but “in name only,” Noyes said, as the smartphone giant creates a new lending entity of Apple Financing LLC that will make credit decisions.
The creation of an Apple lending unit is “really big news,” Noyes continued, but also a bit “back to the future.”
Before Visa Inc.
and Mastercard Inc.
came into existence and created open-loop cards that could be used almost anywhere stores would offer their own credit to customers in a closed-loop model, Noyes said. Now Apple could move to get the best of both worlds: Its upcoming, open-loop Apple Pay Later product allows consumers to split purchases into interest-free chunks at any store that accepts Apple Pay, but the company may also see its expansion into lending as a way to help customers better finance the purchase of iPhones and other Apple devices.
By enabling consumers to pay for devices more easily, Apple could boost its sales, expand its ecosystem and offer a type of financing in BNPL that is gaining traction, especially among younger consumers, despite some concerns it might can lead shoppers to spend beyond their means†
Apple is also reportedly investigating the creation of in-house payment processing technology and infrastructureBloomberg has said. And in the longer term, through loans and other efforts, the company could look for opportunities to devour the traditional banking system, given the economics of card transactions.
When consumers make credit card purchases from a merchant, that merchant pays their bank a discounted rate, meaning the merchant does not receive the full price of the item purchased. Then the merchant’s bank splits that discount fee into an interchange fee that is paid to the bank that issued the card, discounts for Mastercard or Visa, and an amount for itself.
Because Apple is a huge retailer, card costs are mounting and the company may see opportunities to reduce what it pays by getting more involved in the transaction process itself.
“The reason banks exist is as someone who vouches for you and takes risks in transactions,” Noyes said. “Today, Apple, Google and Amazon know you better than any bank, and they’re all looking for ways to improve the financial services you need.”
Rather than pay card fees while its customers also earn credit card interest, Apple may look at its current financial system and realize it “could only build this business by cutting costs alone,” Noyes added.
He noted that emerging markets such as India and Brazil have payment systems without the fee models that people in the US are used to. “In the US, we need to prepare for days when the exchange goes to zero,” Noyes said.
Even if such a move were to bring success to Apple, it’s an open question whether other retailers could realistically follow the company’s lead in financial services and lending.
“It takes a pretty big organization to get this done,” Noyes said. He stressed that Target Corp.
has seen strong adoption of his RedCard, although he sees that happening more on the debit side.
and Google from Alphabet Inc
have shown growing ambitions in fintech, but seem less likely to build their own internal lending business.
As it stands, Amazon has its Amazon Pay digital wallet and is partnering with Affirm to offer installment payment options. And timeframes seem “a natural evolution of Google Wallet,” but perhaps in cohort with an existing player, said Jordan McKee, a chief research analyst at 451 Research, which is part of S&P Global Market Intelligence.
“I think Apple will be somewhat unique… in terms of offering these types of services completely in-house and lending its own balance sheet,” McKee said. “I expect others to partner with existing providers and traditional financial institutions.”
Some banks, for their part, have tried to stay ahead of the BNPL threat by offering some variation of the trend themselves. Citi, Chase and American Express Co.
have options for consumers who want to split certain purchases into installments.
Financial institutions “have been keeping a close eye on BNPL as they realize that while it may not pose a threat to the credit card side of the business today because its primary users are younger, debit-oriented consumers, there is a real possibility that if that younger consumers who grew up on BNPL are getting older, they may never graduate,” said McKee.
A younger consumer whose first credit experience is Apple Pay Later may eventually switch to an Apple Card instead of a Citi or Bank of America Corp credit card.
McKee also focuses on the broader implications for the BNPL market, which has found itself in difficult times amid rising interest rates, increasing credit risk and shrinking margins. Affirm, which offers both interest-free and interest-bearing installment products, has seen its shares fall nearly 80% so far this year.
While Affirm, privately owned Klarna, Block Inc.’s
Afterpay and PayPal are among the big names in the industry, there are also plenty of smaller players. For Block and PayPal, BNPL is just one part of the overall business, and Affirm and Klarna have expanded into adjacent areas such as content discovery and bank-like products with debit cards.
“The BNPL provider that only does BNPL is being pressured,” McKee said. There is an “increasing need for consolidation” or a move to neighboring areas in the hopes that a more diversified company could “fend off newcomers to the space like Apple.”
BNPL’s services make money in several ways. The typical interest-free offering is merchant-funded, meaning retailers will give BNPL companies a share of the transaction value in return for making consumers more willing to go through with a purchase. Interest-bearing BNPL options are more like traditional loans, as consumers assert the right to pay over time.
Apple itself does not charge merchants for Apple Pay Later. A spokesperson for Mastercard said that “the fees associated with the program are value-based and shared among lenders, acquirers and the network.”
So Apple’s interest-free BNPL offering comes at an interesting time for the industry, as merchant fees have fallen amid growing competition, forcing traditional carriers to find new revenue streams, according to Francisco Alvarez-Evangelista, a consultant at Aite – Novarica Group.
His research shows that consumers generally prefer an interest-free offer. But BNPL firms may be increasingly motivated to provide more interest-bearing loans for economic reasons.
Unlike established players, Apple isn’t necessarily looking to make Pay Later a major source of income. The company is more likely to see opportunities within lending to bolster the stickiness of its business and keep consumers locked in the ecosystem, Alvarez-Evangelista said.
“A big player like Apple can come in and disrupt the space and say, we know competitors are shifting to interest-bearing, but let’s step back and go to interest-free,” he said.


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CenturyLink renews SVG Europe Gold Sponsorship
CenturyLink, a technology provider delivering hybrid networking, cloud connectivity, and security solutions to customers around the world, has renewed its Gold Sponsorship of SVG Europe for another year.
In 2019, CenturyLink also sponsored the SVG Europe Women networking event at IBC, helping to promote women in the sports broadcasting industry.
Rory McVicar, director of product management, internet and content delivery services, CenturyLink EMEA, commented: “We’re pleased to renew our sponsorship of SVG Europe. The sports sector is undergoing a huge transformation, harnessing the latest digital services to increase viewing engagement with fans.
“SVG Europe provides us with valuable opportunities to share information on how CenturyLink is helping customers to provide a richer, more immersive viewer experience and engage in the discussion about the future of sports broadcasting and content distribution with a powerful network of sports broadcast professionals,” he continued.
CenturyLink provides high quality video acquisition, distribution, and delivery for many of the world’s largest and most innovative broadcasting and media companies and has a proven track record of delivering large-scale sports broadcast events on a global scale.
Its comprehensive portfolio of content distribution and broadcast solutions and services on top of its global fibre network, provide far-reaching, fast and reliable digital content delivery to virtually any type of device, to provide an optimum viewer experience.
CenturyLink’s content network delivery (CDN) services include video delivery, web delivery, digital downloads, peer-to-peer mesh delivery, object and file-based storage, and CDN Edge Compute, a global edge content delivery platform to drive web application innovation.


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Having a budget, plan can keep your family's finances safe during Holiday shopping frenzy
What You May Have Missed
By Jasen Lee, Deseret News
Published: Tuesday, Nov. 27 2012 12:00 a.m. MST
The average consumer spent $423 between Thursday and Sunday, up more than 6 percent over last year, while overall spending jumped nearly 13 percent to an estimated $59.1 billion, according to the National Retail Federation.
“The whole point of the spending (plan) — i.e. the budget — is to guide us to do the things that we ultimately want to do.”
DeseretNews.com encourages a civil dialogue among its readers. We welcome your thoughtful comments.
— About comments


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Tremor has lost more than two-thirds of its value since going public in June 2013, and YuMe has tumbled 48 percent since its initial public offering two months later. Combined, the companies are worth less than $300 million.
In the hyper-competitive technology world, that sort of performance makes recruiting a tremendous challenge.
Read MoreYahoo to acquire BrightRoll
It also helps explain why San Francisco-based BrightRoll jumped at Yahoo's $640 million cash offer, in a deal that was announced on Tuesday. BrightRoll's technology helps brands automate the purchasing of ads on video sites. The company says that 87 of the top 100 U.S. advertisers use the service and projects net revenue this year of more than $100 million.
"We've been focused on building a great business here at BrightRoll, and this is an excellent outcome for us," Maya Komadina, a company spokeswoman, said in an email. "We don't comment on the performance of other companies in our space."
Read MoreBeginning of digital video growth
Online ad expert Ari Paparo, an executive at Bazaarvoice, wrote a blog post last December, looking at potential ad-tech IPO candidates for 2014. "BrightRoll is as big or bigger by revenue than the current crop of public video companies," he said. "It certainly could file if it wanted to but might be avoiding the markets because of the poor performance of Tremor and YuMe."
Jayant Kadambi, chief executive officer of Redwood City, California-based YuMe, said in an email that being independent makes his company "particularly well-suited to meet our partners' demand for tailored, customized solutions."
Sales growth at YuMe slowed to 19 percent in the third quarter from 39 percent in the same period a year earlier. That's better than New York-based Tremor, which reported growth of 11 percent, down from 17 percent a year earlier. A Tremor representative declined to comment.
The central problem for all challengers is that Google is a relentless competitor in online ads and owns the market-leading Web video service YouTube. EMarketer predicts that YouTube will reel in $1.13 billion in video ad revenue this year, accounting for 19 percent of the U.S. digital video ad market. The rest of the business is fragmented, creating a price war that benefits those spending the money.
Read MoreGoogle's race for tech supremacy
"One-stop shopping, or at least fewer steps for ad buyers, is increasingly important as digital advertising becomes increasingly complex," eMarketer analyst David Hallerman said in an email. "There are so many companies competing in this space, and having something special to offer becomes essential to distinguish itself from others."
Yahoo can plug BrightRoll's technology into its existing ad network and play in a market where it has struggled. As far as video ad deals go, the price actually looks pretty good. AOL bought Adap.tv last year for $405 million, and Facebook reportedly spent around $500 million on LiveRail in July.
"Video is one of the largest growth opportunities, and BrightRoll is a terrific, strategic and financially compelling fit for our video advertising business," Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer said in the announcement.
According to a report early this year from comScore, BrightRoll ranked fifth in terms of total number of video ads viewed in January at 2.3 billion. The leader was SpotXChange at 3.5 billion, and BrightRoll was one of seven companies (including Google, AOL and Hulu) that logged between 1 billion and 3 billion.
Since launching in 2006, BrightRoll has raised more than $45 million from investors such as Trident Capital, True Ventures and Scale Venture Partners. While the venture backers aren't getting the kind of blockbuster returns that light up Silicon Valley, they'd highly prefer this to watching a plummeting stock price.
Disclosure: CNBC has a content-sharing partnership with Yahoo's finance site.


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BOSTON, Dec. 3, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- FinTech Sandbox announced today that Tiingo Inc., an award-winning online financial data analytics tool and market data provider, has signed on as a Data Partner, bringing the total number of Data Partners of the Boston-based nonprofit to 40.
FinTech Sandbox facilitates innovation in the financial sector by making data and infrastructure available to well-qualified FinTech startups at the point when such access is most impactful. These Sandbox startups, in return, are expected to collaborate with each other, sharing learnings and advancements that benefit the FinTech ecosystem. Participating startups pay no fees, and no equity is taken.
Said Rishi Singh, CEO of Tiingo, "FinTech Sandbox has made extraordinary inroads by helping FinTech start-ups break through the traditionally high barriers they face: from regulation, to compliance, meeting enterprise clients, and gaining access to expensive data feeds. We are proud to join the FinTech Sandbox as a data partner and bring Tiingo's high-quality data feeds, knowledge, and expertise to the Sandbox residents. We hope to help further the breaking down of barriers so our industry can focus on innovation."
Tiingo is making the following data available:
Tiingo's News Feed covers 20 million articles and over two decades worth of news. The feed structures content based on assets mentioned (Equities, Crypto, FX) as well as topics and tags. In addition to standard financial news outlets, Tiingo's feed focuses on unstructured information sources, such as art blogs, tech publications, niche farming publications, healthcare trade magazines, and other trade-specific content.
End-of-Day Equity & ETF Prices
Tiingo's End-of-Day prices cover 32,000 U.S, and Chinese equities listed across all U.S. exchanges (including OTC Group) and Chinese exchanges. Pricing history dates back 50+ years to 1962 for U.S. equities, including both adjusted and unadjusted prices.
Intraday Real-Time Data
Tiingo utilizes its direct connection to the IEX exchange to produce a low-latency translated binary feed. Additionally, Tiingo enriches IEX data to produce more frequent ticks, which also results in more intraday coverage than the IEX Exchange.
Mutual Fund NAVs
Tiingo covers NAVs for 33,000 U.S. Mutual Funds and CEFs. Data incudes distributions and Mutual Fund split data. NAV history goes back to the 1970s and includes both adjusted and unadjusted NAVs.
Mutual Fund Fee Data
Tiingo includes detailed Mutual Fund and ETF fee data for 34,000 tickers. Fee data includes: net expense ratio, gross expense ratio, marketing (12b-1) fees, distribution fees, other fund expenses, acquired fund fees, front-end load fees, back-end load fees, reinvested dividend load fees, redemption fees, account fees, exchange fees, other shareholder fees, and custom account fees related to the fund.
End-of-Day Crypto & Intraday Data
Tiingo Crypto API contains a live intraday and end-of-day price timeseries for over 4,100 native crypto tickers. Additionally, the API handles crypto conversions from any base currency to any quote currency, including alt coin to alt coin conversions. Historical intraday data bars, end-of-day data, and tick data is available across 12 exchanges.
Tiingo Forex Data is the first forex feed available to FinTech firms that connects to a variety of large banks.
Jean Donnelly, Executive Director of FinTech Sandbox, said, "We are very pleased to partner with Tiingo, an innovative financial data provider committed to bringing new datasets to market, innovations in data science, and allowing innovation across industries. In addition, we believe Tiingo's mission will resonate with FinTech entrepreneurs who are motivated by a desire to bring positive change to society."
Over 180 startups from around the world have been accepted as participants since FinTech Sandbox launched in 2015. Alumni include Kensho (acquired by S&P Global), Petal, TellusLabs (acquired by Indigo), and Quantopian. Companies accepted to the program have gone on to raise, in aggregate, more than $400 million.
About Tiingo Inc.
Tiingo is an award-winning financial analytics and data platform that powers thousands of asset managers, technology firms, and individuals across the globe. Unique in its position as both a consumer of its data and distributer, Tiingo is trusted by firms across the industry for its clean and unique datasets, which are engineered for the discovery of new alpha sources. With a mission deeply rooted in democratizing access to financial analytics and data, Tiingo is also a leader in financial education for future generations, having partnered with research departments at universities across the world to advocate for financial markets literacy. To learn more about Tiingo's APIs visit https://api.tiingo.com and to learn more about the Tiingo analytics engine, visit https://www.tiingo.com.
About FinTech Sandbox
FinTech Sandbox is a Boston-based nonprofit that promotes innovation in financial technology and financial services globally by providing FinTech entrepreneurs and startups with access to critical data and resources. FinTech Sandbox also organizes Boston FinTech Week, the world's largest free FinTech conference, each September. For more information, please visit http://www.FinTechSandbox.org and http://www.twitter.com/FinTechSandbox.
SOURCE FinTech Sandbox


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Cooperation with other affected exporters possible
US President Donald Trump speaks at a meeting with leaders of the steel and aluminum industries at the White House in Washington, DC on Thursday. (Photo: VCG)
China might be seeking cooperation with the EU, Canada and others that have been impacted by US tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, according to a former senior trade official and several other experts on Monday.
Since US President Donald Trump announced a 25 percent tariff on steel imports and 10 percent on aluminum on Thursday, China has been relatively quiet on the issue compared with others such as the EU, which threatened retaliation. But the former official and experts urged the Chinese government to seek global cooperation in defending its interests.
"China should deal with this actively. It should not only tackle the issue itself, but should join with other 'victims' in appealing to the WTO to seek justice," Wei Jianguo, former vice commerce minister, told the Global Times on Monday.
"China is not only the largest victim of unfair global trade, but also the main target of this US protectionism. China is not the main target of these steel and aluminum tariffs, but if you lose your voice, then you lose friends and the best chance to counter," said Wei, who is currently the deputy director of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges (CCIEE). "We should not sit idly by just because the [impact] is small."
China's steel and aluminum exports to the US have dropped substantially in recent years due largely to various protectionist measures taken against Chinese companies, so the new tariffs will have a smaller impact on China than on the EU, Canada, South Korea and Brazil, according to industry experts.
In 2017, China's steel exports to the US stood at 1.18 million tons, down 78.15 percent from 2006, according to Wang Guoqing, director of Beijing Lange Steel Information Research Center, who cited Chinese customs data.
Exports to the US market only accounted for 1.57 percent of China's total steel exports in 2017, compared to 12.56 percent in 2006, Wang noted, adding that the decline was a result of rising US anti-dumping and countervailing measures since 2006.
"While the impact from the new tariff seems limited, the Chinese steel industry has been hurt badly by the US over the years," Wang told the Global Times on Monday. She also suggested that "China should definitely counter the US move."
Bai Ming, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation in Beijing, noted that many people "may think that the move does not affect China that much, but we have to be aware that the US has conducted several rounds of anti-dumping and anti-subsidy measures toward China's steel industry. So if we look at the larger picture, China has already suffered a lot."
Prepare for trade war
"We do not want a trade war but we should be prepared for one," Bai told the Global Times on Monday.
Xu Hongcai, an economist at the CCIEE, said that one way for China to respond would be to reduce imports from the US.
"For example, China is now importing a large amount of beef from the US, but we can import beef from other countries. It doesn't have to be from the US," Xu said.
But a more reasonable way to respond to the US move would be to work with other countries, the experts noted. The Trump administration will reportedly announce a detailed plan for the tariffs in the coming days.
"China should work together with other countries in the world to cope with the situation, and to reach a consensus on the tariff issue," Gao Liankui, a member of the Advisory Board of the Royal East and West Strategy Institute of Oxford University, told the Global Times.
The Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM), in its only official response to the US measures so far, also alluded to cooperation with others.
"If the US' final measures hurt Chinese interests, China will join hands with other countries to take corresponding measures to defend its interests," Wang Hejun, head of the trade remedy and investigation bureau of MOFCOM, said in a statement on Friday.
However, recent media reports suggested that some countries such as the UK and Canada as well as US politicians are urging the US government to reconsider the plan and possibly give exemptions for US allies. US officials have so far reportedly said there will not be exemptions for any country.
Still, Wei, the former top trade official, said that China and these countries "can definitely cooperate."


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The company made that decision a year ago and there are indications it was a good move, Xiaomi's Chief Financial Officer, Chew Shou Zi, told CNBC's "Squawk Box' on Thursday.
"We believe that for this year, our strategic focus is to strengthen our position in the mid and high-tier market," Chew said.
Xiaomi started off by making high-end smartphones at substantially lower price points compared to other device makers. But increasingly, the company has faced intense competition from other low-cost Chinese rivals like OPPO and vivo.
"For this quarter, the reflection of the success of our strategy was an increase in our average selling price by 25 percent of our smartphones in China," Chew said.
He added that the shifting focus, along with expansion into offline channels, will "lay a very good groundwork for growth in 2019 and beyond."
Xiaomi shares rose 1.36 percent on Thursday morning in Hong Kong.


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Ian BezekInvestorPlace Contributor
About Ian Bezek
Ian Bezek earned his economics degree from Colorado State University in 2010. He then worked as an analyst for Kerrisdale Capital, a New York City-based activist hedge fund, from 2011-13. Since then, Ian has focused on finding under-the-radar investment opportunities, particularly overseas. To that end, he taught himself Spanish and has lived in Mexico and Argentina among other countries. He currently resides in Colombia with his family. You can find him on Twitter at @irbezek.
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A new report finds positive sentiments towards the Bay Area among some accounting professionals.
05 June 2018
A new report from ACCA Hong Kong – the local arm of global accountancy body the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants – identifies how Hong Kong can carve its niche in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Bay Area, an ambitious plan to build a world-class city cluster by linking Hong Kong, Macau and nine cities in Guangdong Province.More
The role of key opinion leaders is growing in Hong Kong, offering strong potential for influencer marketing in the city.
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A number of months ago, for the second year in a row, in fact, Benj was lucky enough to be invited to the Bloomberg Economic Series in Toronto. The event features speakers from the world of politics such as Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne and federal New Democrat Leader Tom Mulcair, but also experts in the areas of stock and energy markets, along with others from fields afar such as sports.
This year, Benj was fortunate to be seated beside the fascinating Richard Peddie, who was the president and CEO of Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment for 14 years until he retired at the end of 2011. When the Contra Guy mentioned that the Leafs had done horribly during his tenure and summarized it with a sarcastic, “Ah, the glory years,” Mr. Peddie replied, “We had a lot of fun.”
Fair enough, albeit not for the fans. ESPN concluded that the Leafs were the worst team in the NHL in terms of “bang for the buck.” Certainly ticket and concession prices are absurd, especially relative to the team’s sucky record. There is simply no value here, but it does show that one can sell shoddy goods at major league prices.
Want cheap? Even with the Canadian dollar at a moribund level, shopping in the United States at discounters such as Big Lots, Dollar General and Wal-Mart can score some deals. All of these enterprises are huge, with the first having over 1,450 stores in 48 states; the second almost 13,000 stores in 43 states; and the third over 11,500 stores in 28 countries. Revenues for the first two work out to better than $5 billion (US) and $20 billion respectively, though tiny indeed compared to Wal-Mart’s $484 billion and generous dividend.
Big Lots and Dollar General both have excellent balance sheets, earn money year after year and have reasonable insider ownership. Wal-Mart does as well, with the exception being that the insiders own better than 50 percent of the stock. That means that decision-making power remains tightly held and a takeover from an outsider is unlikely. Takeover artists would need a heap of change to acquire Big Lots and Dollar General, but they are small fry compared to Wal-Mart.
Though the US economy is in far better shape than a few years ago, it is certainly not firing on all cylinders. The global economy continues to face huge headwinds and many pundits feel that harsher economic times are around the corner. That could bode well for these chains, as even though consumers might curtail spending, a lot who normally shop at more expensive places will gravitate towards discounters.
Are any of these stocks in the bargain bin? It is hard to find one as they all trade way above book value. In addition, relative to their historical stock prices, all three are valued towards the high end, although Wal-Mart has lost about one-third of its value this year, tumbling from over $90 to about $60. So while all of these enterprises offer shoppers deals, the stock prices do not. Even a guy named Buffett from Omaha has been selling some of his shares in Wal-Mart.
At the beginning of the hockey season, Benj was invited to a breakfast by the Maple Leafs as a “Thank You” to loyal fans. The cost: higher than $100. The thought from this angle was if that is how an organization says “Thank you,” it is easy to take a pass. Instead, he will take the money saved and, when he’s in the United States next year, shop at Big Lots or Dollar General. The return on investment will be far more rewarding.


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Solana Labs chatGPT plugin – Software company, Solana Labs announced a new ChatGPT plugin that grants users access to its blockchain data. This was revealed via a tweet on April 25.
According to the tweet, the “open-source” plugin will allow users to check wallet balances, transfer tokens and purchase NFTs once it is available. Furthermore, Solana Labs invites developers who might be interested to test the code and launch their own version. See the tweet below:
(1/2) Solana Labs has created an open-source reference implementation for a ChatGPT plugin that lets users interact with the @solana network directly from ChatGPT.
Users will be able to check wallet balances, transfer tokens, and purchase NFTs once ChatGPT plugins are available. pic.twitter.com/08z1IX76zJ
— Solana Labs (@solanalabs) April 25, 2023
In a screenshot attached to the tweet, the plugin lists the number of NFTs held by a Solana address as requested by a user. In another image, the plugin helps a user send a Solana transaction to another address. Each of the commands returned appropriate instructions in simple language.
However, Solana Labs did not mention when the plugin will be launched and made available. The new plugin responds to commands by collecting data from online sources and also interacting with other websites.
Furthermore, the project’s GitHub page shows that the plugin can be installed via the address https://solana-gpt-plugin.onrender.com as an unverified plugin.
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Public Reactions to Solana Labs chatGPT plugin
Nevertheless, not everyone seems to be impressed with the new plugin. One user commented on Twitter asking Solana to first develop a “working block explorer.” Another user questioned its potential benefit to the ecosystem.
Can we get a working block explorer first?
— Matt (@mattmaximo1) April 25, 2023
Furthermore, Solana Labs expresses its support for AI projects. In another tweet, it also announced $1 million in funding for AI for projects that are built on the Solana blockchain.
— Solana (@solana) April 25, 2023
Just Another Blockchain AI Tool
Solana Labs’ new open-source plugin is just another blockchain AI tool to be released in recent times. On April 24, Binance launched “Sensei Chatbot” – a ChatGPT-powered tool.
Visa also announced on the same day its plan to hire an AI blockchain developer. Furthermore, the Opera browser also announced “Opera One” – an AI-integrated browser. Also, the potential of AI in the entertainment industry has been spoken about extensively.