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Here’s something that always amuses me about capitalists. Once they get to be successful, they almost always want to be protected from capitalism. That is to say, competition.
And the best example I know is the pharmaceutical companies, who really began to freak out when people started to discuss importing cheaper drugs from Canada.
Now isn’t that supposed to be what capitalism is all about?
Honest competition to try to deliver better products for less money for the consumer? Wasn’t that what you were told in your high school economics class? According to this model, the proper U.S. drug company response should have been to lower prices, and start a crash program to find ways to improve both price and quality.
But did they do that? Of course not. The big pharmaceutical companies ran crying to Washington.
Two years, a Bush Administration task force report appeared that was described as a “Christmas present for the pharmaceutical industry.” It moaned about how costly and complex importing drugs would be. While it did indicate Canadian drugs were perfectly safe, administration spokesmen went around hinting otherwise.
What was most amusing was that the task force moaned that if reimportation of Canadian drugs were legal, the poor drug companies would have billions less to spend on research and development.
That would mean fewer new drugs, and we would all suffer. Here’s a little something the report didn’t mention. The combined profits for the ten Fortune 500 drug companies in one recent year was almost $36 billion dollars.
To put things in perspective, that was more money than all the profits combined of all the other 490 companies on the Fortune list.
On the other hand, the Congressional Budget Office analysis found that if importing drugs from Canada was fully legal, it could save consumers in the United States $40 billion a year. That would also eliminate any threat of bogus or unsafe drugs coming in through back-alley internet sites.
The ironic twist on all this is that now Canadian pharmacists are getting up in arms over the import issue. With Democrats now solidly in control of Congress, they fear that reimportation will be legalized.
They worry that insurance companies and other big American companies will swoop down, buy vast quantities of Coumadin and Xanax and leave their shelves bare.
My guess is that twin battles will play out in both Ottawa and Washington next year. It wouldn’t surprise me to learn that the big pharmaceuticals are lobbying Canada to get them to prevent sales of their drugs to us lower Americans.
There is a sensible solution to all this, by the way.
The antitrust division of the Justice Department and the Food and Drug Administration could require Big Pharma to sell their products to the American people at a reasonable price. If there were ever an industry that called out for proper regulation, this one is it.
However, I’d advise against holding your breath until that happens. At least not until Jan. 20, 2009.


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Federal Judge Richard Leon’s decision to overturn a U.S. Federal Reserve rule on debit card interchange fees charged by banks represents a victory for retailers, and will likely force the Fed to reduce such fees. Leon ruled that the Fed did not do an adequate job of ensuring that the fees accurately reflected the actual cost of debit card transaction processing, as stipulated by the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial law. He says the Fed settled on higher fees than originally proposed by factoring in bank costs that were clearly disallowed by Congress. Several leading small-ticket item merchants had pressed the judge to reject the Fed rule, arguing that debit costs for small transactions had skyrocketed since it was enacted. However, Leon’s decision was criticized by the financial sector, which notes that debit fee caps have not spurred retailers to lower their prices. Meanwhile, Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) praised the ruling, and said it “will lead to lower interchange rates for billions of debit card transactions each year.” Debit fees will not be immediately affected by the ruling, as it provisionally delays enforcement of the decision. Leon has scheduled an Aug. 14 court date to discuss the next course of action, and suggests that he would give the Fed “months, not years” to remedy the regulations.
ACH attesawp bank transfer bitcoin bitcoin machine business covid cash transactions contactless payment contactless terminal coronavirus covid covid-19 creative demo credit and debit credit cards credit card security cryptocurrency debit cards debit fees debit payments Durbin Amendment EMV Federal Reserve First Data holiday trends integrated payment solutions MasterCard merchants mobile payments mobile wallet money NACHA online payments pandemic payment processing payments payment solutions pos post covid economy predictions retail secure payment processing secure payments small merchants Visa

domain: news


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Sheila Tarring has been
promoted from sales and marketing director to MD after 15 years at the company.
She replaces Naresh Nagrecha and Vish Vekaria, who were joint MDs, having founded the company in 1982. Nagrecha becomes chairman and Vekaria has become R& D director.
Tarring said: “As exotic fruits make the transition from the specialist sector to the mainstream, we are entering an exciting phase. Increasing the skills base of our management places us in a stronger position.”


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ACA Connects member Barbourville Utilities is cutting the cord. The Kentucky cable operator has told its customers that it is getting out of the traditional cable business to focus on broadband.
It is not signing up any new cable customers, but will help any current customers who want to keep traditional video service through a deal with Dish Network, while pointing broadband subscribers to all the over-the-top video streaming service choices available through their broadband connections.
Cable operators large and small have made no secret of their view that the event horizon for traditional cable was not a lengthy one, witness NCTA's change to "The Internet & Television Association."
Barbourville overbuilt its traditional system with fiber-to-the home — it serves an Appalachian town of about 3,500 — so it would be ready for the next iteration of service.
“While Barbourville Utilities will no longer offer cable TV service to new customers, we are not leaving our valued customers without alternatives,” the company said on its website. “With our BLINK high-speed internet service you can easily stream your choice of subscription television services, or we can help connect you to more traditional live TV via satellite.”
The Dish deal is a promise of a two-year price guarantee, free installation, and a $100 gift card underwritten by Barbourville Utilities. Not surprisingly, it is encouraging them to stick with BLINK for their broadband.
For those concerned about losing access to TV stations by moving to broadband-only video, the operator points out that various streaming services deliver broadcast nets and local stations, and Netflix, Paramount Plus and Amazon Prime Video, for example, have on-demand TV shows.
Barbourville Utilities is not making any recommendations saying customers should do their own streaming service research, but its chart of services for comparison shopping does call YouTube TV “one of the best services for overall live streaming” and said Fubo TV is ”great for sports.“
Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.
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Huawei is back with the new Mate Xs foldable phone
After a tough 2019, Huawei returns with the continuation of its revolutionary foldable Mate X to introduce us to the Huawei Mate Xs. And with its clever folding mechanism, impressive camera specs and 5G features, it keeps up with all the latest premium smartphone trends.
But while you can fold your phone in half, take photos at a professional level, and have access to super-fast 5G internet, can it do basic things like using Facebook, YouTube, and WhatsApp?
Last year, Google has banned Huawei from using Android on their devices due to the ongoing tensions between China and the US.
And while support for old devices will still be available, no new products released by Huawei after the ban will be able to use the Android operating system. In short, this means they won’t have the Google app. So there is no YouTube, Google Maps, Gmail or Chrome.
To remedy this, Huawei has made a number of significant improvements to its own app store over the past few months and is working with app developers around the world to make their favorite apps available to Huawei users. And if they can’t do it, Huawei will offer its own version, so you can still use maps and send emails.
We met with Huawei’s head of Western Europe Mobile Phones, Walter Ji, who told us, “27 million apps use Huawei’s App Gallery. Therefore, some applications (Huawei) provide better service to consumers. That’s why we are confident that our consumers will love our app gallery ”.
When we asked him if we were likely to see WhatsApp, Facebook or Spotify in the Huawei App Gallery anytime soon, Ji said, “We can’t reveal now. But we are talking to developers to integrate more apps into our App Gallery. “
So you’ve got it. We just need to observe this space. But we will keep you posted on how this develops.
In the meantime, let’s find out more about the Mate Xs:
Huawei Mate Xs
The Mobile World Congress in Barcelona could be canceled. But that didn’t stop Huawei from announcing the Mate Xs at a special event in the Catalan capital.
If the Huawei Mate Xs looks familiar, it’s because it’s an upgrade to the Mate X that was revealed last year but never came out of China. Does this new version have what it takes to compete with other foldable phones on the market, namely the Samsung Fold, Galaxy Z Flip Z and Motorola razr? Let’s see if it’s back to the drawing board or check-mate for Huawei.
Measuring 6.6 inches when folded and 8 inches when unfolded, the Huawei Mate Xs is certainly a striking set. Unlike the original Samsung Galaxy Fold, the Mate Xs is still a full-screen smartphone when folded, in fact two screens.
And also unlike Galaxy Fold, it does not fold like a book, but is rather an enveloping project. If you want to use it in tablet form, just press the button on the back to expand the big screen, flatten it and admire the 8 inch AMOLED screen measuring 2200 x 2480. It’s really very nice.
So far, it’s bigger than fold and has more screen in the display when closed, and it’s also thinner than fold. You can run three applications simultaneously, which is an exciting proposition for all multitaskers.
As for the camera, the Mate Xs has a 40MP main camera, 8MP telephoto and 16MP ultrawide camera, as well as a 3D camera with depth sensor. So on the photography side it is doing pretty well, as you’d expect from a Huawei phone.
Most importantly, the new and improved Mate Xs has 5G connectivity so you can get the most out of your big-screen content with super-fast downloads, fast streaming, and buffering-free gaming. All of this will look great on the Mate Xs in tablet mode.
When will Huawei Mate Xs come out?
While no exact date has been set, Huawei has confirmed that Mate Xs will be available in “global markets”, not just in China. March 2020 was proposed as the release date. What for the price? Well, it won’t be cheap and it looks like the Huawei Mate Xs will cost over £ 2,000.


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The good news is that as of today RadioShack. Apply For Radioshack Card… has actually formally been bought by Retail Ecommerce Ventures (REV), offering the struggling business a brand-new lease on life. The drawback, a minimum of for folks like us, is that there are no instant strategies to return the iconic electronic devices retailer to its brick-and-mortar roots. As the name indicates, REV specializes in online retail, having actually previously revamped the Web presence of other insolvent organizations such as Pier 1 Imports and Dressbarn.
While the press release does not outright preclude the possibility of brand-new physical RadioShack areas, it’s clear that REV thinks the future of retail isn’t to be discovered in your regional strip mall. As the United States mulls even more lockdowns in action to the continuing COVID-19 pandemic, it’s tough to disagree. There will be countless bored kids and adults looking for something to do during the long winter season nights, and an electronic set or two delivered to their door might be simply the thing.
REV states they prepare to relaunch the rather outdated RadioShack website just in time for the business’s 100th anniversary in 2021. As of this writing the website presently states that sales have been momentarily halted to allow for inventory restructuring, though it’s uncertain if this is directly related to the buyout or not. Getting a precise count of just how much product the company still has on hand after shuttering the majority of their physical locations in 2017 definitely seems like something the new owners would wish to do.
We all understand how that story ended.
RadioShack’s shambling remains were offered another shock of life today when they were purchased by another business that plans to relaunch the once-great merchant as an online-focused brand.
The shop’s remains were acquired by Retail Ecommerce Ventures (REV), a start-up founded in 2019 that’s been scooping up brands from other faded retail giants as well, including Pier 1, Modell’s Sporting Goods, Dressbarn, and more. REV states RadioShack’s website currently has “strong existing sales and sales capacity,” and the business is “confident” it can further raise awareness of the brand globally.
REV claims it’s successfully reversed other companies it’s released as online brands. The Wall Street Journal reported that Dressbarn more than doubled its earnings in between the second and first quarter of 2020.
RadioShack was established in 1921 and became a retail staple in the ’80s and ’90s for anyone looking to grab tech essentials. REV didn’t say whether those RadioShack licenses would stick around. Apply For Radioshack Card
REV says it will “quickly relaunch” RadioShack’s website. So for those of you still sticking on to fond memories of the store, there’ll be a familiar sufficient place to go when you wish to purchase pricey HDMI cables and knockoff headphones.


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Update 2.31 has arrived for Minecraft, and here’s the full list of changes and fixes added with this patch.
A small new update has now been released on all platforms for Minecraft. On PS4 this is version number 2.31. Otherwise this update is officially called 1.17.34 (Bedrock).
This update is to address an issue with people not seeing owned content when redeeming codes. This update should be rolling out now, although some platforms might be getting the patch in the coming days instead.
You can read the full patch notes and announcement from this update posted down below.
Minecraft Update 2.31 Patch Notes
“A new Minecraft update is available to address issues with redeeming codes. We’re rolling this update out to each platform as they become available so if you haven’t received the update, it will release over the coming days. Multiplayer is still compatible with platforms running other non-beta versions of 1.17.
- Fixed an issue with owned content not appearing in the inventory after redeeming a retail code
The following information was originally posted on the game’s official website. Minecraft is out now for the PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch and mobile devices.


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Jack Dawson was a smoker. The part of a star-crossed Titanic passenger was far from Leonardo DiCaprio’s first foray into Read more →
7,000 Wii U Consoles Stolen In Seattle
Well, this seems like a bit of bad news for Nintendo. A bit? I meant quite a nice chunk. According to ABC, thieves stole about $2 million in Nintendo Wii U consoles.
ABC reports that, using trucks, thieves drove into a Seattle Air Cargo warehouse and hooked the two trucks to semi trailers. They then proceeded to load up roughly 7,000 consoles onto pallets, and drove off into the sunset. While ABC wasn’t sure whether the stolen consoles were Wii U or Wii systems, but Kotaku had police confirm the stolen consoles were, in fact, Wii U systems. According to police, they are on the lookout for two trailers marked with “McKinney,” in addition to a Seattle Air Cargo truck. At this point, it’s far easier to find the stolen Wii U consoles on eBay or Craigslist.
Source: The Verge


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A second individual claiming ownership of software marketed by Eden Communications Inc. has surfaced in the company's bankruptcy case, complicating the outcome.
Eden is a Saratoga Springs developer of software that permits access to Internet technical support, and management of business projects and sales. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February 2005. Eden recorded revenue of $1.1 million for the fiscal year ended June 30, down from $1.7 million the year before.
Claims against Eden amount to $501,100.16. The largest claim is $112,236.13, held by KeyBank N.A.
Ingrid Stone, president and CEO of Eden, plans to sell assets of the company, including the software, to California-based UNICOM Systems Inc. for $405,000.
Last month, a "John Doe," who called himself Rich Coronado, sent an e-mail to UNICOM claiming he held rights to the software. An outstanding claim against Eden's rights could imperil the deal and the resolution of the bankruptcy case.
Rich Coronado never filed a claim in the case, but Constantine Photopoulos, a New York City freelance computer consultant, did.
Photopoulos holds the copyright for the Projectrak software Eden sells, according to the U.S. Copyright Office.
Photopoulos said he developed the software and approached Stone to help bring it to market and co-founded Eden in 1994. He left in 2003, following a dispute with Stone.
Photopoulos asked for $50,000 from any settlement. Eden agreed to put $50,000 in escrow to pay Photopoulos based on a final determination by the bankruptcy court. That should resolve Photopoulos' claim and allow the sale, said Richard Weisz of Albany law firm Hodgson Russ LLP, Stone's attorney.
Photopoulos, though, said he objects to the escrow structure. The escrow agreement worked out in bankruptcy court includes Eden as a potential owner of the money from the sale of the software, as well as Photopoulos and the trustee handling Photopoulos' own Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
Eden should not get part of that money, Photopoulos said. Eden held a trademark right to the software, but not the copyright.
Weisz said Photopoulos' attorney agreed to the escrow arrangement. Photopoulos should have intervened in the suit earlier if he had a stronger claim, Weisz said.


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Dealers are seeing their used-vehicle inventories grow, and for independents in particular, that is helping to create a rosier outlook.
That was one of several findings in the Q4 2019 Cox Automotive Dealer Sentiment Index released Monday, which among other areas, covered the used-car operations of both franchised and independent dealers.
Discussing overall results, Cox Automotive chief economist Jonathan Smoke said in a news release accompanying the study: “The fourth quarter seems to be revealing an important turning point for dealer sentiment, especially compared to this time last year when views of the future dimmed.
“Independents are more optimistic about the next 90 days, and that improvement is related to increasing used-vehicle inventory,” Smoke said. “Franchises have similar positive views of the future as they did at the end 2018. However, dealers remain concerned about the economy as well as the usual seasonal decline that impacts parts of the country more severely than others.”
Asked what they expect the vehicle market in their respective areas to look like in three months, the overall index for dealers was 51 (out of 100), which was even with the third quarter.
Franchised dealers slid from 57 to 54, while independents climbed from 49 to 51.
This gain for independents was “likely driven by to growing used-vehicle inventory as well as increasing profits,” Cox Automotive said.
“The overall future index score of 51 in Q4 is better than last year and equal to Q3, signaling a better end to 2019 and sustainable opportunities expected in the used-vehicle market,” the company said, citing Smoke.
When asked how they would describe the current used-vehicle sales environment, the index for franchised dealers was 66, down from 73 in the third quarter.
While certainly a big decline, Cox Automotive said this index still points to a “good market,” and that the drop is indicative of seasonal patters as well as new-car incentives/discounts that drives down demand for later-model pre-owned vehicles.
Independents were at 49 when asked about the used-car sales environment, same as Q3.
“Factors influencing a pessimistic view of the current market are the perception of market conditions, competition and credit availability for consumers,” Cox Automotive said of independent dealers.
The overall index on the used-vehicle sales environment was 53, down from 55 in the third quarter.
Meanwhile, when asked about used-vehicle inventory levels, franchised and independent dealers both said they’re seeing it grow.
The index for franchised stores climbed from 54 to 58 in the past quarter, while independents jumped from 44 to 51. The overall index was 53, up from 47 in Q3.
Asked to describe the used-car inventory mix, franchise dealers were at 67 (compared to 65 in Q3), independents were at 63 (up from 62) and the overall reading was 64 (up from 63).
As part of the survey, dealers were asked to list any negative impacts, if any, that tariffs on vehicle and parts imports would have.
Specific to used, 57% said it would lead to higher prices on used vehicles, up from 56% in Q3. Twenty-one percent believe they would lead to lower or delayed used-car sales, compared to 24% last quarter.
In terms of positive impacts specific to used, 43% said the tariffs would lead to more traffic for used vehicles, but that is down from 56% in the last quarter. A third think such tariffs would lead to higher margins on all used vehicles, compared to 36% in Q3.


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The law offices of Gana Weinstein LLP are currently investigating claims that advisor Michael Rappa (Rappa) engaged in undisclosed and unapproved private securities transactions. According to records kept by The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), Rappa, formerly registered with Foresters Equity Services, Inc. (Foresters Equity) out of San Diego, California was barred from the financial industry and disclosed at least two customer complaints. According to a BrokerCheck report, Rappa’s customer complaints allege that Rappa made unsuitable private securities transaction recommendations.
In February 2019, FINRA stated that Rappa consented to the sanction and to the entry of findings that from August 2016 to July 2017, he engaged in undisclosed and unapproved private securities transactions totaling $2,731,287. The findings stated that Rappa solicited investors to purchase promissory notes relating to a purported real estate investment fund.
In May 2018, a customer alleged that in 2016, Rappa made unsuitable private securities transaction recommendations. The customer has requested $75,000 in damages. This dispute is currently still pending.
In February 2018, another customer similarly alleged that in 2017, Rappa was recommending unsuitable private securities transactions. The customer has requested $700,000 in damages. This dispute is currently still pending.


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“The age-old battle between Microsoft and Apple is heating up again, and this time, Redmond is cheating,” Rik Myslewski reports for The Channel Register.
MacDailyNews Take: This time? Microsoft cheating is nothing new, Rik.
Myslewski continues, “On Thursday, Microsoft released a company-sponsored snark-fest written by Roger L. Kay of Endpoint Technology Associates that is, simply put, an embarrassment.”
“This report, entitled What Price Cool?… is riddled with inaccuracies, misstatements, and distortions,” Myslewski reports.
Full article here.


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Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Witman may be reconsidering HP’s proposal to spin off its PC business, after an internal analysis showed HP may gain more by keeping the unit, The Wall Street Journal reported late Tuesday.
The analysis favors holding on to the Personal Systems Group, which is a significant revenue source for the company, bringing in $40 billion in revenue and $2 billion in operating profit in HP’s last fiscal year, The Journal reported.
“In particular, separating the PC division would significantly diminish H-P's buying power with component makers because H-P would lose economies of scale,” according to The Journal. “It could complicate H-P's supply chain and decrease profit margins on some products, the analyses suggest.
“’If you lose purchasing power and other advantages, then a spin-off isn't worth it,’ one of these people said,” The Journal reported.
The analysis re-examined options initiated by ex-CEO Leo Apotheker, who announced the possible sale or spin-off of PSG on August 18.
No definitive decision has been made yet, although Whitman has said a decision will be made by the end of October.
Apotheker's announcement caused great uncertainty among HP's partners in the channel about HP's direction. And rivals such as Cisco and Dell weighed in and cast doubt on HP's situation.
Apotheker was ousted September 22, and replaced by Whitman.


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Denison Landscaping's propane-fueled Ford F-250 was on display at GIE+EXPO 2011 in Louisville.
"Propane is a viable option for any size landscape company." Those aren't the words of a propane dealer trying to convince you to buy propane from them. They are the words of a landscape contractor named Josh Denison.
Denison isn't just talking about lawnmowers either. He sees an opportunity to switch over to propane-powered trucks.
"When all is said and done, we'll be at less than $2.60 per gallon on a regular basis for propane," Denison says. Just looking at fuel cost savings alone, Denison says his propane-powered trucks will ultimately pay for themselves.
Denison is the human resources and operations manager at D.C.-area Denison Landscaping & Nursery. He has become one of the Green Industry's leading proponents of propane. He spoke about the virtues of the Roush CleanTech propane autogas option in Ford's booth at the GIE+EXPO this past October. Denison now offers the following advice for contractors thinking about running propane-powered trucks.
Plan to go all in. Representatives from Roush CleanTech had initially approached Denison about switching to propane. Denison says he wasn't interested at first because a significant upfront cost would be necessary. However, he soon warmed up to the idea after learning more about the benefits of propane. Then a company called MetroLawn started pitching the concept of propane-powered mowers. Denison was now sold on the concept of propane, but wanted to start with trucks.
"If you're going to run a mower or two on propane, you might as well go full bore into it and make sure your trucks can also run on propane," Denison says. That's why he wanted to start off by purchasing a couple of propane-powered trucks for his managers to use. This gave Denison an opportunity to see how the trucks would perform. He's been pleased with the results, and now has the confidence to expand the use of propane in his operation—which will include the trucks his maintenance crews use.
Converting to propane has been roughly a six-month process for Denison Landscaping. Those first two manager trucks, Ford F-250s, were deployed in October 2010. Denison switched over to propane mowers in February. The process of replacing existing trucks with propane models is ongoing.
On-site fueling the way to go. Denison also plans to have on-site fueling capability at the maintenance division's yard this spring. "We want a 1,000- to 2,000-gallon tank that is dual-metered for on-road and off-road," Denison points out.
"Most of the potential vendors we've talked with are willing to capitalize the initial cost of the propane tank and amortize that cost through our fuel purchases over time," Denison continues. "So the process of getting a fueling station at your facility seems to be fairly simple. Still, we're taking our time in selecting a vendor. We want to make sure we make the right long-term decision for Denison Landscaping."
On that note, Denison Landscaping wants to make sure it makes the right decision when it comes to their propane trucks. "We'll stick with the Roush CleanTech system," Denison relates. "It has proved dependable and economical, and the service is there. Ford backs the warranty 100%, which is a nice thing."
Based in Fort Washington, MD, Denison Landscaping & Nursery also operates branches in South Heights, PA (Pittsburgh) and Delmar, DE. Visit denisonlandscaping.com for more information.


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Last week, Costa Rica hosted the eighth annual Aesthetics, Style and Cosmetics Congress, and more than 400 visitors showed up. The event was held Sept. 18-19 at the Hotel Crowne Plaza Corobicí in San José.
On Monday afternoon, hundreds of people, mostly women, moved like an army of ants from one stand to the other in the search for the newest and most innovative cosmetic technology and beauty techniques. Business owners attending said the event was successful because of the large turnout.
The beauty business is quickly becoming one of Costa Rica’s most lucrative niche industries. From San José to San Carlos, walk into any urban mall and hair and nail salons abound. In the Central Valley, as the popularity of beauty spas increases, businesses compete to have the most up-to-date equipment and treatments.
Patricia Durant, a longtime resident from Colombia, said that eight years ago, Costa Rica’s beauty industry already had commercial potential. The annual beauty congress was created to promote that potential.
“We started as a small event, and today we have grown to be the most important congress for Central America. We have visitors from more than 10 countries who show what the latest beauty trends in the world are,” she said.
The two-day congress featured more than 50 booths offering new nail techniques, hair extensions, weight loss spas and more. Networking was key.
Costa Rican company Import Nails has had a booth at the congress for the past three years. According to owner Gretel Chacón, the event has substantially helped her promote her business. “Every year, I go back with a new portfolio of clients and contacts,” Chacón said.
Most of Chacón’s new clients are new beauty salon owners who attend the congress each year to meet distributors. Import Nails has seen its client base increase by 20 customers each year thanks to the congress, Chacón said. “It is a great opportunity to promote our products,” she added.
Chacón said her business is successful because it is innovative. While many local nail companies sell their wares at the expo, Import Nails’ bright colors and unique textures drew plenty of curious onlookers at this year’s event.
Potential customers were offered funky manicures at discounted prices. Over the two-day period, eight nail stylists worked nearly non-stop at the Import Nails booth.
When Chacón started her business four years ago, she worked from home with three employees. Today, her staff totals 17. Her client portfolio includes more than 1,500 beauty salons across the country.
“I truly believe that if you bring a new product to the table, you will find success. It is a growing sector with endless possibilities where people are always looking for the newest trend and most original materials and designs,” Chacón said.
For event organizer Patricia Durant, the next step in the process is to organize all the beauty business segments into one professional association. “We need to be able to have statistics on the number of new businesses that are being created every year. We need to be able to position the sector as a source of employment and determine the areas that need more investment and the ones that can keep growing,” Durant said.


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Google Trips is a one-stop hub for your vacation plans
18 May, 2019, 05:02 | Author: Sammy Rose
Broadly speaking, these are apps and services that are pre-loaded on smartphones and tablets by telephone suppliers, mobile providers and their partners, together with the basic suite of Google apps and Android itself.
However, even though I'm on the latest Google Maps 10.15.2, I don't have this new interface, so the change seems to be happening server-side.
With the opening of Google Safety Engineering Center (GSEC), Google CEO Sundar Pichai said, the company is expanding its operations in Munich and plans to increase the number of its privacy engineers in the city to around 200 by 2019-end. Because of the fact that not only does it let you see places, it also lets you plan your entire trip by seeing hotel prices, flight or bus bookings and more.
Some highlights include the Google AI assistant and abilities, Android Q Beta 3, new Google aspects for the different apps (Google Play Store and Maps) and its search engine and the new Pixel 3 smartphone line. Within a few weeks, Google says you'll be able to add new reservations yourself as well as access the local weather for your travel time.
It's not the only feature to be added. Presently, when you visit google.com/travel, you'll first discover Trips which gives users a chance to plan their travel via searching through a destination to discover options for flights, hotels, travel guides, or vacation packages.
From the travel hub on the phone, meanwhile, there'll be more prompts for activities too. They have also now added a feature that will point out popular neighborhoods near where you're staying and what they are famous for. The technology for this was released to much fanfare a year ago after Google attested it creating a call to reserve a restaurant reservation. If you don't want your reservations to show up from your Gmail messages, you can turn that off in the Search results page in Google products settings.
However, the Mirror Gray model of OnePlus 7 Pro is offered with up to 8GB of RAM and up to 256GB of storage memory. The secondary camera features a 16MP and a third 8MP sensor has a telephoto lens capable of 3x optical zoom.
Lillard, however, refused to blame the officials for not calling it a foul and eventually admitted it was good defensive play. He finished with 37 points on 11-of-22 shooting and added eight assists, along with eight rebounds.
Tesla said it has started making electrical components for the latest version of its electric vehicle Supercharger in Buffalo. Today, the companies operate separately at the Buffalo factory , according to one current and one former Panasonic employee.
BTS is now the "new batch of mop-topped heartthrobs" from "across the pond... the big one, the one with Hawaii in the middle". TV performance back on February 9, 1964 on Sullivan's show, when the mop-haired band kicked off Beatlemania.
If sales go well, the chain is planning to roll out the sandwiches across Canada by the end of summer. The Lightlife burger will be available at 70 Kelsey's Original Roadhouse locations starting June 3.
Keeping all of that running, we get a 3,765 mAh battery which is slightly smaller than the Realme X Lite's 4,045 mAh pack. The main highlight of the display is that it is notch less and the selfie camera is embedded with a popup functionality.
About half were scheduled to undergo surgery to place tubes in their ears, a common treatment for chronic fluid buildup. The 150-millisecond audio clip resembles a bird chirping and was found to be effective in the researcher's work.
During the Second World War, he worked as a research scientist for the U.S. government before going on to work as an architect . During his career, he won many awards, including being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by George H.W.
'Brexit issues' see British Steel seek government loan
Tata said its United Kingdom business would keep running, but admitted it was facing tough operating conditions in the UK. Workers had to take pay cuts and reductions in their pensions in return, and the company recently returned to profit.
Walmart mulls stock market listing for UK arm Asda
GMB national officer Gary Carter said there was "uproar among the workforce" over plans to change Asda employees' contracts. But she cautioned that any preparations for an IPO would "take years", according to comments released by Asda afterwards.
Texas to kick off in primetime on WBRZ
These two teams haven't faced each other since the 2010 BCS Championship game, which Auburn won 22-19. The marquee matchup of the first full weekend of college football in 2019 will be in prime time.
Faulty Pixel users to get up to $500 from Google
The unlucky customers who experienced the problem a few times because of faulty replacements are the ones who can claim $500. A final decision will be made by the courts on 5 June, and if the deal is approved Google will start splashing the cash.
Mariana Trench: Deepest-ever sub dive finds plastic bag
The explorer is part of the Five Deeps Expedition , which aims to reach the bottom of every ocean on the planet. Prior to Vescovo's monumental dive, only two people had successfully made it to the bottom of Challenger Deep.
China Trade War by Donald Trump Stopping Tech
But let's not forget the fact that strategic competition between United States and China is a reality now. Mallory was convicted of spying, and he faces up to life in prison (he will be sentenced on Friday).


text: Caudalie has build a veritable empire on the antioxidant power of grapes. In fact, before anyone in mainstream beauty was talking about antioxidants, they maintained that resveratrol (obtained from the skins of Cabernet Sauvignon grapes), had tremendous anti-aging benefits and was the first skincare brand to use it topically – and the first to patent it in stabilized levels. Since then, a number of other brands have embraced this potent ingredient, including SkinCeuticals. Caudalie recently held a symposium in Paris with Dr. David Sinclair (Harvard Genetics Department) detailing the latest research surrounding resveratrol’s anti-aging benefits, with clinicals to support it. They have also recently launched reformulated versions of some of their most popular products (they now contain some of the highest levels of the powerful ingredient), including their Vinexpert Firming Serum (at Nordstrom for $89), which has powerful clinicals to support how effectively it works: it has been proven to increase skin firmness up to 96%, and the appearance of lifting up to 70% in just 28 days. There have been countless studies showing that grape-derived molecules can help fight free radicals – not only responsible for skin aging, but also heart disease and cancer – and while drinking red wine is one way to combat that, to best tackle the free radicals that attack collagen, opt for products from brands like Caudalie whose formulations are optimized for absorption (since the antioxidants are chemically stabilized).


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Stranded Man Saved By Shark After Stuck At Sea For 4 Months
Sep 18, 2012 12:23
Hard to imagine, but friendly sharks apparently do exist according to Toakai Teitoi. The Kiribati fisherman and father of six who spent about three and a half months adrift at sea in a wooden boat has credited a 6-foot shark with saving his life.
The 41-year-old and his 52-year-old brother-in-law were floating adrift in the central Pacific after their 15-foot wooden boat ran out of fuel on May 24th. The brother in-law apparently succumbed to dehydration and passed away in early July.
According to AFP, Teitoi said he had woken up on the afternoon of Sept. 11 to "see the shark circling the boat and bumping the hull."
"He was guiding me to a fishing boat. I looked up and there was the stern of a ship and I could see crew with binoculars looking at me," Teitoi said. Having captured "[Teitoi's] attention," the shark reportedly then swam away,"
Tetoi was brought aboard the Marshalls 203 and given food, juice, and a medical evaluation. He reportedly appeared to be in relatively good shape for someone who had been stranded at sea for 15 weeks. The boat continued along its fishing route, eventually docking in Majuro.
Despite being one of the few lucky people who have actually been saved by a shark, Teitoi says his seafaring days are now behind him. "I'll never go by boat again. I'm taking a plane," he said.
The Cole Haan ZeroGrand brogue is now available a lot of interesting colorways. It uses its ultra-flexible outsole and wingtip silhouette. All five can be purchased now at select Cole Haan shops as well as its webstore. Read more
The Nike LeBron 11 Max Low SE “Multicolor” is set to make its way to retailers featuring a multi-colored tie-dye upper with a gold Swoosh at the forefoot. Look for the LeBron 11 Max Low SE “Multicolor” at Nike and select stockists on July 28. Read more


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The invasion has begun. Smartphones and tablets are surging into the enterprise. But are they the ‘evil empire’? How do you cope with so many solutions on so many platforms? ARN went looking for answers.
Smartphones and tablets have become dominant in the office. Whether it’s to check email in the taxi or airport, catch up on the news while on a flight, or be “contactable for emergencies” while on holiday.
With devices coming from multiple vendors, each running their own operating system, and having their own quirks built in, the question is; can an enterprise support the lot, and indeed would it want to?
“It causes a bit of a headache if organisations aren’t prepared,” McAfee enterprise solutions architect, Sean Duca, said.
“If you think about the challenge that any IT department has gone through in the past couple of years, they have been focused on – from a compliance perspective – what machines are connected to the network, and how are people connecting, and trying to standardise some kind of process.
“With the introduction of these types of consumer-based devices they no longer fit the mould of the standard hardware build.”
It is possible for modern management solutions to incorporate devices from just about any walk of life, but the IT department will also need to be able to make sure devices can connect in a safe and secure manner – so technologies such as Network Access Control (NAC) are a necessity.
But at the same time, it’s important that the management software doesn’t put too much of a burden on the IT department, Duca said.
“The provisioning process for our enterprise mobility management solution is easy so it doesn’t end up being a burden for the IT help desk, and at the same time you need to enforce policy and ensure compliance,” he said.
“You’re got the ability to wipe the device if it’s lost.”
Equally important, though, is the ability to do selective wipes of personal devices that have access to the corporate network. One of the great challenges with smartphones and tablets is that they are, at core, consumer devices, and people don’t necessarily want to lose all their personal data if the device is misplaced.
“We’re seeing a definite top-down push where traditionally it’s been quite hard to go and sell wireless to these environments,” Aruba Networks county manager, Greg Barnes, said.
In other words, part of the reason these devices have proven so popular in the enterprise has been that, as consumer devices, they have been used by C-level executives, who then ask to have them brought onto the corporate network. And as these devices don’t have physical ports, the only way for them to access the network is wirelessly.
This in turn makes infrastructure to support smart phones and tablets a relatively easy sell, Barnes said.
Aruba offers a solution that allows the management of access by user and device. A university lecturer with an iPad, for instance, can be given a greater level of access to a student if that is what the IT department deems appropriate.
Like McAfee’s management tools, it’s designed to be easy to use, but according to Barnes, there’s still lingering misunderstanding about how complex these solutions need to be.
“A lot of organisations don’t really understand the simplicity behind the Aruba solution, or they’re not necessarily aware that organisations like Aruba exist,” he said.
But it’s not from lack of interest. According to Juniper Networks senior systems engineer, Christian Frain, there is a great deal of interest in technologies to secure a network. Customers realise it’s a need-to-have, even if they don’t necessarily understand how to do it.
“They’re aware of the fact they need to secure the devices, and that’s what they want to do,” Frain said. “It’s an area a lot of companies are looking into at the moment.”
“There’s a lot more mobile devices coming into organisations – users are typically adding extra devices, in addition to their mobile phone, they’re buying tablets, which is also in conjunction to their notebook, and from a security standpoint it’s really increasing the number of devices that need to be managed.”
And like other network vendors, the Junos Pulse solution features standard mobile security features, such as remote lock and wipe.
What to expect in the future?
There are a couple of upcoming technologies that will have an impact on the uptake of smartphones and tablets.
By the year’s end 4G and LTE will begin to take hold, meaning the speed and potential uses of smartphones and tablets for business applications will also increase.
Android can be expected to become more appropriate for enterprise environments. And as tablets and smart phones reach greater levels of adoption amongst enterprises and road warriors, there will be a greater interest in rugged technologies.
“Our designs are based upon ruggedisation in the field. We do significant testing of the devices before the release so they can be dropped multiple times onto concrete so that essentially you can continue using the device,” Motorola Australia manager of enterprise and solutions, David Fenner, said.
“This is where consumer devices fall over in the enterprise environment.”
When it comes to rolling out a fleet of tablet devices, an enterprise is going to want to make sure the investment is robust enough to withstand some level of wear-and-tear from its mobile work force.
Smart phones and tablets are not new technologies – people have been using small portable devices to untether themselves from their desks since the heyday of the PDA many years ago.
Right now, according to Fenner, the main application enterprises allow these devices to link in to is email – a simplistic and common task that is relatively safe for the enterprise from a back end point of view.
But the desire to have these devices access sales or planning data is there, and it will grow. There are also now plenty of different solutions in the market that claim to manage this.
Ultimately, it will be the partners that understand how these solutions work for the clients. “The uptake in the future will be at the fringe and the core applications will still be delivered on IT-specified devices which are suitable for the environment,” Fenner said.
That may well include tablet devices. It’s up to the partners to figure out if it’s what the customer actually wants.


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Microsoft's Leila Martine unveils the new operating system's key features
By Maggie Shiels
Technology reporter, BBC News, Silicon Valley
Intel and Microsoft say the Windows 7 operating system (OS) will give "better battery life and quicker boot times".
The firms made the claim at a press event in San Francisco where engineers put the new OS through its paces.
Microsoft is hoping its new system will perform as promised and avoid a repeat of the negative publicity associated with Windows Vista.
Both firms said they had collaborated more closely than ever before to deliver a product "they are proud of".
"We both made a larger investment than ever before on the engineer side to improve on the hardware and software," Microsoft's Mike Angiulo told the BBC.
The two firms, colloquially known as Wintel, said that the partnership involved hundreds of engineers and was started the day after Windows Vista was released more than two years ago.
Windows 7 goes on sale 22 October
"We have spent 20 years getting to know each other and have businesses that are very well aligned," said Steve Smith, vice-president of Intel's digital enterprise group.
Dean Takahashi of technology blog VentureBeat said that Microsoft's previous OS - the heavily criticised Windows Vista - had to be improved upon.
"The collaboration was in the name of making Windows 7 better and more bug-free than the January 2007 launch of Windows Vista, which was broadly criticised in the industry and was one of the best advertisements for buying a Mac in history," he said.
At a media launch in San Francisco, engineers put Windows 7 and the underlying Intel chip technology through a few of its paces to show the advancements they have made on previous operating systems, namely Windows XP and Vista.
These included claims of energy efficiency, security, and performance responsiveness.
Among the demos was one that showed two identical Lenovo T400 laptops playing a video. One used Windows 7 while another used Vista.
Microsoft says that The Windows 7 machine saw a 20% gain in power efficiency thanks to something called "timer coalescing" . This keeps the processor in low power states as long as possible to extend battery life.
Engineers claimed power savings up to 20% using Windows 7
"We're achieving a very significant amount of battery savings," said Microsoft's principal programme manager Ruston Panabaker, who would not be drawn on exactly how much overall battery life Windows 7 will save.
Wintel engineers said the end performance would depend on how PC manufacturers configured their machines.
The same explanation was given following an example where engineers booted the system up in just 11 seconds.
"What we showed today was real capability in actual scenarios," Intel's Mr Smith told BBC News.
"But the final choice of what is on the retail shelf is something the OEMs (manufacturers) will configure."
Ina Fried of CNET, who has covered Microsoft for more than five years, said this issue had, in the past, been something of a hurdle for Microsoft and Intel.
"One of the challenges of the Windows eco-system is in order for the computer users to get the benefit of all this work, it's down to what choices the PC maker makes. It requires them all to be talking to one another all the time.
"In the Vista time-frame, we saw not necessarily the kind of communication that leads to happy users and I think they have really tried to address that this time.
"We will see how far they have really got when we see those Windows systems shipping in October," Ms Fried told BBC News.
The BBC's Jason Palmer investigates Windows 7's pros and cons
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2019 Jaguar XJ220 News And Info
2019 Jaguar XJ220. The original model surprised the world when it was unveiled at the British Motor Show in 1988. Its hugging ground shape, aerodynamics inspired by racing and incredible V12 knock all super boxes. The list of specs only served to the appetite further – the promise of a four-wheel drive and adaptive commentary was the auto press in rape. It is fitting that another of the super monsters must also be bigger, faster, and certainly the most striking. Appropriate, too, that this, the most expensive of them all, should be the best. The Jaguar XJ220 has a nearly legendary state among Jaguar lovers – but not for all the right reasons. It should have been the height of the company’s road vehicle range, but never achieved its potential.
This is what really distinguishes 2019 Jaguar XJ220 from most Italian exotica – the British car is very convenient. It’s the Quirrer than you think, a tricky ride, civilized. The old Jaguar grace is preserved with the logo of the pace of honor. Here is a 200 mph beast that can be cruelly transported to you, and a friend, to the south of France. It’s also roomy – not always the case with supercars mid-drives. There is a decent sitting room and plenty of shoulder room, and a partial part of the huge size of the car – 7ft 3in cross beam. Which, by the way, makes it the world’s largest car production. This also means that the 2019 Jaguar XJ220 is physically unable to fit through the traffic display restrictions in London.
Jag is huge in almost everything, too. It’s more than 16ft long, just a short tad from the XJ6 salon, which can accommodate three additional people and has a much larger boot. It weighs a little less than a ton and a half. Its four-wheel drive four-liter 24-liter 3.5-liter V6 twin-turbo engine, based on the Chero-11 sports car racer, pumps 542bhp. This is a powerful production of any car production way. The real 212.3mph, was recorded in the production trim.
And finally – and despite the most massive of all – 2019 Jaguar XJ220 costs £415,544 in the UK, including taxes. There was no new production car more ingenious. 350 cars have been sold from now until the end of next year.


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Chargrill Charlie’s open new Sydney store
Cult chicken shop Chargrill Charlie’s will open their 11th store in the Sydney suburb of Frenchs Forest.
Set to open on Saturday 15 September, the eatery will be located at the Forestway Shopping Centre and offer seating for 80 diners – 20 of which will be outside.
The store will dish up favourites including chargrilled chickens and up to 15 different salads that will rotate seasonally.
Burgers, rolls, hot chips, chicken schnitzel, wedges, DIY dinner plates and apple pie will also be available.
To celebrate the opening, the store will be giving away free quarter chicken and chips combos from 12-1pm and family-size chicken from 5-6pm.


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California is the birthplace of the cannabis industry, and the state’s legalization of recreational cannabis has driven the market to new heights. With more businesses entering the cannabis market, the industry is expected to reach $7.2 billion in 2019.
The growth of the cannabis industry has created numerous job opportunities for professionals of all levels. From budtenders to delivery drivers, there are many ways for people to get involved with the legal cannabis industry. As a result, California has seen a surge in cannabis-related businesses like dispensaries, cafes, and lounges.
The industry has also created an economic boom in the state. Not only do cannabis businesses provide jobs, they also create tax revenue. In 2017, California’s legal cannabis market brought in $345 million in sales tax revenue. This revenue is used to fund educational and public health programs, making it a win-win situation for all involved.
As California’s cannabis industry continues to grow, it’s important to remember the importance of safety and regulation. The state has strict regulations and testing standards in place to ensure that all cannabis products are safe and compliant with state laws. There are also strict rules in place for packaging and labeling, which help consumers make informed decisions about their purchases.
The cannabis industry has been a major success in California, and it’s only expected to get bigger in the coming years. For those looking to get involved, now is the perfect time to start exploring the many opportunities in the cannabis industry.


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SPARTANBURG, S.C. (WSPA) – It’s no secret that your online presence is tracked by big business. From your phone to Facebook, privacy seems to be a thing of the past.
So in this 7News Consumer Watch we looked into what kind of information they’re collecting and how you can take back some control.
The digital world never forgets. Virtually everything you do online is not just recorded but stored.
This past month Facebook revealed a disturbing truth the social media giant tracks you all across the web.
“I don’t like it, I guess I’m kind of old school, but it just seems unnecessary and kind of like an invasion or privacy,” said Chris Gladson in Spartanburg.
Like it or not, IT expert Kevin Hodges with USC Upstate says there’s no turning back.
“I think it would alarm anyone to see the amount of data they have collected about you and what they can do with that data,” said Hodges.
Hodges says companies mainly use the data to better target advertisements.
“Until it affects me in a negative way, then I’m fine with it right now,” said Anna Burgess.
But what about the uncanny feeling you’re phone is listening to you.
“The fact that you can say something around your friends and your phone will pick it up, and then later it’s on your phone it’s kind of coincidental,” said Jessica McAtee in Spartanburg.
And yet Hodges says that’s one form of monitoring that may be in our heads.
“There’s just no real proof yet that they’re doing that and they all categorically deny it,” said Hodges.
But He also adds tech giants like Facebook have become so savvy at collecting and sharing data from your phone websites and apps they can anticipate your daily habits and predict your shopping needs before they occur to you.
Now, you do have some control.
- Go to “settings” in Facebook
- click “Off Facebook Activity” (You’ll see the sites and apps that are sharing your info who is targeting you).
- And there you can clear your history.
Even that has it’s limits since Facebook won’t actually delete anything.
Then there are steps you can take on your phone like limiting app permissions such as the use of location.
On the iPhone:
- Go to settings
- Location Services
- System Services (which shows which apps are allowed to use your location)
- Turn off apps that don’t need your location to function
You can also limit tracking by clearing cookies online and even using a private browser.
All that allows anyone concerned about privacy to at least make the process of data collection a little more difficult.


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Companies like Tesla and Google have made some impressive advances in autonomous vehicles in recent years, but how might this new technology change the way people use cars and trucks in the next ten years?
We’ll look at the upcoming trends in this article.
10 million driverless cars on the road by 2020
BI Intelligence have predicted that 10 million driverless cars will be on the roads by 2020. Before fully autonomous vehicles can take to the roads, lawmakers must enact new policies and regulations for them, especially to ensure non-automated and fully automated vehicles can operate together on the same roads.
The UK is currently one of the leaders in the field, planning to adopt new laws by the middle of 2017 to facilitate the development of driverless technology, as well as amending laws to cover the use of autonomous vehicles by the end of 2018.
Cities will also need to upgrade their infrastructure to enable seamless vehicle-to-infrastructure connections. For example, traffic lights could signal autonomous cars via a wireless connection, or even provide wireless charging when vehicles are stationary.
Commercial vehicles to be the first driverless vehicles
Massimiliano Lenardi, Innovation Manager of the “Automotive and Industry Lab” at Hitachi Europe, believes that in Europe, the first fully driverless vehicles will probably be trucks operating on highways between big cities’ peripheral hubs. He expects that these may even appear on the market before 2025.
Automating this kind of heavy goods vehicle is likely the easiest way to start embracing automated vehicles since there is less need for a human operator. Trucks can be loaded and unloaded at their destination, before being sent on their way to the next depot. Contrast this with delivery trucks, where a human operator is still required to personally deliver parcels, so the cost of automating such a vehicle is not offset by no longer needing a driver.
Automating heavy goods vehicles also makes sense as it can allow for more efficient driving on motorways. Groups of trucks could theoretically talk to each other via wireless signals and drive in convoy, reducing drag and improving fuel efficiency as a result.
Consumers could become car users, not owners
The average privately owned car spends around 90% of its life parked on the drive way. Once autonomous vehicles become more and more common, it may become less likely for consumers to own their own cars. Instead, we may live in a world where whenever you need to get somewhere, you simply request a car to pick you up like an autonomous Uber or taxi and take you to where you need to go.
This an also give users more freedom with their choice in vehicle. Users could request a large vehicle for transporting lots of people, or a small city car for a short trip to the shops. Because the vehicle will be automated and powered by electricity, prices are likely to be cheaper than taxis are today, since there’s no driver to pay or expensive fossil fuels to run on.
True, some people may still want to purchase sports cars for track days or even racing, but for many people who use their cars simply for commuting or getting from A to B, the need to own a car will diminish, especially if the cost of renting is lower than ownership.
This could also have a dramatic positive effect on the environment and congestion in cities. There’ll no longer be demand for parking, clearing up residential areas of on-street parking. On top of this, fewer cars will need manufacturing to satisfy the demand for transport, which is beneficial for the environment. Much of the environmental impact of a car occurs during production, so if fewer cars are made, there’ll be less pollution as a result.
Car manufacturers may become transport companies
In a world of automated vehicles, car companies will have fewer customers. Rather than selling directly to end users either via cash or through finance agreements, car companies may transform into transport companies like Uber. Need a flashy car to take you to a new business meeting? Order a ride through the BMW app. Or if you just need to get to work, then why not book a car through a cheaper provider?
So why might car companies do this? Currently, consumers tend to buy luxury cars over mainstream brands for the lifestyle and image they offer. Consumers are willing to pay a premium for this, and so one of the best ways to continue to offer this in an age when consumers may not own their own vehicle is to be in direct contact with the user. This cuts out the middle man and offers a way for premium brands to control their value proposition without being reliant on third parties.
DISCLAIMER: This article expresses my own ideas and opinions. Any information I have shared are from sources that I believe to be reliable and accurate. I did not receive any financial compensation in writing this post, nor do I own any shares in any company I’ve mentioned. I encourage any reader to do their own diligent research first before making any investment decisions.
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Barclaycard is piloting a service to deliver instant digital purchase receipts to customers through a partnership with fintech startup Flux, which launched last year with the aim of eliminating paper receipts.
Many companies in financial services say they want to be the next Uber. But the reverse may also be true, with the ride-sharing company adding a cobrand card that can be managed from within the Uber app.
Barclays Plc will need to defend its advantages in the payments business from encroachment by technology companies including Amazon.com Inc. and Apple Inc., according to Chief Executive Officer Jes Staley.
Automated teller machines have come a long way since Barclays rolled out the world’s first ATM at a branch in north London 50 years ago. Here’s a look at some of the milestone moments and key innovations in ATM technology over the past five decades.


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OnePlus CEO Pete Lau teases OnePlus 8T Cyberpunk 2077 Limited Edition on Weibo
Realme C15 Qualcomm Edition launched in India starting at Rs 9,999
Apple iPhone 12 vs 12 Pro: How different are they on the inside?
OnePlus 7, 7 Pro and 7T receive new update with practically no difference in changelog
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Responding to a customer's question on Twitter, Microsoft tweeted, "We plan to upgrade all Windows Phone 8 devices to Windows 10 in the future." The next big operating system from Microsoft is expected to roll out next year, and as currently Windows 10 remains in early development, so the company isn't revealing details when will the update arrive.
@Kalars07 We plan to upgrade all Windows Phone 8 devices to Windows 10 in the future :)
— Lumia (@lumia) November 13, 2014
Well, now there's a reason to buy Lumia devices, at least they're willing to update old devices. So, Windows Phone 8 users, how do you think about it?
Source | Via


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This ain't no breach
This is just Tmobile giving an excuse for when we find out that our data, that they sold, ended up in the hands of the even less honest actors of the internets.
T-Mobile US was hacked by miscreants who may have stolen some customer information. The telco did not specify exactly when the intrusion took place (and has yet to respond to questions from The Register) in its Notice Of Data Breach. The hackers gained access to employee email accounts, which contained customer account …
UK automobile service and parts seller Halfords has shared the details of its customers a little too freely, according to the findings of a security researcher.
Like many, cyber security consultant Chris Hatton used Halfords to keep his car in tip-top condition, from tires through to the annual safety checks required for many UK cars.
In January, Hatton replaced a tire on his car using a service from Halfords. It's a simple enough process – pick a tire online, select a date, then wait. A helpful confirmation email arrived with a link for order tracking. A curious soul, Hatton looked at what was happening behind the scenes when clicking the link and "noticed some API calls that seemed ripe for an IDOR" [Insecure Direct Object Reference].
A US bank has said at least the names and social security numbers of more than 1.5 million of its customers were stolen from its computers in December.
In a statement to the office of Maine's Attorney General this month, Flagstar Bank said it was compromised between December and April 2021. The organization's sysadmins, however, said they hadn't fully figured out whose data had been stolen, and what had been taken, until now. On June 2, they concluded criminals "accessed and/or acquired" files containing personal information on 1,547,169 people.
"Flagstar experienced a cyber incident that involved unauthorized access to our network," the bank said in a statement emailed to The Register.
In brief More than half of the 24.6 billion stolen credential pairs available for sale on the dark web were exposed in the past year, the Digital Shadows Research Team has found.
Data recorded from last year reflected a 64 percent increase over 2020's total (Digital Shadows publishes the data every two years), which is a significant slowdown compared to the two years preceding 2020. Between 2018 and the year the pandemic broke out, the number of credentials for sale shot up by 300 percent, the report said.
Of the 24.6 billion credentials for sale, 6.7 billion of the pairs are unique, an increase of 1.7 billion over two years. This represents a 34 percent increase from 2020.
Researchers at security product recommendation service Safety Detectives claim they’ve found almost a million customer records wide open on an Elasticsearch server run by Malaysian point-of-sale software vendor StoreHub.
Safety Detectives’ report states it found a StoreHub sever that stored unencrypted data and was not password protected. The security company’s researchers were therefore able to waltz in and access 1.7 billion records describing the affairs of nearly a million people, in a trove totalling over a terabyte.
StoreHub’s wares offer point of sale and online ordering, and the vendor therefore stores data about businesses that run its product and individual buyers’ activities.
The cybersecurity landscape continues to expand and evolve rapidly, fueled in large part by the cat-and-mouse game between miscreants trying to get into corporate IT environments and those hired by enterprises and security vendors to keep them out.
Despite all that, Verizon's annual security breach report is again showing that there are constants in the field, including that ransomware continues to be a fast-growing threat and that the "human element" still plays a central role in most security breaches, whether it's through social engineering, bad decisions, or similar.
According to the US carrier's 2022 Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) released this week [PDF], ransomware accounted for 25 percent of the observed security incidents that occurred between November 1, 2020, and October 31, 2021, and was present in 70 percent of all malware infections. Ransomware outbreaks increased 13 percent year-over-year, a larger increase than the previous five years combined.
Miscreants have dumped on Telegram more than 142 million customer records stolen from MGM Resorts, exposing names, postal and email addresses, phone numbers, and dates of birth for any would-be identity thief.
The vpnMentor research team stumbled upon the files, which totaled 8.7 GB of data, on the messaging platform earlier this week, and noted that they "assume at least 30 million people had some of their data leaked." MGM Resorts, a hotel and casino chain, did not respond to The Register's request for comment.
The researchers reckon this information is linked to the theft of millions of guest records, which included the details of Twitter's Jack Dorsey and pop star Justin Bieber, from MGM Resorts in 2019 that was subsequently distributed via underground forums.
India's Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) has given many of the nation's IT shops a big job that needs to be done in a hurry: complying with a new set of rules that require organizations to report 20 different types of infosec incidents within six hours of detection, be they a ransomware attack or mere compromise of a social media account.
The national infosec agency stated the short deadline is needed as it has identified "certain gaps causing hindrance in incident analysis."
Organizations can use email, phone, or fax to send incident reports. Just how the analog mediums will improve improve analysis gaps is uncertain.
Coca-Cola confirmed it's probing a possible network intrusion after the Stormous cybercrime gang claimed it stole 161GB of data from the beverage giant.
"We are aware of this matter and are investigating to determine the validity of the claim," Coca-Cola communications global vice president Scott Leith told The Register on Tuesday. "We are coordinating with law enforcement."
The ransomware gang, which has declared its support for the Russian government's illegal invasion of Ukraine, this week bragged it "hacked some of the company's servers and passed a large amount of data inside them without their knowledge." It's now trying to sell the stolen data for about $64,000, or nearest offer "depending on the amount of data you want," Stormous wrote on its website where it leaks pilfered information.
Intuit is being sued in the US after a security failure at its Mailchimp email marketing business allegedly led to the theft of cryptocurrency from one or more digital wallets.
In a proposed class-action lawsuit [PDF] filed in federal court in northern California on Friday, the plaintiff – Alan Levinson of Illinois – claimed he and potentially others fell victim to a sophisticated phishing attack in which their Trezor cryptocurrency wallets were unlawfully accessed and funds siphoned.
Someone earlier stole from Mailchimp details of Trezor's mailing-list subscribers, and used this information to reach out to those users with an email engineered to trick them into installing malware designed to hijack their digital wallets. Levinson said he believes millions of dollars in crypto-coins were stolen in this attack, including $87,000 from his own wallet.
Analysis GitHub says it has identified and alerted developers who have had their private repositories accessed and downloaded via stolen authentication tokens.
In this multifaceted fiasco, Microsoft-owned GitHub insisted its security was not breached. Instead, we're told, "compromised OAuth user tokens from Heroku and Travis-CI-maintained OAuth applications were stolen and abused to download private repositories belonging to dozens of victim organizations that were using these apps."
Salesforce-owned Heroku confirmed someone compromised an OAuth token – presumably an internal staffer's token – to get into Heroku's GitHub account and rifle through, and potentially update, users' GitHub repositories "using OAuth tokens issued to Heroku’s OAuth integration dashboard hosted on GitHub."
Biting the hand that feeds IT © 1998–2022


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$ 10,000 invested in these growth stocks could make you a fortune over the next 10 years
Of course, if you have $ 10,000 to invest, you want to do so wisely. If you want to generate above-average returns, you need to find growth stocks that have already proven themselves and whose business models indicate reasons for further growth.
Start with MercadoLibre (NASDAQ: MELI), modern micro devices (NASDAQ: AMD), and Seagate technology (NASDAQ: STX), Companies whose stocks have risen more than 10% this year and more than 100% in the last five years.
1. MercadoLibre is just getting started
MercadoLibre is often called the. designated Amazon In Latin America, it’s an e-commerce and fintech giant. Founded in 1999 as an Argentine company, the company is now represented in 18 countries in the region. Over the past five years, Mercado Libre has seen quarterly sales growth of 637% and stock growth of nearly 800%.
The company just closed its second quarter on June 30, reporting record sales and volume. MercadoLibre said it had net sales of $ 1.7 billion (numbers in USD) for the quarter, up 102.6% year over year. Also, the sales volume was $ 7 billion, up 46% over the same period in 2020.
The company was particularly strong in Argentina and Mexico, two countries where sales for the quarter rose triple-digit percentages year over year.
MercadoLibre also posted net income of $ 68.2 million, compared to $ 55.9 million for the same period last year. The growth in the number of COVID-19 cases in Latin America, while tragic, has increased the move to more e-commerce and online payment systems. Last year, an estimated 13 million people in Latin America made an online purchase for the first time.
The poor roads and difficult terrain make shipping products across South America expensive. In many ways, this offers MercadoLibre a ditch for new entrants in the region, such as Amazon. The company, whose shipping division is known as Mercado Envios, bought Kangu, a Brazilian logistics company that operates in Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico, and gave it more delivery vehicles and staff in key countries. The transaction closed in August for an undisclosed amount.
What makes MercadoLibre a great long-term stock is that it is only scratching the surface of the possibilities of e-commerce in South America. A report by OMR Global puts the average annual growth rate (CAGR) for e-commerce in the region over the next six years at 25.6%. That makes it a stock with long-term potential that investors can buy.
2. Advanced Micro Devices has a bright future
The demand for semiconductor chips has gone through the roof since the pandemic began. Primarily, there has been an upswing in the company’s central processing and graphics processing units. Several factors have driven this increase, the adoption of 5G, the growth of cloud computing, and increased purchases of laptops and tablets. These things will likely be around long after the pandemic.
The CAGR for the global semiconductor market is projected to be 8.6% over the next seven years, growing to a market of $ 803.15 billion over that period, according to a report by Fortune Business Insights. This is great news for Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) investors. The stock is up more than 15% over the year and 1,520% over the past five years.
The company has posted double-digit sales growth for seven consecutive quarters. The company’s second-quarter report said it had sales of $ 3.85 billion, up 99% year over year. Gross income was $ 1.83 billion, up 116% year over year and 15% more than the first quarter of 2021. Net income was reported at $ 710 million, an increase of 352% over the same period in 2020. The company expected sales in 2021 to have increased by 60% compared to 2020. In addition, the company reported its highest free cash flow of $ 888 million for the second quarter, up from $ 152 million for the same period in 2020.
The company is also using its additional cash to add value to shareholders and fuel more growth. In May, the company launched a $ 4 billion share buyback program. And the company said it is on the right track with its $ 135 billion acquisition of Xilinx, known for the production of programmable logic components, by the end of the year. The Xilinx deal is designed to help AMD compete better Intel in the data center of his business running digital applications.
Probably the biggest advantage of AMD is that semiconductors are expensive to manufacture. This has to be done in sterile environments with state-of-the-art machinery, and the science of microchips is changing so rapidly that it is difficult for new companies to catch up with market share. That’s a great dig for existing chip makers, especially AMD.
3. Seagate technology leads the way in the cloud
Seagate Technology is a global leader in data storage, making portable hard drives and external SSD drives essential for laptops and cloud computing. The company’s stock is up more than 38% this year and more than 106% over the past five years.
On July 2, the company closed its fiscal year 2021 and all numbers were above those of the previous year. Annual sales were $ 10.6 billion, an increase of 1.6% over the previous year. While the operating margin was 14% compared to 12.4% in 2020. Net income was $ 1.3 billion, up 30.8% from 2020. The company’s fourth quarter revenue of 3 billion The US dollar was the best quarter in six years.
The company signed a multi-year contract with last month Zoom video communication for the video conferencing company that enables Zoom customers to use Seagate’s Lyve Cloud platform to store meeting recordings. This helps Seagate’s business as it shows that a high profile customer is seeing the benefits of Lyve Cloud Storage-as-a-Service.
While Seagate stock hasn’t shown as much momentum as the other two companies mentioned here in the past three years, it appears to be catching fire this year. According to Seagate data, the rise of cloud computing has accelerated the need for mass storage devices. In 2015, 25% of the data was stored in the cloud. Until last year, 40% of the data was stored in the cloud. Certain trends, such as the rise of autonomous vehicles, smart factories, and human genome research, have increased the need for cloud computing.
Another reason to like Seagate stock is its low price, with a P / E ratio of just 15.46. It also has something the other two stocks don’t have: a dividend – and a generous one at that. The company increased its dividend 3% to $ 0.67 per share in October 2020, and the current yield is 3.18% on Wednesday’s share price. Despite all the evidence, this stock shows great potential in the changing world.
This article represents the opinion of the author who may disagree with the “official” referral position of a premium advisory service from the Motley Fool. We are colorful! Questioning an investment thesis – even one of our own – helps us all think critically about investing and make decisions that will help us get smarter, happier, and richer.


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ATLANTA — A federal magistrate judge erred in determining that although a software company had sufficiently shown that its transformative database is a trade secret in a pair of lawsuits against industry competitors, the company failed to show that the defendants misappropriated the trade secret because he failed to consider multiple alternative types of misappropriation contemplated under Florida’s trade secret law, an 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled May 20 in partly remanding the magistrate judge’s findings of fact (Compulife Software Inc. v. Moses Newman, et al., Nos. 18-12004 and 18-12007, 11th Cir., 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 16052).
CHICAGO — Dismissal of state and federal trade secret law claims brought against former employees of a provider of equity compensation services by their former employer is warranted because the plaintiffs have failed to sufficiently show that the defendants improperly acquired, used or disclosed any trade secret information, the defendants argue in a May 15 motion to dismiss filed in Illinois federal court (Aon plc, et al. v. Infinite Equity Inc., et al., No. 19-7504, N.D. Ill.).
SEATTLE — A federal judge in Washington on May 18 ruled that dismissal of a video game developer’s state and federal trade secret misappropriation claims against a former business partner and its CEO stemming from a failed video game development agreement is not warranted because the plaintiff has pleaded plausible claims under both statutes sufficient to survive the defendants’ attempt to dismiss (tinyBuild LLC v. Nival International Ltd., et al., No. 18-805, W.D. Wash., 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 87122).
RIVERSIDE, Calif. — A former employee of a custom apparel retailer that manufactures and sells public safety equipment and uniforms to the military and law enforcement and fire and EMS industries, among others, violated terms of several employment agreements he signed and state and federal trade secret laws by engaging in a scheme to provide an industry competitor with his former employer’s confidential and trade secret information so that the company could start a competing product line, the retailer alleges in a May 15 complaint filed in California federal court (Amwear USA Inc. v. Jeff Schlabowske, et al., No. 20-1038, C.D. Calif.).
NEWARK, N.J. — Calling a motion for spoliation sanctions in a trade secret misappropriation lawsuit filed by a life sciences data company against its industry competitor “hyperbolic and groundless,” a pharmaceutical information technology company on May 15 argues in an opposition brief that a federal judge in New Jersey should deny the motion because no spoliation occurred and the defendant has not violated any court orders and has engaged in no impropriety (IQVIA Inc., et al. v. Veeva Systems Inc., No. 17-177, D. N.J.).
CHICAGO — In a May 13 opinion, a federal judge in Illinois ruled that a drug development company pleaded with sufficient particularity that it took reasonable efforts to maintain the secrecy of its trade secret information pertaining to the production of its cancer treatment drug, rejecting an argument by a former business partner that the company failed to do so as required under Illinois trade secret law (Meridian Laboratories Inc. v. OncoGenerix USA Inc., No. 18-6007, N.D. Ill., 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 84352).
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In its May 18 orders list, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a petition for certiorari that challenged findings by the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that a consent judgment relating to trademarks and trade secrets was assignable (M.W. Watermark LLC, et al. v. Evoqua Water Technologies LLC, No. 19-1079, U.S. Sup.).
SAN FRANCISCO — A federal district court did not err in ruling that a communication options and custom software provider failed to present sufficient evidence creating a triable issue of fact in arguing that Domino’s Pizza Inc. misappropriated its trade secrets when it developed an in-house custom GPS driver tracking system (the solution) for its franchisees using trade secrets the plaintiff had allegedly provided to Domino’s while working to develop a similar system for the pizza maker, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled May 14 (Prostar Wireless Group LLC v. Domino’s Pizza Inc., No. 19-15130, 9th Cir., 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 15439).
WILMINGTON, Del. — A trash hauler and its subsidiary sued an industry competitor and its owners in Delaware state court on April 28, alleging that the defendants engaged in a scheme to misappropriate by entering into discussions under the guise of purchasing a franchise from the trash hauler when, in fact, they were seeking to use the franchisor’s trade secrets and other confidential information to start a competing business (Smash Franchise Partners LLC, et al. v. Kanda Holdings Inc, et al., No. 2020-0302-JTL, Del. Chanc.).
NEW YORK — A kitchen and bathroom plumbing fixture manufacturer has sufficiently shown that two of its former employees and certain industry competitors misappropriated its confidential and trade secret information in violation of federal and common law, a federal judge in New York ruled May 12 in granting in part and denying in part the defendants’ motion to dismiss (Kraus USA Inc. v. Sergio Magarik, et al., No. 17-6541, S.D. N.Y., 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 83481).
CHICAGO — A federal judge in Illinois on May 8 adopted a federal magistrate judge’s report and recommendation that defendants in a breach of contract and trade secret misappropriation lawsuit brought by a stored energy solutions provider are entitled to limited monetary sanctions covering half of the attorney fees incurred by the defendants as a result of the plaintiff’s failure to properly collect documents and its issuance of misleading responses to other discovery requests (LiiON LLC v. Vertiv Group Corp., et al., No. 18-6133, N.D. Ill., 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 81337).
SAN JOSE, Calif. — A federal judge in California on May 8 granted a joint stipulation and proposed order to dismiss all claims in a trade secret misappropriation lawsuit brought by an autonomous vehicle developer that alleged that certain of its former employees and companies they formed after leaving the company misappropriated the company’s autonomous vehicle technology to assist a company the former employees formed to compete with the plaintiff (WeRide Corp., et al. v. Jing Wang, et al., No. 18-7233, N.D. Calif.).
SAN DIEGO — Personal and credit data collectors Experian Information Solutions Inc. and Experian Services Corp. engaged in a scheme to collect a residence data analytics firm’s confidential and trade secret information to misappropriate the information and develop a competing current expected credit losses (CECL) product in violation of the parties’ business agreement and state and federal trade secrets law, the firm alleges in a May 6 complaint filed in California federal court (Weiss Residential Research LLC v. Experian Information Solutions Inc., et al., No. 20-861, S.D. Calif.).
FORT MYERS, Fla. — A federal judge in Florida on May 6 granted a stipulated joint motion for final judgment and permanent injunction in a breach of contract and trade secret misappropriation lawsuit filed by a windows and doors distributor against its former employee and certain industry competitors, enjoining the former employee from any further disclosure of the distributor’s confidential and trade secret information (LouMac Distributors – U.S. LBM LLC v. Louis Luongo, et al., No. 19-220, M.D. Fla., 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 79752).
MEDFORD, Ore. — A federal judge in Oregon on May 4 granted a motion in a trade secret misappropriation lawsuit to compel Rust-Oleum Corp. to produce test result data that identifies the chemical composition of the formula used in its vehicle restoration products, ruling that although producing those results may be costly for Rust-Oleum, they are important to the outcome of the litigation (Rust-Oleum Corp. v. NIC Industries Inc., No. 18-1655, D. Ore., 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 154998).
MINNEAPOLIS — A federal judge in Minnesota on May 4 ruled that although a combustion technology company cannot show that two German defendants lack the sufficient contacts with Minnesota to establish personal jurisdiction in a trade secret misappropriation lawsuit, the company has sufficiently pleaded that the actions of a former employee, who allegedly conspired with the German defendants, may be attributed to the German defendants under a conspiracy theory of personal jurisdiction (DURAG Inc. v. Thomas Kurzawski, et al., No. 17-5325, D. Minn., 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 78014).
PHILADELPHIA — A federal district court did not err in ruling that a NASA supplier can maintain its claim for trade secret misappropriation and that defendants in the action failed to raise a genuine issue of material fact that the confidential information they are alleged to have misappropriated were, in fact, trade secrets under Pennsylvania law, a Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled April 30 (Advanced Fluid Systems Inc. v. Kevin Huber, et al., Nos. 19-1722 and 19-1752, 3rd Cir., 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 13903).
HOUSTON — Communications between a custom sign manufacturer’s former employee and his current employer that allegedly caused the former employee to breach the terms of an employment agreement and misappropriate his former employer’s trade secrets are not protected as either an exercise of the employee’s right of association or an exercise of his right of free speech under Texas law, a Texas appellate panel ruled April 28 (National Signs Inc. v. John Graff, No. 01-18-00662-CV, Texas App., 1st Dist., 2020 Tex. App. LEXIS 3557).
NEW YORK — A software company on April 27 filed a declaratory relief action against its former business partner in New York federal court, seeking a declaration that it did not misappropriate the former business partner’s trade secrets pursuant to state, federal or common law when it developed its own application and platform that had similar functionality to the defendant’s product (MobilizeAmerica Inc. v. 1 Inc., No. 20-3277, S.D. N.Y.).
FORT MYERS, Fla. — An advertising network has sufficiently stated its claim for trade secret misappropriation pursuant to the Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) against a former employee and industry competitor for the defendants’ alleged conduct after the statute’s enactment date but has not done so for any alleged misappropriation before that date because no such federal cause of action existed before that date and because the network had no interest in the trade secrets at issue until obtaining them as part of an asset purchase agreement, a federal judge in Florida ruled April 23 (Spigot Inc., et al. v. Jeremy M. Hoggatt, et al., No. 18-764, M.D. Fla., 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17973).


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Yes, People Buy Vinyl Because It’s Cool-Looking
In recent years, vinyl has undergone a massive resurgence in popularity. It’s technologically obsolete, but that has been overshadowed by its popularity at vendors like Urban Outfitters, Amazon and Target — and as we learned by talking to some seasoned industry pros, it’s not because vinyl sounds good.
This millennial obsession might be the catalyst for what many in the industry have dubbed the “vinyl revival.” This unforeseen return of vinyl’s popularity ignited in 2005, and sales have increased nearly tenfold worldwide since, but why?
Technologically, it makes no sense. Streaming services are so much easier and cheaper to use. Millennials are supposed to be obsessed with social media and efficiency, right?
But not when it comes to vinyl. Instead, they’re interested in the aesthetic. Vinyl is cool precisely because of its clunk.
To many music fans, owning vinyl isn’t just about the music. It’s a tangible representation of the music you feel describes you. George Flanagan, who is the sales manager at one of Brooklyn’s most popular record stores, Rough Trade NYC, said this movement is driven in part by the millennials’ attraction to holding art in their hands rather than — or, more accurately, in addition to — scrolling past it on their phones.
“I think the resurgence in vinyl speaks to a void in a tactile experience in music listening that streaming leaves,” George said. “I know a lot of think-pieces have come out talking about this amazing and exciting surge in vinyl sales. From what our numbers have shown, it’s still an extremely small amount of sales, and a store like Rough Trade can only exist somewhere like New York City or Brooklyn that has the type of customer that’s interested in having that physical medium.”
Rough Trade NYC opened its doors in Williamsburg back in 2013 when the area was just becoming the hipster mecca it’s known as today. One of the reasons Brooklyn is able to support this vinyl culture is because many of the young people living there do still think it’s cool.
“There’s a cool factor I think with vinyl that you don’t get with CDs or streaming,” he said. “You know, these 14 year-old kids come in to buy vinyl, and they say like, ‘I’m going to put this on my bookcase,’ and I think, not to disqualify anyone because there’s plenty of young people who buy a turntable and actually listen to it, but to them, it’s more of the aesthetic.”
This aesthetic advantage is also felt by those on the production side of the vinyl industry. Stephanie Cochrane and Fern Vernon-Bernich work at Brooklyn Phono, one of the area’s last family-owned record pressing factories. Brooklyn Phono opened in 2000, while the industry was going through one of its toughest years in sales, but the factory said it has never struggled to find business, and they echo Flanagan’s thoughts on tangibility.
“We really haven’t noticed that huge spike everyone is talking about because we have been making vinyl the same way. The business has been steady, although cyclical. We started when the future for vinyl did look pretty dismal, but people are still buying it,” said Fern, who owns the factory with her husband, Thomas Bernich.
Their specialty at Brooklyn Phono is the artisanal craft of pressing, and they use machinery at the factory that allows for maximum control over the process. This attention to detail attracts everyone from local independent labels to superstars like Joan Jett.
“Joan Jett is a big customer of ours,” Cochrane said, “and has been since we opened. She’s very involved in the process, she likes pressing through us, especially for the independent label she owns, Blackheart Records.”
The Brooklynites also admit the art factor might be the key to continued interest in vinyl.
“It’s tactile,” Stephanie said, “and that’s what people get out of it that’s different than an mp3 or download. Regardless of sound, it’s an art. It has a natural sound, and when you go to play a record, you engage with it and it is an experience.”
But there is one question everyone always asks about the popularity of vinyl: is the sound quality really that much better? Stephanie and Fern seem to think so.
“It’s subjective,” Fern said. “The real difference is the way the sound is made. With vinyl, it is an analog system, and CDs replicate a digital sound. Digital could be described as cooler, whereas analog really fills the room because it’s a physical sound rather than a replication.”
George also thinks the sound quality helps sell vinyl, but at the same time, the millennials purchasing it might just be buying it for the aesthetic. “I think it has an appeal on both ways,” he said. “The aesthetic is what the kids love, it’s way more aesthetic than it is sound quality.”
Still, that’s another reason vinyl is able to remain so timeless. It doesn’t have to be as technologically advanced because the sound really is different.
Even then, it will always come down to the aesthetic for the younger population. Vinyl is cool-looking, and it proves that you are serious about music. “I am more excited by this younger generation,” George said. “They grew up downloading and streaming, and I think to buy a record, it’s kind of like a totemistic thing of like proving that you’re a real fan.”
But not everyone is excited about the younger generation getting into vinyl. There seems to be a rift between the older population who have been buying vinyl since its inception and the millennials who just picked up on the trend, but vendors aren’t worried about it.
“I’m sure there’s plenty of record store snobs who would turn their noses up at some 14-year-old kid buying a record just because they think it’s cool,” George said, “but I personally think that’s my future vinyl customer.”