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We're thrilled to announce the return of GamesBeat Next, hosted in San Francisco this October, where we will explore the theme of "Playing the Edge." Apply to speak here and learn more about sponsorship opportunities here. At the event, we will also announce 25 top game startups as the 2024 Game Changers. Apply or nominate today!
At the IFA conference in Berlin last Friday, Samsung CEO Yoon Boo-Keun delivered a keynote extolling the virtues of a home filled with devices that connect to the Internet.
Samsung’s vision would allow users to tweak and surveil every aspect of their home while they’re away: “The home of the future is not about the technology and not about being smart and connected,” he said. “It’s about it working in a way that you don’t notice the technology and giving you the right options at the right time. It’s about adapting to you.”
In spite of the connectivity and automation features native to the smart home, Yoon’s message puts the technologies supporting these efforts in the back seat. On some level Yoon is right. The sheer number of technologies and players in the smart home space are mind-boggling right now. Samsung, Google, GE, Revolv, ADT Home Security, iControl, Insteon and others have taken bets on radio protocols like Zigby, Zwave, WiFi, BlueTooth LE, etc.
The list of various devices and connections goes on and on at a pace that would make many consumers’ (and indeed some analysts’) heads spin. The smart home is an emerging market that’s incredibly important to all of these manufacturers, and yet they haven’t clamped down on the one aspect that’s most important to consumers — getting past the complexity.
That said, Yoon’s statements about pushing the technologies aside, while bold, seem to conflict with the nascent and somewhat nebulous smarthome movement, which Apple plans to bring to the mainstream with iOS 8 and its HomeKit platform. For businesses that want to play in the smart home space it’s all about the technology. And as Samsung projects 45 million smart homes in the near future, it’s becoming clear that the connected home devices are the next big thing for top gadget companies. Despite his words above, Yoon’s Samsung understands the need for direct access to the leading smart home technologies.
Understand that Samsung has already been a leader in connected appliances (e.g. Wi-Fi-enabled refrigerators, washers, etc.), and other devices for quite some time now. In order to keep an edge on the competition, the Korean conglomerate recently acquired startup SmartThings for a reported $200m.
Unlike the connected appliance market, SmartThings’ technology uses a hub-and-spoke model that allows users to quickly and easily coordinate the use of various connected devices. The SmartThings hub is a device that makes use of multiple radios and communications protocols to facilitate this device control. With the hub properly installed, users can easily monitor their connected devices or set these devices to automatically perform certain tasks turning a “connected home” into a “smart home.”
The SmartThings purchase positions Samsung alongside Google and others in competition for the emerging smart home market. Where the re-invention of mobile defined the technnology industry’s growth last decade, it seems that during the next few years, tech sector growth will come from the rise of home automation and wearable technologies.
It’s an age that some are inelegantly referring to as “the Internet of things.”
These markets are of the utmost importance for Samsung, a conglomerate that saw its desktop sales slump last year and, like many device makers, is struggling to maintain high levels of profitability in the mobile space.
Again, Samsung is not alone in looking to the smart home for growth. Google has similarly taken losses in the mobile handset space. Recall that Google purchased Motorola Mobility in 2011 for more than $12 billion, in a move that many believed would allow it to create devices in which it could control design, hardware, and software. Google surprised analysts when just three years later, in 2014, it sold Motorola off to Lenovo for less than $3 billion.
Despite the fact that Google held onto Motorola’s considerably valuable patent portfolio, few viewed the investment as profitable. Google then pivoted to the smart home space by purchasing Nest Labs, a leader in computerized home devices such as the Internet-connected learning thermostat and the intelligent smoke/carbon monoxide detector Nest Protect.
Likewise, venerable American conglomerate General Electric has moved into the smart home with its recent $30 investment in Quirky. Quirky is an innovative crowdsourcing startup that, like SmartThings, has recently debuted a connected home hub device in addition to making use of GE’s patent portfolio. With GE by its side, Quirky produced a well-received connected air conditioner and a learning egg tray that can tell users which the eggs in the refrigerator are the freshest. Even as GE is in talks to sell its appliance business to Elextrolux, Quirky’s technology is in part responsible for the $2 billion to $2.5 billion dollar valuation of the business.
Despite the recent consolidations in the smart home market, the space remains relatively diverse. Quirky’s partnership with GE was not an acquisition, leaving the New York-based gadget startup independent.
Boulder, CO’s smart home start-up, Revolv, garnered considerable attention at the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show. Rather than attempting to build competing connected devices for every part of one’s home, Revolv’s platform is truly smart, as it uses a recipe-like paradigm to provide command and control for a host of already-popular connected devices.
With an aversion to ecosystem lock-in, Revolv’s focus is to constantly add device compatibility to its hub so that users can benefit from additional functionality as manufacturers bring more connected devices to market.
Indeed, the $598 billion gorilla in the room Apple has taken a similar position to Revolv — that is to say it’s interested in working with smart home device makers rather than locking users into an ecosystem. Its tactic is a new app called Home, an iPhone app powered by Apple’s HomeKit SDK, which is set to debut in 2014’s iOS 8. With HomeKit, any interested connected or smart home device maker can give customers easy control of their gizmos via Apple’s Home app. It’s unclear whether Apple will create a hub device to assist in what they intend to be a seamless integration of disparate gadgets.
The entire tech world eagerly awaits Apple’s Home solution, which should start taking shape later this month when iOS 8 is released and the iPhone 6 starts shipping. Samsung’s somewhat mature SmartThings platform is available for users to purchase today. This gives the Korean-based global conglomerate a small leg up in what’s sure to be an incredibly competitive race for the $100 billion smart home market.
Hopefully the winner will be a consumer base that benefits from myriad smart home options and a standard of living filled with automated ease.
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Exciting Halloween Release: Jusant Promises Thrilling Adventure
As Halloween draws near, horror enthusiasts eagerly await the release of new games and movies to send shivers down their spines. However, this year’s offerings seem disappointingly scarce. Thankfully, a saving grace has emerged just in time for the spooky season: Jusant, a game that is anything but creepy or disturbing.
On October 31st, gamers will have the opportunity to immerse themselves in the thrilling world of Jusant, brought to us by the talented developers at Don’s climbing title t Aim. This new adventure will take players on an exhilarating journey through a colossal tower, promising a captivating experience like no other.
Prior to the game’s highly anticipated release, we had the privilege of previewing Jusant. Our in-depth thoughts on this exciting title can be found in our latest review. Furthermore, we are excited to announce that we have conducted exclusive interviews with the developers during this year’s Gamescom event. Stay tuned for the captivating insights gleaned from these conversations.
In the meantime, a brand new gameplay trailer for Jusant has just been unveiled. Prepare to be captivated and intrigued by the stunning visuals and immersive gameplay that this game has to offer. Check out the trailer below.
Generally speaking, Halloween is the scariest day of the year, the event when tons of horror movies and games debut. For 2023, horror offerings are pretty scarce right now as every game under the sun seems to want a bite of the October fruit, but luckily now we have another game that could save the day.
That’s right, the not at all creepy or disturbing Jusant will be appearing just in time for Halloween, which means on October 31st, you’ll be able to jump into Don’s climbing title t Aim and start scaling the giant tower adventure.
We recently previewed Jusant, and you can read our thoughts on the game here, and soon, you’ll also be able to read our interviews with developers at Gamescom this year. Alternatively, a new gameplay trailer has also dropped, which you can find below.
#Jusant #launches #spookiest #day #year

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Watchdog today set out new guidelines to help homeowners avoid being charged two sets of estate agent's fees for selling their property online.
The Office of Fair Trading said between 15% and 20% of the estate agent cases it was currently looking at involved people who had paid a double set of fees after mistakenly thinking an online property retailer was not an estate agent.
It said there were about 200 internet property retailers in the UK, some of whom claimed they were not engaging in estate agency work and assured customers that they would not have to pay a fee to their original estate agent if they sold their property online with them.
But the OFT said many of the sites did fall within the legal definition of an estate agent, and as a result consumers had found themselves having to pay two sets of fees - one set to their original agent and one set to the online company.
The group issued guidance today setting out what constitutes estate agency work for the purposes of the Estate Agents Act.
This includes providing a `for sale' board and putting it up outside a client's property, receiving queries from potential buyers and passing them on to a client, and sending out particulars on a property and arranging viewings.
The guidelines have been agreed by the OFT, Trading Standards Institute, and the Local Authorities Co-ordinators of Regulatory Services. It has also received support from trade bodies within the sector.
Christine Wade, OFT director of consumer regulation enforcement, said: "All those involved in estate agency work owe duties to their clients and must not mislead consumers.
"Today's guidance, produced in agreement with our regulatory partners, provides clarity in an important and growing sector within this market."
Ron Gainsford, chief executive of the Trading Standards Institute, said: "Buying and selling property is a consumer's biggest transaction and is always going to require financial diligence and professional support.
"There can be no scope for confusion or uncertainty. The property market is forever a fluctuating one in which selling and buying practices will change and initiatives emerge.
"By working collectively we can provide clarification and address issues that require improvement or remedy in the best interests of consumers and best industry conduct."


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Long gone for now are concepts for chopping again on mail supply, which had transform politically poisonous. Additionally put aside, for now, are different proposals which were floated through the years to modify postal operations, together with the ones to denationalise some services and products.
Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., the chairman of the Place of origin Safety and Governmental Affairs Committee, helmed the law and mentioned that for the reason that country’s founding, the Postal Carrier has transform “a very important a part of the material of our country.”
Peters mentioned the law would make sure that the Postal Carrier can proceed its just about “250-year custom of turning in provider to the American other people.”
Past playing cards and letters, other people depend at the submit administrative center to ship executive tests, pharmaceuticals and lots of items bought on-line however in the end dropped at doorsteps and mailboxes by means of the Postal Carrier.
“We want to save our Postal Carrier,” mentioned Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, some other architect of the invoice. Portman mentioned the invoice isn’t a bailout, and no new investment goes to the company.
Grievance of the Postal Carrier peaked in 2020, forward of the presidential election, as cutbacks behind schedule provider at a time when hundreds of thousands of American citizens had been depending on mail-in ballots throughout the primary 12 months of the COVID-19 disaster.


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IDIS Reports Increased Demand for NDAA-Compliant 2MP Cameras
IDIS says this latest trend in buying habits is indicative of a wider industry focus on NDAA-compliant, trusted and cost-effective video surveillance solutions.
COPPELL, Texas — IDIS reports it has seen a leap in demand for its 2MP cameras connected to 8-32 channel NVRs in the first half of 2022 in the U.S.
This latest trend in buying habits is indicative of a wider industry focus on NDAA-compliant, trusted and cost-effective video surveillance solutions, according to the company.
Compared to IDIS America sales figures from the same period in 2021, demand for the DC-D4216RX and DC-D4217RX dome cameras has more than doubled so far in 2022.
The company says this rapid uptick is being driven in part by several large project wins for the company across the retail, hotel and residential sectors implementing cameras and NVRs compliant with the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
Andrew Myung, president, IDIS America, notes that “We’ve seen a sharp increase in demand for NDAA-compliant hardware outside of federal projects as end users in a wider range of sectors emphasize the importance of affordability combined with manufacturing origin and supply chain integrity. These include multisite deployments and run rate business of 8-32 camera systems as integrators and users are opting for trusted, Korean-made equipment. Many are citing the potential impact of the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act 2019, which could see the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) prevent Chinese surveillance brands from entering U.S. networks.”
The 2MP dome cameras are said to offer simple, plug-and-play installation with IDIS DirectIP NVRs, and offer a choice of features that include true wide dynamic range (WDR), two-way audio, and IR up to 30m.
IDIS America has also revealed that sales of compatible 8-32 channel network video recorders (NVRs) have also significantly increased in the first half of 2022. Forming part of IDIS end-to-end solutions, these NVRs offer seamless connectivity with other IDIS components and software, providing high-performance recording, secure and reliable storage, and ensuring quick and easy installation for integrators, according to the company.
“This increase in demand for our NDAA-compliant base-line systems is building on the success of our higher-specification range, which is popular with logistics firms, luxury retailers, cannabis operators and government projects,” Myung adds. “It shows that IDIS is delivering exactly what our customers want, trusted video technology with a low total cost of ownership.”
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Netscape launches lightweight Communicator
Good heavens, it's almost anorexic...
Netscape Communications is launching a slimmed down version of its popular Web browser aimed at bringing Net access to anything other than a conventional PC. If it proves successful, it would make the widespread acceptance of using small lightweight devices -- including personal digital assistants (PDAs) and mobile phones -- to access the Web more likely. Coincidentally, it ties in with AOL's strategy "AOL Anywhere" which intends to deliver the AOL service to all emerging interactive platforms ready for the mass market. Communicator 5.0 -- code named Gecko -- is so light on its feet its almost anorexic, said one expert who was just a little surprised to hear that the stripped-down browser could now be stored on a single floppy disk. According to the techies at Internet.com who've had a preview of the browser, the release did not include plug-ins, e-mail support or secure sockets layer (SSL) support. Nevertheless, testing did prove that the browser was "noticeably faster" than recent releases of Communicator representing a complete overhaul and rewrite of the browser engine, they said.
Sponsored: The Nuts and Bolts of Ransomware in 2016


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The National Basketball Association (NBA) has just announced a multi-year marketing partnership with foodpanda as the league’s first-ever Official Food Delivery Partner in the Philippines.
The announcement was made last February 18 (Saturday) at the Music Hall of the SM Mall Of Asia, ahead of the 72nd NBA All-Star Game, which aired live in the Philippines across One Sports and NBA TV Philippines on Monday, Feb. 20 at 9:00 a.m. PHT.
Leading the “ball signing” activity were NBA Asia Senior Director of Global Marketing Partnerships Mae Dichupa, NBA Asia Director of Global Marketing Partnerships Hubert Ling, foodpanda Head of Integrated Marketing Communications Lorelie Olalia, and foodpanda Head of Strategic Partnerships Amer Bakshi.
“We’re proud to welcome foodpanda, a leader in the food delivery service industry in the Philippines, to the NBA family,”
“This partnership presents an exciting opportunity to engage a new audience in foodpanda’s avid subscribers and collaborate on promotions that will bring the NBA experience closer to our passionate fans across the country.”Mae Dichupa
The event featured a special performance from the UE Pep Squad together with foodpanda’s well-loved mascot Pau-Pau.
Also present at the event were three of the most sought after basketball stars in the Philippines – Mark Barroca, Isaac Go and Brix Ramos who participated in three fun court activities with guests.
foodpanda will also serve as an official partner of the NBA 3X Philippines presented by Mountain Dew, a 3-on-3 basketball tournament featuring men’s and women’s teams and NBA entertainment that will take place in Metro Manila next month.
This season, foodpanda will host a series of public viewing parties during select NBA tentpole events and will have virtual on-court signage on select NBA broadcasts across TV5 and One Sports. Additionally, foodpanda will launch promotions that will provide foodpanda users in the Philippines with the chance to win authentic NBA prizes.
“Filipinos are known for their immense passion for basketball, and in the same way that the NBA is among the most popular sports leagues in the country, we’re committed to shaping foodpanda as the preferred choice of local consumers for online food delivery,”
“We’re incredibly thrilled to launch this collaboration together with the NBA and offer engaging campaigns and activities to food lovers and sports fans alike.”foodpanda Philippines Director for Growth Guilherme Porto


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Jacaranda Finance CEO and founder Daniel Wessels said the lender’s move into the prime space has come about naturally as the company “grows up”.
Mr Wessels said moving into the prime space would allow the company to offer personal loan solutions to a full spectrum of borrowers and increase relevance in the evolving personal loan space.
“This is a natural evolution of Jacaranda as a lender,” he said.
“We have been operating in the subprime and near-prime space for a number of years, and over time we’ve seen an increase in clean credit borrowers as traditional lenders rely heavily on credit scores and as digitally savvy consumers flock away from the inflexible nature of traditional lending and banking services.”
Mr Wessels said that in the short term, the lender will continue to use consumer data to launch new products and establish new partnerships.
“Yet, we’ll also continue to find ways of engaging with customers to their benefit,” he concluded.
[Related: Wisr launches vehicle lending product]
Malavika Santhebennur is the features editor on the mortgages titles at Momentum Media.
Before joining the team in 2019, Malavika held roles with Money Management and Benchmark Media. She has been writing about financial services for the past six years.


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Klaus Teuber, who created the board game sensation Settlers of Catan, has passed away at the age of 70. According to the , Teuber died on April 1st after a “brief and severe illness.” He is survived by his wife Claudia and their two sons, Guido and Benny, all of which are involved with publisher Catan Studios.
It is hard to do justice to how important Catan was (and is) to the board game space. Teuber invented the multiplayer resource-trading game in 1995 and is one of the first European board games to achieve massive success throughout the rest of the world. As of 2020, over 32 million copies of Catan in 40 different languages have been sold globally.
It’s not just board games. The popularity of Catan has allowed for multiple digital versions available for smartphones, video game consoles and PCs. The game has also left quite a pop culture footprint, inspiring countless references in media properties like The Big Bang Theory, Parks and Recreation, Supergirl and South Park. It even inspired a short film in 2014, The Lord of Catan, starring Amy Acker. There have also been rumors of a forthcoming Sony-produced feature film floating around since 2015.
Teuber may be best known for creating Catan, but the designer also had his hand in many popular board games like Barbarossa, Wacky Wacky Wacky and more. All told, he won the Game of the Year award a whopping four times. Not bad for a former dental technician who didn’t even begin developing games seriously until the 1990s, when he was in his 40s.
It is with profound sadness that we at CATAN Studio acknowledge the passing of Klaus Teuber, legendary game designer and creator of the beloved board game CATAN. Our hearts go out to Klaus' family during this incredibly difficult time. pic.twitter.com/gPPIVtleHJ
— CATAN - Official (@settlersofcatan) April 4, 2023
Teuber also founded publisher Catan Studios, which posted a memorial tweet today urging the title’s many fans to honor his impact on the world of gaming by “being kind to one another” and pursuing their dreams to the fullest.


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PHOENIX - It's not even Halloween yet and porch pirates are targeting packages early, and a Phoenix man says he already got a Christmas gift swiped.
There are warnings to get your Christmas shopping done early to avoid porch pirates, but it seems like porch pirates heard about that, too, and they're on the lookout for deliveries in front of homes.
Ramsey Jabro says he saw the thievery on his security cameras.
"Sitting at the office and I got a notice on my phone that there’s motion in your front driveway. I thought, uh oh, I knew earlier I had some packages delivered," Jabro said.
He might be the first holiday porch pirate victim in October after he tried to get Christmas shopping done early.
"It was actually a gift for my mom. A digital picture frame," he said.
In the video Jabro shared, you can see the suspected package thief turn around after passing his house, then she approaches with something already in her hand.
"I think she was pretending she was on a delivery to avoid any other neighbor looking at her," Jabro speculates. "You think it’ll never happen to you but when it does, you feel violated."
Jabro says he tried to yell at the person through the doorbell camera before the person took off.
- Man seriously hurt after being shot multiple times in north Phoenix
- National Park Service: Man seen hitting baseball into Grand Canyon
- PCSO: 15-year-old accused of killing another teen in San Tan Valley turns himself in
Tune in to FOX 10 Phoenix for the latest news:


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Costly gas won’t slow Colorado turkey travel
Vail, CO Colorado
DENVER, Colorado ” The average price of a gallon of gas in Colorado has never been $3 in November, but travel is expected to increase slightly.
“Because Coloradans perceive travel as a right, they are finding ways around such challenges as the increased cost of gasoline and are still traveling,” said Sandra Barnes, AAA Colorado’s director of travel. “Overall, our travel agency is as busy as last year when it comes to booking for Thanksgiving travel.
“The only difference is that some travelers are cutting costs by staying at less expensive hotels, eating at less expensive restaurants or cutting out travel expenses they don’t absolutely need.”
Gas prices in Colorado are up considerably from last year. Coloradans on average are paying 90 cents per gallon more. The average price is $3.11 a gallon compared to $2.21 last year.
Unusually high gas prices are not adding a considerable amount of expense to in-state travelers. Motorists will only spend $22.50 more this year on regular unleaded gasoline in a 500-mile round-trip journey, driving a car that gets 20 miles per gallon. Motorist can calculate the current costs of fuel for their trip with AAA’s online fuel cost calculator at http://www.fuelcostcalculator.com.
The top five in-state travel destination booked through AAA Colorado’s travel agency for Thanksgiving this year are Denver, Colorado Springs, Fort Collins/Loveland, Grand Junction and Vail/Eagle.


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How fitting that Michigan Wine Month falls during May, a month chock-full of widely celebrated wine holidays: Sauvignon Blanc Day 5/7, Moscato Day 5/9, National Wine Day 5/25, and more! One holiday particularly important to the wine world falls on May 24 every year, and we just couldn’t let this one pass by without proper celebration!
May 24, 2021, marks the 45th Anniversary of the Judgement of Paris, otherwise known as the Paris Wine Tasting of 1976. But what is it about this wine competition that makes it such an important part of wine history? It is hard to imagine now, but before this momentous day in 1976, American-made wine did not have the international popularity and respect it does today. This tasting was the competition that turned the wine world on its head and brought American wines, specifically California wines, to the forefront.
The tasting was organized by Steven Spurrier, a British wine merchant, and his American colleague Patricia Gallagher. Spurrier carefully selected six California Chardonnays and six California Cabernet Sauvignons to compete against four white Burgundies and four Grands Crus Châteaux reds from Bordeaux. He invited nine of the world’s leading wine experts of the time, all of whom were French, to judge the competition. To remove any bias from the final scores, Spurrier asked the judges to blind taste each wine.
The judges were sure they would be able to easily discern between the fine wines of France and the unsophisticated wines of California, but what happened next was a shock to everyone. Of the 20 wines being judged, the wines that scored the highest marks were California wines – a 1973 Chardonnay from Chateau Montelena in Calistoga, CA, and a 1973 Cabernet Sauvignon from Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars in Napa, CA. The fact that these “New World” wines could not only hold their own but even outperform their French counterparts left the judges in utter disbelief. Some were so offended by the results that one of the judges demanded her scorecard back.
Before 1976, the French had erroneously convinced themselves and the world that only France could produce great wine. Humiliated and humbled, the competition results “gave the French a valuable incentive to review traditions that were sometimes more accumulations of habit and expediency, and to reexamine convictions that were little more than myths taken on trust” (Gerald Asher, 1997). In other words, the Paris Tasting of 1976 helped bring about more competition and innovation in France’s wines.
Galvanized by California’s sweeping success in Paris, aspiring winemakers and vintners all over the world set out to produce top-quality wines. Much of the globalization of wine that we enjoy today can be credited to the Judgement of Paris. While France remains a premier wine-producing region, areas like Napa, Sonoma, Columbia Valley, The Finger Lakes, Mendoza, Marlborough, and yes, even our lesser-known AVAs in the Traverse City Wine Coast are proudly producing award-winning wines year after year.
In honor of the Judgement of Paris and to show our gratitude for the California winemakers that paved the way for our industry, our tasting rooms will be offering Chardonnay specials for the week of Monday, May 24 2021 – Sunday, May 30, 2021. That week also plays host to another wine holiday; National Chardonnay Day falls on May 27 this year! Stop by one of two Traverse City are tasting rooms and enjoy $2 off glass pours and 20% off bottle purchases of our Sur Lie and Barrel Aged Chardonnays. This offer is only redeemable in person and cannot be combined with other coupons or discounts.


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The athletic apparel retailer also boosts site visits by 50% using customer analytics platform AgilOne.
Mix search and display ads, study says
When combined, search and display advertising deliver profoundly better results than when used independently, according to new research conducted by comScore Networks. The study, “Close the Loop: Understanding Search and Display Synergy,” shows a significant lift in on-site engagement and an increase in online and offline purchasing by consumers exposed to integrated campaigns. ComScore gauged advertising campaigns of Fortune 100 companies in several vertical categories. Internet users who were exposed to both the search and display advertising campaigns increased their share of page views relative to competitive sites by 68% and time spent by 66%. Among those exposed to both, purchases of advertisers’ products and services increased by 244% online and 89% offline compared with Internet users with similar behavior who were not exposed to these ads, the study finds.
78% of active home Internet users link via broadband
A larger percentage of U.S. active home web users are connecting to the Internet via broadband, according to a new study from Nielsen/NetRatings Inc. In November 78% of active users had a broadband connection, up 13 percentage points from 65% in November 2005, Nielsen reports. Broadband consumers also continue to use the Internet more heavily than narrowband consumers, Nielsen found. In November broadband users spent an average of 34 hours and 50 minutes per person online. That was 33% more time online than narrowband users, who had an average of 26 hours, 13 minutes per person. Of the total time spent online, 82% could be attributed to those consumers connecting via broadband, Nielsen says. Broadband users also viewed more than twice as many web pages as narrowband users, with averages of 1,574 and 681 web pages per person, respectively.
Shop around the clock is coming, report says
As broadband Internet access spreads into homes, a debate has emerged as to when consumers shop online and whether work is still the preferred shopping venue. The latest to weigh in with stats is payments processor CyberSource Corp. Its verdict: Consumers like to shop from work, but a subtle shift to near-24-hour shopping is taking place. The peak shopping hour during the week of Dec. 3-9 was 4:00 p.m. Eastern, Cybersource says. Online transactions typically hit their low between 2:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. Eastern. But change is occurring. The difference between the highest and lowest volume hours is diminishing. “The graphs are flattening-albeit with much higher numbers. Online shopping is not only getting bigger, it’s becoming more of a 24-hour phenomenon,” says Doug Schwegman, CyberSource director of market and customer intelligence.
$2 billion lost due to security concerns, Gartner says
Consumer concerns about online data security continue to take a toll on e-commerce, resulting in nearly $2 billion in lost e-retail sales in 2006, according to a new report from Gartner Inc. Nearly half of online U.S. adults, or 46% of more than 155 million people, say that concerns about theft of information, data breaches or Internet-based attacks have affected their purchasing payment, online transaction or e-mail behavior, Gartner says. While $2 billion represents less than 2% of all online spending, it still is an important figure, Gartner says. “If you look at it in the total context, it’s not that significant; but if you look at the trend, it is significant,” says Avivah Litan, a Gartner vice president and security technology analyst. “It’s the first time that spending is actually going down because of security concerns. It’s becoming measurable.”
AARP launches shopping site for the 50+ crowd
Targeting its base of 37 million members, who are all 50 or older, the AARP has launched its own retail web site featuring more than 500 branded products at price discounts of up to 35%. The new site, at AARP.org/marketplace, was developed by Power Merchandising Corp. It offers consumer electronics, watches, home appliances, sports and fitness products, luggage and toys, and brands including Sony, Motorola, Callaway Golf, Cannon and Garmin. Sales are processed through the site’s own shopping cart. The site is offering free standard shipping through Dec. 18 on non-freight deliveries within the 48 contiguous states. To use the site, shoppers must log on with information from their AARP membership card.
Number of phishing sites up more than 8-fold
The number of phishing sites reached 37,444 in October, more than 8 times the number of sites in October 2005, the Anti-Phishing Working Group reports. Phishing sites are designed to steal credit card account and other data through e-mails that use legitimate brand names to trick consumers into revealing their private information. The number of sites has risen fairly steadily over the past year, but began to rise sharply in July, when the number rose 41% to 14,191 from 10,047 in June. The number of distributed unique software applications designed to steal passwords reached 237 in October, up 54% from 154 in October 2005, the working group reports. Such malicious software typically gets planted onto personal computers through opened e-mail attachments.
Consumers ready for mobile, but sites aren’t
Consumers are ready for mobile web surfing and transacting, but web sites? Not so much, according to a consumer survey conducted for Internet consulting firm Molecular Inc. by Kelton Research. One out of four among the 1,000 adult consumers surveyed said they’d use their mobile phone or handheld device to access the web if the web pages were easier to navigate. For survey respondents aged 18 to 44, the likelihood they’d use their mobile device to access the web was even higher: one out of three. “We don’t find these results surprising, but we do see them as a wake-up call for marketers and web designers,” says Darryl T.Gehly, executive vice president at Molecular. 28% of those surveyed said they’d use their mobile device for financial transactions including purchasing, but for the fact that the companies they do business with still don’t make it convenient to transact via such devices.
Site performance trumps loyalty and savings, survey says


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Wimbledon: cloudy with a chance of champagne
With the prospect of seeing much tennis put in customary doubt on a rainy opening day at Wimbledon’s 125th Championships, thousands may take solace in the tournament’s other sport: propping up the All England Club’s many bars.
The price of this year’s champagne, however, may leave fans a tad flat. A typical Wimbledon favourite, Lanson Black Label, has risen by seven per cent to £61.
Around 25,000 bottles of champagne are traditionally knocked back over the fortnight, with the most expensive, Lanson Extra Age, offered at £100. By contrast, the traditional barometer of Wimbledon’s economy, the price of strawberries, is the same as last year, at £2.50 for a punnet of ten.
A more modern feature of the Championships, the Centre Court roof, will begin


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Kodak Loses Another Board Member, Takes on Water as Ship Sinks
January 2, 2012 10:25 AM
comment(s) - last by
Sell patents, bit a massive loan, or close up shop?
Poor Kodak has taken a beating since the advent of digital photography. Few consumers buy film anymore and Kodak’s line of digital cameras aren’t even close to setting sales records. Kodak is facing a bleak future and has previously stated that it might be forced to close up shop as early as this year if things don't change.
Kodak is also facing growing personnel losses within the company. The firm has announced the loss of a third member from its board of directors in the last week. The latest loss is Laura Tyson who resigned her position on the board of Kodak Thursday. The resignation was confirmed in a SEC filing that Kodak made on Friday.
Tyson is a professor at the Walter A. Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. Tyson is also a member of President Obama's Economic Recovery Advisory Board and advised President Clinton when he was in office.
Kodak is in such dire financial straits that the firm is looking at possibly selling off patents it holds to stay solvent. It has been estimated that the patents Kodak holds are
worth five times
the company's current market cap.
The other two directors that left Kodak last week include Adam Clammer and Herald Chen. The two directors were both from a private equity firm called KKR & Co and had been on the board since 2009.
reports that Kodak had also warned that it might have to raise $500 million in new debt in lieu of selling patents to stay solvent. Kodak hasn't turned an annual profit since 1997.
This article is over a month old, voting and posting comments is disabled
Don't totally blame the board!
1/11/2012 3:04:52 PM
No surprise the board is now jumping ship. What happened is Perez and Faraci bunkered themselves in by hand picking the board of directors, and strategically made Perez the Chairman of the Board, a sinister strategy in my opinion. C’mon, really? Who let’s this happen? Do you think a CEO who is Chairman of the Board will put anyone on the board that might threaten him or even debate him? So now, one by one the members of the board are realizing they were played like pawns. So once they were concrete bunkered, Perez and Faraci were free and clear make business decisions that are/were clearly compensation driven for themselves and NOT for the long term viability of Kodak traditions and Kodak long term health and Kodak employees. DISGRACEFUL! Their agenda clearly seems to have been to eliminate every traditional Kodak business line by ignoring every “Kodak picture” like product or division, then selling it off. Their focus has been on inkjet commercial printing, sorry that just doesn’t fit the Kodak logo, and that’s the philosophy that has death spiraled Kodak, plain and simple. Focusing on an arena that has and will do nothing but decline, it’s obvious they have blinders on and will never embrace where Kodak should/could have been headed.
Even if the board of directors (those that are left) came out of their comas or grew some cohonas and did what they should have done 6 or 7 years ago (do they know the function that the board of directors is supposed to do?), it’s obviously too late, the damage is irreversible.
And now the “board of directors elected Laura Quatela” as a new Kodak President. Translation, Perez and Faraci appointing a puppet in a dire attempt to make Wall Street think something has changed and extend their lucrative salaries for who knows how much longer.
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Headset maker Merry expects revenues to leap in 3Q18
Ninelu Tu, Taipei; Steve Shen, DIGITIMES
Headset and audio equipment maker Merry Electronics expects to post robust revenue growth in the third quarter driven by growing demand for gaming earphones and other entertainment audio devices, according to company vice president Allen Huang.
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How much weed can you carry now that California has legalized marijuana? You might be surprised
Proposition 64 establishes one ounce of marijuana, or 8 grams of cannabis concentrates, as the legal limit for recreational pot possession for adults over the age of 21. Here are examples of actual amounts of products someone could carry now that
Lobbyist Pamela Lopez's dog, Bobby, uses VET CBD oil to treat his anxiety. Lopez discusses an assembly bill that would allow veterinarians to talk to pet owners about the medical use of cannabis for their pets.
In January 2018, state and local authorities will begin issuing licenses for the sale of legal recreational marijuana. But what do you need to know before you rush to the dispensary? Information courtesy of Ballotpedia.com.


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AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Global Animal Partnership (G.A.P.), North America’s most comprehensive farm animal welfare standards program, is proud to announce that Fair Farm Colorado, from Longmont, CO, is the first egg operation to be certified to G.A.P.’s Laying Hen and Pullet standards. Fair Farm Colorado’s operation is certified to G.A.P.’s Entire Life on Farm (Step 5+).
"Fair Farm just received G.A.P.’s top animal welfare rating for a laying hen farm,” said Walt Pounds, Fair Farm’s Founder and CEO. “We at Fair Farm Colorado are honored and excited to become the first egg operation to partner with the Global Animal Partnership," he added.
Following a remarkable career in technology, Pounds set out on a mission to provide animal welfare and organically certified eggs for the local economy in Boulder County. With birds certified from one day of age onward, his operation uses mobile coops on 60+ acres, providing the pullets (young hens) and adult hens with continuous access to fresh pasture while contributing to soil health and preservation.
Anne Malleau, G.A.P.’s executive director, said, “We are so happy to announce our new partnership with Fair Farm Colorado. Our animal welfare standards are grounded in science and focused on the animal, but practical to producers of any size and scale. Being certified to the top level of G.A.P.’s animal welfare program, Fair Farm is the perfect fit as our first-ever certified laying hen operation. Our G.A.P. Animal Welfare Certified label includes other farm animal species - beef, chicken, pigs, turkey, goat, lamb - and now laying hens thanks to Walt and his team.”
“G.A.P. has very deep animal behavior and production knowledge that will allow us to collaborate on methods to continually improve care for our hens, which is a top priority at Fair Farm. G.A.P. leads the way to improving animal welfare and we look forward to our new partnership,” said Pounds.
Pounds and his small team manage all facets of the operation, including raising and caring for the hens, egg collection and preparation, sales, and marketing. Boulder area chefs have been flocking to Fair Farm Colorado since its inception, and Pounds plans to extend his distribution channels with the recent G.A.P. certification, so Boulder County consumers can also purchase Fair Farm’s local pasture-raised, organic, G.A.P. certified eggs.


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With the aim to end congestion at toll plazas and to ensure no leakage of toll revenue, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has recently introduced ‘FASTags’’. Fixed on the front windscreen of vehicles, FASTags uses radio frequency identification technology and allows vehicles to pass through toll plazas, currently through designated lanes, without waiting in the queue as the payment is made electronically. Though the government has dedicated one lane of 371 toll plazas, mostly the innermost lane on both sides to be used as the exclusive tolling booth, with FASTags becoming mandatory for four-wheelers before they come out of factories or dealerships since December 1, the ministry of road transport and highways is betting big on technology. So far over 7.5 lakh FASTags have been sold across the country and according to transport minister Nitin Gadkari, this number would grow to 25 lakh vehicles by March 2018. A total of 3,500 lanes on national highways would be made FASTag ready in the coming two months.
FASTags can be bought online and offline through common services centres (CSCs) near toll plazas. NHAI has recently launched two mobile apps—one for retail users and other for agencies who are enrolled as FASTag Partners. While My FASTag is a customer mobile app on which one can purchase and recharge the FASTag and keep track of the electronic toll collection transactions, the another app—FASTag Partner—can be used by agencies, CSCs and vehicle dealers to upgrade the RFID tags attached in 74 lakh vehicles sold since 2013 to FASTags. According to NHAI chairman Deepak Kumar, the cumbersome method of purchase and recharge of FASTags has been one of the major challenges with the Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) project. The mobile apps will ease the process, making it possible to buy or recharge FASTags at the click of a mobile button.
Apart from toll plazas, FASTags can be bought from banks and mobile payment wallet companies which the NHAI have signed up with. Currently, banks like HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Syndicate Bank, Axis Bank, IDFC Bank and State Bank of India and payments banks like Paytm offer FASTags. The best part of FASTags is seamless integration with different stakeholders. One can easily transfer the money to FASTag account from linked wallet or bank account and then to NHAI every time the vehicle passed the toll plazas. The user gets the electronic record of trips through SMS and same is available with linked account or wallet.


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AnyMeeting, a WebRTC-enabled conferencing Platform, provides an API that allows developers to integrate its browser-based Web, video and phone conferencing functionality with their own applications.
The AnyMeeting platform offers both a free and low-cost service aimed at small businesses, providing full-featured webinars, screen sharing, six-way videoconferencing, small or large meeting capabilities, custom meeting branding, recording functionality, phone- and VoIP-based audio conferencing, PowerPoint slides, Twitter and Facebook Integration, and more. The platform takes advantage of the latest technology, focusing on providing excellent audio performance with echo cancellation, low-latency response times and high-quality audio codecs.
AnyMeeting's API has already been successfully used with platforms such as Outlook, Zimbra and Google Apps, as well as in partnerships with large cable operators and telcos. The company encourages new partners to get in touch and leverage the API to build new and exciting solutions.
In a press release on the AnyMeeting blog, CEO and founder, Costin Tuculescu said:
WebRTC represents a disruptive technology that opens major new opportunities for service providers — enabling new features, service models and platform economics that will transform the industry. We’re excited to serve partners seeking to tap those opportunities today, leveraging our API and integration experience to build great WebRTC-enabled solutions together.
Those interested in partnering with AnyMeeting can contact the team directly via the website.


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“What are you getting her for Valentine’s Day?” – we’re focused upon the gifts given or activities paid for on the day, not what the day is about. As individuals, many of us declare our annoyance at its use as a revenue tool by the greetings card, chocolate and restaurant industries. Just as every year we complain that Christmas grows to encompass most of November and October, we are now starting to see the importance of Valentine’s Day grow.
Indeed, it feels like you’ve just saved up and spent all your hard-earned cash on an extravagant gift Patrick Bateman would approve of, and then suddenly the 14th February murders your bank account as brutally as… well… Patrick Bateman would approve of. The whole holiday does seem too commercially-based – with pressure from advertisers mounting upon us, couples are increasingly feeling the pressure to celebrate the day in ostentatious ways. In a 2012 survey by TIME magazine, it was estimated that the average American would spend $126.03 on the holiday, up 8.5 per cent from 2011. This increase in spending year on year ties in with another remarkable statistic – as a populace we now demand divorce lawyers 40 per cent more in February than any other time of the year.
The commercialism surrounding the day is ridiculous – you can see that from a quick trip down the high street. Chocolate shops thrive, restaurants run nauseating specials based around couples, Clintons is a nightmare – but the standard boxes are not the only ones being ticked by this money-making machine anymore. Americans spend roughly $360 million on Valentine’s gifts for pets. That’s right, Pets! As Screen Editor, I feel obliged to mention the hatefully twee film Valentine’s Day which grossed over £3.7 million in the UK alone on its opening weekend, despite Mark Kermode deeming the film a “greeting card full of vomit” (look it up, no word of a lie). The fact is irrefutable; we spend $17.6 billion (by Forbes’ estimate) worldwide, every year, upon a holiday which has lost all sincerity in the marketplace.
I realise this harping on about our collective consumerism is nothing new, but some of the facts are staggering, as marketing accounts for almost all of our product choices and lifestyle choices today. The music we listen to is governed by YouTube and Spotify’s recommendations, a “skip advert” click away, as streaming revenues have increased 40 per cent to $1.1 billion globally. The music may be free, but you are still paying attention to the adverts. We are simply so oriented around consuming we cannot change the unstoppable advertising machine. Compare your average spending in a day to the poorest nations in the world – the World Bank estimated in August 2008 around three billion people live off less than $2.50 a day.
Base your gifts this Valentine’s Day around emotional or sentimental worth
Whilst we can’t stop how we spend money towards necessities, we can affect our perceptions of what neccesities are. Think of how wasteful and thoughtless it is to purchase a greeting card or chocolates when you could express your sentiments with something personal. Base your gifts this Valentine’s Day around emotional or sentimental worth, not the price tag accompanying the gift – take your partner to a show she really wants to see, find his favourite band’s tour dates and get tickets, cook a Valentine’s Dinner yourself. Or, better yet, do these things throughout the year, not when it’s commercially prescribed.


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A Seat Leon Cupra 280 has broken the lap record for a front-wheel drive production car at the Nurburgring. The car, driven by Jordi Gene, recorded a 7m58.4s time at the Nordschleife with an average speed of 96.8mph. The time is some ten seconds faster than the previous record set by a Renault Megane Renaultsport Trophy in 2011.
Tim Zimmerman has been named the new president of General Motor's Southeast Asia operations. Zimmerman has come to GM from PSA Peugeot Citroën, where he has worked since 1986. He succeeds Jim DeLuca, who held the position on a temporary basis.
Ford has sold 500 EcoSport compact SUVs solely through Facebook. Its social media campaign used adverts to drive customers to a customisation page, following which they would be presented with a voucher that could be used to buy their exact car.


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Realme Narzo 10A is set to go on sale in India for the second time today at 12pm (noon). The new Realme smartphone was launched alongside the Realme Narzo 10 earlier in May will be available for purchase through Flipkart and Realme India website. Customers can also purchase the phone through select official offline channels. The Realme Narzo 10A is available in two colour options and it is aimed at amateur gamers. The latest Realme phone is powered by MediaTek Helio G70 SoC.
Realme Narzo 10A price in India, offers
Realme Narzo 10A price in India has been set at Rs. 8,499. The phone is up for grabs via Flipkart and Realme India site in So Blue and So White colour options. The phone is also available to purchase in offline stores in Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Kerala.
In terms of offers, Realme customers can enjoy 5 percent cashback via Flipkart Axis Bank Credit Card and 10 percent instant discount with Axis Bank Buzz Credit Card whilst purchasing the phone through Flipkart. Additionally, the e-retailer is also offering No-cost EMI as well as standard EMI options on the newly launched phone.
The Realme Narzo 10A along with Realme Narzo 10 was launched in May 11 in India.
Realme Narzo 10A specifications
The dual-SIM (Nano) Realme Narzo 10A runs Android 10 with Realme UI on top and the phone features a 6.5-inch HD+ (720×1600 pixels) display. It is powered by octa-core MediaTek Helio G70 SoC, coupled with 3GB of RAM.
The phone packs a triple rear camera setup that includes a 12-megapixel primary sensor with an f/1.8 lens and a 2-megapixel portrait shooter with an f/2.4 aperture. There’s also a 2-megapixel macro shooter with an f/2.4 aperture. Moreover, the Realme Narzo 10A comes with a 5-megapixel front camera for selfies and video calling.
Additionally, the 32GB onboard storage can be expanded via a microSD card. Connectivity options on Realme Narzo 10A include 4G LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth v5.0, GPS/ A-GPS, and a Micro-USB port. The phone also has an array of sensors that includes an accelerometer, ambient light, magnetometer, rear-mounted fingerprint sensor, and a proximity sensor.
The phone packs a 5,000mAh battery that supports standard charging as well as reverse charging. The Realme Narzo 10A measures 164.4x75x8.95mm and weighs 195 grams.
Which is the bestselling Vivo smartphone in India? Why has Vivo not been making premium phones? We interviewed Vivo’s director of brand strategy Nipun Marya to find out, and to talk about the company’s strategy in India going forward. We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.


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Car companies continue to be some of the biggest earners worldwide, with recent data shining a light on just how much they’re earning every second.
Revenue data collated by partsgeek.com places earning streams in a ‘per second’ basis, and Volkswagen tops the charts earning a whopping US$9202 (AU$12,784) each second – claiming the title of the most profitable automaker in the world in 2019.
On the other end of the scale – and seemingly at odds with its recently-garnered title of ‘world’s most valuable carmaker’ – is Tesla’s position, earning just US$780 (AU$1083) per second.
Toyota follows closely behind the German Volkswagen conglomerate bringing in US$8634 (AU$11,988) each second, and the next greatest revenue in 2019 was Ford’s earnings at US$4946 (AU$6869) per second.
Volkswagen’s market capitalisation is immense, holding the cards for some of the most famous car makers on the Earth, including Audi, Porsche, Lamborghini, Skoda and Bentley.
Volkswagen itself produced 3.67 million cars in 2019. Using its estimated US$99 billion-dollar new car revenue against that shows that, on average, each car being sold nets US$26,960 (AU$37,434).
MORE 2019 sales in review
Amid such success for the automotive world in 2019, the really telling result will be to see who can weather the storm after a disastrous 2020.


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Looking at more than the menu
Burger King recently marked the end of its first year as a private company after being acquired by 3G Capital Management in October 2010.
Over the past year, the chain has been tweaking its menu, with the addition of the premium Chef’s Choice burger line, the addition of soft-serve ice cream and desserts and upgrading core items, including the chain’s French fries and kids' meals.
The menu upgrades are part of a four-tier business strategy to improve sales in North America that included an ongoing remodel plan to bring restaurants up to date with a new look, a new marketing plan that this year will include a big advertising push, as well as a focus on operations and training.
Wiborg said Burger King expects to have about half of its U.S. locations remodeled according to its new reimaging campaign within three years.
At the end of December, about 230 locations were remodeled, and roughly 1,017 franchise locations were signed up to remodel within 12 to 18 months. Burger King’s largest franchisee Carrols Restaurant Group also has committed to remodeling 450 locations, including those acquired from the franchisor in a deal announced last week.
Meanwhile, the menu rollout Monday included other changes to Burger King restaurants, Wiborg said. All locations in the United States now have digital menu boards inside, as well as new-look menu boards in drive-thrus. Uniforms have also been changed, and food is presented in redesigned packaging, from the boxes burgers are served in to new cold cups and bags.
Similar changes have also been seen at other quick-service chains as more premium fast-casual burger brands, such as Five Guys and Smashburger, grow and threaten to steal market share.
Wiborg said other restaurant chains — not just burger players — are broadening their appeal to a wider audience, and Burger King is following suit.
He noted moves like Starbucks adding beer and wine to some stores, as well as Subway’s move into thedaypart.
“Burger King is not just burgers,” he said. “We have America’s favorite burger in the Whopper, but you see lines expanding.
“What consumers are saying is they want a broader target, and that’s what we’re doing at Burger King,” he added.


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Reliance Jio on Thursday formally launched its wired broadband JioFiber, hoping its bundle of free services and superfast internet speeds will help it replicate the success it notched up as India’s youngest and only profitable mobile services provider.
With a basic monthly plan for ₹699 and 100 GB (plus 50 GB of promotional data) at 100 Mbps speed, JioFiber also offers free voice calls and video conferencing through a compatible TV and high-speed gaming and content sharing across the home network.
Reliance Industries Ltd chairman Mukesh Ambani had at the company’s annual general meeting last month sparked off India’s broadband wars by announcing the wired internet service, which hopes to replicate the runaway success of its Jio mobile service.
JioFiber speeds will start from up to 100 Mbps for the basic plan and go all the way up to 1 Gbps for premium plans. A basic plan will cost ₹699 a month offering 150 GB data, while the top plan will cost ₹8,499 offering 5,000 GB data, the company said on Thursday.
The customer will also have to make a one-time payment of ₹2,500 at the time of getting a connection, out of which ₹1,500 is security deposit and ₹1,000 for installation which is non-refundable. Customers will also have to buy compatible devices if they wish to use services such as gaming, home networking, and virtual reality.
All plans across the price spectrum will enable gaming where your smartphone would become the gaming controller. Content sharing across the home network will also be possible, the company said. Through the home network, the customer can share photos, music and videos across devices.


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Bonobos is jumping into the activewear craze.
The online retailer on Wednesday unveiled Good Sport, its initial move into the red-hot active sportswear market.
The company’s “modern take on gym apparel” came as a result of customer requests, according to Brad Andrews, chief merchandising officer. “We’re a digital brand, so we have a lot of interaction with customers,” he said. “We took a lot of time figuring it out.”
The result is a tight collection centered around the short, or what Andrews called “the hero item.” The Core Gym Short is available in seven- or nine-inch inseam and 11 waist sizes, from 28 to 40. It also has all the bells and whistles of performance apparel including four-way stretch and moisture-management features.
“Most other brands are small, medium, large and extra-large, but we went with waist sizes,” he said. “This brand is all about better-fitting clothes.”
Andrews said the shorts launched with complementary products including short- and long-sleeve T-shirts, a half-zip hoodie and a full-zip hoodie.
The Good Sport collection is currently the featured image on Bonobos’ home page, will be in the fall catalog which is mailing to homes this week, and will also have a presence in the company’s Guide Shops, or retail stores.
Andrews said that the initial customer reaction has been encouraging. “Sales are exceeding our expectations so far, so we’re excited and encouraged.”
He said Bonobos will likely increase the offering in the spring and summer and add more options in shorts and tops.


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Yellow, not mellow.
Acura’s notorious NSX obtained numerous small however significant tweaks for the 2019 mannequin 12 months; Editor-in-Chief Tim Stevens says Acura makes the hybrid supercar . In order the NSX rolls into 2020, there are not any mechanical modifications to talk of. However longtime followers of Acura’s icon may discover a new visible replace to be significantly attractive.
Acura revealed the 2020 NSX’s new Indy yellow pearl paint shade as a part of its Monterey Automotive Week
festivities on Thursday. If this particular shade appears acquainted, that is as a result of it is a fashionable tackle the well-loved spa yellow that Acura supplied on the 1997 to 2003 NSX.
Spa yellow was known as Indy yellow in a number of elements of the world, therefore the identify change. For the 2020 NSX, Indy yellow joins Berlina black as one in every of two “heritage” colours that pay homage to the unique supercar. Nevertheless, whereas Berlina black, 130R white and curva pink are a no-cost choices, Indy yellow joins the ranks of thermal orange, supply silver and on line casino white as a $1,000 upcharge. Acura will proceed to supply the 2020 NSX within the beautiful shades of Valencia pink and nouvelle blue, as nicely, for $6,000.
The 2020 NSX carries the identical price ticket because the 2019 mannequin: $157,500, not together with $1,995 for vacation spot. Acura says the 2020 NSX is out there for ordering now, and deliveries will start in November.
Initially revealed Aug. eight.
Replace, Aug. 15: Provides stay images from Monterey debut.


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Purported Leaked Schematics Showcase Redesigned Rear Camera Design for New 12.9-Inch Display iPad Air
After Apple went a whole year in 2023 without a single iPad hardware update, there are big expectations for the upcoming refreshes. New generations of iPad Pro and iPad Air are expected as soon as this spring. 91mobiles has today published purported schematics for the new iPad Air, which features a larger 12.9-inch display, a size increase from the current 10.9-inch model.
The new larger screened iPad Air would match the screen size of the biggest iPad Pro display. Bringing the 12.9-inch screen size to the mid-range iPad line would seemingly mirror a product rollout strategy Apple recently deployed with the iPhone, where the iPhone 14 and iPhone 15 Plus models introduced the biggest iPhone screen sizes at more affordable price points. The company also launched a 15-inch MacBook Air for the first time last year. Whereas the current 12.9-inch iPad Pro is priced starting at $1099, the iPad Air starts at $599. However, Apple will likely sell both 10.9-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Air concurrently, so the 12.9-inch iPad Air price will likely be a bit higher than $599.
As shown in the leaked schematics, the new iPad Air isn’t changing industrial design much aside from the bigger display. However, it does appear the rear camera layout has been redesigned, with both the camera and flash now housed in a protruding rectangular module. This is somewhat reminiscent of iPhone camera designs from a few years ago, akin to the iPhone X/XS era.
Although the rumor mill remains unclear on timing, it seems like the new iPad Air will debut in the first half of this year. A new iPad Pro lineup featuring OLED displays is also expected to launch by June. Spec-bump updates to the iPad mini and base model iPad are anticipated to arrive before the end of the year.


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KUALA LUMPUR: The renminbi (RMB) has registered a decline in international usage, according to a SWIFT RMB Tracker report.
The rapid developments in Southeast Asian countries including Malaysia will however help revitalise the growth of the Chinese currency, it added.
The report said the proportion of international currency payments (customer initiated payments and institutional transfers) denominated in RMB fell from 2.09 per cent in June 2015 to 1.98 per cent in June 2017.
Despite efforts to internationalise the RMB, the report said the US dollar remains the major currency for payments to China.
“For example, 98 per cent of payments sent from the United States to China by volume are in US dollar, and the RMB’s share of payments remains low for all countries - between one per cent and two per cent - with the exception of Taiwan, where 15 per cent of payments were made in RMB,” it said.
The report said key factors that will support long-term RMB internationalisation include promising RMB growth in South East Asian countries along the Maritime Silk Road and strong increase in RMB credit transfer payments in value from China to Germany, Poland and Czechia (formerly Czech Republic).
Others include Hong Kong’s continued role as an essential intermediator, increasing its RMB activity share to 76 per cent 49.4 per cent of all RMB payments currently transit through Hong Kong.


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EPOS and Ecommerce specialist Citrus-Lime has unveiled two new features to its system – integration with the ‘log book’ anti cycle theft BikeSecure system and, separately, with GfK Group.
With the growing popularity of cycling in the UK, the threat of an accompanying rise in cycle theft has led firms to come up with methods of bike crime prevention. Recently launched BikeSecure is an ‘online bike log’ which, crucially, enables customers to register their unique bike or frame serial number at the point of purchase.
Citrus-Lime will be supporting this registration process as part of its EPOS solution and deployed to all our retail customers free of charge, helping to support the spread of BikeSecure across the UK.
In addition, Citrus-Lime is now working with one of the world’s best known market research companies – GfK – to provide retail customers with regular performance reporting, enabling them to compare their business and consumer trends against the rest of the UK Cycle market.
“Typically the cost to access such a wealth of market data is well beyond the budget of IBD’s, easily running into the thousands," said Citrus-Lime marketing executive Andrew Thomas. "With Citrus-Lime’s move to support GfK’s Groups data pool, our customers can profit from this incredibly valuable market data for free.”
The integration also helps dealers be competitive, Citrus-Lime added: "Ultimately this equips our retail customers to remain at the competitive edge of the UK cycle market, empowering them to profit from shifts in consumer habits, counter slumps in revenue and position their business for the future.
"Integration is a keystone for all modern EPOS solutions. Not only does Citrus-Lime offer an extensive EPOS & Ecommerce solution that unites all of your sales channels, we also proactively develop our integration into third parties such as Ebay, Amazon, Google Shopping and Supplier databases via our SIM software."
Register for the BikeBiz News Digest at the registration page.
Follow BikeBiz on Twitter at @BikeBizOnline or ‘Like’ the BikeBiz Facebook page here.


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FTC Wants Mobile Industry to Be Better At Security Updates
The current state of mobile device security patches is lacking, according to a new report issued today by the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC studied how Apple, BlackBerry, Google, HTC, LG, Microsoft, Motorola, and Samsung support their devices over time. "Our report found significant differences in how the industry deploys security updates and that more needs to be done to make it easier for consumers to ensure their devices are secure," said Acting Director Tom Pahl. The agency notes that many devices are updated infrequently, if at all, and that manufacturers often fail to deliver on promises. It wants phone makers and carriers to improve the situation. The agency suggested each does a better job of explaining mobile device security to consumers (i.e., make it clear to them that the updates are important and worth installing). The FTC also recommended that phone makers consider issuing security patches as stand-alone updates, rather than bundled with general OS upgrades. The FTC noted that companies that make their own operating system, in this case, Apple and Google, are often better at providing timely updates for a longer period of time. The FTC is calling for members of the mobile industry to find a way to bring clarity to consumers and more rapid security updates.
Hands On with the Moto g7 Series
Moto's new g-series phones bring up-to-date features, upgraded specs, and clean Google software to three models ranging from $200 to $300. This year's series moves to a notched-screen design, steps up to a Qualcomm Snapdragon 632 processor, and supports USB-C across the board.
HTC 10 Re-Focuses On the Camera and BoomSound
Apr 12, 2016
HTC today announced the 10, its flagship handset for 2016. This Android phone carries forward an aluminum design, for which HTC has become known, and makes big improvements to the camera, software, and other core features.
Next RAZR Might be a $1,500 Foldable Smartphone
Jan 16, 2019
Motorola will soon revive the RAZR brand for a pricey folding-screen phone for Verizon, the Wall Street Journal reports today. The phone is in testing but could launch as soon as February.
Moto G7 Series Accidentally Made Public by Motorola
Jan 24, 2019
A Brazilian Motorola web site accidentally posted photos and details of the unannounced Moto G7 series of phones. There will be four versions of the G7.
FTC Investigating Facebook's Privacy Practices
Mar 26, 2018
The Federal Trade Commission today said it is examining Facebook's privacy policies and practices. The inquiry comes as a result of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which saw the data of millions of Facebook users shared by an app to an analysis firm that use it create profiles of U.S.


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(The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters.)
LONDON (May 22): Tightness has returned to the London Metal Exchange (LME) tin contract.
Stocks are low and falling. Time-spreads have moved back to backwardation.
This is, to some extent, business as usual for the London tin market, a low-liquidity contract where brokers sometimes struggle to match lending and borrowing flows.
But it's still a surprising outcome given a macro backdrop of sliding manufacturing activity around the world as Covid-19 takes its toll on economic, as well as human health.
Tin's contrarian behaviour is down to the severity of the supply-chain hit caused by the coronavirus, as lockdowns forced the suspension of some of the world's largest producers.
The resulting supply gaps have led to a run on exchange stocks, both in London and in Shanghai.
However, key mines and smelters are now gradually coming back into production, putting the spotlight back on the state of demand.
London tin may be tight but the current outright price doesn't suggest the physical squeeze is going to persist.
Spreads tighten as stocks slide
The benchmark LME tin time-spread, a rolling cash-to-three-month period, flared out to a backwardation of US$245 per tonne on Wednesday.
It was the largest premium for cash metal since May last year when the tin backwardation spiked to US$340.
Indeed, tin was in contango over most of the first three months of 2020, mirroring the spread structure in the other base metals.
Most of them remain that way, which is not surprising, given the industrial metals market is worried about collapsing demand and building inventories.
However, LME tin inventories haven't been building at all. Rather, they have slid from just over 7,000 tonnes at the start of the year to 3,330 tonnes.
Almost half of that metal is "cancelled tonnage" — material earmarked for physical load-out — reducing the liquidity pool for physical settlement to just 1,735 tonnes.
There are a couple of entities showing up in the LME's dominant positions report but with cash holdings of 30-40% of available stock, neither is exactly huge in tonnage terms.
Such liquidity stress is not unusual for the tiny tin market. During the worst of the squeeze last May there were 10 dominant players trying to manage their positions with less than 700 tonnes of available stock.
But it is unusual in the current context of the demand shock spreading around the world in the wake of the coronavirus.
What differentiates tin from the other LME metals is the scale of the supply shock that has been running parallel with the Covid-19 demand hit.
In recent weeks producers in Malaysia, Peru, Bolivia and Brazil have been forced to suspend activities under national quarantine measures.
Indonesia, the world's largest exporter, has simultaneously reined in exports in reaction to a collapse in the tin price from a January high of US$17,900 per tonne, to a March low of US$12,700.
Outside of China four of the world's five largest producers have reduced output or, in the case of Indonesia's PT Timah, sales.
Chinese smelters meanwhile, have struggled to maintain production due both to lockdowns and problems sourcing raw materials.
The country's national production of refined tin fell 10.7% in April from March, according to Antaike, the research arm of the China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association.
One smelter has suspended production and others are struggling to ramp up, following lockdowns due to a squeeze on mined concentrates, the state research house said.
It's noticeable that China, the world's largest producer and user of tin, has been tapping the international market for metal this year.
Shanghai prices have outperformed London, opening an arbitrage gap through which almost 3,000 tonnes of refined tin flowed into China in the first quarter of 2020.
That doesn't sound like much, but China was a net exporter in both 2018 and 2019 to the tune of 3,500 and 3,100 tonnes respectively.
The turnaround in trade flows suggests continuing supply-chain stress in the country.
So too does the fact that stocks registered with the Shanghai Futures Exchange have also been falling. They currently stand at 3,368 tonnes, down 37% on the start of January and the lowest level of inventory since April 2017.
Demand hit is coming
Most of the affected producers now seem to be returning slowly to normality, with Fastmarkets at the start of the month reporting that Malaysia Smelting Corp was already back to 80% of normal activity and research house Roskill picking up on the re-opening of Brazil's Mineracao Taboca.
The supply chain is gradually taking shape again.
Whether that feeds through to a rebuild of LME stocks is a moot point. Holders of off-market inventory will only deliver if they absolutely must, fearing any metal they place on LME warrant will quickly disappear in the collective clearing pool.
LME spreads can remain stressed for long periods of time, almost irrespective of what's available in the wider market.
The outright price however can't ignore fundamentals, and at a current US$15,300 the bounce-back from the March lows has run out of momentum.
Weighing heavy is the scale of the demand hit that is coming.
Almost half of tin usage is in the form of electronic soldering in consumer goods, and it seems unlikely the metal is going to escape the combination of reduced manufacturing activity and plunging consumer confidence.
Semiconductor sales are a useful proxy for tin usage in the electronics sector and after a miserable 2019 revenues started growing again in the first quarter of this year.
Global sales were up 6.9% year-on-year in March, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association.
However, the Association warns that the "full impact of Covid-19 crisis (is) not yet captured in available sales data".
A downturn in tin demand looks set to run in tandem with an easing of the supply shock.
While some analysts are pencilling in a supply deficit this year, the International Tin Association, which keeps a close eye on demand trends, still thinks the market will register a significant 14,000-tonne surplus.
LME tin spreads may reflect the current supply tension, but the outright price may be a truer signal of what lies in store.


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Some ten million Maestro bank cards will gradually be withdrawn from circulation in Belgium from July and be replaced with a Debit Mastercard, the company announced.
The Maestro brand has existed since 1991 and was "quite revolutionary" at the time, as the card enabled secure payments in several European countries, said Henri Dewaerheijd, director of the Belgian-Luxembourg branch of Mastercard. However, the card was developed for payments in physical stores, not for the digital age.
Therefore, the system will soon disappear and be replaced with the Debit Mastercard, Belga News Agency reports. The new card resembles a credit card, but the money for a payment is taken from the account immediately, instead of at the end of the month.
According to Mastercard, the new card is more widely accepted worldwide than Maestro and offers more options online. The transition will take a maximum of five years.
- European payment service enters test phase at yearend
- Flanders to fully digitise service cheques: What will change?
- Record of two billion cashless payments made this year in Belgium
People who have a Maestro card do not have to do anything: when the card expires, the bank will automatically send a new debit card (with a different and shorter card number). The card remains linked to the current account and will work in the same way.
Mastercard is a dominant player on the Belgian market with Maestro, although market leader BNP Paribas Fortis made the switch to competitor VISA for its debit cards two years ago.


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Delhi is gearing up to host the much-awaited 31st Mango Festival
Delhi Tourism is all geared up to celebrate the 31 st Mango Festival in the capital. While the temperatures are soaring, this much-awaited festival is expected to off the much-needed relief and break. The said festival will be organised by Delhi Tourism in association with the Delhi Government. It will begin from July 5 at Dilli Haat, Janakpuri.
An official from Delhi Tourism, referring to this development, said the enthusiasm of people toward the exhibition as well as the competitions showcase their love for the king of fruits. The festival is regarded as one of the most-awaited cultural events of Delhi, which pulls thousands of visitors every year.
As per the latest reports, the said festival will showcase more than five hundred varieties of mangoes, some of which will include, Amrapali, Fazri, Langra, Chausa, Ramkela, Mallika, Rataul, Hussainara, and much more.
Exhibitions will also be held at the festival, where processed mango items, such as mango juice, pickles, jelly, chutney, aam papad, jam, and amm panna will be put on sale. Visitors can also find professionals who will guide them how to plant a mango tree and also how to ripen the fruit in a natural manner.
Farmers from Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal will team up to showcase hybrid, traditional and unique varieties of mangoes. So, this is the best time when one gets to see a variety of mangoes, all under one roof, and go on to stock up their favourite variety.
Save the dates! July 5 to July 7.


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Second-hand cars are in huge demand nowadays.
Due to concerns over having to sit or stand close to other people when using public transit, commuters in Canada are choosing to drive instead.
A new report by TD Economics notes that sales of used cars are rising because of health anxieties over the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
The report noted that the resale of vehicles “may be benefitting from demand related to potential concerns about being in close proximity to others on public transit”.
Moreover, this “shift towards personal transportation has been observed in other countries in response to the pandemic”.
The increased demand for used cars is part of a more comprehensive account on expenditures by Canadian consumers.
The report titled The Right Direction, Slowly: An Update on Canadian Spending Patterns was written by Brian DePratto, director and senior economist with TD Economics.
In Metro Vancouver, the region’s public transit authority has forecast that its ridership may remain below pre-COVID 19 levels because of health concerns and cheap gas.
“Transit ridership will likely remain well below pre-COVID levels until some time after the pandemic and its recovery will be heavily dependent on the degree to which people still feel some lasting proximity anxiety; rates of unemployment; and the degree to which the roughly half of workers in our region that are able to work from home, continue to do so,” Geoff Cross, vice president for transportation planning and policy with TransLink, wrote in a report.
Cross’ report was included in the meeting agenda of the TransLink board on June 18.
“There is a risk that previous regular transit users will start making more of their trips instead by automobile for understandable reasons, and that these habits will stick post-pandemic,” Cross noted.
Cross wrote that a “key near-term transportation objective during this pandemic period should be to minimize resident’s needs for new single-occupant auto trips”.
“The low fuel prices in the region exacerbate this challenge,” Cross pointed out.
Going back to the TD Economics report released Monday (June 22), there’s another class of vehicles that is seeing more demand: recreational vehicles.
“With international travel seemingly out of the question this summer, some Canadians have looked for escapes closer to home, supporting sales of recreational vehicles,” according to the report.
Including car parts, spending on used cars and recreational vehicles rose nearly 20 percent year-on-year by June 12, based on a graph included in the report.
The TD Economics report noted that overall, the “re-acceleration of Canadian spending continued over the first half of June”.
However, the “pace of improvement has moderated”, with personal spending down about four percent year-on-year in the week ending June 12.
“Improvement can be seen across most spending categories, but higher-touch areas such as clothing and professional services remain challenged, and travel spending remains significantly below normal,” according to the report.


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RIM Has Now Doubled Off its Lows
Written by: Eric Jackson
Tickers in this article: AOL MSFT NOK RIMM
NEW YORK ( TheStreet) -- As of Tuesday, Research In Motion (RIMM) has now has officially doubled off its lows earlier in the year of $6.22. It closed at $12.60, up 6% on the day. There was news that it had released the SDK for developers interested in building apps for the BB10 phones that will be released in February. Investors are excited because they assume that if the new BlackBerrys sell well, the stock is extraordinarily cheap. Yet, the bears on RIM who have been right since 2009, say the stock's rise is a mirage and it is doomed to retrace all its gains once it actually starts shipping. They say RIM is the new Palm. I'm with the RIM bulls on this one -- and I have a long position, so I'm biased (although I was short for a long time from $70 to $20). RIM isn't Palm. Palm never really had an installed base. It had a "cool" phone according to the tech reviewers back in early 2009 with the Pre. Smart phones were just starting to take off in a big way and there really was only iPhone and BlackBerry at the time. (Back in 2009, Android was still way back in the rear-view mirror.) So, the Palm Pre did look cool at the time. It had a cool interface. People began to dream how many units could be sold and at what average price. You don't have to sell too many into a huge global market that's growing like gangbusters to suddenly get to some compelling valuation numbers for Palm as a company. That's exactly what happened as Palm's stock went from around $2 in January 2009 just before Palm announced the Pre to $16 just before the Pre started selling in June that year. Huge run. It actually makes the RIM run of the last few months seem puny. And then came the crash in Palm's stock. That's what the RIM bears want to tell you is coming. The new OS is a mirage, they say. RIM's U.S. market share is so low now that no one is going to care about the new phones when they arrive. The Microsoft (MSFT) Windows 8 phones have been a bust for Nokia (NOK) . But Palm never had 80 million subscribers globally like RIM. Of these subscribers, only eight million are in the U.S. RIM had 20 million US subscribers a few years ago and the smart phone market has doubled since then. So, RIM has certainly missed out on a golden opportunity in the U.S. However, 80 million subscribers is still 80 million subscribers. Imagine if you were one of these 80 million (I'm not). You've been laughed at and ridiculed for the last three years by your friends and family. Yet, you still like your BlackBerry.


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Facebook-owned messaging platform WhatsApp has partnered with RazorpayX, the neo-banking arm of Razorpay, to enable and boost its cashback system via UPI (Unified Payments Interface). As part of this, users using UPI make payments on WhatsApp and receive cashback; and RazorpayX helps ensure smooth transactions.
In April, WhatsApp received approval from the National Payments Corporation of India to open UPI services on its messaging platform to 100 million users. Earlier, WhatsApp Pay had been allowed to extend payment services to 40 million users only.
WhatsApp seems to have launched an aggressive cashback strategy to emerge as a serious challenger in the payments space. The new strategy launched a couple of weeks back, is aimed at dramatically increasing the daily transactions on the platform. While WhatsApp -- the most popular instant messaging application in the world -- holds just 0.04% market share in the digital payments segment, PhonePe and Google Pay lead the pack with 47% and 34% market share, respectively.
Since UPI has a vast adoption across the country, RazorpayX says it will help provide a seamless and reliable cashback experience to users.
Harshil Mathur, co-founder & CEO, Razorpay, says India’s preference for instant digital modes of payments has grown exponentially, and payments on WhatsApp will play a key role in financial inclusion for its 500 million users. "We are excited to power the first cashback effort on Payments on WhatsApp as they embark on this journey."
WhatsApp India director-payments Manesh Mahatme says WhatsApp is often the first digital gateway for Indians, especially those in rural and semi-urban areas. "Offering safe, secure and easy-to-use digital payments is an important part of scaling India’s digital economy, and we’ll continue to drive awareness of payments on WhatsApp as part of our broader efforts to bring the next 500 million Indians onto the digital payments ecosystem.”
RazorpayX serves over 30,000 businesses. In the last year, it processed UPI transactions for over 20% of all UPI registered users in India.
The payments service on WhatsApp was formally launched in 2020 after the Meta-owned messaging platform ensured compliance with regulations, including storage of transaction data locally. At the time of launch, WhatsApp Pay was allowed to be rolled out to only 20 million users in India. This number then increased to 40 million last year. The allowed user base has now been increased by 60 million to a total of 100 million.
The current limit on the user base for WhatsApp Pay in India, however, remains way below its total number of subscribers – over 400 million – in the country.
Besides, UPI is India's largest payments mode, which has crossed the $1-trillion mark in transaction value for FY 2021-22. The payments system crossed 5 billion transactions in a month for the first time in March 2022. Within five years of its launch, over 50% of retail payments in India are routed through the UPI platform. The value of transactions on the UPI crossed the ₹10-lakh crore mark in May 2022. The payment interface processed 595 crore transactions worth ₹10.41 lakh crore in May this year from 558 crore payments amounting to ₹9.83 lakh crore in April 2022, the NPCI data shows.


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Get short URL
The Apple credit card launched in partnership with the Goldman Sachs Group will not allow the use of the card to purchase cryptocurrency, Reuters reported Friday.
According to the customer agreement, cited by Reuters, the card cannot be used to purchase cash advances or cash equivalents that include cryptocurrencies, casino gaming chips, race track wagers or lottery tickets.
In March, Apple introduced a titanium, laser-etched Apple Card backed by Goldman Sachs and Mastercard that can track spending across devices and pay daily cashback on purchases. Apple CEO Tim Cook said that Apple Pay would be available in more than 40 countries by the end of the year, Reuters reported.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump criticized Bitcoin, Libra and other cryptocurrencies, demanding that firms seek a banking charter and subject themselves to US and global regulations if they want to “become a bank”.
In June, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing sources, that Visa, Mastercard, PayPal and Uber Technologies would invest some $10 million each in a consortium that would govern digital coin.
A number of countries have expressed interest in regulating cryptocurrency over the last year or have made steps toward it amid Bitcoin’s 2018 surge in price. Belarus legalized cryptocurrency transactions and Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) and exempted trade from taxes for the next five years. China, however, has banned ICOs that sell future coins in order to raise funds for cryptocurrency startups on its territory.


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Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) shares fell 1% on Thursday after the company reported a 3% sales dip in India in the year ending March 2018. According to a regulatory filing with the Corporate Affairs Ministry of India, total sales fell to Rs 58.28 billion ($829 million) during this period, primarily hurt by weakness in the medical devices segment.
Revenue from the medical devices segment fell 7% in 2018 after the Asian country imposed strict measures to cap the pricing of medical devices. Meanwhile, sales at the consumer segment, which is quite popular in India, fell marginally to Rs 3,092 crore, driven by the negative publicity surrounding its baby talc products.
Reuters had recently reported that the New Brunswick, New Jersey-based company knew about the presence of carcinogenic components in its talc products as early as 1971. The report had sent the US pharma giant’s shares plunging.
It may be noted that Johnson & Johnson’s consumer segment accounts for a lion’s share of the baby products market in India.
JNJ stock has declined 9% in the past year.
Meanwhile, the filings show that after-tax gains improved 18% to $98 million during fiscal 2018 in India, including gains from forex transactions.
In 2019, the pharma giant awaits trial in over 11,700 claims. Johnson’s continue to strongly defend its talc-based products against the verdicts it has lost, but it faces an uphill task of restoring brand loyalty. Johnson’s has about $16 billion of funds allocated for any possible payouts.
Last month, the IPO market was in a full swing. IPOs of Snowflake (NYSE: SNOW) and JFROG (NASDAQ: FROG) had an impressive opening day in September, the former creating a
PepsiCo Inc. (NASDAQ: PEP) beat market expectations on both revenue and earnings for the third quarter of 2020. The company saw the momentum continue in its snacks business while the
With more and more people turning to virtual entertainment sources, amid the virus-related movement restrictions, video game publishers like Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: EA) are witnessing unusually high demand. Not surprisingly,


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Melaka 19 December 2021 - Two Bachelor of Food Science and Technology (Year 4) students from the B-Flakes team booked success as runners-up for the Food and Beverage Category at the Closing Ceremony & Prize Giving Ceremony of the “National Micro Enterprise Pitching Competition (NMEPC)” at the National Level for 2021 that was held at the Chancellor's Hall, Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM).
The Closing Ceremony was officiated by YB Datuk Seri Dr. Noraini Ahmad, Minister of Higher Education, and the Most Honorable Datuk Seri Utama (Dr.) Hj Sulaiman Md. Ali, Chief Minister of Melaka. A group of students represented by Hong Cheng Yue and Adlina Jamaludin managed to captivate the judges with the idea of a food product innovation called "B-Flakes", thus taking home the runner-up prize for the food and beverage category worth RM2,000 along with a plaque and certificates. B-Flakes are breakfast flakes made from banana peel.
"The innovation of breakfast flakes from banana skins is an initiative to reduce the production of food waste that leads to environmental pollution," Hong Cheng Yue said. Adlina Jamaludin added, "Banana peel has many benefits and has been proven through studies, so banana peel should be fully utilized".
The implementation of the "National Micro Enterprise Pitching Competition 2021" which is organized in collaboration with the Ministry of Higher Education, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), and Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM) aims to provide exposure and encourage the establishment of companies based on technology and innovation among students.
Date of Input: 23/12/2021 | Updated: 23/12/2021 | wannurain
FACULTY OF FOOD SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
UNIVERSITI PUTRA MALAYSIA


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Amazon.com, the main retail page of the Seattle, Wash.-based company, suffered an outage that left millions of users unable to access the site.
The retail giant's main U.S. site went offline at approximately 3 p.m. ET on Monday. The cause of the outage remains unclear, but Amazon Web Services (AWS), including EC2, remained up and working on the most part unaffected, according to its status page.
However, after we first published this post, at 3:14 p.m. ET, the AWS Management Console was experiencing elevated error rates across all regions of the world, including North America and Europe. There was also a flagged issue with a North Virginia data center that was quickly resolved.
Affected sites were restored about 25 minutes later, as was the AWS Management Console, though it was still experiencing "elevated error rates" during its recovery. Amazon said it experienced "an increased error rate for CreateTags and DeleteTags APIs in the US-EAST-1 region."
After the first few minutes of the outage, browsers attempting to access the sites would continually load. Placement text was soon added to say "some improvements" were being made. Shortly after, the text changed to say Amazon was "having trouble."
Regional sites, such as Amazon.co.uk, appeared unaffected by the U.S. website's outage. ZDNet confirmed Amazon-owned Audible.com is down, but Goodreads.com is not. Services such as Netflix, which run on AWS, were working throughout the retail site's outage, while others, such as the Amazon Cloud Player, were not.
Just a quick update: http://t.co/hpfjSVhrDI is currently down and we are fixing it as quickly as we can. Thanks for your patience!
Amazon receives approximately 77 million people visiting from the U.S. per day, and is one of the top ten websites in the world in terms of traffic. It's not clear how much revenue Amazon may lose as a result of the outage. One report estimates it to be in the region of more than $1,100 in net sales per second.