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Milton Keynes / UK. (dp) Domino’s Pizza Group PLC, a leading pizza delivery company with stores in the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, Germany and Switzerland, announces a strategic joint venture between Domino’s Pizza Group and Domino’s Pizza Enterprises in respect of German operations and acquisition of Joey’s Pizza, the leading pizza delivery business in Germany. Domino’s Pizza Group PLC is part of Domino’s Pizza Inc., the world leader in pizza delivery, based in Ann Arbor / MG (United States).
- Launch of strategic partnership in Germany between Domino’s Pizza Group and Domino’s Pizza Enterprises
- The newly formed joint venture is to acquire Joey’s Pizza, the largest pizza delivery operator in Germany with 212 stores nationwide, for an initial consideration of 45 million EUR (32.8 million GBP, with further payments taking the aggregate consideration up to 79 million EUR (57.6 million GBP), based on satisfying certain specified earn-out criteria
- It will bring together both DPG’s German operations and Joey’s Pizza, becoming the single largest pizza delivery operator in Germany with around 227 stores
- The transaction is expected to be earnings enhancing on an underlying basis for DPG in 2016 and realise significant value over time
Overview of the transaction
Domino’s Pizza Group PLC (DPG) and together with its subsidiaries, the UK’s leading pizza business, announces today that it has entered into a strategic joint venture agreement, in respect of its German operations, with Domino’s Pizza Enterprises Limited (DPE) through the formation of newly incorporated company (the German JV) to be owned 1/3rd by DPG and 2/3rds by DPE. The German JV has agreed to: (i) acquire the master franchise rights for the Domino’s brand in Germany; and (ii) acquire up to 15 DPG stores in Germany (the Transaction). In consideration for the transfer of the master franchise agreement to the German JV, DPG will receive a fee of up to 25 million EUR (18.2 million GBP) from DPE which will be payable in six annual instalments, dependent upon the German JV achieving various levels of profitability. DPG will have representation on the board of the German JV and also other minority protections.
In addition, DPG announces that the German JV has agreed to acquire Joey’s Pizza, the leading pizza delivery business in Germany, for an initial consideration of 45 million EUR (32.8 million GBP), with further payments taking the aggregate up to 79 million EUR (57.6 million GBP), based on satisfying certain specified earn-out criteria. It is being acquired on a debt and cash-free basis. Joey’s is expected to generate system sales of approximately 143 million EUR (104.2 million GBP) and pro forma, underlying Ebitda of approximately seven million EUR (5.1 million GBP) in the year ending 31 December 2015.
DPG and DPE will initially invest a total of 58 million EUR (42.3 million GBP) in the German JV to part-fund the Acquisition, the acquisition of the DPG stores and associated costs, of which DPG’s share is 19 million EUR (13.8 million GBP).
DPG has a put option over its interest in the German JV which can be exercised at any time after the financial year ending 31 December 2019 and DPE has a call option over DPG’s interest which can be exercised at any time after the financial year ending 31 December 2021. The consideration payable upon exercise of either the put option or the call option will be based on an enterprise value determined from the capitalisation of future adjusted underlying Ebitda at an agreed multiple of between 10 and 12 times. The transaction is subject to regulatory and other customary approvals and is expected to complete in early 2016.
The creation of the leading pizza delivery business in Germany through the strategic partnership between DPG and DPE and the acquisition of Joey’s, will deliver significant value for DPG shareholders and overcome the challenge of the subscale nature of the current operation. DPE has a regional infrastructure and a successful track record in operating Domino’s stores across a number of European territories.
The transaction is expected to be earnings enhancing on an underlying basis for the Group in 2016 and subsequent years and realise significant shareholder value over time, subject to the performance of the German JV.
Financial impact of the transaction
The Group reported an underlying loss of 7.3 million GBP in respect of its German operations in the financial year ended 28 December 2014. There has been a significant improvement in the performance during the current year, and underlying operating losses were 1.8 million GBP for the six months ended 28 June 2015. We expect losses for the full year to be approximately 3.5 million GBP.
The Group currently operates 20 stores in Germany. Up to 15 of these will be transferred to the German JV with the remainder being closed. In addition the commissary in Berlin and the head office in Dusseldorf will close. Total closure costs are expected to be up to approximately 7.3 million GBP (10.0 million EUR) which will be provided for in the Company’s 2015 financial year.
The Group will fund its investment in the German JV from its existing cash resources and facilities. Following the completion of the Transaction, DPG will not consolidate the results of the German JV but rather report its proportionate holding of German JV. The closure costs, noted above, of up to 7.3 million GBP (10.0 million EUR) will be booked as part of discontinued operations in the 2015 results. An offsetting non-underlying credit of similar value will be booked in 2016, being the fair value of the consideration for the transfer of the master franchise agreement.
The Board of DPG takes this opportunity to reiterate the outlook statement from 14 October 2015 which highlighted the strong performance of the business during the third quarter and the solid start to the fourth quarter. The Board remains comfortable with current market expectations for full year 2015 results in the UK, ROI and Swiss operations, with at least 55 stores being opened in the UK. Germany will become a discontinued operation.
Commenting on the Transaction, David Wild, CEO of Domino’s Pizza Group, said: «This is a transformational deal for our German operations, creating the new market leading pizza delivery operator. Our strategic stake in the joint venture positions DPG to capitalise on the significant future growth potential of this profitable and scaleable business. We look forward to partnering with DPE».
Don Meij, CEO of Domino’s Pizza Enterprises, said: «Germany is the fourth largest pizza market in the world and our entry into this market represents an exciting long term growth opportunity for DPE. We look forward to working with DPG as a strategic partner and are excited at acquiring the market leader in Joey’s».
The owners of Joey’s Pizza, Carsten Gerlach and Christian Niemax, jointly commented: «We see the benefits which Joey’s Pizza customers and franchisees will obtain from the association with a sophisticated global pizza operator who recognises the importance of our culture and the 27 year history of our business in the German market» (Image: Domino’s Pizza Group).


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Exhibition on Tesla attracts more than 30,000 visitors
Ljubljana, 6 December - More than 30,000 visitors were recorded at the exhibition on Nikola Tesla (1856-1943), which closed at the Cankarjev dom arts after eight months on Sunday, making it one of the most successful in the history of Ljubljana's leading arts centre.
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Centra has announced an impressive performance with retail sales worth €1.48 billion in 2013, a 3.5% increase on the previous year.
The convenience store brand has also announced that it will open another 20 stores in 2014, resulting in some 400 new jobs in Ireland. Centra revealed that it increased its overall market share in the convenience market, serving three million customers per week.
Sales of Centra's own brand range also increased by 17% last year.
Martin Kelleher, managing director of Centra, commented on the results: "2013 was a very successful year for Centra, despite the on-going challenges of the current economic climate. The increases recorded in sales and market share clearly demonstrate that consumers recognise the value, choice and quality offered by Centra. This performance was particularly driven by the Centra own brand range, in addition to new store openings and refurbishments."
Kelleher said the Centra own brand launch was the biggest in Centra’s 35-year history, with a total of 800 products and an investment of €8 million. A further 120 new products will be added to this range in 2014.
Kelleher added, "Buoyed by our sales performance, our retail partners also invested over €7 million in new stores, extensions and refurbishments with 20 new stores and adding 45,000 square feet of additional retail space."
In addition, Kelleher said that Centra will continue to support communities across Ireland through their on-going partnership with the GAA and support for charitable causes such as Action Breast Cancer.
© 2013 - Checkout Magazine by Genna Patterson


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The password management service SplashData made a splash this past December when it posted its list of the 25 worst passwords of 2018. For the fifth year in a row, “123456” and “password” ranked first and second respectively. Around 3% of Internet users
in North America and Western Europe used “123456” in 2018, based on five million hacked passwords the company found for sale on the Dark Web. That works out to 25 million of the 750 million Internet users in those regions, enough to keep even a tech-savvy
criminal busy for at least a few weeks.
Passwords like these are nearly pointless since they are so easy to guess. But today no password is truly secure. That incredibly strong password your algorithm came up with using a long string of indecipherable letters, numbers and special characters? It’s
on the Dark Web. (“!@#$%^&*” made this year’s Worst 25 List.) A popular hacker forum currently lists more than 1.1 billion pairs of stolen email addresses and passwords, according to the database “Have I Been Pwned?” When you consider that 100% of online
fraud occurs after the user has been authenticated, it becomes obvious that passwords are not doing the job.
“You're Gonna Need a Bigger Boat”
In 2003, a former Army programmer, Bill Burr, wrote a short booklet on password security for the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Burr’s pamphlet advised replacing letters in common words with special characters, upper case letters
and numbers. He also suggested changing passwords every 90 days. Burr's pamphlet became the standard guide to password security for more than a decade and its techniques should sound familiar to most IT professionals.
But it turns out that Sun5hinE21 is no harder for a "bot" to crack than Sunshine21. The latest research shows that longer passwords are harder to break than shorter ones, special characters and other gymnastics notwithstanding. NIST now advises
using long, easy-to-memorize phrases. It also drops Burr’s advice to change passwords regularly unless you believe they have been compromised. “Much of what I did I now regret,” Burr recently told The Wall Street Journal.
It will take time for the latest NIST recommendations to trickle into the market. Most banking and financial sites still lag behind the curve, only now employing two-factor authentication. TFA is more secure, but it’s also more time-consuming and intrusive
to the customer. A recent FICO survey showed that only about half of those surveyed in the U.K. were willing to give their mobile number to their bank. Moreover, more than 60% of people over 65 do not own a smartphone, according to a study by the Pew Research
Center, meaning TFA for these folks must be done over email, which is inherently unsafe.
Physical biometric patterns such as fingerprints, facial recognition and retina scans are currently gaining popularity as a possible next approach to online security. But these can be “stolen” too: fingerprints can be removed from a phone, as famously demonstrated
at an Apple user conference. Faces can easily be captured from the Internet. And while retina scans can't be copied, they are time consuming, unreliable and intrusive. No corporate treasury officer is going to want to face print himself every few seconds.
Open the Door, Let ‘Em In
There is some good news though: artificial intelligence and machine learning have now advanced to the point where they may soon leapfrog these biometric techniques such as fingerprint and facial scans. With AI, users can be vetted based on their online behavior.
Rather than relying on someone to correctly enter login credentials, behavior-based systems develop user profiles by tracking activity once a user has logged into a site. Since people are creatures of habit, they tend to do things the same way every time they
log in. The resulting profiles make it possible to quickly recognize who is a genuine user and who may be a potential threat, with a higher degree of accuracy than most other techniques, and importantly, without disrupting the user experience.
Unlike the physical biometrics examples mentioned above, subtle behavior like mouse movements and keyboard cadence can’t be copied. This is far more secure than authenticating users by who they are or what they know. What's more, systems based on behavior operate
"under the hood." They are invisible to the user and impossible to duplicate. IBM recently entered the behavioral market, chasing a number of startups that have demonstrated its effectiveness.
Already systems based on AI and machine learning are processing as much data in nanoseconds as the average person could process in a year. As they continue their march forward, it is obvious that no technique devised purely by humans will be able to keep
up. At that point, profiling user behavior will form the core of online security systems in industries ranging from banking to logistics. And the leaky, intrusive password will be retired to the trash heap of history, where it belongs.


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via Open Culture
Technology Review on how Android device makers are ‘mutinying’ and forking the code to their liking:
Google’s Android device makers aren’t happy. They’re tired of making commodity devices that are merely vehicles for Google’s Android OS, each indistinguishable from the other because of Google’s rules about how Android can be implemented on them in order for them to qualify as “compatible.”
These makers have seen the success of devices with custom OSes built on forked versions of the still kind-of open-source Android operating system, primarily Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet, and they’re itching to release their own.
Makes sense to me. Why would anyone want to be one of hundreds of different smartphones with the same OS?
The problem is, while device makers are solving the problem of differentiation in the marketplace by forking Android, they’re requiring developers to make the extra effort to customize their applications to run on their custom ‘flavor’ of Android.
This Alan Kay quote keeps making more and more sense each day:
People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware.
From Mail Online:
Almost a million images of New York and its municipal operations have been made public for the first time on the internet.
The city’s Department of Records officially announced the debut of the photo database.
Culled from the Municipal Archives collection of more than 2.2 million images going back to the mid-1800s, the 870,000 photographs feature all manner of city oversight — from stately ports and bridges to grisly gangland killings.
I miss you, New York.
Everyone is bugging out about the original ‘Google Phone’ presented in 2006 that have come to light in the current Google-Oracle trial.
Any gadget geek should recall Engadget posted pictures of the actual phone –¬†not the rendering — back in 2007.
Yesterday was Willem De Kooning‘s birthday. He was one of the most famous of the Abstract Expressionists of New York City and one of my favorite artists.
People like to think of artists as glamorous, jetting around Manhattan to various parties and lofts and galleries. While De Kooning had good friends and great times, his life was far from glamorous. His paintings went on to sell for tens of millions of dollars but they didn’t just appear spontaneously from inspiration.
It took a lot of struggle and effort to get to where he got.
I recommend reading de Kooning: An American Master by Mark Stevens to really understand the life he led.
When I saw this a few weeks ago, I had to pull over to snap a shot:
I just moved to LA with my wife. Apparently this is how they roll out here.


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Still in the middle of the pandemic, in July Japan got hit by another disaster – heavy rain and floods. The devastating effects were felt throughout Kyushu island and central Japan. Sadly, the disaster did not bypass tea and several tea farms in the south got damaged by floods and landslides.
The government of Japan is preparing a subsidies package for the affected areas, with a special focus on agriculture, including tea. A few private initiatives were launched to support the affected areas too, such as the pledge by a Japanese online shop to donate 50% of profits from the sales of Kyushu items (such as tea, seaweed and textiles) to the affected areas in Kyushu.
And in terms of the pandemic the tea sales continue to be sluggish. Itoen, the largest tea company in Japan, reported that the sales between February and April went down by 8.5%. Tea auctions both in Shizuoka and Kagoshima declared that the price for the second harvest tea was lower compared to last year. In Shizuoka it is estimated that the price per kilogram for summer tea went down by 10-15% from 609yen/kg in 2019. In Kagoshima the decrease is even steeper by 26% to 452yen/kg this year.
It is no surprise that the production of second harvest tea has decreased as well. In Shizuoka it is expected that the tea production amount has decreased by 20%-30% from 7,616t in 2019, and likely will be the lowest since 1953, when the first such data is available.
The declining demand and decreasing prices, have really pushed the tea farmers and other players in the industry to think about how to make the ends meet. Recognizing the potential of Hojicha, Fuji city in collaboration with a few young tea farmers, is starting a branding project of Fuji Hojicha as Japan’s No.1. In coordination with the prefectural government, 61 shops around Shizuoka prefecture also started sales of ocha kakigori – tea shaved ice, in hopes to draw more people to their shops and the local tea.
This month also saw the launch of many novel tea products, such as Matcha energy drink, ichibancha dashi – tea soup stock, Matcha instant noodles etc. Some tea companies started cross-industry collaboration – such as a teapot and tea caddy design with a famous Kyoto apparel company Sou Sou, or a use of a popular animation character on tea packaging and teaware.
There is also more focus on employing the health effects of catechins on various other products such as a tea pillow and yoga mat by Itoen or tea soap set by Gion Tsujiri. In Shizuoka there was even a ‘Gargle with Tea’ video contest that apparently received 200 entries. One of the more entertaining ones was a lady that gargled a melody while playing an ethnic string instrument.
Bigger tea events sadly continue to be cancelled. Uji town has cancelled its tea festival in November. Wazuka town followed suit, while also embarking on a new challenge of organizing a virtual festival in November. More news to follow.
*The article is based on the Japanese media articles:
61 stores across the prefecture offer unique shaved ice set, Mainichi Shimbun 2020.07.01
Two tastes in one Matcha green tea ramen, Japan Today 2020.07.02
Because of the corona virus Chagenkyo Festival will be replaced with a virtual festival, Mainichi Shimbun 2020.07.08
200 entries in the green tea gargle contest, Shizuoka Shimbun 2020.07.09
A trendy teapot by an Ujitawara tea house, Asahi Shimbun 2020.07.15
Matcha, Sencha, Hojicha tea soap, Sankei Shimbun 2020.07.15
‘Japan’s No.1 Hojicha’ first branding meeting in Fuji city, Mainichi Shimbun 2020.07.16
A branding study on Fuji Hojicha to become Japan’s No.1, Shizuoka Shimbun 2020.07.16
Strengthening the development of products using Itoen tea catechins, Sankei Shimbun 2020.07.16
Love live! Japanese tea time, Yomiuri Shimbun 2020.07.17
Uji Tea Festival cancelled because of the corona virus, Mainichi Shimbun 2020.07.17
Charity campaign to support areas in Kyushu affected by heavy rain, Sankei Shimbun 2020.07.17
Nibancha produced in the prefecture is expected to reach the lowest price with the lowest production, Chunichi Shimbun 2020.07.21
Lowest price for Kagoshima’s Nibancha, Chunichi Shimbun 2020.07.22
Itoen sales from February to April decrease by 8.5% due to corona virus, Chunichi Shimbun 2020.07.23
New release of Matcha energy drink, Sankei Shimbun 2020.07.23
Ichibancha dashi, enjoy the taste and flavor, Shizuoka Shimbun 2020.07.23
1.5bln. yen reconstruction subsidy for disaster victims, Sankei Shimbun 2020.07.27


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Ski season off to a slow start in B.C.'s southern Interior
A lack of snow in B.C.'s southern interior means a slow start to the ski season
It's been a slow, snow-free start to the season for ski hills in B.C.'s southern interior, with record-breaking temperatures of up to 15 C.
Now, temperatures are hovering around zero, which means icy conditions.
Snowboarder Alec Campbell went to Big White Ski Resort in Kelowna earlier this week, and said conditions are dangerous.
The mountain has an alpine base of 99 centimetres, with a 49 centimetre base in the village.
"Dangerous as in it's difficult to link toe turns and heel turns together. It's easy to catch an edge. If you fall, it's not so forgiving. It's pretty icy," he told Daybreak South.
The low base means many area ski hills have yet to open for the season.
In years previous we've had days where we've opened in November and had lots of good days and a bigger base. It's definitely been one of the slower starts to the season," said James Hutchinson, the manager of the One Boardshop in Kelowna.
"We're lucky enough that our hill is open."
In Nelson, the Whitewater Ski Resort only has one lift open, and only on weekends.
The lack of snow is having an impact on local businesses.
"It's starting to pick up with Christmas traffic, but in terms of ski sales and people getting their stoke on for Whitewater, it's definitely going down," said Tiffany Teefy, the manager of Rivers, Oceans and Mountains, a store that sells skis and snowboards in Nelson.
Daybreak South called Big White, Silver Star, Sun Peaks and Whitewater Ski Resort.
Most hills are trying to put a positive spin on the weather story.
Whitewater Resort is even promising fresh snow this weekend, which will be brought to the hill in dump trucks.
To hear more about the icy conditions in B.C.'s souther interior, click the audio labelled: Snow slow to start.


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(Pocket-lint) - Motorola is set to announce a new Intel-powered device in the UK on 18 September.
The invitation received by Pocket-lint - which merely suggests "Let us take you to the edge" - sports an Intel inside logo and asks us to "Join Motorola Mobility for an exciting announcement".
No other details are given on the invite.
However the timing comes just 13 days after a Motorola event scheduled in New York City on 5 September and a year after the company launched the Motorola Razr. That suggests it could be the Motorola Razr M that we're hearing rumours of, powered by the Intel Medfield chip announced by Intel earlier in the year.
So far that chip is being used only in the Orange San Diego in the UK.
Recent Motorola Razr M rumours suggest that in the US at least the phone will come with a 1.5GHz dual core Qualcomm MSM8960 processor (the much-lauded Snapdragon S4) rather than the Intel chip, Android 4.0.x Ice Cream Sandwich, 1GB of DDR2 RAM, and will be 4G capable. Of course that could mean that it is a different device altogether or that Motorola has opted for the Intel chip for the UK.
Other titbits include an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera and a tasty 3-megapixel one on the front. Video recording is a bit of a mystery, as the leaked specifications claim both "720p HD video recording" and "1080p HD video capture with image stabilisation (rear camera)". Perhaps they refer to front and rear recording respectively.
Of course it could be something very different like a new tablet, but with only a couple of weeks to wait we shouldn't have long to find out, and hopefully the US event held by Motorola and Verzion on the 5th will spill some of the details.
We will keep you posted.


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- August 10, 2018
- Posted by: Celine Evans
- Category: Automotive Industry, News
A new survey for RAC Dealer Network revealed that an estimated 7 out of 10 used car retailers are feeling hopeful about their future prospects for the remainder of the year.
The survey, which took place in April 2018 to gather data for a comparison of the performance of the new and used car market, expresses the opinions of more than 100 independent car dealers who are members of the RAC Dealer Network.
RAC Dealer Network Survey Results
Around 38 per cent of those surveyed described their expectations of the remainder of 2018 as positive and 29 per cent as very positive. A further 26 per cent of the dealers who took part in the survey said that their expectations for business are neutral, while a mere 8 per cent of them felt negative or very negative about the months to come.
33 per cent of the dealers who completed the RAC Dealer Network survey admitted that business performance in 2018 had been better than anticipated, while an additional 9 per cent of those questioned said that business this year had been much better than they had expected it to be. Out of the remainder, 30 per cent agreed that their performance so far this year had met their expectations, while 19 per cent appear to have thought the first half of the year would have been more fruitful and a further 8 per cent thought that it had been much worse than they had imagined it would be.
Used Car Demand Remains Firm
According to sales director at the RAC Dealer Network, Sean Kent, the results from the survey revealed that, no matter what the state of the new car market, used car dealers are doing well. He said, “The respective performances of the new and used car markets are sometimes quite different, and this appears to be one of those times.
“While the new market is feeling the effect of the movement against diesel, higher prices, decreased manufacturer support for finance and more, there appears to be something of a boom underway for used vehicles. Used car values and demand remain firm, according to almost all of the industry experts.”
Kent spoke about how used car dealers are reaping the benefits of this, with most of them having a good start to 2018 and positively looking forward to the remaining part of the year.
Though, he noted that several dealers had sold fewer diesel vehicles than they had the previous year. “Our research indicates that 41 per cent are selling fewer diesels and only 10 per cent more, which shows that there is some contagion between the new and used sectors in this respect. But at the moment its impact seems to be limited.”
To find out more about how Click Dealer can help your dealership make the rest of 2018 successful, get in touch via email@example.com or 01782 454354. Alternatively, you can send us a message through our contact page.


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A new smart lock has hit Kickstarter this week, set to be the lock to rule them all, the Bluetooth enabled Ultraloq UL3 BT is a Bluetooth-enabled lock that has been designed for maximum security and convenience.
In order to do this, the lock provides a number of options, allowing you to use not just a key or code to unlock their door, but also a smartphone or fingerprint, allowing you to unlock any door with a range of securities.
Currently, the Ultraloq UL3 BT smart lock is looking to raise funding on the Indiegogo platform and has already achieved over $50,000 of that.
It will be offering a smart lock to anyone who backs $179 of more.
You can check it out at the source link below.


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Search result for HYUNDAI
- S. Korea’s automobile exports rose to 53% in April.
- In April, S. Korea’s outbound shipments of automobiles reached 188,293 units.
- Hyundai Motor Co. saw its exports jump 40.3 percent in April.
- Chip shortage leads Hyundai & KIA to suspend few assembly lines.
- Hyundai Motor said that it will halt the No. 5 Ulsan plant that produces Tuscon and Nexo.
- KIA will suspend the No. 2 Sohari plant that makes Stonic.
- S. Korean carmakers saw a jump in sales by 77% in April.
- The five carmakers sold a combined 630,691 vehicles in April.
- Hyundai reported its sales to double to 345,777 units from 167,693 a year ago.
- Kia's sa...
- India is an important market for automobiles.
- Due to surge in COVID-19 cases, the India launch of various cars has got postponed.
The second wave of COVID-19 pandemic in India has left many carmakers with no choice but pos...
- S. Korean stocks end low over lifting of ban on short selling.
- The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 26.21 points, or 0.83 percent.
- Samsung Electronics stocks fell 0.24 percent to 81,500 won. ...
- S. Korean stocks end up over investors buying local stocks.
- KOSPI stocks rose 8.58 points, or 0.27 percent.
- Samsung Electronics stocks added 0.49 percent to 828,000 won.
- Naver stocks fell 0.66 percent to 378,00...
- Hyundai Motor’s net profit for Q1 rose to $1.36 billion.
- The result is said to have exceeded the median forecast of 1.32 trillion won.
- Hyundai plans to focus on promoting the IONIQ 5 all-electric model.
- S. Korean stocks end up on Thursday on oversold stocks.
- KOSPI rose 5.86 points, or 0.18 percent.
- Samsung Electronics retreated 0.24 percent to 82,400 won.
- SK Hynix stocks climbed 0.38 percent to 133,000 won.
- S. Korean stocks end up on Monday over KOSPI rise.
- KOSPI rose 0.22 points, or 0.01 percent.
- Samsung Electronics stocks retreated 0.72 percent to 83,300 won.
- Samsung Biologics stocks fell 0.12 percent.
- S. Korean stocks end up; KOSPI achieve 3,200 point mark.
- KOSPI rose 4.29 points, or 0.13 percent.
- Samsung Electronics stocks lost 0.24 percent to 83,900 won.
- SK Hynix stocks ended at 137,500 won.
- Hyundai, KIA estimates combined Q1 net profit to rise.
- The two carmakers estimate solid earnings over robust sales of SUV and high-end models.
- Hyundai expects a net profit of US$1.18 billion in the first quarter. <...
- S. Korean stocks rose on hopes of better earnings.
- The KOSPI rose 33.49 points, or 1.07 percent.
- Samsung Electronics stocks rose 0.96% to 84,000 won.
- Naver stocks rose 0.78% to 388,500 won.
- Kia Corp. launches new K8 sedan in South Korea.
- The car company also showed its new brand logo.
- The new K8 sedan is said to be equipped with advanced safety features.
- The company is said to have received 24,000...
- S. Korean stocks fell over increased value of U.S currency.
- KOSPI fell 8.58 points, or at 0.28 percent.
- Samsung Electronics stocks lost 0.97 percent.
- Naver stocks gained 0.13 percent.
Due to i...
- Hyundai to establish high-speed charging EV charging stations.
- The charging infrastructure will be under the name of “E-pit”.
- The charging stations will be able to charge 80% of their EV battery capacity in 18...
- S. Korea’s exports of automobiles increase by 35 percent in February.
- In February, outbound shipments of automobiles were 161,886 units.
- Hyundai saw overseas sales increase by 40.4 percent in terms of units. ...
- S. Korea’s global shipbuilding orders rise in February.
- HHIC won new orders of 43 ships or 1.56 million compensated gross tons (CGTs).
- S. Korea bagged orders for 7 very large crude carriers, five A-Max oil tankers, ...
- The company Hyundai becomes the first company to register a fleet of hydrogen cars in Australia
- The company Hyundai and Toyota are on the brink of introducing a fleet of hydrogen cars in the country
The race for a hydroge...
- HHIH sings hydrogen project deal with Saudi Aramco.
- Hyundai Oilbank Co. will import liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) from Saudi Aramco to produce blue hydrogen.
- Hyundai Oilbank will be provided with blue ammonia.
- S. Korean conglomerates to invest $38.2 billion in the hydrogen industry.
- SK, Hyundai Motor, POSCO, Hanwha, and Hyosung are ready to invest in a wide range of hydrogen infrastructure.
- SK Group plans to invest 18.5 trillio...


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BMW is known for crafting the Ultimate Driving Machine; cars that are more than just transportation appliances but enjoyable to drive on the road. However, might the brand also be transitioning into the Ultimate Boating Machine? BMW Designworks, the slightly more experimental design arm of the BMW Group, has just collaborated with Sea Ray to design a new design language for the pleasure boat (that sounds a bit inappropriate, right?) brand.
“Sea Ray has a rich history as a leading boat manufacturer for more than 60 years,” said Johannes Lampela, Director of Industrial Design at Designworks. “The Sea Ray look is very recognizable, and our goal working together was to further strengthen that design DNA by bringing forward the most iconic features through a modern design execution. What emerged is a modern yet classic aesthetic that is being used to inspire the next generation of Sea Ray boats.”
This new design language was created with an emphasis on sleekness. There’s a clear s-sheer line down the body of the boat, which is reminiscent of the sorts of shoulder lines you see on cars.
“Automotive-inspired design is part of the Sea Ray history, dating back to collaboration with Harley Earl Associates in the early 1960s. It was important that we partnered with a group that has a comprehensive understanding of future mobility and the ability to develop concepts with a view to future contexts,” said Sea Ray Design Director Charlie Foss.
This isn’t the first time, nor will it be the last, that an automaker helped create a design language for a boat or yacht. Mercedes-Benz, Aston Martin and Lexus have all done so, as well as other premium automakers. However, this is the first time we’ve see BMW’s Designworks do a boat.
Sea Ray’s new design language will be unveiled during a virtual reveal of the Sundancer 370 on Facebook, today at 12:00 p.m. EST. Initially, the new model is available for order in North America, with international availability timing to follow.


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20:41, 24 JUL 2021
Edinburgh man dressed as Jesus stops traffic in Leith by dragging cross over road
We've seen some things in the Kirkgate, but this is a new level...
Harry Potter fans are delighted with 'amazing' phone hack that works just like magic
Android phone owners are in luck with this magical phone hack so you can feel like a witch or wizard.
Scottish care home worker ‘swore at’ and ‘slapped’ vulnerable resident
In January 2020, Karen Lenny was removed from her shift after she lashed out at a resident.
Edinburgh Scotrail and LNR trains delayed as ‘lorry collides with bridge’
Traffic and Travel
Trains between Edinburgh and Kirkcaldy are expected to be disrupted until at least 11.30am as a recovery operation in underway.
Home Bargains shoppers go giddy over heatwave 'bargain' product
With our Scottish homes built to keep heat in, this might make working from home this summer a little more bearable.
Mass brawl breaks out after Edinburgh football coach is racially abused
“I’d put two on his chin again and to anyone that wants to be racist over a game of football. Let the star down but at the end of the day I’m the one getting racially abused and it’s happening far too often.”
Edinburgh mum snaps spectacular image of octopus in front of Forth Road Bridge
The alien-like creature was languishing in the shallows near the iconic crossing
New Edinburgh vegan cafe serving 'not just sticks and leaves' opens its doors
Vegan caterers The Sly Fox have officially opened up shop on Henderson Street in Leith and their plant-based food looks incredible
Customers love £3.99 Aldi product that saves makeup from fading in masks and hot weather
Many punters sick of seeing their carefully applied lipstick wiped away by face masks have given up wearing it altogether.
East Lothian children and mum blown out to sea in inflatable boat 'in seconds'
The four and seven-year-old had been blown out to sea in an inflatable boat in a matter of just seconds
Home Bargains shoppers rescue mum and autistic child after 'desperation post'
In a post on social media, the mother revealed her daughter struggles to eat most foods.
Luke Mitchell Edinburgh demo planned after Jodi Jones' family call supporters 'delusional'
The family of murdered teen Jodi Jones' family has previously blasted events organised in support of her killer as 'despicable'.
Can I give my dog ice cubes? Answer revealed as temperatures soar across UK
A post on Facebook warning of the dangers of giving pets frozen treats has recently gone viral and experts have weighed in
Marks & Spencer Percy Pig treat divides shoppers as some feel 'ripped off'
Marks & Spencer
One Facebook user wrote: “Its nice but price is too high for such a small jar"
Poundland slammed for selling baby 'crop top' as outfit branded 'disgusting'
The top sparked fierce debate about what was appropriate clothing to sell for young children
Coronavirus Scotland: Experts share four 'Covid foods' which 'help protect against virus'
Researchers at the ZOE Covid Symptom app found that people who ate plant-rich 'gut friendly' foods were less likely to develop Covid-19 than those who don't
Loved-up couple mistaken for father and daughter 'thrive' off hateful comments
Sinead Warnes and Daniel Long insists that hate makes their relationship 'stronger', despite the 16-year age gap.
Lidl shoppers issued urgent warning over Facebook win a baby carriage scam
Lidl are urging shoppers to contact their bank immediately if they've been conned by the scams and to report it to Action Fraud.
Two West Lothian men arrested by police after reports of an armed disturbance
"Officers in Bathgate responded to a report of a disturbance involving weapons in the Honeyman Court area around 7.45pm on Monday, 12 July."
Ministers urged to consider ID for new social media users after Euro 2020 racism row
Marcus Rashford, Bukayo Saka and Jadon Sancho were targeted by racist trolls online after the players failed to score during the nail-biting penalties.
Edinburgh beats Glasgow to title of UK's friendliest city according to research
Glasgow has long been considered the friendlier of the two Scottish rivals.
Cadbury's retro chocolate set to make a come back in UK shops in time for Christmas
Despite its popularity, the sweetie was discontinued in the 1990s
East Lothian animal physio to open clinic after Covid ruled out home visits
Concern over growing waiting lists which could see some animals struggle in pain for weeks led to new clinic.
Edinburgh 97-year-old woman dies after early morning blaze
Scottish Fire and Rescue
The pensioner died from life-threatening injuries after four fire engines and the ambulance service were dispatched to the scene.


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Why China Would "Win" a Trade War with America
The premise of Trump’s protectionist rhetoric is that the US still dominates world trade. They hold all the cards and can do pretty much anything that serves the national interest. His “America First” policy therefore follows naturally, as does the proposition to slap 40% tariffs on some Chinese goods to level the playing field. But what if the premise is wrong? What if the US doesn’t hold all the cards and doesn’t win the trade war?
First off, nobody wins from protectionism. The consumers pay higher prices and the workers lose their jobs. Indeed, those workers now protected by tariffs may see more employment, but across the whole economy, higher costs of imports combined with lower consumption, job losses are a real prospect.
The reasons why China would emerge from a trade war on top boils down to an imbalance in dependence on each others’ markets.
America’s dependence on China is greater than China’s on America. Therefore, although China certainly wouldn’t emerge unscathed, it also wouldn’t have taken the greatest hit. This is because China has developed massively in the last two decades following access to Western technology and techniques.
Now that its economy has matured, it can purchase machinery from countries other than the US and is looking to invest in other developing economies (especially in Africa). It is therefore not as reliant on good trade with the US.
Also, although much of American high-tech machinery is manufactured in China, the largest chunk of the profits go to the original American designers. Hence, protectionism against China by the US would hurt American companies more than it would Chinese factories.
The Chinese market is extremely lucrative for American producers. This is evidenced by the fact that in 2015, Apple had sold 131 million iPhones in China, but only 110 million to American consumers. The Chinese market is crucial for American producers. Meanwhile, Chinese producers look more to regions such as Latin America, Africa, and the Asian sub-continent where there’s a growing demand for low-cost electronics such as mobile phones and laptops.
A trade war would be felt almost immediately in the US, especially by firms such as Walmart who rely heavily on cheap imported goods. US tariffs on these cheap goods would cause prices to hit the roof at the expense of consumers and workers. For a company like Walmart - which reported revenues of almost $500million and has 2,300,000 employees - protectionism would be disastrous.
There’s a clear disparity in the two countries’ reliance on each other in trade. What’s also clear is that in a trade war, whilst nobody wins, China would almost certainly lose least.


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Criticising the Prime Minister over the decision to approve Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail sector, ..
New Delhi, (ANI): With the world's largest arms importer on a
buying spree, global vendors are lining up their products. At the
recently conducted Defence Expo 2012, New Delhi saw global defence
giants competing with each other in search of a deal.
The seventh edition of Asia's biggest Land and Naval Defence. Systems exhibition saw 580 exhibitors from over 30 countries showcasing their technological dexterity. Besides selling weapons, the Israel based company has agreed to develop and manufacture defense products locally in collaboration with an Indian private company.
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Chenchu tribals of Andhra Pradesh, who were deprived of basic facilities such as education, health, etc have now become se..
Bharatpur opens a Pandora’s Box, Are Cong-ruled states equally prone to communal violence as the rest
Are Cong-ruled states equally prone to communal violence as the rest? : Asked a chief editor of a news channel which cla..
As part of 150th Birth Anniversary Celebrations of Swami Vivekananda, Ramakrishna Math, Chennai, India and Ramakrishna M..
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is financially backing and publicly endorsing mass polio virus vaccinations in Ind..


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Ignition Law has been shortlisted for a prestigious Law Society Award, the highest accolade for law firms in England and Wales.
Ignition Law’s Phil Robinson and Lizzy Wong advised the exciting Cambridge based agri-tech business Antobot on its £1.2m seed investment from leading automotive electronics solutions provider in China, Intron Technology Holdings Ltd.
ikigai is the first app in the UK to bring together everyday banking and wealth management. Their aim is to provide you with a holistic view of your money – ensuring you can invest well, save more, and spend better. ikigai empowers you to grow your wealth through goals-based investing, meaning you can align your money with your financial and personal goals – whether it’s the holiday of a lifetime, a new home, or time off for a career break.
Across our practice for some time now we have been helping clients deal with issues relating to block chain, bitcoin and cryptocurrency in general. It is surprising to think that bitcoin came into being over 11 years ago now and since then, cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology in general have been advancing at a breakneck pace.


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There's a New Quid on the block!
Check behind those sofas! 100 days left until round £1 coins are no longer legal tender - and one in three still have some stashed around the house
Old round £1 coins no longer legal tender from 17 October
Royal Mint polls suggests one in three households have some laying around
Round £1 coins could become a future collectables
Millions of households have old-style £1 coins laying around the house, which will soon lose their legal tender status, according to the Royal Mint.
A poll by the Treasury-owned Mint suggests one in three have some stashed away in savings jars and piggy banks across the country – or roughly 9million households.
It comes as the billionth new 12-sided £1 coin passed through the Royal Mint's production line today, struck by Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, Andrew Jones MP.
By mid-July there will be more new coins in circulation than old and people have already returned 800million of the old coins, more than half of the total circulation.
They entered circulation in 1983, replacing the £1 note.
The Minister is calling on the public to dig out these old coins before they lose their legal tender status on 15 October 2017.
Andrew Jones added: 'This coin is the most secure of its kind in the world and was brought in to clamp down on the multimillion-pound cost of counterfeits.
'In less than 100 days, the round pound will lose its legal status. So people need to spend, bank or donate them by 15 October.'
The Mint says that many of the round coins will be melted down to make the 12-sided ones.
Some have been collecting the round £1 coins before they disappear. Change Checker launched its '£1 coin race' in February which has proved popular, as people looked to get all 25 designs before the withdrawal date.
A spokesman at Change Checker said: 'As people add these coins to their collection and more are removed from circulation by the banks, they become significantly rarer.
'In change collecting the rarity of a coin has an impact on its value, some of the rarest £1 coins can sell for up to 35 times their face value on auction sites.
'It is hard to predict exactly now but a full collection of round £1 coins could potentially fetch you a pretty penny in years to come.
'If monetary value isn't your motivation, by collecting the round £1 coins, you will be owning a genuine piece of British history, something to be passed down the generations.'
The rarest of £1 coins has a circulation of under 1million - the 2011 coin featuring the Edinburgh coat of arms which had a mintage of 935,000.
Sold by themselves, they were selling for around £5 on online auction websites in December, which is far less than the Kew Gardens 50p – or any mentioned in our round-up of valuable coins that can turn up in your change.
However, as part of a full set and in pristine condition, it could be well worth hanging onto if you get one in your change.
Meanwhile, a builder who found an erroneous £1 with two dates printed on it has had the mistake confirmed by the Royal Mint, which could mean it would be sold for a tidy profit.


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Tata Motors will be organising a service camp across India from 20th to 26th of March, 2015. It will be held in all of their 570 dealerships across the country. This service camp is meant only for their passenger vehicles.
The service camp will offer a 51 point checkup of customers vehicles. Tata Motors will also provide discounts on parts, accessories, oil and lubricants. They will provide special schemes on their value added services. Vehicles will also get a thorough wash from top to bottom.
Tata Motors will offer exchange bonuses on their vehicles. At the service camp experts will evaluate these vehicles and will value customers utility as well as passing vehicles. Customers who are keen to exchange their vehicles can avail on the spot loans as well.
At selected workshops of Tata Motors potential buyers can test drive their newly launched products. Test drives of Bolt hatchback and Zest compact sedan will be offered in selected cities. The Indian manufacturer is expecting a huge turn up at the service camp.
South-Korean based automobile manufacturer, Hyundai has also organised a pan India vehicle check up. They call it their ‘Free Car Care Clinic', which will be held on 13th to 22nd March, 2015. Customers can avail a 90 point comprehensive check up of their vehicle.


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Apple Announces 1st East Coast Campus In North Carolina
Updated 2:13 p.m.
Apple is expanding spending in the U.S. and announced plans Monday to build its first East Coast campus in North Carolina.
The iPhone maker is boosting U.S. spending to $430 billion over the next five years and doubling its hiring plans by 20,000 jobs. It had said it would spend $350 billion in January 2018, just after Congress approved a big tax overhaul that cut corporate taxes.
Apple says it is stepping up investment as the U.S. begins rebuilding from the COVID-19 pandemic. The company for years has emphasized its role in the U.S. economy to help counter criticism about its reliance on overseas factories, often taking advantage of local tax breaks.
Apple will invest $1 billion in North Carolina and the campus, in the Raleigh-Durham area’s Research Triangle Park, is expected to bring at least 3,000 new jobs to the state in machine learning, artificial intelligence, software engineering and other fields. The workers will have an average annual salary of about $185,000.
Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper said that once Apple creates the jobs, the tech giant will be eligible for incentives he considers “transformational.”
Under an agreement approved earlier Monday by a state incentives panel, Apple would get $846 million in cumulative cash payments over the next 39 years if the company meets job-creation and investment thresholds. The payments are calculated based on the income tax the state withholds from paychecks of the new workers.
The state Commerce Department estimates the project will generate nearly $2 billion in additional state revenues through 2061.
Cooper defended the hefty price tag on the incentives, arguing that Apple’s announcement will encourage other companies to move to North Carolina and have a positive ripple effect on local businesses in the Raleigh area.
“Once this campus is up and running, it’s expected to generate more than $1.5 billion a year in economic impact to our state,” Cooper said in a news conference Monday morning.
The construction timeline is not yet clear, though state officials said Apple has told them it wants to get the new campus up and running as soon as possible. A summary of the incentives agreement notes the 3,000 jobs will be created from 2023 until 2032.
“This is an important milestone that strengthens our position as a tech hub,” said Michael Haley, executive director of Wake County Economic Development.
Apple also said it plans to establish a $100 million fund to support schools and community initiatives in the Raleigh-Durham area. The incentives agreement also means $112 million will go to a state account designed to help rural areas improve infrastructure to attract companies.
The company is also expanding its teams in Colorado, Massachusetts, Texas, Washington, New York, California and other states. Apple announced Monday it is planning a $100 million distribution center near Indianapolis that could employ nearly 500 workers by the end of 2024.
State Commerce Secretary Machelle Sanders said the 3,000 positions Apple will create will be in addition to the company’s existing 1,100-worker footprint in the state.
In a blow to Cooper and top Republican state lawmakers, Apple unveiled plans in 2018 to expand operations in Texas. Cooper said he believes the company’s decision not to move to North Carolina at the time may have stemmed in part from the passage of a 2016 law that required people to use the restroom of the sex assigned to them at birth. That law was partially repealed a year later.
This time, Apple considered Ohio as the principal competitor to North Carolina to land the new campus, but other unnamed states were still in the running, according to the incentives summary provided by the Commerce Department.
The governor said he privately spoke with Apple CEO Tim Cook on Saturday, who explained that “he feels good about our diversity, inclusion and anti-discrimination landscape.”
“He feels good about this project, and they are just as excited as we are to build it,” Cooper said.


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Hillphoenix play a large role in driving the North American market to CO2-only solutions. Fortunately, part of what’s driving the North American market currently is the solid performance of transcritical systems installed by early adopters:
“CO2 transcritical has been proven to deliver a 2-5 year payback for typical applications, and will be dropping to 2-3 years for average climates. It’s a viable economic solution, close to parity [with conventional systems]” noted Navarro de Andrade
From an energy consumption point of view, transcritical systems have performed better than conventional DX systems in northern climates. By contrast, in southern climates, where higher ambient temperatures may drive the systems into supercritical mode, they are prone to operate less efficiency. However, Hillphoenix is demonstrating with a transcritical installation in Georgia that the system can still perform well in a southern climate using an adiabatic gas cooler.
Hillphoenix has developed other technology – an ejector system and parallel compression — that can also maintain the efficiency of a transcritical CO2 system. This year the company sold its first transcritical system with these components to a store in Europe. “We’re probably a couple of years from commercialising ejector technology in the U.S.,” said Navarro de Andrade.
Driving out the fear
The positive results obtained at the Georgia store and elsewhere help supermarkets and other end users overcome their apprehension about replacing traditional commercial refrigeration technology with a transcritical system, said Navarro de Andrade.
“We’re driving out the fear by proving the performance, validating the reliability and support capability and making it bullet-proof,” he said. “This starts getting more skeptical folks to understand that this is a real, viable solution.
” Hillphoenix is helping to lower the cost of transcritical systems by incorporating new components. However, in some cases the company has been frustrated by its inability to get less costly components, widely used in Europe, UL-certified in the U.S. “We’re working on that with component suppliers and the regulatory/certification agencies,” said Navarro de Andrade.
At the same time, Hillphoenix is expanding its transcritical product portfolio. Prior to the ATMOsphere America 2015 conference in Atlanta in late June, the company provided a sneak preview at its headquarters of a new lower-cost system that “lends itself to smaller-format stores,” he said. The modular unit, which will be released this year, has a narrower set of features than Hillphoenix’s typical transcritical system.
Navarro de Andrade acknowledged that the skill level of contractors, technicians and designer engineers with respect to transcritical technology remains a challenge for the industry. “It’s a new technology for most of them,” he said.
To meet this challenge, Hillphoenix has invested heavily in a Learning Center at its headquarters. In addition to a prepackaged curriculum, the company also creates a tailor-made program to meet the specific training needs of end users. In the nine years since it opened the Learning Center, Hillphoenix has trained more than 23,000 people, including end user customers, contractors and design engineers.
Hillphoenix is also working with colleges and schools on training students. Its new technology requires new skills and is more disruptive of the status quo, making it potentially “more interesting for younger folks” as the industry tries to replace an aging workforce, said Navarro de Andrade.


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CUPERTINO (CBS SF) – Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) scheduled for this June will be going online this year, the latest major tech conference making adjustments amid the coronavirus outbreak.
“The current health situation has required that we create a new WWDC 2020 format that delivers a full program with an online keynote and sessions, offering a great learning experience for our entire developer community, all around the world,” Phil Schiller, the company’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, said in a statement.
Schiller said additional details will be released in the weeks ahead.
COMPLETE COVERAGE: CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK
One of the Apple’s most prominent annual events, WWDC is a showcase to developers of the Cupertino-based company’s newest technologies.
Since 2017, the conference has been held at the San Jose Convention Center. Apple announced it would commit $1 million to local San Jose organizations to offset revenue losses.
With the coronavirus outbreak ongoing, numerous tech conferences have either been canceled or have been turned into online events. Facebook F8, which was scheduled to take place at the San Jose Convention Center in May, was canceled late last month.
Meanwhile, Google canceled the I/O conference scheduled for May at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View. The company’s Google Cloud Next conference scheduled for April at the Moscone Center in San Francisco has been turned into an online event.
Another Moscone Center tech event, Amazon’s AWS Summit at the Moscone Center scheduled for April 14th, has also been canceled.


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Metallica have teamed up with Italian menswear brand Brioni in a Bohemian Rhapsody-inspired advertising campaign.
Photographer Zackery Michael captured the band wearing the Brioni range and Metallica say the photoshoot took inspiration from the iconic video for Queen’s smash hit.
Metallica say: “We are beyond thrilled to have been invited to be the face of Italian luxury menswear powerhouse Brioni as they kick off their first creative campaign under the direction of newly appointed creative director, uber cool style star Justin O’Shea.
“The black and white Queen Bohemian Rhapsody-inspired photos were shot last month in San Francisco by photographer Zackery Michael. We’re sporting Bespoke Brioni suits and tuxedos as well as sunglasses from their new eyewear collection.”
The full photoshoot can be viewed in the gallery below.
- The 25 weirdest bands of all time
- Ice T hints next Body Count album will be titled Bloodlust
- Shortest track on new Tool album is '12 minutes long'
- Corey Taylor 'okay' after falling on stage during Slipknot show in Atlanta
Meanwhile, the band were reportedly the victim of a hoax which claimed they would play at a restaurant called Joe’s Crab Shack in Tucson, Arizona, next month.
A Facebook page was set up, telling fans that tickets were being sold at various locations in Tucson and that five golden tickets would be hidden in burritos. The golden tickets would award winners VIP tickets and a chance to hang out with band members.
But Andrea Grey, whose family owns the restaurant, tells KVOA they know nothing about the competition and that it is a hoax.


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- Breakthrough Be-Lite technology reduces use of core SPC raw materials by up to 20% during manufacturing without compromising on performance
- Lighter panels offer lower transport and raw materials costs
- Only available via an i4F license
HAMONT, BELGIUM – i4F, a group of companies providing patents and technologies to the flooring industry, today announced that it has entered into a new technology partnership with CFL Flooring (CFL) to deliver a more sustainable SPC panel production process to the flooring industry. Developed by CFL, Be-Lite® is a new patented technology enabling a significant reduction in the use of core SPC raw materials during the manufacturing process of decorative panels without compromising on performance. SPC panels produced using the technology end up significantly lighter and are, thus, less expensive to transport. Be-Lite is exclusively available via an i4F license from the company’s portfolio of sustainability-focused innovations.
Unlike existing material savings techniques that remove and recycle materials after the panel production process, Be-Lite is a thermoforming technology that, depending on panels’ core thicknesses, uses up to 20% less raw materials during the panel core manufacturing process. The resulting, lighter SPC panels maintain optimum performance while easily reducing, on average, 5% of a panel’s total manufacturing raw material costs as well as decreasing transport costs by 6%.
Thomas Baert, President and co-founder of CFL, says, “Sustainable solutions are no longer something in the far-distant future. We owe it to ourselves and our children to accelerate the introduction of environmentally-geared solutions into manufacturing as quickly as we can. CFL has partnered with i4F because we share the belief that innovation is one of the most impactful enablers on this journey towards a more sustainable flooring industry.”
i4F’s CEO, John Rietveldt, adds, “i4F is passionate about bringing meaningful technologies to market and there is nothing more important than a greener future. The beauty of the Be-Lite technology is that it significantly improves flooring’s carbon footprint while remaining attractive to manufacturers by also delivering costs savings. That makes a meaningful difference and is truly a win:win for the industry and the planet.”


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We’re delighted to announce the appointment of Ed Prager as our new CEO.
Ed joins from Seagate Technology, where he acted as Vice President and General Manager, and will succeed our founder, Max Toti.
Bringing a wealth of experience in leading and personally transforming large businesses with over a thousand staff and more than half billion pound revenues, Ed’s IT career spans over 20 years with companies including IBM, News International and Xyratex.
The appointment is an important strategic milestone in our history. The move will allow Max to transition away from the day-to-day running of the business, and now concentrate on preparing the company for IPO stock market floatation in 2020.
Max will be working to drive Captec’s capabilities into the IoT arena, alongside focusing on mergers and acquisitions with an emphasis on North America and Canada.
Ed said: “I am delighted to be joining Captec at this opportune time, given its commitment and appetite to grow its reputation as a major manufacturer of specialist computing platforms.
I very much look forward to leading rapid growth in this next exciting phase as the company extends its international reach and accelerates towards IPO.”
The announcement comes off the back of a busy period of activity for us as a company, with the presentation of a refocused value proposition to the market through a new website.
As part of the new business model, we will be leveraging our expertise to focus on four platform areas: IoT, computer, tablet and rack, which can be made off-the-shelf, customised or bespoke depending on customer requirements.


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Despite revealing shipping figures of 10.5 million at GDC this week, Sony has admitted that it “could have done a better job” with its PlayStation Move motion controller.
Sony UK VP and MD Fergal Gara was quizzed on the state of the move by OPM. He revealed: “What I’m thinking is that it’s better suited towards the casual market, certainly, but we also are pretty clear that we could have done a better job on the titles we’ve had and we’ve brought to market for the PlayStation Move. As you’ve said, great tech, probably not so great applications so far. So there’s a job for us to do on the strength of games, and having seen what’s forthcoming gives me great hope that we can do a better job with Move as we look forward. So we’re certainly not forgetting about it.”
When asked if the Move was still be worked on he replied “Absolutely, still being worked on.”
In May the controller sees its first major release in a while with Sorcery, a game that’s been in development for a long time. Going forward though, apart from Datura, announced this week, we’ve not seen much for the system.


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26th July 2011, www.dailynews.lk
The volume of transactions through the Sri Lanka Interbank Payment System (SLIPS) operated by LankaClear (Pvt) Ltd. (LCPL) grew by a significant 32 percent from the financial year 2009 and 10 to 2010 and 11 the value of transactions grew by 19 percent during the same period.
The total value of transaction cleared through SLIPS during the financial year 2010 and 2011 was Rs 346 billion.
SLIPS is currently more commonly used for salary payments, pension payments, customer account to account fund transfers, standing orders, insurance payments, credit cards settlements, dividend payments and IPO refunds. LankaClear Sri Lanka’s premier catalyst for facilitating progressive payment systems infrastructure, has over the years introduced numerous advanced infrastructure systems to the country’s financial landscape.
The Sri Lanka Interbank Payment System (SLIPS) is one such technology that transformed the banking landscape, introducing new and enhanced levels of efficiency, security and cost effectiveness to the interbank fund transfer system.
SLIPS is an online interbank electronic fund transfer system which eliminates the need for paper work in the fund transfer process.
Catering mainly for low-value retail payments - upto Rs 5 million, the system enables the electronic movement of funds from one account to another without the corresponding physical documentation. “The system therefore enables increased levels of security by eliminating the physical movement of paper documentation, faster transfer times and lower infrastructure requirements, ensuring greater revenue generating capabilities, operational efficiencies and cost savings to banking institutions and customers,” the company’s CEO Sunimal Weerasooriya said.
Using SLIPS for payment and recovery of payments will bring tangible benefits to customers.
Related Info :
• LankaClear, National Clearing House of Sri Lanka, Extends Cheque Deposit Time with Improved Settlement Clearing
• National Clearing House LankaClear Launches LANKASIGN with Two Digital Products. email Document Signing and SSL Server Certificates
• SEC to Improve Stock Market Payment Settlements in Sri Lanka By Using Slips


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This past weekend, Japanese kawaii-metal sensation Babymetal posted a teaser which got fans speculating.
Turns out it's not a new album, but a new comic book, err graphic novel titled Apocrypha: The Legend Of BABYMETAL. The book is a collaboration between Kobametal, Amuse Group USA, and Z2 Comics. The book is looking to expand on the band's mythology. Here's the description:
“Discover the myth of the worldwide music sensation BABYMETAL. Tasked with defeating the forces of darkness and division, the metal spirits must travel through a variety of eras of time, assuming different forms and identities. What we are seeing is not the BABYMETAL of the present. It’s the original story based on BABYMETAL you’ve never heard before. The long-hidden metal spirit’s apocrypha of the METAL RESISTANCE will emerge.”
Here is what the cover looks like:
When pressed byThe Hollywood Reporter, co-publisher Sridhar Reddy wasn't willing to divulge too much info: “With the book still months from publication, it’s too early to reveal much. In the months to come, Babymetal fans can expect more announcements, but today I would say the question we should be asking is not who is Babymetal, but what is Babymetal?”
There is an Amazon pre-order page, but no pre-orders are currently being taken:
In another interesting tidbit, The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that the band's talent agency, Amuse Inc. has partnered with Warner Bros. to develop a cartoon based on the band. No other details on the cartoon are known at the moment.
A release date and more info for the graphic novel are expected in the coming months.


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HTC Aims For 1/10th of Chinese Smartphone Market by End of 2012
August 13, 2012 11:35 AM
comment(s) - last by
Company wants to be in top two in China by 2015
Taiwanese phonemaker HTC Corp. (
fumbled through Q2
, returning to profitability, but falling short of analysts' recovery hopes. The report led to numerous
branch office closings
, including regional offices in Brazil and South Korea, along with a research facility in North Carolina.
But the phonemaker did see some hope, reporting stronger than expected growth in China. The carrier has risen from 2.6 percent of the Chinese market, to around 6 percent.
That's a big deal because, after all, the Chinese market is the
world's largest smartphone market
, although it is still dwarfed by the American smartphone market in pure consumer dollars. In China, HTC is looking to compete with domestic player Huawei Technologies Comp. (
), who owns 12.2 percent of the market, and familiar-foe Samsung Electronics Comp., Ltd. (
), which owns 24.9 percent of the market, according to Analysys Int'l.
Ray Yam, head of HTC's China operations, has big goals for China. At a time when other regional headquarters are closing, HTC is planning a "secret" new headquarters for China and is considering bumping its headcount, which current consists of 500-600 local engineers.
Samsung has 6,000 branded counters -- sales locations -- in China. HTC is a ways behind, but it is fast catching up, with 2,700 current branded counters, and a planned expansion to 3,500 by the end of the year.
HTC aims to expand its Chinese presence this year. [Image Source: Cult of Mac]
HTC is trying to build its brand in China, and is in the third year of selling phones under its own name, having sold under the trade name Dopod pre-2010. Over the next two quarters, Mr. Yam told
The Wall Street Journal
that he hopes to conquer an additional 3 to 4 percent of the Chinese market, which would position his firm to vie for second place in sales.
By 2015 HTC wants to be one of the top two brands in China in revenue. That likely means holding off Huawei and rising star Apple, Inc. (
) whose products
have become status symbols
among Chinese teenagers. But if HTC can do that, it may be able to salvage its bottom line in the midst of poor European sales and currency fluctuation woes.
After all, by 2015 China's smartphone sales are expected to rise from the current 150-170 million units per year to about 300 million units per year, along with great growth to premium smartphone sales, as the nation's growing class of affluent professionals look to exert their buying power on the world of gadgets.
HTC's flagship One X and One S have drawn generally enthusiastic reviews. Writes
's Brian Klug, "The One S has an absolutely phenomenal in-hand feel" and "it blows my mind that Samsung can't get its own AMOLED panels tuned this well."
This article is over a month old, voting and posting comments is disabled
RE: At least they are realistic.
8/14/2012 7:52:02 PM
There is a huge difference in chassis, display, keyboard, and trackpad quality between an Apple and an Acer, huge.
You get what you pay for, its why a mid-range to high-end Lenovo or Apple laptop are actually worth the price. Acers are disposable.
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Novel Capital, a FinTech company helping businesses accelerate growth, has exited stealth with $115m in initial equity and debt funding.
Novel Capital said it provides an alternative funding method to entrepreneurs that is simpler and less risky than bank debt and does not require founders to give up equity or control. The company’s online platform offers revenue-based financing products specifically tailored to growing software companies.
Novel Capital offers two revenue-based financing products. RevShare Capital gives companies up to 30% of their expected annual revenue today, in exchange for a percentage of future monthly realised revenue for the next 36 months. UpFront Capital gives companies instant access to future subscription revenue for an upfront fee.
Carlos Antequera, Novel Capital CEO and co-founder, said, “Prior to co-founding Novel Capital, I was the CEO of an EdTech SaaS company, and like many other entrepreneurs, my company could not attract the capital we needed to accelerate our growth despite our growing customer base and recurring revenue.
“This experience made me realize the need for a company like Novel Capital. We want to provide simple, fair access to on-demand capital and support, so that entrepreneurs can focus on business growth, not fundraising.”
Copyright © 2022 FinTech Global


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VirnetX has been awarded US$368.2 million in its patent lawsuit against Apple over the iPhone and iPad maker's FaceTime video chat feature. The patent holding company sued Apple claiming that the Mac, iPhone, iPad and iPod touch all infringe on four of its private network patents.
VirnetX wins $368.2 million in FaceTime patent infringement lawsuit
The company won its patent fight in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Tyler Division, which is a court that's often cited as favoring patent trolls. Along with its $368.2 million, VirnetX is also hoping to convince the court to block Apple from selling infringing products, which includes all of its Mac lineup, the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
The company sued Apple, along with NEC, Cisco and Aastra in August 2010 for patent infringement and listed every iPhone model along with the original iPad. After the iPad 2 was introduced the company updated its filing to include that model, and when the iPhone 4S launched that was added to the suit, too.
Apple and VirnetX squared off in court on October 31. The other companies targeted in the lawsuit are scheduled for trial in March 2013.
Apple hasn't commented on the ruling, although it's very likely an appeal will be coming soon. VirnetX CEO Kendall Larsen, however, was more than happy to comment on the outcome, stating, "We are extremely pleased with the outcome of our suit with Apple."


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John Lewis has announced it will not reopen eight stores across the UK - including Birmingham and Tamworth's branches.
The move to shut the two Midlands outlets, as well as six others across the nation, comes in a bid "to secure the business’s long-term future and respond to customers' shopping needs."
This announcement comes as the final wave of shop reopenings is confirmed.
The shops identified for closure include two of the smallest in the estate - travel hub shops at Heathrow and St Pancras, four At Home shops in Croydon, Newbury, Swindon and Tamworth and two full size department stores in Birmingham and Watford.
Approximately 1,300 workers across the eight shops will now enter into consultation.
Prior to the pandemic, the eight shops identified were already financially challenged and the pandemic has accelerated the switch from shopping in-store to online.
Before the virus struck, 40 percent of John Lewis sales were online.
This could now be closer to 60 to 70 percent of total sales this year and next.
Sharon White, Chairman of the John Lewis Partnership said: “Closing a shop is always incredibly difficult and today’s announcement will come as very sad news to customers and Partners. However, we believe closures are necessary to help us secure the sustainability of the Partnership - and continue to meet the needs of our customers however and wherever they want to shop.
"Redundancies are always an absolute last resort and we will do everything we can to keep as many Partners as possible within our business.
“There are many reasons to be optimistic about the Partnership’s future. Waitrose and John Lewis are two of the UK’s most loved and trusted brands and we have adapted to the challenges of the pandemic by responding to the new needs of customers. We will soon announce the output of our strategic review which will ensure our brands stay relevant for future generations of customers.”
A Spokesperson for Bullring & Grand Central said: "We are disappointed in John Lewis & Partners’ decision not to re-open in the UK’s second city.
"They opened the store in 2015 as part of Grand Central’s £750m regeneration project and this September would have been their fifth year of trading.
"The Bullring Estate is a leading retail and leisure destination with shoppers and brands including Selfridges, which has been a draw for Birmingham for the past 17 years.
"Grand Central’s location in New Street Station attracts over 20m visitors a year as part of the busiest train station outside of London.
"We will continue our discussions with John Lewis regarding their future in Birmingham, as there remains a significant period left on the lease.
"However, the strong city centre and high footfall location of the current John Lewis space lends itself to future alternative uses, which we will explore.”


text:
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- When rumors swept the Internet earlier this summer that Netflix (NFLX) - Get Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) Report would soon start running commercials, customers of the streaming platform collectively freaked out.
Faced with an onslaught of social media condemning the move, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings was quick to put the kibosh on any talk of advertising. Hastings took pains to emphasize that Netflix had only engaged in user testing to gauge the possibility of offering short trailers for original programming, similar to the previews Time Warner's (TWX) HBO shows before streams. "No advertising coming on Netflix," Hastings wrote on Facebook (FB) - Get Facebook, Inc. Class A Report. "Period."
While it might be difficult to understand why a subscription service would take such a firm stance against third-party advertising, given the potential of additional revenue, it's easy to see why consumers were so outraged.
"People hate advertising," said Deacon Webster, chief creative officer at Walrus, a New York advertising firm. "It's reached a point where people are getting really annoyed with the way it's altering their Web experience."
The collective distaste for advertising, including pop-ups, auto-play videos and other invasive ads, has spawned a growing ad-blocking industry, and consumers are increasingly adopting the technology. A joint report released in September 2014 by Adobe Systems (ADBE) - Get Adobe Inc. Report and advertising consulting startup Pagefair revealed that ad-block usage had grown 70% since 2013.
Apple (AAPL) - Get Apple Inc. (AAPL) Report jumped on the ad-blocking bandwagon this summer, announcing on the last day of its June Developers' Conference plans to introduce built-in ad blocking for its mobile and computer operating systems.
The new extension, Apple promised, will block unwanted content (read: advertising), allowing Web pages to load faster, which will in turn decrease the network activity that often sucks up iPhone battery life.
That's great news for consumers, but what about the Internet companies whose revenue models depend on advertising? With users increasingly able to block online advertisements, media outlets and other content providers could find themselves in financial trouble.
One solution, Webster says, is to develop technology that will combat ad-blocking technology. But the adoption of such a strategy could result in an online arms race -- and only result in further alienating consumers.
Instead, Webster proposes, Web publishers must consider adopting a premium model, similar to that of Spotify, that affords users the option of either streaming music for free, and putting up with occasional advertisements, or paying a subscription to listen to music free of advertising.
Even better, advertisement creators like Webster could keep consumers from turning to ad-blockers by simply producing better ads. As UnivisionCommunications Chief Strategy and Data Officer Kevin Conroy argued in a recent piece for Ad Age, ads are not universally hated. TV viewers still look forward to Super Bowl commercials, after all.
"We are always keeping the consumer in mind when we're making the ad," Webster said. "Our thought process is, I know I'm an ad, you know I'm an ad, let me at least entertain you."
If the quality of advertising is improved across the Internet, consumers will be less driven to adopt ad-blocking as a means to get away from it. Commercial breaks may never be seen as preferable to an uninterrupted marathon of Mad Men - but that doesn't mean they can't be enjoyable.
This article is commentary by an independent contributor. At the time of publication, the author held no positions in the stocks mentioned.


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PNY has recently unveiled a new line of enterprise SSDs namely the EP7011. Coming in 80GB, 240GB and 480GB sizes, these slim 2.5-inch SSDs (7mm thick) are configured with MLC NAND Flash memory chips, a SATA 6.0 Gbps interface, Seagate’s SandForce SF2581 controller, SMART support, DuraWrite technology support, Enhanced ECC function and an MTBF of 2 million hours.
Optimized for read-intensive enterprise storage solutions, the EP7011 SSDs promise to deliver read/write speeds of up to 525/460 MB/s (80GB model), 525/490 MB/s (240GB model) and 535/490 MB/s (480GB model), respectively. Unfortunately, there’s no word on pricing yet. [Product Page]


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UK-based fiat and crypto payments network Bottlepay has raised £11 million in a seed funding round backed by British fund manager Alan Howard, present and former Goldman Sachs partners, FinTech Collective and Nydig.Built on the Lightning Network, the Bottlepay app aims to faciliate social, streaming, and micropayments by offering real-time funds transfer in bitcoin and conventional currencies and integration with popular social media platforms such as Twitter, Reddit and Discord.
The product gained over 20,000 users for a beta version of the app with no marketing, after being rated as the number one Crunchbase Bitcoin start-up globally.
Bottlepay says it will use the funding – which gives the startup a £51 million post-money valuation – to expand its team, improve functionality and increase the geographical reach of the service over the coming year.
Mark Webster, CEO of Bottlepay, says: “The payments ecosystem is undergoing monumental changes as we move towards a cashless society. Today’s consumer wants to be able to transact freely and easily, without the restrictions of a traditional bank. We believe that with this cash injection, we can build a leading company in this rapidly growing space which will allow people to send, spend and receive payments in a way that works best for them.”
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10:31 | 26/05/2016 Companies
The Vietnam Diary Products Joint Stock Company (Vinamilk) will remove the maximum foreign ownership limit of its shares, Chairwoman of Vinamilk’s board of directors Le Bang Tam has said.
Vinamilk's products are sold at a store - (Photo: VNA)
The decision on foreign ownership will be officially announced to the shareholders once relating legal procedures are completed, Tam said at the annual meeting of the firm’s shareholders on May 21.
Under current regulations, businesses just need a resolution of the board of directors, instead of shareholders’ approval, to extend foreign ownership to 100 percent.
CEO Mai Kieu Lien said how to maintain and protect Vinamilk’s brand names is her biggest concern when the foreign ownership of its stakes is not limited.
Vinamilk has a market capitalisation of over 7.5 billion USD, which includes 7 billion USD worth of brand name. Hence, if foreign investors want to buy its shares, it is mainly due to its brand name.
Meanwhile, the pestment of the State’s capital from Vinamilk depends on the State Capital Investment Corporation (SCIC), whose shares at the firm are equivalent to over 45 percent of Vinamilk’s charter capital, the board of directors said.
Vinamilk’s targeted revenue of 44.5 trillion VND (almost 2 billion USD) this year, rising by 11 percent, is assessed as too low when taking into account the figure in 2015 and also still far under the targeted 3 billion USD in 2017.
In 2015, the firm posted revenue of more than 40 trillion VND (1.79 billion USD) and after-tax profit of 7.77 trillion VND (348.17 million USD), representing a respective annual increases of 14 percent and 28 percent./.


text:
Clinic provides heart attack warning stickers for snow shovels
BILLINGS — Snow shovels for sale at some Billings-area hardware stores have stickers to warn buyers about the symptoms of a heart attack.
Billings Clinic provided the stickers, which urge people with symptoms such as chest pain, nausea, dizziness and unusual shortness of breath while shoveling to call 911.
Chest Pain Clinic coordinator Kierra Knox says cold weather constricts blood vessels while the work of shoveling snow puts an increased demand on the heart. The combination can lead to a heart attack.
The Billings Gazette reports clinic employees placed the stickers on shovels at hardware stores in Billings, Columbus, Red Lodge and Absarokee.
Knox also advised reducing the risk of a heart attack by using a smaller shovel, shoveling smaller portions of snow, taking frequent breaks, staying well hydrated and warming up by stretching.


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President Obama said Apple's CEO Steve Jobs' was an example of a bloke who should expect to be rich in America. Obama, speaking today during a White House press conference, said that something the greatest strength of America is a thriving, booming middle class, where everybody has got a shot at the American dream.
“We celebrate somebody like a Steve Jobs, who has created two or three different revolutionary products. We expect that person to be rich, and that's a good thing. We want that incentive. That's part of the free market," he said.
So basically what the American dream is to be someone who repackages cheap components in foreign parts using cut price labour and flog it at greatly inflated prices back home. It is part of the American dream to earn cash flogging products with a limited shelf life and make your employees lives a nightmare with low wages and regular inquisitions to see if you are talking to the media.
Apparently it is also part of the American dream to want to control others and create a cargo cult of personality where reality is out to lunch. If Americans are dreaming that, it is fairly clear why ultimately its Empire is doomed.


text:
Honda's FR-V MPV is to be phased out, the company has announced.
Production of the six-seater will be stopped this summer, with the last Honda FR-V expected to roll off the Japanese Suzuka production line in August.
Honda does not intend to replace the FR-V; the company says it will be able to cover the market with the Insight and Jazz.
In the UK, 13,531 FR-Vs have been sold since it went on sale in 2004.
The FR-V will continue to be sold in the UK while stocks last, with prices starting from £16,700.


text:
Monday, November 18, 2019
Libreria Acqua Alta
Venice's famous bookstore has become another causality of the severe flooding the city experienced last week.
With flooding a regular occurrence, the books are stored in plastic bins, old bath tubs, even a gondola! The exceptionally high tides overwhelmed the book store and the owners reported hundreds of books were destroyed.
Libreria Acqua Alta (High Water Bookstore) is considered to be one of the world's most beautiful bookshops and has visitors from all over the world. The shop is also a refuge for neighborhood cats.
Photos from 2014 flooding


text:
- Hyundai teams up with Boston-based startup to accelerate commercial application and deployment of UAVs across various sectors and markets
- Partnership to cultivate new business opportunities around UAVs including cargo transport, inspection services, and surveillance missions
- Top Flight’s patented hybrid-electric power system allows for extended flight times and heavier payloads for commercial use
SEOUL Nov. 14, 2018 – Hyundai Motor Company (“Hyundai”) today announced a strategic partnership with Top Flight Technologies, Inc. (“Top Flight”), a leading startup in hybrid-electric unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technologies, as part of its broader effort to cement leadership in future mobility solutions.
Hyundai will team up with the Boston-based startup to explore ways to accelerate the commercial application and deployment of UAVs across various sectors and markets. Joint efforts will extend to cultivating new business opportunities around UAVs, leveraging Top Flight’s patented hybrid-electric power system. Potential areas for business development include cargo transport, inspection services and surveillance missions for industrial sites.
Top Flight’s proprietary hybrid-electric power system is instrumental in developing optimized solutions for UAV-centered business models, as it allows for extended flight times and heavier payloads for commercial use. Drones powered by the Top Flight™ Micro Generator Hybrid Power System can stay airborne for up to two hours, while carrying a load of four kilograms. The American startup also offers an array of scalable UAV solutions, most notably ‘3D Real-time Simulation Environment Fleet Management System’ which provides agile product development tools and the ‘Remote Location Operation Console’ that enables simultaneous operation of multiple UAV units.
Hyundai also seeks to enhance its existing operations with the application of drone products and technologies ― particularly high-definition (HD) mapping and operations and management (OM) services.
“In addition to solving the challenges of longer-duration flight for quadcopters, Top Flight is developing the technologies needed to enable new solutions in aerial logistics and mapping which could be useful in Hyundai’s future business,” said John Suh, Vice President of Hyundai CRADLE at Hyundai Motor Company. “Hyundai Motor continues to invest in companies that develop disruptive technologies that are in-line with Hyundai’s current and future strategic thinking.”
“Hyundai Motor Company’s investment in Top Flight confirms its commitment to autonomous vehicles and mobility solutions, whether on the road or in the air,” commented Dr. Long Phan, CEO, Top Flight Technologies. “We fully believe that Hyundai’s world-class assembly and automation capabilities will help spur the production and deployment of aerospace-grade UAVs, more efficiently than ever.”
Hyundai’s partnership with Top Flight is another example of the company’s continuous efforts to advance its ‘Open Innovation’ strategy, which aims to drive innovation that will enhance the company’s foothold in the future mobility market. From technologies such as autonomous driving and artificial intelligence, to ride-sharing and things in-between, Hyundai Motor is building a network of industry leaders that will contribute to enhancing people’s lives through the development of innovative mobility services.
Founded in 2014, Top Flight Technologies specializes in hybrid-electric power systems and fully autonomous technologies for UAVs. The company boasts a long list of world-renowned partners across aerospace, transportation, agriculture, and many other industries.
The global UAV (commonly referred to as ‘drones’) market, is growing at a fast pace, expected to garner $22.1 billion by 2026.
About Hyundai Motor Company
Established in 1967, Hyundai Motor Company is committed to becoming a lifetime partner in automobiles and beyond with its range of world-class vehicles and mobility services offered available in more than 200 countries. Employing more than 110,000 employees worldwide, Hyundai sold more than 4.5 million vehicles globally. Hyundai Motor continues to enhance its product line-up with vehicles that are helping to build solutions for a more sustainable future, such as NEXO – the world’s first dedicated hydrogen-powered SUV.
More information about Hyundai Motor Company and its products can be found at: http://worldwide.hyundai.com or http://globalpr.hyundai.com
Disclaimer: Hyundai Motor Company believes the information contained herein to be accurate at the time of release. However, the company may upload new or updated information if required and assumes that it is not liable for the accuracy of any information interpreted and used by the reader.


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Under Chicago’s detailed Phase 3 reopening plan, workers would return to real estate services and other office-based jobs that have been closed during the coronavirus pandemic.
Under the new guidelines, hotels and other lodgings would widely reopen, along with nonessential retailers like hair and nail salons, tattoo parlors, city services, childcare centers, recreation areas and a host of others, the city announced, according to Crain’s.
The question remains, when will these guidelines take effect? That has not been answered.
Chicago’s newly-released Phase 3 is meant to align with Gov. J.B. Pritkzer’s five-phase plan outlined for the state earlier this month. But Chicago is behind much of the state in those measures — Pritzker’s Phase 3 would be the “Recovery” stage — that would allow for a broader range of business activity.
Chicago’s Phase 3, which it named “Cautiously Reopen,” would see around 130,000 people return to work, according to Crain’s. In a statement, the city noted that “the industry-specific guidelines were driven by health activity requirements and developed in coordination with 10 industry working groups, representing more than 200 individuals.”
For retailers and restaurants, more specific measures detailing capacity crowds and what is considered outdoor dining were also released.
Commercial buildings would open but workspaces would be required to have barriers or be configured for social distancing, masks would be mandatory and fitness centers in office buildings would be closed, Crain’s reported.
Owners of residential buildings would be encouraged to close or limit lounges to 10 or fewer people. For prospective renters or buyers, the city is still encouraging virtual tours or self-guided tours at vacant model units. Most agents in the city shifted to virtual tours in March.
Hotel rooms would also have cleanings only on request, and non-single use items would be discouraged. The city’s hotel industry has been decimated by the virus, though the situation is slowly improving. The occupancy rate at Downtown hotels climbed to 16.2 percent for the week ending May 16, according to the latest figures from hospitality data firm STR. That’s up from 13.9 percent over the previous week.
Overall, the Chicago hotel occupancy rate was up to 26.8 percent last week, the seventh straight week it had gained ground. [Crain’s] — Alexi Friedman