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In 2005 newspapers continued to face challenges on the advertising and circulation fronts—the very battlegrounds that permitted their existence. Some critics said that newspapers had been too slow to change to meet the needs of the news consumer, particularly in the developed world, where revenue advertising share and circulation declines were more pronounced than in populous Third World countries such as China and India. Robert Cauthorn, the former vice president for digital media at the San Francisco Chronicle and an ardent advocate for change in the industry, declared in the International Newspaper Marketing Association’s Ideas magazine that “readership, the engine that powers everything, has been falling for 25 years. The ugly fact is that with each new day our readers open our newspapers, and they find another reason to want us less.” From a worldwide perspective newspaper circulations and advertising revenues were up, but the elevated numbers reflected a short-term increase following the 2001–03 worldwide advertising downturn. Though advertising sales had recovered solidly, the newspaper industry continued to lose ad market share over time. In 1994 newspapers worldwide commanded 36.1% of the advertising market share, second only to TV advertising. ZenithOptimedia, which supplied the annual statistical data to the World Association of Newspapers’ “World Press Trends” report, projected that newspapers’ ad share would slide to 29.3% of the ad market share by 2007.
Advertising share declines were most prominent in developed countries in Europe and North America. Analysts said that the ad market share dropped as circulation declined because advertisers paid more to reach larger audiences. In 2000 Canada’s newspaper advertising share was 43.8%, compared with 31.5% for TV and 13.1% for radio. In 2004 newspaper ad share had dropped to 38.4%, compared with 33.3% for TV and 13.9% for radio. In 2007 Canadian newspapers were projected to garner 37.3% of the ad market. Meanwhile, in South Korea newspaper ad share fell from 49.8% in 2000 to 44.1% in 2004; the projection for 2007 was 41.3%. The share for TV increased from 30.4% in 2000 to 33.6% in 2004. In the United Kingdom newspaper ad share dropped from 40.2% in 2000 to 39.1% in 2004 to a projected 38.2% in 2007, compared with 31.4% and 30.2% for TV in 2000 and 2004, respectively.
Though newspaper circulation was booming in such countries as South Africa, Poland, and India, with 25.94%, 53.67%, and 14.04% circulation increases from 2000 to 2004, respectively, circulations were shrinking in the developed world; from 2000 to 2004 declines were experienced in the United Kingdom (8.74%), the U.S. (2.06%), and Hong Kong (78.46%).
In the U.S. the circulation statistics for 2005 told a much different story. Editor & Publisher magazine headlined the dramatic drops in major newspaper circulations across the country in its May 2 publication as “Bloody Monday.” The statistics showed marked circulation declines from first-quarter 2004 to the same period in 2005 for the Baltimore Sun (11.5% daily), the Chicago Tribune and Denver’s Rocky Mountain News (6.6%), the Los Angeles Times (6.4%), and the San Francisco Chronicle (6%).
Several reasons were cited for the steep drops, including the federal “no call” rule, which barred telemarketers from contacting those who had declared in writing that they did not want to be called. Prior to the 2005 ruling, the majority of newspaper subscription sales had been made by telemarketers. Another factor was the 2004 scandal in which a number of popular newspapers—the Chicago Sun-Times, owned by Hollinger Inc.; New York’s Newsday and Hoy, owned by the Tribune Co.; and the Dallas Morning News, owned by Belo, among others—inflated circulation figures to attract larger advertising revenue. This caused several newspapers to “right size” their 2004 statistics in 2005.
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The reduced circulation and advertising figures sent some newspaper investors reeling. Though newspaper profit margins remained higher than those for other industries (the American newspaper industry recorded a profit of 22.9% in 2004) and were expected to grow in 2005, investors were agitated by declining stock values. Following a 14% stock-price free fall from July to November 2005, the largest investor of Knight Ridder, the second largest U.S. newspaper chain, demanded in November that the company be sold. During that same period, Gannett, the country’s largest newspaper chain, experienced an 11% stock price decline, and the New York Times Co. faced a 13% drop.
Convergence—the integration of a company’s media operations, including TV, radio, print, and online to achieve editorial and business efficiencies and economies—continued in 2005. Some media companies that owned only print and Web sites were also converging by integrating their operations into one newsroom and one advertising department. The New York Times Co. announced the convergence of its print and Web operations in preparation for a move in 2007 to a new office tower. Nordjyske Medier, based in Ålborg, Den., completely merged its newsroom and cross-trained its 249 journalists to be able to report in all types of media. The company’s advertising staff was also trained to sell advertising in multimedia campaigns. The strategy, launched in 2001, was credited with shifting the company to profitability.
Another strategy to increase readership was to provide, according to the usage patterns and desires of news consumers, around-the-clock news operations that provided relevant content anytime and anywhere. Media companies were providing content for traditional and nontraditional news channels, such as mobiles/PDAs, iPods, video screens in subways and in hotel elevators, shopping mall kiosks, and electronic ticker billboards on busy city streets.
Part of the audience-focus strategy was to embrace the idea of community-generated content. OhmyNews.com (international site <english.ohmynews.com>), a South Korean-based Web site, employed 40,000 registered community journalists worldwide to write stories about which they were passionate. The community journalists were paid on the basis of where on the site the editors placed the material. Hundreds of new stories, edited by a small team of paid journalists, were published daily. The community-generated content strategy was also popular in the U.S. The Georgia-based Morris chain of newspapers launched BlufftonToday.com, a Web site whose main purpose was to encourage “a community in conversation with itself.” The content from the community-generated blogs also appeared in the newspaper of the same name. The site and newspaper, launched in April, increased circulation, and Morris decided to use the model elsewhere.
The most popular community-generated content was not deep, intellectual, journalistic-style stories, however. Jacksonville.com reported that in 2004 more than 80,000 community photos were submitted, including images of babies, dogs, cats, sunsets, and vacations. About 13% of all Web-site traffic, or 21 million page views in 2004, was for community-generated photos. Media companies followed the craze and asked readers to contribute text, photos, and video, especially for breaking news stories. The July 7 London transit bombings generated hundreds of video, audio, and text reports from eyewitnesses to online news sites. On the day of the bombings, the 100 reader-originated photos and video clips generated about one-third of the traffic on the BBC.co.uk Web site—about 15 million page views. During the Hurricane Katrina disaster, CNN.com and NOLA.com solicited content from readers and received hundreds of pictures, eyewitness accounts, and pleas to reunite loved ones scattered by the catastrophe.
The shrinkage of newspapers for the convenience of the reader from the large broadsheet size to the tabloid size, a trend that began in earnest in 2003, was in full swing in 2005. Venerable brands such as The Wall Street Journal Europe, The Wall Street Journal Asia, and The Guardian (London) all downsized in an effort to capture a larger audience and reduce costs. The WSJ estimated that it would save $17 million in production costs alone. In London both The Times and The Independent converted in 2003; The Times had a 1% increase in circulation year on year, and The Independent registered a 15% rise in circulation, its highest increase since 1997. The free commuter newspaper, most notably Stockholm-based Metro, was now considered the most circulated type of newspaper in the world. According to “World Press Trends,” from 2000 to 2004 free-daily-newspaper circulation grew dramatically in several countries, notably in Hungary (66.67%), the U.K. (81.82%), Singapore (123.11%), and Italy (900%). Metro reported that it supplied seven million free daily newspapers in 18 languages to 86 major cities in 19 countries.
Though Lord Black had stepped down in 2003 as chief executive of global media giant Hollinger Inc. following a scandal in which he was investigated for alleged fraud and other abuses, the company continued to recover from staggering losses allegedly stemming from the scandal. Hollinger filed suit to recover $425 million that it claimed Black and some former executives took in the form of unauthorized bonuses and excessive salaries. In November Black was indicted for fraud.
In 2005 Vanity Fair magazine shocked the world when, in its July issue, it became the first publication to reveal that W. Mark Felt, the 91-year-old former associate director of the FBI, was the Watergate Scandal informant known as “Deep Throat.” John D. O’Connor, the attorney who wrote the article, had been in negotiations with the magazine for two years prior to publication. Felt’s daughter, Joan, disclosed in an interview that the family had many reasons for revealing her father’s role in Watergate but said she would not deny “that to make money was one of them.”
The biggest controversy of the year involving a magazine occurred when Newsweek published an article in its May 9 issue that claimed that U.S. interrogators, in an attempt to rattle suspects at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, had flushed a Qurʾan down a toilet. Many attributed to the article’s impact a wave of anti-American protests in Afghanistan and Pakistan that left at least 15 dead. Newsweek retracted the story a week later, after the U.S. Department of Defense challenged its veracity. In a note to readers, editor Mark Whitaker said that the report had been based on information from “a knowledgeable U.S. government source.” He went on to say, however, that his source was no longer certain that he had read about the alleged incident in the still-unreleased Pentagon report cited in the article.
In a competition sponsored by the American Society of Magazine Editors to determine the 40 greatest magazine covers of the past 40 years, the Jan. 22, 1981, Rolling Stone cover of a nude John Lennon curled around a fully clothed Yoko Ono was chosen as first; the cover appeared the month after Lennon’s death. The Vanity Fair August 1991 cover that portrayed the nude and pregnant actress Demi Moore took second place, followed by the April 1968 Esquire cover that featured boxer Muhammad Ali with arrows piercing his body. Esquire, Time, and Life each had four winning covers. A panel of 52 editors, design directors, and photography editors selected the winners from 444 entries representing 136 magazines.
A July report by PQ Media revealed that product placement, which influenced every segment of media, would increase 17.5% in magazines—to $161 million—in 2005. With the increased pressure for product placement in magazine articles, the American Society of Magazine Editors in October announced revised guidelines for editors and publishers to ensure a clear demarcation between advertising and editorial content. ASME’s newly revised “Ten Commandments” included the statements “Advertisements should look different enough from editorial pages that readers can tell the difference” and “Advertisers should not pay to place their products in editorial pages nor should they demand placement in return for advertising.”
In June the Meredith Corp., best known for publishing Better Homes and Gardens and Midwest Living, became the second largest U.S. publisher with its $350 million purchase of Family Circle, Parents, Fitness, and Child magazines from Gruner + Jahr USA, a division of the German-owned Bertelsmann AG. In announcing the purchase, Meredith chairman William Kerr said, “One of our growth strategies is to broaden our magazine portfolio to reach younger women and to serve the rapidly growing Hispanic market.” The purchase was the largest in the Des Moines, Iowa-based company’s 103-year history.
Gruner + Jahr’s U.S. division, which was the sixth largest U.S. magazine publisher, fired Dan Brewster, its top American official, after having suffered a major setback with the demise in 2002 of its Rosie magazine and subsequent accusations of circulation mismanagement that arose during its court battle with the magazine’s editor, talk-show host Rosie O’Donnell. Brewster later sued the company, accusing it of having made him a scapegoat.
People was named Advertising Age’s “Magazine of the Year” in October “for handling the [Hurricane] Katrina disaster more deftly than the government…[and] reaching the highest circulation in its 31 years, holding its position atop Time Inc.’s formidable magazine portfolio and confidently navigating the foamy, sometimes filthy, currents of celebrity weeklies.” Just hours before People was set to close its annual “best- and worst-dressed” issue, the editors decided to change the cover and include an additional eight pages of Hurricane Katrina coverage.
Time Inc. strengthened its place as the largest U.S. magazine publisher by expanding its international operations with the purchase of Grupo Editorial Expansión, Mexico’s second largest magazine publisher. Its 15 titles brought Time Inc.’s total to 155 magazines. The Mexican publisher’s stable included the business magazine Expansión, the celebrity-centric Quién, the women’s lifestyle review Balance, and the men’s title Life and Style.
Though the American publishing industry’s bottom-line profits in 2005 highlighted the realities expressed in one industry executive’s quip that “flat is the new growth,” initiatives in digital search and delivery spurred speculation that five years into the new millennium, publishing might indeed be entering the 21st century.
In 2005 sales figures again bore out that the American industry was a mature one. The Book Industry Study Group’s (BISG’s) Book Industry Trends 2005 projected that total publishers’ net dollar sales in 2004 had risen only 2.75% over 2003, reaching $28,584,000,000. Though BISG was predicting a compound annual growth rate of 3.4% in publishers’ net dollar sales between 2004 and 2009, the compound annual growth rate in unit sales for the same period was projected to be only 1.4%. Regarding trade-book sales, BISG’s Trends quoted Ingram Book Co. president Jim Chandler’s observation that “the pie is about as big as it’s going to get.”
The market-research firm Ipsos-Insight estimated that in 2004 consumer spending for books (across all channels) held at $13.3 billion for the second straight year. Unit sales, it said, were up 2.5% from 2003, reaching 1.7 billion. One distribution channel that showed growth was that of independent/small-chain bookstores. That market share accounted for 9% of the dollars spent by consumers, up 2.1% from 2002. According to Ipsos, the independents’ overall performances exceeded the industry average for the past several years.
The 2005 year-to-date bookstore sales, according to the U.S. Bureau of the Census, were $10,332,000,000, a 2.2% decline from August 2004, the most recent figures available. In six of the first nine months of 2005, participating bookstores—including trade, college, religious, chain stores (including superstores), and others—reported lower sales than in 2004. These reports came during a year in which total retail sales were relatively robust; August sales were 9.9% ahead of those for that month in 2004.
The religious-book sector was a major engine in industry growth, in both revenue and units, with net sales of $1,946,300,000 in 2004. BISG projected a 37.3% increase in net revenues for the sector over the next five years. The success of the Rev. Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Life, which had sold 23 million copies since 2003, prompted many trade publishers to focus on the religious market.
J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince sold a record 6.9 million copies in the first 24 hours after its publication on July 16, and there were 13.5 million books in print before publication. Reflecting this, the Association of American Publishers reported a 71% increase in gross domestic sales in the children’s and young-adult hardcover category as of September (the most recent figures available). Overall, sales of titles for teens were up 23% since 1999.
BISG reported that used books were one of the fastest-growing segments of the industry, driven by large increases in online sales and characterized by positive purchasing experiences for consumers. In 2004 sales of used trade titles (noneducational books) were $589 million; that number reached $2.2 billion when used textbook sales of $1.6 billion were included. This was an 11.1% increase over 2003. The fastest-growing component of the used-book market was online sales, which in 2004 saw a 33.3% revenue growth totaling $609 million.
It was a Silicon Valley interloper, however, that introduced the most intriguing possibilities into the often staid world of publishing. In December 2004 Internet company Google Inc. had announced that it was launching a project to digitize and index the collections of titles still protected by copyright in the libraries of the University of Michigan, Harvard University, and Stanford University (along with titles in the public domain in the collections of the New York Public Library and the University of Oxford). Google’s plan to offer brief excerpts of the titles via free online searches—and to possibly link the searches to ad sales—garnered a strong reaction from many in the industry. On the legal front, authors and publishers sought an injunction to halt the initiative. In addition, Amazon.com and industry giant Random House announced new business models for the online viewing of titles on a pay-per-page basis.
It was no surprise that J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, whether in English or in translation, proved to be the worldwide publishing sensation of 2005. In South Africa, for example, where the weekly average sale required for a book to qualify as a best seller was 1,000, Harry Potter sold 40 times that number in a single day in July.
The vicious discounting in the U.K., led by the supermarket groups, was much resented by independent booksellers. That strategy had previously been unknown in South Africa; as a result, the decision by supermarket chain Pick ’n Pay to undercut the standard bookseller price by 40% introduced a significant element of instability into the book market. Booksellers in countries such as France, where resale price maintenance (RPM) remained in force, breathed a sigh of relief. The inconclusive debate about the desirability of RPM within the EU continued. In May 2005 Polish publishers roundly condemned a government proposal to reintroduce RPM. Some argued that the reintroduction of RPM was likely to provide further stimulus to the already sizable markets in illegal photocopies and unlicensed books.
Takeover activity slowed significantly during the year, following the megamerger activity of 2004, which left little scope for further restructuring, especially in the U.K., where the top four publishing groups—Bertelsmann, Hachette (now incorporating Hodder Headline), Pearson, and News Corp.—accounted for almost one-half of total sales by value. In June 2005, however, Editis, the second largest French publisher, bought independent publisher Le Cherche Midi for a rumoured €10 million (about $12.6 million), and Éditions Privat agreed in May to purchase Éditions du Rocher for an undisclosed sum.
Having achieved some success in stemming book piracy in India and China, the U.K. Publishers Association (PA) turned its efforts toward Pakistan and Turkey. In India 500,000 pirated copies had been seized since the campaign began, although piracy remained widespread, in part because the penalties imposed by the courts were proving to be an insufficient deterrent. In China success hinged on convincing the authorities that the problem existed. Progress was proving to be slow in Pakistan, where the trade was vast; seemingly legitimate traders were involved, and the penalties were wholly inadequate. Turkish authorities were more cooperative. The PA admitted, however, that piracy was partly fostered by the setting of unreasonably high prices in less-developed markets.
The phenomenon of newspapers’ promoting their own book series took hold, with the emphasis on low pricing and heavy promotion. In Germany eight different series had been launched by midyear; the most recent, a library of management books, sold 21 million copies. Four of the five national daily newspapers in the Netherlands also launched their own series, and the phenomenon became well-established in France, Italy, and Spain. U.K. newspapers, however, preferred to give away DVDs and music CDs.
When search engine Google began digitizing works from major libraries, the action was met with protests over its right to digitize copyrighted material. In an effort to compete with Google, the French National Library responded with a proposal, supported by other EU member states, to create a European digital library that would offer 15 million books online. (See also Computers and Information Systems; Libraries and Museums: Libraries.)


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Kombucha mushroom tea, a popular alternative medicine remedy claimed to cure everything from hair loss and wrinkles to high blood pressure and cancer, is coming under increased scrutiny for dangerous side effects in some patients.
Writing in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, doctors at Texas Tech Health Sciences Center report the cases of four patients who developed symptoms ranging from nausea to jaundice after drinking homemade Kombucha tea.The drink, also called Manchurian or Kargasok tea, is made by steeping Kombucha mushrooms - actually a cultured cluster of yeast and bacteria covered by a permeable membrane - in some blend of tea and sugar to create a tonic.
Proponents of the tea point to its use in Russia's Kargasok region, populated by an unusual number of centenarians, and its ancient use across much of Asia.
It has been widely promoted in natural health circles and on a number of alternative medicine sites on the Internet. Among the therapeutic powers claimed, besides anti-aging properties, are lowering cholesterol, cleansing the gall bladder and bolstering the immune system.
But Dr. Radhika Srinivasan and colleagues identify four patients in whom the effect of the tea was less than healthy.
They include a 55-year-old woman with a history of heavy drinking who developed jaundice two months after she started drinking two glasses of Kombucha tea a day. She stopped taking the tea, and the symptoms disappeared after six weeks.
Another woman complained of dizziness, nausea, vomiting and headaches.
Although the tea has been studied and promoted as an alternative therapy for much of this century and consumed by millions of people, the researchers noted that neither the tea's claimed benefits nor any adverse side effects have been widely reported in scientific literature.
Proponents of the tea have, however, had the mixture analyzed in labs and found no dangerous levels of bacteria or other toxins harmful to humans.
Likewise, a 1995 advisory from the Food and Drug Administration reported its studies "have found no evidence of contamination in Kombucha products fermented under sterile conditions."
But as with many herbal remedies, there are few, if any standards for the products, and consumers have considerable leeway in how they prepare them in their homes, how long the tea is steeped, what it's mixed with and so forth.
The FDA warned that it "still has concerns that home-brewed versions of this tea manufactured under non-sterile conditions may be prone to microbiological contamination." The consumer advisory also noted that FDA has not approved Kombucha for treatment of any medical condition.

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Firehouse Subs and Chipotle Mexican Grill are preparing to open in Goldsboro as the new shopping center takes shape near the corner of Berkeley Boulevard and Cashwell Drive.
Firehouse Subs, known for its public safety decor and sub sandwiches, will open for business Saturday, said John Best, franchise owner.
"We're excited to be in Goldsboro, and we're excited about the feedback we're getting from the community," Best said. "I'm super excited about opening in Goldsboro because I'm from Goldsboro."
Firehouse Subs has been accepting applications onsite recently and will continue until the business is fully staffed.
"We have hired 10 people who have already started training in our Greenville store," said Best, franchise owner of Firehouse Subs locations in Greenville and New Bern.
Final city inspections should be finished soon, with Chipotle Mexican Grill planning to open in two weeks.
"The Goldsboro Chipotle is slated to open April 21," said Robin Zimmerman, spokesperson for Chipotle Mexican Grill.
The restaurants, which will operate side-by-side in the new shopping center, at 501 N. Berkeley Blvd., will operate on similar seven-day schedules. Firehouse Subs will be open from 10:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Chipotle will be open from 10:45 a.m. to 10 p.m.
The 18,387-square-foot shopping center also includes several other businesses, most which are new in the city.
Mattress Firm, centered in the building's largest 5,000-square-foot tenant space, was the first to open in late December. The Vitamin Shoppe opened in mid-March, and SportClips followed with its opening more than a week ago.
Work is still underway inside Kay Jewelers, with company plans to move the existing Berkeley Mall store to the new shopping center, a corporate official confirmed in December. The store will have its final city inspection, prior to opening, within 30 days, said Allen Anderson Jr., Goldsboro chief building inspector.
The shopping center is nearly full, with two remaining tenant spaces available for lease. City staff have received inquiries from a tropical smoothie business and chicken-wing restaurant, but no site or upfit plans have been submitted.
Jay Hagerman, leasing agent with The Providence Group, said the possibility of a chicken-wing restaurant fell through due to incompatible equipment space needs.
The property on North Berkeley Boulevard is being developed by the Syracuse, N.Y.-based Hart-Lyman Cos., as Point Five Goldsboro, a North Carolina limited liability company.
Construction of the shopping center, which started in 2016, came after an Exxon gas station and car lot were removed.
The project also involved the removal of nearly half of the former Tractor Supply building, on Cashwell Drive, to free up space for additional parking.
The former 12,000-square-foot Tractor Supply property is being marketed for lease by owner Charles Norwood, with the Crawford-Norwood Realty Co.


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Chipmaker RF Micro Devices (UNKNOWN:RFMD.DL) had started the year on its back foot after releasing unimpressive third-quarter results. However, the company received a boost when it was announced that it will be merging with another chipmaking company, TriQuint Semiconductor (UNKNOWN:TQNT.DL).
A smart deal
Under the terms of the deal, RF will buy TriQuint for $1.6 billion, ultimately creating a new company. The companies are a great fit for one another. RF Micro has got solid presence at Samsung, and TriQuint derives almost half of its revenue from Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL). The combination of the two companies is also expected to result in cost benefits in the millions. This is a win-win deal, as the combined RF Micro and TriQuint will be in a solid position to benefit from growth in smartphone shipments.
Moving forward, RF Micro is anticipating growth in revenue as a result of design wins in marquee smartphones and tablets. The company's shares saw strong gains after Apple released its second-quarter results. RF Micro had benefited after design wins in Apple's iPhone 5s and 5c. According to Canaccord, RF Micro had gained dollar content in Apple's iPhones last year. If this trend continues this year, then the new company could see some big upside.
Throughout the year, there has been a strong buzz that Apple will launch two iPhones with bigger screens. According to Brian Marshall of ISI Group, the introduction of a big-screen iPhone 6 should lead to "massive upgrades" and bring in a sizable number of Android users into Apple's ecosystem. So, Apple's product development can turn out to be a big boost for RF Micro.
In addition, since TriQuint is also a key Apple supplier, RF Micro should see more gains once their merger is complete.
RF Micro is focusing on a flexible sourcing strategy to reducing gas and silicon costs. In addition, RF is also adding assembly capabilities to reduce packaging costs by reducing its use of precious metals in manufacturing. The company is also leveraging its new higher-unit volumes across its supply chain to reduce costs.
Apart from mobile devices, RF Micro is looking at multiple growth drivers. It expects the Internet of Things, automotive Wi-Fi, and wearable gadgets to drive its business in the future. RF is also encouraged by the adoption of new technologies by consumers. For example, the shifting preference of users from 2G to 3G smartphones in certain developing countries is good news for the company, since the 3G components carry higher margins.
On the other hand, with the growth of new technologies such as envelope tracking, carrier aggregation, and transmit MIMO, RF Micro's dollar-content opportunities are improving. Besides these, the introduction of LTE, along with LTE Advanced, is another factor that could lead to an increase in demand for RF Micro's connectivity solutions.
In the low-cost product segment, RF Micro's ultra-low-cost CMOS power amplifiers are being adopted at a good pace in next-generation handset platforms in emerging markets. Moreover, the company is anticipating margin growth as a result of customers' migration to ultra-low cost products going forward.
RF Micro Devices is looking like a profitable bet from all angles. The company's impending merger with TriQuint Semiconductor will greatly enhance its performance, as the combined company will benefit from two big smartphone companies. The flagship products of both Apple and Samsung should drive growth, and at the same time, the expected cost synergies will result in a better bottom-line performance in the future.
Investors will be making a smart choice if they decide to invest in RF Micro before its merger with TriQuint.


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Chennai, Jan 8 () : Soon after Vodafone was sent notices by Income Tax department, IT sleuths in the early hours turned up at Chennai Nokia manufacturing plant in Sriperumbudur and the Nokia offices in Chennai city asking details of the taxes they have paid.
Sources in IT discovered that the Finnish company citing certain rules have not paid any taxes to Indian Tax department and a modest estimate is that Rs 3000 crore evasion has taken place in Chennai Nokia plant. 20 officials reached the Nokia plant in Sriperumbudur and the Nokia offices in Chennai..
Though production has not stopped, the preliminary findings will be known only late evening. Raids come days before Indian launch of handsets compliant with Windows 8 as Nokia was to reveal its Lumia 920 and its younger version Lumia 820 by third week of January.
Indian Lumia 920 variant support nine 4G bands compared to its rival iPhone 5, which supports only five LTE bands, the iPhone being quadband while Lumia 920 is that of pentaband.
Back home in Helsinki, Nokia House is to be sold for 170 million euro ($220 million) to cut costs. It will operate from the Espoo headquarters. Samsung Electronics and Apple Inc.’s iPhone has edged out Nokia that axed 10,000 jobs and is cutting down operations to save 1.6 billion euro by the end of 2013.
Nokia Corp filed suit against Blackberry (Research In Motion, the maker), for selling handsets in Britain, the United States and Canada of phones with patents the two companies agreed nine years ago. Nokia agreed with RIM in 2003 on a patent license for mobile devices.. RIM disputed the claim on the patent license. Nokia filed arbitration proceedings with the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce in March 2011 which ruled against RIM’s claims. RIM might have to pay $2 to $4 per Blackberry it sells in these countries.


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Spin Master gets it right with action-hungry boys aged 6-11 as Bakugan Battle Brawlers becomes the new must-have toy for spring
March 10, 2008 - TORONTO and LOS ANGELES - Boys are a tough crowd to please with the right balance of action, strategy, entertainment and cool factor; so creating new entertainment products for boys, especially ones that aren’t video game-based, is tough. But as Pokémon moves into its second decade, and leading action franchises such as Transformers, Spider Man and Star Wars all become old news; it is time for some new and original boys’ action for kids aged 6-11.
Enter Bakugan Battle Brawlers, the new collectible action and strategy game and Cartoon Network animated television series, which since it’s US launch in January is driving retailers crazy with excitement as sales increase at a lightning-fast pace of up to 400% a week.
“This is the biggest thing we’ve done in the 14 years since we started the company,” says Anton Rabie, President and Co-CEO of Spin Master. “The most amazing thing is how fast the Bakugan trend has erupted in the U.S. It’s on complete fire at every single level and the show has only been on TV for three weeks.”
From the Japanese words “baku” meaning “to explode” and “gan” meaning “sphere,” Bakugan are small spheres that pop open into powerful Bakugan monster action figures when skillfully rolled onto the game’s cards. Each player must strategically choose their Bakugan and cards to play which affect the battle differently, and when two opposing Bakugan land on the same card, they do battle. Once the points are added up, the winner is determined. There are currently over 100 Bakugan monsters available with more to be rolled out this year, each with different attributes and values to take into battle.
Spin Master will produce over 25 million Bakugan monsters in 2008 to meet the growing demand that has seen product sales lift as high as 400% a week since the television series debut on Cartoon Network on February 24th.
Originally released in Japan in April 2007, Bakugan also caught on like wildfire when released in Canada in August, where it has become the most in-demand toy in the country prompting per-customer limits at stores nationwide, bidding wars, bribery of retail employees and even trips to US stores with new stock so kids can get their Bakugan fix. Even in the post-holiday period where toy sales can quiet significantly, Canadian Bakugan sales have outpaced other Spin Master best-sellers by a record of 10 to 1.
“Bakugan is fast-paced gaming action that boys love,” says Matt Wexler, Executive Producer of the television series. “Boys want to throw things, collect things, trade things, battle, and of course win. The timing of Bakugan has worked really well for us because it’s the only thing out right now that’s offering that combination of what boys want.”
To support the spread of Bakugan fever, Spin Master is rolling out a cross-country Bakugan Battle Training tour this spring, hitting 1,200 stores in April with game training by battle masters, demo battles, and giveaways. The Battle Training Tour kicks off with a ribbon cutting ceremony of a special Toys R’ Us Times Square Bakugan Battle Zone in New York City on April 4, 2008.
Available at all major retailers, Bakugan Battle Brawlers come in a variety pack sizes, with accessories including a Wrist Launcher, Battle Arena, and 2” Action Figures, all ranging from $4.99-$29.99.
Spin Master’s partners on Bakugan Battle Brawlers are SegaToys, SEGA Corporation, Nelvana Enterprises, TMS Entertainment and Japan Vistec.
About Spin Master Ltd.
Spin Master™ is the 6th largest and fastest growing toy company in North America. A multi-category children’s entertainment company since 1994, Spin Master™ has been designing, developing, manufacturing and marketing consumer products for children around the world. With the launch of Bakugan Battle Brawlers, Spin Master™ has also marked its first foray into entertainment IP and television production. Spin Master™ is best known for such popular brands as Air Hogs®™, Aquadoodle™, Tech Deck, and Moon Sand. Spin Master™ employs over 500 people with offices in Toronto, Los Angeles, Paris, London, Hong Kong and China, and is proud to be recognized as one of Canada’s 50 Best Managed companies. For additional information please visit: www.spinmaster.com
|Posted 10 March, 2008 - 14:00 by JoshB|


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Shopify is launching a new "Snapchat
Ads App" within their interface -- as Snapchat
becoming only the third major player to offer a one-stop-shop to advertise from within Shopify.
"Friendship is more than just the things you chat about," said Will Wu, the director of product at Snapchat
as he unveiled Snap Games at a Partner Summit in Los Angeles to highlight the new features for creators and app developers.
In a video about the update, Snapchat
tested the new lenses on dogs from the Wags & Walks adoption centre.
The three filters were launched yesterday, according to a post on Snapchat
's Twitter feed.
popularized Stories, a feature where users could upload photos and videos showcasing their daily activities that disappeared after 24 hours.
The good news was that a report last week confirmed Snapchat
as the social media of choice for younger people.
is a fun tool for personal use, it also has practical applications for classrooms and student engagement.
The post Saudis most active Snapchat
users in the world: report appeared first on tahawultech.com.
Nielsen on Wednesday (7/18) revealed that its premium audience segments will now be available on Snapchat
's ad buying platform.
New Delhi [India], May 30 ( ANI ): Tyroo, a Smile Group company, has forged a strategic partnership with Snapchat
as their monetization partner in India.
Millennials spend their time on Twitter and Facebook, Gen Z'ers prefer Snapchat
With IpLearn's technologies, Snapchat
could become a crucial tool in providing the best match between employers and employees, in a convenient setting where many young workers already spend their time.


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Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray believes Verizon will sell at least 9 million of the devices in 2011, which would account for more than one-third of its smartphone activations overall.
Munster expects youll see upgrades to a bunch of Apple products this year, including:
Looking even farther into the future, the analyst believes Apple could become more of a player in the television arena by the end of 2012.
“While Apple’s commitment to the living room remains a ‘hobby,’ we continue to believe the company will enter the TV market with a full focus,” Munster writes, as an all-in-one Apple television could move the needle when connected TVs proliferate,” Munster noted.
Last, but not least, the analyst believes Apple will redesign its MacBook Pros and iMacs in 2011.
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March 15 2019 @ 19:34:51 UTC


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An independent bar and restaurant which opened in the pandemic has hit back at "negative" and "hurtful" comments online with a brilliant response.
Situated in the heart of Mumbles, The Dark Horse bar and kitchen opened on October 17, 2020. The business was only open for six days before the fire-break lockdown began.
But Owners Liam Lazarus and Bethan Roberts decided to operate a takeaway service, something which they are currently doing since Wales moved into alert level 4 lockdown on December 19.
The business said that they have received comments on social media from people claiming that it is "disgusting" that they are open and that they should be "shut down" as they are selling takeaway alcohol and "promoting crowds to gather outside" - something which the owners say is not true.
The bar and restaurant say that they operate a "one in one out" system, with hand sanitiser inside and customers are told not to consume food or drinks by the restaurant.
They also encourage people to pre-order food beforehand and there's also a marshal on duty who is manning the queue throughout the day.
The video, opens with owner Bethan holding up pieces of paper, similar to the cue card scene in Love Actually, but she stresses that this isn't Love Actually or a remake of a Swansea love story.
This is their story.
"We have worked tirelessly throughout, providing takeaways during the firebreak. And are continuing to do the same through lockdown 3.0.
"Why? Being such a new business means we miss out on any grant funding.
"It also means our staff are not eligible for furlough.
"But the point also is that we enjoy what we do! We have seen speculation on Facebook, but we want to ensure to everyone that what we are doing is safe and legal.
"We would never encourage crowds to gather for drinks. But we see no harm in a pint or baileys hot chocolate on your daily walk.
"We have in place strict measures to ensure the safety of our customers and staff," the written cards in the video explains.
Owner Liam Lazarus, 26, said that he believes that it's safer process buying food and drink in his business than in a supermarket.
"People are writing saying it's drawing crowds to the area.
"It's a horrible scenario where we either shut and tell all our staff that they can't get paid, that is an unnecessary conversation to have when we can follow all the rules.
"We understand that people being drunk does cause less following the rules so we limit to one alcoholic drink per person per day," he said.
The 26-year-old said that overall the response to the video online has been great.
"But people have said 'why don't you stop serving alcoholic drinks altogether, my answer is if we are going to stop our alcoholic drinks, why don't we stop our hot chocolate, the service is exactly the same.
"We feel our service is 100% safe throughout," he added.


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Sainsbury’s is to scale back its store-opening programme and cut its dividend as it aims to combat falling sales.
The measures are designed to shore up Sainsbury’s balance sheet and allow it to invest in prices as well as online, convenience stores and clothing, it is thought. The move is expected to form part of the strategic review that Sainsbury’s boss Mike Coupe is set to unveil this week.
The grocer is expected to cut its dividend from the current 6.6% to about 4.6%, according to reports.
Sainsbury’s had been performing robustly until recently, despite the tough conditions. However, like-for-likes have begun to slip as it too succumbs to the relentless march of the discounters and the rise of the promiscuous shopper that has hit Tesco and Morrisons hard.
Sainsbury’s is expected to scale back plans to open larger stores as shoppers continually favour topping up at convenience shops.


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For Brazilian visitors in San Francisco, it’s shop until you drop it off
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The number of Brazilian travelers visiting San Francisco has skyrocketed 100 percent over the past year, a result of the country’s robust economy but also a United States initiative to make it easier for Brazilians to get tourist visas.
And the influx of tourists from São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro has been excellent news for San Francisco merchants, according to Joe D’Alessandro, president and CEO of the San Francisco Travel Association.
It seems that Brazilians, especially the wealthy ones who can afford to jet off to San Francisco, are fond of shopping. Some of them are really, really fond.
D’Alessandro said he was recently chatting with a major hotel manager who described a large group of Brazilians who had visited recently. Shortly after arrival, the leader of the group asked to book a special meeting room for the duration of their visit.
“The manager said, ‘Terrific, how would you like the room set up?’” D’Alessandro recalled. The Brazilian said that it would not be necessary to set up the room. Just leave it empty.
Empty? It turned out that the group needed the room for another purpose: storage.
“They booked the room for all the purchases they would buy while they were here,” D’Alessandro said.
Not surprisingly, the city would like to see more travelers with that kind of shopping attitude. San Francisco Travel Association has redoubled efforts with SFO to see if they can get direct flights from here to São Paulo.
Jim Gardner oversees print and online news coverage of the vibrant Bay Area economy.
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3M N95 particulate filtering face mask are seen at a store in East Palo Alto, California, United States on January 26, 2020.
Yichuan Cao | NurPhoto | Getty Images
Industrial conglomerate 3M reported a 12% drop in quarterly revenue on Tuesday as demand for its products took a hit due to the global economic slowdown caused by the coronavirus crisis.
Net sales fell to $7.2 billion from $8.2 billion.
But net income attributable rose to $1.29 billion, or $2.22 per share, in the second quarter ended June 30, from $1.13 billion, or $1.92 per share, a year earlier.
On an adjusted basis, the maker of Post-it notes and Scotch tape earned $1.78 per share in the quarter.


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If any startup has recently made hordes of developers think deeply about the way they do their work and consider adopting new technology, it’s Docker.
Last year Docker released to the world its Linux container technology for easily packaging up application code and moving it from one server to another, streamlining development and deployment. Now thousands of projects build on top of Docker, and the technology has become the talk of Bay Area developers. So it comes as no surprise that Docker has just brought in $40 million in fresh funding, just eight months after announcing a $15 million round.
The new cash, announced today, will help Docker build on the open-source project at the heart of the company and will foster the development of management and monitoring products the startup and its partners can sell to companies big and small.
“Clearly, Docker has become a thing,” Docker chief executive Ben Golub told VentureBeat in an interview. “We’re super excited, and obviously there’s lots of competition now, too. We really need to execute well and fast.”
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Those words carry serious weight. While month-old startups boast about how they use Docker containers in one way or another, Docker believes that with its container technology, it’s on the road to creating a standard for software development, as a lightweight, economical supplement to or even a replacement for virtual machines for handling multiple applications on each physical server.
VMware led the charge of the virtual machine at the turn of the century, and Microsoft followed with competing technology. Now it seems the time has come for a new company to grow big with application-development tools that can speed up development time and improve data center server efficiency.
“I think that we have the opportunity to build a truly world-class company that, you know, changes the way we build, ship, and run applications and that goes for a big IPO and beyond, and that’s how we’re organizing the company,” Golub said. “We clearly wouldn’t have taken a big round at a big valuation if we were planning on selling in the near future.”
The startup’s valuation, which a report last month estimated at $400 million, is now four times what it was at the time of the January round, Golub said.
You’d be right to be impressed with such rapid progress. And it’s worth noting that Docker would never have made such progress if investors hadn’t set aside their initial concerns last year when founder Solomon Hykes came forward with his desire to share the Docker-container programming for free under an open-source license.
Hykes had started dotCloud in 2011 as a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) cloud for building and running applications. But that business model has proven challenging for several companies. Thus the pivot and the associated name change, which in hindsight look like smart moves.
The Docker project quickly gained momentum. People have downloaded the open-source software 21 million times, up from 3 million in June. On GitHub, the code-repository website, Docker has picked up more “stars,” showing interest, than all but 27 other projects.
And other companies have noticed.
VMware, the company pushing the virtual machine, announced last month that it’s working with Docker. Microsoft, Google, Red Hat, IBM, and Amazon Web Services have also shown their support for Docker or Docker containers.
Docker has begun acquiring companies in its ecosystem, including Orchard.
And Docker has felt so confident about its direction that it sold the dotCloud PaaS.
Contemporary companies like Baidu, Gilt, Groupon, New Relic, Spotify, and Yandex have been working with Docker containers, but the trend is taking hold more widely.
“We’re starting to see very significant — I would call it pilot usage in the more traditional enterprises,” Golub said. “Virtually every large bank has a Docker-related pilot of some kind, and lots of government agencies are using Docker. We’ve had health care companies using Docker.”
The startup wants to increase adoption further. It will come out with better ways to create applications that span multiple Docker containers. And Docker will build on its security features, too, in order to meet regulatory requirements, Golub said.
“I think that there are many people who want Docker to have all of the sort of security, networking, storage, and management capabilities that surround VMs [virtual machines] today,” he said.
Sequoia Capital led the new round in the San Francisco-based company. Benchmark Capital, Greylock Partners, Insight Venture Partners, Trinity Ventures, and Jerry Yang also participated. The startup employs 55, and that number should hit 80 by the end of the year.
To date, Docker has raised $66 million, Golub said.
“I think you always want to raise money before you need it,” he said, “and if the company is doing well, and if the funding market looks good, and if you have the kind of partners wanting to look at us like we did, it’s just silly not to do it. The challenge is to avoid acting like a company that has a lot in the bank.”
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When Demin Meet T-SHIRT
Snaptee is proud to be supporting the celebration of Lee Jeans 125th anniversary. Their mobile app, Lee Denimfier, is now available for free on Appstore and Google Play. With the integration of the Snaptee SDK, users can now turn their favourite denim pictures into a one-of-a-kind design T-shirt. To win exclusive prizes, users are encouraged to share their photos to Instagram with #lee125.


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Matheson turning to technology for its legal services market
New division will operate across client solutions, legal process optimisation and digital innovation
‘Technology continues to disrupt business models and digital has changed everything – the legal sector is not immune,’ said Tom Connor, head of the new digital services group. Photograph: iStock
Irish law firm Matheson is turning to technology to cement its foothold in the legal services market, creating a new digital services group with experts in artificial intelligence, document automation, legal solutions consultants, business analysts and lawyers.
The company said it was establishing the new division in response to its clients’ needs, with significant advances in legal tech driving the decision. Matheson said it would be able to serve clients needs in large-volume legal work, enhanced legal-process efficiency, and bespoke digital products for the delivery of legal solutions.
“Technology continues to disrupt business models and digital has changed everything – the legal sector is not immune,” said Tom Connor, head of the new digital services group. “The use of current and emerging technologies such as cloud computing, artificial intelligence and intelligent automation are transforming the legal sector – and the ways in which we can now deliver legal services.”
The new division will operate across three areas – client solutions, legal process optimisation and digital innovation – working with clients in a range of business and industry sectors.
Among the potential projects for the new division are managing complex, cross-border due diligence processes using machine learning contract analysis software, developing regulatory compliance software, and to managing large eDiscovery projects.
Core legal business
“The continued integration of digital into our core legal business is an important strategic development for the firm – as it allows us to respond to market demand for technology-enabled solutions. In an increasingly competitive legal market, establishing the new group also provides us with the right talent, diverse expertise and the platform in order to be at the fore of the new digital legal economy moving forward,” Mr Connor said.
The Irish law firm was named Ireland’s Most Innovative Law Firm this year by the Financial Times, and made it on to the top 25 Most Innovative Law Firms in Europe.
Managing partner Michael Jackson said the establishment of the group reflected client needs and the company’s commitment to a client-focused collaborative approach that combines innovative people, processes and technologies to carry out legal work more effectively and efficiently
“As an internationally focused law firm with six global offices, we recognise that our clients’ needs and expectations are continuously changing,” he said. “We are confident that, by combining our digital services offering with our traditional services and our deep understanding of our clients’ businesses, we will continue to be the law firm of choice for internationally focused companies and financial institutions doing business in and from Ireland. ”


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BOGOTA, Feb 4 (Reuters) - Cemex Latam Holdings, a subsidiary of Mexican cement maker Cemex, reported a $22 million fourth-quarter net loss on Thursday, due to currency fluctuations and lower sales.
The company posted a net profit of $64 million during the same period in 2014.
Fourth-quarter sales fell to $1.4 billion, 17 percent lower than in the same quarter of 2014.
“The fall is explained as a result of fluctuations in the exchange rate and the effect of lower volumes of cement in our operations in Colombia and Panama,” the company said in a statement.
For all of 2015, net profits were down 65 percent to $95 million. Net debt fell to $1.03 billion, 9 percent lower than the year-earlier period.
Cemex Latam Holdings operates in Colombia, Brazil, Panama, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Nicaragua and El Salvador. (Reporting by Nelson Bocanegra; Writing by Julia Symmes Cobb; Editing by W Simon)


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Facebook Vice President David Marcus is the face of the company's Libra digital currency, but the original driving force was a 26-year-old female corporate-development...Technologyread more
Amazon's new policy for account suspensions doesn't go far enough to protect sellers from potentially unfair and wrongful suspensions, merchants say.Technologyread more
There is no end in sight to the Boeing 737 Max grounding after two fatal crashes, prompting airlines to rethink their growth plans.Airlinesread more
After a year of flooding, Midwest farmers face a stifling heat wave that's spreading across the U.S.Agricultureread more
A quarter of the S&P 500 companies report earnings next week, and that could buffet the market as investors await the July Fed meeting.Market Insiderread more
Moving lots of data to a public cloud over the internet can take months or years. CNBC got an inside look at how AWS transfers data to the cloud for its clients.Technologyread more
Iran's Revolutionary Guard claims a British tanker it still holds, Stena Impero, failed to follow international maritime rules.World Newsread more
"It troubles me that the most important political office in the world is becoming the face of racism and exclusion," Kaeser said in a Twitter post.Politicsread more
Silver's rally could be losing its shine after the precious metal reached its year-to-date high, futures experts warn.Futures Nowread more
Some 40% of Americans would struggle to come up with even $400 to pay for an emergency expense. Just how are so many Americans so short on cash? Blame debt.Personal Financeread more
Amazon hires Trump-allied lobbyist Jeff Miller as battle for Pentagon contract heats up.Politicsread more
Samsung again has a larger market share than Apple in the United States, according to data released by Kantar Worldpanel on Wednesday.
The company said Samsung's Galaxy S8 helped it overtake in May, even though it lost some market share year over year.
"Samsung regained the top sales spot in the USA in the three-month period ending in May 2017, with market share rising to 36.2% from 32.9%" in the prior quarter, Kantar Worldpanel global business unit director Dominic Sunnebo said. Apple's market share came in at 34 percent, which Sunnebo said is up 4.7 percentage points from last year.
Sunnebo said the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus are the two most popular smartphones in the U.S., followed by the Galaxy S7 and . Combined, Apple and Samsung dominate the top 10 most popular smartphones in the United States, leaving little room for other players such as Lenovo's Motorola Mobility or LG to establish a footing.
Kantar Worldpanel's data differ substantially from at least one other industry watcher. ComScore said earlier this month that as of June, Apple's market share in the U.S. remains at 44.9 percent, followed by Samsung at 29.1 percent.


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03.06.2015 | www.kla.tv/6020
Good evening ladies and gentlemen, Our topic today is the planned Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership“, TTIP. TTIP is a Free Trade Agreement - currently being negotiated - in the form of an international treaty between the European Union and the USA. According to Karel de Gucht, former EU Trade Commissioner who chaired the negotiations around TTIP until October 2014, this treaty provides growth, more income, and hundreds of thousands of new workplaces. TTIP is praised by politicians and leading business representatives such as Ulrich Grillo, president of the Federation of German Industry, BDI, as a great new trade boom, as a free economy boosting program and as a miraculous job provider. Angela Merkel, German Chancellor, admonishes that TTIP should be rushed through and wants to fight it through against all resistance. She fears Germany and Europe will fall behind in the global competition if the TTIP-negotiations should fail. They all rely upon studies which undergird these positive effects of TTIP. However, experts doubt such prognoses. Thus JagdishBhagwati, professor at Columbia University – one of the world’s most renowned trade economists – speaks of highly problematic and doubtful assumptions that were taken in these studies. For example it was assumed that Germany’s trade with the USA would increase by a fantastic 80% and there wouldn’t be any fluctuation in the exchange rate. The study which was initiated by the German government itself on the effects of the Free Trade Agreement TTIP at the IFO Institute, one of the leading European Economic Research Institutes, in no way undergirds the results of the euphoric studies on TTIP. The most optimistic scenarios would only amount to a small job-increase of 0.4% according to Professor Gabriel Felbermayr, the main author of all German studies. He says, I quote: “It is politics and the Economic Ministry which sells the small numbers as a job-miracle” and he accuses the Federal Ministry and the EU-Commission of an unbalanced information policy. This promises 120 billion Euros of economic growth for the EU. In truth however this gigantic number according to Felbermayr means a modest growth of only 0.5% in 10 years. This equates a growth of only 0.05% through TTIP! The first real independent study on the effects of the Free Trade Agreement TTIP comes from the “Global Development and Environment Institute” at the American Tuft’s University. It comes to a devastating result for Europe: - 583,000 jobs are expected to be lost in the EU between now and 2025. The reduction of jobs would affect mostly Germany, France and the North-European States. – Through TTIP the exports would decrease with the result that the gross domestic product, the taxation revenue and also the net annual household income would drop! The EU-employees wages would come under severe pressure especially with non-qualified jobs. On the other hand the result for the USA looks much more promising: They would benefit from TTIP in all areas. There is another group which benefits from TTIP: It is the multinational corporations and the stock exchanges. These are additionally pumped up from which the speculators, and most of all the super-rich would benefit. Ladies and gentlemen, do you notice that these serious effects of TTIP aren’t at all a topic in open discussion and in mainstream mediareporting ? Instead open debate diverts from the devastating disadvantages for Europe by promising, for example - that so-called chlorine chickens which are immersed in a chlorine bath in the USA are not allowed to be imported to Europe – as well as genetically manipulated corn – that consumer protection standards will not be encroached upon – Further it is promised that existing national or European laws will not be allowed to be attacked by so-called arbitration tribunals. - According to the legal basis of TTIP it is planned that these trans-national independent arbitration tribunals would rank above the national courts. – Also it is promised that the investor-protection could be taken out of the TTIP. Investor-protection means that foreign investors who feel discriminated by a country’s laws and regulations can sue. These promises are now sold to the citizens as a big success by the negotiation-leaders. Whether or not these will be included in the final treaty has yet to be determined. On the contrary - it is concealed that in the end the EU employees will become cheap labour forces in many areas who will even consider themselves lucky to have a job. Ladies and gentlemen, this deception is only possible through one-sided, missing and false information to the citizens by politicians and media who do not serve the welfare of the people! Help that such developments are brought to light as early as possible, send in your complaint to Kla-TV and distribute this news! Have a good evening.


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Reliance has been in the news lately for their upcoming 4G service in India. They have been slowly rolling out the 4G service via LYF smartphones that’s costing more than expected. But what really shocked us today is, Reliance is all set to provide 4G at Rs 93 for 10 GB data on the Reliance Jio network for its CDMA users.
While other providers like Airtel, Vodafone, Idea etc. are looting money by over 4G services by offering 1GB of data at around Rs. 250, Reliance is all set to disrupt the market again with Reliance Jio. It’s not the first time they are doing it, remember those Rs. 500 Reliance CDMA phone?
Rs. 93 for 10 GB data on a 4G network. What’s up Reliance Jio?
As per the sources,
RCom has written to the Department of Telecom, informing (the department) that it will be using Reliance Jio Infocomm 4G network to provide 4G data service to its CDMA customers from next week. Only those CDMA customers who opted for the upgrade will get the service.
There are around 8 million CDMA customers on Reliance network and over 90% of them are already opted for the 4G service upgrade.
The Reliance Jio is expected to roll out in 12 circles — Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, UP East and West, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar in the next few weeks. It is expected to expand the similar services to Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Rajasthan by mid-July upon DoT’s approval.
Reliance communications have acquired the rights to provide 4G services on the 850 MHz band spectrum in 20 circles by paying over Rs 6,600 crore. The same agreement will be shared with Reliance Jio in most telecom circles. Being a sole ruler in this segment, one can expect a better speed and connectivity on both RCom and RJio 4G network.
The company is also slowly rolling out its 4G service to GSM customers, but only upon the purchase of LYF smartphones currently. It is expected to throw open to other smartphone users pan India by mid-August via Reliance Jio.
India is finally all set to see the revolutionary shift in internet segment. All thanks to Reliance Jio for its offering over low bandwidth and hence allowing Voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) on its network. Hope they stick with the plans at least this time as the company has already postponed the launch a couple of times.


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One of the country’s main waste collection firms has put the onus on householders to opt out of paying by weight — setting a July 31 deadline to do so.
In a letter to customers dated June 27, Greyhound says householders have the option of remaining on their current price plan for 12 months from August 1, or paying by weight from the same date. Only customers who wish to remain on their current plan are obliged to contact the company.
The letter states: “If you wish to stay on the pay-by-weight plan communicated previously, you don’t need to do anything — our system will automatically transfer you to this plan on August 1.” Those who wish to stay with their existing plan must contact Greyhound.
The company, which collects refuse from 120,000 households in Dublin City and South Dublin, has a service charge of €59.95, set to increase to €169 a year under the pay-by-weight scheme, with fees of 35c per kg of black bin waste and 23c per kg of brown bin waste.
Greyhound said it agreed to a 12-month price freeze as per the recent agreement between the Government and waste industry and that, “following feedback” from customers, they now have a choice of staying with their existing plan, frozen for a year, or opting for pay by weight.
“We have made this process as easy as possible by providing multiple contact points — email, telephone, or by returning forms posted to them,” said Greyhound, adding that it is giving customers one month’s notice “to inform us of their preferred price plan”.
“This allows time for customers to make a decision and also gives us time to adjust our systems.”
To facilitate an extra month’s notice, it is extending customers’ current service plan to July 31.
The new pay-by-weight charges were due to kick in on July 1, but, amid growing opposition, Environment Minister Simon Coveney negotiated a 12-month price freeze with the industry.
Announcing the deal on June 21, he said it would give customers time to see, through dual billing, details in bills about the amount of waste they are disposing of; costs under the continuation of their current plan; and details of the comparative pay-by-weight charge.
However, with households forced to make a decision in the next month, Greyhound customers will not be able to make this comparison.
A spokesperson for the Department of the Environment said it is a matter for Greyhound and that customers “should check with their service provider and look at the terms and conditions” to make sure they choose the most beneficial system.
© Irish Examiner Ltd. All rights reserved


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As Engel says, higher prices for its products are not just good for Vestas but good for the entire industry. Selling wind turbines at a loss is no way to secure the future of wind power, let alone the future of Vestas. But neither is selling wind turbines that fall apart. Ten years after the first gearbox failures on larger turbines, Vestas has announced it will improve its internal reporting systems so that managers at the top know what windsmiths in the field are dealing with, and it will talk to its customers in a spirit of open dialogue. Not before time, many will say.
Gearbox failure is still happening and not just on turbines inherited by Vestas after its merger with NEG Micon, but also on relatively new Vestas 2 MW machines equipped with gearboxes from Hansen. Gearboxes from Winergy, Vestas' other main supplier, have also caught the eye of experts: the dimensions of the Winergy gearbox unit Vestas chooses are smaller (cheaper) than the units used by competing wind companies on turbines of similar size. As Vestas has previously admitted, it is treading "the far edge of the technology" (Windpower Monthly, November 2005). Perhaps it is not surprising that Engel says there is no guarantee that Vestas can find solutions to its technology problems fast enough to prevent another year of cash burning. The issue is vital: retrofitting a gearbox under warranty to prevent total failure can cost as little as €16,000; total replacement costs up to €160,000, he says. But if Vestas does implement remedies-and if component suppliers can keep up the required pace of delivery-investors can look forward to a Vestas' profit margin this year of up to 7%.
That potential reward-and Engel's well-turned display of chagrin and promise that Vestas is once again to be trusted-were enough for share prices to leap on release of the company's annual report last month. The secret of keeping the market happy is not to dish-up unpleasant surprises. Vestas' end-year deficit was in line with analyst predictions and the new share issue was less than feared, so diluted shares less. But though the market seems confident that Vestas' can turn a negative operating margin into a positive 4-7%, it was only a year ago that Vestas also targeted 4%, before managing to turn a 50% sales increase into an end-of-year loss. Investors, however, seem to see a relative upside in Vestas' share price compared to that of its listed rival, Spanish Gamesa. Analysts say the ratio of Vestas' market capitalisation to forecast sales is significantly lower than that of Gamesa, so the shares of a turned-around Vestas may become a good buy if the market started to value the company on the same basis as its smaller competitor.
The impression gained from Engel's presentation of Vestas' results is of a company struggling to manage its rapid growth, struggling to trim its working capital to a respectable level, struggling to keep a grip on product quality, and struggling to secure component supplies. The purchase of Hansen, Vestas' main gearbox supplier, by Indian wind turbine competitor Suzlon sent ripples of concern through the market last month. Suppliers of gearboxes to the wind industry are a rare breed. In Winergy, Vestas is already reliant on a company owned by rival Siemens. But Suzlon does not need all the gearboxes Hansen can produce and Engel assures that it is "business as usual," as does Suzlon chairman Tulsi Tanti (page 30). Hansen, which behind closed doors has bitterly complained about Vestas' lack of professionalism in organising production schedules, will be hoping for "better business than usual." Its prayers may be answered-Engel is at pains to stress that relationships with its suppliers are greatly improved and he "hopes" that components will now flow to Vestas in timely fashion.
Delusions of grandeur
Suzlon may have other strategic aims in buying Hansen. It has already picked up a number of former Vestas' workers, staff from NEG Micon who fled the "them and us" rivalry after the merger. It may also have an eye on the precedent set by Gamesa. When Gamesa bought competitor Made's gearbox supplier Echesa, two years later it bought Made too, from right under the nose of Vestas.
The steep rise in Vestas' share price at the end of last month will kill takeover rumours for now. Engel has achieved his aim of steering the company into a patch of calm water. Whether his ship can be made seaworthy enough to reach its destination this year is anybody's guess. "I hope so," is the best bid from Engel. He is asking us to take a lot on trust-especially from somebody whose stated aim is to remain king-pin in a market that the likes of GE and Siemens have serious designs on. Delusions of grandeur can be dangerous for profit.


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Is that afternoon malaise settling on you?
Perk yourself not with another cup of coffee, but with another edition of WIRE Buzz! In this fresh roundup of genre-centric news, we've got the latest updates from Aardman Animation, Netflix's film slate, and the top streaming service out there!
Aardman Animations, the stop-motion animation entertainment company that scored acclaim with properties like Wallace & Gromit and Shaun the Sheep, is delivering on more W&G content, The Hollywood Reporter confirms.
According to creator/director Nick Park, it's more likely that we'll see additional Wallace & Gromit shorts before we see the characters in another feature film, the last of which (The Curse of the Were-Rabbit) was released back in 2005.
“I think having just reached [the age of] 60, you sort of start to think how much can I do, you know?” Park told THR. “And I've got so many ideas, and feature films just take so long. So, I'm not saying 'no' but at the moment, a half hour seems far more attractive I must say ... it's Wallace & Gromit up to their old antics.”
Netflix is mashing up the superhero genre with a romantic comedy. Per a report from Collider, the streaming giant has just purchased the rights to Omega Girl Falls in Love, an original feature-length script from Pixels scribe Tim Dowling.
While not many details are currently known about the project, Collider does specify that the romance-based story takes place in an action-packed universe where superheroes exist. Liza Chasin (Baby Driver), who has a first-look deal with Netflix, is on board as producer.
Netflix is also part of our third news hit in this WIRE Buzz, as the streaming service was voted as having the best original programming "among premium TV and over-the-top subscription services," Variety reports.
This comes courtesy of data released by Morgan Stanley, which finds 40% of subscribers preferring Netflix; that's 1% more than last year's report. HBO came in second at 11%, a 3% decline from last year's report.
Hulu and Amazon ranked third and fourth with 6% and 5%, respectively.
The results came from a survey polled against more than 3,000 Americans 18 and older in March of this year.


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To meet the growing demand for online education, a trend that has been magnified by the COVID-19 pandemic, FIU Business is introducing new specialized master's programs in finance, accounting and logistics and supply chain management for the 2020–2021 academic year. With these new additions, FIU Business now offers 10 fully online MBA and specialty master's programs. A pioneer in online business education, having offered classes online for more than two decades, the college is currently ranked No. 22 in the nation for its online master's programs by U.S. News & World Report.
"We're proud to offer these new, relevant online programs," said Joanne Li, the dean of FIU Business. "The important role of online education could not be clearer than it is today as we face the unprecedented demands for online and virtual education brought on by COVID-19."
The new 14-month Online Master of Science in Finance program introduces a Financial Innovation Track, a series of three technology-focused courses designed to complement the traditional nine-course graduate finance curriculum.
The new 10-month Online Master of Accounting program will bring the coursework and contents of the college's well-regarded on-campus Master of Accounting program into a fully online delivery mode, as an additional option for prospective accounting professionals.
The new Online Master of Science in Logistics and Supply Chain Management program, also 10 months long, is designed to give students insights into managing the dynamics of supply chain, a field with enormous relevance in the age of COVID-19 and the challenges it has presented.


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March 6, 2006
NEWS OF THE DAY
* AT&T to acquire BellSouth for $67B
BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH
* Telecom, cable industries will feel deal's impact
* Vodafone inks deal to unload Japanese unit
* Cisco, Microsoft team up
* Despite settlement, RIM faces challenges
* Ricochet seeks to return to Bay Area
* Communications Security in the Digital Age: Only at TelecomNEXT
* Survey: Broadband spikes in rural America
* Report: Verizon's FiOS enhances competition in Texas
* Qwest eyes nontelecom acquisitions
* Cable-phone consortium readies new mobile phone services
* Municipal Wi-Fi has drawbacks
* Practice of "piggybacking" sparks debate
* The Web's last holdouts
* Phone service driving basic cable growth
* Who will pay for network upgrades?
Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others.
Date: Mon, 6 Mar 2006 08:00:06 -0600
From: Cellular-News <email@example.com>
Subject: Cellular-News for Monday 6th March 2006
Organization: TELECOM Digest
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 25, Issue 91, Message 10 of 21
Cellular-News - http://www.cellular-news.com
Thai TOT To Get Control Of Mobile JVs; Plans To Offer 3G
Thailand's state-owned telecom firm TOT said Friday it will buy shares
in two mobile-phone joint ventures from state agency CAT Telecom PCL,
in a move to gain full control over 1,900 and 2,000 megahertz
mobile-phone frequencies for the third generati...
Taiwan Mobile Earns NT$124.7 Million From Chunghwa Tel Share Sale
Taiwan Mobile, Friday reported a disposal gain of NT$124.7 million
from the sale of 9.99 million Chunghwa Telecom shares. ...
OTE To Buy Cosmote Shares Currently Not Owned, But Not Yet
Hellenic Telecommunications Organization SA (OTE) confirmed Friday
that it's interested in buying the shares in its mobile arm Cosmote
that it doesn't currently own, but not just yet. ...
Vodafone Group Confirm Offer Talks For Japanese Unit
Vodafone Group said that it has noted Friday's press speculation
regarding its Japanese subsidiary. ...
UPDATE: Vodafone In Talks To Sell Loss-making Japanese Arm
Mobile-phone company Vodafone Group rallied 9% on Friday after saying
it's in talks to sell its loss-making Japanese arm. ...
AT&T TO Acquire BellSouth -Sources
NEW YORK (Dow Jones) AT&T Inc. is planning to acquire BellSouth Corp,
people familiar with the situation say. A deal between the two could
be announced as early as Monday. ...
Motorola Cant Meet Demand For RAZR Handsets
Speaking at a recent Merrill Lynch conference, Ron Garriques,
President of Mobile Devices Division at Motorola, noted that the
company is still having trouble meeting demand for their iconic RAZR
Orange, Sony Ericsson In Joint Marketing Agreement
Orange, the mobile telecommunications arm of France Telecom, has
signed a joint marketing partnership with Sony Ericsson to promote the
manufacturer's Walkman-branded music handsets. ...
Research In Motion Pays NTP $612.5 Million To Settle Dispute
Research In Motion Ltd. said late Friday that it agreed to pay NTP
Inc. $612.5 million to settle a long-running patent dispute that had
threatened to disrupt its widely used BlackBerry wireless-email
BlackBerry Problems in Trinidad
Cable & Wireless in the Cayman Islands says that it has identified a
potential problem for some of their BlackBerry customers whilst trying
to roam in Trinidad on the TSTT network. While in Trinidad, customers
may experience difficulty acquiring and ...
[[Mobile Content News]]
Ericsson Providing WAP Billing For ZapDance
Ericsson will provide WAP billing in the UK for ZapDance, a Norwegian
developer of mobile internet portals. Ericsson Internet Payment
eXchange (IPX) is the dominant aggregator in enabling WAP billing
across major networks in the UK. ZapDance is now a...
[[Network Contracts News]]
Orange Upgrades Data Services
Orange Slovakia has made a major capacity upgrade of its NettGain Data
Optimization solution, provided by Flash Networks to improve data
optimization over it's mobile network, which is seeing a dramatic
increase in traffic and subscribers, as a resul...
[[Network Operators News]]
The Fight For Mobile Customers At Border Areas
Five years ago, residents in Vietnam's remote and border areas didn't
even know what a mobile phone was. Now, cell phone networks cover
almost all of these areas. The area around the Ban Thi Railway Station
in the Van Thuy Commune in Chi Lang Distric...
Over 40 Million Subscribers Shortly for South Africa
South Africa's Vodacom says that it has had to add an additional
number range to the current number ranges, including 082, 072 and 076,
to make room for its growing family of subscribers. As from 1 March
2006, Vodacom added the 079 number range to it...
Chris Gent Opposes Sarin As Vodafone CEO - report
There have been reports that the former head of Vodafone, Sir Chris
Gent had considered voting against the re-election of Arun Sarin as
Chief Executive of the company. ...
Motorola Private Jet Crashes
A Motorola private jet had an accident last Friday when landing at
Teterboro Airport in New Jersey, USA. The plane went off the runway
and stopped some 100 feet from the end of the runway. There was an
unnamed Motorola executive on board, but a Motor...
CRT names new executive director
Colombian telecoms regulator CRT has named Carlos Alberto Herrera
Barros as its new executive director, replacing Gabriel Adolfo Jurado
Parra, the country's communications ministry announced. ...
Australians Consider Ditching Landlines Within 2 Years
A Newspoll survey commissioned by Vodafone has revealed that
approximately 1.4 million Australians see few reasons to hold onto
their landline and are seriously considering ditching it altogether to
become totally mobile inside the next two years. Ba...
dea crosses 7 Million-Subscriber base
India's dea Cellular has announced its achievement of crossing the 7
million strong customer mark in its eight circle operation covering
only 45% of the country's cellular base. In less than 12 months the
company has added nearly 2 million subscribe...
OmniVision Eases Upgrade to 3 Megapixel Camera Phones
OmniVision Technologies has launched a CameraChip solution which
allows handset customers to upgrade their camera phones from 2
megapixels to 3 megapixels without mechanical design changes. This
'drop-in' replacement method will significantly reduce ...


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President Trump updates trade preference program eligibility for Rwanda
The President determined today the eligibility of Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda for trade preference benefits under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).
In response to a petition filed by the U.S. used clothing industry in March 2017, the Administration initiated an out-of-cycle review of Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda’s AGOA eligibility regarding their decisions to phase in a ban on imports of used clothing and footwear.
The review found that this import ban harms the U.S. used clothing industry and is inconsistent with AGOA beneficiary criteria for countries to eliminate barriers to U.S. trade and investment.
Based on the results of the review, the President determined that Rwanda is not making sufficient progress toward the elimination of barriers to U.S. trade and investment, and therefore is out of compliance with eligibility requirements of AGOA. Consequently, the President notified Congress and the Government of Rwanda of his intent to suspend duty-free treatment for all AGOA-eligible apparel products from Rwanda in 60 days. [See data table alongside: Rwanda exported $1.5m worth of AGOA apparel to the United States during 2017, up from $ 0.5m in 2016).
The President believes suspension of these benefits, instead of termination of Rwanda’s status as an AGOA beneficiary, would allow for continued engagement with the aim of restoring market access and thereby bringing Rwanda into compliance with the AGOA eligibility requirements.
The President is not suspending benefits for Tanzania and Uganda because each has taken steps toward eliminating prohibitive tariff rates on imports of used clothing and footwear and committed not to phase in a ban of these products. The United States will continue to monitor whether Tanzania and Uganda implement these commitments and demonstrate compliance with all of AGOA’s eligibility requirements.
“The President’s determinations underscore his commitment to enforcing our trade laws and ensuring fairness in our trade relationships,” said Deputy U.S. Trade Representative C.J. Mahoney. “I commend Tanzania and Uganda for taking corrective steps to address the United States’ concerns. We have and will continue to work with Rwanda to resolve this situation.”
On March 21, 2017, the Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles Association (SMART), asserted that the East African Community (EAC)’s 2016 decision to phase in a ban on imports of used clothing and footwear imposes significant economic hardship on the U.S. used clothing industry, and is inconsistent with AGOA beneficiary criteria for countries to establish a market-based economy and eliminate barriers to U.S. trade and investment. Its petition requested an out-of-cycle review to determine whether Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda, members of the EAC, are meeting AGOA eligibility criteria. In its petition, SMART estimates that 40,000 U.S. jobs related to the collection, processing, and distribution of used clothing and footwear will be negatively affected once the ban is implemented. SMART also asserts that the ban will negatively affect tens of thousands of jobs in the secondhand clothing sector in EAC countries.
The U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) accepted the petition filed by SMART and initiated an out-of-cycle review of Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda’s AGOA eligibility on June 20, 2017. A public hearing was held on July 13, 2017 in Washington at which officials from the governments of Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and from the EAC Secretariat testified. The USTR determined that an out-of-cycle review of Kenya’s AGOA eligibility was not warranted due to the government’s commitment to reverse the tariff back to pre-2016 levels, effective July 1, 2017, and a commitment not to ban imports of used clothing through other policy measures. Tanzania and Uganda also made similar commitments during the course of the out-of-cycle review.
In order to qualify for AGOA trade benefits, partner countries must meet certain statutory eligibility requirements, including making continual progress toward establishing market-based economies, the rule of law, political pluralism, and elimination of barriers to U.S. trade and investment, among others.


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In 1983, Raymond Plaster went to a collector car auction in Tulsa, Oklahoma, hoping to bring home a V12 Packard that was supposed to be on the docket. When that car didn’t show up for the sale, Plaster bought another Packard, a 1939 Super Eight Derham Phaeton in sorry shape.
Plaster and his wife, Carol, would spend much of the next 19 years restoring the car in their garage in Bull Shoals, Arkansas. During that process, Plaster’s research revealed that the car originally was purchased by the Argentine government and was the parade car that frequently carried Juan and Evita Peron.
Plaster died in 2014. His widow has consigned their car for sale at an auction scheduled for November 7 by SoldASAP, Tasabah & Associates, a company based in Paragould, Arkansas. According to its website, SoldASAP specializes in real estate and farm auctions, primarily in Arkansas and Missouri.
The auction, which includes several other cars, plus automobilia and petroliana from other consignors, will be held in Jonesboro, Arkansas, at the Nettleton Baptist Church Community Center.
The Plasters reportedly spent 7,000 hours on the car’s restoration. In a video interview, Carol Plaster notes that she not only helped with the process but probably spent more time beneath the car than did her late husband, a grocer and car collector who enjoyed restoring vehicles.
“The story of this car is almost as remarkable as that of the Perons,” John Malone, auction company president, said in a news release.
“After Peron was turned out of office in 1955, the Packard was sealed in a garage at a dog farm away from Buenos Aires, and ended up in an auction in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where Raymond and Carol Plaster bought it in 1983. They stored it in the garage of their home in Bull Shoals, Arkansas, and began the restoration, which took 19 years and more than 7,000 hours.
“The authenticity of the Packard is well established by the body modifications, the presidential seal marks at the rear doors and the motor number,” he added, citing a 2004 article in The Packard Cormorant.


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Yummy: Michigan Will Have a Tasty Month of Free Taco Tuesdays
Michigan Taco Bell fans are in for a fantastic, weeks-long Taco Tuesday celebration. Free tacos for all.
In celebration of the chain's lawsuit win, which argued "Taco Tuesday" is commonplace language and shouldn't be trademarked, they're giving away a free Doritos Locos Taco for several Tuesdays in-a-row.
How to get free tacos at Taco Bell
The fast-food giant is giving away free Doritos Locos Tacos for the next few Tuesdays:
Plus, they're donating $5 million to a food delivery fund. So, people can get a free taco from any restaurant serving tacos.
The Taco Tuesday Lawsuit
Believe it or not a couple of businesses own or have owned the trademark for Taco Tuesday. A restaurant in the state of New Jersey and a different fast-food company that just opened three locations in West Michigan. (I hope the rest of the state will get them soon.)
So, how did a lawsuit over tacos happen?
- Taco John's has been around since 1969 in Cheyenne, Wyoming. They trademarked "Taco Tuesday" in 1989.
- In May 2023, Taco Bell filed a lawsuit stating "Taco Tuesday" was commonplace and shouldn't be trademarked, in so many words. (They were not suing for damages/money.)
See What A Popular Michigan Outlet Mall Looks Like Now
- Taco John's decided to end litigation and give Taco Bell the win. So, that means Michigan restaurants (of any kind) can start promoting their own Taco Tuesday, legally.
- At one point, the CEO of Taco John's cracked "I'd like to thank our worthy competitors at Taco Bell for reminding everyone that Taco Tuesday is best celebrated at Taco John's."
Now, we all get to benefit from the joy of Taco Tuesday. Even more so in Genesee County with two new locations opening soon.
Best Tacos Around Flint and Genesee County
Where To Get The Best Tacos In Lansing
Michigan Lakes With Weird or Creepy Names


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Banner: Duty of Care
Parents will be able to ask Google to delete photographs of their children under new policies being brought in by the tech giant after criticism that it is failing to protect young people online.
Google, which also owns YouTube, said it will update its range of removal tools within its search engine, enabling parents and under 18s themselves to request that any image of them that appears in the company’s image search is deleted.
While the tool will not permanently delete images from the whole web, it will make them harder to find on the open internet. The privacy feature is expected to be launched in the coming weeks.
Advertising targeting will be blocked based on the age, gender or interests of people under the age of 18. This change will be implemented globally over the coming months, Google said.
The new tools will come into force as Britain’s data regulator tees up rules that will require UK firms to take greater steps to protect children browsing the web.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is due to enforce new powers from September, called the Age Appropriate Design Code, that will place a duty on companies to make sure their websites are used by and tailored for specific age groups.
The regulator will have the power to fine companies up to 4pc of global turnover or £17.5m for the worst breaches of the new code.
The Telegraph has campaigned since 2018 for a Duty of Care to be placed on technology companies to protect children online.
Duty of Care white paper
The tech giant will also enforce its Safe Search function – a tool that hides adult links or images – automatically for users under the age of 18.
Google said it would also change the default settings of its YouTube app to the most private options for teenage users between the ages of 13 and 17. This will make videos private by default, meaning they can only be viewed by users with a specific link. The video site will no longer offer auto-playing videos to younger users by default.
James Beser of YouTube said it would also crack down on videos in its YouTube Kids app – designed for under 13s – that are aimed at children and overtly promote commercial products.
“In the coming weeks, we’ll also begin to remove overly commercial content from YouTube Kids, such as a video that only focuses on product packaging or directly encourages children to spend money," he said.
Mindy Brooks, general manager of YouTube Kids and Family, said: “Some countries are implementing regulations in this area, and as we comply with these regulations, we’re looking at ways to develop consistent product experiences and user controls for kids and teens globally.”
At a glance | Your data rights under GDPR
Internet users already had the power to request certain images or pictures are deleted from the web under the “right to be forgotten”, which was previously part of EU rules and now forms part of the UK’s data regime.
However, this regulation requires internet users directly write to tech companies and demand their image or a story about them is taken down, which must be weighed against the public interest.
Google’s new tools will go beyond this right, making it easier and faster to remove images of young people.
It is understood Google believes the changes are compliant with the ICO’s new code, with some of the features going beyond what has been demanded by the regulator.