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Company / division: Essential
BayStreet Research financial analysts say that Sprint has sold just 5,000 Essential smartphones since its launch earlier this month, as reported here by FierceWireless. My guess is that the figure is based on channel checks, in which analysts call around random stores and ask how many units they’ve sold, and then add those up to create an estimate. Given the number is so low, I’m guessing the analysts found an average of just one sale per store. None of this should surprise anyone – I’ve been skeptical about Essential right from the start, and though I’d guess it’s sold quite a few more devices through its own online store than Sprint has, the numbers are likely still very small. Given the massive financial backing Essential has received, it’s got plenty of runway to go to figure all this out, possibly including a broader carrier distribution once its exclusivity arrangement with Sprint is over. But it’s increasingly clear that even a well-reviewed phone from a name with a history in the industry can’t break through the oligopoly that is the US smartphone market.
Essential, Android founder Andy Rubin’s fledgling smartphone outfit, has announced additional funding from companies including Tencent and Amazon, but still refuses to say exactly when its smartphone will go on sale, saying only that a date will be announced in a week or so. It’s also announced that Amazon and Best Buy will be the retail partners for launch, while Sprint was announced earlier as the exclusive US carrier partner. If you’ve read any of my previous pieces on Essential, especially the first one, you’ll know how skeptical I am that an effort like this can succeed. The market is so mature at this point and the distribution and other battle lines so clear that breaking in with yet another Android phone will be a real challenge, one further exacerbated by what’s going to be limited distribution on the weakest carrier in the US. The funding is therefore intriguing, because it suggests these backers see something in the phone that I don’t. Importantly, it’s Amazon’s Alexa Fund specifically that’s making that company’s investment, something the Journal piece I’m linking to here doesn’t dig into at all, but which suggests that the phone will major on Alexa integration, something hinted at earlier by Andy Rubin as part of a statement about the phone’s ecumenical approach to voice assistants, but not made explicit. And backing from both Foxconn and Tencent is intriguing in the context of a phone that’s mostly being launched in North America for now. Recent conversations I’ve had suggest Amazon’s smartphone sales business is going very well, but of course many of its sales are of the kind of low-end prepaid handsets people buy outright anyway rather than the higher-end premium hardware Essential will be selling. I continue to be very bearish on Essential, but at least it sounds like we might finally see the hardware hit the market soon.
The Verge seems to have secured the first of two exclusive looks at Android founder Andy Rubin’s new phone, from his company Essential (Recode’s Code Conference will have an interview with Rubin tonight where I’d expect him to share more). So far, there’s nothing about the software, beyond the assumption that it’ll run Android. So the focus is entirely on the hardware design, including the materials, connectors, and a theoretical ecosystem of modular add-ons (for now, there’s just one: a 360° camera). The reporting on this is all a little breathless – Andy Rubin has quite a reputation and anything he launches will be accorded a fair measure of respect. But the pitch here feels so much like almost every other new entrant in the market, a mix of straw man arguments about the current state of the market, grandiose claims about how all that will change, ambitions to build an ecosystem without any evidence that any other player is interested, and nothing at all about distribution, which continues to be the key question in the US smartphone market. We’ll hopefully know a little more by tonight, but I’m extremely skeptical that this phone will do any better than any other recent attempt to change the smartphone market. In the meantime, that won’t stop this project from getting tons of positive media attention in the run-up to an actual launch sometime later this year. It’s worth noting that beyond the phone there are some other bits and pieces too, including a smart home OS and speaker with a screen, but again the details are so short and claims so grand that I’m inclined to ignore them until we actually know something specific about them.
via The Verge


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Piaggio India has launched two new offerings in the market – the Vespa VXL, SXL facelift 2020 range and the 2020 Aprilia Storm with disc brake and digital cluster. The company had unveiled these new offerings at Auto Expo 2020 in Greater Noida at the starting of the year. Recently, Piaggio commenced bookings for the Vespa VXL, SXL facelift models with BS6-compliant 125cc and 150cc engines. Customers can avail online benefits worth Rs 2,000 by booking their new Vespa or Aprilia online for Rs 1,000 on the e-commerce platforms or visit the nearest Vespa and Aprilia dealership.
Commenting on the twin launch of Vespa VXL, SXL Facelift 2020 range and new Aprilia Storm model, Diego Graffi, Chairman and MD, Piaggio India said, “We are delighted to launch two new offerings from our iconic brands Vespa and Aprilia. As premium differentiated Italian brands, it is our commitment to continuously redefine and enhance our discerning consumer’s experience. Brand Vespa has added technology-led features to create a premium experience and brand Aprilia Storm is building on our technology platform to complement the exciting riding performance and set to create new benchmarks.”
The Vespa VXL and SXL range are equipped with an advanced monocoque full steel Body, high definition three-coat body colours, Anti-lock braking system or Combined braking system with twin pot calliper disk brake. Furthermore, the new 2020 Vespa facelift VXL and SXL range are now equipped with crystal illumination LED headlights, centre integrated day time running extra bright beam light, USB mobile charging port and boot light that combines convenience with style.
On the other hand, the 2020 Aprilia Storm 125cc disk brake and digital cluster model features enhancements to the 220 mm, twin pot calliper front disc brake and digital cluster. The distinctive scooter with cross overbuild brings Aprilia’s racing spirit through the high-performance three-valve technology, coupled with BS6-compliant fuel injection engine and 12-inch black alloy wheels with wide cross pattern tyres.

domain: news


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March 18, 2009: Danny DeVito at Twin Liquors This Weekend
This week, we’re heading to the Social Columnists Mixer
This weekend, film and television star Danny DeVito will be visiting the Hancock Plaza Twin Liquors to sign bottles of his Limoncello liqueur. The Italian after-dinner drink is made from Amalfi Coast lemons, grown and bottled on an estate of lemon trees on Italy’s Sorrento peninsula.
DeVito will be make a personal appearance at the store this Saturday, March 28th, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The Twin Liquors Marketplace is located att 41st Street and Red River, in the Hancock Plaza Shopping Center, next to the HEB; call (512) 451-7400 for more information.


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India has progressed a lot in the technology and software category in the last few years. India’s current government has put a lot of efforts to encourage startups in the country and has attracted various multinationals to their country. Amazon was set up in India 5 years back and Apple started manufacturing iPhone SE in India last year.
Recently, Apple has decided to initiate production of the iPhone 6S in India as well. This clearly shows how good the economic policies of the Indian government are and how they are working for their country. Apple has outsourced the production to India to Wistron. It is one of the most prominent partners of the Cupertino giant. Wistron set up a factory in Bengaluru last year to start production of the iPhone SE locally. Reports are that the same facility will be used for the production of the iPhone 6S. When SE was launched Apple had over 63% market share of the premium segment.
Currently, it is lagging behind Samsung and OnePlus. The iPhone 6S makes up for nearly 33% of total iPhone sales in the country. This is perhaps the reason that Apple decided to manufacture it instead of any other model. The production is expected to start soon. Some models will be imported in order to meet the demand. ‘Made in India’ models are expected to be sold in few months. The main reasons behind Apple deciding to produce the phone locally is that the import duties have increased a lot. The Government has increased the import duties. The Government increased the import duties on mobile phones from 10 to 15% a few years back and now it has further increased to 20%.
The excessive rate of tax can be accredited to the Government’s Made in India Initiative which was introduced in 2014 and is focused on 25 sectors which include automobiles, smartphones, and IT. Apple also aims to open two flagship retail stores in Mumbai and Delhi. Despite being produced locally, there won’t be a price cut. Apple will have to import the phones until production capacity meets the demand. Reducing the price will substantially affect the profits, which is perhaps not acceptable to the tech giant.


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Adidas reported third-quarter profit that beat analysts’ reduced estimates as the company made strides in soccer and running sales, helping offset declining revenue at its golf business.
Net income fell to 282 million euros ($353 million), the Herzogenaurach, Germany-based sporting-goods maker said in a statement today, compared with the average 268.4 million-euro estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
Chief Executive Officer Herbert Hainer is under pressure to turn the company around after earlier this year scrapping sales and profit targets for 2015 and abandoning the 2014 earnings goal as well. Nike is taking share in the U.S. and encroaching on Adidas’s home turf in Europe, while the market for golf equipment is slumping.
“We have been aggressively addressing our key challenges: restructuring and stabilizing TaylorMade-adidas golf, adjusting our business in Russia/CIS and intensifying our efforts to revive momentum and growth in the U.S.,” Hainer said in the statement.
Sales next year are forecast to increase at a mid-single-digit rate, while net income will grow at a higher rate than group sales, the company said. Hainer will present a new strategic plan in March.
Adidas shares have dropped 39 percent this year, making them the worst-performing member of the 30-stock DAX Index. The shares gained 0.9 percent to 56.76 euros yesterday.


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DGAP-News: PAION AG
/ Key word(s): Product Launch
PAION AG: ACACIA PHARMA LAUNCHES BYFAVO(TM) (REMIMAZOLAM) IN THE U.S. FOR PROCEDURAL SEDATION IN ADULTS UNDERGOING MEDICAL PROCEDURES LASTING 30 MINUTES OR LESS
- Approximately 40 million procedures take place annually in the U.S. that require the use of procedural sedation
- BYFAVO(TM) is the second Acacia Pharma product approved and launched in the U.S. in the last year and extends its portfolio of new products targeting unmet needs in anesthesia
Aachen (Germany), 28 January 2021 - The Specialty Pharma Company PAION AG (ISIN DE000A0B65S3; Frankfurt Stock Exchange Prime Standard: PA8) today announces that its U.S. BYFAVO(TM) (remimazolam) licensee Acacia Pharma (Acacia) has informed PAION today that BYFAVO(TM) has been launched and is now commercially available in the U.S. for order and delivery to customers through major wholesalers and specialty distributors.
BYFAVO(TM) was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on 2 July 2020 for the induction and maintenance of procedural sedation in adults undergoing procedures lasting 30 minutes or less. It received its Schedule IV designation from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) on 6 October 2020, finalizing the approval process and clearing the way for final packaging and shipping to the U.S.
Acacia has built critical sales, marketing, medical education and operational support teams over the past two years to allow it to directly commercialize both BYFAVO(TM) and BARHEMSYS(R) in the U.S. through its own sales channels. Acacia's experienced commercial team is focused on addressing the combined large market opportunities for procedural sedation and prevention and treatment of post-operative nausea & vomiting (PONV), which BYFAVO(TM) and BARHEMSYS(R) target, respectively, that exist in the U.S. hospital market. The initial focus of the commercial team over the first year of launch is to ensure that BYFAVO(TM) is listed on hospital formularies, based on the unmet needs it can address and the health economic benefits it can deliver.
Dr. Jim Phillips, Chief Executive Officer of PAION AG, stated: "We are excited to support Acacia in their commercialization process, and we are delighted by the strong commitment to BYFAVO(TM) by our U.S. partner. As sales build through the next months and years PAION will be receiving royalties of between 20-25% in the U.S. We look forward to a successful launch of what is a unique new product entering the market."
Mike Bolinder, Acacia Pharma's CEO, commented: "We are delighted to make BYFAVO(TM) available to anesthesia providers and to the millions of patients across the U.S. who require moderate sedation to undergo medical procedures each year. BYFAVO(TM) and BARHEMSYS(R) have a clear and shared value proposition focused on safely and rapidly mobilizing patients after such procedures, which drives revenues of hospitals and surgical centers in the U.S. The launches come at a time when Covid-19 has had a significant impact on such centers, creating significant patient backlogs and impacting ongoing revenues. We believe our products can help improve patient throughput, which is now even more relevant for healthcare providers and their patients. We believe that the ability to help address the current backlog of elective surgeries, together with ongoing shortages for existing drugs in these therapeutic areas, puts Acacia Pharma in a strong position as the Company enters these markets."
Mr. Bolinder added: "It is a tremendous achievement for our company to gain approval and launch two new products in the U.S. within the course of the last year. I would like to thank PAION, our partners as well as the Acacia Pharma team and our stakeholders who have enabled us to bring this new and innovative therapeutic to market, particularly given the challenges caused by the pandemic over the past year."
BYFAVO(TM) is now available for ordering in the U.S. through the major wholesalers and selected specialty distributors, including Cardinal Health, Amerisource Bergen, Besse, McKesson, McKesson Medsurg, Morris and Dickson, and Curascript.
Remimazolam is approved in the U.S. and China for procedural sedation and in Japan and South Korea for general anesthesia. In Europe, PAION submitted a Marketing Authorization Application (MAA) to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in procedural sedation in November 2019.
In addition to procedural sedation and general anesthesia, based on positive Phase II study results, ICU sedation is another possible indication for remimazolam.
Remimazolam is partnered in the U.S. (brand name BYFAVOTM) with Acacia Pharma, in Japan (brand name Anerem(R)) with Mundipharma, in China (brand name Ruima(R)) with Yichang Humanwell, in Canada with Pharmascience, in Russia/CIS, Turkey and the MENA region with R-Pharm, and in South Korea (brand name BYFAVOTM) and Southeast Asia with Hana Pharm.
In Europe, PAION is seeking approval of Byfavo(R) (remimazolam) for general anesthesia and for procedural sedation. PAION submitted a Marketing Authorization Application (MAA) for procedural sedation in November 2019. It is planned to commercialize Byfavo(R) once approved in Europe together with GIAPREZA(TM) as a vasoconstrictor indicated for the treatment of refractory hypotension in adults with septic or other distributive shock who remain hypotensive despite adequate volume restitution and application of catecholamines and other available vasopressor therapies, and XERAVA(TM) for the treatment of complicated intra-abdominal infections in adults.
PAION's mission is to be a leading specialty pharmaceutical company in the fields of anesthesia and critical care by bringing novel products to market to benefit patients, doctors and other stakeholders in healthcare.
PAION is headquartered in Aachen (Germany) with an additional site in Cambridge (United Kingdom).
28.01.2021 Dissemination of a Corporate News, transmitted by DGAP - a service of EQS Group AG.
|Listed:||Regulated Market in Frankfurt (Prime Standard); Regulated Unofficial Market in Berlin, Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Munich, Stuttgart, Tradegate Exchange|
|EQS News ID:||1163748|
|End of News||DGAP News Service|


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Survey: Relatively few CAD users currently use 3D printing in-house
By Design Engineering StaffAdditive Manufacturing CAD/CAM/CAE 3D printing Additive Manufacturing CAD design
Technology trend survey suggests 3D printing usage among CAD users to grow substantially in coming years.
A yearly survey conducted by IT, software and telecom industry research firm Business Advantage Group found that although 65 percent of the CAD users surveyed are aware of 3D printing, only 14 percent use the technology in-house currently. Published as part of its 2014 Worldwide CAD Trends Survey, the findings suggest adoption will grow in the near future: 21 percent expect to be using 3D printers within a year and 32 percent in the next 5 years.
“This growth is likely in all sectors and regions,” said Chris Turner, CEO/Managing Director of Business Advantage. According to the survey, current usage by region shows higher rates in the Americas (26%) than in EMEA (12%) and Asia Pacific (11%). In addition, large companies (28%) showed higher usage than medium (16%) or in small (6%) businesses.
Of those respondents already using or planning to use 3D printing, the main benefits are seen as design improvements (63%), savings in design time (54%) and cost (24%), as well as faster response times to market (38%).
“Of course this survey is with users of CAD technology so it is only predicting growth related to that audience whereas 3D Printing has other applications, so its overall market growth is probably higher than this survey is predicting,” Turner said. “Perhaps less encouraging for 3D Printer manufacturers is the very low brand recognition among CAD users – the majority could not name their brand of 3D printer.”


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Consumers are short on company confidence of late. New research by Kantar TNS indicates that Americans are becoming suspicious of even the most trusted brands with their personal data, and they are suspecting the government of invasion of privacy.
Sixty percent of American consumers object to having any of their online activities monitored, even in exchange for added convenience. Furthermore, many consumers feel that they are losing out on the value exchange even when they aren’t providing data, as 49 percent stated that content posted by most trusted brands simply isn’t relevant to them.
This mien of mistrust extends beyond just brand marketing, however.
Close to 60 percent of Americans believe that the government doesn’t use personal information it’s acquired to provide better services, and 53 percent claim that the information they see on social media is unreliable.
Despite the pervasive view among marketers that when it comes to data, more is merrier, Liam Hickey, vice president of Kantar TNS, recommends a middle path.
“Protect boundaries—only collect what you need, don’t be creepy and remember the value exchange,” Hickey told AListDaily. “Do people really feel it’s a fair exchange? Are you providing a real benefit?”
In most cases, the answer to these questions seems to be no.
The Brand Trust Divide
While the fake news crisis of recent months has caused many Americans to grow suspicious of global organizations, markets such as China and India feel differently.
“We see a big polarization between developed and developing countries,” Hickey said. “In developing markets, people tend to trust big, global brands more. In developed markets, it is the opposite—small, local brands are most trusted.”
In emerging markets, 48 percent of the study’s respondents claimed to place more trust in global brands, compared to just 23 percent in developed countries and 21 percent in the US. Outside of America, consumers are less suspicious of brands on social media as well, with only a third claiming that brand content is not relevant to them.
These differences between American and worldwide markets suggest that acting small can ingratiate brands with consumers. Compared even to other developed countries, US consumers more frequently rank local companies as their most trusted brands. Thirty-seven percent of Americans trust small brands more, with only 30 percent of developed-market consumers and 21 percent of emerging-market consumers sharing the sentiment.
As more consumers worry about invasion of privacy and companies selling their personal information, the best course forward may be to emphasize honesty over convenience and build brand trust with transparency.
“Keep your customers’ secrets safe,” Hickey said. “Be transparent in asking permission, and, crucially, own up if anything does go wrong.”


text: The toy company GoldieBlox has had a rough year in advertising after being accused of copyright infringement by the Beastie Boys for re-working the band’s 1986 classic “Girls” to convey a more “feminist” message. The company settled the lawsuit and issued an apology to the Beasties, who have always been very outspoken about their refusal to commodify their music for commercial purposes. It appears GoldieBlox has figured out that musicians like it better when you ask for their help up front. The company officially enlisted Metric’s Emily Haines and James Shaw for a new track called “Lightning Strikes.” It’s by no means Haines’ most intriguing project — it’s obviously written for the express purpose of selling children’s toys, and she did used to be in Broken Social Scene, after all — but it’s not a terrible song. Watch the GoldieBlox advertisement below, as well as a video of Haines and Shaw performing alongside Cyndi Lauper on December 6th at the annual “Cyndi Lauper And Friends: Home for the Holidays” benefit concert.


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The gaming regulator said it needed more time to deliberate on the matter
The blockchain gaming industry in South Korea is concerned that regulators may not be ready to work with non-fungible token-based games. Concern arose after the country’s Game Rating and Administration Committee (GRAC) postponed an application for Five Stars, an NTF-based game, yesterday.
Five Stars was developed for the Kakao Klaytn blockchain network, a South Korean tech giant that has been making headlines for its recent forays into the local cryptocurrency industry.
In June, Kakao had its Klaytn blockchain-issued Klay (KLAY) distributed through a local cryptocurrency exchange. It was a bold step forward for the company as initial coin offerings (ICOs) are still illegal in South Korea. Kakao was forced to list KLAY in Singapore and set up Indonesia-based branches for Upbit in order to gather investment for the project.
Inews24, a South Korean online news outlet, reported that the GRAC made the decision to hold off from issuing a rating for the game. The GRAC has not yet provided an official reason as to why they delayed the application.
However, the media outlet postulates that one likely reason for the delay is the Special Payment Act, which is expected to be implemented next year in 2021. The new legislation will build on rules surrounding anti-money laundering (AML) for financial services — including cryptocurrencies. This has led to rumours that basing games on NFT tokens may be required to implement KYC so that users can trade with each other in the future.
Local legislation stipulates that the GRAC must give a rating to all video games created by South Korean firms, regardless of whether they are online or offline before being released to the public.
This is not the first time that a game built on the blockchain has encountered issues with its approval by the gaming regulator. Infinity Start, a game related to NFTs that was manufactured by a local firm named NodeBrick, failed to get the GRAC’s go signal back in 2019.
Inews24 reported that SkyPeople, the developer of Five Stars, submitted its bid for rating approval with the regulator over a month ago and has complied with multiple requests to provide the GRAC with more data on their blockchain functions.
GRAC usually takes 15 days to process and issue ratings.
While the company is still fighting for their case, SkyPeople has described the process as “frustrating” because the regulator said that it needed more time to deliberate instead of refusing outright.


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In 2017, The Presidents Cup, a biennial golf tournament that pits the U.S. team vs. a team of international players‚ came to the Greater New York City area—Liberty National Golf Course in Jersey City, to be specific. Citi celebrated the event with an enormous local awareness campaign that featured billboards, transit hub takeovers, ferry wraps, and a number of on-site activations.
PRINT & OOH
NYC isn't exactly known as a golf mecca, so our concept celebrated "golf, New York-style," and featured the juxtaposition of golfers and images of the city—skylines, landmarks, and street scenes.
Headlines employed this juxtaposition as well, and were often contextually relevant to their location or medium.
Of course, we designed a special Presidents Cup edition Citi Bike.
THE 44-MILLION YARD CHALLENGE
To celebrate The Presidents Cup's charitable impact around the world, we teamed up with the PGA Tour to create "The 44-Million-Yard Challenge." New Yorkers were challenged to drive a virtual golf ball around the world by combining their drive distances at golf simulators around the city. Proceeds went to local charity No Kid Hungry. A spot featuring golfer Justin Thomas invited golfers of all skill levels to participate.
EXPERIENTIAL / PRESIDENTS CUP FAN EXPERIENCE
During the week of the tournament, the Oculus at World Trade Center hosted an enormous fan experience that featured golf simulators, putting greens, a 4D immersive dome, meet-and-greets, autograph signings, international cuisine, and more.
EXPERIENTIAL / AT THE TOURNAMENT
Onsite activations featured much of the same, with three custom-built and branded Citi destinations: The Citi Cardmember Lounge, The Citi Chalet, and The Citi Interactive Zone.
For the record, the U.S. Team won the tournament, with a final score of 19-11.


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Fraud campaign targeting US businesses
Several Alaska businesses targeted in recent attempts. Learn how to protect yourself and your business.
Latest News and Links
First National Bank has no control over and claims no responsibility for the content, products, services or recommendations provided by or advertised on linked sites.
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Special guest author, Marcel Van Oost, Founder of Connecting the Dots in Fintech.
“As a former startup founder in payments, I used to start my day by reading FinTech News. Out of personal interest I was keeping an eye on the market and looking for new opportunities. Since following the news was a time-consuming task, I decided to start sharing my daily research on LinkedIn and not long after started a personal newsletter. By curating the news I was doing the heavy lifting and helping others to stay up-to-date. A few years later my morning ritual has got out of hand...I am proud to see, that what started as a tagline on LinkedIn, has evolved into the greatest FinTech community I could think of.”
Learn more about Marcel and Connecting the Dots in Fintech, here.
Why Starbucks app is actually a Bankingapp
Starbucks' hugely popular rewards program held $1.8bn in customer cash as of April 2. If Starbucks was a bank, that would make it bigger than 90 percent of institutions covered by the US FDIC by deposit size.
Contrary to banks, which must maintain cash reserves to prepare for potential mass withdrawals, the coffeehouse chain only needs to stock up on coffee and snacks.
This is why the Starbucks app is actually a Bankingapp :
In November 2001, Starbucks initiated a significant shift in its business model with the introduction of the Starbucks Card. Initially handed out to associates as a prototype, it wasn't long before the card was released to the public.
The card was a huge success and was adopted by millions of users within the first year. The total amount deposited into the Starbucks card in its first year crossed $2.4 billion.
Over time, through continuous refinement, the Starbucks Card evolved into a rewards program and ultimately the Starbucks Gold Card, specially designed to provide additional perks and in-store benefits to the brand's most loyal patrons.
The year 2009 marked a significant merger of these ideas into My Starbucks Rewards, coinciding with the launch of the Starbucks Card Mobile application. This innovation allowed U.S. customers to monitor their balance, top-up their cards, and review transactions.
Simultaneously, Starbucks strived to offer a more streamlined payment service for its customers by providing various payment options:
In the US Starbucks ventured into mobile payments through a partnership with Square, revolutionizing the retail sector by providing customers an efficient means to discover local businesses, peruse menu details, check store hours, and review their transaction history, all through their mobile phones.
In August 2012, Starbucks invested $25 million in Square, and Square became its exclusive processor of debit and credit card payments for all 7,000-plus stores in the United States.
Next, Starbucks chose J.P. Morgan’s Chase Commerce Solutions as its payment processing tool, which paved the way for a nationwide rollout, taking into account the surge of innovation in the digital payment landscape.
By collaborating with Amazon, Starbucks introduced the “Starbucks Pickup with Amazon Go”. This innovative store concept enables customers to skip the checkout process when they pre-pay for their orders through the Starbucks app.
The next objective on Starbucks' agenda was to extend its trademark customer convenience and personalized touch to a global audience:
In the UK, Starbucks partnered with Barclaycard to offer contactless payments, positioning itself as one of the early adopters of payment technology among high street retailers.
Bridging the gap between technological advancement and customer experience, Starbucks Japan unveiled Starbucks Touch: The Pen - a unique gadget featuring a built-in NFC wallet for effortless payments.
Navigating to the arid regions of Saudi Arabia and UAE, Starbucks teamed up with Visa to promote the use of Apple Pay. The incentive for Visa cardholders was free upsize/upgrades on their orders when making payments through Apple Pay.
Starbucks further extended its reach by forging a strategic partnership with Grab's delivery network throughout Southeast Asia, integrating the order and in-store channels to further enhance the Starbucks Experience.
The coffee giant also collaborated with Vietnamese e-wallet service, MoMo, with the aspiration of providing a novel and enhanced customer experience.
The coffee behemoth embarked on its Web3 journey as early as 2018, forming a collaboration with Microsoft to enable cryptocurrency payments for its products.
In the subsequent year, it brokered a deal with the much-anticipated Bakkt Bitcoin trading platform, enabling Bitcoin transactions in its stores.
It wasn’t until 2021 that Starbucks actually began to leverage the now-launched Bakkt wallet for Bitcoin payments in the US.
These partnerships offered avenues to access an untapped, potentially vast market, thereby boosting Starbucks' popularity among cryptocurrency enthusiasts.
Fast forward to 2023:
The Starbucks app boasts an impressive 31 million active users.
Customers can add funds to their accounts using Starbucks gift cards, or by connecting Apple Pay or payment cards to the app.
Each purchase made through the app earns users loyalty points (known as Stars), redeemable for benefits like free refills, beverages, or sandwiches.
A clever aspect of this strategy is that customers paying with funds deposited on the Starbucks app receive additional loyalty points.
Within the customer loyalty space, Starbucks has consistently been credited with having one of the best rewards programs with a loyal customer following.
Because of the company’s reputation, customers are not afraid to keep money in their Starbucks account, knowing that they can use it anytime.
The numbers speak for themselves:
The "stored value card liability and current portion of deferred revenue" – unspent money that coffee lovers have loaded onto the app – amounted to $1.8 billion in the previous quarter.
This unused cash has been compared to interest-free capital for Starbucks.
Furthermore, some gift card funds are never redeemed by customers, allowing Starbucks to retain the entire amount.
In its latest fiscal year, the company reported approximately $196 million in such "breakage revenue." Although it accounts for less than 1% of Starbucks' annual net revenue, it is essentially free money.
There is another benefit of encouraging users to pay for their purchases using the funds stored in their Starbucks accounts: fewer payment processing fees.
Starbucks' rewards program is an innovative example of a non-banking entity using loyalty and trust to amass significant customer deposits.
This forward-thinking approach led many to categorize Starbucks as a 'neobank', 'FinTech', or even 'an unregulated bank'.


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With the onset of the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 era, we’re starting to see smartphone manufacturers unveil their second-half flagships. First it was Xiaomi with its 12S series and now we have a slightly different proposition as Asus is about to introduce the ROG Phone 6.
The launch starts at 20:00 Taipei time, 14:00 Berlin time and 8:00 New York time or noon UTC. The event will be streamed live, so you can follow the announcement of the new game beast as it happens.
The ROG Phone 6 is Asus’ flagship for 2022. We expect to see vanilla and Pro versions, and leaked images have revealed a triple camera island, a new AeroActive cooler that’s powered via USB-C rather than proprietary pogo pins.
The front panel will stick to the classic bezels at the top and bottom for better handling of the device during intense games. More details and features will be revealed during the event – and once the event is over, stick to our homepage for more ROG Phone 6 information.


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This holiday season promises to offer an unwanted gift — major gridlock for travelers.
A whopping 46.9 million Americans will venture 50 miles or more from home during the Thanksgiving holiday alone — the highest number of travelers seen since 2007, according to AAA.
With hordes of people hitting the roads or catching flights, navigating through the crowds and congestion could present a challenge.
Here are 10 of the biggest travel don'ts that experts advise you to avoid during your well-deserved time off:
1. Don't fly late in the day
Air travel is hardly a breeze during the holidays — so pundits pursuade vacationers to take precautions in minimizing headache-inducing delays.
"Holiday season is also storm season, so get on that first flight out — if you go later in the day, you have an exponentially higher chance of being delayed or worse, your flight could be canceled," said Pauline Frommer, co-president of Frommer Media, the company behind the Frommer's travel guide books.
"Delays ripple through the system, so if you're on the first flight of the day out, your plane has spent the night at the airport and you have a much better chance of getting where you're going."
2. Steer clear of connecting flights
Many opt for connecting flights to cut costs — but experts say that holiday season is not the time to skimp on flights.
"Unless the savings are substantial, it's not worth it to open yourself up to the higher risk of missed connections, flight delays and cancellations that you face when you book connecting flights," said Christine Sarkis, senior editor of SmartTravel.com, an online traveling resource.
"Give yourself the gift of direct flights whenever possible, especially over the holidays when weather and crowds can cause more problems."
3. Don't cut it close at the airport
During the holiday season, airports are jam-packed with travelers, which can slow down the process — so factor in additional travel time.
"By giving yourself enough time to drop off checked bags, clear security and get to the gate, you'll be buying yourself peace of mind," Sarkis said.
She added that checking in online in advance will shave time off waiting in lines.
Airports also see throngs of inexperienced travelers, who may take their sweet time at security.
"Give yourself an extra hour to get through security, because the crowds will not only be huge, but will be filled with more clueless people than usual," Frommer warned.
4. Ditch the wrapped gifts
If you're airborne-bound, don't try your luck at keeping your holiday gifts under wraps.
"TSA agents may unwrap items if they need to take a closer look at what's inside. This is true for both carry-on and checked items," Sarkis said.
"Instead, ship your wrapped presents ahead before you leave, or simply wait until you arrive to wrap them."
5. If you're driving, don't wing it with traffic
Getting behind the wheel at peak traffic hours will almost guarantee you'll confront bothersome bumper-to-bumper traffic.
"Some people start driving at midnight and arrive in the morning exhausted, but hit no traffic," Frommer said.
"If you have the stamina for that, it can be a way to avoid frustration."
She added that traffic apps are a must-have to help navigate through congestion.
"An app like Waze does real-time calculations of where the bottlenecks are so that you don't get stuck in traffic," Frommer said.
6. Don't assume all hotels are exorbitantly priced
Hotel prices are likely to skyrocket during the holiday season — but not at all hotels.
"Often, people are surprised to find that in big business cities, hotel rooms are cheaper during the holidays," Frommer said.
"If you're going to a place that gets mostly business travelers, you may be able to go to one of those classic business hotels for as much as you'd pay at a motel."
7. Don't be careless with your hotel search engines
The travel search engines you use could be the difference between squandering hundreds of dollars and securing a penny-pinching deal.
"At Frommers.com we did a big study about which hotel search engines work best, and we found that those that just searched for travel information, rather than sell you the room, do much better," Frommer said.
She said that Hotelscombined.com, a site that her company is not affilitated with, won the survey because it pulls from hotel websites and discounter sites to provide the best deals.
"It gives you a much broader look," Frommer said.
8. Don't dismiss alternative forms of accommodation
Sites like Airbnb are dominating the lodging industry — mostly because of their competitive price points and vast inventory.
"Airbnb has more beds than all of the major hotel chains combined and it's joined by such companies as Wimdu, Homeaway, VRBO, so think outside the hotel box if you're looking for accommodations," Frommer said.
"You can often get better deals by renting an entire apartment or renting a bed in someone's apartment, than you will renting a hotel room."
9. Don't wait until the last minute to book travel
Time really is money when it comes to holiday travel.
"This holiday season is shaping up to be a busy one, which means that planes will be flying full and last-minute seats will be both expensive and hard to come by," Sarkis said.
Airline Reporting Corporation is a company that surveyed 26 million airfare transactions and found that for domestic travel, booking 51 days in advance will yield the best prices, according to Frommer.
"But that doesn't necessarily hold for holiday travel, because it is one of the few times of the year when flights and hotels totally sell out, so make your reservations as soon as possible," she said.
10. Don't feel guilty about taking a break from family
One out of four Americans report that the holiday season is the most stressful time of year since many reconvene with relatives, according to Frommer.
She suggested that it's important to take a break in order to avoid feeling overwhelmed.
"Don't feel guilty about taking a few hours away from the family bubble — maybe see an old friend, or take a jog. It's okay if you need to get away for a bit," Frommer said.
"Just have fun — how often do you get to see your family? Remember that it's a blessing and try to enjoy yourself."


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Financial ads are those ones where people have awkwardly scripted conversations about the future of their monies, or feature a talking ram giving banking advice, right?
There’s a new financial ad on the block, with a decidedly retro feel, and odd, trippy tunes accompanying it. Swedish e-commerce payment brand Klarna has shaken things up with some help from DDB Stockholm.
Showing us just how smooth their financial services are, Klarna’s ads come in a set of three, starting with the the fish taking the glide of its life, down an orange slide and across the floor.
And if that wasn’t weird enough, here’s a fifty thousand-metre long piece of Swiss cheese that’s smoother than a baby’s bum.
Oh and we can’t forget about that weird hairy thing (is it a sloth?!) floating elegantly through water.
We get it. Klarna financial services are smoooth.
“We fell for the concept ‘Smoooth’ because it describes the overall feeling of how a really good experience should be when you shop online,” Klarna founder and CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski said in a statement.
Speaking to Adweek, directors the Perlorian Brothers – known for their eclectic style – said, “The creative approach was to keep them minimal, to keep them graphic, to keep them intriguing, and to keep them smooth.
“We wanted them to feel a little strange and arty. So we searched all over the world for the best locations, the best props, the slipperiest fish, the smoothest cheese, the silkiest fur-covered sea creature.”
Glassworks Post in London also worked on the spots.
The brainchild of co-founders Gina Williams-Folau (main photo) and Greer Bland, the talent agency Liquorice was born out of a desire to make things easier for brand managers. Liquorice offers social talent for brands wanting to hit the sweet spot with Kiwi audiences. Launching with a roster of big names on board including Millie Elder-Holmes, Athena […]
9000 Western Australians experiencing homelessness are about to face cold winter nights. To call for donations to the 2021 Winter Appeal, Anglicare WA has released a chilling video with renowned actor Liam Graham, best known for his starring roles in Greenfield and The Heights, experiencing mild hypothermia after spending one hour in a commercial freezer. […]
Blackmagic Design has shared how its products were used to shoot the latest commercial campaign for Chris Hemsworth’s fitness training app, Centr. The new campaign, which promotes the progressive 10 week workout plan ‘Power’ replicates the same protocols used to prepare the actor for his latest appearance in the upcoming Marvel franchise film, Thor: Love […]
Airtasker has chosen leading independent digital growth consultancy, Webprofits as a strategic partner to help them expand to new markets. Following a successful IPO in early 2021, Airtasker set its sights on the next strategic objective — expansion and growth in the UK market. After careful review, they partnered with the growth marketing specialists at […]
Cresta Awards has announced that despite having a few more weeks before entries close, this year’s Cresta Awards has surpassed its entries for the whole 2019 Season. Cresta sees this as evidence, not just of evolution in its own awards but of a wider measure of industry confidence and resilience in many markets. The awards […]


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CP Toshniwal, chief financial officer of Future Retail, has resigned
CP Toshniwal, chief financial officer of debt-ridden Future Retail, has resigned from the company, effective May 12. Toshniwal’s resignation is the latest addition to the string of resignations that began last month after billionaire Mukesh Ambani canceled a Rs 24,713 crore deal. Lenders, led by Reliance Industries, voted against it.
Last week, Rakesh Beyani, managing director of Future Retail, resigned, while officials, including the company secretary of the indebted firm, resigned.
“CP Toshniwal – Chief Financial Officer of the company has resigned as a result of the closing of business hours on May 12, 2022. As a result, he will also resign from the company ‘Key Managerial Personnel’ (KMP),” FRL said in a regulatory filing.
FRL, a flagship firm of the Future Group led by Kishore Biyani, is now facing a bankruptcy petition filed by its creditors with the National Company Law Tribunal for default.
As part of the Rs 24,713 crore deal announced in August 2020, FRL was part of 19 companies that were to be transferred to Reliance Retail.
Reliance Industries, led by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, canceled the deal last month.
Subsequently, boards and other levels of people at several Future Group companies emigrated.
On Thursday, teenage Beanie’s daughter Ashni Beanie resigned as managing director of Future Consumer Limited (FCL).
Earlier this month, Adhiraj Harish, an independent director of FCL, resigned from the company’s board.
Last month, Shailesh Haribhakti, chairperson of Future Lifestyle Fashions Limited, resigned after seeing that “the volatile, complex and unpredictable legal and financial situation has taken an unexpected turn and the board’s recommendations for finding a solution have not been met with speed.”
Read more: Future consumer Samson hires Samuel as CEO, Ashani Beyani resigns
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One of 5 online shopping safety tips
Rather than risk life and limb against the crushing masses on Black Friday, millions of us will opt instead to shop online on Cyber Monday from what we think is the relative safety of our homes. But there too, danger lurks. It’s not as obvious — but it may be even more bruising, especially to your finances.
By now, consumers should know not to use any of the 25 worst passwords of 2011, nor should they be placing orders on anything but a secure browser connection (look for “https” in the Web address). But security experts have other tips, too, to try to keep you safe and not unnecessarily parted with your money.


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Over the past year or so, following demonetization, India has been making ardent efforts to move towards a cashless transaction economy by minimising the use of physical cash. This is in consonance with ‘Digital India’ programme which has a vision to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy. “Faceless, Paperless, Cashless” is one of professed role of Digital India. The leading advantage of building a cashless economy is elimination of black money. This has other implications on the economy. It changes the face of existing jobs and also sends a spiral of new set of jobs and careers.
Let us take a look.
Upscaling of sectors and careers
If we have to move towards a digital economy, we also need to build an infrastructure around it. In 2014 (as per the data available), there were 18 ATMs and 13 commercial bank branches per 100,000 adults – in comparison, the number in Brazil was 129 and 47 respectively. If we have to keep pace with the growing use of plastic currency, we need to step up the infrastructure in terms of ATM’s in the rural and semi urban areas.This would mean an increase in jobs related to construction and infrastructure.
Financial/ Digital Literacy:
To gravitate towards a cashless economy, there has to be a complete change of mindset in India. People have to start trusting other forms of transaction other than cash. RBI and many other premier banks conduct the literacy programmes in the rural areas, especially. However, the literacy levels, especially related to finance and digital usage, have to improve. This is a pre-condition for the success of the digital push or the cashless economy. A nationwide financial literacy campaign accompanied by a medium-term strategy to improve access to, and awareness of, electronic payments has to be launched. Targeted financial education programmes can improve financial skills and credit management, and increase account ownership. The RBI and finance ministry have made Financial Literacy Centres (FLCs) a cornerstone of the PMJDY. These centres provide tailored financial education programmes to introduce adults to banking products and setting financial goals. Well-publicised literacy activities conducted at the 1,400-odd FLCs will go a long way in realizing the vision of a cashless-economy. So, if you have an understanding of the Digital world and are willing to train, there are various job opportunities available for you.
Due to the change in the way money changes hands, there has been an upscale of Fintech sector with many start ups garnering attention. As credit underwriting for MSMEs remains a challenge, fintech firms bringing in technologies like artificial intelligence, big data, psychometric analysis and social media behaviour analytics to evaluate credit-worthiness is a welcome development. This creates a need for IT jobs that have a confluence of Finance and technology- both as a functional consultant who has an idea of how the system works and also someone who can write code for such applications and has an understanding of Artificial Intelligence and Machine learning.
One thing that is in no doubt, however, is that the phenomenon of the cryptocurrency is here to stay; in fact, it has opened up a whole new sector in the crossover world between the IT and financial investment fields. Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Asiadigicoin have also been the recipients of a positive upswing from Modi’s currency purge.The interest in cryptocurrencies themselves is almost matched by the increasing attention that is being paid to the underlying blockchain technology, which many think could revolutionize the way we do business in wider ways than were ever imagined.
Tech companies, banks, consulting firms and private sector businesses are all hiring blockchain developers, and demand is currently outstripping supply. This has led to a spike in the number of small business consultancies springing up to meet demand and get a slice of the pie.In many cases, large companies will look to build a team around a small core of developers with expertise in blockchain technology. This means a wealth of support roles for anyone with solid software engineering and development skills and a basic understanding of the underlying blockchain principles. You may get a job as a Social Media Marketing Manager (Cryptocurrency), Cryptocurrency Engineer, Marketing Content Manager, Blockchain/Cryptocurrency Associate. It is also true that it is not all about blockchain. Anyone with expertise in aspects such as online security and networking can also play a vital role alongside the developers. You would need to beef up your Engineering degree with the following courses from abroad:
Universities that Offer Blockchain Courses
George Mason University offers a master/phd level course “Blockchain Technologies”
University of Illinois at Urbana – Champaign offers “Cryptocurrency Security”
Massachusetts Institute of Technology offers a course called “Shared public ledgers, cryptocurrencies”
New York University- USA
Duke University- USA
Princeton University- USA
Stanford University- USA
University of California- Berkeley- USA
A natural offshoot of a cashless economy is mobile wallet industry. The value and volume of mobile wallet transactions more than doubled in the last year alone and as such the industry is leading the charge to making India a cashless economy. Increased adoption of smartphones and mobile data packages has been one of largest contributors to this growth and as the penetration of the technology increases and mobile data costs come down, the industry is primed for further growth. Mobile wallet providers have now become a kind of mini banking institutions (Payments banks) and it would not be surprising if they will get their banking licenses, and follow the path like Paytm, Airtel etc.
The mobile wallet roles not only include those of developers who make a good product, but also market it in a way that touches every consumer aspect from excellent UI/UX to all basic wallet features to one touch payment -millennial generation – to one to one customer engagement. Then there are roles that can bring about an integration between hardware and software and also an expertise in NFC which is now available on nearly all high-end smartphones. This will be very lucrative if we take into consideration the Government’s agenda of financial inclusion.


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Contact: Brenon Daly
Pulled prospectuses, cut terms and broken issues – it’s a singularly poor time for any company to go public. We’ve already chronicled the dispiriting ‘new normal’ for IPOs, with smaller offerings and lower valuations. But just when it seemed that the IPO market couldn’t sink any further, along came Motricity’s offering.
The debut last Friday from the mobile data platform provider had to be trimmed, both in the number of shares and the price. Originally, Motricity planned to sell 6.75 million shares at $14-$16 each. At the midpoint of the range, that would have netted the unprofitable company, which has rung up a total deficit of some $313m, about $100m.
Instead, Motricity managed to raise just half that amount. It ended up selling just five million shares at $10 each, raising just $50m. Since then, the newly public shares been underwater, having only changed hands in the single digits. How bad is that? Consider this: Motricity’s valuation as a public company ($350m) is less than the amount of money that it raised as a private company.
Finnish cell phone giant Nokia launched its mobile file-sharing Ovi application last week, coming quickly on the heels of the rollout of Nokia Music and other high-profile offerings. Much like Google and its Android and Chrome products, Nokia used technology that it acquired to form the core of its recently launched products. Specifically, its file-sharing technology came when it picked up Avvenu late last year.
And more M&A may be in the cards. Nokia recently told us that it is bullish on making further acquisitions to boost its service offerings. The company is aiming to evolve from strictly a mobile handset maker to a service-oriented handset maker – and strategic acquisitions are expected to play a big role in this transformation. (Of course, Nokia isn’t the only hardware company looking to do deals to get out of its core commodity market and into a more profitable – and defensible – service offering. PC maker Dell has spent some $2bn over the past two years increasing its service portfolio, buying companies offering everything from storage to email archiving to remote services.) What services could Nokia look to add and what companies might it acquire to do so?
With its music, games and mapping services well established, Nokia’s lack of a video service is strikingly curious. We suspect the company will quickly move to fill this gap. Two potential targets come to mind. Startups kyte and Qik both specialize in mobile video, and have already gotten a lot of interest from big mobile companies. In fact, kyte has drawn money not only from large telcos such as TeliaSonera, but also from Nokia’s own investment arm, Nokia Growth. Another venture that was recently brought to our attention is a startup called ZoneTag. It’s a Yahoo Labs startup that does location-based photo tagging. The software was developed for Nokia phones with the support of Nokia research and we hear the two divisions have a very good relationship.
Nokia’s recent mobile software acquisitions
|June 24, 2008
|June 23, 2008
|January 28, 2008
|December 4, 2007
|October 1, 2007
Source: The 451 M&A KnowledgeBase *Official 451 Group estimate
As Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference winds down, the hype for the new iPhone is only beginning. Amid all the hoopla, though, we couldn’t help but make an observation about not so much what was in Steve Job’s all-important keynote, but what wasn’t. Specifically, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers’ much-touted iFund was only mentioned in passing, and none of the surprisingly few ventures were highlighted. (KPCB has written checks to just three companies, out of thousands of applicants.) In fact, a major competitor of iFund’s location-aware application Whrrl, Loopt, was a highlight of the keynote. This comes as somewhat of a surprise after Palego’s Jeff Holden and KPCB partner Matt Murphy spoke highly of their relationship with Apple in a May 27 BusinessWeek article and even speculated on the chances of being a featured app. This led many to believe they were a shoe-in for the keynote. Given Apple’s obsessive demand for radio silence prior to the event, perhaps loose lips do indeed sink ships.
Loopt is funded by KPCB competitors New Enterprise Associates and Sequoia Capital to the tune of $15m. It has a few hundred thousand paying customers, but more importantly, it is the leader in the mobile location-aware-social-networking space spanning several carriers and operating systems. This is a market that has seen a lot of interest from the likes of Google, AOL, Microsoft and even Facebook. In the aftermath of the conference, whispers and rumors of potential acquirers of this little app are all over the place.
Since Google let Plaxo go to Comcast and has failed with its in-house development (Orkut), the search engine has been itching to make headway in the sector through acquisitions. Given Google’s huge push into the mobile space, it is seen as a likely acquirer. However, we think the most probable acquirer is Facebook. The soaring social networking site has been serious about pushing into mobile-social-networking, and a pairing of Facebook’s mobile application with Loopt seems a perfect fit. Since valuations in the social networking space are like something out of the bubble era, it is not unrealistic to see a price tag of just south of $100m for Loopt, a 40-employee startup. With healthy cash reserves and an estimated $400m in revenue for 2008, Facebook has the resources. In fact, though this would only be its second acquisition, we understand Facebook has been gearing up to make more acquisitions in the coming year. If indeed Loopt is taken off the block, rivals Palego, Zyb, and Buzzd may follow in quick order.
Traditional social networking acquisition deals for more than $50m
|May 14, 2008
|March 13, 2008
|March 4, 2008
|May 30, 2007
|July 18, 2005
* official 451 Group estimate, Source: The 451 M&A KnowledgeBase


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Yet another controversy has erupted around Facebook (the recent Terms of Service PR disaster having barely scabbed over) in the last few days, this time around the redesign of the Facebook user "Home" page (the profile page was redesigned last year), which is adding a real-time feed more along the lines of micro-blogging service Twitter.
While I personally am all for that change, having been an ardent Twitter user since early last year, there has been plenty of backlash from Facebook users about the extent of these changes. And all of the usual suspects of the blogosphere are weighing in, with heavy-weights like TechCrunch’s Mike Arrington and Robert Scoble siding with Facebook’s right to basically do what it wants with the free service it provides.
Even going so far as arguing that listening to your customer too much can be counterproductive. Here is a quote from Mike Arrington’s piece "No! Never Surrender To Your Users, Facebook.":
In an interview last year, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg talked with me about how users are willing to accept change over time, and that Facebook would continue to push things along. Suddenly, though, they surrender because a few users have a belly ache over a redesign.
If they wanted to make these changes anyway, they shouldn’t have titled their blog post “Responding to Your Feedback.” They should have just continued to ignore the ranting, and announced further changes. Showing that you’re listening to feedback just invites more of it.
Someday, if they’re not careful, someone is going to do to Facebook what Facebook did to MySpace, who in turn did it to Friendster. Making users happy is a suckers game. Pushing the envelope is what makes you a winner.
While I can see their point to a degree, social media represent a whole new ballgame in many ways, which it makes it harder to predict what will happen. While these “A camel is a horse designed by committee" ideas may have validity in the realm of physical product design (Scoble is using a quote from a mentor about the problems with crowd-sourcing the design of a Porsche), I would hold that things may not be so straight-forward in the digital/social media realm:
1) Facebook already had several cases where it needed to retreat in shame from changes to the Facebook platform, the biggest among them the Beacon activity-tracking system that caused such privacy concerns and general outrage among Facebook users that it had to basically be abandoned.
More recently, the above-mentioned Facebook Terms of Service (TOS) debate around changes that appeared to give Facebook almost complete, irrevocable control over a users data and images even PAST the closing of an account, brought forth a similat swift user community response, and backing off by Facebook (for now to the original TOS, with supposedly a crowd-sourced version being on the way).
So with this partial retreat by Facebook, incidentally again due to privacy concerns, they’re really batting 0 for 3. One would think that they would be wising up on the PR front by now. And so much for "Zuckerberg never backs down"…
2) Much of this is not really surprising since Facebook’s users are perfectly empowered through Facebook’s platform:
Perfect for sharing photos with your friends, and throwing virtual sheep at them, but also perfect as a virtual soapbox to… complain about changes to Facebook’s platform.
With Facebooks recent full-scale mainstreaming, bringing it’s rate of new user adoption to well over 1 Million a day, one of the side effects is that now, even if only 1% of users strenuously object to something, that’s still close to 3 Million people howling.
And after all, it is called SOCIAL media, so most controversial/high impact messages have a tendency to spread virally, aided by speed of light technologies, AND Facebook cannot come off as looking patently anti-social.
So while Steve Gillmor is arguing that inertia would tend to win out, I’d say that he may be underestimating the righteous indignation that can come with perceived violations of SOCIAL trust.
Certainly there is room for back and forth here, but at some point, if the rubber band is stretched too far, it could snap. Users could turn their collective backs on Facebook, especially since the internet all around Facebook’s so-called "Walled Garden" is always continuing to hustle, and to add to the functionality available with quantum-leap innovations all of the time, making it less and less necessary for users to be locked into Facebook.
3) Which brings me to my last point: Facebook, having started from an, admittedly elegant (especially in comparison to MySpace) but mostly static, user profile page, has already been changing in response to "the rise of feeds". First the profile was redigned to look and feel more like FriendFeed, leaving a lot of the social apps to languish and whither on a back tab when compared to before (I certainly haven’t used many anymore since that point).
Next, the meteoric rise of Twitter, and its persistent "attention hogging", especially with the "hip early adopter" crowd, prompted an attempt by Facebook to buy Twitter (though the offer was mostly in hard to value Facebook stock), and now the redesign of the user’s homepage to look suspiciously like Twitter with it’s realtime feed of friends’ updates and activities.
But the truth is that Facebook users may not be ready for this level of speed, which Twitter users have already "living and breathing" for months or years at this point. Since I’ve been piping my Twitter updates to Facebook status updates, I’ve always worried that it was overloading my Facebook friends, and have recently throttled the pass-through way down.
So the jury is out whether Facebook users are en masse willing to take it to that level, or for that matter make use of the new possibilities of opening up one’s updates to the world (and thereby to Google to index). And since everyone all around Facebook is sharing things (like photos, which Facebook already just said in its TOS attempt it wants to hoard for itself), it may be hard to both maintain the Walled Garden, as well as open up Facebook in ways that could steal Twitter’s thunder.
So no, I don’t think Mark Zuckerberg has a completely free hand to play anymore. The ghosts that the sorcerers apprentice has called may prove harder and harder to call back. The monster that is Facebook is becoming harder and harder to control.
This should be fun to watch…


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Perfect World Entertainment has announced that it will showcase its latest game, Rusty Hearts, at Anime Expo, which starts tomorrow! The multiplayer online, hack n’ slash fighting game, which debuted at this year’s E3, will get its spot in the limelight at the largest anime and manga convention in the U.S. held annually at Los Angeles Convention Center.
Attendees of Anime Expo will be treated to exclusive interviews, new information on game details and game demos in a live streaming event thanks to Perfect World Entertainment’s partnership with Crunchyroll, an online website dedicated to East Asian media. They can also participate in fun activities to win great prizes! Won’t be at the convention but don’t wanna miss out? Fans can watch the event online and will even be able to submit questions they’d like to ask!
“We strongly believe in giving gamers a truly free-to-play, online experience through a high quality game like Rusty Hearts and we can’t wait to showcase all that it has to offer to anime and manga enthusiasts,” said Mark Hill, Game Producer for Rusty Hearts. “Our fans have blown us away with their continuous support and we are excited to give them an opportunity to follow us at Anime Expo through Crunchyroll’s live streaming event.”
Rusty Hearts will start Closed Beta Testing on July 27th, 2011. With Perfect World Entertainment having published successful titles such as Perfect World International, Forsaken World and Ether Saga Odyssey, we can expect that Rusty Hearts will be another blockbuster mmo that can capture the hearts of online gamers.
For more information on Rusty Hearts visit www.RH.perfect world.com
The Rusty Hearts streaming event can be watched live on www.crunchyroll.com/live at these times:
July 1, 2:00pm-4:00pm Pacific Standard Time
July 2, 3:00pm-4:00pm PST
July 3, 5:30pm PST


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According to the October report from Alexa, Facebook is now the 7th most visited site on the Internet by people from the UAE.
The current UAE ranking is Google UAE (1st), Yahoo (2nd), Windows Live (3rd), YouTube (4th), Microsoft Network-MSN (5th), Google.com (6th).
The largest Arab Online community, Maktoob comes in at 8th place.
GulfTalent.com, the Middle East’s leading online recruitment form announced the launch of its online job search application on Facebook according to a statement today from Al Bawaba (check out this extensive report).
Image: Facebook logo
Saudi: 90-day Amnesty for undocumented migrants - Last week, Saudi Arabia announced an amnesty for irregular migrants. Starting March 29, undocumented migrant workers will be able to avoid fines and penalt...
1 day ago


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Sony initially announced its revamped PlayStation Plus subscription plans back in March. Now, the company has (finally!!!) shared the service’s official launch date and a drool-worthy list of the classic games library members will have access to (be still our little gamer hearts!).
While it’s certainly a bargain, the Xbox Series S’ inability to play discs can cause a lot of frustration, especially if you own a bunch of old games. But a new patent from Microsoft shows that the “digital only” console could gain disc-playing abilities, sort of.
After the last Steam Deck update unlocked system-wide performance settings, gamers asked for the option to save these settings to individual games. And Valve listened—today’s update introduces per-game performance settings that you can quickly program through the Quick Access menu.
After several delays and a misleading “launch,” the big brains at Intel have finally shared a release roadmap for their Arc GPUs. But this roadmap shows that Intel will prioritize OEMs and large businesses in Asia before selling its Arc GPUs directly to PC builders—if you’re trying to ditch AMD and NVIDIA, prepare to wait a few months.
Gaming keyboards with analog optical switches can sense how much pressure you’re using, allowing you to control in-game characters with the precision usually found in an analog stick. But you’ll never find this technology in a laptop—never mind, Lenovo just broke the rules.
Fisher-Price baby toys are good for many things, but did you ever think one could be turned into a working Xbox controller? The popular modder and Twitch streamer Dylan “Rudeism” Beck did precisely that, then played Tony Hawk and Elden Ring with it.
When it comes to gaming, the only thing worse than losing a Boss Battle is your controller dying on you mid-game. But with these fantastic portable charging accessories, you can keep your Nintendo Switch charged wherever you go.
There are few things I love more than a nice, thorough deep cleaning session. At times, I’ve wished I could just get a pressure washer and use that to clean everything. Fortunately, with PowerWash Simulator, that’s exactly what I can do, and it is incredibly satisfying.
Alright, we need to sit down and have a talk. People are already breaking their TVs playing Nintendo Switch Sports, the Wii Sports sequel. It’s hilarious and nostalgic, but I’m begging you, please don’t make the same mistakes we made in 2006. Humanity is capable of so much more, right?
Monitors are a dime a dozen, but good gaming monitors that throw in features like HDR support, ultrawide dimensions, and controls that won’t drive you mad are much harder to find. You can look no further than BenQ’s Mobiuz EX3410R gaming monitor. It ticks just about all the boxes.


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The Plasencia Year of the Tiger is officially on its way to stores in America today.
The cigar shipped began arriving at stores in international markets in mid-January and was shown off in the U.S. at the 2022 Tobacco Plus Expo in late January. It is a 6 1/4 x 54 Nicaraguan puro that the company calls medium-bodied, due in large part to the blend using tobacco that has been aged for 10 years in the Plasencia library of tobaccos.
“Smooth and flavorful is the best way I can describe the Year of the Tiger,” said Nestor Andrés Plasencia via a press release. “This medium strength cigar delivers notes of chocolate, nuts, and some initial spiciness.”
It comes with an MSRP of $40 for the U.S. market, with 2,500 of the 6,250 eight-count boxes destined for U.S. shelves. The remaining cigars will be sold throughout the world, with several international retailers already listing them for sale.
This marks the second year that the company has released a cigar celebrating the Chinese Zodiac, as last year Plasencia created a cigar for the Year of the Ox but did not offer it to U.S. retailers.
Update — Clarified that this cigar was already on sale in international markets last month.
Image courtesy of Plasencia Cigars S.A.


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Disney+ launched in November 2019 with great fanfare. And after a successful first two years, The Walt Disney Company is celebrating with the first Disney+ Day on November 12, 2021. Subscribers will also have a good reason to celebrate, too, because the company plans to release several high-profile projects that day to commemorate the occasion.
First and foremost among the Disney+ Day news is the announcement that Marvel Studios’ Shang-Chi and the Legend of Ten Rings will become available on Disney+ that day for no additional fee.
Unlike Black Widow, Shang-Chi was given an exclusive theatrical window, and it’s currently the box office champion heading into its fourth weekend. The film was initially expected to hit the service’s additional-cost tier, called Disney+ Premier Access, before arriving on the standard tier, but it looks like this is Disney’s way of thanking fans for making the company’s streaming service such a success.
As part of Disney+ Day, the company is throwing the spotlight on all of its biggest brands including Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar, and National Geographic. Marvel Studios is also premiering a new special teasing “an exciting look toward the future.” Lucasfilm will be represented by a new special focusing on Star Wars bounty hunter Boba Fett, which may offer fans an early look at The Book of Boba Fett ahead of its December debut. And characters from Pixar’s Luca will also return in a new animated short film, Ciao Alberto.
Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt’s box office hit, The Jungle Cruise, will also become available for all subscribers on Disney+ Day. Disney will also debut the new original film, Home Sweet Home Alone, an updated take on the classic Home Alone franchise. But that won’t be Disney’s only contribution to the anniversary celebration. A new series of Frozen shorts, called Olaf Presents, will make their Disney+ debut alongside a number of Disney’s previously released shorts like Feast and Paperman.
National Geographic’s Disney+ original series, The World According to Jeff Goldblum, is also debuting the first five episodes from season 2 on Disney+ Day. Finally, a new Simpsons short will “pay tribute to Disney+’s marquee brands.”
“The inaugural Disney+ Day will be a grand-scale celebration of our subscribers across the entire company,” said Disney CEO Bob Chapek in a statement. “This day of appreciation brings to life our mission to entertain, inform, and inspire fans and families around the globe through the power of unparalleled storytelling, and will become an annual tentpole event to be amplified across our global businesses.”
- Ten rings and imagination: Behind Shang-Chi’s VFX magic
- The Book of Boba Fett’s new trailer heralds his return
- The Book of Boba Fett trailer offers a peek at Return of the Jedi aftermath
- The Book of Boba Fett: Everything we know about The Mandalorian spinoff series
- To celebrate Disney+ Day, Shang-Chi will debut on streaming service November 12


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This essay first appeared on Business Day, March 18, 2020
The outbreak of Covid-19 will change the way we live our lives, without exception. The virus has raised serious concerns in society, ranging from health safety and economic conditions to essential food supplies.
In the UK, US and parts of SA we are starting to see empty shelves as consumers stockpile in fear of disruptions to global food chains. This has given rise to questions whether SA could experience food shortages in the near to medium term.
I doubt that this will be the case, at least on a national level for most food products. SA is an agriculturally endowed country, and is generally a net exporter of agricultural and food products. The prospects of an abundant harvest of staple grains and fruit in 2020 are good.
SA nevertheless depends on essential imported food products such as rice, wheat and palm oil. Key palm oil suppliers are Indonesia and Malaysia. The typical rice suppliers are Asia and the Far East, namely Thailand, India, Pakistan, China and Vietnam, some of which are hard hit by the pandemic. In the case of wheat, the suppliers are usually Germany, Russia, Lithuania, the US and the Czech Republic, and some have also been hit hard.
As some of the countries that have reported Covid-19 cases have not taken drastic measures to limit business activity and reduce the spread of the virus, SA’s importation of some of these agricultural products could continue unabated.
SA also imports poultry products and sunflower oil, but these can be replaced by local suppliers should global supply chains be disrupted.
In the unlikely event of shortages occurring they are likely to be due to logistical bottlenecks in shipping rather than a decline in global essential grain supplies. The 2019/2020 global wheat production is expected to amount to 764-million tonnes, up 5% from the previous year, according to data from the US agriculture department. The estimated 2019/2020 global rice production is 499-million tonnes, about the same as in the previous season.
The readiness of domestic food supply chains is most likely to be tested in the coming weeks and months if panic-buying caused by fear of the spread of Covid-19 surges to the levels in the UK and US.
The implications of Covid-19 on food price inflation remains unclear in the near term. We continue to monitor consumer buying behaviour for signals of rising demand. SA has ample food supplies for 2020, and we have therefore forecast a food price inflation rate for the year of about 4%, compared with 3.1% in 2019.
The uptick in food price inflation compared with the previous year is associated with a potential increase in meat prices rather than the Covid-19 pandemic, which has had a deflationary effect on some exported fruit commodities.
The negative effects of the virus are likely to be felt most by farmers and agribusinesses, through the potential slowdown of export demand and a likely subsequent decline in agricultural commodity prices. SA’s agricultural sector is export-orientated and relies heavily on global markets. Nearly half of the value of the country’s production is exported.
As Asia and Europe, which accounted for half of the $10bn of SA agricultural exports in 2019, are the hardest-hit by Covid-19, people’s routines and supply chains in these regions could be disrupted as governments strive to limit the spread of the virus.
Follow me on Twitter (@WandileSihlobo). E-mail: email@example.com


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Honor held a virtual launch today, announcing two new phones in the Play series: a standard Play 6T and a slightly more powerful Play 6T Pro. Both have 5G-enabled Dimensity chipsets and attractive prices, but these devices are likely to remain limited to the domestic market.
The Honor Play 6T has a 6.7-inch LCD screen with a water drop notch on top of a 5-megapixel camera. It is equipped with a Dimensity 700 chipset and 8 GB of RAM as well as 128 GB of storage space.
The back has a new design that we haven’t seen on an Honor phone before, as well as a 13MP main sensor.
The phone ships with Magic UI 5.0, which is based on Android 11. The Play 6T is powered by a 5,000 mAh battery that lacks a fancy fast charging standard.
The phone will be available in black, blue, and silver for 1,199 CNY (approximately $ 190). There is also a 256 GB option for CNY1,399 (approximately $220).
The Honor Play 6T Pro also has a 6.7-inch LCD screen on the front, but this one houses an 8-megapixel camera and has a 1080p resolution. It is powered by a Dimensity 810 chip and comes with 8GB of RAM.


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Netflix reportedly terminated the employee who leaked details on Dave Chappelle’s ‘The Closer’ special
Naver Webtoon collaborating with BTS' HYBE agency and DC Comics
Naver Webtoon is reportedly collaborating with some of the famous names in the global entertainment scene today. Based on the reports, the South Korean webtoon publisher is teaming up with HYBE, the home of BTS boy band, and DC Comics, an American comic book publisher.
The new agreement of Naver Webtoon with BTS’ agency, HYBE, and DC Comics was publicly announced on Wednesday, Aug. 18, through a press event that was organized by Webtoon Entertainment Inc. The partnership was described during the conference as a “super casting” initiative on the part of the Korean webtoon company.
It was added that the goal for collaboration is to produce new original web novels and webcomics using external IP sourced from global entertainment companies. Of course, there will be various translations of the stories that will be published. Then again, the other details of the project were not revealed.
“One of our plans for this year, named ‘Super Casting,’ is the collaboration with other leading companies in the entertainment industry,” Kim Jun Koo, Naver Webtoon’s chief executive officer, said during Wednesday’s press event. “We are planning to build an interesting platform and universe with the artists, including BTS, allowing both readers and K-pop fans to enjoy the new contents.”
The Korea Herald reported that the Naver Webtoon CEO went on to say that the team up with DC Comics also means that they will be publishing original content and other works via its company’s webtoon platform.
Naver is being seen as the global leader in the webtoon market. This means that it only continued to grow since it was launched in 2004 and now has millions of users around the world. Currently, it has six million writers and over 160 million users.
Finally, according to The Korea Economic Daily, Naver Webtoon’s latest partnership deal with HYBE and DC Comics will further push the company to become the top digital comics platform. This will also effectively expand its reach on the global stage, and apparently, this will lead to enormous success, especially after gaining rights to publish original content about BTS and DC Comics.


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NEW YORK / BURBANK, Calif., June 23, 2010 – DC Comics, publisher of Superman, Batman, Green Lantern and Fables, is partnering with comiXology and PlayStation®Network for two separate digital comics distribution deals launching today, Wednesday, June 23. In addition, a DC Comics App for the iPhone®, iPad® and iPod® Touch is available allowing consumers an easy way to access DC Comics’ content. The announcement was made jointly today by DC Entertainment and Warner Bros. Digital Distribution.
Bonus: Now we can finally read Zuda comics without that horrible Flash interface, since Flash is to Apple mobile devices what garlic is to vampires.
DC has gotten a lot of flack for not throwing their hat into the iPod/iPhone/iPad ring along with… well, every other publisher under the sun. Comixology paved the way with the debut of their comics reading app last July and even created an app specifically for Marvel. The stakes got a bit higher recently with Marvel going day and date with one of their comics, albeit for a markup. But now that DC has launched its app they’ve also taken the full plunge, putting day and date comics on the app at shelf price, as well as making a more competitive pricing structure: prices range from free, to $0.99, and up.
Anyway, I’m sure you can find plenty of talk about the impact this will have on the publishers online, but my initial thought is that ComiXology has now officially and completely changed the game. A few years ago comic reading interfaces on the iPhone/iPod were counterintuitive, and the selection was grim. Marvel and DC had no presence, and the only Image book available to download was Elephantmen in its own app. I remember seeing the Comixology Comics app before it hit the store and thinking it was unbelievable, and an incredibly easy and fun way to read comics. Fast forward a little over a year later the app was so successful that now Marvel and DC (that’s Disney and Time Warner) have reached out to the company in order to build their officially branded apps. That’s an incredible leap, and add that to the hundreds of other comics on the official ComiXology app that are available to read and what you’ve got is a legitimate stranglehold on the market. That’s huge.
Think about it this way: Diamond was/is the number one source of distribution for comics in this country. The big two comic companies no longer show any faith in Diamond. (DC for quite some time.) Both have latched onto ComiXology as a form of digital distribution. If there needed to be some impetus for the “digital revolution” in comics I think we may have just seen it.
UPDATE: And for all the retailers out there…
“Staying true to comiXology’s support of comic retailers, DC’s partnership with comiXology also includes a first-of-its-kind Retailer Affiliate Program, which will collect a portion of digital revenues to be invested back to and on behalf of comic book retailers in a variety of initiatives.”


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Canal Plus alleges that NDS, a rival smartcard technology business, had deliberately cracked its security software and published it on websites, where it was picked up and used by counterfeiters to produce thousands of illegal smart cards.
ITV Digital, which uses the Canal Plus technology, said: 'Piracy has been a significant and expensive problem for us. We have been working for some time with Canal Plus in trying to uncover the source of the piracy. The implications of the claims now being made are truly shocking and we are considering all our options.'
BSkyB, 40% owned by News Corporation, uses NDS technology for its smart cards. Lachlan Murdoch, Rupert's eldest son, joined the NDS board last month. NDS declined to comment until it had looked at the filing in detail.
The Canal Plus suit filed with Palo Alto court in California last night described in detail 'cloak and dagger' operations carried out by NDS of Staines, Middlesex. The French pay-television group alleges that its smartcard technology, which allows broadcasters to encrypt their signals and ensures that they can collect revenue from subscribers, incorporated security measures that were 'more than adequate until March 1999 when its smart card software code was copied and published on a website called DR7.com'.
It said that it had spent more than $35m developing the technology and alleges that NDS obtained its smart cards and sent them to an NDS laboratory in Israel for analysis. 'At this facility, NDS had acquired and assembled the costly equipment needed to make invasive attacks on smart cards,' it said.
It claims that a dedicated team of scientists successfully extracted the software on the cards and NDS then took steps to have it published 'so that counterfeiters could exploit it to develop counterfeit smart cards'.
These counterfeit cards began to appear on the market in late 1999 and 'by September 2000, the Italian market was flooded with the cheap counterfeit cards and they were also proliferating in other markets. In some markets, consumers have as ready access to the counterfeit cards as to legitimate ones'.Reuse content


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BOCA to Go Egg-Free
Thanks to compassionate consumers and Compassion Over Killing (COK)
that teamed up with Mercy For Animals and the Animal Protection & Rescue
League, BOCA has announced that will no longer use eggs in its products.
A company spokesperson e-mailed COK and said: "…I am pleased to let you
know the BOCA brand will be eliminating eggs in all of its products by
the end of this year. We anticipate all BOCA products will be egg free
in 2010." Please contact the company to thank them for making this
compassionate decision at
How great it is that a company decides to go egg-free and make its
products completely animal free! Little by little, progress in being
made in behalf of all of God's Creation.
Your question and comments are welcome


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Other than the Prius, which is now nearly 10 years old, I can’t remember the last Toyota model that got people really excited.
Owners talk instead about how their Toyotas are “trusty” and “dependable.” They are “easy on gas.” And they “never, ever give them any trouble.”
Toyotas have been “safe bets.” Purchasing one wouldn’t raise an eyebrow at the water cooler. But it wouldn’t inspire a high-five either.
“Oh, what a feeling” has become “oh, it’s a Toyota.”
And that’s the car maker’s next problem. People may be bored with the brand and its ubiquity.
Toyota’s current gas-pedal crisis creates a disruptive environment that will lift the “brand blinders” of current owners, giving them permission to shop around—and creating social pressure to do so.
When those shoppers hit the showrooms, cars from Ford and GM, Hyundai and Honda, VW and Kia, may look unexpectedly exotic and alluring.


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Following weeks of lockdown, huge changes this weekend will see the easing of a number of strict government rules and guidelines.
On Saturday, July 4, pubs, restaurants, salons and cinemas will be able to trade again after being forced to close back in March.
And although some of the changes mean people will be able to see more of their friends and family, some restrictions still remain in place.
Boris Johnson announced the changes last month as the UK emerges from lockdown into a 'new normal'.
Despite the changes, the government has warned that if cases of coronavirus rise again it will enforce 'local lockdowns' - should any town or city see a spike in cases.
Leicester has already been put into 'local lockdown' after 10 per cent of new COVID-19 cases came from Leicester over the past week.
Since mid-March the country has been kept at a standstill, with schools, workplaces and non-essential shops closed, with many people working from home.
Here are the six things still prohibited in July:
1. Gathering indoors in groups of more than two households (your support bubble counts as one household) - this includes when dining out or going to the pub.
2. Gather outdoors in a group of more than six people from different households; gatherings larger than 6 should only take place if everyone is from just two households.
3. Interact socially with anyone outside the group you are attending a place with, even if you see other people you know, for example, in a restaurant, community centre or place of worship.
4. Hold or attend celebrations (such as parties) where it is difficult to maintain social distancing.
5. Stay overnight away from your home with members of more than one other household (your support bubble counts as one household).
6. You must also stay away from businesses not allowed to open yet.
Nightclubs have to stay shut, as well as bowling alleys, casinos, indoor skating rinks, nail salons, beauty parlours, tanning salons, massage parlours, tattoo studios, piercing studios, indoor play areas - including soft-play - and spas.
Other businesses to stay shut are indoor fitness and dance studios, and indoor gyms and sports venues/facilities, swimming pools and water parks and exhibition or conference centres - where they are to be used for exhibitions or conferences, other than for those who work for that venue.


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Housebuilder says cut in interest rate was ‘not enough’
Housebuilder Westbury PLC has issued a gloomy trading statement ahead of releasing its half-year results later today. It says that a fall in sales, higher marketing costs and price pressures has caused a significant drop in operating profit and margin for first six months of 2005, and that the recent reduction in interest rates was not enough to make a real difference.
During the six-month period Westbury says it sold 1,934 units, at an average price of £195,000. The average price for the same period last year was £192,150. It said that despite the buying public’s short-term lack of confidence there was a core of buyers that would sustain the industry until the economic outlook improved.
In its statement the housebuilder said that its plans to increase outlets had been partially successful, but that it had been frustrated by a planning system that “continues to operate haphazardly”. It said that with no trigger to stimulate activity it expected the full year results to be similar to those for 2004/05.


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INNOTOX is a Clostridium botulinum toxin type A (Hall strain), which was developed in South Korea by Medytox Inc in 2014. Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety has approved to sell INNOTOX 100 units, Medytox liquid-type botulinum toxin (BTX) A-Type product, in the domestic market.
With the approval, Medytox has secured a lineup of various capacities, along with the existing 25 and 50 units, and increased the capacity utilization rate of its second plant, which exclusively manufactures BTX products under U.S. current good manufacturing practice guidelines.
INNOTOX is the world’s first liquid botulinum toxin type A drug. Enhances safety by eliminating human serum albumin and animal-derived substances in the manufacturing process. The BTX comes out in a liquid-type formulation and can be used immediately without a separate dilution process, further improving the convenience of treatment and having the advantage of more accurate treatment capacity calculation, Medytox said.
1) Drug structure – Innotox is available in a new liquid phase, so it does not require dilution. One bottle contains the finished product solution for 50 or 100 units.
2) Composition – the improved formula does not contain: proteins, albumin, gelatin compared to other similar botulinum toxins.
3) Temperature conditions – insensitive to temperature changes, unlike solid phase preparations.
4) Diffusion – has the lowest diffusion of all currently known botulinum toxins.
5) Effect – during treatments, the effect lasts up to 10 months, unlike other botulinum toxins, where the effect lasts up to 6 months.
Innotox Injection Area
“The sales approval for INNOTOX 100 unit is significant as it has allowed the company to secure a lineup of various capacities, and help the company meet consumer needs better,” Medytox CEO Jung Hyun-ho said. “Clinical trials are underway to secure additional indications for INNOTOX and accelerate the company’s advance to the premium BTX market.” The company also plans to unveil a new prefilled syringe-type BTX, Jung said.


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by Joe Tressa
The building occupied by Prime Pacific Oriental Rug and Furniture Liquidators, at 8034-8040 Germantown Ave. – the former site of Diane Bryman Rugs – has been put up for sale.
SSH Real Estate, one of the largest real estate firms in the region, is offering the property for $1.75 million. Representatives of SSH told the Local that the shop will close when the building is sold, but that it will stay in business until someone buys the property. The building is currently owned by Edmond Azizi, owner and president of Prime Pacific.
Before it was Prime Pacific, the building was home to Diane Bryman Rugs, which opened in 1960 and closed in 2012. Azizi was the owner and president of that store as well.
Adam Gillespie, SSH senior vice president for investment services, said in a press release that he’s hoping to find a large retailer for the 11,000-square-foot store.
This location, according to Gillespie, offers a good opportunity for a business since it is right in the middle of Chestnut Hill, which he said was a “lively, walkable downtown business district.”


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MINI has made a fully-electric vehicle before and it also currently has a plug-in hybrid model. However, it’s never really been a brand huge on electrification. That’s not entirely surprising, given the brand’s small model portfolio but it’s worth noting because it’s about to roll out a ton of electrified models in the future. In fact, all future MINIs will be offered with electrified powertrains.
What does that mean? Well, it means that all future MINIs will have at least the option of a plug-in hybrid powertrain. Some models might be fully-electric, some might only be plug-ins. But all models will at least have the option of some form of electrification.
We know that a fully-electric three-door MINI-E is on the way and that will be a pure BEV (Battery Electric Vehicle). However, every new model after that will have the option of a plug-in hybrid powertrain. It’s something that the brand has seen success with already and wants to keep the ball rolling.
“Electromobility is an excellent fit for our urban, progressive and open-minded customers. The success of the Mini Countryman plug-in hybrid, which accounted for 13 percent of the model’s global sales last year, demonstrates that.” said Peter Schwarzenbauer, BMW Group board member responsible for MINI and Rolls Royce. “To secure the long-term future of MINI, we will enable the range to be all electric, should the customer prefer that”
While the famed British brand will obviously still sell gasoline and diesel-powered cars, e-mobility will be a huge part of the brand moving forward. “Let me be clear, though, there will not be a single MINI model we plan to launch that a customer won’t be able to order with an electrified drivetrain,” said Schwarzenbauer.
This news might bother some purists but we actually like the idea. In fact, I personally think the idea of an electric MINI is fantastic. I drove a classic MINI that was converted to electric last year and absolutely loved it. I thought the punchy nature of the electric motor fit the spirit of a MINI better than any gasoline engine.
[Source: Car Scoops]


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Pillsbury Co. is offering a whopper of a deal.
Pillsbury, the Minneapolis-based parent of Burger King Corp., has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission for the sale of limited-partnership interests in a master limited partnership that proposes to buy Burger King restaurants.
The restaurants will number between 115 and 128 and are leased to Burger King franchisees. The units will continue to be leased and operated by the franchisees.
Pillsbury said it expects to realize up to $81 million from the offering, resulting in an after-tax gain of up to $27 million. The sale is expected in January or February.
Burger King and Pillsbury would be general partners of the master limited partnership. The limited-partnership interests are expected to be sold to the public in an underwriting to be managed by Merrill Lynch Capital Markets. Any public offering would be made only by means of a prospectus.