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8-year-old’s bracelet business sponsors cat adoptions in Rowan County
Published 12:01 am Sunday, July 24, 2022
SALISBURY — An industrious 8-year-old girl’s bracelet business is helping cats in the Carolinas find homes, one piece of jewelry at a time.
After raising $521 in a week, the profits were presented to Salisbury’s PetSmart on Friday to sponsor several cats for families who could not afford adoption fees.
Brenna Edwards of Monroe started her bracelet-making business just before the summer after her cousin introduced her to the world of jewelry making, specifically earrings. Since her cousin sold earrings, Edwards decided to have a shop with custom-made bracelets using clay beads and silver charms to share with her friends and family.
Each bracelet costs $3, but she wanted to set aside $1 from each sale for donation to the Rowan County cat rescue. Her mother, Lauren Edwards, is a part of Carolina Sanctuary and Rescue, a nonprofit organization dedicated to finding homes for cats. The family has been a foster home for cats in the Monroe area, but they also have three cats of their own named Bubbles, Callie and Nelson.
To Brenna’s delight, her bracelet business has expanded both across and outside of the state. Last month, she received orders from New Hampshire and Virginia as well as all across North Carolina.
“She was jumping up and down when she received all those orders, especially the one from New Hampshire, ” her mother said. “We posted about her bracelets on our adoption pages and the rescue’s page and it got shared. Everybody was just amazed that she was doing it, so she got lots of orders.”
Leading up to PetSmart Charities’ adoption event in Salisbury on July 16, Brenna crafted all week and made 42 bracelets to sell at the event, ranging from cat-themed trinkets to custom-designed themes per the request of the customer. By the time it was over, she had sold out of all she had. She hopes that every dollar she made that Saturday and the week before will help families adopt a cat, since the donated funds will go toward adoption fees that can range from $80 to $100. Proceeds raised at future events will also be donated to cat charities.
The favorite bracelet she made was one with one purple and pink beads with a silver cat charm.
Brenna’s next venture for her bracelet business includes being a vendor at the Fairview Fall Festival in Monroe on Oct. 6. She also continues to take orders that can be placed by messaging the Bracelets by Brenna Facebook page, texting 704-490-1145 or emailing firstname.lastname@example.org.


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New Camposol brand “The Berry That Cares” focuses on sustainability
The Berry That Cares is Camposol’s new proposition that it hopes will help communicate its commitment to the environment, communities, workers, and consumer.
It responds to consumers who increasingly want to know the story behind their food, and who want to engage with companies that support sustainability practices.
"The Berry That Cares, its new brand of berries that will be available to worldwide consumers in the main supermarkets of the United States, Canada, Europe, and China, starting October 2017," Camposol told in a release.
"The brand highlights Camposol’s commitment to the consumer, the planet, the community, and its workers, offering pesticide-free berries, non-genetically modified organisms (no GMO); providing for workers a just and committed relationship, care for the environment, and development of a community where once only a desert reigned."
Camposol has been conducting social responsibility programs with its workers and their families to improve the quality of their lives. They provide, for example, ongoing training and run the Wawa Wasi daycare centre that has serviced more than a thousand youngsters since its creation, all of which are children of field and plant workers.
In the company’s 20 years of growth, the adjoining communities have grown along with it. Camposol has fostered sustainable entrepreneurship, and projects in health and housing have emerged, such as the construction and operation of the Nuevo Chao medical center.
With regard to the environment, Camposol has worked to make more efficient use of water resources and helped in the innovation of eco-efficiency and wastewater management projects. It also forests desert areas and does annual fauna and flora census in its areas of operation.
For more information: www.theberrythatcares.com
Publication date: 10/11/2017
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New Toyota Canada boss comes home to gear up for NX production
For Frank Voss, it’s a homecoming.
The new president of Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada (TMMC), with plants in Woodstock and Cambridge, may have come straight from Kentucky, but he grew up near Hamilton and graduated from McMaster University in engineering, he said.
As TMMC president, he’ll have his hands full managing the plants and overseeing introduction of a new vehicle, the Lexus NX crossover, which the Cambridge plant landed in 2019 when it lost the Corolla.
“We are in full swing getting that product ready to launch, we are gearing up,” said Voss, who expects to assemble 50,000 of the entry-level luxury SUVs a year, starting in 2022.
“We are working on getting our products launched successfully. There is a lot of training and investment.”
TMMC also has increased production of the RAV4 in Cambridge and Woodstock and launched hybrid versions after Corolla production was moved to Mexico.
“We have transitioned successfully and the NX will be a great opportunity,” said Voss.
Voss, 55, grew up on a farm in Dunnville. He was most recently a vice-president at Toyota Motor Manufacturing in Kentucky, but was at TMMC in Ontario before that, including serving as general manager of the Lexus manufacturing division and running production and information systems. He started at TMMC in 2002.
Voss replaces Fred Volf, who retired.
In his new job, managing all production and operations in Woodstock and Cambridge, Voss said his focus will be maintaining their “great reputation” for quality.
Cambridge’s north plant, where the Lexus RX is built, won its third J.D. Power Platinum award for top quality in the world in 2019. Its south plant, which makes the RAV4, won bronze. It was the fourth time both plants were honoured in the same year.
In total, TMMC has won 18 J.D. Power awards for vehicle quality.
Toyota announced last April that TMMC would get the NX and a $1.4-billion investment in its plants.
Toyota recently released Canadian sales figures for January, and sales of the Cambridge-built RX line were up about 43 per cent from January 2019. NX sales were up six per cent, and RAV4 sales, seven per cent, for the same period. RAV4 hybrid sales spiked by 38 per cent, a new January record, the automaker reported.
In all, Toyota Canada sold 1,728 hybrid electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles in January, up 30.5 per cent from the same month in 2019.
For all vehicles, the Toyota division reported 12,034 sales in January, down 5.8 per cent.
In 2019, the RAV4 became Canada’s top-selling vehicle, excluding pickup trucks, with 65,248 sold, up 17.8 per cent from 2018, the automaker said. It was Toyota Canada’s best single-year sales by any vehicle yet.
Toyota Canada also recorded its best overall sales year to date in 2019, with 237,091 vehicles sold and annual sales growth of 2.4 per cent.


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Bitcoin is a digital currency that is quickly becoming an alternative method of payment all over the globe. While it hasn’t yet been adopted as a primary currency by any countries, it has been approved as a secondary and tertiary currency in a few countries that are doing well economically, such as Switzerland and Japan.
Like any currency, the value of Bitcoin fluctuates on a regular basis, continuously altering in value every single day. Bitcoin reached its peak value around halfway through 2013, when the value of Bitcoin reached just over $1,000- a very impressive figure indeed. However, after peaking the value of the Bitcoin dropped quite rapidly following this. It seemed unlikely that the value would ever surge this much again until the beginning of 2015 when things began to turn themselves around again. Around half way through the year, the value of Bitcoin began to rise, and by the start of 2016, the value had increased from a low of $219 to $420- that’s almost double the lowest value Bitcoin had seen and certainly caught the eye of financial experts and shareholders alike.
It was predicted that by January 2017, the value of Bitcoin would have increased and actually doubled again. Online gaming was more popular than ever before, more retailers were accepting Bitcoin as a method of payment than ever before, and with countries as influential as Japan using Bitcoin as a secondary currency to the national currency, it seemed that the value of the cryptocurrency would only surge.
Two months into 2017 it can be confirmed that the value of the Bitcoin has indeed increased since January 2016- it had a steady growth throughout the year- and by January 2017 the value had indeed doubled in value- in fact, it had more than doubled, taking the current value of Bitcoin to $969.
At the rate Bitcoin is going, it seems likely that the cryptocurrency will only continue to increase in value, and if it doubles again over the next year, investors and shareholders in Bitcoin will be very happy come 2018.


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New York State Courts Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman Wednesday announced a set of reforms aimed at increasing requirements for collection agencies and debt buyers who file suits to recover debts from consumers in the state. Although open for public comment, the new rules are expected take effect in June.
The State of New York Unified Court System said that the proposed package of reforms represents the most comprehensive effort by a court system nationally to ensure a fair legal process for all debtors in consumer credit cases.
“While no one disputes that consumers should pay their debts or that businesses have every right to resort to the courts to collect what is legally owed to them, the Judiciary has an obligation to prevent inequitable debt collection practices in the courts and ensure a fair legal process for all litigants. Dubious consumer debt litigation practices can lead to unwarranted default judgments, often with devastating consequences for the debtor ─ typically a lower-income New Yorker struggling to support a family and find or maintain a job,” said Chief Judge Lippman.“These comprehensive reforms announced today, together with the ongoing efforts of our partners in the Executive and Legislative Branches, New York’s bar and legal services community, will set a national standard by which consumer debtors receive fair treatment in the courts.”
The reforms, available in full at http://www.nycourts.gov/rules/comments/PDF/ConsumeCreditPC-Package.pdf, are being issued for a 30-day public comment period, to expire on May 30, with implementation expected by mid-June 2014.
Lippman’s office noted that the package of reforms build on the collective efforts of the Attorney General’s Office, the State Department of Financial Services, and the State Legislature to reform legal debt collection practices and protect consumers, as well as on the best practices being developed and refined in the New York City Civil Court.
Among the proposed changes in consumer debt litigation practices and are:
- Requirements that creditors submit affidavits containing detailed proof in support of default judgment applications ensuring that the substantive and evidentiary standards for default judgments required under New York law are met.
- Statewide rules and policies to stop the practice of suing on debt when the statute of limitations has expired as well as to prevent “sewer service” in consumer debt cases.
- Procedures and user-friendly forms ensuring that unrepresented consumers who appear in court have access to comprehensible information and resources so that they can understand the claims against them and formulate appropriate defenses.
- Partnerships with bar associations and law schools to increase pro bono representation of defendants in consumer credit cases in the hardest hit areas.


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ARDMORE, Pennsylvania (WPVI) -- Shops and restaurants still under lock down are anxiously awaiting the green light to reopen. But while they wait, business owners are busy making adjustments and preparing for customers.
From floor to ceiling partitions to the plexiglass at the register, Bernie's Hair Studio in Ardmore, Pa. may be shuttered, but it's ready to serve customers whenever Governor Wolf opens Montgomery County.
"As soon as we get the green light we can open up our doors and we're all set up, we'll just take your temperature, put your mask on," said Bernadette Maurone, Owner of Bernie's hair studio.
Maurone says the newly outfitted space, is equipped to keep staff and a limited amount of customers at a time six feet apart. While everyone required to wear masks.
"We took the waiting area away, so that we don't have a bunch of people sitting there," said a salon employee.
Businesses are eager to re-open, and local governments are eager to help them.
"We peaked, we plateaued and haven't had any new cases," said Pennsburg Mayor Vicki Lightcap. Which was a sticking point for Lightcap to reopen Pennsburg.
Lightcap says a council meeting at the end of the month is scheduled to decide just that.
When asked "Pennsburg would reopen without the Governor?" Lightcap said, "Yes, I don't think he's taking into consideration specific areas in his Commonwealth that hit his guidelines and numbers."
Caitlin Wedge, Restaurant Director of Stove and Co. Restaurant group said, "We see other counties in pa, not even just other states opening up and we want to get work."
Businesses like Bercy's who are doing take out and cocktails to go are waiting to see what a reopening will look like for them.
"We're taking as many steps as we can to make sure the restaurant is good for the health inspection, everyone is safe and clean, but without specific guidelines, it's hard for us to get started."
Ardmore, Pa business owner makes adjustments while awaiting to reopen amid COVID-19
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Irving, Texas-based Hostess is giving consumers another way to celebrate Valentine’s Day this year with the launch of new Chocolate Creme Twinkies. Following a special limited-edition offering of the treat last spring, the golden cakes’ signature creme filling is getting a chocolate-y makeover just in time for the sweetest holiday of the year—and the flavor is here to stay.
“For over 80 years, Twinkies have been delighting Americans with their delicious golden cake and creme filling, and new Chocolate Creme Twinkies will be giving Hostess fans a chocolate-y twist on an iconic treat that will keep them smiling for years to come,” said Amy Clark, director of snack marketing for Hostess.
To learn more about Chocolate Creme Twinkies, visit www.Facebook.com/Hostess. For more information about Hostess, visit www.hostesscakes.com.


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Here's a fresh batch of spy photos of the new Mercedes-Benz S-Class Coupe that will replace the current CL-Class luxury two-door model at the end of 2014 or in early 2015, as the Germans continue to shuffle up the brand's designations.
Mercedes-Benz may revert to the S-Class Coupe moniker that was last used in W140 generation from the 1990s, but the new model won't be just an S-Class with two doors, as it will feature its own distinct styling highlighted by the heavily arched roofline, the padded rear fenders and the lowered front end.
Of course, under the skin, you will find the rear-wheel-drive architecture of the next generation S-Class sedan, which should bring notable weight savings and more electronic gizmos than a video arcade.
As pointed out in our previous scoop story, the new S-Class Coupe will likely launch with twin-turbocharged V8 and V12 engines for both the regular and the 63- and 65-AMG models. Like the current CL, the entry-level V8 S-Class Coupe will probably be optionally available with Benz's 4MATIC all-wheel drive system in certain markets, including North America.
Photo Credits: CarPix for CarScoop


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What’s going on:
Metaverse visionary Neal Stephenson is building a blockchain to uplift creators — cointelegraph.com
“I worry about things that are not directly related to blockchain and the Metaverse. I worry about climate change and about social fragmentation.”
Facebook’s Metaverse “Will Misfire”: Vitalik Buterin — Crypto Briefing — cryptobriefing.com
Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin believes the Metaverse “is going to happen,” but he doesn’t think corporations will successfully build it.
A New VR Experience Takes You Into a Museum of Stolen Masterpieces — hyperallergic.com
The “Stolen Art Gallery” features five works by Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Manet, Cézanne, and van Gogh, long lost to public view but fully visible in the metaverse.
The U.S. Army, not Meta, is building the metaverse | VentureBeat — venturebeat.com
The metaverse: How U.S. Army practices (not those of Meta) offer a framework for a large-scale, open-source digital world..
A Stanford Graduate Raises $2M To Plug Privacy Into The Right Web3 Socket — www.forbes.com
As Web3 and cryptocurrency applications mature and grow in user adoption, the privacy concerns around sharing your wallet address persist. Socket, founded by Stanford graduate Eva Zhang in 2022, is a Web3 privacy infrastructure for social interactions via crypto applications.
The WTF award of the week goes to…
The Dune bible crypto collective wants to sell its Dune bible — The Verge — www.theverge.com
Spice DAO, a cryptocurrency decentralized autonomous organization (or DAO) built around a script bible for Alejandro Jodorowsky’s never-made adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune, is planning a radical shift in direction.
Gaming vets promise to make blockchain games fun and sustainable — TechCrunch — techcrunch.com
The runaway success of Axie Infinity and StepN has convinced a flurry of entrepreneurs that web3 gaming, where the ownership of in-game assets is in the hands of users via blockchain adoption rather than a centralized platform, is the future. Some of the biggest hits in the space to date reward users with tokens that […]
Amazon vet flips NFT model on its head, creates a climate friendly marketplace for digital art sales — GeekWire — www.geekwire.com
Well before cryptocurrencies and NFTs began to fizzle this spring, Carly Rector was already sour on their use for digital art sales. Rector, who is herself a digital artist and… Read More
Dynamic NFTs, also known as Living NFTs, use smart contracts to change based on external data sources. Here’s how they work.
Netgear Joins SuperRare DAO to Develop NFT Art Licensing Model — Blockworks — blockworks.co
Collaboration includes showcasing curated SuperRare NFT collections on Meural smart frames
All my apes gone: Legal disputes at the intersection of IP and NFTs — TechCrunch — techcrunch.com
NFTs are no different than old-school physical assets in one important way: They’re governed by a legal framework which, in many respects, is rooted in the 20th century.
VR Malware Lets Hackers Into Your Headset — VRScout — vrscout.com
Hackers have developed a new form of VR malware for Android-based headsets that lets them record your headset screen.
Each of these uses of NFTs and other blockchain technologies creates digital ownership based on scarcity and exclusion, which does not align with Minecraft values of creative inclusion and playing together. NFTs are not inclusive of all our community and create a scenario of the haves and the have-nots.
The speculative pricing and investment mentality around NFTs takes the focus away from playing the game and encourages profiteering, which we think is inconsistent with the long-term joy and success of our players.
MINECRAFT AND NFTS, An early look at our upcoming guidelines


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Platform holder Nintendo will reveal its launch plans for new handheld the 3DS at a media event in Amsterdam on January 19th, MCV believes.
Invites for the still mysterious gathering have been sent out to the press this morning.
It’s expected that details will include a firm launch date and price for the 3DS, as well as the day one launch line-up.
The machine itself is notable not only for being the first 3D handheld console, but also for the fact that it offers 3D visuals without the need for the user to wear glasses.
Though we don’t yet know what titles will or will not make day one, the list of contenders includes the likes of Kid Icarus, Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Mario Kart, Nintendogs/Cats, PilotWings, Star Fox, Driver, Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil, Carnival Games, Splinter Cell, Assassin’s Creed and Ghost Recon.


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Even a quarter-century after his death, it’s hard not to see that the sexual sway of the artist known as Tom of Finland lingers on in the fashion world. His tantalizingly homoerotic renderings of bulbously muscled guys in leather motorcycle gear, severely tailored military uniforms and sexy harnesses and chaps seemingly still arouse the imaginations behind designer runways and magazine editorials, not to mention the personal style of its visionary and often highly visible players.
Now they get a chance to delve into the background of the man behind the myth with the arrival of Finnish director Dome Karukoski’s biopic Tom of Finland, already a hit in his native country and neighboring Sweden, which made its U.S. debut Sunday at the Tribeca Film Festival.
The narrative traces the real life of Touko “Tom” Laaksonen (actor Pekka Strang), from his closeted days as a soldier obsessed with his fellows to a postwar shades-of-Cabaret sexual rivalry with his disapproving sister Kaija (Jessica Grabowsky) over dreamy dancer Veli (Lauri Tilkanen) to Tom’s later flourishing years in California where “everything he ever dreamt of was already happening in L.A.,” Strang said at the premiere.
For proof of the lasting impact of Tom’s tropes, look no further than the fall ’17 women’s collections, with Anthony Vaccarello’s reimagining of the Paris house of Saint Laurent as a leather-coated fantasia. In shiny black skins, the opening look was a military-style field jacket with appropriately menacing shoulders and knee-high stompers that also appropriated the confidently carnal attitude of Tom’s male counterparts.
In London, designer-of-the-moment J.W. Anderson cropped the artist’s beloved Perfecto biker jacket to reveal a flash of under-bosom and paired it with a skirt with kinky trailing straps. And at Raf Simons’ debut show for Calvin Klein in New York, militia-inspired shirts with flap pockets were interpreted in twill and black leather versions.
Harnesses were cited as a hot trend of the recent Tokyo Fashion Week at designers such as Growing Pains and Name, while New York accessories designer Zayna Bane has a long list of admirers including Lady Gaga and model Emily Ratajkowski for her signature “post-fetish” body harnesses and ringed chokers stocked at high-end retail stores and on Net-a-Porter.
In a grittier vein, cult downtown Manhattan designers Sam Linder and Kirk Millar of Linder showed a pair of trousers and a miniskirt with chaps-like detailing before the climax of their fall show revealed a model in denim pants with a undeniably augmented denim codpiece to suggest an engorged member that to the designers at least reversely emphasized the model’s femininity. “We wanted to be very clear as to what was made for a woman and what was made for a man,” Millar told Vogue after the show. “We’re acknowledging the differences between the male body and the female body.”
A post shared by Linder (@linder.nyc) on
Fashion magazines also show signs of Tom’s freewheeling imagery, the latest in uber-photographer Mario Testino’s fashion shoot this month for Vogue Netherlands titled “Joking Around,” which takes a whimsical stance to sexual hijinks. And if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then architect Peter Marino must top the list of Tom admirers. Known as the go-to for posh store design for the likes of Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Celine and Dior, Marino habitually wears full leather motorcycle gear, albeit made to order.
When Tom came to California in the ‘70s, as colorfully imagined in the movie, he finally met his longtime American pen pal, Durk Dehner, a onetime Bruce Weber model, written as a composite character named Doug in the film (Seumas Sargent.) Together they started the Los Angeles-based Tom of Finland Foundation before the artist’s untimely death from complications of emphysema in 1991. Now the guardian of the artist’s legacy, Dehner said Tom moved easily in the lofty gay strata of fashion and filmmaking on the West Coast in his later years. “His sixties were glorious for him, all he needed was five minutes at a party,” Dehner said at the screening. “I didn’t need to chaperone him.”
And at the online Tom of Finland store (tomoffinlandstore.com), amid the editions of artwork, coffee-table volumes and erotica, the enterprise offers a fashion-savvy update — a skateboard, cloth tote and essential hoodie in a collab with skate brand Happy Hour. And for caffeine-obsessed fashionistas, there’s a custom coffee as well, in a “2017 Summer Edition” from Finnish roastery Robert Paulig, packaged in the country’s national blue color, with a fetching drawing of a Tom’s man on the label.
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We speak to Mark Ryan, marketing director of new plant-based range, Plant-It
Plant-It is a new range of plant-based frozen products, tell us a little more about the company.
We have been on sale in Ireland since January 2021. We saw the opportunity to provide a new plant-based choice for consumers who are open to flexing or going meat free, as well as give back to the local communities where our products are sold. We embrace our name and plant trees in markets wherever our products are sold. We currently have a range of retail and foodservice frozen products across meat-free, chicken-free and vegetable offerings. Our meat-free products include burgers, mince and steak. Our chicken-free options include goujons, nuggets, burgers and southern-fried bites. We have two vegetable-burger options, spinach-avocado and cauli-quinoa. The range is going down well as just last week we took home 'Best Meat Substitute Brand' at the V Awards by Wasted.ie
Where is the range available?
We’ve got nationwide listings in Tesco, SuperValu, Centra, Spar and Avoca, with a view to rolling out from next month in the UK, France, Netherlands, Spain, the Nordics, the US and Canada. We are just at the sapling stage of our business so help from the Bord Bia (the Irish Food Board) team has been really significant, enabling us to understand and prioritise market opportunities, as well as unlocking doors with retailers and potential partners.
What are the future plans for the brand?
We intend to expand to offer relevant products to consumers across all meal occasions. Bringing out a range of chilled products is also a key priority over the next few months.
What trends are you mindful of?
Across Europe, frozen-food sales are, in general, experiencing double-digit growth year on year as people are shopping less frequently and buying more, primarily due to the Covid-19 impact. Sustainability and what businesses are doing to help the environmental crisis are top of mind at present. We’ve just finished planting our first 10,000 trees across Ireland, and our 100% recyclable packaging is being very well received. We see that in our space, there are large percentages of consumers (average 70-75% across Europe, source: Pollfish survey) who are open to going meat free at least once a week. These consumers are open to flexing and we wanted to offer a product that addressed their barriers to entry: taste, price and health benefits.
What are the challenges you expect?
The key challenge that we’re facing is freezer space: it’s limited. Frozen-food purchases experienced significant growth in 2020 and that trend is set to continue but space is often at a premium. To unlock some key retail partners, we’ve invested and installed our own branded freezers in-store to launch the brand which can be costly, but really worthwhile.
Is the Bord Bia event a welcome initiative?
Absolutely, many retailers have been in a bit of holding pattern for the first nine months or so of the Covid-19 pandemic, so launching new products has been really challenging. Getting sampling done with prospective customers and consumers is really difficult. Bord Bia has been great in helping us to prep for the event, understand the priority markets and prepare accordingly. We expect this event to really steer our expansion strategy in the EU and North America for the rest of the year.
Who do hope to connect with?
We’ve already had some great customer meetings via Bord Bia with the likes of Sobeys in Canada and we’re looking to make a splash in the UK, France, Netherlands, Spain, the Nordics, the US and Canada later this year. It would be great talk to all the key players in the market, the likes of Carrefour, Albert Heijn, Whole Foods Market and so on. We’re planting a new idea: choose good and do good. We’re very fortunate to have a great story to tell and the means to tell it and we won’t be found lacking in terms of investment to support our ambitious brand growth plans.


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Samsung C5 Pro: Specs, Release Date, and Other Rumors
Samsung is looking to make another big announcement to usher in the year before the Mobile World Congress 2017 which will be holding in Barcelona later in February.
The smartphone company following the Galaxy Note 7 fiasco is said to be planning the launch of the much expected Galaxy C5 Pro whose leaks had been whetting the appetite of fans and tech lovers for some time. The Galaxy C5 Pro which first surfaced online last fall has been one of the most awaited smartphones from the manufacturer, and it looks like it will be hitting the market sooner than later.
SamMobile which obtained a copy of the Retail Memo video of the device indicates that the smartphone makers decided to go with a third-party retailer store to promote and market the smartphone.
The video obtained suggests that the Galaxy C5 Pro will come sporting a metallic build which means a full-metal body as the hood and along with it pack a new design for the antenna lines.
The Samsung Galaxy C5 Pro according to the video will most likely come with the Samsung’s Always-On-Display feature and will be available in the pink color variants added o other established color variants from the manufacturer.
The phone is however expected to be launched in China, but indications exist that it will not be confined only to the Chinese market although news about possible variants based on regions is yet unknown.
The Samsung Galaxy C5 Pro will be sporting under the hood a 64GB internal memory space along with 6GB of RAM according to rumors. On the camera front, it is expected to come packing a 16MP rear camera.
Analysts have however dismissed the possibility of the smartphone loading up 6GB of RAM and have thus pegged the device to be expected to run on 4GB of RAM. The internal storage memory has hinted on the possibility of variants which may well include the 16, 32 and 64GB internal storage size variants with support for microSD card for further memory expansion.
On performance, speculations project that the Galaxy C5 Pro will come into the market running on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor with a 16MP camera loaded on the front panel for selfie lovers.
The secondary camera has however been hinted to feature improvements and upgrades which include the skin smoothness features and the stickers in the camera mode.
On display, the Galaxy C5 Pro may most likely feature a 5.2-inch screen or the bigger 5.7-inch display with support for Full HD pixel resolution.
The video released further suggests that the device may be unveiled on 28th of February and may come into the market running on the Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow OS although the Android 7.0 Nougat update is more possible.


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As of Monday morning, the coronavirus outbreak has infected nearly 143,000 Americans and caused 2,489 deaths. Another 2,970 Americans remain in serious or critical condition and more than 135,000 are suffering from COVID-19. For the rest, life is much different.
Stay-at-home recommendations and orders have changed the way many Americans go to work and those changes could become more widespread. According to the results of a new survey of 254 U.S. companies from outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, 98% have instituted work from home policies.
Nearly half (49%) of the companies say that they are very or somewhat likely to lay off employees in the next three months and 11% have already done so. Another 7% have conducted temporary layoffs.
More than a quarter (28%) have adopted policies that allow all their employees to work from home and another 6% are testing the practice.
Senior Vice President Andrew Challenger commented: “In order to alleviate the pressure on their workers, companies are offering paid leave options and flexibility for working parents who now find themselves homeschooling in addition to working. It’s clear that the way companies treat their workers right now will have a long and serious impact on company reputation in the future.”
A third of companies now offer additional leave options, with 11% offering paid sick leave. Nearly three-quarters (75%) are specifically addressing childcare, and two-thirds of those say that they are “being more flexible” with balancing employees’ work and home lives.
Last week’s record-shattering 3.29 million new claims for unemployment benefits indicate how quickly companies have responded to the COVID-19 outbreak. Among the companies surveyed by Challenger, Gray, 14% have already furloughed employees and 37% are likely to do so in the next three months. Employers, who have faced a tight labor market for months, are reluctant to let people go.
More than half of companies (56%) have been hiring new employees, but nearly 10% are either postponing or revoking job offers until the crisis is over. Half are just hoping that the prospective new hires will still be available later.
While just 2% of surveyed companies say that they have not implemented any changes, another 9% say they have adopted a wait-and-see attitude before taking action, and more than 6% said they would only take action if a “presumed positive” case is reported by one of their employees or someone with whom an employee has had close contact.
Some 94% of companies surveyed have operations in multiple regions and half are complying with state and local policies. Andrew Challenger noted, “Standardizing the company’s approach to a situation like this in all locations is a fairly common compliance technique to ensure company standards are being met across operations. More states and regions are implementing stay-at-home orders, which may standardize how companies react to the outbreak in the coming weeks.”
Little wonder, then, that the U.S. consumer sentiment dived last month by the fourth largest amount in 50 years.


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HAWAII Tourism Oceania (HTA) Oceania has revealed that it will focus on five key strategies in 2018 to help grow the region’s visitor numbers to Hawaii.
“Australia is a very mature market for Hawaii so we have to continually reinvent ourselves as a destination”, said HTA country manager Australia Kerri Anderson at the 2017 Global Tourism Summit yesterday.
An increase in consumer branding and PR will include a stronger integrated marketing focus, major campaign pushes, increased social and TV focus and targeted messaging.
“TV continues to be a key decision maker in raising awareness and inspiration to Hawaii and we plan on doing more of this next year,” said Anderson.
HTA will continue to work on cooperative initiatives with both travel and non-travel partners, aiming to encourage multi-island travel, increase combined investment into integrated campaigns and drive shoulder season bookings.
“The travel agent is by no means dead in our market and we’ll continue to invest time into our trade education strategy, which will also include a new Hawaii rewards program for agents,” Anderson revealed.
Social and online will continue to play an important role in promoting Hawaii with plans to incorporate major digital campaigns and fan growth initiatives, as well as promote ‘Hawaii advocates’ through user generated content and social listening.
Next year will also see a focus on sports, edu-tourism, romance and luxury as part of HTA’s festivals, events and niche markets strategy.
In the meetings, conventions and incentives space, HTA says it will look to customise ‘only in Hawaii’ experiences for the Oceania market, as well as increase partnerships, sales calls and events and target new businesses including corporates and professional associations.
“Part of our emphasis for the next year is to bring more of Hawaii into Australia, so our market can expect to see more activity around the ‘Month of Lei’ promotions and Hawaii pop-up stores,” said Anderson.
Pictured at the Global Tourism Summit yesterday is HTA’s Oceania Team: Charis Ricafuente, Darragh Walshe and Kerri Anderson.


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We are very excited to announce a close partnership and direct integration with Roger, an app that helps you automate the process of receiving, approving and paying invoices with your Pleo card.
July brought a number of new features, updates, improvements, plus a few other things to Pleo. From expense tags and improved analytics to this new blog you are now reading, we’ve rounded up all the news in one place.
For some time now any Pleo user have had the option of setting up Projects and Customer Projects to better track spending on different company projects. Now we bring you the next level of tracking spending on any kind of financial dimension.
Company with a progressive and ambitious mission as European Energy, that constructs wind and solar farms to help climate change, shouldn’t have bureaucratic processes and policies slowing them down. Their finance teams is aware of that, that is why they implemented Pleo.
Buying things today is becoming much easier, while work purchase processes remain in most cases a big mess. With Pleo, we are proud to be changing this and setting the path for the future. Now, we are introducing the next step: fully paperless company spending, thanks to our integration with Storebox.
Building the best product to eliminate expense reports means we want to get closer to the best people – yup, that’s you. Pleo Labs is your way of getting early access to features currently in development and interacting directly with the team building those features.
We’re extremely delighted to announce we’ve raised our $16m Series A investment round led by Kinnevik to take Pleo to new heights and expand our solution across Europe.
The past year has been terrific here at Pleo. We’ve grown our organisation by some 400%, we’ve successfully launched in the UK and we’ve added lots of new functionality. 2017 is now coming to an end, and it’s time to look back and share some insights from our journey.


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Get rid of Illinois’ grocery sales tax to help low-income households
Households that are already burdened with the increasing costs of other necessities, such as housing, do not need this added stressor.
“Everything is expensive right now,” my neighbor complained to me the other day, and I agree. From gas, to clothes, to cars, to groceries; it feels like we’re now paying a premium for everything.
Starting on July 1, Illinois suspended its 1% grocery tax for a year to help residents handle the increasing prices we’re seeing nationwide due to the pandemic and supply chain crisis. But my question is, why not eliminate this 1% grocery tax altogether? Why are we paying a tax on groceries at all?
Illinois is currently only one of 13 states that still impose a grocery tax. Research shows that states with grocery taxes have higher food insecurity and that these taxes negatively affect both obesity and diabetes.
Grocery taxes are especially problematic for low-income households. They perpetuate health and income inequities, and therefore, perpetuate systemic racism. Regressive taxes, like the grocery tax, have a bigger impact on Black, Indigenous and people of color households, since they experience higher tax rates compared to white households while simultaneously experiencing unfair barriers to building wealth.
The grocery tax places an unfair burden on low-income households — even more so on low-income BIPOC households — which spend a greater proportion of their income on groceries compared to those with higher incomes.
For example, in a report from the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, the analysts noted that for low-income households, groceries are the third-highest expenditure category after housing and transportation — but for households with higher incomes, groceries are only the fifth-highest expenditure category. Further, these lower-income households pay almost eight times more of their income in sales taxes than the top 1% of households.
As a result, low-income households must be strategic with their grocery budget, which means that these families more often end up eating less healthy but more inexpensive foods, such as highly processed foods, rather than perishable and healthful foods like fresh produce.
This lower-quality diet eventually leads to worse health outcomes, such as cardiovascular disease, obesity, Type 2 diabetes, and some cancers.
Government assistance doesn’t help
The second issue for low-income households is that government programs do not fully cover statewide grocery taxes for all grocery purchases. Enrolling in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, previously known as food stamps) supports low-income households in purchasing groceries, and federal law exempts some grocery purchases made with SNAP benefits from sales tax.
But SNAP benefits are not intended to cover an entire grocery bill. Participants must still pay a grocery tax for those items not covered by SNAP. Therefore, while SNAP undoubtedly decreases food insecurity in some low-income households, it does not directly address the problem of the grocery tax head-on.
How can Illinois, in good conscience, compound income and health inequities further by requiring low-income households to pay a grocery tax? Households that are already burdened with the increasing costs of other necessities, such as housing, do not need this added stressor.
Those in favor of the grocery tax may argue that the money can be put towards public investments, such as fire departments or public transportation, but this can be achieved in ways that do not exacerbate inequities. For example, Illinois could expand taxes on profitable corporations, or reconsider the soda tax and use those funds for public investments.
Illinois doesn’t need a grocery tax. What our state needs is to start taking an active role in eradicating health, income, and racial inequities in Illinois by eliminating a regressive tax that harms our most vulnerable communities.
Jen Sanchez-Flack, Ph.D., MPH, a behavioral scientist and health inequities researcher, is assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She serves as a Healthy Policy Ambassador for Child Nutrition for the Society of Behavioral Medicine.
The Sun-Times welcomes op-eds and letters to the editor. See our guidelines for submissions.


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A senior Labour councillor locked horns with a party activist on social media over the David v Goliath Lobster Pot chippy row.
After the ECHO revealed fashion store Forever 21 had briefed its LA lawyers over the chippy’s plans for an outdoor dining area, Cllr Nick Small and Nathan Selby battled over who was in the right.
And while city central ward’s Cllr Small continued his support for the superstore, his party colleague firmly pledged his backing for “Team Lobster Pot”.
The Lobster Pot has been forced to apply for a permit after putting tables, chairs and bins outside its Whitechapel branch without permission.
But neighbour Forever 21, which opened earlier this year, is understood to oppose the plans because of litter and the smell from the chippy wafting toward its flagship outlet.
The party row broke out on Twitter this morning with Selby, who once battled to be nominated to contest the Childwall seat for Labour, contacting Cllr Small telling him “think you've got this one all wrong”.
He called on the council to work with the Lobster Pot to help them to do things legally and reach a compromise between all parties, rather than “shutting the door” on them.
But Cllr Small, who believes the outdoor seating plan would encourage litter and anti-social behaviour of given the go-ahead, stood firm, arguing “there are massive litter and ASB problems being caused by this illegal street cafe right now”.
In the face of criticism for backing the $1bn turnover company, he added the debate was not “about big chains or independents, it's about litter and people urinating in the side street”.
It is believed Forever 21 – which has stores across the USA, Europe and Asia – could object to the Lobster Pot’s plans, while it is also thought the store has made complaints about the clothing market stall that sits in the middle of Whitechapel.


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Three months ago, Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY 0.61%) reported its first quarterly increase in comparable store sales since fiscal 2016. Last week, the retail conglomerate announced that comp sales grew again in the third quarter of its 2020 fiscal year. It also reported a sizable increase in gross margin, leading to year-over-year improvement in its adjusted earnings.
New Bed Bath & Beyond CEO Mark Tritton and his team are presenting these achievements as clear signs that the turnaround plan they introduced last year is already paying off. Reality is a little more complicated, though. In some respects, the company is clearly on the right track. However, its ability to keep sales stable or growing in the years ahead remains uncertain.
Bed Bath & Beyond delivers another decent quarter
Bed Bath & Beyond's comparable sales rose 2% year over year last quarter. Digital comparable sales surged 77%, more than offsetting a 15% decline in store-based comp sales. That said, comp sales growth slowed from the previous quarter's 6% pace, as the latest wave of the COVID-19 pandemic pinched store traffic, particularly late in the quarter. Furthermore, total sales fell 5% year over year to $2.6 billion, reflecting store closures and the sale of various non-core parts of the business.
The most impressive part of Bed Bath & Beyond's third-quarter performance was that adjusted gross margin rose by 3.1 percentage points year over year, reaching 35.4%. This enabled the company to eke out a small adjusted profit of $0.08 per share, after posting an ugly $0.38 adjusted loss per share a year earlier.
Bed Bath & Beyond also made significant progress toward its asset-sale goals last quarter. The company sold its Christmas Tree Shops chain, a related distribution center, and its institutional Linen Holdings business for combined proceeds of approximately $246 million ($238 million net of certain adjustments). More recently, it agreed to sell Cost Plus World Market -- its final non-core banner -- for $110 million. These deals will bring Bed Bath & Beyond's full-year asset sale proceeds to more than $600 million. The company is returning most of this cash to shareholders by repurchasing $375 million of stock in fiscal 2020.
Questions about the sales trajectory
While Bed Bath & Beyond has reported respectable sales results in recent quarters, it has benefited from a huge surge in home demand this year. In fact, its comp sales growth pales in comparison to other home-focused retailers.
For example, TJX Companies' HomeGoods chain reported a 15% increase in comparable store sales last quarter. Total sales rose 19%. At Home posted even more incredible numbers, with comp sales surging 44% and total sales skyrocketing nearly 48% year over year. Even more remarkably, both chains delivered this phenomenal growth through in-store sales. HomeGoods doesn't sell online yet (though that is about to change), while At Home just launched its e-commerce business last year.
Management barely mentioned this industrywide tailwind during Bed Bath & Beyond's conference call last week. The company pointed to recent market share gains in the bed category and "improving trends" in the bath and kitchen categories. The distinction between share gains and "improving trends" suggests that Bed Bath & Beyond is merely losing share at a slower pace in the bath and kitchen categories now. And one must wonder whether the failure to mention any other categories implies that other parts of the business are losing share even faster than they were a year or two ago.
Most troublingly, Tritton said in response to an analyst question, "I think we see great data that shows that the home trend will be sticky. This is part of people's lives now and their expectation of creating joy and comfort at home." Management seems to be counting on a continued surge in demand for home-related items. Yet people have finite budgets. As the economy reopens, it seems far more likely that consumers will redirect spending from their homes to experiences like vacations and dining out.
An incredibly risky stock
Bed Bath & Beyond's bumbling prior management team left plenty of room for improvement for the iconic retailer. Tritton's team is already driving gross margin expansion through better inventory management, supply chain improvements, and tighter control over promotions. The company has further opportunities in this vein, and should also benefit from a healthier store base after the company completes its ongoing store closure program.
However, Bed Bath & Beyond is still bleeding market share. Unless management fixes that, the company's revenue could plummet if industry growth slows over the next year or two -- which seems virtually inevitable. Revenue declines could quickly wipe out the tailwind from Bed Bath & Beyond's gross margin initiatives.
The company's aggressive share buyback program will add to the volatility. If management's turnaround plan succeeds, the buybacks will magnify investors' gains. But if the plan fails to rejuvenate sales, the buybacks will leave the company with less financial flexibility to pursue other options. These factors make Bed Bath & Beyond stock an extremely risky investment.


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Reportedly the first consignment of cement from Pakistan is expected to cross the Indian border in the next two weeks. India recently agreed to import cement from its arch-rival to satiate the increasing domestic demand, spurred by a booming housing industry and infrastructure development programmes.
Karachi Port has the capacity of 7,000 tonnes per day and can export up to 2.55Mta, which hardly makes an impact on Indian consumption levels said an analyst with Alchemy Share & Stock Brokering firm. Even if Pakistan exports this full capacity, it would still be 2% less than the daily Indian consumption.
Pakistani commerce secretary Syed Asif Shah said the first tranche of cement would arrive in India by the end of August. But there’re many hurdles before them. A cement analyst who did not wish to be named said, "Even the option by road or rail does not make economic sense. Moreover, importing via the inland border needs many security clearances."
Logistics, say experts, will be a big issue. Imports could come through Kandla, Mumbai, Kochi, Chennai, and Vizag, but transporting stocks over longer distances from ports would increase the freight charges by up to Rs1000 a tonne beyond a distance of 200 km.
Lucky Cement, the largest cement producer in Pakistan, would be an important player, but others like DG Khan Cement Co, Bestway Cement, Maple Leaf Cement and Attock Cement may come under margin pressure due to high freight costs.
Cement prices may rise further by Rs 3-5 per bag after the monsoon, said AK Saraogi, CFO & president (corporate affairs), J K Cements, in a analysts’ teleconference earlier this month. Meanwhile, cement prices went up by nearly 45% between January 2006 and July 2007. The average cement price in January 2007 stood at Rs 209 per bag while in July, it went up to Rs 229 per bag.


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Aug. 08–America’s biggest tow truck maker hauled in record profits for the second quarter by boosting spring sales 15.5 percent over a year ago to $176.5 million.
Miller Industries Inc., the Ooltewah-based towing equipment manufacturer, said today that its second quarter net income was up 40.1 percent over a year ago to $7.6 million, or 67 per share, compared with $5.4 million, or 48 cents per share, a year earlier. Company co-CEO Jeff Badgley said Miller Industries capitalized on its recently completed expansions of production capacity and increased demand for its products around the globe.
“Economic growth in our markets remains strong and our capital investments propel us forward as we strive to meet customer demand and create sustainable shareholder value,” Badgley said. “Performance in the second quarter continued to be very strong…driven by an increase in production volumes, as we utilized the completion of our expansion projects to meet customer demand.”
Despite concerns over import duties and higher commodity prices, Badgley said he is optimistic about the rest of 2018 for Miller Industries.
“Our outlook for the remainder of 2018 remains positive, reflecting a healthy backlog and continued strength in both domestic and international markets,” he said. “Although our top-line growth and profitability have not been affected through the first half of the year, we continue to remain cautious as it relates to raw materials, more specifically the potential effects related to tariffs on steel and aluminum. We’re in constant communication with our customers and suppliers and we’ll continue to monitor the changing dynamics resulting from the tariffs to determine the impact they may have on our raw material costs in the future.”
While boosting sales this spring, Miller Industries cut its selling, general and administrative expenses in the second quarter as a percent of total revenue by 40 basis points to 5.5 percent.
“Our ability to meet demand, while effectively enhancing productivity, continues to be encouraging to all of our stakeholders,” Badgley said. “We continued to see strong demand for our products across all of our geographies during the second quarter. In addition, we are seeing positive impacts on our results from efficiency improvements.”
Miller Industries also announced today it declared a quarterly cash dividend of 18 cents per share, payable Sept. 17 to shareholders of record at the close of business on Sept. 10.
Miller Industries shares rose nearly 1.4 percent Wednesday ahead of the earnings announcement and the company’s shares were trading even higher in after-market trading following the favorable earnings report.
(c)2018 the Chattanooga Times/Free Press (Chattanooga, Tenn.)
Visit the Chattanooga Times/Free Press (Chattanooga, Tenn.) at www.timesfreepress.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.


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Stunt moves are what drive Game of Thrones, the popular television show based on the books of George R.R. Martin that relies heavily on scenes of extreme violence, sexual violence, and mostly female nudity.
Now, and in that vein, HBO prepares to "celebrate," (which is public relations codespeak for promote the crap out of) the release of the show's fifth Season on DVD with a virtual dragon flight stunt thing in San Francisco. Also, presumably, they're promoting the show itself, which premieres its sixth season on April 24 on HBO. (You may recall that last year, the show took over San Francisco's War Memorial Opera House for their Season 5 red carpet premiere.)
First, they're preparing what's supposed to look like a dragon landing/crash site at Pier 39. You can visit that tomorrow, March 17th, starting at 8 am, snapping photos and using the prescribed hashtag #GOT5DVD. Yes, that is a hashtag about a #DVD.
Our New York wing at Gothamist.com said a similar marketing move there looked confusingly like routine construction. That "landing site" was previously installed in Manhattan's Union Square.
Expect skid marks and torn up concrete, or something, implying a dragon landing. Then, at around 8 p.m. tomorrow, the dragon itself — a 3D animated projection — will soar across the city starting at Civic Center, as dragons tend to do when the DVD of a popular and lucrative show is released.


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Samsung is improving its tablet range with a rival to Apple’s iPad Mini that sports a pen for writing on the screen. Samsung announced on Sunday in Barcelona that the Galaxy Note 8.0 will have an 8-inch screen, putting it quite close in size to the Apple’s tablet, which released in November with a 7.9-inch screen.
It isn’t initially Samsung has made a tablet that is in the iPad Mini’s size range: it is quite 1st iPad rival had a 7-inch screen, and it still makes a tablet of that size, but with no pen. Samsung will begin selling the latest tablet in the April to June period, at an as yet undetermined price. It made the statement ahead of Mobile World Congress, the wireless industry’s yearly trade show, which begins Monday in Barcelona, Spain.
Galaxy Note 8.0 fills a gap in Samsung’s line-up of pen-equipped products between the Galaxy Note II smartphone, with its 5.5-inch screen, and the Galaxy Note 10.1, a full-size tablet. Samsung has made the pen, or more correctly the stylus, among the tools it utilizes to chip away at Apple’s popularity in both tablets and high-end smartphones.
Apple does not make any gadgets that work with styluses, choosing to improve its interfaces for fingers, mice and touch pads.


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InoTec will collaborate with ScaleHub AG. This was announced by both companies on their LinkedIn pages. ScaleHub is considered the world’s most innovative and revolutionary expert in data extraction and document processing.
A comparison with sports car builders is obvious: InoTec offers high speed, reliability and real engineering know-how – with a lot of proximity to the customer on the one hand and a direct line to production on the other. Postmaster Magazine was able to see this for itself on site.


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Rising Star Games to Publish Assault Suit Leynos on PS4 and PC
Let's face it - this team likes their sci-fi/mech games, and Assault Suit Leynos will likely be one that PY and Robert keep a close eye on as it gets closer.
Rising Star Games, the video game publisher renowned for bringing unique and diverse games to players everywhere, has announced a new partnership with Dracue Software to publish Assault Suit Leynos for the PlayStation®4 computer entertainment system, and PC. Drawing from the fantastic action of the classic 16-bit series (also known as Target Earth), the Assault Suit series is well-known for fierce and fast shooting action, challenging boss battles, and an amazing array of weapon options. Assault Suit Leynos stays true to these gameplay elements and delivers HD visuals for the ultimate alien-blasting experience.
As Earth reels from the impact of a fourth world war and dwindling resources, an uneasy truce between nations sees mankind reach for the stars. Colonies are settled, resources are mined, and the future starts looking a little brighter. But just as peace finally seems possible, an unknown enemy emerges from the deepest region of space to threaten the very existence of humanity. Only one thing can stop them - It’s time to deploy the Assault Suit Squadron! Gamers will blast through the opposing enemy forces with devastating weapons like machine guns, rocket launchers, and laser beams while discovering the hidden truth behind the invaders.
Developed by Dracue Software, Assault Suit Leynos will be available summer 2016 on the PlayStation®4 computer entertainment system and PC through select digital retailers. The physical boxed release of the PlayStation 4 version includes a deluxe double-sided poster featuring artwork from the Japanese release as well as original art from the classic 16-bit release.
Article by Nick


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Huawei Mate 30 Series is expected to be released in September. Mate 30 Series is among one of the most anticipated devices scheduled to be launched before the year closes. That is apart from the highly-touted iPhone 11 and Google’s upcoming Pixel 4.
However, Google states that the upcoming Huawei Mate 30 series launch rumored to happen in late September won’t likely happen. According to The Verge, Google says Huawei’s upcoming Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro “won’t be able to ship with Google’s apps and services on board” as a result of the trade ban.
Arguably, Huawei was offered a 90-day extension to continue supporting their existing customers and provide software updates to their devices. But, the 90-day reprieve only applies to devices launched before May 16th, when Huawei was not yet officially added the so-called Entity-List. As a result, future Huawei devices like the Mate 30 Series and Huawei’s delayed Mate X will not have Google’s services – a bummer for global markets.
Huawei already launched its OS, Harmony, that seems not-so ready for deployment in smartphones, yet. How the company may handle the on-going trade ban is a mystery. Recently, Huawei bashed claims of deploying Harmony OS in their upcoming Mate 30 Lite, clearly showing no interest in launching a smartphone with their in-house OS this year.
The company still has an option to use Android’s open-source software freely available, which comes with no play store and other Google services. In the Chinese market, that is no issue. The market has been surviving without Google’s services long enough to get used to their reportedly chaotic market place.


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It’s taken 65 years and 7 months, but Suzuki announced on May 11 that it has sold 25 million kei cars. That’s not a huge number compared to, say, the Toyota Corolla, which has sold over 44 million of a single model. However, when you consider the fact that the Corolla is a global model and kei cars are sold almost exclusively inside Japan and a few other Asian countries, that’s a pretty impressive statistic.
Suzuki is a real pro at the kei car game. It all began in October 1955 with the Suzulight, which was in fact Japan’s first kei car. It was also Suzuki’s first foray in to four-wheeled vehicles, and while it wasn’t a hugely popular seller, it did set the company on the path of building cars.
It should come as no surprise that the ubiquitous Carry kei truck was a huge contributor to the sales volume. The little workhorse sold 4.67 million units since its introduction in 1961, and the name is still being used today. The spin-off van on the same platform, the Every, sold another 3.25 million units on its own.
Introduced in 1962, the Suzuki Fronte was notable for being a top-selling nameplate that is no longer being used. It made it through seven generations but, unlike the models below, was discontinued in 1989. Still, Suzuki managed to sell 1.59 million of them.
April 1970 brought the Jimny, the wildly successful off-road kei car. It was a class-defining model, one that has its own unique fan base. However, Suzuki’s first home run in the kei car segment was the Alto, released May 1979.
It sold for just ¥470,000, a very competitive price at the time. Suzuki originally estimated 5,000 per month, but ended up moving as many as 18,000 a month at its peak with a huge waiting list. Successive generations gave Japan to some real firecrackers in high-performance kei cars. It’s Suzuki’s best-selling nameplate, making up 5.24 million units sold.
The 1993 Wagon R was the second-most popular model in Suzuki’s history, selling 4.81 million units. It revolutionized kei car design, pioneering the space-maximizing tall wagon shape that dominates the segment today.
And finally, the Suzuki Spacia added 1.01 million to the total. This is particularly impressive considering that it was introduced in 2013, meaning it has the shortest production run of all the million-plus models.
Suzuki may not be the first company you think of when it comes to Japanese cars, but it sells more vehicles in Japan annually than Subaru, Mazda, or Mitsubishi. Kei cars are an essential part of Japan’s automotive landscape, providing easy ownership in both crowded urban environments and rural areas where public transportation isn’t available. And since kei cars are built to strict dimensions, we can calculate pretty easily that if you parked all 25 million Suzuki kei cars nose to tail, they would circumnavigate the Earth 2.1 times. That’s a lot of kei cars any way you cut it.
For a marque known for plucky Kei cars, they’ve had some awesome concept cars. The GSX-R/4 is probably my favorite followed by the more conventional Kizashi. The closest to a R/4 would be their collaboration with Mazda with the Autozam AZ-1.
A great “little” giant of Japan.
They are heroes who have always made cars for the masses, and craftsmen who have created high performance models, full-scale 4x4s, and even amazing mini-trucks within the confines of a kei car.
Unlike motorcycles, their feats in the automotive world are not well known outside of Japan.
But they, like Toyota and Nissan, are undoubtedly great manufacturers who have contributed to the development of Japan.
The automotive industry is in the midst of changes for a new era, and I am sure they will continue to exist as professionals in the field of kei cars.
The only reason kei cars even exist is the tax structure in Japan. I bet the Democrats would love to do the same here to tax the shit out of cars larger than 1 liter. But we ‘Murica S live out big-ass SUVs and pickups. ?
Loved Suzuki cars before they pulled out of the US, always wanted one of their Swift GTi back in the 80s, and the Kizashi.


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Dangote shakes Ghacem; stabilises cement price | 3NewsOct 17, 2016 . In 1997, the Ghana Government sold five per cent of its 40 per cent . The remaining 35 per cent shares of Ghana Government was sold to Scancem in . when Dangote Cement entered the Ghanaian market with its quality but.ghana cement 97 market share,ghana cement 97 market share,GHANA - Cement companies cut prices to win market share - IntercemImproving economic conditions and Dangote's aggressive pricing policies have been blamed for what looks to be a developing price war among Ghanaian.
ghana cement 97 market share


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The news took a little while to cross the pond, but our trusty carrier pigeons bear exciting news for Vodafone Germany users -- Nokia's 3G 6234, announced last year, is now available. The well-equipped candybar, sporting a 2-megapixel camera, QVGA display, MicroSD slot, digital music player, stereo speakers, and Bluetooth, complements the Sharp 904SH
and the Samsung SGH-ZV50
in Voda's growing UMTS stable. Expect music downloads and mobile TV via Vodafone live!, initially developed by Japan's J-Phone under the J-Sky brand.


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By Olabisi Olaleye
Chief Executive Officer, Jumia Travels Limited, Mr Paul Midy, says Nigeria has to unlock the full potentials of its hospitality industry in order to tap effectively into its dormant potentials to boost revenue earnings and grow the economy.
Midy, who spoke in an interview with Daily Sun in Lagos, recently said if the right investment climate is created for investors, Nigeria’s hospitality industry would contribute more to the country’s Gross Domestic Products (GDP) and also create jobs for thousands of citizens.
He said despite the economy downturn, Nigeria remains a preferred investment destination for many.
Recession has made the economy not to look too good in the last two months. Of course, it would affect the travel business because there are people with less money now and there are some who have lost their jobs. Basically, we run a travel business that involve a lot of African countries. There are some important things that Nigeria needs to do to grow.
However, despite the high inflation, price in naira on jumia travel has not changesd because of the maintaince of the good relationship we enjoy with hotels. More than this, we have increased our number of deal discounts. In naira, the cost on jumia travel is lower than what we had six months ago, relatively, it is cheaper to travel.
Another factor is that people are looking for deals, they go online because you don’t get deals at physical stores.
Impacts on GDP
I would say it is very difficult to give our direct contribution because we don’t release any figure but what I can tell you is that the contribution of hospitality and tourism industry to the economy is seven percent and growing approximately five percent every year. Though, the growth is slower this year than last year and if we look at sub Saharan African, it is about 20 million jobs.
The importance of this sector is critical to the economy because of job creation. There are over eight thousand hotels in Nigeria. We have jobs for various categories of people, from unskilled to highly skilled people. It is a very important sector for job creation and this alone will boost the GDP of Nigeria’s economy.
Relatively, we are contributing more and more to the economy. I understand that there was a time we sent newsletters out to our customers about hotels in Lagos being $4 per night and we had several customers asking us if it’s real thinking there was a mistake in the newsletter. The truth is that, there are hotels in Lagos that offers $4 per night. If we can unlock the potentials of this industry for business, the dividend is unimaginable.
We have a deep thought on what we want to achieve in terrms of better business deal that can contribute to greater Africa. We also tried to raise the bar in travels and there are three barriers we are trying to break; the first one is knowledge, by providing information on our website for free.
Second barrier that we are trying to break is price.Sometimes, it may be expensive to travel but most times people think that it is expensive to travel because of the hotels they know,.There are three, four star hotels for accomodation that gives very good service and convenience at a very cheaper rates. With the number of customers we push to these hotels, they offer great discounts. In 80 percent secenario, we offer the best price online because we know that price is key.
The last barrier is risk, when one travels and arrive in a city or suburb one is not familiar with or forgot reservation details on arrival at the hotel front desk. Jumia Travel addresses customers issue from end to end, customers can call our lines 24 hours and we will sort out the issue. These are the things we are trying to achieve and customers don’t need to pay online but can pay cash at the hotel when they check in.Other customers may choose to do transfer or use the online payment portal.
All our agents know every city and are always on hand to offer solace to any stranded customer via emails, SMS and voice calls.
We are very happy because Nigeria is our core market and the most performing country for us. We operate in other countries, but Nigeria is the best place to be because we are happy about our performance in the travel space. I will say even if the market is slowing down because of recession, Nigeria is still the place to be in business. Although, the economy still has potentials to grow bigger, thereby affording us the opportunity to do more business.
Our main focus is in Africa.We are a travelling website, offering our customers hotels in Africa because that is our core competence and not in European countries.
I would say that at the beginning, we experienced a lot of challenges that later fizzled out. Many times, we have been able to surprise our customers because of the way we track them until we are sure that they are settled. Most customers come back for our services.
50 percent of the hotels are now booked online. At the very beginning, we were not sure we were doing pretty well but passion and round the clock services helped us to achieve our dreams with customers given us referrals in terms of ratings and word of mouth advertisement. We also work harder to ensure our services become much better.
Regularly, we get feedbacks from our customers on what they do like and not like about us, so that we can serve them better.
I remember a man called to appreciate us that he actually booked for a hotel online with us and he later realised that he needed to spend an extra day at the same hotel but all the hotels have been booked and it was around 11pm and he said in 10 minutes, we found him another hotel at a very good price. With that, he said we saved his life.
Another experience is a man who explained that his wife was difficult to please in choice of hotels based on previous experiences. He said it was easier to use Jumia travel and spent 50 minutes with his wife checking out pictures of hotels and finally clicked and booked,admitting that the holiday was better than the previous ones.
Of course , a lot of challenges. At the very begining, it was very difficult to convince hoteliers to be on our platform because they didn’t know about online booking coupled with the doubts about us being a real company and all that. We had 150 hotels on our platform, which was quite small and it was a difficult task convincing the hotels that we would bring them more customers and more business in a convienient way.
I would say, another one is operations because we need to ensure that once a customer books a night at the hotel, he is alerted on the date of arrival and the price. At the very beginning, we had communication issues not from our end but from the environment we found ourselves. But now, we have built an application that send a push on notification.
Today, our challenge is to make our services well known. We have happier customers and the biggest number of hotels in Africa on our website. As you know, we changed the brand from Jovago to jumia Travel, we want to leverage on the poularity of the jumia brand. Another challenge is to keep working so that our customers who like our services will keep coming back.
We have built a very tight security around our websites with the IT team. Security is also one of the strengths of being in the jumia group. Since the beginning of our story, it has never happened because our team of IT professionals are not relenting on their oars. We have zero problems on the issue of security.
We want to make sure that we have hotels across Nigeria and not just limit ourselves to Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt. We have over 8,000 hotels in Nigeria spread across small and big cities. We have launched a programme tagged JForce, which is a pool of 60,000 commercial sales agents, who work for Jumia on commission basis. Now, they can do bookings on behalf of their customers on Jumia’s website. The JForce will also help us to address the issue of logistics.


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Riyadh poultry expo to promote Vision 2030 targets
Saudi Arabia will host the second Middle East Poultry Expo on May 1-3 under the patronage of Minister of Environment, Water and Agriculture Abdulrahman Al-Fadli.
The three-day expo, held at the Riyadh International Convention and Exhibition Center, will bring together more than 200 companies from 37 countries, as well as experts in the poultry, feed, and animal health sectors.
It aims to enhance investment opportunities in the poultry industry and provide an ideal platform to connect local investors with international suppliers and experts, achieving the national strategy for food security.
Governmental bodies and institutions, associations, companies and nonprofit organizations working in the livestock sector will display more than 500 products for the supply chains of the poultry industry, promoting scientific and commercial exchange, and building business networks in the largest poultry markets in the Middle East and North Africa.
The expo will showcase the latest innovations, solutions and technologies in the field of poultry breeding and production, animal health and the feed industry.
The expo is the most prominent event in the Kingdom and the region for the poultry industry. The event stretches over an area of 11,000 square meters, and includes exhibitions for poultry, feed, mills, as well as animal health and nutrition.
It will also be accompanied by a symposium on knowledge in the world of poultry, in which experts from major international companies will take part in scientific lectures highlighting the latest products and solutions that contribute to the growth and sustainability of the industry.
The Saudi poultry sector is one of the largest and fastest-growing in the region. There is significant government support for the industry, led by the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture through loans and projects, raising the percentage of investment in the industry in cooperation with the private sector. A recent deal led to the planned investment of SR17 billion ($4.5 billion) into the industry until 2025.
The Kingdom is expected to meet 80 percent of its own poultry demands by 2025, increasing self-sufficiency in line with the Vision 2030 goal of achieving food security.


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Japanese probiotics giant Yakult says its recent EFSA probiotic health claim rejection discounted peer-review validated respiratory tract health measures, and called on the European Commission to facilitate a discussion on the matter.
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has repeatedly emphasised that the 2006 EU nutrition and health claims regulation is a learning experience for everyone involved – from its health claims assessment panel to industry stakeholders, to the member...
Key members of the European pre- and probiotic industries left Amsterdam frustrated that the majority of their questions about immune and gut health claims remained unanswered after a meeting with the European Food Safety Authority’s health claims panel...
“It’s a critical issue to figure out how to show the health benefits with foods without crossing the borderline into medicines,” European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) NDA health claims panel working group member, Maria Saarela, told NutraIngredients at...
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has issued its first positive health claim opinion for a prebiotic with a laxative effect – but it was not achieved via a typical prebiotic effect, according to a leading academic in the area.
Differences in the production of bacterial strains may change the potentially probiotic properties of resulting food, says a new study from Finland that ‘sets important prerequisites for quality control in probiotics’.
Probi says its business will not be affected by a recent European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) ruling that there is not enough evidence linking a proprietary probiotic strain to a decrease in potentially harmful pathogens in the gut.
Ice creams with added pre- or probiotics can be formulated to have good nutritional and sensory properties, according to research, with careful balancing of the recipe to ensure acceptable taste, texture and colour.
French probiotic leader Danone, Swedish dairy firm Skånemejerier and ingredient supplier Probi yesterday closed a three-way probiotic juice deal, bringing the firms one step closer to an international launch of the ProViva brand.
In the first part of this Asia-focused special edition, we look to the innovation hotbed that is Japan. Japan is well known as the world’s functional foods birthplace when Yakult kicked into life there in the 1950s with its little bottles of immune boosting,...
The Indian joint venture between Yakult and Danone established in 2005 to bring Yakult probiotic drinks to the Indian market is expanding with Bangalore targeted as the point of entry for southern markets.
Consumer products containing a patented ingredient that binds bacteria in the mouth responsible for tooth caries and stops them sticking to teeth could reach the market this year, according to German chemicals giant BASF.
Probiotics player Yakult is confident the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) will hand its probiotic-immunity health claim dossier a positive opinion, despite the agency contacting it with further questions.
As Danone’s share price continues to fall three days after its half year results were released, the company cites several potential reasons for the dip but insists that health claims uncertainty is not among them.
A new study conducted with Danisco probiotics has yielded mixed results over their benefits for eczema in children, although researchers suggest that larger studies could help identify more definitive benefits.
Stakeholders in the probiotics industry came together for a regulatory workshop in Slovakia last week to discuss how to deal with the challenges the sector faces from the new European nutrition and health claims regulations.
Generic, article 13.1 health claims can be withdrawn from the European Union nutrition and health claims system, but only via member state authorities and not individual companies or parties that may have contributed to particular dossiers, the European...
A study from Ukraine has found that supplementation with probiotics for two months had significant benefits for children with atopic dermatitis, adding to the growing body of evidence for the bacteria’s skin health benefits.
Global probiotics leader Danone says its withdrawn probiotic health claim dossiers will remain untouched on its shelves at least until it attends a gut and immune health claim workshop to be hosted by EFSA this year.


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Artificial Intelligence (AI) could be used to help combat nausea, headaches and dizziness among virtual reality (VR) users and make the technology more accessible, according to a new study with Charles Darwin University (CDU).
The study by CDU and Torrens University researchers explored using AI techniques and machine learning algorithms to predict cybersickness for potential users of VR technology with headsets. The study was conducted by Fawad Zaidi, Associate Professor Niusha Shafiabady and Emeritus Professor Justin Beilby.
Questionnaire data was split into two groups: people who will experience cybersickness symptoms within minutes of using VR devices, and people who wouldn’t have issues with using VR devices.
The data was processed through Ai-Labz, created by study co-author and CDU Faculty of Science and Technology Associate Professor Niusha Shafiabady. Results revealed AI could predict discomfort among VR users with 93 per cent accuracy.
Associate Professor Shafiabady said with growing use and need of VR technology, being able to effectively predict and prevent cybersickness was crucial.
“Most of the people feel discomfort after having a VR experience and having the ability to predict the occurrence of cybersickness for an individual, helps the VR developers and manufacturers to come up with solutions and take preemptive actions to create a better experience for the VR users and address the issues causing it,” she said.
“In the era of technology and especially after the Covid-19 pandemic, the need for remote access and virtual education has grown significantly. Cybersickness is one of the factors that hinders the users from using VR devices because of the great discomfort due to the VR experience.”
Associate Professor Shafiabady said the next step could be to use eXplainable AI algorithms to explore why the AI algorithms made its predictions, giving developers and manufacturers reason why users will have discomfort.
“We are moving towards the times where we use VR devices for essential activities such as servicing manufacturers remotely and teaching, to less essential but more fun activities like looking into the outer space through VR lens,” she said.
“In the era of technology, the VR users should be able to get the benefits of technology without suffering.”
The study, ‘Identifying presence of cybersickness symptoms using AI-based predictive learning algorithms’ was published in journal Virtual Reality.
Read the full study here.


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RAC urges more EV support
RAC has asked for more government support to encourage drivers to switch to electric vehicles. Although there are long term plans in place, including the ban of new petrol and diesel motors by 2040, RAC feels more immediate, radical plans should be implemented.
Since last year, the sales of electric vehicles have deceased. RAC head of roads policy Nicholas Lyes stated, ‘With the latest figures showing a drop in the number of electric cars being sold in the UK at the start of this year compared to 2017, now is the time to ask whether incentives such as the plug-in grant scheme are doing enough to change drivers’ buying habits.’
By putting incentives in place, for example a VAT on sales of zero-emission vehicles, might encourage motorists towards switching to electric vehicles.
In addition to incentives, RAC said that by reassuring drivers over their major concerns of switching to electric (high up-front costs, access to charging points) can also be beneficial. Nicholas further endorsed this idea. He said, ‘A combination of competitive up-front vehicle costs and confidence in the charging infrastructure should provide the tipping point for a transition to zero-emission vehicles.’
A committee report written by MPs from Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Health and Environmental Audit and Transport Committees, reinforced RAC’s encouragement towards short-term goals to convince drivers towards the use of electric vehicles, and has gained the support of many environmental groups including Greenpeace and ClientEarth. Greenpeace clean air campaigner Rosie Rogers said, ‘The government must prioritise public health and bring forward its phase-out date by at least 10 years. Other countries have managed it, and people who live in the UK deserve clean air just as much.’


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Samsung is about to launch a foldable smartphone, if the company’s developer guidance is to be believed. The firm is scheduled to hold its developer conference later this week, and documentation about sessions show Samsung may be finally about to make good on a concept it first outlined in 2013.
The company is hosting the two-day developer conference at Moscone West in San Francisco starting from Wednesday. In a session entitled “New Galaxy UX” discovered by SamMobile, the company appears to be set to help developers understand foldable display technology. The text reads:
Introducing Samsung Mobile’s next UX. Explore the new Galaxy UX with Android 9.0 Pie (Beta Program) and see how a Foldable display creates a totally new experience.
This discovery comes as Reuters claims the company will deliver some details about its foldable phone. The outlet quoted an anonymous Samsung official as stating: “Unlike our flagship products, the foldable phone is a completely new concept in terms of design and user experience, which requires a different approach.”
Samsung Foldable Phones: Why Now
Samsung has shared its folding phone ambitions before. A 2013 concept video shows a tech guy in a coffee shop, winning over the attention of the woman sat next to him as another guy tries to get her number:
Over the years, more reports suggested work was well underway. A June 2016 leak claimed the phone would offer a five-inch screen that flips out into an eight-inch screen. In November 2017, a new support page suggested Apple was getting ready to launch. A concept render produced in August showed how the concept could work in practice:
New leaks suggest Samsung has finally cracked it. A report last week stated that the phone will offer a 4.6-inch external display for use as a regular smartphone, with a 7.3-inch foldable internal OLED display to work as a tablet when necessary. The hinge will bring the two sides close enough together to close the gap while avoiding the two sides touching and potentially shattering.
Samsung Foldable Phone: Reddit Reactions
The news has led to a flurry of reactions from tech fans, curious to see how a folding smartphone brings something new to the table:
- “So we’re back to books?” - JohnnyChanterelle.
- “Welcome to something they didn’t have on Star Trek.” - natha105.
- “Foldable Galaxy technology? Surely the physicists have something to say about this.” - veriix.
- “Might be cool, but I’ve never really said to myself ‘I wish I could fold my phone in half’” - Timmmbo.


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June 25, 2014
California Senate has passed Bill Senate Bill No. 1019 regarding upholstered furniture containing flame retardant chemicals.
The bill requires manufacturers to indicate whether the upholstery used in furniture contains flame retardants. It also directs the state bureau overseeing home furnishings to ensure compliance with the labeling requirement and to assess fines for violations. The bill also allows consumers to know which products have been made with and without chemicals.
The bill now moves to the Assembly.


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Google hardware products are known for bugs. But the search giant is also known for fixing those with software updates. Hence, the company has released a new firmware update for Google Chromecast With Google TV with an important fix and some new features.
The Google Chromecast with Google TV is the latest streaming device from the company. It was announced in late September along with Pixel 4a 5G and Pixel 5. Since its release, it has had some issues and the firm responded to them with software updates.
Currently, the product is receiving a new firmware update with build number 200918.033. This update brings a much-awaited fix for the recovery screen issue reported by many users. Hence, if you own the device, then make sure to update it as soon as possible. However, do note that the build is being rolled out in batches and therefore, it may take time to reach your unit
Further, as per the changelog, the latest update improves 4K support for TVs/AVRs and Dolby Audio for Dolby Atmos and Dolby Digital Plus passthrough content. That’s not all, it also bumps up the security patch level to December 2020 and brings general stability, performance, and security improvements.
- Improved 4K support for TVs and AVRs
- Dolby Audio improvements for Dolby Atmos and Dolby Digital Plus passthrough content
- Android recovery screen improvements and fixes
- Security update: security patch level increased to December 5, 2020
- General security, stability, and performance improvements
- Android 12 screenshots leak showcases redesigned interface and new features
- Google Pixel smartphones will soon be able to measure heart rate using camera
- This might be the design of upcoming Google Pixel Foldable Smartphone
- Android 12 could feature a native system-level theme engine
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