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Lockdown. On day 4, it is a word we are still coming to terms with, following the Presidential announcement on the response to the COVID-19 outbreak, on the 23rd of March 2020. While people were in panic stations rushing to buy and stockpile groceries. SMME businesses sat back in shock as to how this will affect their businesses, especially in the travel and tourism industry.
Go4IT Africa CEO, James Elstob’s take: “The Covid-19 pandemic has caused massive disruptions within the tourism industry, with many companies potentiality closing down causing major sector job losses. This is a very sad reality and an event that is going to leave a legacy on our industry for some time to come. The industry needs to work together to take stock, provide support to smaller business and rebuild for the future world of travel and experience, post social distancing and lock-down.” Looking forward to the light at the end of the tunnel, or the “lockdown” keyhole. The department of Tourism has made R200 Million available to support SMMES in the tourism and hospitality sectors. Along with this fund, specifically catering to the tourism industry, there will also be a fund dedicated to SMMEs.
The South African government has stated that they are “committed to seeing the sector being able to pick up the pieces post COVID-19”. The government has also mentioned that this fund will be distributed across all of South Africa’s 9 provinces and tourism sectors. Tourism and Hospitality Fund The South African Department of Tourism has stated that the following sectors can apply: Travel and similar services, which includes tour operators, travel agents; Tour guides; car rental companies and coach operators. Accommodation, that includes hotels, resorts and B&B’s. Hospitality and related services, including restaurants (that are not attached to hotels); conference centres (not attached to hotels), and attractions and catering services.
Qualifying criteria, as stated by the South African Government: Must be a formally registered business with Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC). Turnover must not exceed R2.5 million per year. Must have a valid tax clearance certificate. Guaranteed employment for a minimum number of staff for a period of 3 months. Proof of minimum wage compliance. Must provide proof of UIF registration for employees employed by the business. Be an existing tourism-specific establishment as outline in the scope of application (suppliers and intermediaries are not eligible). Must be in existence for at least one business financial year. Prove that relief is required as a result of the impact of COVID-19. Must submit statements of financial position; over 12 months’ bank statement, balance sheet, income statements, cash flow statements. Indicate the intended use of the resources. SMME Business fund With the announcement, President Cyril Ramaphosa mentioned that there would also be an SMME Business fund that will assist SMME enterprises in danger. The Department of Small Business Development has made over R500 million, which will be available immediately. Businesses can apply for assistance through a very easily accessible application process. The website is available here.
James Elstob says that “The silver lining that may come out of this, is a massive wake up call to the industry to embrace the new digital era. Especially here in Africa, where we are still doing most of our business in brick and mortar infrastructure with cumbersome manual quoting processes, all relying on old legacy B2B networks to get our products to market. I am hoping that our industry can take this forced timeout to do a spring clean and rethink business and adopt the new age of digital travel practices.”
Although the COVID-19 Outbreak has literally caused a shutdown, there is definitely a silver lining. With the support of funding, and the general support of South Africans. The travel and tourism industry will make it out of the lockdown to pick up the pieces and build up our world-class tourism industry again. Although the COVID-19 Outbreak has literally caused a shutdown, there is definitely a silver lining. With funding and the general support of South Africans, the travel and tourism industry will make it out of the lockdown to pick up the pieces and build up our world-class tourism industry again. As part of the Go4IT Africa stable – Go4IT will continue to build eCommerce platforms that enable smart business interactions & seamless customer experiences.
Real-time online bookings, payments and calendars functionality facilitate efficient business administration. This increases the number of clients who can be serviced, along with a great customer experience, which naturally leads to an increase in sales. We will continue to reach out to Tour operators and Travel companies for one-day trips, experiences, and activities to become the world’s largest wholesaler of experiences and activities as part of social reconnecting and re-establishing our industry.
About Go4IT Africa We are a proudly South African travel industry, technology, and tourism wholesale company. As specialists in e-commerce technology, we help Tour Operators and Travel Companies to offer experiences, activities, and tours through seamless customer experience while doing business better through real-time online bookings and administration using smart websites.
Get in touch with us for a chat, we will set up a FREE demo site to experience a new way of doing business.


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Micron made a loss of $215m in its latest quarter, job losses are coming, and the Seagate eSSD partnership hasn’t taken off.
Its fiscal third 2016 quarter revenues were $2.9bn, compared to $3.85bn a year ago and $2.93bn a quarter ago, when it made a $97m loss. Things have gotten a whole lot worse since then on the price-mix front.
It plans to lower its staff count by about 2,400 jobs - about 7.5 per cent.
The damage was done by a fall in NAND sales, to around $900m, with trade units down 10 per cent compared to the second quarter and average selling price down 6 per cent. Memory (DRAM) sales grew. Micron’s gross margin of 17 per cent was 3 per cent lower than the second quarter “primarily due to lower average selling prices partially offset by manufacturing cost reductions.”
Micron CEO Mark Durcan’s canned statement reads: "Although we have made good progress in deploying our advanced DRAM and NAND technologies, we continue to face challenging market conditions. To address the current market environment and strengthen our competitive position, we are implementing a number of initiatives to reduce costs, drive greater efficiencies, and increase focus on our strategic priorities."
A global workforce reduction is coming and thus, with other initiatives, is supposed to save the company $300m+ in its fiscal 2017.
Micron Q3 fiscal 2016 results, with six quarters of declining revenue, and seven of falling profits moving into losses.
Stifel MD Aaron Rakers says Micron’s reported NAND revenue was ~$900m, or 31 per cent of revenue; it was 37 per cent in the prior quarter, suggesting a 17 to 27 per cent annual decline. He points out SanDisk’s revenue had increased by 2.5 per cent year-on-year in the March quarter.
According to Rakers, Micron’s implied SSD revenue, 13 per cent of total revenue at $117M, declined by 50 per cent y-o-y and 33 per cent sequentially. “This compares to SanDisk + Western Digital’s SSD revenue growing by 2 per cent y-o-y and -9 per cent sequentially during the March 2016 quarter.” So Micron dealt poorly with market demand problems compared to WDC/SanDisk.
Micron encountered revenue effects in its fab conversion from 2D planar NAND to 3D NAND. Rakers says: “Micron noted that client SSD bits sold were down 20 sequentially as the company reduced planar output (and planar NAND-based SSDs) to shift more toward 3D NAND. … Micron expects its 2nd generation 3D NAND to commence volume shipments in C2Q17.”
The 1st generation features 256Gbit MLC and 384Gbit TLC capability. Second generation capacities have not been revealed.
He notes that Micron enterprise SSD bit shipments declined 10 per cent sequentially in its third quarter, yet it has an enterprise SSD partnership with Seagate. Rakers writes: “This further confirms our view that the Seagate/Micron eSSD partnership has not materialised at all.” ®

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A new campaign was launched on the 4 January which is encouraging parents to get “Sugar Smart” and take control of their children’s sugar intake.
A new Sugar Smart app has been launched to help parents see how much sugar there is in everyday food and drink. The free app works by scanning the barcode of products and revealing the amount of total sugar it contains in cubes and grams.
Change4Life has created an eye-opening short film to warn parents about the health harms of eating and drinking too much sugar, including becoming overweight and tooth decay.
You can view the short film and find out how to down load the app by visiting the Change4life site or using the link below
More information here.


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The 2022 Villa d’Este Concorso d’Eleganza
Once again, the shores of Lake Como rang to clink of ice in glasses of Aperol Spritz, the loose rattle of a vintage Rolex on an expensively tanned wrist, the rustle of Loro Piana and the squeak of highly polished Tod’s. MC Simon Kidston’s multilingual commentary was delivered in his usual well-informed style and, every now again, the bark of an unsilenced racing engine broke the tranquil lakeside air. Yes, last weekend was the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este.
The winner – ‘Top Dog’ in this case, perhaps – of the Coppa d’Oro Villa d’Este (Best of Show by public referendum) was Philip Sarofim’s one-off Aston Martin Bulldog (pictured, top).
Prize for the best-preserved post-war car (Trofeo ASI) went to Ulrich Schumacher’s Maserati A6 GCS, while Stefan Näf won the Trofeo BMW in his 1993 Ferrari F40 LM (above). Final winner – of the Trofeo FIVA for best-preserved pre-War car – was Fritz Burkard and his ex-King Leopold Bugatti Type 59, a car he picked up at the Gooding auction at Hampton Court in 2020.
Pull up a chair, pour yourself a long drink and enjoy some of the photos taken by ace photographer Tim Scott at the event.
Photos by Tim Scott of Fluid Images


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The Federal Trade Commission has decided to cut back its quarterly review of the marketing of violent entertainment to children to an annual review so that the commission "can see when steady progress has been made."
That's according to an American Advertising Federation summary of a talk FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection deputy director Lee Peeler had with AAF members last week in Washington, D.C.
The next report is due out in June.
On the issue of dietary and health-supplement ads -- the subject of a daylong seminar at the FTC Monday -- Peeler told the AAF last week that the commission plans to release a list of common "false phrases" some diet ads use to deceive consumers. He also said the commission will encourage media to better screen diet supplement ads.


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National Small Business Week - Kansas City Small Business Conference
During World Trade Week and National Small Business Week, Deputy Assistant USTR for Small Business, Market Access and Industrial Competitiveness Christina Sevilla had the opportunity to address a conference titled “Futurallia 2011” in Kansas City, Missouri. The conference included over 600 small businesses from across America and 27 other countries. Her remarks focused on the work the United States and our trading partners are undertaking to better support small businesses growth and prosperity through exporting.
For example, USTR is working within the Trans-Pacific Partnership to emphasize the needs of small- and medium-sized businesses. This emphasis will help these businesses participate more actively in Asia-Pacific trade and address trade barriers that affect access to these markets. The United States also convened the first ever joint meeting of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Trade and SME Ministers in Big Sky, Montana last week. The ministers worked to find ways to address barriers to trade that particularly impact small businesses, and make it cheaper, easier, and faster to trade within the region.
At the conference, Christina met with Missouri small businesses seeking to expand their exports into new foreign markets, including Western Forms, a small manufacturer from Kansas City, which has 100 employees and exports aluminum molds for concrete housing to 40 countries. Company manager Dan Ward expressed his support for free trade agreements, saying “We have customers in Colombia and Panama. [Trade agreements] would help us create more jobs in Kansas City.”
Another small company, SComm, has 10 employees in Raytown, Missouri and exports a patented portable device, the UbiDuo, which helps deaf and hard of hearing people communicate more easily. SComm Vice President Emma Curry said the company has exported to various U.S. free trade agreement partners, including Canada and Australia, among other countries. They are also interested in increasing sales to more foreign customers in additional countries around the world.
Expanding exports by America’s innovative small- and medium-sized businesses is a key priority of the Obama Administration’s National Export Initiative – which is working to double exports by the end of 2014 and support jobs here at home.


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In 1995, Microsoft paid a reported $4 million to use The Rolling Stones’ famous song “Start Me Up” in ads for its Windows95. According to one of Madison Avenue’s most influential agencies, in 2014 that money would not be well spent.
MediaVest, an ad-buying firm that helps guide the marketing strategies of such ad giants as Procter & Gamble and Coca-Cola, has released a new study suggesting that advertisers stop jamming pop songs into commercials and instead devise new ways to help the new swelling generation of millennials gain direct access to artists and songs.
“It’s all so personal. It’s all so one on one, and not always delivered by a label,” said Brian Terkelsen, chief executive of MediaVest USA, the Publics Groupe-owned agency that allocates spending for many blue-chip clients, describing the new ways younger consumers interact with audio. While songs are still served up through radio airplay and record-label releases, much more of them surface to people born between 1980 and the early 2000s through downloads, streaming and viral pass-along.
MediaVest spent a year interviewing more than 2000 U.S. consumers and making use of online discussion groups and ethnographic studies of 8 U.S. markets and has determined that younger consumers would identify less with music that is programmed for them or delivered to them in tandem with a traditional 30-second commercial and would think more fondly of any entity that can help them find out more information about songs and artists they like or even deliver experiences associated with such stuff.
At music-streaming service Spotify, advertisers can link themselves to distribution of new songs, said Erin Clift, vice president of global marketing. McDonald’s, for example, takes part in something called “The Drop,” where users can gain access to content in the days leading up to a big launch. Coca-Cola, meanwhile, has created a profile within Spotify that presents playlists and collections of music that the company curates for its consumers. Sometimes, said Clift, the songs try to burnish the idea of “happiness” or “happy moments,” which fits with the slogan for the company’s flagship drink, “Open Happiness.”
The advertiser is “inviting them in to both participate and to sort of lean back and listen to follow,” Clift said.
Now that music has become seemingly “ubiquitous” in an age of digital distribution. MediaVest found young consumers feeling “overwhelmed” by the sheer amount of audio they can access, said David Shiffman, the executive vice president of research for the agency. “You want to know why you want to follow something. You want to understand it,” he said. “But there’s this click-click mentality to always finding the next greatest thing in and around music.”
Some advertisers are testing new methods. Honda Motor, a MediaVest client, earlier this month unveiled “Honda Stage,”a YouTube channel that is expected to present original content featuring top bands and musicians. “This is a different play,” said Tom Peyton, assistant vice present of advertising and marketing at American Honda. “We want to turn the emotion that comes with music and really infuse our brand with that emotion.”
In the past, said Peyton, a marketer like Honda might try to use TV commercials with music in them or sponsor a concert tour to make a similar point. Now, with so many different methods of accessing music available to customers, he said, “consumers all have the expectation that they will be able to connect to their artists in more and different ways. They have an appreciation that a sponsor can help them do that.”
The new thinking could spell the end for a technique that has become almost de rigueur for mainstream advertisers. For years now, advertisers have incorporated music from established and up-and-coming artists. One-time counterculture mainstays like The Clash, The Band and Led Zeppelin have allowed their music to be used in ads from Jaguar, Diet Coke and Cadillac, among others. And ads from Apple gave millions of dollars of publicity to a new single from U2 or then-emerging artists like The Fratellis or Feist. No doubt, the Ceasars’ “Jerk It Out” would not have been heard as much if it did not appear in a 2005 ad for the iPod Shuffle
If advertisers heed MediaVest’s advice, they may stop inserting music into old-school commercials and start finding new ways to transmit it to the audiences they hope will buy their products.


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A device that checks blood glucose levels by touch could help those with diabetes to avoid needles. If you have diabetes, you probably know all too well about having to prick your finger. Well, hopefully, this is good for you if you do.
Scanbo, a Canadian company, unveiled a device that can measure blood glucose levels with the help of an electrocardiogram and artificial intelligence. They also use a photoplethysmogram that measures changes in blood volume in different parts of the body.
Scanbo told TechCrunch the device can also perform blood-pressure measurements.
“We use the three electrodes for ECG data and an additional measurement for PPG. We measure for 60 seconds, and then take the raw data and analyze that using the machine learning convolutional neural network and the deep neural network,” Ashiissh Raichura, CEO of Scanbo, told TechCrunch.
“As a company, we are a combination of AI and med-tech,” Raichura said.
As of now, the Scanbo device is just a prototype.


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In the News
Global News interviewed Toronto ACORN member Rob Leaver on ACORN's national Digital Access to Opportunities campaign.
Watch ACORN leader Blaine Cameron on the National with ally PIAC fighting for affordable internet for low income families!
The federal government needs to take action to assess how escalating phone, internet and television bills are affecting Canadians, especially those earning the least income, a new study on affordability says.
Canadians are spending between $100 and $212 a month per household on communications services, according to the report issued Monday by the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC), an Ottawa-based consumer advocacy group.
On Wednesday, February 18, 2015, ACORN members from Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal traveled to Google Headquarters in two cities (Toronto and Montreal) to demand Google Fiber come to Canada and include affordable internet service for low income families! Members presented letters at both locations, demanding a meeting to discuss Google Fiber coming to Canada. Google has responded to us on Twitter -"@ACORNCanada We're on the same (web)page! The internet is a huge enabler & we're working hard to improve access around the world." - and members are eager to hear back with a proposed meeting date.


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PepsiCo has opened a new baby-food production line at its plant in the Russian city of Omsk.
The line is produce drinking yoghurts under the brand names Agusha and Miracle Children.
The launch of a line of children’s drinking yoghurts is part of a project at the factory to expand the production of baby food. Last year, the plant started manufacturing curds marketed under the Agusha brand.
PepsiCo acquired the facility, which also makes dairy products under brands including Domik v Derevne, when it bought Russian business Wimm-Bill-Dann in 2011.
“PepsiCo has been working in Russia for a long time and we are striving to develop our business in this country,” the US food and drinks giant said in a statement.
The company sought to emphasise its use of local ingredients. “For Russian consumers, the company provides a wide range of products, including modern and traditional dairy products, as well as baby food. Creating our products, we take into account the local preferences of consumers and pay special attention to the development of products that are traditional in Russia and are made from domestic raw materials. The Agusha brand of baby food has Russian roots.”
PepsiCo also makes baby food at plants in Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Kursk and Timashevsk.


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As the date for Samsung’s Unpacked 2019 approaches, more and more speculations about the much anticipated Samsung Galaxy S10 smartphone range appear. A photo appeared on Weibo, showing the front of the Samsung Galaxy S10+, rocking extremely thin bezels and a pill shaped cutout housing the selfie camera as well as the ToF camera.
In addition, listings in Brazil claim that the smartphone may have a battery capacity that is equal or less than its previous predecessor, the Samsung Galaxy S9. The Samsung Galaxy S10+ show a 4000mAh battery capacity on the listings. This is a little concerning, considering the rumours about the Samsung Galaxy S10+ having a 5 cameras in total. However, it is noted that the smartphone may be powered by the Exynos 9820 chipset here in Malaysia, which is a pretty efficient chipset.
As for the regular Samsung Galaxy S10, listings show a 3300mAh battery capacity which is slightly lower than the Samsung Galaxy S9+’s. However, the S10 may have a slightly smaller screen, measuring at 6.1 inches as well as a more efficient chipset this time round. The lowest spec variant of the smartphone may come with a 3000mAh battery capacity but we all know the battery life of the smartphone may still be pretty impressive due to the chipset and 5.8 inch display.
There may be a brand new feature on the Samsung Galaxy S10 smartphone. A 3D ToF camera is finally making its way to the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G variant. I’m sure by now most of you know what a 3D ToF camera, seeing that smartphones like the Huawei Mate 20 and HONOR View20 rocking the same concept. We can expect to see the ToF cameras make its way to Samsung’s A series smartphone range some time soon as well.
However, until the official announcement is made next month, on the 20th of February to be exact, do take this information with a healthy dose of skepticism. Here's what we know about the Samsung Galaxy S10 so far. I wonder what rumour we’ll hear about the smartphone next… X-ray vision, anyone? For the latest Samsung news, TechNave.com is the place to be!


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Research in Motion executives played it cool Tuesday, just as the pressure over encrypted messages and security concerns from governments in Kuwait, India, and Saudi Arabia seemed to be heating up.
David Yach, RIM’s chief technology officer, declined comment on RIM’s dealings with specific countries related to security issues, in an interview with Reuters.
“I believe they’ll have trouble pulling the trigger to shut down BlackBerry,” Yach said. “Most governments in the world rely on BlackBerry.”
Yach made the comments on the sidelines of the launch the BlackBerry Torch 9800, RIM’s latest smartphone.
On Sunday the United Arab Emirates announced they would suspend BlackBerry Messenger, email and Web browser services from Oct. 11 unless Waterloo-based RIM provided access encrypted messages.
Saudi Arabia’s telecom watchdog raised the stakes Tuesday, ruling that telecom companies in the kingdom must block the messenger function on Blackberry handsets as of Friday.
RIM is going to face a very serious challenge over the next few weeks, said independent technology analyst Carmi Levy.
If it fails to reach an agreement with these governments, it may be locked out of the UAE markets, which represent about 3 per cent of its global revenue.
If it caves, and gives authorities access to the communications stream, it will seriously compromise the BlackBerry brand,” Levy said.
“If you let one government snoop into the affairs of those who use the device, then conceivably there’s nothing to stop any other government from wanting the same treatment. That will send chills to BlackBerry users around the world.”
According to media reports in India, RIM has agreed to allow Indian security authorities to monitor BlackBerry services.
Separately a Kuwaiti daily newspaper, quoting an unidentified source, said RIM had given “initial approval” to block 3,000 porn sites at the request of Kuwait’s communications ministry. It said security was also a concern.
Duncan Stewart, director of research for technology, telecommunications, and media for Deloitte Canada sees grander politics at play.
“The reality is this is a game of bluff and response and bargaining and tactics,” he said, adding that India has repeatedly threatened to ban BlackBerry smartphones.
“When the government says we will shut down BlackBerry services in October, that gets plenty of press,” Stewart said.
“But whenever a compromise is reached, and whatever that compromise is, that gets no press.”
Yach also said RIM will “stick to its guns” on promises it made to customers about security while still cooperating with governments. Part of cooperating with governments includes educating them on security, he said.
Unlike rivals Nokia and iPhone maker Apple, RIM controls its own networks which handle encrypted messages through centres in Canada and the UK.
That has made the BlackBerry popular as a secure way to communicate, but has worried governments.
Theodore Karasik, a security analyst at Dubai-based firm INEGMA, said there were real security concerns at stake.
“Some in the Dubai/UAE bashing crowd will say this is a freedom of speech issue ... but some would say the UAE brought this up at the height of threat awareness here. There are several security issues here—Iran, Yemen, al Qaeda—that they could be worried about,” he told Reuters.
“Everyone wants to get their security access. The UAE is acting as a bellwether for other countries on this,” he said.
In addition to security threats, the UAE has tracked several money laundering incidents, including a plot to defraud the central bank of billions of dollars.
The UAE, Saudi Arabia and India represent more than 2 million BlackBerry users, or about 5 percent of the 41 million devices in service worldwide.
With files from the Star’s news services


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Wella Professionals has launched a new hair colour collection called the LuxeLights. The new collection has three unique services and
Wella Company organised a ‘Free Vaccination Drive’ for its employees, salon partners, distributors, and other staff members through its WEcare
Wella Professionals hosted Illuminage – the New Age Balayage, an online hair colour event to teach new hair color techniques.
Wella Company has launched its weDo/ Professional brand in India. This eco-ethical, professional hair and body care brand makes cruelty-free,
Wella’s first global ‘We Create’ digital event will take place on April 25, 2021, which will be featuring industry leaders
Wella Professionals, a global hair products brand to reckon with, launched an International programme for hairdressers – Wella Passionistas on


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Even though pharmacists are under increased scrutiny for filling prescriptions that may interact with each other and for preventing opioid abuse, many are catching problems before they arise. For example, a Walmart pharmacist recently uncovered a prescription fraud scheme.
The pharmacist at a Walmart store in Fort Gratiot, MI, noticed that a patient tried to fill an identical script for 800 mg of ibuprofen and a cough syrup containing codeine two days in a row from the same doctor. The pharmacist contacted the doctor, who said the scripts were fraudulent, according to The Times Herald.
The pharmacist immediately called the local sheriff’s department. They arrested a 23-year-old Lexington, KY, man at the pharmacy counter, along with a 23-year-old woman and a 36-year-old man in the store’s parking lot. In the suspects’ vehicle, sheriff deputies found a laptop, printer, and faked scripts, along with ibuprofen, promethazine/codeine syrup, and alprazolam and Percocet pills.
The three were charged with prescription fraud. Detectives said they may have gotten away with the same type of scheme elsewhere in Michigan.
Last year, a pharmacy tech at an Albertsons SavOn Pharmacy in Eugene, OR, uncovered a prescription fraud ring. A customer tried to fill a script for 150 30-mg oxycodone pills purported to be written by a doctor in North Hollywood, CA.
However, when the tech told the man he needed to provide a local address, he seemed unsure of his own address. The tech told the customer to return in 30 minutes, and then looked up the doctor’s information in the prescription database. The doctor’s phone number and address were different on the script than in the database, and the doctor’s office informed her the script was fraudulent, according to The Register-Guard.
The tech called the police, who arrested the man and three others on prescription drug fraud charges. The four had filled fraudulent scripts at other Eugene pharmacies.
In January, a pharmacist at a pharmacy in Sioux Falls, SD, called police after a woman posing as a nurse tried to fill the same opioid script for the second day in a row. The 24-year-old woman was arrested as she waited in the drive-through to pick up the pills, according to KSFY ABC.


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Maestrano is the only enterprise platform that offers such low prices for enterprise software ready to use immediately online.
Sydney, Australia (PRWEB) October 24, 2013
Launched earlier this year, Maestrano.com is riding the crest of Australia’s exciting burgeoning startup tech industry, shortly after the company went live in the North American market, creating excitement in Silicon Valley with their ambitious vision to revolutionise the offers of online software for small and medium businesses and the way business to business orientated companies control, maintain and provide access to applications and services.
Maestrano’s website has a large and diverse variety of well-known third-party applications aimed solely at running businesses from the one location through a customised dashboard accessible from any web-connected device; applications are hosted by Maestrano in a dedicated and secure cloud. Everything users need is in one central place and ready to use in one click without any technical hassles.
According to Stephane Ibos, CEO/Co-Founder, “We rely on the Open Source community who are incredibly skilled and powerful when it comes to developing exceptional products – Maestrano is the only enterprise platform that offers such low prices for enterprise software ready to use immediately and doesn’t lock its customer into any plan or commitment. The principle is simple: if you are our customer, you just use your software online and we take care of all the technical management for you, including the secure storage of your data.”
Since the start of their online marketing campaign this month, Maestrano has seen its customer portfolio grow by an average of 2% daily, demonstrating significant traction and interest from the small and medium business market. According to Ibos, social media plays a large part in this market interest: “We’ve seen more and more visits on our Facebook and Google+ pages, as well as an increased read of our Twitter feed.”
It’s this simplicity that is garnering Maestrano praise and allowing business owners to increase their productivity, boost revenue and benefit from top-tier enterprise software at a fraction of the cost proposed by the rest of the market. CEO Stephane Ibos explains: “The founding team at Maestrano came from a corporate environment and dealt extensively with small and medium businesses. We have always been less than impressed by the complexity of IT deployments, the costs incurred and the overall lack of efficiency resulting from complex and too often inappropriate systems. So we decided to create the concept of on demand enterprise software with the lowest possible price for professionals who need them and do not want to waste time and significant money struggling with IT intricacies or consultancy.”
Maestrano’s strong consumer engagement ethos is already yielding results. “At the current rate, we should have more than 200 businesses using our service by November,” says Ibos. He adds, “It’s not huge, but after just a month on the market, it is very encouraging!” Maestrano’s determination represents a fresh new voice with the potential to reinvigorate the online business world and the B2B online marketplace.
About the company
Maestrano co-founders Stephane Ibos and Arnaud Lachaume graduated from one of Europe’s most prestigious engineering universities, Telecom ParisTech, in France, before moving to Australia and embarking on successful corporate careers with Thales International and Macquarie Bank. After years of noticing a gap in the market for small and medium businesses online, Ibos and Lachaume created Maestrano in 2012. The company’s headquarters are located in Sydney, Australia and Maestrano is already operating two deployment centers: one in Singapore and one in Oregon (US). The company plans to extend its deployment centers to Eastern Europe in 2014 to address the strong customer demand.


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Razer's Taipei store launch proves too popular, special weekend activities cancelled
Razer was forced to suspend weekend operations following the launch of its RazerStore in Taipei, Taiwan, due to overcrowding. The launch of the store in the Syntrend Mall reportedly drew thousands of people from around the world, causing mall officials to become concerned about capacity and security.
To that end, Razer has cancelled its special weekend activities at the store, though it will still remain open during the mall's normal operational hours this weekend. The company had planned to distribute free Nabu X bands to the first 250 people to line up on both May 16 and May 17.
OVERCROWDING AT RAZERSTORE TAIPEI LAUNCH DAY LEADS MALL AUTHORITIES TO SUSPEND WEEKEND ACTIVITIES
TAIPEI, Taiwan – Due to overcrowding at the grand opening of the RazerStore in the Syntrend Mall in Taipei, mall management, citing safety concerns, requested that Razer suspend its weekend launch activities.
The opening of the new Razerstore purportedly drew thousands of fans from Taiwan and abroad, including the United States, Europe and Asia, which resulted in a line forming many hours before the store opening.
While Syntrend provided extensive security support for the event, the magnitude of people drawn to the mall for Razer's retail event were expected to exceed capacity, potentially taxing crowd control resources and impacting other tenants of the mall.
Razer will comply with Syndrend's request to suspend its previously planned activities this weekend. As a result, free Nabu X wearables will not be distributed to the first 250 visitors in line each day, May 16 and May 17.
The new Razerstore Taipei will still be open and operating during normal business hours this Saturday and Sunday, from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. The Razer community team on location plans to issue swag on a discretionary basis, honoring fans who come equipped with Razer gear, such as Razer Kraken headphones, shirts, bags and the likes.
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“There’s nowhere for brands to hide now.” That’s the stark message which kicks off Sustainable Packaging Unwrapped — a recent GlobalWebIndex study which takes an in-depth look at both consumer perceptions and behaviours regarding sustainable packaging.
The thrust of the report’s argument is that sustainable packaging is no longer a “nice-to-have”, but rather a “must-have”, with consumers increasingly scrutinising brands and demanding change.
In this post, we dig deep into the details. We’ll be highlighting the stats you need to know, covering the all-important opportunities for brands, and explaining how Tembo Paper can help you meet (and exceed) consumer expectations where sustainable straws are concerned.
Shifting Consumer Attitudes: The Stats You Need to Know
As the report itself states, the trend towards sustainability isn’t a new one. The contemporary environmental movement has been driving change for quite some time, while celebrities and online influencers have helped shift attitudes and inspire activism.
But perhaps the most significant difference we’re seeing is that consumers aren’t merely paying lip-service to becoming more environmentally-conscious — they’re actively putting their money where their mouth is.
This has resulted in some encouraging stats and insights:
- 73% of U.S. consumers and 82% of UK consumers who care about sustainability choose “greener” packaging because they’re concerned about the future of the environment.
- 53% have reduced the amount of plastic they use in the past 12 months, while 42% claim that recycled/sustainable materials are important in their day-to-day shopping.
- Younger people (16-24) now see sustainable materials as a more important consideration than affordability. The opposite is true for older people (55-64), where affordability ranks higher.
- Meanwhile, the number of consumers who say they’d pay more for eco-friendly products has risen from 49% in 2011 to 57% in 2018.
These positive changes have largely occurred in lockstep with the age of social media, something the report also highlights. Given that the next generation of consumers has grown up with the likes of Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram — sharing and reacting to viral stories (such as the sea turtle with the plastic straw in its nose) — it makes sense that they’re leading the charge.
Social media continues to shape discourse and allows consumers a platform from which to hold brands accountable for their environmental efforts (or lack thereof). This chimes with what we’ve seen first-hand as we track plastic straw bans and boycotts around the globe, many of which have resulted as a direct response to consumer pressure.
And yet, despite their efforts, some consumers remain frustrated. 28% claim that they don’t have sufficient info about which packaging can be recycled from the products they buy.
Could this offer a point of difference for forward-thinking brands? We think so.
Time for Change: What are the Opportunities for Brands?
Consumers are scrutinizing brands — and their products — more than ever before. And this level of scrutiny extends beyond a cursory glance at the product in question. Rather, modern consumers are taking it upon themselves to investigate the entire production chain, helped in large part by social media accounts and campaigns.
This means that, for the most part, brands aren’t setting the agenda when it comes to guiding views on sustainability. However, while the movement against plastic is being driven by outside forces, brands do have an opportunity to position themselves as leaders on the path towards a sustainable future.
- Bridge the Recycling Knowledge Gap - As we mentioned earlier, 28% of consumers don’t feel like they have enough info about what can (and cannot) be recycled. This represents a great opportunity to align brand messaging with consumer education.
By providing clarity over which materials can be recycled, and how to go about it, you can help your brand stand apart (and potentially attract positive social media coverage into the bargain).
- Join the Pledge - There are a number of different initiatives geared towards making brands more eco-friendly, including one from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. This urges brands to pledge towards having 100% recyclable, reusable, or compostable packaging by 2025.
The report underscores the magnitude of this opportunity when it states that two-thirds of consumers believe that brands making a public promise to be sustainable are deemed more trustworthy.
- Invest in Reusable or Compostable Packaging Solutions - While recyclable materials remain the most compelling solution, the report states that 39% of consumers want more biodegradable packaging, while 53% would like to see more reusable packaging. Both trends again represent a point of difference for brands who wish to stand out and lead the way.
Reusable packaging is gaining in popularity as consumers seek to cut down on single-use plastic. Meanwhile, a compostable package or product, like a paper straw, can be discarded with little afterthought as to its environmental impact. It will simply disintegrate over time, removing responsibility from the end-user.
From Plastic to Paper: How Can Tembo Paper Help?
This, inevitably, brings us to what we do best: Paper Straws.
If your brand or business operates in the food and drink industry, you’ve probably witnessed this shift in consumer behaviour already. You may also be dealing with the realities of a plastic straw ban as a result of consumer boycotts and political lobbying.
And even if your business isn’t required to comply with plastic waste legislation, this report should act as a real eye-opener. Younger consumers now expect brands to take their own measures in order to reduce plastic waste and protect the wider environment — and they’re quite prepared to bring those that don’t to task.
This means switching from plastic to paper straws is a simple, yet effective way of keeping consumers onside and positioning your brand as an eco-friendly alternative.
If this report proves anything, it’s that now is the time for change. The opportunity is there for your brand to lead the way. And there’s nowhere left to hide.
If you’d like to learn more about our sustainable paper straws or our paper straw production line technology, contact us today.
Photo by Joshua Rawson-Harris on Unsplash


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He succeeds Hattie Brett, editor of Grazia and will be supported by vice-chairs Deborah Joseph, European editorial director, Glamour, and Jaimie Kaffash, editor of Pulse. Together they lead the committee of 15 leading British magazine editors and editorial directors who run the society and plan each year’s events.Continue reading “Magazines can prosper, says new BSME chair”
I always enjoy talking to editors and publishers who offer a real insight into their publication and its achievements. So when the opportunity came, I was delighted to interview Guy Procter, editor of Country Walking, for the Nov/Dec issue of InPublishing.
Last week I interviewed Chris Convey, Senior Vice President and Managing Director of Future’s B2B portfolio, who led on its core acquisition’s strategy.
In the past few years, following a restructure, Future plc has seen phenomenal growth from acquisitions and through an expansion of their current portfolio. But why has this media giant now forged ahead when others are struggling?
Gaining new territories is undoubtedly a factor. But from my perspective, this is about innovation and taking an inclusive approach with regards to acquisitions.
According to Chris, being humble and not assuming your working practices are better is a vital part of the process. “It is about recognising that you don’t always know best. Taking the opportunity to learn and moving forward with the best of the best.”
Fundamentally business is as much about people as it is about commerce. This is particularly true in publishing both in terms of staff and audiences.
Encouraging innovation and fulfilling the needs of their consumers is a critical part of Future’s forward vision. In my opinion, it is that multi-channel audience-centric focus – allowing the audience to interact regardless of how they choose to do that – could well set them apart from competitors.
My recent interview with John L Walters, editor and co-owner of Eye magazine, confirmed one of my long-held beliefs – print can be sustainable.
I also believe that the traditional publishing business model, drawing the majority of its revenue from copy sales and advertising, in the right circumstances can still thrive, which is how I came to write about Eye.
John first got in touch earlier this year, keen to share Eye’s story. He had read one of my InPublishing articles about a recent magazine conference in Chicago, Mapping The Magazine 5, where I had presented a paper on Lessons from the past, evaluating the sustainability of magazines.
Not only is Eye sustainable, but it is also unique because unlike many, this quarterly title makes money from subscription and copy sales. It also has a healthy advertising revenue stream, making it a compelling case study when this basic publishing model is now considered outdated by many and doomed to fail.
Yet Eye has those vital ingredients that ensure its success – relevance, a passionate team, collectable issues and an audience who love the magazine. Indeed, these traits are the reason it defies the odds.
John is also a driving force. He lives and breathes design. It is also clear early on in our interview that he cares deeply about the graphic design industry, as well as the magazine and its readers.
Every detail of the publication has been carefully thought through, from the editorial to the stock it is printed on. Unlike many publications, fresh talent is not only encouraged but actively sought. Each issue has four or five new writers keeping the content thought-provoking and vibrant.
From a consultancy perspective
In an industry where the lines are fast becoming blurred with content marketing masquerading as editorial and seeping into publications across the market sector, Eye stands out.
This is a magazine that values its independence and remains true to its identity rather than emulating others – a mistake many publishers make as evidenced by cover lines on the newsstands. At £17 a copy it is not cheap, but every issue is designed to be collectible, further enhancing the value proposition and adding longevity to the advertising inside. It is not surprising that both readers and advertisers share a deep love of this specialist title.
To find out more, read my interview with John L Walters, An eye for quality, published in the Sept/Oct issue of InPublishing.


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The teen social networking site Piczo is expanding its service on to mobile devices internationally from January, allowing users to post photos, videos and messages from their phones to their profile pages.
Piczo is the fourth biggest social networking site in the UK, according to comScore, and said the mobile services will inspire the creativity of its users while encouraging them to spend more time on the site.
Chris Seth, the Piczo managing director in Europe, said the site is keen to "extend the brand off screen into the real world".
"We are focused on creativity and self-expression, and on community. Teens look at mobile phones as a camera as much as a phone, so this gives them a way to play," Seth added.
Piczo users need to download a standalone application to their mobile phones so that they can access tools to post photos and video, comments and send messages to friends.
Seth said he could not comment on how much the service will cost, or whether it will be advertising funded, subscription or rely on one off payments each time it is used.
However, he added that cost was an important issue and that the service would not be prohibitively expensive for the site's core audience of 13- to 16-year-olds.
"There has been uncertainty around price and that has been the biggest barrier. But we are trying to make the service very simple, not like full social networking on a phone but providing users with an extension of the existing tool set," Seth said.
Much of Piczo's appeal has been around its customisation tools, which offer users a blank profile that they can personalise with their own photos and video in a more sophisticated way than rival sites.
Piczo recently launched Piczo Zone to showcase creative work by its users.
The site claims 12.5 million unique users each month, 3.5 million of which are in the UK.
Piczo has a stronger following in Europe than the US, despite being based in San Francisco.
Seth said the site is planning more localised versions next year and will bring on more music and video partners.
Piczo already partners with Yahoo Music, YouTube, VideoEgg and Germany's MyVideo for content.
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Profits for Chinese mobile live-streaming platform Inke plummeted in 2018 according to its first financial report since going public on the Hong Kong stock exchange in July.
The company’s total revenue dipped 2.1% year-on-year to RMB 3.9 billion (around $575.4 million) in 2018, while adjusted net profit plunged 24.7% year-on-year to RMB 596.3 million in the same period. Revenue from its live-streaming business, which comprised 96.6% of the company’s revenue, declined 4.9% year-on-year to RMB 37.3 million in 2018.
Esme Pau, an analyst at China Tonghai Securities, said the results signal intensifying competition in China’s live-streaming industry and Inke’s lack of a differentiating feature. Inke has to compete with other platforms for performers and the increase in revenue sharing with streamers squeezed margins, she added. The company’s gross margin declined to 33.8% in 2018 from 35.4% in 2017.
Inke recouped some of its monthly active users (MAU), which rose 12.3% year-on-year to 25.5 million in 2018, though it fell well short of the 30 million peak seen in the last quarter of 2016.
“We expect further industry consolidation in livestreaming in 2019 and smaller players to exit, following the footsteps of Panda TV and Quanmin TV,” Pau told TechNode.
In addition to intensifying competition among peers, livestreaming has been losing steam since 2018 as short video apps take share of user time spent among Chinese netizens thanks to its segmented content and easily shareable format. So far 2019 has seen the collapse of Panda TV, once a leading player in livestreaming, while layoff rumors circulate about another live-streaming platform, Douyu.
The user base for short video apps in China has surged to 356 million in 2018 from 153 million in 2016, as upstart platforms like Douyin and Kuaishou take hold, according to data from research institute AskCI Consulting. The boom is expected to continue with total users projected to reach 667 million by 2020, the report said.
To tap the shift, Inke has launched its own standalone short video app, Zhongzi Video, and plans to further its market penetration into lower-tier cities by developing additional features and functions, the company said in the report.
Inke’s net profits were corrected to RMB 596.3 million, not RMB 5.9 billion as originally reported.


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For the last three years University of Michigan Professor Richard Neitzel and his interdisciplinary team has been studying e-waste recycling in hope to identify health hazards for workers and help them improve their working conditions.
U.S. wireless carrier T-Mobile has revealed that 2 million of its customers, including some with metroPCS, were victims of a data breach that exposed names, billing zip codes, phone numbers, email addresses, and even their account type.
Note: e-End provides secure data destruction of hard drives and electronic media to help prevent a data breach of old IT equipment. See how here.
No financial information, Social Security numbers or passwords were exposed in the breach, the company said. All affected customers have been notified.
Notably, the breach occurred on Aug. 20, and the carrier announced the incident less than a week later, showing quick transparency. Data breach reporting timelines have been a crucial element of regulations regarding regulation of personally identifiable information — including Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation, which gives organizations just 72 hours to report to the relevant regulator.
Affected customers with questions can contact T-Mobile about the breach by dialing 611 on their mobile phone. The company has also noted that it is wise to change passwords regularly, even though none were believed to have been exposed in the hack.
With 75 million customers, the breach affected less than 5 percent of T-Mobile’s subscriber base.
Citing a spokesperson at the carrier, Threatpost reported that the breach occurred after hackers took advantage of a faulty API on an undisclosed part of its website. The attacks originated from IP addresses outside of the U.S.
Lynne Chick bought the four-camera system from online retailer Very, but got a surprise when she turned it on
A woman who bought a "new" security system online was shocked to find it contained someone else’s CCTV pictures and videos. Lynne Chick, 45, from Hawarden, bought a Swann four-camera security system from online retailer Very.
She arranged for the £250 system to be installed at a cost of £300 but, when it was switched on, the installation engineer said it could be accessed externally because someone else’s email account had been used to access the unit’s hard drive, which stores pictures and video.
Ms Chick called Very, who advised her to send the whole package back but, as it had been installed, she would have had to pay for re-installation again.
Her partner called the manufacturers of the system, and they said she should "format" (wipe the information off) the hard drive.
Ms Chick said: “Swann gave us the password to get on to the system. There were photographs on there from January this year with car registration plates clearly visible and a family walking around in their garden.
“There were also photographs from October 2017. It could be a massive breach of data protection.”
Ms Chick said that Swann had promised to investigate and were replacing the used unit, but she wanted people to be aware of the dangers of leaving data on hard drives that store personal information.
She added: “I’m concerned they are sending out equipment that has been used and has someone else’s details on it.
“Luckily I am an honest person but it could have been seen by a criminal - not to mention charging full whack for something that is used.”
A spokeswoman for the company confirmed they launched an immediate investigation and sent a brand new replacement for the Digital Video Recording (DVR) unit to Ms Chick.
She said: “From initial investigations, it appears that the unit was distributed as a new product to the retailer, however the product had been misclassified and was a previously used product that should have been sent to our refurbishment department whose process includes the deletion of any data that may have been left by the customer.
“The product classification error occurred as our distribution centre passed this unit back into A Grade stock believing that it was an unopened return.
“We have discussed the cause of this issue with our distribution partner and have put in place additional measures that will result in every returned item being factory reset to ensure all stored data is deleted.
“We are fully aware of our obligations under GDPR and take this very seriously, and accordingly we have reported the issue to the Information Commissioner’s Office.”
The average total cost of a data breach, the average cost for each lost or stolen record (per capita cost), and the average size of data breaches have all increased beyond the 2017 report averages.


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Canada’s food strategy: More on the export challenge
By Gary FreadBusiness Operations Exporting & Importing CETA exporting food strategy trade agreements
Worldwide events that will likely affect Canadian food exports
As I follow the global news, I get more and more concerned that we do not have an easy road to increasing exports. And yet this is probably our major intended strategy for our food and beverage industry. Let’s look at it a bit more.
As to our current level of exports, using figures from Food in Canada’s 2016 Canadian Food Industry Report, we export about 30 per cent of our production. However, that number varies significantly from sector to sector, from as low as less than five per cent, to as high as more than 75 per cent across the nine sectors measured, with Seafood, Grain & Oilseed Milling, and Confectionery being the highest.
If one looks at the key markets served with those exports, the U.S. is by far the largest export destination across the sectors in the range of about 50 to 90 per cent of exports. The only other countries that have some significance are China and Hong Kong (Seafood and Grains & Oilseed Milling) and Japan (Meat).
So let’s look a little closer at what’s happening around the world that will likely affect our exports.
U.S. presidential election
As we all probably know, Donald Trump has vowed to undo NAFTA, and Hillary Clinton has said she would like to renegotiate NAFTA to benefit the U.S. more. Trump will look at everything trade-related as “America First.” Likewise, neither candidate is a supporter of the TPP and would likely not ratify it. If not, does that mean it would still be an effective trade agreement? All of this seems to me like it will reduce the amount of food exports to the U.S. and not provide increased Asian export opportunities for Canada. Most of the other countries in TPP are relatively smaller markets, but could lead to some marketing of more specialty food products. Who knows?
Then, of course, there is the whole canola issue. In a recent article in the Ottawa Citizen by Sylvain Charlebois, dean of the Faculty of Management and professor in Food Distribution and Policy at Dalhousie University, the point is made that China is becoming a “more food-sovereign nation” and we will likely see lower grain exports in the longer term. And, as Justin Trudeau is finding out, China is not really in “free trade mode” either.
Then there is the topic of trade with European countries. The CETA agreement could lead to closer trade relations with a great number of highly developed countries. But is Britain going to pull out of the EU or are they going to have another vote on that? We don’t know yet. If Britain does pull out, what happens to CETA? Do we just negotiate it with Britain? Or do so directly with the EU and negotiate something separate with Britain?
What about the EU? Germany has just had some pressure put on Angela Merkel with the win by the anti-immigration party costing her a loss of support. In France, Francois Holland is not sure if he will seek re-election next year. He is low in the polls due to France’s economy and high unemployment. It’s unlikely that either of them would be too concerned about CETA at this time. The EU may be going through a bit of a shake-up.
It seems to me that making progress in expanding our food and beverage exports in the short- to mid-term could be extremely difficult.
- The issues around NAFTA won’t get dealt with until after the election, and it will likely take at least an additional year or more to get the discussion going and try to sort out a workable agreement of some kind.
- It will also take a fair amount of time to see how the whole EU situation will get resolved and where that leaves CETA. But perhaps Britain will work on it with Canada.
- The TPP will not be sorted out as to who will ratify it until February 2018. In the meantime, will China actually be open to negotiating a trade agreement with Canada?
All of that makes me believe we may have to put the Export Development strategy on hold for a while, or at least focus on some smaller opportunities the may come up.
It also confirms, in my mind, that our immediate focus needs to be on improving innovation, productivity and competitiveness, value chain collaboration, and sustainability. And we need to do all that on a whole sector approach with some planning and cross-sector collaboration.
Gary Fread is president of Fread & Associates Ltd., consultants to the food industry. He has spent more than 25 years in management positions in the food processing industry, with a background in sales, logistics, purchasing and technical areas. He has worked with Procter & Gamble, Campbell Soup and Morrison Lamothe, and is the past president and CEO of the Guelph Food Technology Centre. He is active in many food industry associations and organizations, serving on the boards of several. Contact him at firstname.lastname@example.org
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Takaful International Company (GIG Bahrain Takaful) has partnered with digital money app Beyon Money, launching a joint promotional campaign.
The campaign will see Byon Money customers receiving cash back when purchasing GIG Bahrain Takaful’s insurance policies using their Beyon Money Classic or Platinum Cards.
“The partnership is the beginning of a deeper collaboration aimed at providing Beyon Money’s customers with the best insurance products available in the market, at the most competitive price. Furthermore, it continues Beyon Money’s mission to become the top super app for customers and the partner of choice within the ecosystem of service providers,” commented Beyon Money CEO Roberto Mancone.
According to GIG Bahrain Takaful CEO Essam Al Ansari, this collaboration is in line with its customer-centric growth strategy.
“By joining forces with Beyon Money, we are expanding our offerings beyond traditional insurance products. This partnership will enable us to provide our customers with an added layer of convenience, as they will now have access to a wide range of discounts and benefits through this program,” Essam said.


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According to the New York Times, clothing retailers think that the best way to overcome THIS SLUGGISH ECONOMY is to spend thousands and thousands of dollars on a custom mannequin to display fancy threads on.
Take into consideration these gems of wisdom:
"They personify their brand with their mannequin statements, and they're looking for something a little more customized or unique," said Peter Huston, brand president at Fusion Specialties, a mannequin company in Colorado whose sales, almost all of custom mannequins, rose 48 percent last year."
"Prices of custom mannequins run from about $400 to $1,200 a mannequin, not including the $15,000 or more that places like Fusion charge for development. A mannequin makeover can cost a national chain millions."
But wait, why does a stupid mannequin cost so much? The process by which these things are created is surprisingly techie.
Fusion Specialties digitally scanned Ms. Halverson in stationary and action sequences. Then, over about two weeks, seven sculptors created clay renderings of the 3-D digital scans that "hand-etched her from a tiny pile of clay down to the tiny delineations of the sinew in the muscle," said Tess Roering, vice president for marketing at Athleta, which opened its first physical stores this year.
So there you have it. The stupidest goddamn way to reinvent your retail brand, or whatever goofy lingo marketing whack jobs like to use. [NY Times]
Image via Kevin Moloney/The New York Times


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The internet went into meltdown after CadburyUK told chocolate lovers they had been pronouncing the name of the Easter classic wrong all along.
Shawna Leigh started the debate online after asking the newly US-owned company: "CadburyUK are you meant to pronounce creme egg as CREAM or CREM".
The chocolate giant's official UK Twitter account first said: "Pronounced as Crem :)."
But little did they know the reaction the tweet would garner on social media.
Radio 1's Greg James simply tweeted: "Ridiculous."
One person passionately wrote: "YOU SIT ON A THRONE OF LIES."
Zofia Skrakowski tweeted: “We all know that ‘creme’ is pronounced ‘crem’ except when you put ‘egg’ after it. That’s the rule.”
Others joked their world was “crumbing down” around them.
The internet went into meltdown
Cass Lowe asked: “If it’s supposed to be pronounced ‘Crem’, why did you market the Halloween ‘Screme Egg’ to rhyme with ‘scream’? SCREM EGG?!”
Dan Barker joked it was a “crem against humanity”.
Some savvy Twitter users found past adverts where the Easter treats were pronounced as "cream" citing it as "proof" it was cream.
And, as one Twitter user pointed out, it needs the grave accent over the first 'e' so it would read 'Crème' to be pronounced that way.
The tweet that made it all kick off
Looks like we missed out the ‘a’ there! Most definitely pronounced as ‘Cream’ egg! ������— Cadbury UK (@CadburyUK) February 20, 2018
Please eggscuse our typo. Creme Egg is most definitely pronounced as 'Cream' Egg. Things got a little bit scrambled there!— Cadbury UK (@CadburyUK) February 20, 2018
After the outcry, Cadbury soon backtracked and said they had made a mistake.
Tweeting again, the sweet treat manufacturer wrote: “It's definitely pronounced as Cream! Looks like we missed out the 'a' there.”
A spokeswoman added: "Oooops! We have egg on our face. Creme Egg is of course pronounced Cream, the error has now been corrected on our Twitter."
Thankfully peace has been restored now the scramble has been straightened out.


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NEW DELHI: An Indian salon has been ordered to pay more than $271,000 in damages to a model for a botched haircut which she claimed caused a "severe mental breakdown", reports AFP.
Aashna Roy went to the salon at a top New Delhi hotel in 2018 and asked staff to trim a conservative four inches (10 centimetres) from her tips, according to a judgement by the city's consumer court.
"There is no doubt that the women are very cautious and careful with regard to their hair," said the ruling by the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission.
"They spend a handsome amount on keeping the hair in good condition. They are also emotionally attached with their hairs," it added.
"She lost her expected assignments and suffered a huge loss which completely changed her lifestyle and shattered her dream to be a top model."
The court told the salon, which can still appeal the verdict, to pay 20 million rupees within eight weeks of the order.


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Jan 10, 2016 - Only months after its official release the collaborative task manager MeisterTask has made the "Best of 2015" lists both in Google's Chrome Web Store and in Apple's App Store, corroborating the immense success the app enjoys among users. Released in March 2015 by the collaboration experts at MeisterLabs, the tool has already attracted 300,000 users. The app is available online in any standard web browser, and versions for Mac, iOS and Apple Watch devices are also available.
Apr 26, 2015 - MeisterLabs, the company behind the popular mind mapping tool MindMeister, has announced the release of MeisterTask, the mobile counterpart to their successful MeisterTask online task management web app, which was released just last month. MeisterTask is compatible with the iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch, enabling teams to manage tasks on the go with a real-time synchronization across all devices. Quickly set up projects, capture ideas, leave comments, add images, and manage tasks.


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Ocean freight e-commerce pOréal Inttra Inc. said Monday it had added four new carriers to its digital shipping data exchange network, including container fleet giant Evergreen Marine Corp.
The news marks the continued growth of Inttra's push for the container shipping industry to adopt digitalization throughout the container shipping lifecycle, the company said. The other additions were: Namsung Shipping Co. Ltd., Unifeeder, and Antillean Marine Shipping Corp.
Parsippany, N.J.-based Inttra's network now includes more than 60 carriers, including all of the top 10, according to the company.
Joining the network allows carriers to provide an improved customer experience to shippers, and allows shippers to reduce costs and errors by booking and tracing containers from multiple carriers through a single connection, Inttra President and COO Inna Kuznetsova said in a statement.


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China featured again during an Art Fair
China will be featured as the guest country in this year’s Contemporary Istanbul from November 13-16, 2014. The Fair has a “New Horizons” section where China will be the focus. It will be curated by Professor Peng Feng, one of China’s most prolific and sought-after curators. The section will feature 10 or 12 galleries from China to promote Chinese artists in the November fair, which is also expected to draw many art critics and journalists from China. More to come.


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Disney Plus is increasing its monthly price by $3 for Canadian customers this February as it adds more movies and TV shows.
The price increase coming on February 23, 2021, coincides with the service adding Star to its offerings.
Star will be bundled with Disney Plus at this new increased price instead of being rolled out as a separate streaming service. The total cost for Disney Plus going forward will be $119.99 per year or $11.99 per month.
According to a statement from the company, their offerings will include titles from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, and National Geographic. Works in production include Raya and the Last Dragon, Beauty and the Beast, and Percy Jackson and the Olympians.
- See also:
Disney Plus also says it’s introducing parental controls in February so families can ensure their library is kid-friendly with all the new titles.
In some markets around the world, Star will be rolled out as as separate subscription service.


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Nearly half of all Americans use a second screen while watching TV... but only one in 10 say it makes program viewing 'much more enjoyable'
Despite the steady growth of TVs it's quantity that counts for Americans, nearly half of whom use a second screen while tuned in
Despite TV screens getting bigger and bigger – for many Americans, it’s still not enough. It's quantity that counts.
Nearly half (44 per cent) use a device such as a laptop or tablet while they’re watching television, according to a survey conducted by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) and the National Association of Television Program Executives (NAPTE).
It’s a growing trend known as ‘second-screening’, but it’s not necessarily making home life more enjoyable.
Of those that use a second screen to access additional content associated with the show they’re watching – only 13 per cent of respondents said it makes their program viewing ‘much more enjoyable’, according to the study, which was revealed at the 2014 CES show in Las Vegas.
The majority of users said synchronized content makes their viewing experience ‘somewhat more enjoyable’, considering it less of a necessity than a ‘nice to have’ for certain types of programs.
The device of choice for using a second screen to watch additional content is a smartphone, the study revealed, and it’s mostly those in the 13 to 34 age bracket, known as ‘millennials’, who peer at their phones for this reason.
Popular: Smartphones are the device of choice for second-screening among 13 to 34-year-olds. Pictured is an LG G Flex curved smartphone
CEA President and CEO Gary Shapiro said: ‘This important research study underscores the exciting opportunities for consumer technology device manufacturers to market connected devices and potentially collaborate with content producers to enhance and improve the Second Screen experience.
‘Our joint study shows that consumers accessing synchronized content generally find it fun to use and more connected to the shows they are watching.
‘At the same time, the study indicates there is an opportunity to expand consumer engagement with the Second Screen across a broader variety of programming.’
NATPE President and CEO Rod Perth said: ‘We know TV viewers are beginning to use the Second Screen because it has the potential to extend enjoyment of the viewing experience. We believe this research study will illuminate new entertainment possibilities for consumers as well as content creators.’
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GENEVA, SWITZERLAND (May 19, 2020) – Indian Motorcycle has announced a new competition to celebrate the reopening of its authorised dealer network with the launch of a ‘Win an FTR 1200’ competition.
Running until the end of July, all entrants just simply need to take a test ride on any FTR 1200 at their local participating dealer and enter their details at the dealership.
And for those that take a test ride and couldn’t wait? Indian Motorcycle will refund €14690 towards the cost of your FTR if you are the lucky winner – it’s that simple.
With the 2020 introductions of the FTR Rally and FTR Carbon, there is an FTR for everyone, even those with an A2 licence.
– FTR 1200 Carbon
– FTR Rally
– FTR 1200 S Race Replica
– FTR 1200 S
– FTR 1200
– FTR 1200 (A2)
To organise a test ride, find and contact your dealer now: www.indianmotorcycle.eu
Notes to Editors
This competition is only available in the following regions/countries:
– Czech Republic
– United Kingdom: Dealerships in England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland dependant on local government instruction.
ABOUT INDIAN MOTORCYCLE
Indian Motorcycle is America’s first motorcycle company. Founded in 1901, Indian Motorcycle has won the hearts of motorcyclists around the world and earned distinction as one of America’s most legendary and iconic brands through unrivalled racing dominance, engineering prowess and countless innovations and industry firsts. Today that heritage and passion are reignited under new brand stewardship. To learn more, please visit www.indianmotorcycle.eu.


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Tourism in Vietnam continues to face heavy losses as the epidemic is spreading across several countries, especially South Korea, Japan and Europe, leading to total cancellations of tours, flights and international travelers.
On 25 February, the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism issued an Official Letter 75/TCDL-LH on measures to prevent the spread of the Covid-19 epidemic, requesting all departments of tourism and related enterprises to closely monitor the situation of the spread of the epidemic in South Korea and in some other markets that send across groups of tourists to Vietnam.
The official letter recommended that international travel businesses must suspend taking tourists to Deagu City, Gyeongsangbuk-do Province and other epidemic stricken areas, and also restrict travel to areas marked by local authorities. At the same time, not to welcome tourists coming into Vietnam from such epidemic infected areas as well.
At present, both arrival and departure of tourists has dropped sharply because of the Covid-19 epidemic fear in many countries. Many travel businesses have announced cancellation of tours in March, even extending into April to ensure safety for travelers. TST tourist agency said they have stopped all tours to South Korea that have a departure schedule for March and April.
For the Japanese market, the company is still holding seats for the Cherry Blossom Season tour in late March and early April, but has a backup plan with the aviation industry and other partners to cancel the tour, in case of an emergency. Saigon Tourist has also canceled all tours to South Korea in March, while some other businesses have moved tours to Japan, South Korea, Iran and other epidemic stricken regions to a later date.
In recent years, Vietnam has seen a surge in tourists from South Korea and Japan. In 2019, Vietnam welcomed 4.3 million South Korean visitors, ranking second after Chinese visitors. Therefore, when the number of tourists from this market plummeted, the damage to the tourism industry has been enormous.
Now with the epidemic spreading across Europe, the US, and in Iran, visitors from many markets have also decreased. Mr. Vu The Binh, Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Tourism Association, estimates that the number of visitors to Vietnam in February and March decreased by 60%, while domestic tourists decreased by 80%.
According to preliminary calculations by the Department of Tourism in Ho Chi Minh City, which is the largest tourism hub of the country, in February alone the tourism business lost about 60% of revenue. Many companies are now going in for cost cutting by laying off personnel and adjusting salaries of employees. Enterprises in related fields such as restaurants and hotels are also seriously being affected as a result of decline in tourism.
Stimulus program for tourism
On 21 February, the Vietnam Tourism Association announced a coalition to stimulate the Vietnamese tourism industry to overcome the Covid-19 epidemic situation. Many localities, aviation businesses, travel businesses, restaurants and hotels joined in this alliance. Participating units committed to a minimum discount of 20% and a maximum of upto 80%.
According to information from the Tourism Association, during the epidemic period, the alliance will focus on two main tasks, namely, professional fostering of the management team of key employees of an enterprise and building and creating new tourism products. During the epidemic decline period, it will focus on implementing tourism restoration in safe areas. By the end of the epidemic phase, the focus would be to launch an entire new system, one that will be a breakthrough in tourism development.
Also on 21 February, Ho Chi Minh City announced a stimulus program for tourism in Vietnam and for Ho Chi Minh City specifically. Ho Chi Minh City Tourism Association received registration from tourism businesses with committed discount price of 25% to 50%, from aviation 50%, and from road and railways 40%. With the participation of many businesses, road tours in the stimulus promotion group, designed by the City Tourism Association, decreased by 15% to 18%.
-Mr. Phan Đinh Hue, Director of Viet Circle Travel Company.
Many large travel agencies, such as Saigon Tourist and Vietravel, also offered many great discount programs on this occasion. Vietravel has launched a package of immediate crisis measures, with discounts of upto 40%, domestic tours from VND 299,000, and foreign tours starting from VND 2.9 million.
Most businesses believe that in the current situation of an epidemic, to stimulate tourism, whether during or after the epidemic, it is also necessary to target domestic visitors. International visitors need time to plan, and are unable to make immediate travel plans. In addition, we also have to compete fiercely with other countries in the region in attracting visitors soon after the epidemic ends, one formidable rival being Thailand.
In recent years, domestic tourism has grown strongly. In 2019, domestic visitors reached 85 million, and spending also increased rapidly year by year. Mr. Phan Dinh Hue, Director of Viet Circle Travel Company, said that Vietnamese tourists are the ultimate destination tourists at this time. The discount program will soon impact domestic guests. But Mr. Hue also noted that in the context of serious epidemic fears, we should be organized in small groups, for short-term and to localities and areas not yet affected by the epidemic.
However, it is extremely difficult to lure customers in the current epidemic situation because of warnings against visiting crowded places. Even airlines that are constantly launching promotions, and offering discounts, are failing to draw passengers to travel on many routes, despite discounts of even upto 40% to 50%, which are also making many people question the quality of the service.


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KFC is trying to create the world’s first laboratory-produced chicken nuggets, part of its “restaurant of the future” concept, the company announced. The chicken restaurant chain will work with Russian company 3D Bioprinting Solutions to develop bioprinting technology that will “print” chicken meat, using chicken cells and plant material.
KFC plans to provide the bioprinting firm with ingredients like breading and spices “to achieve the signature KFC taste” and will seek to replicate the taste and texture of genuine chicken.
It’s worth noting that the bioprinting process KFC describes uses animal material, so any nuggets it produced wouldn’t be vegetarian. KFC does offer a vegetarian option at some of its restaurants; last year it became the first US fast-food chain to test out Beyond Meat’s plant-based chicken product, which it plans to roll out to more of its locations this summer.
Source: The Verge
Name of Author: Kim Lyons


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Wireless network operators collectively will spend $45 billion on macrocell backhaul equipment from 2015-2019, London-based market research specialist IHS Infonetics forecasts.
Having reached a plateau, growth in mobile backhaul spending will resume as wireless carriers in developing countries, such as India, look to roll out 4G LTE network infrastructure and early adopters in others begin to deploy 5G technology, according to the IHS Infonetics Macrocell Mobile Backhaul Equipment report.
Mobile Backhaul Spending
Global spending on macrocell mobile backhaul equipment declined 0.6 percent year-over-year in 2014 to total $8.5 billion. Pressure to lower prices has been constraining revenue growth for equipment suppliers, IHS Infonetics says, though demand is solid as carriers deploy LTE network infrastructure, expand 3G networks and enhance backhaul capacity.
Wireless carriers continue to spend more on IP and Internet mobile backhaul equipment as they expand bandwidth to meet ongoing growth in user demand for mobile data.
More money was spent on microwave radio equipment in 2014 than any other category, accounting for 47 percent of the global total. IHS Infonetics expects spending on microwave radio will decline this year, however, as carriers roll out more fiber and as wireline Ethernet gains market traction.
Looking ahead, IHS Infonetics foresees demand for 5G backhaul driving the market for mobile backhaul spending as 2019 approaches. That will prompt wireless carriers to spend less on microwave backhaul, which will experience only modest annual revenue growth.


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Need a New Weight Loss Plan? Check Out 'Doctor's Diet' and 'Super Shred Diet'
Smith's diet (video above) is billed as a way for participants will lose as much as 20 pounds in four weeks. Smith says it’s a good diet for people who are trying to lose weight quickly for vacation or a wedding, dieters who have hit a plateau, and people who want a quick transformation.
Smith says the diet will increase energy and keep you full. He says he has three rules of dieting: It shouldn’t be expensive, it shouldn’t be complicated, and people shouldn’t expect perfection.
Stork, co-host of the morning talk show "The Doctors," explained that ER doctors see more "food-related" illnesses than car accident or gunshot victims. He emphasized that eating certain foods will actually help you lose weight.
His first tip was "break up with sugar," pointing out that people eat an average of 22 teaspoons of added sugar a day. Many times it's contained in things like bread and pasta, which dieters may not normally associate with sugar.
Watch the rest of his tips in the video below:


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We participated in the Huawei Analyst Summit 2022 (#HAS22) for three days this week. The conference started with a keynote featuring Rotating Chairman, Ken Hu and then there were many executives and managers in charge of various operating groups at Huawei. To summarize, Hu said there will be challenges ahead and emphasized software, services and partnerships instead of asserting leadership in hardware as it did last year. Additionally, other speakers discussed the progress Huawei is making in F5G, introduced its latest Massive MIMO 64T64R radio system, discussed its progress with both indoor cellular and Fixed Wireless Access markets.
At the keynote, Ken Hu, and his other colleagues on stage made no mention of hardware systems, semiconductor, nor optical component plans, in sharp contrast to the year-ago HAS keynote made by last year's Rotating Chairman, Eric Xu. Instead Ken and his colleagues focused on the importance of software development (re-engineering software compliers to boost performance, for instance), the opportunity to work with the Huawei cloud service, entry to new markets (automobiles, the metaverse), and of course, the company's green initiatives. Mr. Hu also addressed supply chain challenges, saying that "it is true that we face a chip shortage," and that "we have no plans to build chip factories ourselves." Hu also said that the shortage will be "fixed in a few years." Hu also said that the company is organizing itself to allow for the shutdown of divisions or product areas more easily than could have been done in the past, which we think could mean it is planning for what might happen if Huawei cannot obtain chips, for instance, for its smartphone business. The last of Hu's prepared remarks was to remark that "Huawei has quite a few challenges ahead."
In the Telecom Core meetings that were held, there were several interesting points raised by the presenters. The team says that container based systems are not as mature as that of systems based on Open Stack and that Containers are not standards based. Regarding Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) market, Huawei said that its experience is that "almost all" of its customers are using MEC for network connectivity and though it had offered a marketplace for third party applications, they haven't been adopted much as of yet. Huawei sees Slicing as an emerging opportunity that will allow its operator customers to monetize their networks and to offer differentiated experiences.
Huawei spent a lot of time conveying that participation in the F5G (Fixed 5G) market is shared with other participants. Among those who shared the stage with Huawei were standards body ETSI, China Telecom, China Mobile, China Unicom, Globe Telecom (Phillipines), MTN Group (South Africa). Besides its product managers discussing F5G, Ken Hu also highlighted its importance during his aforementioned keynote.
Huawei's Radio Access Network (RAN) team highlighted a new 64T64R Massive MIMO system that has 384 antennae elements. Through multiple presentations, various managers highlighted how the new M-MIMO system enhances throughput and range, reduces power and other advantages of using its new product. The company also highlighted its Digital Indoor System (DIS) as a means of enabling enterprises across various vertical markets including manufacturing, coal mines, the steel industry, the petrochemical industry, shipping ports, healthcare, power-grid companies and others. Huawei said that in 2H22, it will bring to market a low-power chip-based system, as well. The company also highlighted a customer, Schneider Electric, who expects to enter its deployment phase of Huawei DIS systems later in 2022.
We found that Huawei's participating in the Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) market is interesting. Similar to Ericsson, Huawei isn't participating meaningfully in the Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) part of the FWA market and instead is selling just the RAN equipment. It has a certification program where it endorses other manufacturers, including greenpacket, who made a presentation at the Huawei conference. greenpacket explained that it is seeing a lot of demand lately for "hybrid" FWA CPE systems, which we took to mean that these were battery-based devices that users can travel around with. It is the experience of the presenters (both Huawei and greenpacket) that their customers in places like Kuwait and South Africa consume about 2-3 times more data using FWA than do average mobile (eMBB) customers. The presenters contrasted this with the T-Mobile experience in the US market where 10% of its FWA customers consume 1 TB per month. We found this contrast very interesting and feel that the screen sizes of customers in the US market (probably lots of high-end TVs) dramatically exceed that of the South African market (predominantly smart phones). In our own FWA report, we have seen significant ramp-ups in volume in the 3GPP FWA market.
We attended the operator and vendor consortium of 5G Americas. The themes of the show were: 5G, spectrum, cell siting, Asia-Pacific operator progress. For the second time in the past couple weeks, we saw FCC Commissioner Michael O'Reilly present, and his key messages were similar both times, focusing on CBRS, C-Band and 6 GHz. In attendance from the North American service provider side were AT&T, T-Mobile US, Shaw, and Sprint (we focused on NA operators mainly in this write-up). Notable vendors included Cisco, Commscope, Ericsson, Intel, Kathrein, Mavenir, Nokia, Qualcomm, and Samsung. We would say the most important theme from the show is the surge in interest in unlicensed spectrum, both for the use of mobile operators, as well as competing carriers, as well as by enterprises both for indoor and outdoor applications. For this write-up, we are focusing primarily on comments made by some of the leading operators who attended the conference.
AT&T discussed mmWave, future 3GPP releases, 5G phones, Mobile Edge Computing and indoor cellular, mid-band spectrum strategies, 5 GHz spectrum usage, Mobile Edge Computing (MEC), StandAlone (SA), among other topics. AT&T views mmWave as just a tool in the toolkit, so to speak, and not the only spectrum that is useful in 5G. It considers mmWave to be most helpful in urban and potentially indoor settings. Representatives said that future 5G-oriented Releases 16 & 17 are expected to be software upgrades to existing hardware and won't require new equipment to incorporate these new capabilities which will include network slicing. AT&T is making a big deal about its Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) initiative. At the conference, it emphasized MEC as having two main parts: a) expansion to about 100 edge sites (mostly Central Offices) from about 20 central locations in the LTE era and initially supporting packet core, and b) Microsoft Azure services managed end-to-end by AT&t. The company also emphasized that it plans to pursue some indoor cellular opportunities, some that currently leverage 5 GHz using LAA technology, some that will leverage CBRS and some that will leverage mmWave. We get the impression from AT&T that it is open in how it pursues future mid-band spectrum strategies. Its strategy could change based on: a) the timing of the CBRS PAL licenses (currently slated for June 25, 2020), b) the potential for C-Band private auctions (potentially in the mid 2020 timeframe), c) the potential for some or all of the 6 GHz spectrum availability (where Wi-Fi 6 would co-occupy), as well as other factors. We learned that, at least in certain regions, the company is making very ample use of 5 GHz spectrum using LAA techniques. AT&T seeing its picocells (small cells) get around 100 Mbps from LAA out of a total 130 Mbps inclusive of around three other licensed spectrums. We were surprised the company makes such ample use of unlicensed spectrum where Wi-Fi currently exists. The 5 GHz experience of AT&T leads us to think that 6 GHz, which promises to offer far more spectrum that the 5 GHz swath presently available, could be very beneficial to mobile operators and their consumers, as well as the Wi-Fi industry, and its consumers. AT&T expects that by this time next year, it will be "pushing" 5G to all its customers, part as a result of handsets adopting 5G capabilities, part the result of its network seeing nationwide coverage. Of the services that AT&T operates, it is installing mainly Packet Core in its MEC systems. AT&T is also planning to run Microsoft Azure services in its MEC locations. It expects that both Packet Core and Azure will see a 10-20 ms latency reduction by being located in MEC locations. AT&T says that StandAlone (SA) is "just new software," and downplayed the significance of the upgrade from EPC/NonStandAlone (NSA) to SA.
Sprint "is all-in on 2.5 GHz mid-band deployments for 5G services." Given the company's potential merger with T-Mobile USA, we view its network-build-out choices as being somewhat limited. It has limited options because it increases its near-term value to its acquirer, T-Mobile, if it deploys 5G in 2.5 GHz. Likewise, it is doesn't implement in mmWave, this reduces overlap with T-Mobile, who is deploying there. The company reiterated that it had launched 5G in 9 markets. It is seeing its peak speeds on 5G (aided by the fact that it has simultaneously upgraded hardware to Massive MIMO) be about 3-5 times that of its 8T8R LTE systems. It currently covers 11M POPs and 2,100 square miles with 5G. Sprint also shared that it sees RFPs from customers to replace Wi-Fi with 5G, though it didn't share more about this topic. The company's experience is that in upgrading its macro base stations to Massive MIMO 64T64R capabilities, it is getting 3-4x faster throughput than its 8T8R systems, though in the field these measurements vary widely. Additionally, Sprint said that its Massive MIMO systems relative to earlier systems show "generally the same coverage," with 1-2 dB better sometimes. Sprint is exploring ORAN and vRAN but "not adopting near term."
Shaw (Canada) presented its mobile LTE and 5G efforts and plans. Shaws plans are interesting because the company has significant cable services deployed in Canada. The company said nearly all the mobile technology it has installed in the past three years are "5G-ready." It will use 5G first in 600 MHz, then in mid-band (probably in 3.5 GHz) and the last in mmWave. Shaw expects that low-band 5G handsets will be available in 2020, and, similar to what AT&T said, it expects that is when 5G mobile will start in earnest in Canada. Shaw admitted that it is behind where the US operators are in deploying 5G, but offered no apologies, as it felt it is where it needs to be from a competitive standpoint in Canada. Almost laughing, Shaw explained that it would never consider deploying mmWave along highways, and that only high-density locations would get mmWave coverage. Shaw's view that mmWave is for high-density locations was shared universally by other operators in attendance, including AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile US.
T-Mobile US spokespersons explained that mmWave has seen some challenges, relative to initial expectations and that while it does get mmWave to operate beyond near-line-of-sight, the view of T-Mobile is that mmWave is "just part of 5G." T-Mobile expects 3GPP Release 16 to be completed in 2020, but that it will be 2021 before it deploys Release 16, which won't require "a massive hardware refresh" and which will incorporate industrial and connected vehicles features. T-Mobile views 5G as being appropriate for indoor installations because while mmWave has challenges penetrating glass and concrete, but when 5G operates in low and mid-band spectrums, the "issue goes away." By 2020, T-Mobile expects StandAlone packet core to be ready, but since its current EPC/NonStandAlone (NSA) systems are already virtualized, the upgrade to SA is "not a forklift" upgrade. T-Mobile says virtual RAN (vRAN) "will take time," and that it will "need accelerators," which we take to mean FPGA-based Network Interface Cards (NICs) or the like to allow servers to operate faster than just x86 processors will allow.
Mid-band spectrum shortages in the US was the main thrust of the 5G Americas sponsors. The idea is that the rest of the world has lots of mid-band spectrum available and service providers in countries that could be considered economic leaders (Japan, Korea, China, Western European countries) have plenty of available mid-band spectrum that is ideal for 5G, while the US does not. This group at 5G Americas, which includes service providers, vendors and standards bodies, is saying that US leadership in cellular infrastructure and the entire app economy that relies upon it may be at risk as 5G get deployed.
Other topics discussed: AT&T is currently out for bid on its 5GC infrastructure, and this caused some interesting posturing by the vendor attendees (like Ericsson, Nokia, Cisco, Mavenir) at this conference, with each trying to identifying their strengths. It seems the consensus is that all mobile operators in the US market are using Option 3X, an EPC anchoring system. And, the consensus seems to be that US operators will need to move to 5GC once most traffic is coming over 5G Radio (“New Radio”). Vendor selection appears an open field, once again, as 5GC has 13 different microservices, each which could theoretically be parsed out to different vendors. Operators are saying, though, that while this multi-vendor selection may lead to savings on purchasing, it will increase integration spending, so these two have to be balanced out.
Mobile Edge Computing: The consensus is that a 50 mile radius (or others are saying 100 km) is considered the ‘edge,’ or the ‘low latency’ zone. We expect, however, that the data forwarding plane (‘user plane’) will be distributed to, say, 100 locations within a territory like the US market, while the control plane will be much more centralized (perhaps as centralized as it is currently, where it might be considered to be like 1/4th the number of locations).
CBRS. The consensus is that testing will be done by mid November 2018 and Initial Commercial Deployment by 1Q19, potentially spilling into 2Q19. PAL auctions are expected by attendees to be a 2019 event, with 2020 traffic running on PAL spectrum. Commscope represented the views from a SAS standpoint for this discussion.There were discussions about the C-Band (6 Ghz) potentially using the same type of Automatic Frequency Coordination system, but the consensus is that it is too early to declare that the path forward.