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Dr TWL Pharmacy is a conscious beauty and skin care pharmacy by accredited dermatologist Dr Teo Wan Lin.
It is an extension of a specialist dermatologist practice and consists of the company’s Custom Make-up Laboratory, which offers custom blend pure mineral makeup safe for sensitive skin users.
The pharmacy is also home to the Mask Bar which offers skin care solutions that centre around a waterless, freeze-dried plant-derived facial mask.
Recently, the company revealed to CosmeticsDesign-Asia that it will be extending its presence online with the year-end launch of its e-Pharmacy concept complete with a teledermatology service.
“We conceived the e-Pharmacy concept as a fully integrated virtual experience, taking it out of the purely medical context and crossing into the arena of beauty,” said Teo.
The e-Pharmacy serves to offer a prescriptive, personalised experience to the end-consumer.
“We're taking it to a very commercial level. The concept is not just localised to our patients who require a medical prescription but to ride on the well-evidenced benefits of cosmeceuticals,” said Teo.
According to Teo, the e-Pharmacy was conceived in November last year, before the onset of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
“What drove me to create this was essentially the viable e-commerce model and the very democratic access that digital platforms offer to all individuals. Looking back, it was a concept with a great deal of foresight,” said Teo.
The company also utilises virtual reality tools such as the ‘magic mirror’ which allows patrons of the Custom Make-up Laboratory to try on different shades.
The advancement of technology has also enabled the company to treat clients remotely through teledermatology.
“Having a smartphone is almost taken for granted in today's world. I don't think that resolution is a problem these days. However, there has to be specific methods of taking a photograph that needs to be standardised such as light,” said Teo.
These new developments will allow the brand to control traffic within its premises given the concerns with overcrowding in this climate.
“Pre-COVID, dermatology was easily the best-suited speciality for telemedicine because our diagnosis is based on the recognition of patterns like visuals and colours. Virtual consultations are in fact going to be the norm for a long time as there may be individuals that prefer this due to convenience,” said Teo.
Currently, the clinic serves a number of overseas clients from neighbouring countries like Indonesia and this service would allow the company to expand its presence beyond Singapore more efficiently.
Additionally, going digital would allow the company to cut down on waste – for instance, the ‘ridiculous’ amount of paper it consumes.
This falls in line with the conscious beauty principles the e-Pharmacy is centred around, evident also in its use of sustainable, biodegradable materials as well as reusable packaging.
“We know that the way we live is unsustainable. We’ve seen that COVID-19 was a result of encroachment of the habitat of another species most likely, threatening their existence. It’s this very wake-up call that I feel should extend to every single part of society. There is evidence to support the fact that our world earth cannot sustain our current lifestyle. We are really compelled to go down this route of being more conscious about the choices we make.”
Additionally, Teo believes conscious beauty extends more to just eco-consciousness.
By being able to reach more people with the power of the Internet and connectivity, Teo endeavours to make a difference for people who suffer from skin conditions.
“What has touched me over the years is seeing patients come to me with a lot of baggage and self-esteem issues. I feel the need to return to our values as mankind, to express the highest values of kindness and compassion not just for each other, but for other species, and this planet we take joint responsibility of. It’s the only way to go.”


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As consumers gear up to do their Christmas shopping online they are being warned about increasing volumes of remote credit card fraud.
A report from the Association of Payment Clearing Services (Apacs) states that this type of fraud has risen by 33 per cent over the past two years, and now accounts for the second largest share of the £411.6m fraud total on UK-issued debit and credit cards.
Card-not-present fraud cost businesses and consumers £109.6m in the 12 months to June 2003. Only counterfeit card fraud cost more, at £128.8m.
But while fraud is rising, it is not increasing at the same rate as e-commerce. A new report from analyst Forrester says that UK shoppers this year will spend double last year's online total of £1.1bn.
When buying online, thieves usually go for high-priced products such as electrical and computer goods so they can get 'value' from someone else's card before it is missed and stopped.
But while chip and Pin cards will help prevent criminals using fake signatures, they will not reduce online fraud.
Online purchases do not need a signature, instead requiring consumers to input a three- or four-digit code from their card.
But consumers doing too little to protect themselves must take some responsibility for the rise in fraud. Apacs warned that thieves obtain credit card details in a number of ways, including from receipts and from bank and credit card statements.
Freshly launched 11nm Qualcomm silicon will come with Adreno 612 GPU
Are pinning down the exact rate of expansion of the Hubble constant
RISC OS 5 to form the basis of RISC OS Open after Castle Technology sells to RISC OS Developments
A smartphone maker fiddling its benchmarking scores? That's unusual, isn't it?

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Looking for an Easy Way to Book Beauty Appointments? Try the StyleSeat App
Ladies, are booking beauty appointments a hassle for you? Well, take pleasure in the fact that a new mobile app will make your lives easier, with the touch of a button!
Introducing the StyleSeat app, new free software that allows anyone to setup appointments with beauty professionals using their Android and iOS mobile phones. Right now, on-the-go users in nearly 15,000 cities can take advantage of the new innovation. StyleSeat, the fastest growing online marketplace for beauty and wellness services, also lets stylists and beauty professionals run their entire business through the app.
Melody McCloskey, co-founder and CEO of StyleSeat, recognizes how convenient the new technology is. "In our mobile culture, people are increasingly managing their lives entirely through their devices," said Melody in a PR Newswire press release. "With the launch of our new app, anyone can search for a hair stylist, nail tech or esthetician; view samples of their work; and instantly book an appointment through the app."
This year, StyleSeat platform program users have booked more than 5.5 million beauty appointments on their mobile devices. And the numbers should increase even more since the website started serving both professionals and clients (previously the app served only beauty professionals.)
StyleSeat has clearly shown how the software benefits businesses. "Beauty professionals tell us our app has been a game changer for their business," explained Melody. "They rely primarily on their mobile phones throughout the day and rarely have time to sit in front of a computer. By providing their mobile appointment book, access to a client contact list for easy communication, and the ability to send email and text reminders for upcoming appointments, we're helping stylists manage their businesses from anywhere."
StyleSeat, founded in 2011, has gone beyond just providing free tools for professionals. With the new cell phone app, clients will have a hassle-free experience in searching, discovering and booking appointments in their areas. To learn more about the new mobile program, visit styleseat.com.
Are you going to check out the new app? Tell us your thoughts with a note below!


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ICIS leading business barometer falls for second month in May
HOUSTON (ICIS)–The ICIS leading business barometer (LBB) fell for the second consecutive month in May, getting closer to indicating a recession.
The barometer reached 131.4 in May, down from 132.5 in April and 133.0 in March. A recession call would occur if the barometer fell for three consecutive months and if its cumulative decline reached 3%.
So far, the barometer has fallen for two consecutive months and the May figure is down by 1.2% from March.
Year on year, the May LBB rose by 2.5%, a much slower rate than in previous months.
Uncertainty in stock markets caused the decline. That uncertainty reflected monetary policy at the Federal Reserve and geopolitical events.
“In summary, the latest reading indicates that business activity will appreciably slow,” said Kevin Swift, ICIS senior economist.
Issues facing companies including lingering supply-chain bottlenecks, capacity constraints in several industries and widespread labour shortages, he said. “Uncertainty about the future is very high due to tightening Federal Reserve policy, the war in Ukraine and the surge in energy costs.”
The share of expanding indicators, called diffusion, fell to 53% from 65% in May.
Among the indicators rising were production-related ones for materials and other industries sensitive to cyclical fluctuations.
Trends appear to be positive for construction-related materials, materials used in other durable goods, and materials used in packaging and for consumer and institutional applications.
Performance chemistry for industry rose. Inventory and other broader leading economic measures increased.
Selling prices as well as costs for raw materials and other inputs increased. Equity prices were mixed.
The ICIS LBB is derived from 17 indicators relating to the production of materials and other industries sensitive to cyclical fluctuations; raw material and input prices; selling prices; hours worked; relative equity prices; industry sales-to-inventories; and several broader economic leading economic measures.
Monthly data on the ICIS leading business barometer are available back to January 1947.
The ICIS leading business barometer leads at US business cycle peaks by seven months on average and four months at business cycle troughs.
The following chart shows the LBB.


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The team at Young Gun of Wine recently brought together a panel of experts for a blind Australian Nebbiolo tasting and every panelist rated our 2016 SubRosa Nebbiolo in their top six wines!
Here’s an except from the Young Gun of Wine Spotlight on Nebbiolo Panel Tasting.
Nebbiolo. It’s one of those revered words. The lights dim. Eyes widen. The chatter quietens to a murmur. Well, metaphorically at least. For those held in its thrall, nebbiolo holds a grip like no other grape.
Nebbiolo is a paradox, a combination of elements that shouldn’t make sense. But they do. It tends to higher alcohol, but rarely becomes rich and sweet fruited in doing so. Even at high ripeness, it maintains nervy acidity, set against profound tannins. It can be fragrantly pretty and floral, as well as ruggedly mineral and dry toned – and often simultaneously so. It conveys nuance of site like few varieties, and it can produce staggeringly long-lived wines. It is like no other grape…
Our panel was made up of: Jane Lopes, Beverage Director at Attica; Leanne Altmann, Beverage Director for Andrew McConnell’s restaurants; winemaker Ben Haines of Ben Haines Wine; Kayleen Reynolds, manager of the City Wine Shop; Gavin Cremming, Group Sommelier for the Van Haandel Group; and Christian Canala, director of Vinify wine Co. All wines were tasted blind…
Canala called this his “guilty pleasure wine,” remarking on the “sweetly fruited core, and a tight packaging of the tannin, just a pleasure.” Cremming enjoyed the depth and commented on the “Well-layered red cherry and wild red fruit, classic dried herb,” while Canala saw “wizz fizz, cherry ripe and some baking spice.” “Tannins are present as expected, but a vibrant acidity gives freshness to the wine,” concluded Cremming.
You can read the entire article here.


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FLINT, MI – A Flint native and downtown business owner will be given a lifetime achievement award for her work in the automotive industry, at a North American International Auto Show event.
Kathy Jackson, who owns the Healthy Dollar store located at the corner of First and Beach Streets, will receive the Urban Wheels Lifetime Achievement Award for her distinguished work in the field. She was an auto reporter for Automotive News for 21 years.
During her tenure, Jackson was stationed in Detroit, Los Angeles, Munich and London, among other cities. She was tasked with breaking news stories about foreign and domestic automakers, and reported daily about the worldwide auto industry.
“The auto industry is the biggest and grandest industry in the world,” Jackson said. “It’s so important to the world and I’m happy that I was able to be a part of it for as long as I was.”
The Urban Wheel Awards is known as the “Official Multicultural Event of the North American International Auto Show.” Next month will mark the 17th year for the awards.
“They’ve given this award to several people in the past,” Jackson said. “It’s generally given to someone who’s spent a lot of time in the auto industry who’s done some unique things or who’s made a big difference or a positive impact on the industry.”
This year, the program will specifically honor the contributions of women in the automotive industry in management, manufacturing, engineering, design, marketing, human resources and communications, as well as other segments of the industry.
“Our mission is to ensure efforts in all aspects of diversity are honored and rewarded with the Urban Wheel Awards,” said Randi Payton, UWA founder.
“For 17 years, this has been the only event held during the NAIAS promoting and celebrating diversity and inclusion in the auto industry. We are extremely honored to dedicate this year’s event to women in recognition of their significant accomplishments and success in the automotive industry.”
Jackson will be given the award by her longtime friend and editor at Automotive News, Peter Brown.
“Peter was my editor when I started at Crain’s Detroit Business in 1984, and when he became the editor at Automotive News in 1989, he brought me along with him,” Jackson said.
Jackson said that one of her biggest contributions to the auto industry was a story she broke about Minnesota millionaire car dealer Denny Hecker.
Following Jackson's stories of Hecker's illegal dealings, he was sued for close to $1 billion by domestic and foreign automakers, and was also sentenced to 10 years in prison for fraud and other charges.
Jackson retired from Automotive News in 2010 and opened the doors to her store in Flint in Sept. 2011.
She will receive the lifetime achievement award at MotorCity Casino Hotel in Detroit on Sunday, Jan. 13, 2013.


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US: Uber has announced that it is acquiring assets from Microsoft Bing, including around 100 data-collection engineers focused on the Bings's image collection activities. According to the Techcrunch.com, both companies confirmed the transaction but neither named the terms of the agreement. Also, both firms declined to elaborate on what the assets are. Spokesperson from Uber has stated that the company is excited about the acquisition.
Source: Tech crunch


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Speculations about Android Wear getting a rebrand have been circulating around the internet for some time. It was first noticed by a Redditor who discovered a new logo and name in the latest Google Play Services when setting up a watch. It was followed by several references to “Wear OS’ throughout the APK and a new logo that looked like a finalized product. To put the rumors to rest, Google has officially announced the new branding for Android Wear.
The new official homepage for the operating system formerly known as Android Wear will be wearos.google.com. The page has the new “Wear OS by Google” branding and a bunch of stock photo slides showing off watches, apps, and features. Wear OS also has a new slogan: “Make every minute matter.” Google says this branding will roll out to watches and the phone app in the “next few weeks.”
We're not entirely sure what Google hopes to achieve with the rebranding effort. Android smartwatches, in general, have received a lukewarm response from the market. The problem is further complicated by manufacturers such as Qualcomm, who refuse to manufacture newer SoCs for smartwatches, which in turn results in several Android Wear/WatchOS devices getting stuck with antiquated hardware.
However, it'll take more than a renamed OS for Google to take on Apple, who has been leading the smartwatch market for some time. The fault also partially lies with manufacturers, who have been shying away from releasing new devices into the market. The biggest hurdle, however, will be to convince people to buy a smartwatch. At the moment, a smartwatch is little more than an underpowered smartphone that serves only a niche audience. Personally, I still don't see the point of smartwatches, as I already have a device in my pocket that does a better job of doing everything a smartwatch does.
News Source: Google


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Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is a broad measure of overall domestic production. It functions as a comprehensive scorecard of a given country’s economic health. Over Q1 2021, the US GDP grew 6.3%. During Q2 2021, it has grown by 6.5%. Is this good? If the economy were to grow at a 6.5% annual rate in any other year, everyone would be ecstatic. However, given the COVID disaster and rebound, as well as the federal government’s massive fiscal stimulus and very loose monetary policy, the announcement that real Q2 2021 GDP grew at a 6.5% rate is a bit of a disappointment. The market was looking for an expectation closer to 8%.
The economy is bigger than ever, but it is still not as big as it would have been in the absence of COVID. Notably, nominal GDP (which includes real GDP plus inflation) is right about where it would be if COVID shutdowns had never happened.
Consumer spending, which accounts for almost two thirds of our GDP, grew at an 11.8% annual rate in Q2 2021 and has approached pre-pandemic trends. Economic growth in Q2 2021 was fueled in part by the huge stimulus package passed in March in which Congress approved sending checks to most Americans and from built-up savings accumulated during the pandemic. After being locked down over the past year, consumers unleashed a torrent of spending on expenditures for travel and leisure activities, household items and clothing. Vaccinations spread throughout the country increasing people’s confidence to venture out and spend money while further accelerating economic and business activity.
In a June survey of commercial-banking clients, JPMorgan found business confidence is at its highest level in the survey’s 11-year history. 46% of respondents said they expect to increase capital spending in the months to come. This gives credence to many economists’ forecast for continued economic expansion in the third and fourth quarters this year, albeit at a slower pace than the first half of the year. Earnings announcements for the second quarter also illustrate that businesses have adapted to new distribution methods for meeting their customers’ demands. Demand was so high in the quarter that many companies couldn’t increase production fast enough and had to dip into inventories to fill their customers’ orders. All-in-all, businesses profited greatly in this quarter. These strong earnings reports, crossing all industries, indicate businesses are returning to profitability. The five largest tech companies – Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet (Google) and Facebook – had a phenomenal Q2 2021 earning $86 billion on revenues of $332 billion.
Although the economy is expected to continue growing, the expansion is not without risks. Supply chain bottlenecks persist. For example, Semi-conductor chip production is unable to meet demands and the limited supply of chips has forced some car manufacturers to halt production of certain vehicles. Labor shortages exist and are likely to continue to take some time to be resolved. Although 1.7 million jobs were created in the past quarter, there are still 9.5 million people who remain unemployed. And there may be over 9 million jobs in the U.S. that remain unfilled, however, companies are having a difficult time enticing people to take them. Federal unemployment subsidies have ended in half the states and are scheduled to end in early September for those unemployed in the remaining states. Inflation is another concern. The Federal Reserve has flooded the economy with money to jump start economic growth at the same time that a shortage of goods exists. When there’s more money in people’s pockets than there are goods available, the price of those goods goes up, causing inflation. The effect of this economic phenomenon is being described by Fed Chairman Jay Powell as “transient” and he believes that when the supply chain is reassembled and flowing freely again, inflation is expected to subside.
However, COVID’s Delta variant is the wild card. Right now, the variant is primarily a health concern but should it become more widespread, it could hurt the economic recovery. Government intervention of business activity could cause consumers to get scared and pull back from re-emerging and spending, and businesses would suffer. It is interesting to recognize that each successive wave or spike in cases has resulted in a less severe economic reaction than the previous one. Businesses and consumers seem to learn from each previous experience with the virus and adapt to these changing situations by finding new ways to connect with each other. Companies have digitized their services and distribution networks. They have moved online much of what we previously did in person such as shopping, working and socializing with friends and family. As such, they’ve allowed the economy to continue to grow and prosper.
Future growth in the economy is expected to come from companies replenishing inventories, continued consumer spending and, as previously mentioned, from companies increasing their capital spending. The Federal Reserve Board members stated recently in their July meeting that they expect a 7% annualized growth by year end. Most private economists have a slightly more modest expectation. The reason we’re seeing variations in expectations is because shutting down the world’s largest and most complex economy and then reopening it again has made it very difficult for economists to make forecasts in the same way they had in the past. There’s no textbook on this situation available for people to refer to and read about. There’s no previous example or precedent to serve as a model for our current economic period.
Brad Lyons, CFP®


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Last month – October was a good month for the automotive industry, keeping passenger car and pickup sales on track to top 13 million this year. If the trend will continue, 2011 will be the best year since 2007.
GM’s Volt had its best-ever sales month in October, but it is increasingly unlikely the Detroit automaker will meet its 2011 sales targets.
In October, the company sold 1,108 Volts making it the best month ever for sales of the range-extended electric vehicle (723 last month).
Chevrolet has consistently said it will build 10,000 Volts for retail sale during 2011. But the Detroit based automaker past the 5,000 mark by only three cars until now.
However the automaker remains on track to expand Volt availability to 2,600 dealers in all 50 states by the end of the year.
Although Nissan had a leg up on the Volt due to the production halt, the Volt was the winner in October.
Across the pond, Japanese automaker Nissan reports that sales of the all-electric LEAF sunk to 849 units in the US in October 2011 (1,031 units in September). For the year, Nissan has sold 8,048 Leaf EVs.
That’s some 3,000-plus units above the Volt’s year-to-date mark, but still far away from achieving the 20.000 mark target for 2011.


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Quarterly Market Update
Quarter 4 | Fall 2022
Product-to-Market Pathway SUMMARY: Raw material cost are stabilizing, ocean freight charges are moderating, and fuel prices are trending down. These are positive developments on the road to recovery that should continue through Q4 but are being offset by continued port congestion, increased shortages of truck chassis, North America driver shortages, and the threat of labor actions by railroad and dock worker unions.
Factory-to-Port Outbound Logistics
Ocean Transport Inbound to North America
DC-to-Customer Outbound Logistics
Demand for oil and natural gas is surging globally and may lead to increased diesel fuel cost in North America in going into 2023. Extreme shortages of truck chassis is the latest in a string of crisis factors contributing to on-going port backlogs.
Typhoons impacted shipping time and port productivity at Shanghai-Ningbo, the world’s third - largest port, by forcing temporary closure for several days in September.
Covid zero-tolerance policies in China and the nation’s high vulnerability to outbreaks remain points of caution for North American supply importers and consumers.
High demand and constricted supply of
. Energy cost is a top contributor to raw material pricing and energy futures began declining last quarter with crude oil down touching the lowest levels since January, prior to the start of war in Ukraine. Raw material costs are less volatile through the middle of 2022 than compared to Q1, and to all of 2021. Supply and demand balance for most commodity materials should continue to stabilize into 2023.
shipping container space helped big ocean freight companies set record profits, over $256 billion so far in 2022. Limited shipping berths due to increased demand delayed deliveries and increased cost-of-goods, while boosting profits for big shipping firms. Ocean freight rates have begun cycle of receding that will take months to show up in cost-of-goods and is likely to be inhibited by shipping firm capacity manipulation to retain profitability.
New Covid outbreaks such as have happened in September in the city of Chengdu, home to 17 million people, will disrupt factory production and induce shocks to a still fragile global supply chain.
US West Coast dockworkers are
leveraging the threat of labor actions in contract negotiations a similar scenario that roiled the rail industry in September before rail worker unions signed new contracts.
One possible exception is specialty and thermal paper production where availability of raw material input is constrained and now affecting production rates and finished good prices.
Shortages of skilled labor and availability of raw materials, especially paper, are posing a new wave of challenges to North American manufacturers in the back half of 2022.
Q4 2022 Market Update
Restaurant Industry Update
SUMMARY: Restaurant recovery continues through adaptation, smart pricing strategies, and embracing 3 rd party delivery. Distributors are broadening their offerings to stay relevant as Operator needs rapidly evolve.
COSTINGLESS TO DINE OUT THAN IN The price gap between restaurants and retail groceries remained at 5.5 percentage points in August, the largest in favor of restaurants in 40 years (CPI). Prices for food away from home, or restaurants, rose by 8% year-over-year in August, up from July’s 7.6%, compared to a 13.5% year-over-year increase in grocery prices. This gap is allowing restaurants to continue to take price increases. ( Nations Restaurant News, Bureau of Labor Statistics) 3RD PARTY DELIVERY VITAL TO RESTAURANT SURVIVAL DoorDash’s latest Economic Impact report, published August 30, states the company worked with 500,000 US restaurants and businesses last year. 58% of those businesses in-turn state that their revenue would have declined without DoorDash , a response that counters some negative press about delivery service fees and speaks to strengthening sentiment about the necessity of off-premise meal delivery in the restaurant industry. (NRN)
DISTRIBUTOR PRODUCT OFFERINGS GROW
Our growing/new customer base is requiring us to carry more products
Our current customers are demanding a greater assortment of products
Chains are requiring more custom brands
70% of Foodservice industry Distributors surveyed by Technomic answered they have increased the number of SKUs in their portfolio since the start of the pandemic. Operator and consumer demand are the primary catalysis of SKU additions.
Shortages in many product areas are requiring us to fill in with more SKUs in those areas
We are getting involved in more categories
LEGISLATION TO DRIVE DEMAND January 2023 will bring bans on single use plastic items across Canada, and on foodservice products made with added-PFAs in California, New York and Washington. Demand for substitute products will shift in Q4 2022 as operators and distributors prepare for the new laws to go into effect.
RESTAURANT RESILIENCE: INSIGHT FROM AN INDUSTRY CEO “Rising food prices will eventually affect consumer restaurant spending. It’s a simple supply and demand equation. However, (#1) the consumer certainly has been relatively resilient thus far. (#2) Any restaurant still around today has also proven its resilience, as it has made it through the last few years of the pandemic. And (#3) with unemployment levels still near record lows, consumers still have disposable income.”
Dante DiCicco, Founder of Zitti, a restaurant industry supply chain service
Q4 2022 Market Update
Ocean Freight and Logistics
SUMMARY: Import demand remains at record levels, causing port congestion to spread from primary to secondary facilities across North America. Ocean freight rates begin to pull back, relief that will take several months to cycle through domestic inventories.
U.S. IMPORT ACTIVITY KEEPS HUMMING Imports totaled 2.53 million twenty-foot equivalent units in July up 18% year on year and 15% from July 2019, pre-pandemic. Canadian imports are up similarly, 19.6% over 2021, 26% since September 2019. As a result, port congestion across North America remains critically high. (American Shipper / Freightwaves.com, fxstreet.com) CONTAINER SHIPPING COST EASES September saw Freightos’ Baltic Index of Global Ocean Container rates recede per average container shipment, which is good news, certainly, but any cost relief for importers, operators and consumers will take months to appear, and may be tenuous because profit- hungry ocean freight lines can limit capacity and drive-up rates at any time simply by removing vessels from their fleets. And large initiatives have begun across the ocean shipping industry to convert fleets to cleaner-burning fuels, likely bringing new temporary constrictions of container berth availability and increased costs. WEST COAST JAMS TRIGGER BACKUPS AT EAST, GULF COAST PORTS Queues dozens of container ships-long have formed off ports in New York, Houston and Savannah, while the lineup of vessels waiting to get into Los Angeles and Long Beach has dwindled from an armada that once counted more than 100 ships. The queue at the Port of New York and New Jersey has reached about 20 vessels, while 40 container ships were waiting recently off the Port of Savannah. Port Houston, a growing destination for ships from Asia traveling through the Panama Canal, had 25 container vessels in-queue late in Q3. Industry executives and port officials said a surge in inbound cargo in recent months has swamped landside operations, straining storage capacity and the availability of container- handling equipment while slowing the ability of dockworkers and trucking companies to handle shipments. (Wall Street Journal) Georgia Ports Authority reported that its container unit volume of 5.76 million TEUs for fiscal 2022 was its highest ever volume, growing by 8% compared with fiscal 2021 container volume at ports. Organic growth, West Coast labor talks, and delayed access to rail at West Coast ports, prompt the significant shift in vessel calls to Port of Savannah. ( FreightWaves)
SUPPLY CHAIN DATA SHARING INITITIVE
A White House pilot to share freight data among shippers and supply chain stakeholders has doubled in size, with participants beginning to exchange information. The Freight Logistics Optimization Works initiative has expanded to 36 members, with ports, terminal operators and major carriers such as BNSF and J.B. Hunt joining as partners. US Department of Transportation expects the voluntary program to grow in the coming months and plans to hold listening sessions with small businesses and technology experts. A participating said in a statement that so far “participants have shared critical data that will collectively give us the ability to solve some of these supply chain bottlenecks.” (Supply Chain Dive)
Q4 2022 Market Update
Domestic Shipping and Logistics
SUMMARY: Labor unrest and rail system stress emerged as the latest serious issues affecting outbound shipping across North America.
RAIL / INTERMODEL CHALLENGES
TRUCK DRIVER PAY IS RISING A study by the American Trucking Association released in August shows that an 18% increase in annual compensation for truckload drivers compared with 2019. More than 90% of truckload fleets raised pay in 2021, with an average increase of 10.9%. Implications of this trend are reflected in continued higher prices for over-the-road freight rates. (Transport Topics News) POTENTIAL RAIL STRIKE The potential US rail strike at the end of Q3 caused inflation jitters to edge higher. A tentative deal was reached keeping 125,000 workers on the job and temporarily forestalling significant domestic supply chain disruption.
Train speeds at Norfolk Southern were down 11% and flat at BNSF into the third quarter. Dwell times, the measure of time required for truckers to drop off and pick up loads, have been reported up across the rail network 20% and 12%, respectively. Velocity has improved ever so slightly in recent weeks at BNSF (up 1%) but Norfolk Southern (down 14%) has seen further declines. Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka said nearly 34,000 cargo containers destined for rail remained at the docks and more than 20,000 of those have been sitting for at least nine days. In the past, the port would only have roughly 9,000 containers waiting for rail service.
(FreightWaves, Deutche Bank)
Q4 2022 Market Update
SUMMARY: Supply chain volatility is lessening, bringing lower raw material costs and lower rates for ocean container freight. But new factors of labor unrest and equipment shortages threaten a sustained recovery. Inflation remains at 40-year highs ensuring that Fed increases will come and fueling fear that the economy will stall despite near-full employment.
▪ Mirroring general industry trends, 511 Foodservice continues to expedite supplies into its North American warehouse network at a record pace, receiving 35% more container loads of supply in August alone than its normal monthly average. ▪ US employment rate is hovering around 3.7%, a range considered to be full-employment. However, in Canada, unemployment rates have increased three straight months, jumping 5.4% in August in a sign that aggressive rate hikes by Bank of Canada may be starting to cool the economy. (Bloomberg, US Bureau of Labor Statistics) ▪ Managing price actively has become necessary, and generally adopted as a norm for maintaining profitability and business survival by suppliers, distributors and operators alike, throughout the foodservice industry. ▪ Revising and updating value propositions may help minimize losses for both operators and distributors, both of whom must stay flexible and envision product lines and service offerings as broadly as their customers and patrons deem attractive. (Technomic)
511 Foodservice Remains Your Steadfast Partner through the Tough Months Ahead and Beyond!
• 511 ’s breadth of product line and investment in North American manufacturing infrastructure helps us ensure supply continuity of essential
products to restaurant operators and distributor customers, as well as sustainable replacement options for legislation-impacted supply items.
• 511 continues to develop near-shore and on-shore manufacturing capabilities that will reduce supply chain risk for our customers and ensure
timely final-mile resupply to your operation.
• We are proud to serve your business and will continue making investments in our people and systems that create value for our customers. Our
focus on distribution network performance is paying off for customers as our fill rate and ship-complete rates steadily have risen to new highs in
each consecutive month this year.
• Watch for periodic promotion of limited-time deals on overstock and discontinued products as 511 adapts its product portfolio to meet evolving
• REMINDER: Chinese New Year 2023 takes place January 21 – 27 … plan your ordering, now.
Q4 2022 Market Update
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There’s hope for the universe yet as a second season of DreamWorks Animation’s Voltron: Legendary Defender will hit Netflix later this year.
The Netflix original animated series—featuring five teenagers charged with protecting the universe from evil—confirmed its second season during the show’s panel at this week’s San Diego Comic-Con.
Season two will pick up in the moments following the first season’s finale cliffhanger.
A reboot of the 1980s Voltron show, season one launched on Netflix last month as part of DreamWorks’ expanded global content agreement with the SVOD. The deal also covers streaming rights to DreamWorks’ animated feature film library.
While fans are waiting for the new episodes, a first line of comic books from publishing partner Lion Forge will hit US specialty retail this month. And toys from master toy partner Playmates will be available in spring 2017.


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By the Slimmest of Margins, Cadillac's U.S. Operations Reclaim No.1 Position in Global Cadillac Sales Race
Cadillac, with market-specific cars and a rapidly expanding dealer network, is increasingly a China-reliant GM luxury brand.
In four consecutive months, from April 2017 through July 2017, GM’s Cadillac division sold more new vehicles in China than in its U.S. home market. Indeed, so far this year, 48 percent of the Cadillacs sold around the world were sold in China. Thank a massive 67-percent year-over-year sales gain, stirred up by very healthy Chinese demand for the XT5.
But in August, for the first time since March, Cadillac’s U.S. dealer network reasserted its collective claim as the rightful nation for Cadillac sales success. That’s correct: Cadillac sold more vehicles in the United States in August 2017 than in China.
Albeit not many more.
Expand your horizons. See the forest, not just the trees. Look west of the Pacific Coast Highway.
Cadillac sales plunged in the United States in July 2017, dropping by more than a fifth to only 11,227 units. That 22-percent dive was the worst for Cadillac’s U.S. operations since April of last year. The 11,227-sale result represented a five-month low for Cadillac in the United States and the lowest-volume since 2011.
But Cadillac is increasingly a less U.S.-centric automotive brand. Just three short years ago, two-thirds of Cadillac’s volume was produced in its American home market. Fast forward to July 2017 and the majority of Cadillac’s volume isn’t produced in the market where it’s suffering from such dwindling demand.
Rather, Cadillac generates the bulk of its global volume outside of America, where Cadillac demand is rapidly increasing.
Buick is all about China, where the brand claims more than 5 percent market share.
Buick’s achievements in the United States, once storied, are now not nearly so impressive. Buick’s market share in America today is half what it was in 2002, after volume declined in eight of 14 years, tumbling from more than 430,000 sales 14 years ago to 223,055 last year.
This is part of the Buick story we told you yesterday. In touting record global sales as one of the planet’s fastest-growing volume brands, Buick’s General Motors parent company also made clear that the brand is achieving rapidly increased rates of sales because of the Chinese market, even though U.S. sales are declining, albeit marginally.
Following our managing editor’s press of the publish button, we almost immediately heard from Buick.
As if we needed more evidence that North America is an increasingly unimportant component of Buick’s future plans — Buick is discontinuing the Verano, its most popular car model in the U.S. and the most popular Buick overall in Canada — GM revealed that Buick added more Chinese sales between January and June than the whole U.S. Buick division managed in toto.
For the first time in nine years Volkswagen AG will likely sell more vehicles in China than General Motors, retaking the crown for the biggest foreign automaker selling cars in Chian, the world’s biggest automotive market. Both companies will sell more than 3 million cars and light trucks by the end of the year. Through November, VW is ahead by about 70,000 vehicles at 2.96 million, 17% ahead of 2012 figures. Competition is fierce between the two companies, who have planned to spend a combined $36 billion on operations in China in the near future. Last month VW said that it will be investing $25 billion over the next five years on expansion in China.
According the the China Automobile Dealers Association, despite efforts by car makers to reduce inventories, Chinese domestic brand dealers still had 49 days worth of supply in June, a figure that would be considered decent in North America, where two months is the norm. But it’s a matter of concern in China, where normal dealer inventories are 24 to 36 days. That figure is an improvement over the 61 days of supply at the end of May.
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- Statikboy Those tires are the Wrong Size.
- Mustangfast I had an 06 V6 and loved that car. 230k trouble free miles until I sold it. I remember they were criticized for being too small vs competitors but as a single guy it was the right size for me. I recall the 2.3 didn’t have a reputation for reliability, unlike the V6 and I4. I think it likely didn’t take off due to the manual-only spec, price tag, and power vs the V6 engine and the way it delivered that power. It was always fun to see the difference between these and normal ones, since these were made in Japan whereas all others were flat rock
- VoGhost Earth is healing.
- ToolGuy "Having our 4th baby and decided a camper van is a better use of our resources than my tuner."Seller is in the midst of some interesting life choices.Bonus: Here are the individuals responsible for doing the work on this vehicle.
- MaintenanceCosts Previous owner playing engineer by randomly substituting a bunch of components, then finding out. No thanks.


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In a total UK/Ireland-based musical explosion, MySpace Europe (yeah, did you know there were international divisions?) announced today that they will present the MyFestival music fest in various locations this June.
According to the press release, “MyFestival is not just for fans who already love these bands but an opportunity for people to discover an incredible group of up-and-comers who use Myspace from all over the UK and Ireland, said Jamie Kantrowitz, Senior Vice President Marketing and Content at MySpace Europe.” Not to mention garner thousands more signups for MySpace.
Some of the most awesome acts playing are my favorite newish Scottish band who should be the “Next Big Thing”, The Cinematics, in Glasgow, and Dirty Pretty Things take the stage in Sheffield. The DPT show is already sold out, but you can still buy tickets to The Cinematics for 6 GBP. One of the supporting bands is Popup, which sound like if Spud from Trainspotting decided to join a super-poppy band.


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LAST UPDATED : Sep 21, 2021, 12:32 PM IST
- Amazon announces new hardware launch event: All the details
E-commerce giant Amazon is set to launch new Echo devices and other hardware. The company has revealed the launch event will be held on September 28 at 9:30 pm IST. The details of the event are yet unknown but the invite affirmed that there will be “news about latest Amazon devices, features, and services.”
- Patnaites buckle up for Fit India run on September 17
As part of ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav’, an initiative of the Centre to commemorate 75 years of progressive India, the state government would highlight the contributions of freedom fighters, Mahatma Gandhi, and Jayaprakash Narayan (JP), said tourism minister, Narayan Prasad, on Wednesday.
- Nursery rhymes to echo on campus again as tiny tots prepare to return in Lucknow
Nursery rhymes, games like Simon Saya, Hopscotch and Duck, Duck Goose will again echo on school campuses from September 13 when a majority of city schools will resume physical classes for Montessori, Nursery and Kindergarten students almost after two years.
- Google Meet to tell when your device causes Echo: Tips on how to fix it
Once Google Meet shows the red dot on the more options button, users can tap on it to open Troubleshooting and help page. Here, Google will offer recommendations like using headphones, lowering your speaker volume, and muting when you’re not the one speaking.
- Amitabh Bachchan becomes the voice of Alexa: How to get it, how much it costs and other details
Amazon Alexa is getting its first celebrity voice in India. The company is adding Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan’s voice on to its Echo range of devices or Amazon shopping app in India. Users will be able to interact with Amazon’s smart voice assistant and listen to Amitabh Bachchan on a range of topics. Below are all the details:
- Upgrade Your Home With Echo, Fire TV And Other Amazon Devices At Up To 45% Off On Amazon
Amazon’s Great Freedom Festival Sale 2021 is now live with many great deals and offers on an array of products across all categories. The five-day long sale has discounts of up to 45 percent on Amazon Devices, with deals on products like Echo, Kindle, Fire TV, and more.
- ‘Khela Hobe’ will echo across India, Mamata Banerjee says at launch
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said her party’s ‘Khela Hobe’ poll slogan has become so popular it is now being chanted even inside Parliament, and the country will be witness to a match in the days to come, apparently hinting at the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
- Here's one market dominated by Amazon and Google that Apple took 3 years to crack
Thanks to this impressive numbers, Apple's market share of US smart speakers went up from 9.6% in in the first half pf 2020 to 21% in the seond half of 2021, an year-on-year shipment increase of about 245%. The report sees the discontinuation of the original HomePod too to have contributed to the spike in growth, as Apple enthusiasts are believed to have rushed to buy the remaining stock.
- Amazon Sale Offers: Upto 50% off on Echo, Kindle and Other Amazon Devices
Amazon Prime Sale Day 2021 is now live with many great deals and offers on an array of products across all categories. The two-day long sale has discounts of up to 50 percent on Amazon Devices, with deals on products like Echo, Kindle, Fire TV, and more.


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So, are you the one who is hesitant of using any music app, thinking it would eat into your data? Now, here’s a solution!
Opera Max, a data-management and data-saving app for Android phones, claims to optimize streaming video and music apps, hence reducing the data usage by up to 50% on music apps, including YouTube Music, Pandora, Slacker Radio, Gaana, and Saavn.
One month ago, it introduced video saving for YouTube and Netflix apps. Opera Max uses streaming audio optimization powered by Rocket Optimizer, which manages streaming audio traffic in the same way that it optimizes video traffic and it supports both MP3 and MP4 stream formats, and it can also convert streams to the AAC+ codec, which is able to deliver high audio quality over a low bitrate connection to any compatible device, the company said in a statement.
In India, 97.4 million people in urban areas listen to music online. Within this traffic, 75% comes from mobile phones. Listening to online music is the third-most preferred activity, followed by mail and social media, according to the JuxtSmartMandate study.
“More and more people love listening to their favourite music with apps; however, these apps are among the major data hogs consuming users’ mobile data quickly,” says Sergey Lossev, Product Manager at Opera Software. “Now, we have added audio compression for these music apps so that people will feel free to stream music without having to look constantly for available, free Wi-Fi coverage. This is particularly helpful for users with limited data plans."
Opera Max is available for users with phones running Android 4.0 and above. It is free to download from Google Play.


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|3 THINGS THAT WILL CHANGE THE WORLD TODAY|
Good morning, here’s your Monday morning briefing to set you up for the day ahead. Look out for these three things happening around the world today.
Singles’ Day shopping splurge begins
China’s equivalent of the US’ Cyber Monday gets underway as retailers offer major discounts over a 24 hour period.
Started in 1993, the day was originally a celebration of being single, represented by the four ‘1s’ in today’s date. It has since become the largest offline and online shopping event in the world.
In 2018 shoppers splurged US$30.8bn with Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba alone, with more than one billion delivery orders placed over the course of 24 hours. By contrast, last year’s Black Friday attracted $6.2bn in online sales. This year some are expecting Singles’ Day sales to near or exceed $40bn.
UK posts GDP estimates
The Office for National Statistics today publishes its latest monthly estimate of gross domestic product (GDP) for the UK.
GDP, which measures the value of goods and services produced by a country, is the most widely used indicator of economic health.
Global trade uncertainty and Brexit stagnation is expected to weigh heavily on the figures. A contraction this quarter would mean the UK is in a technical recession.
The latest projections from the UK’s Monetary Policy Committee forecast a 1% slump in GDP by the end of 2022 compared to forecasts from August.
Lancet press conference ahead of Countdown on Health and Climate Change report
The Lancet, one of the world’s most prestigious medical journals, will hold a press conference ahead of the publication of its annual Countdown on Health and Climate Change report.
The World’s Health Organisation’s director-general has previously described climate change as the “defining health issue of the 21st century”. Global warming creates more extreme weather events, which in turn damages infrastructure, ruins crops and limits access to clean water.
The 2018 report highlighted a lack of progress in reducing emissions, with national health systems facing extra pressure in dealing with associated health problems.
A media briefing will take place at 10:30am (GMT) ahead of the paper’s launch on Wednesday.


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Xiaomi’s VP of International, Hugo Barra, took to Twitter to confirm that the Xiaomi Mi 5 would be the company’s first 2016 product, and is set for a February 24 launch.
While there weren’t any further details than that, this confirmation does put an end to all of the rumors and speculation as to when Xiaomi would be launching its next flagship smartphone.
Here’s the full tweet from Barra:
— Hugo Barra (@hbarra) January 26, 2016
Again, we still don’t have any firm details on the Mi 5, but some of the latest rumors indicate that it will sport a 5.2-inch Quad HD display, a Snapdragon 820 processor, 4GB of RAM and a massive 3,600mAh battery. Some other little details that will allegedly be included in the device include a fingerprint scanner and laser autofocus for what will reportedly be a top-of-the-line rear camera.
In related news, Xiaomi recently caused an Internet fire storm by sending out an over-the-air update that locked the bootloaders on many Xiaomi-made devices. Customers are livid, but that doesn’t seem to be quenching the excitement around the upcoming Mi 5.
We’re not quite sure where Xiaomi plans on holding the launch event, whether that be in Shanghai or at MWC 2016, though if it’s the latter, the company will face some stiff competition with Samsung and LG set to announce both of their new flagships at the event.
We’ll get the full scoop on the new Xiaomi’s new flagship come February 24, so be sure to stay tuned!
source: Hugo Barra (Twitter)


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REACH Opens Food Shelf in Hendrum
Hendrum, MN — The food pantries for the Hendrum and Perley communities are about to become much more accessible thanks to a new partnership with REACH. During a visit with R & J News at the Norman County Fair, REACH Executive Director Peggie Chisholm announced that they have opened a new Food Pantry in Hendrum that will serve the needs of a pair of area churches.
And with back-to-school shopping season, Chisholm says REACH is getting ready to kick off their annual school supply drive and a number of other programs to help support area youth.
Learn more about REACH online by visiting www.ruralenrichment.org.


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Distributor Veracomp has boosted its software credentials with the buyout of peer Servodata's Red Hat distribution business. As of last week, Poland-headquartered Veracomp acquired from Servodata, which...
James Vickerage becomes UK director of Maverick
Chinese challenger the only vendor to see growth as Apple, Samsung and Amazon struggle
ALSO's CEO explains the distributor's rejigged management structure
War of words heats up after shareholders demand vendor sells itself to rivals


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The are few stocks that are more contentious today than the Canadian smartphone and services company Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY). In the last few months, investors have suggested everything from conspiracy theories, to bear raids, to pump and dump and short and distorts. But while average investors buy and sell shares and post comments on stock talk sites, analysts from various companies are playing the game as well with some volatile share price results.
Upgrades and downgrades
If one is looking for evidence that analyst opinions can swing share price they only need to look at the movement of Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) shares on June 18 and 19. On the 18th, RBC Dominion Securities painted an overall favorable picture of BlackBerry raising sales estimates and laying out the potential for a post-earnings squeeze. Shares rose strongly on the day from the $14.30s range to touch $15 before closing at $14.84.
But the next day, Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) shares reversed previous gains and then some as an analyst from Bernstein noted “waning” enthusiasm for BB10 devices. By midday, shares were already down well into the low $14 range.
Of course this analyst conflict should be nothing new for BlackBerry shareholders. Notes from Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley, Jefferies, Cannaccord, Detwiler Fenton, Pacific Crest, Citi, and many others have caused the share price to swing, sometimes more than five percent, on the day of the report’s release. Some will question the credibility behind reports from lesser known analysts but, whether or not the reports have any truth, they certainly have shown their market moving ability.
Tuning out the noise
There will always be plenty of analysts trying to guess the next path a company will take, but with so many options out there, there is no way that every analyst can be correct. Those looking for past examples of analyst predictions in the smartphone space may remember the Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) price targets. Analysts had practically set up a bidding war for who could place the highest price target on Apple stock. First $800, then $850, then $900. And the worst part? The media was ready to congratulate the first analyst to stick a quadruple digit price target on Apple.
But the job of an analyst is to do their best to predict where a stock will be next, not just to be the first one to attach a big number price target. Since then, the wave of analyst bullishness has become a wave of analyst bearishness, but only after the share price fell from the $700 range to the mid $400 range.
Despite Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) being largely in the same industry, investors in both companies are aware of the massive size difference between the two tech companies. In Q2 2013 alone, Apple sold over 37 million iPhones and nearly 20 million iPads, numbers that dwarf BlackBerry’s whole year expectations. Trading at only around 10 times earnings, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is not being given the same multiples as Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) at 27 times earnings or BlackBerry, which investors are still waiting on to post positive full year earnings again. From a P/E perspective, Apple is not really overvalued, and a cult-like fan base should be there to buy the next iProduct whether it’s a new phone, watch, or TV. Some may ask if it’s possible to be bullish on both Apple and BlackBerry, and I believe the answer is yes. Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) only needs a small part of the smartphone market to be successful, and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) could easily make up for this small loss through growth in new markets and/or new products.
Some of the same analysts are likely covering both Apple and BlackBerry so just as Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) estimates should have been taken with a grain of salt, so should Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) estimates, bullish or bearish.


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Tuesday, 17 August 2010
Pure London Launches in Dubai
Pure London has joined forces with French trade show Who’s Next and Premiere Classe to host a buying event in Dubai. Middle East Fashion Days will take place from 19th – 21st October 2010 and Pure London will be collaborating with a dedicated section for its exhibitors over the three day event.
Pure Selection will form a special part of Middle East Fashion Days giving Pure London’s fashion brands the opportunity to meet, network and do business with buyers and consumers across the Middle East.
The exclusive event will take place in Dubai’s most luxurious hotel resort, the Madinat Jumeirah, with the third day being a dedicated consumer day.


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Matt White, writing on Finextra, shares Turkish bank Garenti’s CRM strategy:
If you go into their branches you have to swipe your bank card receive a ticket, and wait to be called. But not all tickets are equal. High income ‘superstars’ get seen within five minutes, the pretty well off have to wait a bit longer, and the great unwashed should be granted an audience after about ten minutes. Non customers have to wait for up to half an hour. Garenti says that if these people want to be seen sooner, they had better open an account.”
My take: Funny, but instructive. Funny cuz’…well, you know why. Instructive, though, because it highlights two issues that banks, often unknowingly, have:
1) Their customer segmentation scheme does more harm than good. Although few (if any) North American banks require customers to “swipe in” before receiving service, the Garenti story does highlight a drawback that many banks here do face. Few banks, thanks to how they segment their customer base, account for a customer’s potential relationship value.
Like Garenti, many banks segment customers on number of products owned and demographic factors like income. But number of products currently owned may not provide any insight into how many more products a customer might have with the bank. And a customer’s income, while a potentially good predictor of the need for financial products, isn’t necessarily a good indicator of the products that customer will consider the bank for.
As a result, this approach to segmentation may lead to preferential treatment for customers who have no intention of expanding their relationship with the bank, and reduced service levels to (and attention to) the customers who represent their best long term opportunities.
While many observers complain that segmentation schemes are, often, not actionable, there’s another issue. Most approaches don’t help the bank understand the kinds of relationship a customer wants to have. Some customers are looking for a personal relationship with a banker, another wants help and guidance making smart financial decisions, while a third may only want to park his paycheck into a checking account before putting that money in investment accounts (that aren’t with the bank).
In Garenti’s case, it’s possible that some of its “best” customers might tolerate a longer wait in the bank, especially if they could come in, get a cup of coffee, and relax for a bit. Isn’t this what a lot of banks are going for, trying to re-create the Starbucks experience in their branches? But Garenti’s segmentation dictates a CRM strategy that forces it to ignore this option.
2) They fail to understand the importance of the initial sales experience. Garenti’s tiered service levels may improve service to its “best” customers, and possibly even improve its retention levels. But it may adversely impact new sales (i.e., prospects getting up and leaving during their 30 minute wait), and — just as importantly — be hurting future customer loyalty. The longer-term loyalty impact is not as apparent because few financial firms really understand how important that initial sales interaction is for shaping future purchase intention.
Opening a checking account may not be a particularly stressful, or highly emotional, event for many customers. But it’s likely that they’ve made a conscious choice to pick one provider over another — and there is stress or emotion involved in worrying about whether or not they’ve picked the right one.
While a bad experience in that initial interaction may not dissuade a customer from doing business with the bank, it might produce a negative story that the customer tells himself about the bank. A story that could limit the future potential of that relationship right from the start by diminishing the customer’s desire to turn to the bank for more products and services.
So should Garenti — or any bank for that matter — flip-flop the scenario and give prospects priority? Well no, that won’t work either. Then they’d be no better than the telcos who give all the good deals to new customers and treat existing customers like 2nd class citizens.
There’s no easy answer to these issues. But, as a starting point, banks must: 1) better understand the kinds of relationships that their customers want to have, and 2) develop a segmentation approach that builds on those relationship types. And not simply let the existing segmentation dictate their CRM strategy.


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With navigation devices that manufacturers sell to car drivers, safety is of utmost importance. This is why arguments continue to be waged for better car navigation systems. Gadget makers HUDWAY is making an argument towards a safer car navigation system with the HUDWAY Cast, a display where you can stream your favorite navigation app and still keep your eyes on the road while driving.
The HUDWAY Cast is a heads-up display (HUD), and by definition, it attempts to blend into the driver’s normal line-of-sight while driving. The HUD element is composed of a transparent screen where you can cast your preferred navigation app, and slots right in front of the driver so that he/she doesn’t have to fiddle with a phone to get directions right.
The HUDWAY Cast uses Miracast or AirPlay technology for casting, and for Android phones. It also has an app for your phone that renders your favorite apps in driving-friendly modes so you can easily use them while driving.
The HUDWAY Cast is now up on Kickstarter as a campaign and it has already blown by its initial funding target. For USD$179, you can get a unit of the HUDWAY Cast which will reportedly ship on November this year.


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The company's S-1 lays the groundwork for what is widely expected to be one of the largest initial public offerings of the year, second only to Uber's IPO in May. It's also...Technologyread more
Fraud investigator Harry Markopolos' accusations extended beyond GE's management to actuaries, auditors and analysts who he claims overlooked billions in liabilities.Marketsread more
Trump's tweet comes a day after Apple put out a press release describing the money it spends on U.S.-based suppliers and vendors.Technologyread more
CNBC combed through Wall Street research to see which stocks are still a buy after their earnings reports.Marketsread more
President Donald Trump held a call on Wednesday with the CEOs of three major U.S. banks, according to people with knowledge of the situation.Marketsread more
Despite aggressive strides, Waymo needs one thing before their self-driving cars become a seriously useful transportation system: people. We talked to the ones closest to it.Technologyread more
Scientists say the smoke plumes, filled with megatons of tiny, harmful particles, could travel to other areas of the world and cause serious respiratory problems for people.Weather & Natural Disastersread more
Some Weight Watchers loyalists applaud Kurbo by WW. But nutritionists worry Kurbo promotes an unhealthy relationship with food during an especially impressionable time.Health and Scienceread more
Benefits from what President Trump called "the biggest reform of all time" to the tax code have dwindled to a faint breeze just 20 months after its enactment, writes John...Politicsread more
Epstein, 66, was found in his cell in Manhattan federal lockup Saturday morning and transferred to a nearby hospital, where he was subsequently pronounced dead.Politicsread more
Air travelers faced delays at U.S. airports on Friday afternoon after a computer issue snarled processing of international arrivals.Airlinesread more
is opening a new type of bar for only 10 days in Japan later this month.
Amazon Bar, according to the company's website, will be located in Tokyo's upscale Ginza area and serve a variety of drinks, including beer, wine, and whiskey.
But it comes with one caveat: there's no menu.
The bar will instead deploy a recommendation system with Amazon sommeliers offering suggestions for different types of drinks. It will also serve special drinks that are only available at Amazon Bar, the website says.
The bar will launch on Oct. 20, and will be open to the public.
Amazon didn't say why it's opening the bar and for such a short period. The company has been introducing physical book stores and pop-up stores of late, while also expanding into the grocery space with the Whole Foods acquisition.
At the same time, Amazon has been moving into the alcohol business. In August, the company quietly expanded its one-hour wine delivery service in select U.S. cities. Last year, Amazon Japan launched a wine recommendation service by phone that featured its own in-house sommeliers.
An Amazon representative wasn't immediately available for comment.


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Till January of this year, the Wahoo Key for iPhone ($80) dongle pwned fitness on the iPhone. Why? Because the tiny, ubiquitous dongle gives the iPhone access to dozens of ANT+ sensors, and more fitness apps than any other system — turning your iPhone into a fitness-tracking powerhouse.
Then in January, Wahoo one-upped itself and introduced the Wahoo Blue Bluetooth heart-rate strap, which completely bypasses ANT+ and instead communicates via low-energy Bluetooth v4.0. Does this mean the Key is obsolete? Not by a long shot.
Wahoo’s popular ANT+ Fisica dongle, which allows the iPhone to read signals from fitness gadgets like heart-rate monitors, pedometers and bike sensors, is probably most widely used fitness iPhone accessory since its release a little over a year ago. And today, Wahoo took the first step toward killing it.
Presumably for those without an iPhone and its wealth of app-basedfitnessoptions, iHome has partnered with New Balance to offer a set of earphones packed with workout features, including a pedometer and a heart-rate monitor.


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Many were surprised when Mark Zuckerberg decided to buy Instagram for $ 1,000 million back in April of 2012. Today, Instagram has a value close to $ 35,000 million as Citigroup. That’s about 49 times what Facebook initially paid, $ 715 million, after the decline in the share price. Instagram, in case anyone does not know, is a portal designed to allow users to upload photos to which you can apply filters of all types, but you can also upload several videos.
How that Instagram is has managed to grow so much in just two and a half years? Well, as discussed analysts, is because advertising. In detail, Mark May of Citigroup says the amount of Instagram users grew by 40% during 2013 compared with the previous year, and only between March and December this year has grown by 50% compared with last year. May believes that Instagram could even get more benefits from its users through advertising, ie that the portal could add more advertising even for greater profit.
It’s been just over a year since advertising was introduced in Instagram . Today the portal has between 250 and 300 million about users, each of which would be worth more than $ 80. The analyst firm believes that Instagram is capable of doing almost $ 1.50 earnings per 1000 users seeing an advertisement once a day, and if we consider the number of existing users and all the publicity that happen to see daily, it is clear that the gains are very large.
What do you think about Instagram and growth that has taken over the years?


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Agriculture: Bangladesh Seeks Help From India To Avoid Onion Shortage
Onion News: Onion is also often called 'political vegetable'. Because rising prices often prove costly for governments. Sometimes onion inflation becomes the reason for change of government or even the fall of the government. This applies to a large extent to India and all our neighboring countries located in the Indian subcontinent. This is the reason. That the government formed after the elections in Bangladesh has already become alert to keep onion prices under control in the upcoming Ramzan.
To ensure that onion prices do not increase during Ramzan, the Bangladesh government has started talks with the Indian government. Bangladesh has sought India's support to import more onions and sugar before Ramzan. Regarding this, Bangladesh Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmood came to India and met Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and had a long discussion on this matter.
Help sought for many important things
According to information received from sources related to the matter, Bangladesh has sought cooperation from India for importing many essential commodities including onion. Mahmood requested Piyush Goyal to remove tariff and non-tariff barriers on products exported from India to Bangladesh and provide uninterrupted supply of essential commodities. Piyush Goyal assured Bangladesh that Bangladesh is an important neighboring country of India. And therefore India is always ready and committed to provide all kinds of support to strengthen the economic and financial stability there.
Being a Muslim majority country, the month of Ramadan holds great importance in Bangladesh. Keeping this in view, the Bangladesh government has started efforts to keep the prices of all essential commodities including onion stable during Ramadan. Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmood's visit to India is being linked to this exercise of Sheikh Hasina government. The purpose of which is to keep the prices of essential commodities, especially onion, stable in the country during the holy month of Ramadan.
Superfast News Coverage By YuvaPatrkaar.com Team
Publish Date: February 28, 2024
Posted By Abhishek


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The Federal Government is to roll out the last two components of its MSME Survival Fund known as Guaranteed Off Take Scheme and MSMEs Grant.
The Chairperson, Steering Committee of the Scheme who is also the Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, Ambassador Mariam Yalwaji Katagum made this known in Abuja.
She said that the Guaranteed Off Take Scheme was to stimulate direct local production by providing 100,000 MSMEs in the production sub-sector with funds to produce post Covid lock down stimulus products.
The Minister explained that the products covered under the scheme are face masks, hand sanitizers, liquid soap, disinfectant and processed foods.
The minister said the General MSME grant was meant to give a one-off fifty thousand naira grant to 100,000 MSMEs to further boost their production and stimulate the growth of small scale businesses in the country.
According to her, the portal for registration for the scheme which will open next week Tuesday is to further cushion the effects of COVID-19 pandemic.
In his remark, the coordinator of the project and the Senior Special Assistant to the President on MSMEs, Office of the Vice President, Mr Tola Johnson reiterated the commitment of the Federal Government towards improving small scale businesses in the country.
Mr Johnson further warned applicants of the activities of fraudsters who may swindle them of their hard earned money in the name of registration fee.


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Get ready to facepalm, Intel fans. The company’s upcoming Coffee Lake CPUs apparently won’t work with existing stocks of motherboards, a manufacturer confirmed on Wednesday.
In a Twitter post by Asrock last Saturday, the company flat-out said the new CPU won’t work with today’s motherboards.
When asked by Evan Jensen “…will the Z270 Supercarrier get support for the upcoming @intel Coffee Lake CPU’s?” Asrock’s official twitter account, @ASRockInfo replied: “No, Coffee Lake CPU is not compatible with 200-series motherboards.”
According to at least one reliable source outside of Intel, the new Coffee Lake CPU will indeed not be compatible with Z270 boards, even though the chipsets with the upcoming Z370 appear to be the same, PCWorld was told.


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Hindus are urging Chicago headquartered fast food company McDonald’s Corporation not to unnecessarily and unreasonably drag the serious discipline of yoga in its commercials, handling it with a flippant attitude.
Recently McDonald’s came out with a “Like getting your money’s worth – yoga” commercial by Leo Burnett for the United Kingdom to publicize its Saver Menu.
Distinguished Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada today, said that yoga, which found reference in world’s oldest extant scripture Rig-Veda and other early Hindu texts, was a highly esteemed practice which transformed the individual. Handling it frivolously for mercantile greed was highly inappropriate.
Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, pointed out that yoga was considered union with God; and mean for transforming consciousness, purification of the Self, and attaining liberation. It involved withdrawal and its objective was the state of blissful liberation.
It was insensitive on the part of McDonald’s, which boasted of being “good neighbors”, to ridicule an ancient and revered practice of yoga to push its products, many of which contained meat from cow, which was considered sacred in Hinduism; Rajan Zed indicated.
McDonald’s, which claimed to “do the right thing”, should not be in the business of mocking serious spiritual practices, Zed noted.
It was not the first time when McDonald’s mishandled yoga to push its sales. Previous commercials ill-using yoga included McDonald’s Sirloin Third Pound Burgers TV Spot, ‘Yoga’ Feat; McDonald’s Canada – Dollar Drink Days, Yoga Commercial; Pub McDonald’s – Yoga.
Rajan Zed further said that Hinduism was the oldest and third largest religion of the world with about 1.2 billion adherents and a rich philosophical thought and it should not be taken frivolously. Practices/concepts/traditions of any faith, larger or smaller, should not be ridiculed at.
McDonald’s states to be “world’s leading global foodservice retailer with nearly 40,000 locations in over 100 countries”. Chris Kempczinski and Enrique Hernandez Junior are CEO and Board Chairman respectively.


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App.net promises to be ” what Twitter could have been .” But it's potentially something more profound than that.
White flight happens both online and offline. What is it with some white people?
Recently mentions of a new “real-time social feed” called App.net have been creeping into my Twitter feed. Just as the quietly simmering Diaspora and the running joke that is Google+ were geared to seize on collective Facebook malaise, it seems App.net is trying to seize on some degree of unrest among Twitter users before taking on Facebook as well. In this case, App.net promises that “users and developers [will] come first, not advertisers.” In an era of “if it’s free, you’re the product” — remember that the much love/hated Facebook promise that “[is] free and always will be”— App.net proposes to offer a Twitter-like social feed (and eventually a “powerful ecosystem based on 3rd-party developer built ‘apps’”) on a paid membership basis instead.
At first, this struck me as a reasonable enough idea: I’m pretty much always willing to pay for the upgraded version of an app or service rather than be bombarded with ads (though in this case, my particular Twitter client and the AdBlock Plus add-on have already solved the problems of “promoted tweets” and Facebook ads). Yet it turns out App.net will not be an advertising- or promotion-free environment just because App.net itself won’t derive revenue from ads; the company has no plans to “restrict commercial messages from appearing on the service,” and instead suggests that users — who have “complete control over the kinds of messages they see” — simply unfollow accounts that post annoying messages. App.net describes this as “the beauty of a follow model,” but I’m skeptical. For instance, the “follow model” does not seem to have stopped spammers on Twitter, and unlike App.net’s founder Dalton Caldwell, I’m not convinced a $50 paywall will keep spammers away. Still, I liked the idea of my information (“my information”) not being sold to marketers, so I kept reading.
When I got to the $50 price point (pre-paid) of joining App.net for a year, however, I started to see the service a bit differently. I realize that any app or service charging at least $4.17 per month (and there are a lot of them) also costs at least $50 per year, but that actually isn’t the point here — the point is the stratifying effect of asking for $50 upfront instead of asking for $4.17 every month. Was this stratifying effect intentional, or an oversight? Some clicking around indicates that it’s probably intentional, with one interview article stating that the $50 pre-paid membership cost is “really more of a ‘are you serious’ fee.” Caldwell believes that “Twitter could have been something more, and perhaps better, than what it has become,” and so has set out to build a service not for the masses, “but for the hacker masses.”
The “hacker masses” are, of course, a much less diverse crowd than are the ‘regular’ masses. Recall that Twitter’s original ‘early adopter’ user base in 2007 was the so-called digerati, who are largely affluent white men with connections to the tech industry; recall as well that in 2012, “it’s a black Twitterverse; white people only live in it.” “How Black People Use Twitter” got a lot of attention on Slate two years ago (despite describing how only some Black users use Twitter), and let’s not forget how many Arab-region users joined Twitter during last year’s Arab Spring. Meanwhile, those “keen and savvy” early adopters now complain because services like Twitter and Facebook “haven’t developed with us” [emphasis in original], and Caldwell himself sees K-Mart ads in his feed as just another sign of Twitter’s appalling degradation and debasement. OMG it’s the end of the world: K-mart shoppers and people of color found Twitter.
I’m now wondering if App.net doesn’t mark the beginning of “white flight” from Twitter and Facebook, just as danah boyd has argued that Facebook was the “white flight” from Myspace before that. Both sites have certainly grown beyond their early-adopter user bases: Twitter had 500 million users as of February 2012, and with 955 million users [pdf] as of June 2012, “everyone” is supposedly on Facebook; your mom is on Facebook (hell, my mom’s on Twitter, too), and there’s even a growing chance your grandma is on Facebook (though I admit that mine isn’t). Facebook has become so quotidian — some would even say pedestrian — that as Laura Portwood-Stacer argues, not being on Facebook has become the new, cool status marker (esp. for affluent white tech people). Given all the cultural and economic capital there is to be gained from participating in social media, however, it wouldn’t be surprising if some people who are "too cool" for Facebook and Twitter are not yet too cool for social networking sites in general, especially sites you need $50, $100, or $1000 upfront to join. In fact, App.net is betting there are at least 10,000 people willing to pay $50, to start.
Before I return to the issue of App.net’s $50 entry-level membership fee and its stratifying effects, I want to acknowledge that, although race and class are complexly interrelated and intersecting axes of oppression, they are not the same thing. One of my pet peeves is when people treat race and class as if they’re interchangeable; for instance, when the Fordham Institute talks about the 25 “fastest-gentrifying neighborhoods” in America, the author is really referencing US Census data for the 25 zip codes with the largest increases in percentages of white residents. As a transitive verb, “gentrified” means “renovated and improved so that it conforms to middle-class taste.” Fordham is therefore using ‘percentage of white residents" as a proxy for ‘percentage of middle-class residents’, which inherently perpetuates the stereotypes that white people are middle-class and people of color are poor. Because of this, I find Fordham’s proxy (and others like it) to be ideologically problematic, even if an influx of white people does seem to correlate with fewer bodegas and more cupcake merchants. Plus, when we remember that the adjective meaning of “gentrified” is “more refined or dignified,” equating ‘more white’ with ‘more gentrified’ is just offensive.
The Mission, San Francisco: home to both gang violence and gourmet cupcakes.


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The PPA has announced the shortlist for its highly anticipated PPA Awards 2022. Now in its 42nd year, the PPA Awards recognise and celebrate the achievements made by the UK publishing and media industry across both the business and consumer magazine sectors.
The entries were reviewed by a panel of 47 CEOs and senior executives from across the industry, and the awards will be presented in 27 categories to specialist media organisations, suppliers and individuals who have demonstrated the very best work over the last 12 months.
The PPA Awards 2022 winners will be revealed at a gala ceremony at the Grosvenor House Hotel on the 22 June.
Sajeeda Merali, PPA CEO, commented: “Our industry is going through a period of accelerated change, with our members’ businesses diversifying in new and exciting ways. The entries reflected the energy and passion of these organisations, and highlighted the excellent work delivered by their teams, as well as individual editors, writers and designers. It’s a genuine thrill to read through all the entries and be reminded about the vibrant sector we work in.”
The full shortlist can be found here: ppaawards.co.uk
The hotly contested PPA ‘Cover of the Year 2022’, sponsored by Shutterstock Editorial, is now open to a public vote. Votes can be cast daily until 20 May 2022, here: ppacoveroftheyear.co.uk
Finalists for ‘Cover of the Year 2022’:
- BBC Science Focus, Our Media
- BBC TopGear, BBC Studios
- BBC Wildlife, Our Media
- British Vogue, The Condé Nast Publications
- Country Life, Future
- GAY TIMES, GAY TIMES Group
- Good Housekeeping, Hearst UK
- Pulse, Cogora
- Saga Magazine, Saga
- Telegraph Magazine, Telegraph Media Group


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Henry Beguelin by Cristina Nicoletti is packing up its cashmere scarves and fringed vests. The edgy shop—which has a little rockstar-who-reads-Poe-vibe—is trading its Wabash Street digs for a new location at 1211 West Webster.
The new Lincoln Park shop opens its doors on Friday, and will be celebrating with drinks and light appetizers from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. If those drinks kick in, here's a look at some of the goods we may just have to buy.
· Henry Beguelin by Cristina Nicoletti [Official Site]


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Over the course of two hours, senators on both sides of the political aisle raised concerns about certain tech companies becoming too dominant in their markets by buying or killing any smaller rival that might pose a threat.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn, a Republican from Tennessee, said there is potential for tech companies to use the vast power of their platforms to “drive out competition.” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut, went a step further. “Google and Facebook have misused their monopolistic powers. It’s not against the law to be big. It is against the law to misuse that power in a predatory way.” Blumenthal argued they’ve done just that by “suffocating competition.”
“I think everyone is feeling the jitters”
Inside the tech industry, there is predictable skepticism about the thinking behind these calls for greater antitrust enforcement.
“You take your crown jewel companies and try to chop them up?” said Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of the Consumer Technology Association, which represents more than 2,200 tech companies. “This is just pure poppycock populism.”
But some in the industry are nonetheless reconsidering how they do business in this new era of antitrust fears, even if the political rhetoric doesn’t end up translating into stricter regulatory enforcement. Tech companies are said to be thinking twice about pursuing splashy acquisitions, according to interviews in recent months with venture capitalists, former tech M&A execs and public policy officials.
“Tech companies, both big and small, are thinking more about the potential antitrust risk in their M&A activity,” said Logan Breed, an antitrust partner at Hogan Lovells, a law firm that has advised tech companies. “I think everyone is feeling the jitters.”
For big companies, the perception of further consolidating power with a billion-dollar acquisition could once again turn them into lightning rods for politicians. For startups looking to get acquired, there’s a fear that deals could be held up for longer, during which time employees and customers may flee.
“If [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] blasts you on Twitter, or if Warren talks about an acquisition as dangerous, that’s going to put up a speed bump, even if the regulators might approve it,” said Stewart Verdery, a lobbyist with Monument Policy Group, which works with Amazon and Microsoft.
“You’ve got antitrust by tweet as an important factor,” he said.
Google declined to comment on this story. Representatives for Facebook, Amazon and Apple did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Silicon Valley tries to adapt to a new normal
Thanks in part to successful acquisitions, the big tech companies have only gotten bigger. Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google’s parent company are the top five most valuable businesses in the world. Meanwhile, since the 2016 election, internet giants like Facebook and Google have been embroiled in a series of PR crises over data privacy, the role their platforms played in election meddling and the spread of fake news, raising concerns about the impact these powerful businesses are having on society.
David Vladeck, the director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection from 2009 to 2012, said Facebook’s “debacles,” Amazon’s “growing market power” and the “truly monopolistic power” of Google “have started to worry people.” The concern, he said, is that “the barriers to entry are just impossible to overcome, and we’ve got these tech giants that are very difficult to regulate, and may not be responding as well as they should to consumer preferences.”
This shift could continue into the 2020 elections, as tech companies may quietly root for Republicans to hold onto power, despite their left-leaning employee base, for fear that progressive Democrats could be more aggressive in pursuing antitrust enforcement.
For tech companies looking to be acquired, or continue making big acquisitions, “the current antitrust lineup is better,” Verdery said. “What 2021 looks like is an unknown at best.”


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Avis Budget Group has announced that it has added the Avis Prestige collection to its travel agent portal, Beep. Beep was launched to the trade in June as a car rental one-stop shop bringing Avis Car Rental and Budget Car Rental together on one platform.
Fawaz Danish, chief executive at Budget Saudi Arabia, is joined by Jana Siber, vice president, global licensees, Avis Budget Group, and Anil Abraham, regional manger for Budget Saudi Arabia, to discuss the company, what it offers to hospitality in the Kingdom, and their plans for the future.
AVIS Budget Group EMEA has announced the appointment of Maria Pierce as international commercial manager in the leisure and partnerships team based at the company’s Bracknell, Berkshire headquarters.
Avis Car Rental has announced the signing of a multi-year partnership agreement with the world’s largest international serviced residence owner-operator, Ascott. Under the new agreement, business and leisure travellers visiting Ascott’s brand websites, Ascott, Citadines and Somerset, will be able to make an Avis reservation by adding a vehicle rental to an existing serviced apartment reservation.
Avis Budget UK has launched its on-terminal car rental service at Heathrow Airport Terminal 2, in a significant move for its UK operations. This unique service is already available at Terminal 5. This multi-year partnership will enable Avis Budget UK to deliver an express plane to car service for customers, currently making it the only car rental provider to offer this at both terminals, so that Avis customers will enjoy a five minute walk to their rental vehicle as an alternative to travelling by shuttle bus to the main Avis station.
Avis Car Rental has launched Avis Untrending, an interactive tool that allows users to discover alternative locations a short drive from their chosen holiday destination. Designed to inspire travellers to explore new places, Avis Untrending offers recommendations based on Avis travel data and an ‘Untrending’ rating, which measures the number of hashtags on social media.
Flybe and Avis Budget UK have announced an enhancement to their long-standing relationship. Under the terms of the new deal Flybe customers now have the added choice of selecting a Budget car rental direct via the Flybe website as an integral part of their flight booking.
Avis Budget Group EMEA has appointed Lynette Dungey, international commercial manager. Lynette has an impressive CV that includes ten years at Thomas Cook, with the last four years of her tenure spent as national sales manager – retail and UK Airports.
Budget Car Rental has significantly increased its European footprint this year, opening more than 200 new locations in the region. The expansion promises to give consumers more choice for great value car hire at key European destinations. In France, Budget nearly tripled its number of rental facilities by opening 208 new locations, including Paris, Aix-en-Provence and Marseille.
Five major car rental companies have agreed to significantly review how they treat consumers thanks to a joint action from the European Commission and national enforcement authorities. Citizens will benefit from more clarity on insurance policies and tank refuelling options, more fairness when handling damages, and more price transparency.
Avis Budget Group has entered into an expanded, new multi-year partnership marketing agreement with Southwest Airlines which will enable the Company to promote Avis Car Rental, Budget Car Rental and Payless Car Rental offers, products and services to Southwest customers.


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Toward the end of a talk late last month at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, Apple's chief design officer, Jonathan Ive, vented for a moment about the backlash against Apple Park, the company's 2.8-million-square-foot circular headquarters building that has drawn some scorn for a perfectionist construction process that reportedly pushed its cost to $5 billion (roughly Rs. 32,257 crores).
"We didn't make Apple Park for other people," Ive said after his onstage interviewer, Fast Company editor-at-large Rick Tetzeli, asked him to talk about that structure as an Apple product. "And so a lot of the criticisms I think are utterly bizarre - because it wasn't made for you. And I know how we work, and you don't."
The audience laughed at Ive's defense of what he called "a lovely environment" that will help Apple employees work better together.
But the people paying for Apple products could be forgiven if their only laughter was of the bitter variety. Because while the company should have sufficient resources to obsess over both its headquarters and its software and hardware - even factoring in greater pressure to ship a new operating system or smartphone on time - the reality seen by Apple customers suggests otherwise.
On the day of Ive's appearance in Washington, his employer rushed out a patch for macOS High Sierra to fix a bug that allowed unrestricted, password-free access to that operating system - a level of vulnerability that Mac users righteously mocked in Windows almost 15 years ago.
The next day, Apple shipped a bug-fix fix: a supplemental patch to restore file-sharing functions that some users had seen broken by the initial update.
Last weekend, Apple had to hurry another software repair release, this time for a glitch in its iOS 11 mobile software that as of December 2 began sending iPhones and iPads into a loop of crashes if they ran an app that pushed certain notifications to the screen.
That problem had apparently gone unfixed in the iOS update shipped three weeks earlier to stop the on-screen keyboard from turning the letter "I" into a "A" followed by a question mark in a box, but which itself left a different auto-correct glitch that turned "it" into "I.T" unfixed until Saturday's patch.
Even Apple's hardware, traditionally a point of justifiable pride for the Cupertino, California, company, hasn't been looking as reliable lately. Users of its new, $1,299-and-up MacBook Pro laptops have complained about battery life well short of Apple's estimates and "butterfly switch" keys that, as Casey Johnston recounted in an October post at the Outline, can fail if dust gets lodged under one - after which the only recourse may be replacing the entire top case of the laptop body.
These aren't edge-case software breakdowns or random manufacturing glitches. They're the kind of reproducible flaws that companies are supposed to find and fix before shipping a product.
The most valuable publicly traded company in America, with a market capitalisation nearing $1 trillion, has also found itself incapable of keeping its computer lineup current.
The affordable but still versatile MacBook Air hasn't seen a major update since 2015 and now looks abandoned. After neglecting the high-end Mac Pro desktop for even longer, Apple had to break its long-standing rule against commenting on unannounced products this spring to promise a completely redesigned version . . . after this year. And the Mac mini that once represented a bold move to lure PC users is now more than three years stale.
The attention lavished on Apple Park, meanwhile, shows far more rigorous attention to detail. A February report by Julia Love of Reuters recounted such pursuits of perfection as 30 or so pages of documentation for woodwork, Apple's insistence that doorways be perfectly flat so that engineers need not adjust their gait to avoid a threshold, and "a year and a half of debate" over a door handle's contours.
A Wired cover story by Steven Levy this summer offered further testimony to Apple's dedication to detail: the 440,000-pound, four-story glass doors that let the outside into the cafeteria, concrete beams in a parking deck that conceal plumbing and wiring instead of subjecting employees to the sight of suspended pipes, and a patented pizza container with vents that let out moisture to keep a slice's crust crisp longer.
Apple PR did not respond to a request for comment emailed Saturday, in keeping with its long-standing habit of opacity. But a personnel move revealed Friday suggested one high-ranking Apple executive had been distracted by Apple Park's construction: Ive, who Bloomberg's Mark Gurman and Alex Webb reported had returned to directly managing Apple's design efforts after two years.
Apple Park certainly sounds like a pleasant place to work, if not to have worked on. Journalists who have visited it - I haven't - have said as much.
But if the company wanted to craft a target for resentment among its loyal customers, it could not have done much better than to put this circle of glass and metal on the map.
At his talk in Washington, Ive made a case that by putting designers across multiple disciplines in the same space, Apple Park will yield better products down the line. (Possibly years down the line: The Apple Watch, designed with zero input from Steve Jobs, shipped almost three years after Jobs's death in October 2011.)
"I can't imagine another time in the future where we get to try and make something that is for us," he said. "Not to be indulgent in a sort of ghastly, selfish way; we made it for us, to try to help us do better."
But the Apple customers of today can't caress Apple Park's wood paneling, stride uninterrupted through its threshold-free doorways or treat themselves to a non-soggy pizza at one of its desks courtesy of that patented pizza box.
The closest most can get is to visit one of Apple's stores. Since the first one opened in suburban Washington more than 16 years ago, they've been both marvels of design and a pleasant place to try to buy Apple's work. They also remain a good place to get help when its software and hardware don't testify to its ability to get the details right - which seems to happen a lot these days.
© The Washington Post 2017