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Going forward, Icra expects that with the decline in crude prices, Brazil is likely to divert more cane towards sugar production which could exert pressure on global sugar prices.
The demand for sugar has witnessed a significant decline following the nationwide lockdown and the overall adverse impact on sugar consumption would be at least one million tonne in the domestic market, says a report. According to rating agency Icra, the national lockdown due to COVID-19 pandemic has adversely impacted the sugar demand, resulting in a decline in the sugar prices to closer to minimum support price (MSP) levels of Rs 31 per kg from Rs 32.5 per kg in February 2020.
The report further said that the sugar mills are unable to fulfill their monthly sales quota allocated by the government owing to demand squeeze. “With nationwide lockdown, the ice cream, soft drinks and confectionery manufacturers have shut down their operations. Usually, quarter one is a healthy demand season for sugar, driven by the demand for ice creams and soft drinks during the summer season.
“With the lockdown, ICRA expects that the overall adverse impact on sugar consumption would be at least one million tonne in the domestic market,” Icra Ratings Senior Vice President and Group Head Sabyasachi Majumdar said.
These factors have consequently led to a pressure on the working capital requirements of sugar mills and thus a rise in cane dues to farmers, he added. With most countries under lockdown globally, the demand has also declined resulting in a fall of the global sugar prices, the report said.
However, the mills exporting sugar are likely to gain on rupee depreciation to an extent, it added. The domestic sugar mills have already contracted close to 3.5-4 million tonne for export, it said, adding that the exports are likely to resume from June-July 2020.
Going forward, Icra expects that with the decline in crude prices, Brazil is likely to divert more cane towards sugar production which could exert pressure on global sugar prices. Meanwhile, Icra said the cane crushing operations of the UP-based mills are being carried out as usual.
“While, there have been some issues with respect to the shortage of consumables (mainly lime sourced from Rajasthan) during the initial period of lockdown, the mills were able to procure the same with the intervention from the state government,” Majumdar said.
However, in Maharashtra, he said the crushing operations have been impacted due to issues on harvesting and transportation owing to labour shortage with most of the migrant workers returning to their respective states. “This is likely to result in lower sugar production by around 3-4 per cent in Maharashtra, when compared to earlier estimates of 6.2-6.3 million tonne for sugar year (SY) 2020, beginning in October,” he added.


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That’s a lot of drive-in orders. Inspire is a multi-brand restaurant which includes more than 4,700 Arby’s, Buffalo Wild Wings, and Rusty Taco locations worldwide. Donna Vissman - September 26, 2018. Quality Restaurant Group acquires 62 Sonic Drive-in locations, continuing its rapid growth. Family operates six restaurants including Fallon; company eyeing Fernley for future expansion. Inspire is a multi-brand restaurant company whose portfolio includes more than 8,300 Arby’s, Buffalo Wild Wings, and SONIC locations worldwide. SONIC®, America’s Drive-In®, is part of the Inspire Brands family of restaurants. When Taylor Cain was a 16-year-old carhop server at Sonic Drive-In in Reno, her work concerns were that of a typical teenager tasked with skating trays … The company behind Arby's will buy drive-in burger chain Sonic in a deal announced Tuesday. Sonic will be the first … Currently, there are more than 3,600 Sonic locations in 45 U.S. states. Quality Restaurant Group buys 62 Sonic Drive-In Restaurants in Alabama and Florida ... Inspire Brands is also the parent company of Arby’s. By Megan Friedman. Sonic Corp. and Inspire Brands announced that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement for $2.3 billion. Arby’s Parent Company Just Bought Sonic For $2.3 Billion . According to a release by parent company Inspire Brands, the bright pops of red, blue, and yellow are meant to “[remind] guests that summertime is a feeling, not just a season.” The Sonic of the future is more than just a fast food restaurant—it’s also self care. Sep 25, 2018 Facebook / Sonic Drive-In. The Oklahoma-based company announced this week that it, too, is testing the waters of next-generation drive-through technology. By. Check out … The company owns and operates 67 Moe’s Southwest Grill restaurants in Florida, South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and District of Columbia; nearly 200 Pizza Hut restaurants in Illinois, Indiana, Maryland and Pennsylvania; 27 Arby’s locations in Colorado, Montana, Nebraska, Wyoming and South Dakota; 62 Sonic Drive-in restaurants in Florida and Alabama. Over the past 12 months, the Greensboro-based company has … Arby’s Parent Company Buys Sonic Drive-in for $2.3 Billion. Now Sonic Drive-In, the fast-food restaurant chain owned by Inspire Brands, the parent company of Arby’s and Buffalo Wild Wings, is getting into the game.
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We think we can safely say that after 30-plus years of deferred improvements and a “trapped in 1966” look and feel – Moraga’s Rheem Valley Shopping Center could use a little work.
If the owner of a significant portion of the center gets his way, future patrons may see signage-bearing, hopefully business-boosting towers, reconfigured pedestrian pathways, conversation-provoking fire pits and other changes aimed at keeping Moragans – and their dollars – closer to home.
We shall see. Plans are still in the preliminary stages, it’s not yet known when the Old Girl will go under the knife, and right now all interested parties are talking about what could be.
Jay Kerner, who owns a substantial chunk of the venerable center – essentially the Allen Wrench-shaped bend from CVS to Amaroma with those island businesses in the parking lot thrown in – put together some renderings based on input from locals and intends to present them at a joint meeting of the Planning Commission and Design Review Board on Monday, April 24.
Kerner’s team will present their initial plans for updating the infrastructure, landscaping, signage and access to the neglected center, along with potential changes to the use permit procedure currently governing what can and cannot be done there at that meeting.
Town staff have labeled the session as an opportunity for Kerner and his team to get feedback and direction from the DRB and Planning Commission regarding possible improvements to the center – something many residents believe have been a long time in coming.
On the short list of long-hoped-for improvements to the center and its retail offering are newer, quality restaurants, produce marts, a bakery and a local pub or sports bar.


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Arla Foods and Milk Link have revealed plans to merge their operations in the UK. If approved, the combined entity would become the largest dairy processor in the market. In this month’s just-food interview, Peter Lauritzen, CEO of Arla UK, and Neil Kennedy, chief executive of Milk Link, speak to Katy Askew about the benefits the proposal would bring the companies and their farmer-owners.
The ongoing process of consolidation in the dairy sector took a leap forward yesterday (22 May) when Arla Foods and Milk Link unveiled plans to fully merge their operations in the UK.
The proposed deal is the latest in a series of M&A moves in European dairy, the most recent being the takeover of the UK’s Robert Wiseman Dairies by Germany’s Muller earlier this year.
Consolidation in the market has gathered pace as European dairy companies increasingly look to cut costs by leveraging scale against a backdrop of rising input costs and pressure on pricing in a depressed consumer environment.
If it is approved, the Arla-Milk Link merger will bring together two significant players in the UK dairy sector that, between them, control around 25% of the country’s milk pool.
Indeed, for Milk Link chief executive Neil Kennedy and Peter Lauritzen, who heads up Arla’s UK business, the greater scale the merger offers represents a significant benefit.
“Two strong businesses together make an even stronger business,” Kennedy insists.
“We will have a stronger scale, combined turnover of GBP2bn (US$3.16bn), extremely well invested assets within the cheese and fresh milk packing facilities and a total milk pool in the UK of about 3.2bn litres,” Lauritzen adds.
To Kennedy, increased scale is a necessity if Milk Link’s farmer-shareholders are to contend with global competitors.
“The competitors we have as farmer owners – large scale businesses like Danone and Muller and Nestle – are global either private or plc businesses we are having to compete with and we need to be able to have the scale and the investment to match,” Kennedy says.
Talking to just-food shortly after the merger was announced, Kennedy and Lauritzen appear confident Arla and Milk Link will be able to grow their businesses more effectively together. Kennedy suggests Milk Link will benefit from Arla’s financial muscle and investment in manufacturing facilities and innovation.
“We have been very impressed with the investment in innovation and facilities. A very large innovation team in Arla and their record in terms of product development and innovation is something we think we can leverage. We’ve been quite active, but I think the two together, we can do a lot more.”
Lauritzen confirms Arla expects the Milk Link business to benefit from the Denmark-based company’s ongoing investment in its UK facilities, technologies and product development.
“We have already invested heavily in the business and we will continue to do this. In plants, new product development. There will be a lot of exciting things going on in the future in all categories in fact. We have done it in the butter-spreads area. You will see it more in fresh milk. We also hope we will extend that to cheese going forward,” he says.
While Arla is already a strong UK player in fresh milk – both branded and private-label – butter and spreads and continental cheese, Milk Link brings to the table its expertise in traditional English cheeses such as Cheddar.
Through the merger Arla would therefore be able to offer a full range of dairy products to its UK customers, as well as managing profitability by balancing production levels between different dairy categories in response to shifting prices.
“We have been a strong player in fresh milk, our Aylesbury dairy is coming on stream in 2013. We have a strong presence within butter and spreads. Also in speciality cheese, I would add, through our Castello brand,” Lauritzen says. “But it is correct that we have been missing the traditional English cheeses like cheddar. This will certainly be a benefit for us. That is why the merger is a perfect match.”
“We’ve got a good asset base primarily focused on cheese. Arla’s manufacturing footprint here is primarily fresh milk and butter, so they are actually very complementary. There is very little in the way of overlap,” Kennedy adds.
Increased investment, coupled with Arla’s brand building know-how, could see Milk Link’s cheese offering develop from what Kennedy terms its “core” private-label business to include a growing branded cheese portfolio.
Kennedy says this evolution is “one of the potential options for the new business” while Lauritzen confirms Arla sees “some opportunities” to develop cheese brands going forward.
Kennedy also suggests the deal would allow Milk Link cheeses to reach an international market by utilizing Arla’s existing infrastructure to capitalise on export opportunities.
“We produce some fantastic cheeses that have a relatively small export market. We don’t have the infrastructure in major markets around the world like Arla do, so we think it is a great opportunity to feed some of our great cheeses into that network,” he reveals.
For its part, Arla would be able to expand its customer base through Milk Link’s “broader” foodservice presence, Kennedy adds. “We think that is a good opportunity for some of their products to open up to a wider catering market.”
Lauritzen and Kennedy are upbeat on the prospect that this strategy of targeted investment in facilities, innovation and brand building will result in market share gains.
“We are investing. A large investment in really excellent production facilities, investment in brand marketing, investment in innovation. If you do all three of those things well then customers and consumers tend to want more of what you are doing,” Kennedy observes.
“Keeping production costs down is a prerequisite. Nobody wants to pay more than they have to for products of the same quality, so you’ve got to be efficient. But I think you also have to innovate and differentiate,” he continues.
And all of these benefits will feed back to Arla and Milk Link’s farmer-owners, the dairy chiefs suggest.
The Milk Link co-operative comprises of 1,500 dairy farmers across the UK, while Arla has just over 800 members in Denmark, Sweden and Germany. However, following this merger and a planned combination with MHU in Germany, Lauritzen says Arla’s membership base will expand to 12,400 owners.
The merger would see Milk Link members become full members of Arla, the first time UK farmers have been represented in the cooperative. They will have “equal rights and obligations” to their European counterparts, Lauritzen says. This means after a “transitional period” Arla’s UK farmers would receive the same milk price as their European colleagues and all would benefit from the strides that the company expects to make driving sales and profits in the UK.
“Our aim is obviously to be an effective supplier but at the same time to deliver competitive returns. I think you do that by being efficient, you do that by building brands, you do that by creating differentiation value. And I think the combined business is better placed to do all of those things,” Kennedy concludes.


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Hong Kong initial coin offering case studies: 300 Cubits and Gatcoin
300 Cubits: A token for the shipping industry
“The challenge we have is a chicken and egg one,” said Johnson Leung, co-founder of 300 Cubits, a company in the midst of launching an ICO in Hong Kong, and hoping to revolutionise the container shipping industry.
“We need to show the shipping industry that investors think our new token, which we are calling a TEU token, has value, or they won’t take it seriously, and we need the shipping industry to use our token to show investors that it is worth investing in.”
Leung and his co-founders, who have a background in shipping and finance, are hoping to use a digital token to solve a common problem in the shipping industry. That is, container liners cannot guarantee that their customers will turn up and so overbook, meaning that on occasions customers turn up only to find that the container vessel is full. Contracts are not adhered to, and banks are unwilling to hold deposits for either party.
“Our solution is to have a smart contract using blockchain technology, which is coded with a set of immutable conditions. Once committed, neither party can alter what has been agreed,” said Leung. Both parties pay an agreed amount of TEU tokens proportional to the value of the cargo in advance, and should either side fail to meet the conditions, they lose their tokens.
This is why the tokens need to have value, and that is where the ICO comes in, or as 300 Cubits is calling it, an initial token sale (ITS).
300 Cubits conducted a pre-ITS from August 16 to September 20 when it sold 2 per cent of its tokens. A full ITS is planned for later this year, which will distribute 38 per cent of the tokens. The bulk of the rest will be distributed to participants in the shipping industry and its customers.
“The plan for the next few months is to talk to the major shipping lines, use the relationships I built up when I worked in the industry, get some of them on board, then we will be well placed for the full ITS,” Leung said.
Gatcoin: An exchange for retail reward vouchers
“What we’re trying to do is bridge the gap between the cryptocurrency world and society at large, but sometimes I feel I’m shouting into the void,” says Gatcoin co-founder Simon Cheong, who is planning an ICO in Hong Kong at the end of October.
Gatcoin is hoping to solve the problem where loyalty rewards points, issued by shops, often multiply and become hard for consumers to manage, as well as for the merchants themselves.
“Digital tokens are an obvious solution, but because of practical and regulatory concerns, shops don’t want to issue them. What we want to do is enable different merchants to create their own digital currency on our network, and then our token, Gatcoin, can be used to buy or sell the different tokens issued by the various merchants. Fundamentally it is a medium of exchange,” he said.
The ICO is set for the end of October and Gatcoin is hoping to raise between US$20 million and US$60 million to fund further development of the business.
As well as raising capital, Cheong said the ICO was also a way of distributing Gatcoin to potential merchants who want to manage their incentive systems by creating their own digital currency on the platform.
As such the ICO, if successful, would mean that a substantial number of potential users would already know about the project, and be invested in it, both in metaphorical and literal terms.
“So far we have seen substantial interest in Japan and Brazil,” said Cheong.


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TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Simply Group is pleased to announce its recognition as the “Ricoh Small Business of The Year (50+ Employees)” at the CanadianSME National Business Awards 2020. The award celebrates Simply Group’s success and positive contribution to Canada’s economy. The ceremony was held virtually on Friday, April 30, 2021.
“We are honoured to receive this extraordinary recognition for our company’s growth, success and industry leadership as a financing solutions innovator in the Canadian home improvement sector,” says Lawrence Krimker, CEO of Simply Group. “As we continue to navigate the pandemic, this award is a testimony to our resilience, adaptability and drive for success. Building on our innovative financing solutions that are focused on the needs of Canadians from coast-to-coast, we will continue to achieve unprecedented year-over-year growth.”
Since launching in 2013, Simply Group has grown from a business focused on HVAC lending to one of Canada’s largest and fastest-growing non-bank consumer lenders in the home improvement space. Over the years, Simply Group has developed and thrived into a family of more than 450 employees, offering diverse range of products and services to best serve their consumers and dealer network. Their total assets under management exceed $1.45 billion, making the company one of Canada’s largest non-bank suppliers of consumer credit. Simply Group provides flexible financing solutions to help Canadian consumers and businesses upgrade and modernize their properties in a cost-effective way.
“We appreciate CanadianSME for this award and for their continual efforts to provide a voice to Canadian small and medium-sized businesses,” added Krimker. “We are excited to see what next year has in store for us and are looking forward to working alongside those who have supported and partnered with us through this amazing journey.”
About Simply Group
With more than $1.45 billion in assets acquired, Simply Group (mysimplygroup.com) provides consumers and businesses with financing solutions that afford them greater flexibility not only to achieve improved energy-efficiency, but also to modernize their residential, commercial and industrial properties. Simply Group knows that its people are its greatest asset and is proud to be Great Place to Work-Certified since 2016. In 2020, Simply Group was named Best Business of the Year by the Canadian SME National Business Awards.
A national publication with a big vision, CanadianSME signifies the empowerment of Canadian SMEs and aims to pursue this mission with the launch of CanadianSME Business Magazine to equip SMEs with expert knowledge and insights from industry leaders. CanadianSME Business Magazine incorporates compelling content and provides shelter to the business needs of small and medium scale enterprises.
CanadianSME Business Magazine was created through the passion and admiration for entrepreneurs. With SMEs playing such a crucial role in Canada's business industry and contributing greatly to the economy, CanadianSME was built to provide a much-needed support system for hard-working business owners.


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FDA Amends Requirements for Registration of Food Facilities
July 14, 2016 – The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) pronounced that it will be amending its regulations for registration of food facilities that manufacture, process, pack, or hold food for human or animal consumption in the United States to register with the FDA. This rule amends and updates FDA’s registration regulations and is part of their implementation of the FDA Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), which added new provisions for the registration of food facilities. FDA notes this new requirement would use this information to better focus and utilize the Agency’s limited inspection resources.
Food facilities that manufacture/process, pack or hold food for consumption in the United States are required to register with the FDA, and this final rule adds new provisions to the current regulations to codify certain provisions of FSMA that were self-implementing and effective upon enactment of FSMA. Those provisions include the requirement of an email address for registration, required renewal of registration every two years, and that all food facility registrations must contain an assurance that the FDA will be permitted to inspect the facility at the times and in the manner permitted by the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.
In addition, the final rule adds certain new requirements that will improve the food facility registration system. All food facility registrations are required to be submitted to the FDA electronically, although this requirement does not take effect until January 4, 2020.
Registrations are now required to contain the type of activity conducted at the facility for each food product category. This will be required when the final rule becomes effective on July 14, 2016. The final rule also amends the definition of a retail food establishment in a way that expands the number of establishments that are considered retail food establishments, and that are therefore, not required to register with the FDA as food facilities. However, all food establishments, including retail food establishments, continue to have a responsibility to ensure their food is safe.
To view the Federal Register notice, please click here.
If you have any questions, contact Chris Burroughs (email@example.com, 703.299.5705).


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This just hit the wires this morning at 8:00 AM Eastern: Google to buy Postini for $625M in cash. Here’s the official press release.
Google will add Postini’s on-demand “security” (nee anti-spam) offering to its stable of Google Apps. Judging by the fact that Dave Girouard, VP and general manager of Google Enterprise, is the spokesperson in this Register story, and given the nature of the following quote, it seems clear that Google is attempting to build a base in small and medium business (SMB) on-demand productivity apps and then work their way up into the enterprise in the much same way that Salesforce.com did with on-demand sales automation apps.
The response to Google Apps has been tremendous, with more than 1,000 small businesses signing up for the service every day. At the same time, large businesses have been reluctant to move to hosted applications due to issues of security and corporate compliance. By adding Postini products to Google’s technology, businesses no longer have to choose,” said Dave Girouard, VP and general manager of Google Enterprise.
My guess is that Postini was tracking towards an IPO within the next 6-12 months, which suggests that they were doing somewhere between $80 and $100M in revenue this year (my take on the new IPO entry bar). This suggests a valuation somewhere between 6-8x sales. Salesforce.com, the king of the on-demand sector, trades for 9x TTM revenues (see here), and the industry and sector trade for 5-6x revenues.
Some simple math (assuming 40% growth and 40%/60% 1H/2H revenue linearity — both are standard assumptions and neither of which I have any specific reason to believe true) says that current year revenue is 1.2x TTM revenue, suggesting a 7.5 to 9.5x valuation for Postini, in-line with the premium you’d expect to pay for snatching the IPO dream from a company that could see it within reach.


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By: D.K Choudhary
India’s first 2G Ethanol Bio-refinery set up in Punjab
i. The Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL), a Central Government Public Sector Undertaking, is setting up India’s first 2G (Second Generation) ethanol bio-refinery at village Tarkhanwala in Bathinda, Punjab.
ii. The foundation stone laying ceremony for the project was held on December 25, 2016 by the Minister of Food Processing Industries, Smt. Harsimarat Kaur Badal jointly with the Minister of State (I/C) Petroleum & Natural Gas, Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, and Deputy Chief Minister of Punjab, Sardar Sukhbir Singh Badal.
iii. The purpose of the bio-refinery is to encourage production of Second Generation (2G) Ethanol from agricultural residues.
iv. The approximate investment of the project is estimated to be Rs 600 Crores.
Centre & Maharashtra Inked Agreements For New Railway Projects
i. The union government and Devendra Fadnavis lead Maharashtra government signed agreement for new railway projects worth Rs 45,000 crore in Maharashtra said by Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu
ii. The ministry of railway planning to increasing connectivity in Maharashtra with an outlay of Rs 22,000 crore.
iii. It will be used for laying of new railway lines, increasing capacity of railway stations and converting some single line to double line.
♦ The Mumbai Suburban Railway is the first railway built by the British in India and it is the oldest railway system in Asia.
Centre sanctions action plan for three year under AMRUT
i. The Centre has decided to step down the usual practice of annually sanctioning the action plans under the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) and has given a one go clearance for the scheduled plans for the remaining three years of the five-year scheme.
ii. AMRUT was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in June 2015. It focuses on ensuring water supply and improving the sewerage network and drainage systems in cities for urban transformation.
iii. The new practice was launched to enable states to plan projects in a “comprehensive and holistic manner”, and for the timely execution of work.
iv. However, the plans for the scheme’s final three years were being approved after verifying the progress of plans cleared during the last and current financial years.
MEA Launches Twitter Seva for speedy redressal of citizen’s querry
i. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on December 23 launched a live customer service resolution platform, ‘Twitter Seva’, to provide speedy resolution to visa and passport queries of the customers.
ii. The service launched by the Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh will enable timely, transparent and large scale response to citizen’s Tweets in real-time and enhance scalability and speed the process of dealing with requests by Indian and global citizens.
iii. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj with 6.8 million followers has been extremely active on Twitter to extend help and support to Indian and global citizens. With the deployment of Twitter Seva, the Ministry aims to ensure public service redressal in the most effective manner.
iv. The Seva service will be supported by 198 Twitter accounts of Missions and High Commissions across the world and 29 Regional Passport Offices (RPOs) in India and eight other handles such as @MEAIndia, @Indiandiplomacy and @MEAQuery.
v. Both Indians and non-Indians can simply tweet with their query relevant to any of these handles which will go to the Twitter Seva platform.
vi. The request will activate the concerned office nationally or across the world and address a various range of issues under the MEA, enabling the quick resolution of grievances.
vii. Earlier, the Telecom Ministry launched Twitter Seva in August 2016 while the Commerce and Industry Ministry, too, launched a Twitter Seva service in April.
Amazon India Report Indicates Delhi as most well-read city in India.
i. As per a survey conducted by Amazon India the national capital, Delhi, has emerged as the most well-read city in India for the fourth consecutive year followed by Bengaluru and Mumbai taking the second and third spot, respectively.
ii. According to the ‘Annual Reading Trends Report for 2016’ conducted by Amazon.in, Karnal, Vadodara and Patna are first-time entrants in the Top 20 list having bought more books than cities like Coimbatore, Visakhapatnam and Lucknow in 2016.
iii. Amazon.in conducted a readers poll on its website where it invited people to vote for their favourite book across eight categories. Each category had the top 5 best-sellers of the respective genre and readers were asked to vote for their favorite among these. The poll ran for 8 days (from 5th – 12th December 2016).
iv. Among the most sold books, Chetan Bhagat’s One Indian Girl emerged as the highest selling book of 2016 followed by JK Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Cursed Child – Parts I and II. The third spot was taken by exam preparation book Word Power Made Easy written by Norman Lewis.
♦ The Amazon.in marketplace is operated by Amazon Seller Services Private Limited, an affiliate of Amazon.com, Inc.
♦ Amazon.in seeks to build the most customer-centric online destination for customers to find and discover virtually anything they want to buy online by giving them more of what they want – vast selection, low prices, fast and reliable delivery, and a trusted and convenient experience.
Govt launch mobile App ‘Smart Consumer’ & OCMC to provide speedy redressal of consumer grievances
i. The Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan launched a mobile App ‘Smart Consumer’ and an ‘Online Consumer Mediation Centre (OCMC)’ to provide speedy redressal of consumer grievances in New Delhi on the occasion of National Consumer Day on December 24, 2016
ii. The mobile app of the Consumer Helpline and the Smart Consumer App for accessing product information and online communities will benefit the consumers in the digital world
iii. He also launched the Microsite based on the theme Digitally Safe Consumer Campaign to help consumers for being vigilant and not falling prey to cyber frauds.


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Advanced battery management software will save automakers $18 billion by 2030
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Understand what EFB and AGM are.
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Copyright © 2017-2027 Copyright ZINSCHE POWER GROUP LIMITED


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NEW PHILADELPHIA – A scam artist apparently is impersonating Times-Reporter customer service representatives.
A city resident told police Wednesday that he had received a bill which appeared to come from the newspaper. It told him to call a 1-800 number. The call was apparently transferred to another person, who offered the caller a $100 Walmart gift card. When the complainant asked the subject if they were from The Times-Reporter, the person hung up.
The number does not belong to The Times-Reporter and the newspaper is not offering Walmart gift cards.
Times-Reporter home delivery customer service representatives may be reached by calling 330-364-8387 or 800-497-3583 or emailing firstname.lastname@example.org.


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Orangutans, rhinos, sloths, and jaguars -- they’re all put at risk by Burger King’s palm oil policy that fails to protect invaluable tropical rainforests.
Despite years of public outcry, Burger King has failed to commit to a deforestation policy that protects tropical rainforest from being destroyed in order to build soy and palm oil farms in Burger King’s supply chain. Meanwhile, competitors like McDonald’s and Dunkin’ Brands have already committed to eliminating deforestation.
It’s not only unconscionable that Burger King parent company Restaurant Brands International has failed to do the same -- it’s just bad business. When deforestation accounts for an incredible 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions, it’s high time RBI finally commit to protecting tropical rainforests and the amazing wildlife they are home to.
Tell RBI to adopt a No Deforestation policy across its massive global supply chains.
Last year, Burger King scored a woeful 10/100 on the Union for Concerned Scientists’ palm oil scorecard. And while in 2010 Burger King promised to review its rainforest policy, it’s still spent the last six years contributing to the destruction of tropical forests that adds to global warming emissions and decimates the habitats of already threatened species.
Thanks to irresponsible palm oil policy, today there are fewer than 400 Sumatran tigers left in the wild, and 1,500 Borneo pygmy elephants. Their rainforest homes are being destroyed to make room for massive palm oil plantations to source to major global brands like Burger King -- all while releasing billions of greenhouse gases every year.
We know that when we come together, we have the power to shift even the biggest corporate players. Just last year, we pressured McDonalds to commit to 100% sustainable palm oil by 2020. That’s why we’re taking our advocacy to Burger King parent company RBI (which also owns massive chains like Tim Horton’s) to remind it that consumers across the world are demanding it adopt a No Deforestation policy before it’s too late for the species that call the rainforest home.


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|By RealWire News Distribution||
|February 19, 2013 07:05 PM EST||
Strategic Relationship Enables Computop Paygate Merchant Customers to Allow Consumers to Purchase Goods Beyond Domestic Borders in Their Local Currency Through SafetyPay's Secure Online Bank Transfer
New York and Miami Beach, FL - Feb 19, 2013 - Computop, a leading payment service provider (PSP), and SafetyPay, the real time safe online-banking payment solution that enables consumers to shop from merchants worldwide and pay directly from their bank account in their local currency, today announced a strategic global partnership. Through this relationship, Computop now offers SafetyPay as part of its Paygate payment platform. With this functionality, Computop expands its already comprehensive range of payment options that enable businesses and consumers to conduct transactions globally in a secure payment environment.
With SafetyPay, consumers with an online bank account are able to shop globally but pay locally, using their own currency to make online purchases from businesses in the United States, Canada, Latin America and Europe via online bank transfer. Computop Paygate merchant customers are able to offer SafetyPay immediately through this partnership, increasing the secure online payment options they can present to consumers.
"There are 300 million online banking customers around the world, and SafetyPay enables these consumers to pay directly from their online bank account for purchases from anywhere around the globe irrespective of currency and without entering sensitive financial information," said Dominic Guardino, director at SafetyPay. "We are excited about extending our payment solution through the Paygate platform which is recognized for its fraud prevention strength and compliance on a global scale."
"We are always looking to enhance our Paygate payment platform with payment choices that are important to consumers," said Ralf Gladis, CEO of Computop. "SafetyPay is particularly strong and widely used in Latin America, which will help our Paygate customers grow in the South American market, as well as into untapped markets that SafetyPay is currently exploring. Through our partnership, businesses, particularly those in retail, airline and gaming, benefit from being able to offer a secure online payment alternative that requires no credit card, no registration, no transfer of any personal details whatsoever, making it easy for consumers to transact with confidence, regardless of geography."
About the Computop Paygate platform
Computop Paygate 5.0 is a multichannel payment platform that provides online retailers with secure payment solutions and efficient fraud prevention for international markets. With just one interface needed, Computop Paygate allows online retailers to get access to dozens of international payment systems, and includes fraud prevention for North America, Europe and Asia. Leading e-commerce solutions from the likes of Demandware, hybris, Magento and Oxid all support Computop Paygate as a preferred payment service solution for global payment processing. In addition, Computop Paygate has been integrated into SAP's Business ByDesign business software to provide secure global payment processing.
Computop is a leading global payment service provider (PSP) that provides compliant and secure e-commerce, Point of Sale (PoS), m-commerce and Mail Order and Telephone Order (MOTO), globally. The company, founded in 1997, is headquartered in Bamberg, Germany with local teams also within the US, UK and China. Computop processes transactions totalling $7+ billion per year, for over 2000 large international merchants within industries such as retail, travel and gaming. Global customers include C&A, Fossil, Metro Cash & Carry, Samsung and TUI. In order to provide a complete multichannel solution for merchants, Computop has a robust partner and global banking portfolio providing merchants with a seamless and secure transaction process.
For further information please visit: www.computop.com.
SafetyPay is a real time online-banking payment solution that enables over 300 million consumers to shop from merchants worldwide and pay directly from their bank account in their local currency. The SafetyPay solution is available in the USA, Europe, Canada and Latin America. SafetyPay guarantees no fraud and no chargebacks while supporting mobile, call center applications, e-invoices, pay-outs and promotions. For more information please visit http://www.safetypay.com.
For further information please contact:
Ascendant Communications, for Computop
E-mail: [email protected]
Tel: 786-294-6411 ext. 251
E-mail: [email protected]
There will be new vendors providing applications, middleware, and connected devices to support the thriving IoT ecosystem. This essentially means that electronic device manufacturers will also be in the software business. Many will be new to building embedded software or robust software. This creates an increased importance on software quality, particularly within the Industrial Internet of Things where business-critical applications are becoming dependent on products controlled by software. Qua...
Feb. 14, 2016 05:30 PM EST
With an estimated 50 billion devices connected to the Internet by 2020, several industries will begin to expand their capabilities for retaining end point data at the edge to better utilize the range of data types and sheer volume of M2M data generated by the Internet of Things. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Don DeLoach, CEO and President of Infobright, will discuss the infrastructures businesses will need to implement to handle this explosion of data by providing specific use cases for filte...
Feb. 14, 2016 03:00 PM EST Reads: 271
SYS-CON Events announced today that Pythian, a global IT services company specializing in helping companies adopt disruptive technologies to optimize revenue-generating systems, has been named “Bronze Sponsor” of SYS-CON's 18th Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 7-9, 2015 at the Javits Center in New York, New York. Founded in 1997, Pythian is a global IT services company that helps companies compete by adopting disruptive technologies such as cloud, Big Data, advanced analytics, and DevO...
Feb. 14, 2016 02:30 PM EST Reads: 303
SYS-CON Events announced today that Avere Systems, a leading provider of enterprise storage for the hybrid cloud, will exhibit at SYS-CON's 18th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 7-9, 2016, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. Avere delivers a more modern architectural approach to storage that doesn’t require the overprovisioning of storage capacity to achieve performance, overspending on expensive storage media for inactive data or the overbuilding of data centers ...
Feb. 14, 2016 02:30 PM EST Reads: 163
SYS-CON Events announced today that Interoute, owner-operator of one of Europe's largest networks and a global cloud services platform, has been named “Bronze Sponsor” of SYS-CON's 18th Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 7-9, 2015 at the Javits Center in New York, New York. Interoute is the owner-operator of one of Europe's largest networks and a global cloud services platform which encompasses 12 data centers, 14 virtual data centers and 31 colocation centers, with connections to 195 ad...
Feb. 14, 2016 01:00 PM EST Reads: 464
Join us at Cloud Expo | @ThingsExpo 2016 – June 7-9 at the Javits Center in New York City and November 1-3 at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA – and deliver your unique message in a way that is striking and unforgettable by taking advantage of SYS-CON's unmatched high-impact, result-driven event / media packages.
Feb. 14, 2016 01:00 PM EST Reads: 127
SYS-CON Events announced today that Alert Logic, Inc., the leading provider of Security-as-a-Service solutions for the cloud, will exhibit at SYS-CON's 18th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 7-9, 2016, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. Alert Logic, Inc., provides Security-as-a-Service for on-premises, cloud, and hybrid infrastructures, delivering deep security insight and continuous protection for customers at a lower cost than traditional security solutions. Ful...
Feb. 14, 2016 12:15 PM EST Reads: 482
SYS-CON Events announced today that Men & Mice, the leading global provider of DNS, DHCP and IP address management overlay solutions, will exhibit at SYS-CON's 18th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 7-9, 2016, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. The Men & Mice Suite overlay solution is already known for its powerful application in heterogeneous operating environments, enabling enterprises to scale without fuss. Building on a solid range of diverse platform support,...
Feb. 14, 2016 12:00 PM EST Reads: 295
SYS-CON Events announced today that iDevices®, the preeminent brand in the connected home industry, will exhibit at SYS-CON's 18th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 7-9, 2016, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. iDevices, the preeminent brand in the connected home industry, has a growing line of HomeKit-enabled products available at the largest retailers worldwide. Through the “Designed with iDevices” co-development program and its custom-built IoT Cloud Infrastruc...
Feb. 14, 2016 12:00 PM EST Reads: 169
Fortunately, meaningful and tangible business cases for IoT are plentiful in a broad array of industries and vertical markets. These range from simple warranty cost reduction for capital intensive assets, to minimizing downtime for vital business tools, to creating feedback loops improving product design, to improving and enhancing enterprise customer experiences. All of these business cases, which will be briefly explored in this session, hinge on cost effectively extracting relevant data from ...
Feb. 14, 2016 11:45 AM EST Reads: 172
As enterprises work to take advantage of Big Data technologies, they frequently become distracted by product-level decisions. In most new Big Data builds this approach is completely counter-productive: it presupposes tools that may not be a fit for development teams, forces IT to take on the burden of evaluating and maintaining unfamiliar technology, and represents a major up-front expense. In his session at @BigDataExpo at @ThingsExpo, Andrew Warfield, CTO and Co-Founder of Coho Data, will dis...
Feb. 14, 2016 10:00 AM EST Reads: 241
Companies can harness IoT and predictive analytics to sustain business continuity; predict and manage site performance during emergencies; minimize expensive reactive maintenance; and forecast equipment and maintenance budgets and expenditures. Providing cost-effective, uninterrupted service is challenging, particularly for organizations with geographically dispersed operations.
Feb. 14, 2016 10:00 AM EST Reads: 108
The Quantified Economy represents the total global addressable market (TAM) for IoT that, according to a recent IDC report, will grow to an unprecedented $1.3 trillion by 2019. With this the third wave of the Internet-global proliferation of connected devices, appliances and sensors is poised to take off in 2016. In his session at @ThingsExpo, David McLauchlan, CEO and co-founder of Buddy Platform, will discuss how the ability to access and analyze the massive volume of streaming data from mil...
Feb. 14, 2016 09:00 AM EST Reads: 110
WebSocket is effectively a persistent and fat pipe that is compatible with a standard web infrastructure; a "TCP for the Web." If you think of WebSocket in this light, there are other more hugely interesting applications of WebSocket than just simply sending data to a browser. In his session at 18th Cloud Expo, Frank Greco, Director of Technology for Kaazing Corporation, will compare other modern web connectivity methods such as HTTP/2, HTTP Streaming, Server-Sent Events and new W3C event APIs ...
Feb. 14, 2016 08:30 AM EST
SYS-CON Events announced today that FalconStor Software® Inc., a 15-year innovator of software-defined storage solutions, will exhibit at SYS-CON's 18th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 7-9, 2016, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. FalconStor Software®, Inc. (NASDAQ: FALC) is a leading software-defined storage company offering a converged, hardware-agnostic, software-defined storage and data services platform. Its flagship solution FreeStor®, utilizes a horizonta...
Feb. 14, 2016 07:30 AM EST
Silver Spring Networks, Inc. (NYSE: SSNI) extended its Internet of Things technology platform with performance enhancements to Gen5 – its fifth generation critical infrastructure networking platform. Already delivering nearly 23 million devices on five continents as one of the leading networking providers in the market, Silver Spring announced it is doubling the maximum speed of its Gen5 network to up to 2.4 Mbps, increasing computational performance by 10x, supporting simultaneous mesh communic...
Feb. 14, 2016 05:00 AM EST
The cloud promises new levels of agility and cost-savings for Big Data, data warehousing and analytics. But it’s challenging to understand all the options – from IaaS and PaaS to newer services like HaaS (Hadoop as a Service) and BDaaS (Big Data as a Service). In her session at @BigDataExpo at @ThingsExpo, Hannah Smalltree, a director at Cazena, will provide an educational overview of emerging “as-a-service” options for Big Data in the cloud. This is critical background for IT and data profes...
Feb. 14, 2016 04:00 AM EST Reads: 269
Eighty percent of a data scientist’s time is spent gathering and cleaning up data, and 80% of all data is unstructured and almost never analyzed. Cognitive computing, in combination with Big Data, is changing the equation by creating data reservoirs and using natural language processing to enable analysis of unstructured data sources. This is impacting every aspect of the analytics profession from how data is mined (and by whom) to how it is delivered. This is not some futuristic vision: it's ha...
Feb. 14, 2016 03:45 AM EST Reads: 486
With the Apple Watch making its way onto wrists all over the world, it’s only a matter of time before it becomes a staple in the workplace. In fact, Forrester reported that 68 percent of technology and business decision-makers characterize wearables as a top priority for 2015. Recognizing their business value early on, FinancialForce.com was the first to bring ERP to wearables, helping streamline communication across front and back office functions. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Kevin Roberts...
Feb. 14, 2016 02:00 AM EST Reads: 451
Cognitive Computing is becoming the foundation for a new generation of solutions that have the potential to transform business. Unlike traditional approaches to building solutions, a cognitive computing approach allows the data to help determine the way applications are designed. This contrasts with conventional software development that begins with defining logic based on the current way a business operates. In her session at 18th Cloud Expo, Judith S. Hurwitz, President and CEO of Hurwitz & ...
Feb. 13, 2016 11:15 PM EST Reads: 325


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Calgarians wheelie like electric scooters.
So much so, by the end of the week the City expects there will be more than 100,000 trips logged onto electric scooters with around 8,000 trips per day.
Compare that number to the 120,000 LimeBike trips since last October and a spokesperson with the City says they expect the pilot project to be a success – adding they will tweak the rules if need be.
With all those trips however, there’s bound to be a few bad apples.
Others in the active transport community welcome the addition of e-scooters to Calgary’s pathways.
“Generally we are supportive and we support all forms of active transportation which does include e-scooters,” said Garry Lohuis, Vice president and director of Bike Calgary.
“I did see one instance of two people riding on a scooter so there are some things that do happen, but I’d say generally the experience has been positive.”
One of the bigger issues that’s going to arise according to Lohuis is the need for more separated path infrastructure. As scooters are only allowed on sidewalks, pathways and bike lanes, they might look for other options.
“What’s going to happen is those riding scooters are going to start to use the streets. Which is illegal for scooters but legal for bicycles. So I can understand the confusion some people have.”
Calgary 311 had received 23 calls about scooters, they said Wednesday, but are quick to point out those aren’t necessarily complaints. Generally the calls are about inquiries on how to use the actual scooters.
The City of Calgary outlines the rules on their website. But here are the basics:
- Minimum age to ride is 18+
- One person per scooter
- You can use City sidewalks, bike lanes or pathways. In the absence of a sidewalk, exclusive bicycle lane or pathway, the customer must dismount and walk the electric scooter.
- You are not allowed to operate a scooter on a roadway
- Helmets are not required but are strongly encouraged
Lime has additional Scooter Riding Tips:
- Once you start your trip, give the brake a tight squeeze to ensure it’s working properly
- Ride defensively: Wear a helmet and reflective or bright clothing, respect the right of way and don’t ever ride under the influence of alcohol or drugs
- Don’t use your mobile device while riding and avoid wearing headphones.
Lime was the first company to launch electric scooters when the pilot project launched in July. Bird launched their version of electric scooters in the city earlier this week.
The pilot will run until October 2020 at which point the City will evaluate the impact and value of electric shooter sharing in the City.


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Here are the main European equity rating changes Wednesday that will be key to your trading day:
• Attention is squarely on Philips Electronics after Tuesday’s unwelcome profit warning. Citigroup has cut the stock to sell from neutral and Exane BNP Paribas has lowered it to neutral from outperform. The stock has been on Citigroup’s ‘least preferred list’ since February. “With nearly all sales related to consumer, construction and government spending we continue to see a challenging trading backdrop,” said Citigroup.
• Exane BNP Paribas also downgraded Siemens following the company’s cautious guidance. The stock has high exposure to Europe and is likely to face increasing salary inflation in Germany. The brokerage recommended “tactical profit taking”.
• Despite a very cautious European consumer environment, Burberry is still a favorite amongst shoppers, with over 10 million ‘likes’ on Facebook, according to Nomura. Nomura upgraded Burberry to buy from neutral. Following analysis, Nomura concluded that “controlled merchandise development, innovative marketing and major infrastructure investment have delivered strong growth to date.”
[More over the jump]


text: Ubisoft announced that multiplayer of Watch Dogs Legion won’t be coming to their digitized capital until sometime next year (2021). That news came as part of a patch update announcement over on the Ubisoft site. Update 2.2 arriving later this week fixes a good load of crashes and bugs, along with the nifty addition of a manual save button. While multiplayer was due to go live on December 3rd, Ubisoft has now chosen to delay the feature into early next year. “As part of our commitment to fixing the game’s issues, we’ve decided to delay the Online mode of Watch Dogs: Legion to early 2021,” Ubisoft writes. “This will allow us to focus on fixing issues with single player, and it will give us more time to test the Online experience to help ensure a smooth launch of the mode.” Ubisoft outlined a number of technical improvements set to come in December, targeting save file issues and increasing performance on higher-end GPUs.


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In the past, reasonable returns could be gained by putting money into GICs or even savings accounts.
Those days are long gone, and income investors are now turning to REITs and dividend stocks to help supplement monthly earnings.
Here are the reasons why I think Shaw Communications Inc. (TSX:SJR.B)(NYSE:SJR) and RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust (TSX:REI.UN) are attractive picks right now.
Shaw recently purchased Wind Mobile and sold off its Shaw Media assets to Corus Entertainment.
The stock has taken a beating as a result of the strategy shift, and that is providing investors with a good opportunity to pick up a nice dividend yield as well as a shot at some upside in the share price.
Consumers like to get their TV, Internet, and mobile services in bundled offers from one carrier, and the lack of a mobile offer has hurt Shaw. Moving forward, the addition of the mobile business will enable the company to compete on a level playing field with Telus in western Canada, where it has been at a disadvantage in recent years.
The sale of the media division also comes at a critical time.
Canadians now have the option to sign up for a basic TV package and add channels on a pick-and-pay basis. This could be a negative for content owners if they can’t find a way to maintain subscription levels. By unloading the media business, Shaw eliminates the content risk from its business and raises substantial cash to fund the build-out of the mobile division.
Shaw pays its dividend monthly and currently offers a yield of 5%. The stock is trading at a discount to its peers, so investors could see some decent price gains once the transition process is complete.
RioCan operates more than 300 shopping centres with 46 million square feet of leasable space.
The majority of the company’s anchor tenants are well-established brands operating in recession-resistant sectors such as grocery, pharmacy, discount, and household goods.
This means there should be little risk of a mass exodus of renters from RioCan’s properties.
In fact, the company renewed one million square feet of retail space during the Q1 2016 at an average rent increase of 6.2%.
On the revenue side, funds from operations in the first quarter rose 7% compared with the same period last year, so things are rolling along quite well.
RioCan is in the process of selling its 49 properties in the United States. The funds will be used to pay down debt and invest in new opportunities, such as the construction of condos at some of the top retail sites.
The company pays a monthly distribution of 11.75 cents per unit that yields 5.1%.


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First, the IMF just cut (again) its forecast for US GDP, this time from 2.0% to the consensus-estimate 1.7%. The IMF cited the 1Q contraction, which from a +3% original estimate ended up being that, just with a minus sign. It also says second-half growth to accelerate… because it must!
- Some other brilliant points from the IMF:
- IMF staff: U.S. to reach full employment “only by end-2017”
- “The economy is expected to reach full employment only by end-2017 and inflationary pressures are expected to remain muted”
- “If true, policy rates could afford to stay at zero for longer than the mid-2015 date currently foreseen by markets”
- Says job market “reasonably healthy,” wages should rise slowly
Or not at all.
And while IMF just slashed its 2014 forecast, it kept its growth forecast steady at 3%. Tomorrow the IMF releases its entire World Economic Outlook quarterly pamphlet which has been the source of so much amusement around these parts. We can’t wait to update it for tomorrow’s latest and greatest growth slashing.
And just so the IMF doesn’t appear alone as the only idiot who, for the 5th year in a row, issued an optimistic forecast about US growth which is crashing before its eyes, here is the National Retail Federation which also just cut its 2014 retail sales growth outlook from 4.1% to 3.6%.
The National Retail Federation today lowered its retail sales forecast for 2014 because of slow growth recorded during the first half of the year, but said sales are expected to grow significantly faster over the next five months. NRF forecasted in January that retail sales would grow 4.1 percent in 2014 over 2013, but today’s revision lowers the forecast to 3.6 percent.
NRF calculated that sales grew 2.9 percent during the first half of the year and are expected to grow at least 3.9 percent during the second half. The numbers include general retail sales and non-store sales, and exclude automobiles, gasoline stations, and restaurants.
“No retailer was immune to the doldrums witnessed during the first quarter, and as a result, the year’s growth trajectory was impacted,” said NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay. “That said, there is plenty of evidence that the second half of the year will be better for the industry as consumers begin to feel more optimistic about their spending decisions.
“And though we maintain realistic expectations of retail sales growth in 2014, we are optimistic that the chances for a stronger economy still exist,” continued Shay.
“The severe weather and other factors we experienced earlier this year have taken their toll on retail, but most of those problems are behind us,” said NRF Chief Economist Jack Kleinhenz. “A second look at our forecast shifted our expectations slightly, but it’s important to note that the outlook is positive. Sales are growing and we expect them to continue at a moderate pace.”
In this month’s Monthly Economic Review, Kleinhenz noted, “…one of the worst winters in recent memory kept shoppers home during the first quarter, and weak numbers for real estate, inventories and exports continued to hamper the economy through the second quarter. However, employment has grown at its strongest pace since 2005, business and consumer confidence have edged higher, manufacturing activity has expanded and inflation pressures remain tame, improving expectations for the second and third quarters.”
And while we enjoy the “it’s the weather’s fault” joke as much as the next one, can we please move on: said joke hasn’t been funny in about 5 months now.
This article is brought to you courtesy of Tyler Durden From Zero Hedge.


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A new trailer for Ocarina of Time 3D is now available and you can view the embedded video above. However, the text that is found within the trailer is in Italian. There are still plenty of short video clips from the game throughout the trailer and overall, it does look pretty nice. If anybody out there does speak Italian, feel free to translate what the clips say and post them in the comments below.
We’ve been seeing a lot of material out of the various European countries, whether it be in-game footage from the Nintendo of Europe press event, Ocarina of Time 3D pre-order bundles, and now even an Italian trailer. However, it seems for us in America, there hasn’t been too much exclusive content. Is Nintendo just holding back because E3 is an event in the United States? Is there just more demand for Ocarina of Time 3D over in Europe? I cannot pinpoint it myself, but perhaps I’m just looking too much into it. Feel free to post your thoughts in the comments below.
Related: Ocarina of Time 3D Walkthrough


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Today marks the final installment of The Weekly Download for 2017 – how will you be ringing in the new year?
Here’s what we’ve all been talking about this week: Apple’s apology, how Facebook ads are excluding older job seekers, new social app updates, doggos and a version of Uptown Funk that you don’t want to miss.
Intrigued? Read on for the details.
Apple apologizes for slowing down older model iPhones
It’s something that we’ve speculated for years, and Apple has finally admitted there’s some truth to it all. In rare fashion for Apple, a public letter was released this week that detailed an apology for slowing down iPhones with older model batteries.
According to Apple, the slowdowns are part of a strategy to help maintain battery function with age, although it’s been questioned whether the slowdowns are part of a different strategy to encourage new model sales.
Also detailed in the letter were steps Apple is taking to address the controversy. The tech giant will cut the cost of replacement batteries for older model iPhones from $99 to $35 ($79 to $29 USD) starting the end of January 2018. It will also release a new feature that reports on device battery health so users can make informed decisions about replacements. So thrilled we can still hold on to our iPhones for a while.
Are you an iPhone user? Does the admission affect the way you feel about Apple and its products?
Instagram will now add “recommended” posts to your feed
Another new feature has gone live on Instagram – now the social app will add “Recommended for You” posts to your feed.
Until now, recommended content could only be found in the “Explore” tab. Now, this content will be making its way to your home feed and feature three to five posts that Instagram thinks you might like.
It’s a big change for the feed – perhaps the biggest since changing up the algorithm that determines what posts you see and in what order. Not interested in the new update? Unfortunately, there’s no way to opt out. You will be able to temporarily hide the “Recommended for You” feature, but not disable it altogether.
Do you like the idea of being able to discover new content, or just wish Instagram would stop messing with a good thing?
Companies are using Facebook ads to exclude older workers from job ads
An article co-published by Pro Publica and The New York Times this week outlined unlawful job advertising happening on Facebook based on age exclusion.
According to the report, dozens of companies including Amazon, Verizon, Target, UPS and even Facebook itself have been found to list job ads that exclude older workers, calling into question the fairness of the process and equal opportunities.
Facebook has since defended the practice, noting that “age-based targeting for employment purposes is an accepted industry practice and for good reason: it helps employers recruit and people of all ages find work.”
It’s not the first time Facebook ads have come under fire for exclusion – another report released by Pro Publica earlier this year called out the advertising platform for the ability to serve up ads that excluded certain ethnic groups. Ugh!
If your company is recruiting in the new year, you may want to think carefully about your social media targeting plans.
Snapchat’s new 2017 year in review feature comes just in time for New Year’s Eve
Want to take a stroll down memory lane before 2018 arrives? Snapchat’s new feature is making it possible.
“A Look Back at 2017” allows users to review the year that was. The update is reminiscent of Facebook’s “On this Day” function which uses nostalgia to encourage engagement online, a concept originally borrowed from Timehop.
Don’t see any content waiting for you under the new feature? It’s likely that you didn’t generate enough content on the app this year. Better luck in 2018!
Merriam-Webster tweeted about ‘doggos’ and the internet responded
According to Merriam-Webster, ‘doggos’ is on their list of words to watch for future iterations. After making the announcement on Twitter, the internet responded the best way it knows how – with lots of puppy pics.
Doggos? We have five. pic.twitter.com/wIpqFCnlvT
— The Golden Ratio (@TheGoldenRatio4) December 27, 2017
This Doggo Approves Of Your Tweet. pic.twitter.com/80bsdY94ze
— Cath Jenkin (@cathjenkin) December 27, 2017
Ontario seniors pay tribute to Bruno Mars
Seniors at Landmark Village in Sarnia, Ontario have been making headlines for their recreation of Bruno Mars’s hit single, Uptown Funk. The fun project came to be as part of a surprise for a company VP, and has since gone viral on social media.
In the words of Bruno himself: Don’t believe us? Just watch!


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Here’s the latest news from Google and the technology industry, which is coming under increasing global scrutiny from regulatory watchdogs, consumers and organizations.
Europe Plans To Publish Digital Services Act, Digital Markets Act Drafts
European Commission Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager said in a webinar that to make the 2020s the continent’s digital decade “is every bit as much about building trust as it is about investing in digital innovation.”
“In just a few weeks, we plan to publish two draft laws that will help to create a more trustworthy digital world,” Vestager said.
The Digital Services Act will be one of the regulations, which Vestager said will revise the eCommerce Directive and will make digital services take additional responsibility for contending with “illegal content and dangerous products.”
The Digital Markets Act is a second set of regulations. They will have two pillars, which Vestager described as a do’s and don’ts for large digital gatekeepers and a “harmonised” market probe blueprint “across the single market.”
UN Committee Indicates Support For Initiative To Tax Big Tech In Developing Nations
The United Nation’s Tax Committee of Experts has indicated support for an initiative to assist developing nations in taxing Big Tech, Bloomberg Tax reported on Wednesday (Oct. 28).
The committee voted 12-10 Friday (Oct. 23) to include Article 12B, an amendment, to its model agreement.
Proponents have cautioned that developing nations don’t have a sufficiently large role in an initiative headed up by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development to get almost 140 nations to revamp the way in which the digital economy is taxed.
Those skeptical of the bill contend that the United Nations approach could bring about further division on the taxation of digital revenue of tech firms such as Amazon.com Inc. and Facebook Inc.
The committee will wait on the final go-ahead to provide opposing nations with time to write about their objections in the completed iteration.
Vietnam Asks Netflix To Create Representative Office, Install Local Servers
Vietnam’s General Department of Taxation has requested that Netflix put servers and a representative office in the country to reportedly set the stage for the U.S. streaming company to pay taxes, Techwire Asia reported.
As it stands, Netflix has about 300,000 people subscribed in the nation who pay between $7.75 to $11.19 each month.
The streaming firm said in a statement per Techwire Asia that it is for governments to come up with the regulations on tax and, and while it follows the applicable rules, those don’t require a company create a local office or to locally install servers.
Google Competitors: Justice Department Lawsuit Indicates Google No Longer Has ‘Halo’
Competitors throughout the globe have gone public with their claims that Google unjustly uses its power in web search to edge out rivals. The tech company’s so-called halo in the view of those with the ability to control it has now reportedly lessened, CNBC reported.
“In normal cases, the first barrier to overcome was the Google halo effect, where people almost didn’t view Google back then as a business. People almost viewed it as some sort of public nonprofit,” Foundem Co-founder Shivaun Raff said, as per CNBC. “Now I think that halo effect has been very much diminished.”
Foundem was the head complainant in the European Union’s probe into the shopping comparison operation of Google.
The news comes as the Department of Justice’s new case against Google claims that the firm illictly keeps its general search monopoly via exclusionary deals and anticompetitive procedures.
A Google blog post referred to the Justice lawsuit as “deeply flawed.”
Pew Survey: 47 Pct Of Americans Believe Big Tech Should Face Greater Regulation
The Pew Research Center said that 47 percent of Americans indicate that Big Tech firms should be regulated by the government more than they currently are. Another 39 percent indicated that the firms should be regulated the same as they currently are.
Furthermore, 66 percent of Americans indicate that that they don’t have a lot of confidence or no confidence in social media firms to have the capacity to find out which posts on their sites should be marked as misleading or incorrect.
In addition, 72 percent of adults in the United States indicate that social media firms have an excess of power and sway in politics in the current day.
EU’s Vestager Says Splitting Up Big Tech Could Have Unintended Effects
Margrethe Vestager, the European Union digital chief, has advocated against splitting up Big Tech firms.
Vestager indicated that it would be feasible to compel the splitting up of Big Tech under existing European Union legislation, but she cautioned about unintended effects and possible long court disputes involving watchdogs and the Big Tech firms, 9to5Mac reported, citing The Information.
The official supports more stringent regulations on large companies instead, which are created to make sure they can’t take advantage of their leading roles, 9to5Mac reported.
Report: Google Has Campaign Against European Lawmakers Over Digital Services Act
Google has an aggressive effort in the works geared toward French commissioner Thierry Breton and other Brussels watchdogs in regards to their intentions to roll out new legislation to reduce Big Tech’s power, the Financial Times reported, citing an internal report.
The document, which was drafted in reply to the European Union’s intention to roll out a new wide-ranging Digital Services Act, detailed a two-month game plan meant to take away “unreasonable constraints” to the business model of Google and “reset the political narrative” when it comes to the potential law, FT reported.
“As we’ve made clear in our public and private communications, we have concerns about certain reported proposals that would prevent global technology companies from serving the growing needs of European users and businesses,” Karan Bhatia, the vice-president for global government affairs and public policy for Google said in a statement according to FT.
“We fully support, and will continue to advocate for, a DSA that ensures technology can contribute to Europe’s recovery and future economic success,” Bhatia said.


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Tab'bing the Indian market
The emergence of various low-cost indigenous names has made tablets accessible to the price conscious Indian consumer
The tablet frenzy has gripped the Indian consumers at large since the time it was launched in the country. Currently, this booming market is witnessing exponential growth. In fact, India is one of the fastest growing markets across the globe wherein it is witnessing a sudden spur in the demand and the emergence of various tablet players.
While the market is dominated by international brands, the emergence of various low cost indigenous names has made tablets accessible to the price conscious Indian consumer. According to some of the industry estimates, the Indian tablet market grew 770% to around Rs 2,000 crore in 2011-12 from Rs 230 crore in 2010-11.
A recent report titled ‘ India Tablet PC’s Market Forecast & Opportunities, 2016’, further entails to the fact that the outlook for the tablet PC market in India seems very promising as the overall consumer spending and acceptance is increasing in the country. Adding to it, a figure by ABI research firm indicates that the Indian media tablet market is estimated to grow with a CAGR of 71% in 2017 which reiterates the continuous growth of this industry.
The tablets market over the last one year is going through a constant phase of evolution and several brands have entered this segment to showcase their capabilities to the end users. However, the majority part of this burgeoning market is being currently ruled by the likes of Samsung, Apple, HCL, and BlackBerry.
According to a Cyber Media Research 2012 report, the country saw total shipments of about 762,666 units of tablets in the FY12. The Indian market for tablets, in terms of unit shipments, is being led by Samsung with 47.4% share (including Galaxy Note shipments), followed by Apple with 16.6%, HCL Infosystems with 6.0%, RIM with 5.1%, and ZTE with 3.3%. In totality, the top 5 vendors have a market share of approximately 78%.
Though the market is currently dominated by a handful of players, the competition is intensifying with many Indian manufacturers foraying into this space and launching their tablets at a very competitive price range. Apparently, these Indian manufacturers have already started showing the signs of gaining more market share in Indian tablets market than the multinational brands.
“Contrary to the general view that new categories of personal technology computing devices might cannibalise older ones, the trend amongst consumers is multiple ownership. Consumers will continue to buy laptops, smartphones and tablets. In India, industry expects to sell around 45 lakhs laptops and 3 lakhs tablets in the current financial year. While laptop category will witness around 15% growth, tablets will grow at 100% being a new category,” opined Alok Bharadwaj, president, MAIT. Traction in the country
The Indian market has become very competitive in the five quarters since Q4 2010, when the first tablet model was introduced in the country by Samsung. Since then, the market has witnessed huge growth in terms of demand, shipments, and emergence of various players.
Today, education sector is being seen as the primary segment driving the Indian tablet market, as a large number of models are positioned at this segment. But at the same time, this demand is not only limited to students, it is also being created by parents, institutions, and the government across the country.
While large scale institutional purchases have not happened this year, the retail education market for such devices with pre-loaded educational content is large and growing rapidly. The corporate sector with direct marketing sales force is also finding the tablet a very useful and cost effective accessory in lieu of the laptops.
“Education has become one of the ‘hot’ verticals with respect to adoption of tablets. The focus of the Ministry of HRD, government of India, to strengthen the education sector in the country by using technology in the delivery of educational content has created a stir and garnered the attention of private vendors and solution providers. The launch of Akash followed by launches by vendors such as Micromax, Zync and HCL who have introduced tablets at price points starting as low as Rs. 6,500 will strengthen the adoption of tablets,” added Tarun Pathak, analyst, CMR Telecoms Practice.
Though we are still in the early stages of adoption of tablets as compared to the other developed countries, the end consumers are increasingly getting inclined towards using tablets over other mobile devices. There are a lot of factors such as, price, guarantee, durability, availability of applications, tariff plans which have enhanced the demand for tablets among Indian consumers. Where the future lies...
The future seems to be very exciting for the Indian tablets market. The industry estimates that in the next 24 months, the tablet market would exceed the size of the computer market in India. In fact, it will rule the future of personal computing landscape, which means that there is a lot of potential for new entrants in this space.
In the near future, utility value, inbuilt handy apps, on-the-go seamless connectivity will be some the key factors that will drive the tablet space. On the enterprise front, sectors such as BFSI, education, insurance, healthcare and entertainment will also play major role in driving the category. With the increase in number of other players the competition in the tablet space has been on the rise, resulting in innovative products. Factors such as BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) and upgraded multimedia features will further increase the acceptance of tablets in the corporate sector.
“In the past few months, a number of new vendors have entered the India tablets market with entry-level offerings. Most of these vendors have been mobile handset vendors or IT product distributors. Their insights and understanding about the needs of the Indian consumer for a ‘pocket-friendly’ tablet and their strengths in distribution are factors that could help these players garner a piece of the ‘value-for-money’ tablets market going forward,” concludes Pathak.


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Manufacturing engineers, information technologists, and “smart” robots in flexible manufacturing cells are working ever more closely in manufacturing companies around the world.
Displaying 1-10 of 177 results for
Demand for automation and robots is surging in multiple industries, including automotive, writes the CEO of Thomas.com.
An Israeli company has developed new artificial intelligence technology that promises to dramatically change how original equipment manufacturers and their suppliers conduct quality control inspections.
Florida's advanced manufacturing industries are diverse and include sectors producing intermediate and finished products ranging from plastics and micro-electronics to tortillas and motor vehicles.
Tacoma, Washington-based Tool Gauge manufactures precision metal and plastic components and assemblies for the aerospace industry.
Supply chains are creating cybersecurity risks for companies, according to a security services firm report.
Today’s job shops can distinguish themselves from competitors by adding deep hole drilling/gundrilling to their offerings. But complex, custom-built machines require more floor space and a bigger investment.
The company’s G150 is aimed at small, high-precision parts made of tough materials.
Cascadia Capital said it is launching one of the nation’s first emerging growth investment banking practice groups dedicated to Robotics, Automation, and Artificial Intelligence (RAAI).
In a virtual event conducted over the internet on October 15, Siemens introduces new capabilities for its Sinumerik One control package.


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LONDON, 2014-12-10 — /EPR Retail News/ — Online sales of Non-Food products in the UK grew 12.0% in November versus a year earlier. In November 2013, online sales rose by 16.0% over the previous year.
In November online sales represented 21.0% of total Non-Food sales of our Monitor, against 19.6% in November 2013. This is the highest penetration rate recorded since our monitor started in December 2012.
Health & Beauty and Household Appliances were the fastest growing categories online in November. The month was lacklustre but ended on a strong note due to a very successful Black Friday.
Online sales contributed 1.7 percentage points to the growth of Non-Food total sales in November. The three-month average contribution of online to Non-Food growth exceeded that of stores for the third consecutive month, achieving another all-time record proportion outside of December.
Helen Dickinson, Director General, British Retail Consortium, said: “This month brings fantastic news for retailers who have worked hard on their online presence, as the online penetration rate of non-food sales is at an all-time record. Every £1 in £5 of non-food purchases is spent online. Online sales are also contributing a larger proportion of growth to non-food sales compared to in-store.
“Black Friday was the retail event of the month and retailers offered consumers impressive discounts both online and in-store. The high volume traffic to websites meant that consumers also bought a large amount of full priced items and not just those on sale. Online sales growth was good for the month but there may have been a distortion caused by Black Friday with consumers delaying purchases until the end of the month in the hope of grabbing some bargains.”
David McCorquodale, Head of Retail, KPMG, said: “Online orders reached record breaking penetration levels this November, as shoppers snapped up a bargain in the Black Friday sales. “However, retailers’ online systems have been tested and some have been found wanting. The sheer weight of consumer demand caused some websites to buckle under the pressure and these retailers need to sort this capacity issue out and quickly or face losing sales to competitors with more robust systems. Online sales will help to drive growth for retailers this Christmas and are a crucial element of their overall strategy.”
British Retail Consortium, 21 Dartmouth Street, Westminster, London, SW1H 9BP.
020 7854 8900. email@example.com.


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McMinnville might be in the heart of Oregon’s Willamette Valley wine country, but two new production breweries are a reminder that brewing innovation is alive and well there, too. Evasion Brewing is focused on creating gluten-free beers that anyone can enjoy. Allegory Brewing is producing ales and lagers based on experimentation and adjuncts, with a focus on unique, limited-release beers instead of flagships.
Evasion is a family-based project, with big goals to bring high-quality, gluten-free beers to all craft beer lovers, not just those who need to avoid the gluten present in barley and wheat.
“Everyone involved in the brewery had been related for years prior to Evasion Brewing even being an idea, either through blood or marriage,” says Evan Lapp, who manages sales and marketing and assists in the brewery. He co-founded Evasion along with his older brother Erik Lapp, who serves as president, and their father Craig Lapp, who is in charge of purchasing. “Half our family has different degrees of gluten intolerance, so we were acutely aware of the lack of GF options in the beer world.”
Of the approximately 230 brewing companies in Oregon, only a couple are dedicated to producing 100-percent gluten-free beers as their full lineup. Head brewer Ben Acord was working at a brewery in San Diego when he and the Lapps started kicking around the idea of good-tasting, diverse, world-class beers that could help people “evade gluten.”
“Evasion Brewing was created to make beers everyone can enjoy,” said the brewery in a September email announcing that their beer was available, “and help those of us with dietary restrictions or celiac disease to evade the gluten that stops us from drinking the quality beers we’ve been missing.”
Focusing on millet as their primary brewing grain, Evasion currently offers 10 beers on tap and four in bottles at the McMinnville tasting room. The business is also self-distributing at a growing number of locations in Oregon. Along with plans to expand distribution to Washington, the Lapps are developing an online shop and beer club for Oregon customers.
Evasion’s three core beers are Hophoria IPA (brewed with Citra and Mosaic hops), Blonde Ale and Tantamount Stout. A second flagship IPA, Hoptensity, is in development “to balance the lighter, fruitier Hophoria,” says Lapp. Seasonal and limited-release beers will be available too, such as a fall seasonal Belgian dark strong ale, a cold brew and toasted coconut stout, and two farmhouse ales.
A distillery that produces gluten-free whiskey has provided barrels to Evasion for aging an imperial stout and Belgian dark strong ale. These will be part of an ongoing “Mill and Barrel” series of specialty beers, which will also include wine barrel-aged saisons fermented with wine juice from area vineyards.
Along with respect for the Willamette Valley’s wine country, McMinnville is in the Lapp’s blood. “We are a family of machinists and have been for five generations going all the way back to Germany,” says Lapp. “Our machine shop has been in McMinnville for 12 years now, and our current building is 30,000 square feet.” The Lapps walled off 10 percent of the space and fitted it out as a 7-barrel brewery. With a 2018 production goal of 500 barrels, Evasion is committed to its accounts and tasting room while they dial in production and distribution.
“McMinnville is getting better and better every year,” says Lapp. “The wine culture is strong in this valley, driving a lot of tourism and even influencing some of our beers. We’re happy to be here.”
Looking ahead at how Evasion can fill an unmet need in the market, Lapp is excited for the gluten-free brewery’s future. “There are only nine dedicated gluten-free breweries in the U.S. I believe five of those are in the Pacific Northwest,” he explains. “We’re at the heart of what I think is going to be a major shift in the market in the next five-plus years.”
Lapp sees parallels with the resurgence of cider in this country. “Ten years ago, how many bars could you walk into that had a dedicated cider tap? Not many,” he says. “Once cider culture retook its hold in the States, better ciders popped up and now every bar has a cider line. It’s the same story with GF food options in restaurants. We feel gluten-free beer has the same potential. With how many people are gluten intolerant, it’s inevitable that better options for GF beer will be popping up and taking hold in restaurants and bars … We hope to be one of the breweries that is making that happen by trying new and interesting things with beer. For us, that’s what craft beer is about.”
Allegory co-founders Charlie Van Meter and David Sanguinetti met through a mutual friend, Josh Grgas, (previously of Portland’s now-defunct The Commons Brewery). Sanguinetti, who also founded McMinnville’s The Bitter Monk taproom in 2014, was building out a brewery concept with a consultant. Van Meter’s resume includes Portland’s Sasquatch Brewing, Hood River’s Logsdon Farmhouse Ales and Yachats Brewing — and in May 2017 Van Meter announced that he and his wife were relocating.
Allegory had a soft opening this summer, showcasing collaboration beers while they completed their 7-barrel brewhouse. Sanguinetti manages overall business and operations, and Van Meter is in charge of brewing and production. Allegory recently brought on Alison Burns, formerly of Boneyard Beer and Ninkasi Brewing, as a sales and marketing manager to expand Allegory’s distribution and market presence.
“Once we were operational, we immediately started brewing fresh-hop beers,” says Sanguinetti. Their inaugural !!!Fresh Pints!!! was a sour ale featuring Crosby Hop Farm Centennials. Along with other hop-forward and farmhouse styles, Van Meter “caught the last of fruit season” for some beers that Allegory is now aging in oak in a cellar that now has more than 40 barrels.
Allegory has been learning their system and dialing in their process and is starting 2018 with its first push for growth and production. “We have set out to brew a variety of inspired high-quality ales and the occasional lager,” says Sanguinetti. “As of now, we do not intend on having flagship beers, rather a framework of product line inspirations.”
Van Meter plans to focus on “nimble” production, allowing seasonality, geography, agriculture, experimentation and innovation to lead them through brews with “different adjunct ingredients and hops that come available and use them all in a wide variety of styles and processes.” Many beers will be aged in wood for six to 24 months. Allegory also plans to release fresh beers in cans, along with bottle-conditioned, mixed-culture beers.
“Allegory was thoughtfully designed with strong bones and no excessive frills (except the LED color-changing lights in the barrel room),” says Sanguinetti, “so that it can grow with consumer demand.”
A native of Yamhill County, Sanguinetti grew up with a passion for beer and a dream “to open a brewery in wine country where there is still a building beer culture, but lots of interest and tourism.” Also a native Oregonian, Van Meter liked McMinnville’s more rural setting — and the opportunity for opening a brewery in an area steeped in brewing knowledge and artisan inspiration.
“Clean, consistent water, barrels from wineries and distillers, vineyards, fruit and nut orchards, and hop farms are all at our doorstep,” says Sanguinetti. “For what we want to accomplish as a brewery, McMinnville and the surrounding area is a gold mine.”
Currently averaging two brew days per week, Allegory aims to produce more than 500 barrels during 2018. However, they have their eye on a larger production goal of 1,000 barrels, says Sanguinetti, “depending on how much is produced for the oak cellar and how many more tanks we land into our stainless cellar.”
Allegory’s focus is “to remain a smaller, boutique/artisanal brewery,” adds Sanguinetti. “We plan on staying self-distributed in Oregon and expanding the same into Washington. We also hope to have a small, curated presence in California built around collaborations and festivals. Over the next five years and beyond, we look forward to continuing to build relationships with our local farmers and makers, the beer community locally and nationally and, of course, our customers and fans.” •


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“In the last few years we have witnessed the number of visitors to the Dubai Shopping Festival averaging around four million and we are anticipating an increase of between five to 10 per cent during the 19th edition of the DSF from January 2nd to February 2nd,” said Laila Mohammed Suhail, Chief Executive Officer of DFRE.
She added that since it was launched in 1996, the Dubai Shopping Festival has attracted approximately 51 million participants, residents and visitors, who have spent just under Dh130 billion, whether it was for shopping, hospitality or on entertainment.
“DFRE has adopted a number of strategies to promote DSF 2014 to attract visitors from our regional and international markets, and also ensure that when they leave Dubai they feel enriched and are able to take home great memories. One of our key strategies is to put the spotlight back on the shopping element of the DSF and for this we have adopted a new theme, �Shop at your Best’ aimed at showcasing Dubai as a tourism destination that offers multiple and unique shopping experiences,” she told local English daily, Khaleej Times.
Starting today, the DSF has something for everyone. From discounts at 70 malls and over 6,000 retail outlets across the city, to 150 kinds of entertainment programmes.
Working under the umbrella of the Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing, or DTCM, DFRE is able to reach out to reach to a wider audience and new markets across the world, as part of its efforts to increase the number of tourists during DSF 2014.
The festivals and retail body also launched a global marketing campaign that relies heavily on digital communication channels including a new look website that uses geo-marketing technology for the first time to create awareness of, and promote the 32-day DSF 2014 to families and tourists across the world, especially in the strategic markets of GCC, Russia, India, China, Hong Kong and South Africa.
DFRE has also forged marketing alliances with Tripadvisor, the world’s largest travel site and the online editions of the internationally renowned Vogue magazine to extend the reach and visibility of DSF 2014 in key markets.
The shopping festival’s sole aim is to boost the retail sector on a global scale, explained Suhail, saying, “Since it was launched in 1996, DSF has supported the growth of Dubai’s retail sector. DFRE’s mandate has also grown from merely organising festivals to setting clear directions and policies for the continued growth of the retail sector, paving the way for enhanced cooperation with the trade on ways of boosting Dubai’s retail sector.
“Significantly, over the past 18 years, DFRE has established a strong and longstanding partnership with the private sector, and regularly discusses issues, challenges and strategies with its key partners and sponsors aimed at further enhancing the retail sector.” DFRE is taking advantage of the positive economic environment that prevails in Dubai to chart its future plans. “Hoteliers, retailers and entertainment providers have seen visitor numbers and sales rise in 2013 and we are confident of a great year ahead of us with more events, attractions and value for money than ever before for visitors and local residents. The year 2014 will be a crucial and challenging period for DFRE as we plan for all our other festivals and events such as Dubai Summer Surprises, Ramadan in Dubai, Eid in Dubai, Dubai Motor Festival and Modhesh World leading all the way to the milestone 20th edition of the Dubai Shopping Festival in 2015,” concluded Suhail.


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In what sounds like the plot from an international thriller, warnings today of a Syracuse-based phone hacking ring that has connections to Al Qaeda and is costing small businesses hundreds of thousands of dollars.
U S Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY), in Syracuse on Monday afternoon, told reporters that 26 small businesses have already come forward, saying they've been hacked. And, they have to pay the bills. At least two are being sued by their phone companies for non-payment.
Schumer is calling on the telecommunications industry to step up fraud detection. He also wants the Federal Communications Commission, which regulates phones, to order the same kind of protection that credit cards carry , which removes the financial liability from the business, or person, who's been hacked.
Schumer says law enforcers are investigating the Al Qaeda link. Phone numbers that have been compromised here in Syracuse are being linked to known phones that are known to be linked to the terror organization in Somalia and the Philippines. Schumer says it may be a money maker for Al Qaeda, or a way to communicate with incospicuous numbers, but either way needs more investigation.
The Senator says the hacking could happen to anyone, but the concern right now is the financial impact on small business.
Even though the numbers used are Syracuse-based, most of the victims seem to be in the Albany area, but Schumer says at least one of those businesses has a connection here: Best Cleaners got a $150-thousand dollar bill for 9,000 international calls. It's one of the companies being sued for non-payment by its phone company. Schumer says Best was planning on expanding into Syracuse this year, but that's on hold because of the scam costs.
The hackers gain access to the numbers through a loophole in voicemail systems, and until there is regulation, this advice to small businesses and others:
1. Use a complex access code, and not the 'default' access code that comes with the system.
2. Change the access code frequently.
3. If you don't make overseas calls, block international calls from your phone system.
The scam is especially costly because the calls can be made within a short time period, and are not discovered until the phone bill comes, up to a month later. Schumer also urges small businesses to pay especial attention to their phone charges.


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Independent community pharmacies are suffering a downturn in a number of key performance metrics, according to a new survey.
Findings from the Pharmacy Guild of Australia’s latest Survey of Independent Pharmacy Operations in Australia show a decline in business performance across a number of indicators.
Among the areas recording a decline in the 2014/15 financial year are a 4.59% drop in prescription sales in comparison to the 2013/14 financial year. Overall sales were down 2.51% for the last financial year, while gross margins dropped by 5.30 per cent.
With the decrease in dollar gross margin, total income dropped by 18.98%, the Guild’s executive summary of the survey reveals.
However, total expenses declined by nearly 2 per cent in dollar terms in the 2014/15 financial year, but increased as a percentage of revenue, from 34.8 per cent to 35.3 per cent in 2014-15.
In a wider comparison, looking at the last 10 years, Industry sales grew at 2.20% compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) over this period, but had declined since 2012.
“Historically pharmacy sales were growing at the rate of 4.76% (CAGR) from 2004 to 2009, significantly higher compared to the declining -1.26% growth rate of 2010 to 2014,” the report stated.
“This reduction in revenue post 2010 is attributed to the dampening effect of Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) reforms introduced by the Government as a cost saving measure”.
“There is a potential threat to pharmacy viability due to declining Net Profit, as a result of Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme reforms, increases in expenses and price competition initiated by the continued rise of discount pharmacies,” the report continues.
The article, included in the latest members-only Guild Digest has also noted trends over the last 10 years, with ongoing changes in the operating landscape of pharmacies due to growing regulatory and competitive pressure from internal and external forces.
“The community pharmacy landscape has evolved from small, independent pharmacies to more sophisticated banner groups operating in a more competitive environment,” the Digest says.
The analyses contained in the latest survey were largely based on the sample of 313 community pharmacies.
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