text:
Each and every day, independent retailers are changing their playing fields—developing new ideas and blazing new trails along the retail landscape. The Retail Innovators of the Year awards program is dedicated to recognizing these retailers.
Sponsored by the North American Retail Hardware Association (NRHA) and Vermont American Power Tool Accessories, the Retail Innovators of the Year Awards allows us to single out these retail pioneers who are raising the bar for others and setting a new standard for retail operations.
Marvin’s Building Material and Home Centers, Alabama
Marvin’s Building Material and Home Centers has emerged as one of this industry’s brightest success stories. This Alabama-based chain of 26 home centers has managed to grow its business and expand its brand, even during today’s difficult economy.
Brad Battles, who manages the Marvin’s location in Albertville, Alabama, is an ideal representative of how Marvin’s has been able to find such success.
Battles started as a part-time employee in the store’s lumberyard in 1999 and entered the manager-training program six years later. Even in the midst of an economic downturn, the Albertville store posted gains of 25 percent in sales from 2008 to 2009, with certain months showing 40-percent gains. In all, the store saw 109 percent more profits in 2009 than in 2008, which is no doubt due to Battles’ leadership. Battles was also selected in 2009 as Marvin’s manager of the year.
Kief Hardware, Louisiana
Flexibility and an easy-going attitude have characterized James Cabirac’s leadership style at the three Kief Hardware stores that he owns in the bayous of Louisiana, and the results have been impressive. Fierce customer loyalty, increased sales and a Facebook following of more than 2,000 people all indicate that Cabirac has been doing something right.
One reason for his operation’s success has been Kief’s willingness to think outside the box. Whether it is in newspaper ads that directly compare his stores’ prices with prices at the local big-box or creative promotions—like accepting gift cards from other merchants or offering $1 off New Orleans Saints jerseys for every point the Saints scored—keep customers coming back for more. Cabirac even arranged for the local public TV station to air “Do it Best on the Bayou,” a twice-weekly, hour-long public service program that Cabirac and his team produce in-house.
Cole’s Home Solutions, Tennessee
When Charles Cole and the team at Cole’s Home Solutions in Millington, Tenn., unveiled the new design of its home center, the industry took notice. The new Cole’s Home Solutions store was unlike anything the industry had seen to date.
The store includes a series of vignettes to highlight different categories such as tools, plumbing and lighting. With everything from a garage area where customers can test-drive power tools to working sinks, showers and toilets in the plumbing area, Cole’s Home Solutions creates a truly unique customer experience.
Charles Cole wasn’t content recreating a neighborhood home center, instead he broke through the boundaries of what a home improvement store was thought to be and sought inspiration from retailers such as Bass Pro, Cracker Barrel and Harley Davidson. This truly courageous and unique approach set his operation apart from any competition.
Alan Bryant, Advertising/Promotions
True Value Homecenter in Oakhurst, California, is known for its unique promotional events, many of which are regarded as community traditions. Co-owner Alan Bryant has organized and overseen many of these events, including yard sale-type events, like “The Community Clutter Clearance” and the “Motorsport Swap and Sell,” and has fronted several projects with local nonprofits like the Rotary Club, the Lions Club, the Boys & Girls Club and Toys for Tots. Bryant has also been recognized by True Value for his contributions—he sits on the company’s 12-member Marketing Advisory Council and helped lead his store to a 2008 “Best Hardware Store in Town” award.
Dave Ralph, Merchandising
Dave Ralph’s tenure with True Value began more than 32 years ago when, as a high school student, he stocked shelves and cleaned at Marchwood True Value in Exton, Pennsylvania. Ralph transitioned to manager then to co-owner. Ralph’s merchandising expertise has positioned the 12,500-square-foot store as a go-to destination for grills and paint. The store carries almost every product made by Weber—from grills to cookbooks. Ralph has created a deep paint department, with six exterior paint lines and four interior paint lines from multiple manufacturers. The paint center’s three color computers, six paint shakers and six-aisle span attract homeowners and contractors alike. Ralph’s store received the 2010 “Best Hardware Store in Town” award from True Value.
Amy Kaplanis, Employee Training
Before recruiting Amy Kaplanis of Country Ace Hardware in Granby, Colorado, the Rocky Mountain Ace Stores (RMAS) Board of Directors played their training by ear rather than taking a proactive approach. Now, thanks to Kaplanis’ work with RMAS, the group has a robust, cutting-edge training program to offer to its members. A new webinar series was launched in March, and seven webinars have already been presented, covering topics such as exterior stains and common Colorado pests. The webinars have filled a gap in employee training, allowing staff members to interact with experts and ultimately become more knowledgeable sales representatives.
Stan Yates, Green Marketing
Stan Yates, manager of Yates Building Supply in Philadelphia, Mississippi, doesn’t just practice innovation in his store, but also inspires others in his community to follow in his footsteps. His store is the only building supply store in the nation to earn LEED Gold certification, embodying the principles of sustainability and environmentally responsible building. Permeable concrete in the parking lot channels rainwater for use, a white roof coating reflects sunlight and keeps the interior of the building cooler, skylights and sensors adjust interior lighting, the floor stain is made from soybean product, and more. Yates has become a destination for contractors who want to build responsibly.
Rick Arena and Michael Ervolina, Community Involvement
Since 1993, Valu Home Centers has raised more than $2.5 million for 15 chapters of Habitat for Humanity in western New York and northwestern Pennsylvania, and every dollar has gone directly toward homes for needy families. Valu president Mike Ervolina and executive vice president Rick Arena say that it’s particularly inspiring to see the company’s donations support the people who have supported Valu throughout the years. In addition to organizing annual fundraising efforts for Habitat for Humanity, Valu also encourages its customers and staff to participate at Habitat job sites and donate their time in other capacities.
Rick Karp, Technology
Cole Hardware in San Francisco was one of the first hardware stores in the U.S. to computerize its entire inventory, and the store continues to be a technological front-runner. Rick Karp, president and owner, strives to increase efficiency in any way possible by implementing new technology in his four stores. Cole Hardware is an alpha tester for developing software; sends daily, weekly and monthly sales reports to personnel; sends a daily blog to all employees with updates on sales, new products, upcoming events and more; sends a twice-monthly e-newsletter to customers; sends information to customers’ mobile phones via text messaging; will soon roll out an online gift registry system; and has digitized its entire product catalog for commercial customers.
Home Hardware Building Centre, Store Operations
At Lloydminster Home Hardware Building Centre (HHBC), the customer base splits right down the middle—50 percent contractor customers and 50 percent retail consumers—but every customer gets 100 percent of what they need from HHBC’s unique store operations and exceptional customer service. Contractors and homebuilders have access to a 4-acre lumberyard and half of the 25,000 square feet of indoor retail space, which includes their own entrance, cash register and service counter. Call-in ordering, same-day deliver and access to an extensive fleet of trucks and forklifts make HHBC even more efficient for contractors. For retail customers, HHBC offers a 9,000-square-foot Garden Centre, interior design boutiques staffed with experts, Gingersnaps Coffee Shop, a baby boutique and much more, all in addition to an extensive collection of the more traditional hardlines offerings. Lloydminster HHBC is truly a one-stop shop for all customers.


text:
Though it's not a complete system or interface overhaul, Mountain Lion's improved core apps and new features make it well worth the $19.99 price.
Road Trip 2015: BKAV, which made its money selling security software, is the first to design and build a smartphone in Vietnam. The question is, will anyone buy it?
The business reviews site has suffered a string of blows this week, including the departure of its high-profile board chairman. Can it regain its footing?
Technically Incorrect: A Massachusetts driver makes a wrong turn. What happens next, all filmed on his dashcam, has led to an investigation. And yes, it's now on YouTube.
For less than the price of a new 11-inch Stream, you can get HP's super-popular laptop in a larger size. The sellout risk is also larger, mind you.
The goal of the software maker's flagship product is to renew faith in the Windows world.
Carmaker has teamed up with Pacific Gas & Electric to curb power grid demand by giving i3 drivers gift cards if they charge at off-peak hours.
Technically Incorrect: In the latest attempt at fooling the unsuspecting and gullible, three Detroit area teens allegedly talk a MetroPCS store into buying fake iPhones.
As it's a free upgrade that gives you more apps, improved features across the board, and better performance, there is really no reason not to get Mavericks on your Mac.
Technically Incorrect: In a Facebook post decrying his suspension, the New England Patriots quarterback insists that the NFL had no right to see his phone and that he was free to do with it as he wished.

domain: news


text:
Meta’s Quest 3 headset is all about the gaming and Battlefield 2042 is working hard to get gamers back.
Meta Quest 3 updates the virtual reality headset and goes hard on gaming
Last week, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg showed off the Meta Quest 3, the next generation virtual reality system that the Facebook founder is so bullish on.
The new hardware is expected to launch later this year and will be priced at $690 in Canada. It is thinner, lighter, and more comfortable, according to the company, and will have better graphics and resolution.
The Quest 2 headset gets a price drop in advance: $420 (128 GB) and $490 (256 GB). Both it and the Quest Pro are getting performance bumps in the next update to the operating systems for those devices.
The complete library of content for the Quest devices is over 500 titles at this point, much of it games, and the Quest 3 is backwards compatible.
But there were a bunch of new games announced that will be coming to the Quest 3, including sequels to Arizona Sunshine, I Expect You to Die, and Asgard’s Wrath. In a release Meta said the latter will be the biggest title ever on the Quest platform.
With launch of Season 5, Battlefield 2042 sets sight on redemption
EA’s Battlefield is a storied franchise, but the 2021 release of the latest game, Battlefield 2042, was a bit rocky as the game was criticized for myriad technical issues.
Since then, the developers at the DICE studio in Stockholm have been working away to rebuild trust in fans and deliver more of what military shooter gamers are looking for from the franchise.
Today, the fifth season of the game, “New Dawn”, released, and along with it the latest in a host of updates the developers have been releasing into Battlefield in the last eighteen months.
The new season brings a new story that takes place in an industrial facility in Czechia that includes a train crash site. (Even though there’s no single player campaign in 2042, there are narratives anchoring the experience.)
Among the significant changes to the game was the return last fall of the class system with characters being categorized as assault, recon, support, or engineer. When 2042 launched, that standard approach to player characters was replaced by a more flexible system that gave players incredible choice over how they created and improved a character. What players discovered was that too much choice with 128 player games led to confusion and chaos.
DICE has also reworked the seven maps that were part of the game’s launch and has constantly updated the software that anchors the experience.
Apple’s annual Worldwide Developer’s Conference (WWDC) is going on right now, and at Monday’s keynote the company unveiled updates to some of its key computer offerings and to software that runs Apple devices.
Vision Pro, the headset computer that Apple is calling a “spatial computer”, was also on display.
Apple’s latest innovation is Vision Pro
The Vision Pro is Apple’s “spatial computer” because it is designed to be used in the space of the world around us.
And it’s a computer that seems to have revolutionized how users interface with it. In demos that were shown during the keynote, people were shown using gestures to open applications and resize windows. You’ll also use your voice to operate Vision Pro.
But one of the most interesting aspects of the new headset is how you can control it with your eyes.
The Vision Pro has cameras on the outside and inside of the headset, and the interior ones are there to track your eye movement so the spatialOS operating system can respond to your intentions. And because of how our body anticipates, in this case our pupils, the Vision Pro is kind of predictive. It’s like the system knows what we’re going to do before we do it.
Those internal cameras also enable EyeSight, which is the Vision Pro feature that shows people in our space a digital view of our eyes when they’re interacting with us while we’re wearing the headset.
The external cameras collect information about the real world to display in the headset. There’s a dial on the device that you can turn to increase and decrease the amount of real world you see.
Those cameras also allow for 3D video recording and viewing. And for the first while, that’s probably where people will get the most value out of Vision Pro: using the headset to watch movies and television shows.
Much has been made about the $3,500 USD price tag on the Vision Pro, but the truth is this device is not a consumer product. Not yet. It’s first generation hardware that is intended to be used by developers – the true audience for WWDC – to create applications and experiences.
Whether the Vision Pro leads to more consumer friendly pricing and usability will take months, if not years, to determine.
For now, it’s just interesting to see Apple’s take on headset-based computing.
MacBook Air grows to 15 inches, Mac Pro and Mac Studio get chip bumps
Apple also announced updates to its line of computers, including an updated Mac Studio (starting at $2,699) with the M2 Max and M2 Ultra chips, and a new version of the Mac Pro tower (starting at $8,999) using the same chips that can be configured with a graphical processing unit that has up to 76 cores, and a computer processing unit with 24 cores. It supports up to eight displays.
The best laptop you can get also gets a new version in the 15-inch MacBook Air (starting at $1,749). It’s built with Apple’s M2 chip which allows the laptop to be built without needing a fan (due to the efficiency of Apple’s silicon).
Notable updates to Apple operating systems
Every operating system that runs Apple’s devices is getting updated. This is routine, and with every release comes new functionality. Here are some of the things that caught my attention.
You’ll be able to leave voice and video messages when you call someone on FaceTime and they don’t answer.
SharePlay is being added to CarOS, so anyone with an Apple device in a vehicle can connect to the iPhone that’s connected to the car to play music or podcasts or navigate.
Support for external webcams is coming to your iPad.
FaceTime through your AppleTV box uses your iPhone or iPad camera and displays the output on your TV. And you can use your iPhone to find your AppleTV remote.
A new game mode will make gaming on your Mac better. Death Stranding, from Hideo Kojima, is being released for Macs. Related: Apple has created a toolkit to help game developers quickly assess how the games they created for Windows will run on Mac so they can determine how much work will be required to completely port over.
This week on The Shift, Shane Hewitt and I talked about how well the Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is selling, Nathan Fillion’s return to Destiny 2, Playstation’s Project Q, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Fairgame$ from Haven Studios, the virtual F1 racing competition, and new reports from MediaSmarts showing how Canadian youth are confronting online misinformation.
Updates on the Legend of Zelda and Destiny 2 and more from the Playstation Showcase, including Spider-Man 2 and Fairgame$, and a virtual F1 racing competition is tied to the Montreal Grand Prix.
What’s going on in the world of video games
In its first three days available, the Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom sold more than four million copies in North America and more than ten million units worldwide.
Canadian actor Nathan Fillion is returning to play Cayde-6, a character in Bungie’s Destiny universe, for the upcoming expansion of Destiny 2, the Final Shape. We’ll get more info about it all on August 22.
More from last week’s Playstation Showcase
Last week I got excited about Bungie’s reveal of it’s new game, Marathon, but that wasn’t the only thing that Playstation had for us to get excited about.
Project Q is a portable system that will stream games from your PS5 over a Wi-Fi connection. The handheld looks like a smartphone glued in between a PS5 controller that’s been cut in half.
Playstation’s also coming out with wireless earbuds to go with the handheld. No pricing for either of these was announced, but Sony did say these are coming this year.
The new PS5 game, the third from Insomniac Games, introduces the villain Kraven and the symbiote, Venom, and in this game we get to play as Peter Parker’s Spider-Man and Miles Morales’ Spider-Man.
And we learned that the game from Haven Studios is called Fairgame$.
It’s a competitive experience where your team is up against others to see which of you can pull off the most extravagant heists against the wealthy elite. Think of it as Robin Hood and his Merry Thieves against a different Robin Hood and her Merry Thieves.
Not much more is known, but Haven had a trailer that shows off the attitude they are going for. Note that this is not gameplay.
Canada’s best virtual F1 racers could earn a trip to Montreal
When the Formula 1 auto racing series hits Montreal later in June, five video game players will compete for the chance to race Max Verstappen in a simulated race.


text:
On Wednesday, PepsiCo released a statement apologizing for its ridiculous #PepsiLivesMatter ad. It only took one day of social media dragging for them to kill the campaign, a clear testament to the power of social networks and a subtle indication that this may be the wokest time in modern human history.
But the apology turned out to be nearly as tone deaf as the ad — carefully redirecting any anger the two-minute spot triggered away from the company’s brand ambassador Kendall Jenner — another example of how far society will go to protect a white woman.
As for Kendall, the 20-year-old is reportedly devastated by the backlash. “This is the first controversial campaign she has been involved with,” a source explains to ETOnline. “Even though she had nothing to do with the production and the message of the campaign, she will be blamed for this since she is the face.” The ad, the source claims, was only supposed to air overseas and not in the U.S., but went viral on our shores after Kendall herself and her mother Kris Jenner shared it across their social media platforms. It was only after she saw her mentions flooded with disgust that Kendall and her family decided to pull all signs of the spot from their pages. She also reportedly had approval over the final cut, but (surprising no one) the reality star never seemed to notice how out of touch with reality the ad was.
“Devastated” as she may be, we’re guessing it won’t stop Kendall from cashing the multi-million dollar check Pepsi cut her to appear in the ad. And a multi-national corporation is doing backflips to protect the reputation of a 20-year-old adult woman who, if she didn’t realize when she first saw the script for the ad how offensive it would be, needs to be far less sheltered, not more.
Ludacris wasn’t granted the same loyalty or protection when Bill O’Reilly came for his Pepsi endorsement in 2002. Luda lost his check and became the face of deplorable urban America because Bill probably walked in on one of his kids rapping along to “What’s Your Fantasy?” Yet, we will probably never know the faces or names who conceived, produced and approved Pepsi’s latest ad, which caused more organic controversy in one day than anything Ludacris has ever done in his almost 20-year career.
PepsiCo is right to (however reluctantly) shoulder the blame — corporations don’t do enough of that these days. But the company’s insistence on jumping in front of Jenner to absorb the hail of negative think-pieces and Twitter threads the ad inspired is as problematic as their original sin. Kendall is grown enough to sign the contract and take the money, why can’t she apply critical thought to her image and impact on society? As for Pepsi, they ostensibly paid seven figures or more for a KarJenner to lend her brand approval to their product, so why shouldn’t she shoulder an equal part of the blame when things went haywire?
This isn’t the first time a corporation has hurt or offended people and not even a protest led by Dr. Kendall Kardashian Jenner X herself will make it the last. PepsiCo’s awkward mockery of social activism aside, they’re just doing business as usual by American standards. Much like Kendall, who is playing a game she inherited with the cards she’s been dealt, Pepsi and every other corporation in the world have just adapted to and excelled in a crooked eco-system that attempts to monetize everything.
That’s what makes the #PepsiLivesMatter commercial offensive on a level beyond race or class. For a corporation to pretend to care about uniting or loving people is bad enough. Pretending their poisonous product could be the key to resolving our current social unrest is even more insulting.
As gratifying as it is to see Twitter outrage kill a multi-million dollar campaign in less than a day, simply blaming Kendall for taking the obliviously privileged role or thinking a boycott will change things anytime soon is as naive as believing Pepsi can end police brutality. It will take sustained outrage, and consistently holding both corporations and the celebrity faces who front them accountable to see real change.
In the mean time, stay woke. And hydrated.


text:
After more than a year of global shortages, the chip industry has developed an ironic problem: It doesn’t have enough chips to build the machines and tools needed to make the chips the world so desperately needs.
Some of the largest makers of the complex, expensive tools needed to fabricate microprocessors recently began discussing contingency plans if they are unable to get enough chips and other components. Several have had to reduce their financial forecasts or limit their growth estimates for next year, disclosing that shortages of chips and components are the culprits.
Specifically, the chip equipment makers need programmable processors called field-programmable gate arrays, made by the likes of Intel’s Altera unit and Xilinx, among other components. FPGAs tend to be less powerful compared to chips designed for a specific function, but are useful for emerging technology such as 5G infrastructure, certain components inside big data centers and chip-manufacturing machines — where custom chips don’t yet exist.
“Our FPGA chips go into a lot of semiconductor equipment,” Intel's co-general manager of Logic Technology Development Sanjay Natarajan told Protocol. “We will have those discussions with [tool makers], where we say, 'Hey, we want this equipment,' and they go, 'Hey, we want some FPGAs.'”
The fact that there aren’t enough components to allow the chip tools makers to ramp up production is prolonging the shortage, and is just one example of the complexities around both solving it and predicting when it will end. The length of the supply chain, range of materials needed and even unpredictable events — such as a March fire at a Renesas Electronics-owned auto-chip factory in Japan or the extreme cold weather in Texas that triggered factory shutdown — mean all bets are off.
Part of the issue is data. To determine when the tool companies might be able to regain an ample supply of components and chips, industry analysts need more data, according to Syed Alam, global semiconductor lead at Accenture.
“I'm not sure if I have the data point to connect the dots to say X percent of the chip shortage is because of the tools not being available,” Alam told Protocol. “Because a shortage could be for a lot of reasons. You don't have this raw material, you don't have the substrate, you don't have the equipment ready, you don't have the people, you don't have the [factory] build-out done.”
The troubles the equipment makers are facing heading into 2022 are just a piece of a much larger concern. After a big shock to chip manufacturing because of the pandemic, there is also considerably more demand for microchips.
According to Wells Fargo analyst Aaron Rakers and his team’s projections, the semiconductor market could double within five years to $1 trillion, from roughly half that this year.
The pace of transformation in the industry means even high-ranking U.S. officials are reluctant to take a stab at determining when the shortage might end. To help promote a $52 billion government subsidy package to help alleviate the shortage, Deputy Commerce Secretary Don Graves made an appearance at a December chip conference in San Francisco called Semicon West.
But in a telephone interview after the speech, Graves said even he couldn’t forecast the end: “I don’t know that I can give you an accurate prediction on that."
The 2008 financial crisis may provide some guidance on how long the current shortage will last, according to Deloitte supply chain expert Chris Richard. Back then, tech and consumer electronics companies cut back on orders and burned through their inventory in much the same way automakers and others did in the early months of the pandemic. And when the economy began to recover, orders accelerated as companies tried to rebuild inventory.
“It was well into 2010 before some of our clients and semiconductor companies were back in a normal situation and customers weren’t screaming at them because their [production] line is down,” Richard said.
Discussing the shortage is made more complicated by the fact that there are dozens of types of chips made for markets that range from home appliances — which don’t need very advanced processors — to high-performance computing, which requires the latest silicon. As a result, different industries will operate on different timelines because it might be easier to get some chips more quickly than others.
For example, buyers of data-center chips don’t follow the same patterns as consumers. There may not be enough semiconductors or equipment to satiate demand from large data-center operators such as AWS, Facebook, Google or Microsoft, but those companies typically have tight relationships with the necessary vendors and make capacity plans that account for whatever chips they can get their hands on.
Wall Street analysts and investors often ask chip companies to make predictions because they are attempting to determine when the historically cyclical industry will begin to see supply in line with demand once again, or if they’ll go too far and find themselves with a glut of inventory. If there is an easy consensus among the chip giants, it’s that the shortage will continue through 2022; beyond that is anyone’s guess.
To ease the shortage, Intel has promised to spend $20 billion on two new factories in Arizona, and $3.5 billion to expand capacity at its packaging facility in New Mexico. The company’s executives have long pointed to 2023 as the minimum timeframe for a shortage to ease, in part because of the amount of time it takes to construct new factories and ensure they are up and running.
“But maybe a year and a half total, as you think about how long does it really take to unwind most of these issues and add the necessary capacity in the system,” Intel CFO George Davis said at a recent investor conference. “So I don’t think it’s over quickly. If you're looking at it from a cyclical standpoint, the question is, will we overshoot? Or will we have just what's needed to normalize in 2023?”
Intel rival TSMC is the largest contract chip maker on the planet, and derives a big chunk of its revenue from selling advanced processors found in computers and smartphones fabricated with the latest technology. Executives there are tight-lipped about its current situation, but it has promised $100 billion of capital spending to expand capacity over three years, and on an October call with investors, CEO C.C. Wei gave his version of a prediction.
“Let me say that while we do not rule out the possibility of an inventory correction, we expect TSMC's capacity to remain very tight in 2021 and throughout 2022,” he said. “This is because of our technology leadership position.”
According to Accenture’s Alam, companies started to build more capacity over the past year, which he expects will begin to come online in the next nine to 12 months. In addition, what he described as inflated demand will begin to fall off at around that time; companies have been ordering more chips than they actually need in the hopes they will get the actual quantity necessary to build products.
“I think this double-counting and double-ordering will begin to ease up,” he said. “There will be a correction in terms of the inflated demand.”
Unfortunately, the industry hasn’t learned much from the prior shortages and cyclical fluctuations, according to Deloitte’s Richard. He said that the industry can do better at dealing with future shortages across the chip supply chain by building in more excess capacity and, if a company is reliant on chips, holding a greater amount of inventory. They're both costly options.
Solving the over-ordering problem could help too. Because real-time exchange of information between various parts of the supply chain doesn’t exist at the moment, signals from different tiers are often amplified through several intermediaries as they travel from a chip buyer such as Apple to a chip maker such as TSMC. Finding ways to get more accurate signals about true demand could potentially dampen the instinct to order in bulk.
What’s clear is that there has been a significant, if hard to calculate, increase in demand for chips of all shapes and sizes, which the pandemic has pushed forward.
“The importance of semiconductors as a foundational pillar for the accelerated digitization (from enterprise to consumer) will continue in the post-COVID world,” the team at Wells Fargo wrote. “From the way we consume goods and services to the way we work (virtually; hybrid), and increasingly the vehicles we drive, we think the COVID pandemic and supply chain constrained recovery will continue.”
According to Graves, part of the rationale behind the Commerce Department’s interest is that the industry is made up of hundreds of companies focused on turning a profit, and it doesn’t spend much time thinking about a national perspective that includes economic and national security. Beyond cash, the federal government can use other mechanisms to ensure there is sufficient talent to run the new chip factories in the coming years and decades.
“We need to make sure that our workforce development system, our community colleges or universities, are putting out the type of talent that’s needed for the upcoming years and decades,” Graves said. “It’s certainly the Ph.D.s at the cutting edge, but it’s also the engineers or the trained technicians up and down the supply chain.”


text:
11 May 2023
How can metaverse be used in home sector?
The concept of the metaverse has gained significant attention in recent years, and it has the potential to transform many industries, including the home sector. The metaverse can be used in several ways, from home design and decoration to home automation and virtual communities. Tom Puukko, is the Founder of Superdwell, helping architecture and interior design businesses into the metaverse and virtual reality, and co-Founder of Tremor.ai an AI interior design services agency. Speaking with our Content Editor, Lina Vaz, he says home technology has already gained significant traction.
Watch other videos
It's crucial for businesses to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to upcoming gift and Christmas trends. In today's fast-paced and competitive market, understanding the latest trends can make all t ...
Learn all about the new products worth investing in to meet your customer's needs. From a revamped eco-design to new core colours, it's important to keep up with consumers lifestyle in order to grow y ...
On this SAF TV episode, it's all about branding and how brands can stand out in a noisy market. Kubi Springer is the Director of brand marketing at Avant Garde in Dubai, and has worked with A-list cel ...


text:
General Motors is giving its Chevrolet Spark a jolt of electricity.
An all-electric version of the minicar will debut this week at the Los Angeles Auto Show. It goes on sale this summer in California, Oregon, Canada and South Korea, where it's made. Other markets will follow.
Unlike the Chevrolet Volt sedan, which can run in all-electric mode but also has a backup gas engine, the Spark EV is a pure electric. GM won't say how far the car will go on a charge, but says it will be a top performer among the small number of EVs available. The current leader, the electric Ford Focus sedan, can go 76 miles on a charge.
The Spark EV will also be cheaper than most of its electric rivals, GM says. Exact pricing hasn't been revealed, but the car will start for less than $25,000 in the U.S. when a $7,500 federal tax credit is factored in. The electric Nissan Leaf starts at $27,700 with the tax credit.
The Spark EV is powered by an electric motor and a 20 kWh lithium ion battery. It has 130 horsepower and can go from 0 to 60 mph in less than 8 seconds.
Erie Indemnity pays special cash dividend
Erie-based Erie Indemnity Co. has approved an increase in regular shareholder dividends and declared a special cash dividend.
The company, Erie County's third-largest employer, increased the regular quarterly cash dividend of 4 cents to 59.25 cents, or $2.37 annually. The board also increased dividends on Class B shares, the company's only voting-eligible shares, from $82.88 to $88.88, an increase of 7.2 percent.
The board also declared a special one-time cash dividend of $2.00 on each Class A share and $300.00 on each Class B share.
This special cash dividend will be paid on Dec. 2.
Apple's newest release: a smaller iMac desktop
Apple says the smaller version its new, slimmed-down iMac desktop computers will go on sale Friday. It will also start taking orders for the larger model.
The model with the 21.5-inch screen will cost $1,299 and up, depending on the configuration. The model with a 27-inch screen will start at $1,799.
The iMac tacks the computer components to the back of a large LCD screen. The new models have no disk drive, helping make the edges one-fifth the thickness of the old model. They bulge considerably toward the middle of the back, however.
-- from staff and wire reports


text:
Starbucks Corporation (SBUX)
|Net Income (ttm)||4.20B|
|Ex-Dividend Date||Feb 10, 2022|
|Day's Range||99.09 - 101.96|
|52-Week Range||95.92 - 126.32|
|Price Target||123.00 (+22.9%)|
|Earnings Date||Oct 28, 2021|
Starbucks Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a roaster, marketer, and retailer of specialty coffee worldwide. The company operates through three segments: North America, International, and Channel Development. Its stores offer coffee and tea beverages, roasted whole beans and ground coffees, single serve products, and ready-to-drink beverages; and various food products, such as pastries, breakfast sandwiches, and lunch items. The company also licenses its trademarks through licensed stores, and grocery and foodservice acco... [Read more...]
Financial PerformanceFinancial Statements
According to 34 analysts, the average rating for Starbucks stock is "Buy." The 12-month stock price forecast is 123.00, which is an increase of 22.85% from the latest price.
Starbucks (SBUX) closed the most recent trading day at $103.87, moving -0.16% from the previous trading session.
Nike, Lululemon, and Starbucks join Macy's and Walmart in reducing store hours as Omicron spreads, causing staffing s...
Omicron's rapid transmission rate means that large numbers of retail workers are getting infected and are unable to show up to work.
Starbucks commits to spend $1.5 billion with diverse suppliers by 2030
Don't Miss: Valley of Hype: The Culture That Built Elizabeth Holmes WATCH HERE: https://youtu.be/Sb179GLPNYE Watch the 2021 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholders Meeting on YouTube: https://youtu.be/gx...
The National Labor Relations Board certified the workers' 15-9 vote in favor of unionization at a second Starbucks location in the Buffalo suburb of Cheektowaga.
Starbucks Corp will nearly double its spending with suppliers and vendors from underrepresented groups in North America by 2030 to $1.5 billion, it said on Tuesday.
The campaign to organize the world's largest coffee chain is gaining steam.
A second Starbucks Corp location in Buffalo, New York has become unionized after the federal labor board on Monday certified the results of last month's election there.
A Starbucks location in Arizona could be the next to have workers unionize after being granted a request to hold an election.
The Ratings Game: Chipotle is hot and Starbucks hits pause: Analysts say cost inflation will weigh on restaurants in ...
The new year is just getting started but analysts have already upgraded Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. and downgraded Starbucks Corp., with experts concerned that cost inflation will take a toll on the ent...
Starbucks (SBUX) closed at $111.14 in the latest trading session, marking a +0.63% move from the prior day.
Baristas at a Starbucks Corp location in Buffalo, New York, walked off the job for a second day on Thursday in protest of what they say are unsafe working conditions amid a new surge in COVID-19 cases.
Six employees at a Buffalo Starbucks that recently voted to join a union walked out just before 9 am Wednesday citing health concerns, prompting the temporary closing of the store.
Workers at the country's first unionized Starbucks store in Buffalo staged a walkout on Wednesday to protest what they described as “unsafe working conditions” due to an ongoing COVID-19 case surge.
With COVID-19 cases breaking records each day, the restaurant industry is entering 2022 in a very different place than operators would have guessed just a month earlier. These surges come alongside alre...
To comply with the Biden administration's upcoming vaccine mandate, Starbucks is requiring its workers to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 or undergo weekly testing, the company recently told employ...
McDonald's Corporation (NYSE:MCD) and Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX) have both formed long-term bullish chart patterns that could provide massive upside for the long-minded trader and investor. McD...
Employees who choose to not get vaccinated against COVID-19 will reportedly have to pay for their own tests.
Many other companies are either taking similar precautions or asking employees to work from home for now during the Omicron surge.
OSHA is mandating the private companies with at least 100 employees have to enforce weekly testing for unvaccinated workers.
Starbucks Corp will require its U.S. workers to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or undergo weekly testing in order to comply with new federal mandates, the company said in an update sent to employe...
It's one of the things that many people do every morning after getting up - drink coffee to regain consciousness and become active for the day. Coffee is also consumed frequently at the office, as part ...
Starbucks' (SBUX) robust expansion efforts and comps growth are likely to drive growth in 2022.
Someone once said that the best way to predict the future is to create it, and Wall Street investors are stoked as they watch Starbucks Corp. (SBUX) creating before their eyes what should be an exceptio...


text:
Apple Continues Battle With Amazon Over ‘App Store’ Trademark
Los Angeles – Much to the chagrin of players in the mobile market, Apple has managed to register the trademark for the term “App Store” for its iTunes App Store. However, now that Amazon is calling its Android app sales portal the “Amazon Appstore,” Apple has been trying to fight it in a trademark infringement lawsuit since March.
Apple has amended its March trademark infringement complaint against the Amazon to include allegations of false advertising. In its complaint, Apple claims that its iOS mobile operating system brand is synonymous with the words “App Store” and thus allowing Amazon to use it creates confusion among consumers that will damage Apple’s brand and revenue.
As for its false advertising claim, Cupertino-based Apple is referring to the Amazon Kindle Fire. Apple is alleging that Amazon has downplayed the Android identifier with its advertisements for the low-priced wireless tablet. Apple claims that by not advertising the Kindle Fire as an Android device, there exists even more likelihood of confusion between “App Store” and “Appstore.” A statement from Apple’s filing indicates:
“Amazon’s use is also likely to lessen the goodwill associated with Apple’s App Store service and Apple products designed to utilize Apple’s App Store service by associating Apple’s App Store service with the inferior qualities of Amazon’s service.”
The damage that Apple is referring to is directly associated with the type of business Amazon operates in its Appstore. Apple claims that while it has tight controls to ensure that only quality apps are made available in its iTunes App Store, Amazon doesn’t do as much to prevent issues like malware or the misappropriation of user data. Apple says that it is concerned that this alleged lack of quality control will cause harm to the Apple brand by association through the use of the term “Appstore.”
In response to Apple’s trademark infringement and false advertising claims, Amazon as well as Microsoft and Google argue that “app store” is a generic term for any online app distribution portal and that Apple should not have exclusive rights to the trademark. Amazon also argues that no harm has been done to Apple by its use of Appstore.
There’s no doubt that Apple is feeling the heat from Amazon’s recent release of its Kindle Fire tablet. With a price tag under $200, it undercuts the majority of the mobile media device market.
Posted in: Trademark Infringement


text:
The flexible packaging industry in India is one of the highest growing industries in this segment globally with CAGR topping 15-18 %. “We as an industry are at a great place as the overall consumption of packaging is growing. More and more products are now moving towards branded packaging as manufacturers are realizing the shift of consumer focus on packaged products. Also there is a great shift from rigid forms of packaging to flexible, as there is clearly a huge saving in terms of cost and carbon footprint and much greater convenience in terms of handling and usage. Hence, the push towards rolling out more and more innovative products is the need of the hour as the industry has mostly been follower of matured Western markets up till now. It is time we realize our strengths and build upon them. Today we have the best equipment in the world and a large growing market to cater to. All we have to do is enhance our focus and start thinking out of the box,” shares Gadre.
Kanodia Technoplast holds a unique position in the industry as it houses the entire gamut of technological capabilities from the best manufacturers in the world. This has helped the company to combine different technologies to deliver innovative products. One such example is its recent diversification into high-end WPP bags. By leveraging its expertise in different technologies, Kanodia has successfully developed WPP bags with spot matt, holographic images and window metallized structures catering to local and overseas market. “The response has been very encouraging,” says Gadre, confirming doubling of capacity of WPP bags within six months of diversifying and commencing the product line.
This strong push by Kanodia into innovations and new product development is reflected across its product segment. KANCAST (CPP film) with 15 mic film, high-end holographic films with special features, special feature pouches such as KANSLIDE and KANLOCK, antiskid solutions for economy packs and specially developed high-end twist grade films are just some of the new product offerings from Kanodia which have been well received by the customers.


text:
A yellow Gallardo that you can't afford flanks a row of Civics and Integras that culminates at an H-series-swapped CRX that couldn't be any more at odds with the $200K-plus Italian Bull. Automotive adversaries don't get any more obvious, and that's exactly the way parts manufacturer BLOX Racing likes it, and is how it's been doing its annual open house and car show for the last four years.
More than 3,000 spectators lined two blocks worth of streets behind BLOX's Fremont, California, headquarters Saturday, July 13, weaving their way past a few hundred show and race sleds from just about every make. The predominant theme was Honda, though, which is fitting considering the company's dedicated most of its resources to Civic and Integra platforms since its inception 10 years ago.
BLOX's open house and car show doesn't cost a thing but vehicle participation remains regulated. To ward off '86 Integras with primered bumpers and "Powered by Honda" decals from lining its streets, the company implements a screening process of which 350 show car owners applied for within the first hour following the event's announcement. Impressive numbers, those are, especially considering that the Northern California company isn't in the business of car shows, but whose primary line of work is manufacturing and selling aftermarket Honda garb--like shift knobs, camber kits, and exhaust systems. The formula works; and the result isn't the BLOX-centric lovefest that you'd expect, but a car show that's well-rounded enough to go up against the likes of those who do such things for a living.
Located across from the requisite car show components--a DJ, some models, and a handful of food trucks--are a series of BLOX partners, companies like Mackin Industries, Supertech, and more than a dozen local shops and dealers. Machines like a RWD-converted, S2000-powered third-gen Integra and a V6-swapped fifth-gen Accord are why you show up, though. That, and the fact that BLOX donates its proceeds to its local Wheels on Meals, an organization that delivers ready-made dishes to senior citizens who aren't able to purchase or prepare their own. It's all of this that makes BLOX's open house and car show a special event--one that those who attended are likely already anticipating next year's follow-up.


text:
On July 16, the 2021 Stainless Steel Roofing Conference and the Jinan Stainless Steel Industry Chain Innovation Forum were held in Jinan. More than 400 entrepreneurs from stainless steel smelting, processing, trade, equipment, service and other industrial chains attended the meeting. Focusing on the main line of “green, low-carbon and sustainable development”, the guests analyzed the development status of the steel industry, explained advanced technologies in detail, and committed to promoting green, low-carbon and high-quality development of the stainless steel industry in our province.
According to statistics, in 2020, my country’s stainless steel industry will overcome the impact of the epidemic and continue to grow steadily. The scale of production and sales will reach a record 30 million tons. In the next 10 years or so, my country’s stainless steel production and sales scale is expected to reach a new peak of 80 million pieces. The subdivision of chemical stainless steel varieties is more clear.
At this conference, the “green” and “environmental protection” labels of stainless steel attracted extensive attention from the guests. It is understood that stainless steel, as a special functional material that can be recycled and reused, has a life cycle 3-5 times that of ordinary steel. It has the characteristics of corrosion resistance, high temperature resistance and beautiful appearance. Fields such as transportation have been more widely recognized and applied.
Green and low carbon is the basic content of building a resource-saving and environment-friendly society. Especially in the era of “carbon peak” and “carbon neutrality”, stainless steel-based green buildings have basically formed a system with clear goals and policy support. It is expected that within 3 to 5 years, stainless steel roofing and roofing panels will become the largest increase in the expansion of stainless steel applications due to their special advantages and appearance effects throughout the life cycle, and it is expected to form a market production and sales scale of more than 10 million tons.
Wang Yongsheng, President of Shandong Stainless Steel Industry Association, Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of TISCO Group, said in his speech, “Shandong Stainless Steel Industry Association will unite the upstream and downstream brothers of the province’s stainless steel industry chain, commit to the extension of the stainless steel industry chain, and expand the stainless steel industry. The application and promotion of the scene, jointly build China’s core stainless steel industrial park, build the Shandong brand, be the vanguard of the stainless steel industry, and build the industrial front of a strong manufacturing province.”


text:
A critical security flaw present in almost all Intel, ARM and AMD chips and supplied along with Windows, Linux and macOS devices allowed hackers to access passwords, encryption keys, or sensitive information of users stored in system memory.
Intel is working on a comprehensive update to fix the critical flaw but the same may significantly slow down affected chips by 5% to 30% depending upon the type of chips.
Up till now, in order to improve speeds, device manufacturers have been allowing various applications to use system memory which is otherwise allotted to a system’s kernel. However, research by Google’s Project Zero team has revealed how malicious hackers have been exploiting the said ‘speculative execution’ to access passwords, encrypted data as well as sensitive user information from system memory.
‘Testing also showed that an attack running on one virtual machine was able to access the physical memory of the host machine, and through that, gain read-access to the memory of a different virtual machine on the same host.
‘These vulnerabilities affect many CPUs, including those from AMD, ARM, and Intel, as well as the devices and operating systems running on them,’ they noted.
Following the revelation, developers are rushing to patch the flaw and are now separating memory used by a system’s kernel from that used by other applications. It is hoped that this process will eliminate the chances of hackers gaining access to system memory via other applications.
‘Intel is committed to product and customer security and to responsible disclosure. We worked closely with many other technology companies, including AMD, ARM Holdings and several operating system vendors, to develop an industry-wide approach to mitigate this issue promptly and constructively,’ said Intel.
The chip-maker added that the said flaw has impacted several Intel chips that include the 45nm and 32nm Core i3, i5 and i7 processors, the entire Intel Core M processor family, 2nd Gen to 8th Gen Intel Core processors, 3400 series, 3600 series, 5500 series, 5600 series, 6500 series and 7500 series processors, the entire Intel Xeon Processor E3, E5 and E7 families, Intel Xeon Phi Processor 3200, 5200, 7200 Series, Intel Atom C, E, A, x3 and Z processor series, Intel Celeron Processor J and Processor N series as well as Intel Pentium Processor J and Processor N series.
The firm also admitted that the flaw allowed hackers to ‘improperly gather sensitive data from many types of computing devices with many different vendors’ processors and operating systems.’
However, the firm said in an official press release that the said exploits do not ‘have the potential to corrupt, modify or delete data’ and that the said flaw is not specific to Intel products but is also present in chips manufactured by the likes of AMD and ARM Holdings.
While Intel is fixing the said flaw in all affected chips, operating system developers like Microsoft, Apple and Linux are also racing against time to separate kernel memory from memory used by normal applications. Fixes have already been made available for some versions of Linux while fixes for Windows operating systems are yet to be released.
Even though upcoming patches will cure the said flaw in all affected platforms, they will also reduce system speeds by up to 30% as any update will involve rebooting servers running critical systems.
‘The patch of such a flaw is a major challenge as a firmware update typically requires a reboot so for servers running critical systems, this results in unplanned downtime. With the fix having a potential performance impact of up to 30%, this means critical systems already running at full power could require costly upgrades to ensure operational stability,’ noted Joseph Carson, Chief Security Scientist at Thycotic.
What organisations need to do to protect their data
Carson warns that if organisations choose to ignore that latest security threat, they will do so at their own peril as they may thereby leave their systems vulnerable to attacks more destructive than WannaCry and NotPetya which cost some companies up to $300 million.
‘The systems at higher risk are those that are internet connected, meaning they are easily accessible by cybercriminals and those systems used by employees, who regularly use them for browsing the internet, so these systems should be the priority for any organisation that takes cybersecurity seriously.
‘Organisations concerned about the possibility of passwords and login keys being exposed, should consider using a password management solution. Even if a cybercriminal exploited this security flaw, the password or login key exposure would be short lived as an enterprise password management solution could continuously rotate passwords regularly to ensure any compromise would be short lived,’ he adds.
‘While all the details are not available at this point, from what is known, this vulnerability can be considered a threat: it could allow for credential theft or other privilege escalation exploits. In this respect, while potentially dire, it’s very similar to an insider threat or admin data breach. Organisations need to layer multiple levels of protection to build defensive depth in their networks and applications,’ said Buckbee.


text:
It’s never too late. Finally, the Google Play Store is coming out with a dark mode feature. Google will soon launch a dark mode feature for its Play Store. With the launch of Android 10, Google decided to introduce this feature without interacting with the third-party applications. This feature will enable the user to customize the application’s color theme automatically. But still, a few applications took a lot of time to apply the feature. It seems like they are not ready for this change.
Play Store x Dark Mode
Moreover, the two major applications were the Google Play Store and Gmail. Two days ago, i.e. on 11th September, dark mode feature rolled out on Gmail successfully. However, it ran on Android 10 only. As reported by XDA Developers, this feature will also surface on Google Pixel smartphones. The update is available for a few users but we expect it to get access to everyone out there.
However, if its the first party feature, then it will be available only on Android 10. The Android Pie users will be restricted to use the current version only.
Why Dark Mode?
The dark mode is not heavy on the eyes. It is easier to use a smartphone with a darker background at night. Further, the dark theme uses fewer pixels to lighten up the screens. The white pixels consume more battery than the black ones. Therefore, battery life is extended. Most importantly, dark apps look a lot nicer as compared to bright and white backgrounds. Thus, blessing your apps’ backgrounds. For this exciting feature, Google Android 10 might become the best operating system in the time.


text:
For web users in India, the Rediff Realtime News Search feature has rolled out in the beta stage. The search engine currently covers online news, communication, information, entertainment and shopping services from around the world.
Realtime News Search can be accessed from a link on the main Rediff website itself. Offering a sort of ‘now trending’ option, a ‘Happening Now’ section is fixed below the main search box that shows on the special news search page. From what we’re seeing, it may require a bit of polishing before it manages to find dedicated users considering that there are no proper sections going by topics like technology, science, entertainment and so on.
Ajit Balakrishnan, Chairman and CEO of Rediff.com India, explained, “Rediff Realtime News Search, we believe, will help us strengthen our leadership position in the online news category in the growing Indian Internet market and is yet another example of how we differentiate our company from the competition. This latest innovation provides Rediff.com users with a cutting edge search experience and, we believe, will open up new avenues to grow our business and enhance the Rediff brand.”
The latest introduction to Rediff gathers content from more than 30,000 global news websites. It proffers search term predictions to help save on the energy spent typing them in. What’s more, the service has an index size of around 13 million images, the pictures being collected from Indian as well as international news sites.
The Rediff Realtime News Search page even displays a section for user feedback and allowing visitors to share it via email or their Facebook, Twitter and Rediff accounts.


text:
In 2019, it is expected to be the year that most smartphone makers will showcase the first folding devices, and everyone is wondering how to design this particular smartphone, with Lenovo’s suggestion being revealed in a short video.
The video reveals a device, possibly in the form of a prototype, which appears to be quite tall, something that sounds normal as it will fold and its size will be reduced to half, with the folding mechanism reminiscent of the one we find in Microsoft Surface Book 2.
The device looks quite original and is something we are not used to, hoping that its design has been improved until it’s official release, provided of course it can be mass-produced. We should mention that in 2017 Lenovo showed a demo of Cplus, which was a folding device in the form of an AMOLED bracelet at 4.35 inches.
Lenovo did not rule out the possibility of launching the original Moto RAZR device at the expense of Cplus, bringing memories from the Motorola device, which, according to many consumers, had a revolutionary design when it was released in 2004.


text:
For those unfamiliar with the name, X-copy is a highly influential and enigmatic crypto artist known for creating captivating digital art pieces that leverage blockchain technology. With a dedicated following, the artist continues to push boundaries in the digital art world.
Yesterday, the illusive crypto artist X-copy left the digital art world abuzz with anticipation by dropping a cryptic tweet that hinted at a significant event on March 24th. The tweet read: "FRIDAY'S FORECAST: 99.99% PAIN." This date holds special significance, as March 24th in both 2021 and 2022 saw remarkable X-copy drops: TRAITORS and MAXPAIN, respectively.
These two drops showcased X-copy's mastery in utilizing blockchain mechanics, such as open editions and burn events. For instance, the piece TRAITOR was originally listed for $9,999, but now boasts a floor price of $200k on Nifty Gateway. Meanwhile, AFTERBURN pieces were burned to redeem highly sought-after open editions.


text:
SWITZERLAND: Richemont appoints joint CEOs
Two joint CEOs will take the place of current Richemont boss Johann Rupert when he steps down from the post next year, the luxury goods company has announced.
Current Cartier CEO Bernard Fornas and company deputy CEO Richard Lepeu will take on the joint positions on 1 April next year, the day after Rupert relinquishes the post.
Richemont said that Fornas' role would be to oversee the company's “maisons” or operating companies, while Lepeu would continue to oversee central functions.
The two, along with company CFO Gary Savage, will form a senior executive committee.
Meanwhile, Fornas will be replaced as Cartier CEO by Stanislas de Quercize on 1 January.
Richemont also announced the following additions to the company’s group management committee: Montblanc CEO Lutz Bethge; Hans-Peter Bichelmeier, group operations director; de Quercize; Georges Kern, CEO of IWC Schaffhausen; Jérôme Lambert, CEO of Jaeger-LeCoultre; and Philippe Léopold-Metzger, CEO of Piaget.
Leaving the committee by the end of the financial year, but remaining in their executive roles will be: Giampiero Bodino, group art director; Alan Grieve, director of corporate affairs; Eloy Michotte, corporate finance director; and Jan Rupert, executive director.
Switzerland-based luxury goods company Richemont is expected to record substantial profit growth for the year to 31 March, thanks to favourable exchange rates....
- Better factory conditions boost the bottom line
- Is there more to Primark's woes than the weather?
- Under Armour on track with new UAS sportswear line
- Myanmar garment exports surged 20% in 2015
- Why synthetic fibres are a safe bet for the future
- Vietnam garment exports slow as orders stall
- H&M living wage commitments criticised in Cambodia
- Vietnam's Vinatex opens $5.7m garment factory
- Nike digital direction pushes speed and innovation
- Brexit may hit suppliers with UK duty-free access


text:
DAYTON, Ohio — Hot Head Burritos a Dayton-based chain is opening new locations in Ohio and four other states this year.
Hot Head Burritos also is launching new restaurants in Wilmington, Ohio, New Castle and North Webster, Indiana, and Lexington, Kentucky. The Lexington restaurant is slated to open in April, and the North Webster location is expected by the end of February.
Hot Head Burritos was launched in 2007. Today, there are nearly 80 Hot Head locations across the United States.


text:
ExchangeWire Research’s weekly roundup brings you up-to-date research findings from around the world, with additional insight provided by Rebecca Muir, head of research and analysis, ExchangeWire. In this week’s edition: UK ad spend to pass £20bn in 2016; ID fraud risk higher for tech-savvy consumers; and 80% of UK businesses fear being displaced by tech-focused competitors.
UK ad spend to continue rising
Based on their latest expenditure report, the Advertising Association/Warc predicts UK ad spend to grow by 4.2% in 2016, and continue increasing by 3.8% in 2017, with the Brexit vote apparently not hindering advertising expenditure in the near future.
The first quarter of 2016 already started strong with a 4.3% rise in ad spend, reaching more than £5bn – the first time that ad spend has passed £5bn in a first quarter. Total UK ad spend is forecast to hit almost £21bn in 2016.
Including mobile advertising, the report estimates internet ad spend to have grown 15.3% in Q1 alone, reaching a total of £2.34bn, with most of the growth due to mobile (96% of total internet growth). Mobile ad spend increased 55.9% year-on-year, to an estimated £830m during Q1 2016. For the full year, the Advertising Association expects internet ad spend growth to reach 12.3% in 2016, with a further 10.1% forecast for 2017. At the end of next year, the market is expected to be worth over £10bn.
According to the data, news brand and magazine ad spends continued their downward spiral in Q1, while TV and radio ad expenditure increased by 3.3% and 2.9%, respectively.
ID fraud risk higher for tech fans
Being a technology fan does not save you from ID fraud, a new study finds. Contrary to the assumption that tech-savvy users know how to avoid fraud risks on the internet, the study by Experian proves that consumers with strong affinity with technology, and who are the group who spend the most time on mobile devices and social networks, made up 23% of all ID fraud victims in 2015 – despite representing only 7.7% of the population.
Experian’s fraud expert Nick Mothershaw: “Those who embrace technology most enthusiastically make tempting targets for ID fraudsters, even though one might assume that tech-savvy users would be more aware of security risks and safeguards.”
Mothershaw suggests that combating fraud is the responsibility, not only of the users themselves, but also of businesses: “Aside from the fact that fraud costs the UK economy almost £200bn a year, by engaging and helping to protect their customers, businesses can foster even higher levels of loyalty to their brand and help to prevent them becoming victims.”
The group of tech-savvy users saw the biggest jump in ID theft, rising by 16.7% over the previous 12 months. Older and retired households, predominantly living in rural areas, also suffered from a large 15.4% increase in ID fraud year-on-year.
The survey is based on Experian’s 'digital tribes', which identify 11 distinct groups of the UK population in relation to their internet usage behaviour.
UK businesses still overwhelmed by technology
Being displaced, not only by startups, but also by established competitors, is the biggest fear of UK businesses; 80% of them fear competition despite being aware of their own failings, a new study by digital experts Squiz finds.
In a survey of over 200 UK decision makers, the vast majority of respondents (70%) conceded that digital technology is at the heart of innovation, yet at the same time 38% also responded that they need more technology experts in their organisation to stay ahead of the competition. Marketing and advertising are key skills cited by 37% of the respondents. Data and analytics is at number five of the wish list, with 31% of respondents saying that skills in this area will have to be acquired within the next five years.
However, despite the acknowledgment that digital technologies are imperative for future success, a large number of UK businesses admit that their organisations are slow to innovate and effectively prevent innovation: 34% of UK businesses ignore the power of progress by failing to encourage and celebrate innovation, Squiz says.
This attitude is also reflected in the fact that less than a quarter of UK businesses (24%) are currently using AI and VR. Surprisingly, this low rate is not only representative of businesses outside the major technology hubs, but also applies to London, for instance, where Squiz found only 27% of businesses based in the capital working with VR, and only 29% working with AI technologies. However, for those that are planning on using VR, 46% cited marketing and events as the key use.
Coupled with the fact that over a third (36%) of UK businesses still do not have a mobile app or mobile website, Squiz’s findings could be seen as a wake-up call to businesses: “Businesses have recognised that innovation will be the key to their survival, giving them time to change their approach”, says Stephen Morgan, co-founder of Squiz. “For the 40% of businesses that said they are slow to innovate, it is vital that they find the point of vulnerability within their business and act to bridge the gap it presents, before another business swoops in to do it for them, offering a better alternative to customers.”


text:
Canada gives no hints on timing of Nexen decision
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada refused to offer any hints on Friday on the timing of a decision on a bid by China's CNOOC Ltd for energy company Nexen Inc..
"Whatever the date, appropriate notice will be given," Andrew MacDougall, a spokesman for Prime Minister's Stephen Harper, told Reuters by email.
Canada's industry minister must rule whether the $15.1 billion offer is of net benefit to Canada. The December 10 deadline can be extended, provided both companies agree.
(Reporting by David Ljunggren, writing by Cameron French; Editing by Janet Guttsman)
- Housing, jobs data weaken, but overall economic picture still upbeat
- Putin critic Khodorkovsky in Germany after pardon |
- Target cyber breach hits 40 million payment cards at holiday peak |
- Pizza outlet attacked as India, U.S. fail to cool diplomat row |
- New York Mayor-elect's reputation for lateness parodied on Twitter


text:
Signs of progress in U.S.-China trade talks nudged stocks higher on Wall Street Thursday.
The Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq gained roughly a third of a percent.
But fears of an economic slowdown kept a lid on gains, after data showed GDP growth slowed more than initially thought in the fourth quarter.
CFRA investment strategist, Lindsey Bell: SOUNDBITE: CFRA INVESTMENT STRATEGIST, LINDSEY BELL, (ENGLISH) SAYING: "It's going to be a push-and-pull depending on, is the yield curve inverting today.
GDP came out.
It was lower than the prior reading but came in line with expectations.
We still have 3 percent GDP growth on a Q4 over Q4 basis, which is a very good number.
The question though is we're in a slowing growth environment.
What does that mean for corporate earnings?
What does that mean for the future of the economy here in the U.S.?" Trade-sensitive industrials and materials stocks led the gainers.
Reuters reported China has proposed unprecedented concessions on trade issues in talks with the U.S. Lululemon shares surged.
Several analysts raised their price targets on the yoga-pants specialist.
The company is aggressively moving into menswear and boosting online sales.
PVH shares shot sharply higher, gaining for the fourth straight session.
The apparel maker behind the Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein brands issued a bullish outlook for full year profit and sales.


text:
Tesla has almost doubled its best monthly sales in Australia – and the Model Y electric SUV was the third best-selling new vehicle in September after a record number of deliveries.
US electric car specialist Tesla nearly doubled its best selling month in Australia in September – and ranked one of its models third overall on the sales charts – after a record number of deliveries ended months of chronic stock shortages.
Sales data released today by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) lists 5,969 Tesla vehicles as delivered in September 2022, placing the brand seventh on the sales charts, ahead of Volkswagen, MG and Subaru.
It’s nearly double the 3,397 vehicles sold in Tesla’s best-ever month since records began, August 2022. The electric-car maker only started reporting sales data to VFACTS in March.
The Tesla Model Y SUV was the third best-selling model in September with 4,369 reported deliveries, behind best-sellers Toyota HiLux (5,170) and Ford Ranger (4,890) and ahead of popular models like the Mazda CX. 5, Mitsubishi Outlander, Toyota RAV4.
The strong sales result is being driven by the arrival of a record number of vehicle deliveries since late July – helped by upgrades at Tesla’s Shanghai, China plant, which ramped up production to record levels.
In the four months leading up to August, Tesla reported just 240 cars as delivered – after the COVID-19 lockdowns in China mostly shut down the company’s factory in March and April.
China became the third-biggest supplier of new vehicles after Australia last month, with the 5,969 Tesla vehicles contributing to a total of 14,889 — behind Japan (23,880) and Thailand (20,663), but probably a first ahead of South Korea (14,443).
With 14,023 reported deliveries year-to-date, Tesla has surpassed the 12,094 reported deliveries for all of 2021 — three months to go — and accounts for nearly 65 percent of all EVs reported as sold so far this year.
The Model Y’s record result breaks by 50 percent the previous best-ever monthly sales result for an electric car, which was achieved in March with 3,097 Tesla Model 3s. Model Y customer deliveries began in August, reaching 1,017 customers before the end of the month.
The remainder of the 5,969 Tesla vehicles sold are Model 3 sedans (1,610 vehicles) — the third best monthly sales result after 3,097 Tesla vehicles sold in March and 2,380 delivered in August.
It was the twelfth best-selling new vehicle last month and the second best-selling passenger car after the Hyundai i30 (1733).
Electric cars accounted for 7.7 percent of all new vehicles sold last month — four out of five of which were a Tesla badge — and 2.7 percent of sales so far this year.
Battery electric vehicles outperformed hybrid and plug-in hybrid cars combined in September with 7,247 and 5,141 respectively.
September electric car sales remain in the hundreds rather than thousands – including 140 sales for the Hyundai Ioniq 5, 85 for the Polestar 2 and 60 for the Kia EV6.
- VFACTS October 2022: Tesla sales plummet as deliveries are delayed
- The Tesla Model Y was Europe’s best-selling new car in September
- 2023 Tesla Model Y Performance: First deliveries postponed to next year
- BYD will release sales data in Australia later this month
- Exclusive: China’s BYD is already Australia’s second-best electric car brand


text:
The industrial property giant is the top performing member of the S&P/ASX 200 A-REIT index so far this year, with a total return of more than 15 per cent. Its trading price has recovered strongly in 2012, from 56¢ to about 66¢, after slumping on European economic concerns in late 2011. While the domestic industrial sector is expected to be mixed this year,
has significant exposure to offshore markets, including Asian locations that are set to rally. The trust has announced a swag of new logistics and warehousing deals, both locally and abroad, as it caters to demand from online retailers and related delivery groups. Amazon alone signed up for 110,000 square metres of warehouse and office facilities in two German cities in December, taking its total pre-commitments with Goodman in 2011 to 440,000 sqm. Analysts suggest Goodman, which offers a distribution yield of 6.6 per cent, looks cheap compared with both its local and global peers.


text:
[The next generation is] questioning—actually, they’re refusing—to give their time and attention to brands without a purpose, says Naomi Yamamoto, COO at Shiseido.
TikTok virality isn’t just a pipe dream or buzzword - it is critical for brands who want their campaigns to succeed on the tech platform.
We sit down (virtually, of course) with company leaders from Twitter, Spotify and Visa to find out.
The Korean conglomerate is driving impact in the countries it is present in.
2020 and beyond will see the rise of customer engagement, AI adoption, as well as better alignment between marketing and IT departments.
Mintel is poised to help brands chart a path to post-COVID 19 recovery.
In times of crises, most marketers are understandably worried about brand safety. Yet when people are out of the streets and tuning in from their homes more than ever, counter-intuitive tactics and empathy could drive your brand’s message in these extraordinary times.
COVID-19 has not only amplified the importance of purpose, it has prompted brands to assume unprecedented commitment, creativity and leadership - a concept underscored during WPP's, "A brand new purpose for the new world" session - part of last week's Campaign Connect virtual event.
The idea of programmatic buying no longer cut it. Matterkind is spearheading a future that is all-addressable.
Sign up for Getty Images' upcoming webinar to glean insights into visual strategies in the financial services sector during COVID-19.
OMP is thriving, OTT is on the up and up, although a bias for direct buying is still preventing wider adoption of programmatic.
LOTTE is all too aware that its role in the global industrial market is two-fold: improve efficiency and performance while offering sustainable solutions for its consumers.
Knowing your consumer beyond the pixel: How Xaxis is bridging online & offline data to deliver outcomes
In today’s omnichannel world, marketers can’t afford such disunity in their understanding of the consumer. In comes Beyond, a solution to bridge the gap between siloed consumer data to help advertisers more effectively drive business outcomes.
Where are we seeing upticks in installs during COVID 19—and will that sustain? What’s the spilt between paid and organic installs across verticals? How much should marketers invest in growth versus retention? Adjust’s report sheds light on the above and more.
The current COVID-19 pandemic has shown us that consumers, especially in volatile periods, look towards credible and trusted sources for information.
Top news, insights and analysis every weekday
Sign up for Campaign Bulletins


text:
Just one-third of firms report cyber attacks to the police
Businesses clam up, even when cybercrime harms their trade, survey finds
Fewer than a third of businesses report cyber attacks to the police, according to new research.
Just 28 per cent of firms targeted by hackers tell the police about it, the Institute of Directors (IoD)'s report found, even though half of these attacks harmed business operations.
The survey of 980 IoD members in the Cyber Security: Underpinning the Digital Economy report, co-authored with Barclays, showed that only 57 per cent had a strategy to combat cyber attacks, while just a fifth had insurance against an attack.
Meanwhile, seven out of 10 businesses had never heard of fraud reporting organisation Action Fraud Aware, which deals with fraud and business crime.
Professor Richard Benham, the author of the report, said: "Cybercrime is one of the biggest business challenges of our generation and companies need to get real about the financial and reputational damage it can inflict. The spate of recent high-profile attacks has spooked employers of all sizes and it is vital to turn this awareness into action.
"Our report shows that cyber must stop being treated as the domain of the IT department and should be a boardroom priority. Businesses need to develop a cyber security policy, educate their staff, review supplier contracts and think about cyber insurance."
The news comes after the Office of National Statistics included cybercrime in its crime figures for the first time last year, showing such offences contributed to 44 per cent of the total.
Adam Rowse, head of business banking at Barclays, said: "Businesses must recognise the threat that cybercrime can pose to them, their reputation and subsequently their bottom line. With the number of customers going online rapidly rising the issue of cyber security has never been more important."
What you need to know about migrating to SAP S/4HANA
Factors to assess how and when to begin migrationDownload now
Your enterprise cloud solutions guide
Infrastructure designed to meet your company's IT needs for next-generation cloud applicationsDownload now
Testing for compliance just became easier
How you can use technology to ensure compliance in your organisationDownload now
Best practices for implementing security awareness training
How to develop a security awareness programme that will actually change behaviourDownload now


text:
In the internet age, no two stocks have wowed the market like Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) and Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN). Both companies disrupted major industries -- Netflix shaking up video entertainment, and Amazon redefining retail, among others -- and reaped tremendous returns along the way. As a result, Netflix's stock price has skyrocketed more than 26,000% since its 2002 IPO, while Amazon stock is up about 8,000% over the same period, and up more than 80,000% since its own 1997 market debut.
And both have delighted investors more recently as they continue to deliver strong revenue growth. In the past year alone, Netflix is up a whopping 117% while Amazon has gained 84%. Together, they are half of the vaunted group of "FANG stocks" that have both propelled and outperformed the market in recent years.
If you're debating whether to buy Amazon or Netflix, the best answer is probably to buy both, given their past performance and prospects. But if you had to choose just one, which is the better stock to buy today?
Market outperformance often comes down to besting the competition, and Amazon and Netflix have attracted plenty of rivals.
Netflix pioneered the transition away from cable TV, first disrupting video rental stores with its DVD-by-mail model, then launching a streaming video service and producing its own programming. With its huge content budget, projected to reach $8 billion this year, Netflix is rewriting the rules of Hollywood, attracting top talent like Grey's Anatomy's showrunner Shonda Rhimes and Glee's Ryan Murphy, and changing the way people around the world consume entertainment. Thus far, Netflix's growth has not been derailed by the entries of Amazon, HBO, Hulu and others to the streaming scene, but it could face the biggest challenge to its leadership yet when Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS) debuts its own services, especially if its acquisition of Fox's entertainment assets goes through.
Disney expects to launch ESPN Plus, a sports-based streaming service, in the coming months, and has a more general-entertainment streaming service on track to debut next year. Disney will also become the majority owner of Hulu with its acquisition of those Fox assets.
However, thus far, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings' contention that there's plenty of room in streaming for multiple competitors has proven true: Millions of subscribers are already paying for more than one service. Therefore, Disney's entry is not necessarily a negative for Netflix.
Amazon, meanwhile, competes in so many different industries that virtually every large tech and retail company is a competitor, and with its steps into healthcare and logistics, it's making waves in still more markets. More often than not, Amazon is setting the tone in the industries where it operates. Supermarket stocks, including Walmart and Costco, were leveled by its acquisition of Whole Foods, and it took the wind out of health insurance stocks when it announced its plans with Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase to shake up the U.S. healthcare system. As Amazon's plan to offer free two-hour delivery from Whole Foods to Prime members shows, the e-commerce giant poses a bigger threat to traditional supermarkets than they do to it. Finally, its Prime loyalty program gives it a network of competitive advantages that are unmatched by any of its rivals. The appeal of free two-day shipping, video streaming, and its other bundled services have attracted an estimated 80 million U.S. members, giving Amazon leverage to attract still more new customers and grow its market share across a range of industries. Overall, it's a significant competitive moat.
Both Netflix and Amazon have put up consistently strong growth numbers, with revenue growth of 20% or more in nearly every quarter for the last decade.
Netflix still has an ample growth path ahead: Even five years ago, Hastings predicted his company could hit 60 million to 90 million subscribers in the U.S. Today, it has 55 million, and is still showing a strong growth curve. But the international market should be much richer as the company has only started to penetrate regions like Asia. As internet speeds and smartphones improve in the coming years, Netflix has an opportunity to triple its subscriber numbers, and could grow its top line even faster, given that it could easily raise its prices. The service offers considerable value, and its appeal is only likely to grow as the company spends even more on content. Consumers' general non-response to its recent price hike demonstrated that Netflix's service is stickier than some investors give it credit for.
Amazon, on the other hand, has a number of promising growth opportunities ahead of it, including in e-commerce, groceries, cloud computing, advertising, and voice-activated technology. Its entry into business segments like advertising again demonstrates the power of the company's competitive advantages and its flywheel. CEO Jeff Bezos has shown time and again that his company will dive headfirst into any emerging market, which gives the company optionality -- in other words, the possibility that it will be able to deliver growth from business segments that it doesn't even compete in today. Case in point, its cloud-computing division, Amazon Web Services: A decade ago, that wasn't on anyone's radar. Now, it's a huge profit center for the company.
Who's the better buy?
Both companies trade at sky-high valuations: Netflix has a P/E of 254, while Amazon's is a nearly identical 256. However, those numbers seem justified as profit growth is ramping up at both companies.
Of the two, Netflix seems like it faces a greater set of risks today. The stock has already surged 64% this year, which could set it up for a pullback, especially as Disney enters the streaming scene. Amazon, meanwhile, has the foundation of AWS underpinning its profit growth, and its network of competitive advantages should lead to consistent gains in categories like advertising.
Amazon, however, is the much bigger company of the two, meaning it can't grow much more before becoming a trillion-dollar company -- possibly even the first one.
Still, based on price and competitive strengths, I'd call Amazon the better buy. The e-commerce giant has an unmatched set of competitive advantages, more avenues of growth, and is better protected from a pullback. Netflix is a riskier stock, but its long-term potential makes it worth owning as well.


text:
Jerash Holdings to Manufacture Apparel for Skechers
July 18, 2022 at 08:00 AM EDT
FAIRFIELD, NJ / ACCESSWIRE / July 18, 2022 / Jerash Holdings (US), Inc. (NASDAQ:JRSH), a premium manufacturer and exporter of custom, ready-made, sportswear and outerwear for leading global brands, today announced the addition of a new prominent lifestyle branded customer, Skechers, known for its footwear and a growing range of apparel offerings.
"We are thrilled to add Skechers to our growing roster of high-profile, quality global apparel brands, as we continue our goal to expand and further diversify our customer base," said Sam Choi, Jerash's chairman and chief executive officer. "Our initial order from Skechers is to produce women's polos, starting in the third quarter of 2022, and represents an estimate of approximately 500,000 pieces annually, based on our current projection.
"The continued growth of Jerash's offerings to global branded customers is a testament to the Company's reputation as a trusted, top-quality garment manufacturer in Jordan, capable of producing highly complex apparel. Moreover, our customers benefit from the free-trade agreements with the U.S. and the EU.
"Jerash is well positioned to capture increasing opportunities in the region, as more companies move their production away from the Far East because of higher tariffs, rising labor costs, and the pandemic shutdowns," Choi added.
About Jerash Holdings (US), Inc.
Forward Looking Statements
SOURCE: Jerash Holdings
View source version on accesswire.com: