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A La Carte: Pho Plus expands, Pasture & Pearl coming to Sanibel
Pho Plus is opening in Fort Myers, Pasture & Pearl coming to Sanibel, two local Peruvian eateries expand to Naples, craft beer news, and more.
Pho Plus is coming to Fort Myers.
The Cape Coral-based restaurant, known for its array of Vietnamese dishes and boba teas, will open its second location at 12951 Metro Parkway, south Fort Myers, on Sunday, Oct. 2.
“So many of our customers are coming from Fort Myers,” owner Phillip Tran said of the 21-month-old Cape store.
“You have so many pho lovers here.”
The approximately 60-seat restaurant sits in the old TK’s Sports Bar space just north of Daniels Parkway. Tran took over the unit in May and has spent the last four months renovating what was once a smoky dive bar into a space that’s fresh, light and spotlessly clean.
New stools line the bar, with new booths and tables in the narrow dining area. The kitchen, which Tran said was slicked in grease, has been completely renovated, too.
That’s where Tran’s wife, Queenie Nguyen, will be stationed.
“She’s adding all her great flavors to the dishes,” Tran said. “She has the ability to make everything taste even better.”
Pho Plus will offer Viet-style hot pots, a fondue-style of cooking where raw meats are simmered tableside in Vietnamese broth. Seafood dishes include peel-and-eat crawfish, and whole fish fried to order then slathered in a paste of fresh garlic and herbs.
There will, of course, be pho, and hibachi lunch specials for less than $10.
“We want it so people can afford to come here,” said Tran, noting most dinner entrees will be in the $10-$15 range.
Beer and wine will be served, and free delivery will be available within a three-mile radius. Pho Plus will be open Wednesday to Monday 10 a.m.-9 p.m. (closed Tuesdays). Call 888-4408 or find it on Facebook for more.
A NEW PEARL ON SANIBEL
Pasture & Pearl, a new restaurant focused on sustainable, ethically raised foods, plans to open on Sanibel early next year.
“The husband and wife team of Chef Elaine Dammeyer and general manager Christian Jego are bringing to Sanibel Island a unique dining experience where farm and sea meet at the table,” a press release stated.
Dammeyer and Jego plan to offer local produce and pasture-raised meats from White Oak Pastures in Bluffton, Georgia. Menu items include baked oysters with spinach, yuzu-butter and panko crumbs; pastured rabbit agnolotti with crisp sage; and a White Oak Pastures 32-ounce, dry-aged, bone-in rib eye with crème fraîche horseradish sauce and shoe string fries.
Pasture & Pearl is part of the Sanibel-based Raffine Hospitality, which has gourmet restaurants and boutique hotels throughout the U.S., Europe and the Caribbean. The Sanibel restaurant will be at 2340 Periwinkle Way in The Village Shops. Visit raffinehospitality.com to learn more.
• Fish Tale Restaurant is coming to the former Fish House space at Fish-Tale Marina on the south end of Fort Myers Beach later this fall. The 175-seat waterfront restaurant will remain casual and seafood-oriented, according to owners Paul and Elizabeth Rosen. Find it at 7225 Estero Blvd. or visit fishtalerestaurant.com for more.
• Bunfire, the local chain known for its $1 tacos and gas-station based stores, is opening a location inside the Marathon gas station at 4561 Colonial Blvd., Fort Myers on Monday, Oct. 3. The restaurant will be giving away three free tacos or a free burrito on its opening day from 4-9:30 p.m. Visit bunfire.com or facebook.com/bunfireordering for more.
• Everglades Wonder Gardens has a new neighbor to feed hungry visitors. Twisted Tangle Café opened last week at 27120 Old US 41, Bonita Springs, serving brisket, pulled pork, chicken quarters, sweet potato casserole, scalloped corn, baked beans and more. Hours are 8 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday to Sunday. For more, visit twistedtanglecafe.com.
• In Cape Coral, Mr. Brew’s Taphouse announced it will open by the end of October at 2384 Surfside Blvd. Find more at mrbrewstaphouse.com.
• Tropical Smoothie Café opened its latest location Monday at 2139 Santa Barbara Blvd. S., Cape Coral. Call 673-6186 or visit tropicalsmoothie.com for more.
AJI LIMON, EL GAUCHO INCA EXPAND TO NAPLES
Two Lee County-based Peruvian restaurants are opening new locations in Naples.
Aji Limon, which has two locations in Cape Coral, is opening a third in the former Inca’s Kitchen space in Collier Plaza on Collier Boulevard in Golden Gate. El Gaucho Inca will launch its North Naples location in the former space of Fred’s Food, Fun and Spirits, which closed at the end of June in Uptown Center off Immokalee Road.
Aji Limon made its debut on Pine Island Road in Cape Coral in 2010. El Gaucho Inca opened on Colonial Boulevard in Fort Myers in April 2011. Find more at ajilimonperuviancuisine.com and elgauchoinca.com.
IN BREWERY NEWS …
South Cypress Brewing, Naples' newest craft brewery, is holding its launch party Oct. 15 at its location inside The Brass Tap at 895 Wiggins Pass Road. The event will feature several of the microbrewery’s rare and barrel-aged beers, wild ales and sours, along with games, food and more. Collaboration beers made with Fat Point Brewing, Bury Me Brewing Co., and 3 Sons Brewing Co. will also be served. Call 631-6397 or visit facebook.com/southcypressbrewing for further details.
Speaking of Bury Me, the Fort Myers brewery has started bottling. It now offers its From My Cold Dead Hands IPA, 6 Ft. Down oatmeal stout, Hell Bound honey brown, and its award-winning Bag O’ Bones ESB in 22-ounce bottles sold from its taproom and, soon, from local retail stores, as well. Find Bury Me Brewing at 4224 S. Cleveland Ave. across from the Edison Mall. Call 332-2337 or visit burymebrewing.com for more.
BEST OF TASTE IN THE PARK
Join the Junior League of Fort Myers and the Red Sox Foundation for Best of Taste in the Park on Oct. 17 from 6-8 p.m. at JetBlue Park, 11500 Fenway South Drive, south Fort Myers.
Participants will taste their way around restaurant stations, sampling dishes the restaurants will be serving at Taste of the Town on Nov. 6. They will also vote for the “People’s Choice Award.” Participating restaurants include Connor’s Steak & Seafood, Love Boat Ice Cream, Lucky Mi, The Melting Pot, Norman Love Confections and 11:Eleven Café.
Tickets are $75 each and limited to 200 attendees. Entry includes complimentary beer, wine and craft-spirit tastings. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit redsoxfoundation.org/best-of-taste or email email@example.com.
Naples Daily News staff writer Tim Aten contributed reporting. A La Carte is a compilation of news and notes from the Southwest Florida dining scene. Send ideas to firstname.lastname@example.org. Connect with the Taste reporters: @ATometich (Twitter) and @AnneKathrynReed (Twitter).


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While both the industrial and office sectors have displayed somewhat volatile vacancy rates over the past five years, the retail sector has consistently performed well.
Aside from Regina straying slightly over 4 per cent in 2017, both cities have otherwise achieved a number below 4 per cent since 2013.
Let’s take a closer look at each city.
Our Lady of Paris, the literal translation for Notre-Dame de
Paris, has received an outpouring of public sympathy following a devastating
fire last week.
Having seen Notre-Dame in person I can tell you it’s something
The full cost of the fire is still being tallied but I’m not
sure you can put a price on something that is nearly irreplaceable.
There are times when it is not wise to invest in commercial
Alternatively, many potential investors don’t take the plunge out of fear of the unknown and years later regret it.
Let’s look at some examples of when you’d be advised not to
In a city projecting another deficit year, it
might seem strange that Mayor Charlie Clark has decided to lay down a mandate
for a new downtown rink.
But Clark has recently declared that a site for
the new arena will need to be chosen before the end of 2019.
What’s the big rush?
There are three significant numbers I’m looking at to determine the sentiment of the industrial real estate market.
One of those numbers is positive, and two illustrate we have yet a way to go before we’ve fully recovered.
Last week, Saskatchewan’s
Minister of Finance Donna Harpauer released her second budget, which projects a
$34.4-million surplus for 2019.
Thinking selfishly, I wondered:
how does this budget impact commercial real estate sale investment in our
I purchased my second single family home in 1979. It was located at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac in a good neighborhood.
The downside was it backed onto a retail strip mall. That wasn’t a concern for me however because everything within that retail corridor was one storey.
Within a year of owning the home, it was announced that a five-storey office building would be constructed overlooking my rear yard.
I immediately sold the property.
Even though the project was public knowledge, I believed it would be easier to sell before it could be seen that the windows in that towering structure would have a full view of my yard.
From that early, first hand experience I can relate to
homeowners that are suddenly faced with a project that significantly impacts
the value of their home.
The Regina Leader-Post published an article in 2008 with Stu
Rathwell, a franchise partner in the new Regina’s Chili’s Grill and & Bar.
Stu shared that his Saskatoon location would be open by that
His optimism about the Chili’s brand was hopeful; if things
took off as he was hoping, he predicted people could expect to see several more
open across the province.
Fast forward to 2019.
If you happened upon Saskatoon’s Preston Crossing the last
week of February, you may have caught sight of Stu’s dream deflating right before
Entrepreneurs Louis and Shaol Pozez could not anticipate 63 years ago that the demise of their discount shoe business would be taken down by a network of computers
This isn’t a story from the rejected piles of Terminator franchise spinoffs; this is a reality.
The Pozez’ conception that grew into Payless ShoeSource brick and mortar stores across the U.S. and Canada are officially shuttering.
Their disregard for advancing online sales, in addition to highly leveraged assets, proved fatal.

domain: news


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January 7-9 Adsterra is back to Affiliate Summit West 2018! The event will host over 6K digital marketers from 70+ countries in Las Vegas, USA.
In 2018 the Summit takes place at Paris Las Vegas Hotel, bringing together those who are deeply committed to the digital marketing industry. With around 100 outstanding speakers to cover all the latest trends and various networking events announced there’s no doubt that’s a great chance to keep abreast with the recent developments and make useful acquaintances.
Seize an opportunity to meet Adsterra team in person to talk business. Schedule your meeting today and meet us at Affiliate Summit West 2018!
[su_button url=”https://adsterra.com/events/” target=”blank” style=”flat” background=”#B84228″ size=”8″ center=”yes” radius=”5″]Request a meeting[/su_button]


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Mealkits have been an industry buzzword for the last 18 months, though they’ve yet to begin to realize the expected potential. Big players like Blue Apron and HelloFresh have stumbled through start-up phases, and customer retention rates have proven problematic with the average mealkit dinner clocking in around $12.50.
Now there’s a new player in the space that could revolutionize everything, doing away with the need for infrastructure and micro-curation and instead providing name-brand appeal with traditional delivery methods that will also boost brick-and-mortar and online retailer sales.
Meredith Corporation, publisher of iconic brands like Better Homes & Gardens and AllRecipes.com, announced last week it’s entering the “meal plan” market – basically, having its notable experts provide menus, right down to the last teaspoon of salt, for consumers, who can then use apps or other methods to have those meals picked and packed at retail or online for pickup or delivery.
Users can shop themselves or save time by skipping the grocery store with integrated pickup and delivery options. Users can place their order via an app for pickup at Walmart Grocery and Kroger ClickList locations, or for same-day home delivery through AmazonFresh, Instacart and soon through Shipt.
What makes that news particularly important is that Meredith is one of the world’s largest publishers, with a catalog of instantly recognizable, vetted consumer brands like Parents, People, Entertainment Weekly, Southern Living and Sports Illustrated – could entertainment and sports celebrity meal plans be far behind?
Says analyst Daniel McCarthy, assistant professor of marketing at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School, “I think Meredith could be a real competitor in the mealkit industry. With 200 million subscribers currently, they get very broad reach ‘for free’ which should lower their customer acquisition cost.
“The expertise they have built up in recipes should help keep down their cost to serve the customer. The partnerships with AmazonFresh and Instacart are interesting. This is certainly one way to allow Meredith to offer direct delivery, which will be a necessity for many of the people who will consider using the service. It also makes the business model very asset-light.”
The mealkit market has hardly been static. Many retailers have jumped in the game with their own offerings, despite disappointing early returns. As McCarthy’s previous research has pointed out, customer retention is a huge problem for mealkit purveyors. Blue Apron’s IPO last year was a major disappointment, with stock shares tumbling before and after the initial offering. Those struggles have continued, as this week it was announced that Hello Fresh, with its recent acquisition of Green Fresh, is now the leader in the mealkit space by a narrow 1% margin.
For whatever that’s worth. The verdict is most definitely out on mealkits, as far as consumers are concerned. The initial appeal is obvious: An easy way to make a quality meal at home and maybe combine that with quality family time. But when the end ticket comes to about $50 for a family of four, people start to wonder if maybe they could have had the same kind of quality experience by going out for a meal together and not having to do the dishes afterwards?
Meredith has partnered with eMeals, a leading digital meal planning solution for over a decade, to bring editorially curated meal plans to millions of home cooks through its well-known Allrecipes, Better Homes & Gardens, and EatingWell brands. Users of a simple app will have access to trusted, end-to-end meal planning solutions, developed by Meredith editors and staff nutritionists, from recipe inspiration to shopping list creation and grocery fulfillment. Users select the meals they want to make for the coming week, save recipe favorites, and automatically generate a shopping list of ingredients for pickup or delivery.
Paleo, Gluten-Free, Name A Diet…
Meredith’s mealplans are “cutting to the middle of the mealkit morass – you have no investment in infrastructure, no investment in perishables, you are simply packaging intellectual property – vetted, verified, credible intellectual property – and letting people do what they will with it,” says Forrest Collier, CEO of eMeals.
The added stroke of brilliance of partnering with local retailers for prep is utter genius. Prices plummet, retailers don’t lose business, consumers get the same experience: Everybody wins because they actually know the experts behind the meal plan. Not one consumer can name one person who works for or represents Blue Apron or Hello Fresh.
“It’s more experiential,” Collier says.
It’s also nothing new for Meredith and eMeals. What’s a mealkit other than a recipe that someone else picks and packs for you? Meredith has been doing that on the recipe side across the media spectrum for years – and with eMeals can do so in a variety of ways to meet consumer needs, from gluten-free to diabetic diets to whatever the fad of the moment is.
“We’ve been doing it for a decade but we’ve also used the platform to take the content form AllRecipes and Better Homes and Gardens and basically give the same option – once people sign up they’re free to use any of our plans, paleo, gluten-free or whatever,” Collier says. “The traditional mealkit certainly struck at the heart of the convenience people need and want in today’s culture and that works for some people.”
But for most Americans, mealkits are a novelty or a treat, something to enjoy “typically as a one-off or a once-a-month experience” except for “maybe a couple who both work and live in San Francisco or New York. But for most people who are feeding a family of two or three of four and wanting to do it multiple nights a week,” traditional mealkits are unaffordable, Collier says.
Will Consumers Be Willing To Do Any Prep Work?
McCarthy worries that Meredith might not be making the mealkit idea quite simple enough, though.
“How effective this distribution strategy is remains to be seen,” he says. “The traditional meal kit operators have gone a very different route, cutting and packing ingredients themselves, and having their own distribution facilities that they ship out of. Meredith is taking a more ‘hands off’ approach to prep work on the ingredients. This could certainly be cheaper, and offering a service that is cost competitive could win over some customers who otherwise would have been on the fence at a higher price point. But customer retention has been generally very poor for companies that primarily have higher prep time offerings.
That’s why “Blue Apron and HelloFresh have both pivoted a lot more towards low-prep meals, and Gobble, which has the best customer retention of any meal kit company, focuses exclusively on this market. So from a unit economics perspective, I would be less worried about CAC and cost structure, and more worried about what their customer retention will be.”
One thing’s for sure. Consumers love the idea of mealkits. When somebody finds the perfect solution to delivery, the revolution will be on in full.


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Shares of nine auto companies fell by 0.27% to 3.41% at 12:45 IST on the BSE after industry lobby SIAM reported a decline in vehicles sales across all categories in June 2019.
Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Sensex was down by 216.88 points, or 0.56% to 38,513.94. The BSE S&P Auto index was down 1.19%, underperforming the Sensex.
TVS Motor Company (down 3.41%), Tata Motors (down 3.27%), Bajaj Auto (down 1.57%), Mahindra & Mahindra (down 1.09%), Escorts (down 0.42%), Hero MotoCorp (down 0.4%), Eicher Motors (down 0.3%), Maruti Suzuki India (down 0.27%) declined. Ashok Leyland was up 0.24%.
The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) reported that domestic passenger vehicle sales declined 17.54% to 2.25 lakh units in June 2019 over June 2018.
The domestic car sales have fallen 24.07% to 1.39 lakh units in June 2019 over June 2018. The total two wheeler sales declined 11.69% to 16.49 lakh units, while the sales of commercial vehicles fell by 12.27% to 70,771 units during the period under review.
Meanwhile, a foreign brokerage expects auto companies’ Q1 to be one of the weakest quarters in recent times. For its coverage universe (ex-JLR), the brokerage forecast 5% YoY revenue decline and EBITDA/PAT is likely to decline 23%/34% YoY. Margin is likely to come off by 250 bps YoY on lower operating leverage, the brokerage explained. However, lower commodity prices will support margin by 50-100 bps in Q1 & Q2.


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We are excited to be a hot chocolate and cookies sponsor for Hellertown Light Up Night on Friday (Nov. 23) from 6-9 pm! After a hard day of Black Friday shopping sales at local businesses, take [...]
We are happy to announce that Hellertown Dental Group will begin accepting Dentacoin Cryptocurrency as a means of payment. Digital tokens and currencies are becoming part of the fabric of our [...]
Veterans: make your appointment for October 11th – we are providing free cleanings, exams, x-rays and more for US Veterans by appointment only. Did you know that sadly many U.S. veterans [...]
Dr Ann Hunsicker-Morrissey was sworn in as the new president of the Pennsylvania Academy of General Dentistry (PAGD) on Friday April 20th. After practicing for nearly 30 years, Dr Ann is widely [...]
This Christmas our office sponsored a family from New Bethany Ministries to help make sure they had presents under the tree.
Dr. Ann and Cindy are attending St. Luke's University Hospital "Girls Night Out", an event that our office is also sponsoring. This fun night out helps raise awareness about reconstruction after [...]
Freedom Day is a growing national movement in which local businesses provide free services to veterans and active duty military members each Oct. 12. It is fairly new to our area and we hope more [...]


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Operation Snowdown has begun, and Epic Games recently added a Challenge where players have to dance at the holiday trees in Fortnite.
Earlier, players discovered that planes were returning to Fortnite Chapter 2 - Season 5, along with a bunch of new LTMs. These LTMs included Air Royale, Shockwave, Pickaxe Frenzy, Rally Royale, and so on.
Epic Games also revealed the first set of challenges for Operation Snowdown. Along with this, popular data miners discovered that players could win over 15 different cosmetic items from Operation Snowdown.
Where are the holiday trees in Fortnite Chapter 2 - Season 5?
Now, Epic Games have updated the challenges and quests for Operation Snowdown, and players will have to improvise. One of these challenges induces the need to "dance at the holiday trees in Fortnite."
This harks back on several previous challenges where players had to dance at specific locations in Fortnite. One of these included the highest and lowest points on the map.
However, this time, Epic Games have made sure that players enjoy the festive season. This is why they have scattered several holiday trees in Fortnite.
There are six known locations so far of holiday trees in Fortnite. Players can find and dance at the holiday trees in Fortnite in the following areas.
It is advisable that players watch their six, as opponents could be looking to complete these challenges as well.
Players can drop down at Dirty Docks to find the first set of holiday trees in Fortnite. Unlike other trees, this one is placed right on top of a building at Dirty Docks, so it is relatively easy to locate.
The second set of holiday trees in Fortnite can be found near Holly Hedges. Epic Games have turned the POI into a Christmas-themed spot. Luckily, players can also find a chest spawn near these holiday trees in Fortnite.
The third location is relatively common, and the tree is at Pleasant Park. For added motivation, planes spawn at Pleasant Park too. This might help them complete two challenges at once - dance at the holiday trees in Fortnite and eliminate players with the X-4 Stormwing.
Players can locate the fourth set of holiday trees in Fortnite at Craggy Cliffs. This might be a long-distance glide. Therefore, it is recommended that players make use of a vehicle or a plane. Simultaneously, players can find the tree right in front of the reboot van at Craggy Cliffs.
Salty Towers is the fifth location allocated to the holiday trees in Fortnite. Players can find the tree near right where the sand meets the grass, with a small hut beside.
The final location for the holiday trees in Fortnite is just north of the Colossal Colosseum. This location used to be the Upstate Stark Farm. Players will also encounter a chest that spawns right under the tree.
These are the six locations where players can dance at the holiday trees in Fortnite to complete this Operation Snowdown challenge.
This guide will hopefully help players find the holiday trees in Fortnite without much difficulty.


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To get the type of executive maritime director for the Port of Baltimore they were looking for, state officials took Horace Greeley's famous advice and went west -- as far as they could go on the continent -- to get their man.
The goal of the Maryland Port Commission and a 10-member search committee was to find someone who met their criteria (a strong manager, good rapport with unions and proven skills in growing markets) and Gov. Parris Glendening's sole requirement (a minority or a woman).
Their unanimous choice: Tay Yoshitani, 48, the deputy executive director for maritime operations at the giant Port of Los Angeles. If the new director lives up to his advance billing, Baltimore's port may be on the threshold of good times ahead.
Unlike Los Angeles, which has no trouble drawing in ever-more cargo from the Far East, Baltimore has had a devil of a time keeping pace with fierce competition from other East Coast ports for a dwindling number of calls from cargo ships. Mr. Yoshitani's biggest challenge will be to use his excellent contacts in the Far East to Baltimore's advantage.
The Far East, along with Latin America, could hold Baltimore's future. Countries in Asia and Sotheast Asia represent the fastest-growing component of the international trade market. China, that slowly awakening giant, has enormous potential, especially now that government-owned China Ocean Shipping Co. (Cosco) services Baltimore on a weekly basis. The latest maritime trend -- shipping goods from southern Asia to the East Coast by way of the Suez Canal -- favors Baltimore.
Mr. Yoshitani's new home offers some solid advantages for international shippers. There's plenty of space available, facilities are among the most modern around, there's direct rail and truck links from the docks and cooperative labor unions are finally putting to rest Baltimore's former reputation as a troubled port.
What has been missing has been a sustained marketing drive spearheaded by someone with high-level connections in key world markets. That will be Mr. Yoshitani's job. He comes to the port at a good time. Business is rebounding smartly after the bleak recession years. In 1994, cargo passing through the port grew by 17 percent.
The port is a vital element in Baltimore's -- and Maryland's -- economy. A thriving port means more jobs along the docks and inland, too. This is one economic engine that needs to be fine-tuned till it purrs. Much is riding on Mr. Yoshitani's success.


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Remember in psychology class when they told you that you’re born with all the neurons you’ll ever get? Not too long ago, scientists discovered that the brain is able to repair and regenerate some small pieces, but that it’s at a much slower rate with brain cells than with other cells in the body. This discovery has started a domino effect with new studies. Recent research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison did a test involving cats. When fed a certain diet, the cats developed movement disorders, vision loss and paralysis. When the cats had their myelin restored (think myelin sheaths and axons) the cats were eventually able to recover. This is huge news for research revolving around multiple sclerosis because it suggests remyelination, the regeneration of myelin sheaths, may lead to recovery from acute neurological disorders.
Many athletes have known for years what scientists are now dangerously sharing with the public: caffeine helps reduce pain during exercise. Most college athletes are banned from caffeine products because caffeine can be seen, to judges in sporting events, as an unfair advantage. However, recent research done by Health Professor Robert Motl at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign revealed something rather unusual. Though people build up a tolerance to caffeine in terms of providing energy, apparently the average Joe-consumer and the typical Joe can drink the same amount of coffee and have the same tolerance to pain. Apparently the pain-reducing aspect of caffeine doesn’t have a tolerance. Motl is doing more research to see if this actually helps athletes perform better and why there doesn’t seem to be a cap for pain tolerance. It is incredibly dangerous to share this with the public because many people forget that coffee and soda dehydrates the body, and though drinking large amounts of coffee before a run can make it less painful, strenuous workouts can become very dangerous if an athlete is dehydrated. Motl’s research can be found on Medical News Today.
Yet another food recall is sweeping through the country. Though I love pistachios, keep a hold on pistachio anything until the FDA gives the green light. There’s been a salmonella contamination and the Setton Pistachio of Terra Bella Inc, California plant is voluntarily recalling one million pounds of pistachio products. This is a little scary because pistachios are in many different foods and other products. This problem was recognized March 24th when Kraft Foods found salmonella in trail mix bought from Setton International Foods.


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Solid state drives may be the inevitable future of computer storage, but there's still plenty of demand for traditional hard disk drives. In fact there has been no indication of a market slowdown, which has affected the NAND flash industry, but rather a healthy 21% gain in shipments over the same period last year.
According to market research firm iSuppli, 137 million hard drives were shipped during the first quarter of this year, with units primarily being snapped inside notebook PCs, consumer electronics, desktops, and external drives. Vendors saw some healthy operating margins, too. Seagate reported $363 million in profits, or 11.7% of revenue, Western Digital announced $298 million, or a 14% return and Hitachi GST stated it had earned $65 million, or 4.6% of revenue.
It remains to be seen how flash-based storage will affect the HDD industry overtime, but as long as demand for low-cost storage capacity continues to rise, hard drive makers will find ways to stay competitive for some time. iSuppli says vendors are on track to ship 573 million drives by the end of this year, which represents 11 percent growth over last year's final tally.


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The Nokia 9 flagship smartphone was rumoured last year but never came to fruition and we thought it probably wouldn't happen after we got the stunning Nokia 8 Sirocco.
But now it looks like the Nokia 9 PureView will launch this month. Nokia has so far failed to really make an impact in the flagship phone space, but the Nokia 9 PureView could change all that. It looks like it will offer flagship specs along with a unique camera twist.
Here's everything we know about the Nokia 9 PureView, thought to be codenamed "Beholder".
Release date and price
- Mobile World Congress 2019 launch
- Seems like it will have flagship-level priceing
Nokia has chosen Mobile World Congress in Barcelona as the place to launch the Nokia 9 Pureview. As you can see from the below tweet, the event will be on 24 February. We now know that Nokia's press conference is taking place at 4PM CET, 3PM GMT.
We also believe the event could see the launch of the Nokia 8.1 Plus in addition to the Nokia 9. Will there also be a retro surprise as with the Nokia 3310 and 8810 banana phone that we saw launched in 2017 and 2018 respectively?
We— Juho Sarvikas (@sarvikas) January 25, 2019
would like you to tune into our Barcelona MWC showdown on the 24th of Feb
There's no word at present what the price might be, but aside from the possibility the Nokia 9 this is clearly a flagship-grade handset. The Nokia 8 Sirocco launched at £699, and we suspect the Nokia 9 PureView will go higher - perhaps £799.
There's a lot of competition in this space, however, so pricing will be key.
Nokia 9 design
- Penta lens design on rear
- Deep blue colour in several leaks
- Glass build with curved edges
The Nokia 9 is most striking at the rear where it features a penta-lens camera alongside a flash and another sensor - more on that shortly. The rear of the phone also has curved edges as well as the usual Nokia, Zeiss lens and Android One logos.
The front of the camera doesn't have a notch. The bezels aren't massive, but they are bigger than on many other Android flagships that we've seen launched in 2018 and 2019. And with many phones like the Galaxy S10 opting for a pinhole front-camera arrangement, the bezels are disappearing entirely.
TThis is Nokia 9 (2018) with a Penta-Lens camera. (render based on leaks) pic.twitter.com/gOQA8W08Cj— Ben Geskin (@VenyaGeskin1) September 6, 2018
There's no fingerprint scanner on the rear as it's going to be placed under the display, something that we saw a lot of in 2018 and will see more of this year. The construction appears to be glass rather than metal - which has been used in the majority of Nokia Android phones - and the use of glass will enable Qi wireless charging.
ITHome has come by an image of a prototype TA-1094 model - this is the only "live" shot we have of this phone in the wild.
The design was further shown in a leak courtesy of Evan Blass - @evleaks - around the turn of the year. It looks more like an official render than previous appearances of the handset.
One of the important things we see in the reveal from Blass is a clearer image of the front design, showing off that 5.99-inch display with no notch - but those slightly larger top and bottom bezels than rivals. It's not edge-to-edge, but it looks like a quality design.
Nokia 9 PureView "Beholder." HNY pic.twitter.com/x4Kh3anP46— Evan Blass (@evleaks) December 31, 2018
What's missing at the moment are the physical dimensions of this phone. We know the screen size, but we don't know exactly how large this phone is going to be. In early February a press image of the phone leaked via 91Mobiles.
Hardware and specs
- 5.99-inch 2K HDR display
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
- Under-display fingerprint scanner
One of the biggest leaks so far on the Nokia 9 PureView is a promo video shared by MySmartPrice. Formatted to be a vertical video, we suspect it's part of HMD Global's social reveal of the new phone. It corroborates many of the design details we mentioned above, while also confirming many of the hardware details.
Firstly, we think the Nokia 9 PureView is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, although there is also a growing amount of noise suggesting it will stick with the last-generation Snapdragon 845. Some rumours are now starting to appear suggesting a future version of the Nokia 9 (or even a successor) could be a 5G handset with the optional X50 5G modem. However, this won't be in the initial model that launches and we reckon it would have a different model name anyway.
The display is confirmed to be 5.99-inches, while the resolution is given at 2K. Nokia hasn't confirmed the pixels, but through some calculations, we estimate that it will be 2880 x 1440p, 537ppi with an 18:9 aspect. Why 18:9? - because there's no notch and that's the aspect of the Nokia 7 Plus, which looks similar.
As we mentioned, the Nokia 9 has an under-display fingerprint scanner confirmed by the leaked video. This is likely to be an optical sensor like those already introduced in other handsets this year, but ultrasonic sensors are set to be increasingly widespread in 2019 and strong rumours are pointing towards the Samsung Galaxy S10 having one.
Chinese 3C Certification shows the Nokia 9 PureView TA-1094 will have a fast charger in the box, supporting charging speeds up to 18W.
A listing on Google's Android Enterprise website also revealed a couple of the Nokia 9 PureView's key specifications. The listing corroborated the 6-inch display, whilst also showing RAM at 4GB, storage at 128GB and the OS as Android 9.
That penta-lens camera
- Penta-lens design
- Dual cameras on the front
Most of the interest, however, is in the five-camera setup on the rear of this phone. It's been the subject of most of the leaks, being the most distinctive thing about the design.
But what will it offer? The video leak we've seen suggests that including five lenses - and these are Zeiss lenses - will offer 10x the light capture. It's not clear what it will offer 10x more light camera than, but that can be achieved by a number of different routes - by having a larger aperture on the camera, a larger sensor - but in this case it looks like it's from having more lenses.
We suspect that Nokia will attempt some sort of auto-bracketing, taking photos at different exposures and combining them for better low-light and HDR photos. Certainly, these things are suggested by the video.
At the moment it's not clear if there will be a zoom lens or wide-angle lens - the focus of Nokia's messaging is more detail, more texture and the ability to refocus post-shooting. Lots of people offer this, but it might be that Nokia will give you five different levels from different photos.
We think the lenes may comprise a standard high-megapixel shooter, a wide-angle lens, a telephoto zoom lens, a depth-of-field camera for portrait mode and possibly a monochrome lens and/or 3D ToF camera.
What's not clear is whether there's actually going to be anything unique: phones like the Pixel 3 prove that a single lens with good processing can do much of what Nokia is talking about - so the jury is out on whether all these lenses will actually make for a better camera.
Nokia 9 and Android One
- Android Pie confirmed
- Updates guaranteed with Android One
At Mobile World Congress 2018, HMD Global committed to Android One - and that's what you get on the Nokia 9 PureView too.
Android One means that the Nokia 9 PureView will be pure Android without any clutter - the only thing that will be changed is the camera app - which you'll need for all those lenses on the back.
The leaked Nokia video also confirmed two years of Android version updates, so that takes you through Android Q and Android R into 2020, with the phone launching on Android 9 Pie, as the Google listing confirms.
We will update this feature as we hear more on the Nokia 9 PureView.


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The market in carbon credits tripled last year to $30bn from $10bn in 2005, the World Bank said yesterday. Financial Times
But the fledgling carbon credit industry is struggling to keep up with demand, as there is now a shortage of skilled technicians to monitor carbon reduction projects and verify the claimed emissions cuts are taking place.
Nearly $25bn (£13bn) came from transactions under the European Union’s emissions trading scheme, while $5bn was from the sale of carbon credits by developing countries.
China was the biggest beneficiary. The world's fastest-growing economy sold 61% of last year’s carbon credits, while India took 12% and Brazil 4%.
The UK was the biggest purchaser of credits, buying 50% of supply.


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In the fight against malware, Apple's iOS outshines Android as a safer environment, but no mobile device is free from risk, says a new report from McAfee (PDF).
Apple has so far done a good job of securing its devices, according to the report, noting that there have been no known cases of malware affecting iPhones, at least those that haven't been jailbroken. One reason iOS is more secure is because Apple restricts the way users can download apps.
iOS device owners can only download apps through Apple's App Store or through Mobile Device Management, which gives IT departments control over the Apple devices in their organizations. But even the Mobile Device Management requires approval from Apple.
Apple's single App Store is also tightly controlled, leading to a safer and more secure environment.
In contrast, Google's method of distributing software is more open, but with that openness comes risks. Though Google controls its own Android Market, users can download Android apps from third-party sites just as easily, which may not have the necessary security in place.
And even Android Market has proven vulnerable to threats. As just one example, Google had to get rid of a number of malicious apps in March after they were infected by a nasty bit of malware dubbed. In total, the company removed 58 malicious apps both from the market and from mobile devices where users had downloaded them.
Further, because Android is a more fragmented operating system, many handset makers tweak Google's open-source code and often modify certain security-related features, says McAfee. That approach also increases the time it takes for OS updates to reach Android users because some of those updates have to be customized for different devices.
And since almost all mobile malware infections come from app stores, Android has become the riskier environment. Though Nokia's Symbian is historically still the most popular mobile platform for malware writers, Android took on that dubious role in the second quarter of the year, attracting 63 percent of all malware infections at that time.
Finally, McAfee sees a different approach between Apple and Google in combatting malware.
"Apple's approach is proactive and focused on prevention," the report noted. "Google's plan is apparently to encourage the creation of apps and deal with the problems as they occur, in a reactive fashion. Google's may be a sensible move to generate a large volume and wide variety of apps, but from the security perspective it creates exactly the kind of environment in which malware gangs feel comfortable."
Both iOS and Android are based on Unix/Linux, according to McAfee, making them somewhat inherently secure. Instead, the vulnerabilities arise from manufacturers and developers who fail to make security a priority and sometimes rush to the market with new drivers and apps that aren't fully tested. Updates to the operating system and firmware may also be flawed, undermining the the strength of the core OS.
Virtually all smartphones and mobile devices face security risks now and increasingly so down the road, says McAfee. Most of the malware that threatens PCs is also possible on mobile devices. Plus, the security vendor believes that new kinds of threats not yet seen on PCs may hit smartphones.
Even if the overall number of threats were to decline, mobile devices are more vulnerable simply because they're always on, usually connected, and often hold some type of personal data.
Citing one example, McAfee pointed to a device's GPS capability, which can reveal the user's location. One piece of malware called GPS Spy, or, has been found to use a device's GPS to send a person's location to a third party.
As another example, malware writers can exploit weaknesses in a mobile OS to control a device's camera or microphone, letting them spy on the users. McAfee said it has already detected Trojans that were able to record phone conversations and send the recordings to a third party.
On a positive note, McAfee noted that security for mobile operating systems is progressing, making certain types of malware impossible. But the company still expects mobile malware to increase as a result of the difficulties in filtering it. Ultimately, protecting users will require the industry to better secure its mobile platforms along with its mobile devices.


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Destination coming first to PlayStation, launching on September 9, 2014.
“PlayStation is above all the best place to play, and we know what the best means. It means connected. It means the highest visual quality. It means choice, and it doesn’t mean being a lone gamer, but being part of a vast community” Andrew House, the CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc., told the assembled audience Monday night at E3 in Los Angeles.Destination will help define this next generation of games.”
He added that there will be a “first-look alpha” from this Thursday through the weekend, before the beta releases next month.
“Destination isn’t just the first on PlayStation, it’s better,” House added. “In addition to all the extra content that only PlayStation customers will receive, we also have a white PS4 coming out on September 9.”
However, House did not announce at what price Sony would make that bundle available.


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By TED CARTER
Mississippi has joined more than two dozen other states in investigating whether German car manufacturer Volkswagen used deceptive trade practices to convince consumers that their cars were environmentally friendly, when they weren’t.
Attorney General Jim Hood’s office declined to say whether Mississippi joined the multi-state investigation. The office said only that “the nature of this investigation has been discussed in general, we cannot confirm the details of the multi state” probe.
Hood’s Texas counterpart, Ken Paxton, included Mississippi among states that are looking at whether VW violated consumer protection laws of their respective states. Additionally, the environmental regulatory agencies of some states will investigate possible violations of environmental protection laws, according to Paxton.
Along with Texas and Mississippi, states participating in the consumer-protection law investigation are Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia.
Attorney General Paxton earlier this month sued Volkswagen Group of America and Audi of America claiming the automakers violated Texas consumer protection laws and the state’s clean air standards.
Texas wants restitution on behalf of consumers victimized by Volkswagen’s “deceptions and misrepresentations.”
Texas consumers bought about 32,000 of the so-called “clean vehicles” equipped with the fraudulent pollution control software.
A press release from Paxton’s office said a Volkswagen vehicle’s emissions with the Type EA 189 engines would run up to 40 times higher than the amount shown during the emissions standards testing. Volkswagen confirmed it sold U.S. consumers more than 480,000 such vehicles in model years 2009-2015. The automaker accomplished the deception by programming the vehicles’ catalytic converter technology to manipulate the data produced during emissions standards testing, the Associated Press reported.
The AP said earlier this month that Volkswagen acknowledged the deception to U.S. regulators on Sept. 3, more than a year after researchers published a study showing the real-world emissions of two VW models were far higher than allowed.
As many of 11 million diesel vehicles worldwide are reported to have been fitted with the pollution control cheating software.
Volkswagen, meanwhile, announced last week it is recalling 8.5 million vehicles across Europe in light of the company’s ongoing diesel emissions scandal, the AP reported. VW said in a statement the repairs will begin in January 2016.
The automaker faces fines and lawsuits globally over use of the deceptive software.
Lawyers in Arkansas filed two of those civil suits and are seeking class-action status for them. The first Arkansas lawsuit, filed Sept. 22 in Pulaski County Circuit Court, names as defendants the company’s American unit, Volkswagen Group of America, and an Arkansas dealer, Landers Auto Group LLC, Arkansas Business reported.
The second suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Fayetteville three days after the first one, names Volkswagen Group of America, along with parent Volkswagen AG, Arkansas Business reported.
The business publication reported that lawyers filed the complaints on behalf of Arkansans who bought VW vehicles equipped with the pollution deception software. The suits claim fraud, breach of contract and violations of the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, among other charges.


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LONDON (Reuters) – HSBC’s Connected Money app, providing a single platform for users to see their accounts with a range of providers, registered 13,000 downloads within a day of its launch, the British lender’s digital banking head said on Friday.
Retail banks are rushing to polish up their digital offerings as smaller financial technology firms enjoy growing popularity among users who increasingly expect slick apps and more personalized services.
HSBC has set aside $2 billion for investments in technology globally and digital banking head Raman Bhatia said it will start a large advertising campaign at the weekend as it seeks to make the full breadth of its 13 million-strong UK customer base aware of Connected Money.
While app-only start-ups such as Monzo have offered their relatively young and metropolitan user base similar experiences for years, HSBC is the first large bank to join the fray.
Bhatia said customers want intuitive ways to manage their finances, adding that Connected Money puts HSBC at the centre of their financial lives and decisions.
“You can draw a line from there to the commercial upside,” he said.
Connected Money users can view accounts from up to 21 different banks, including HSBC’s main rivals. The app will also soon be able to offer savings suggestions based on spending habits and round transactions up to the nearest pound and put the difference into a savings account.
While initially available only to UK customers, the app could eventually be offered to non-HSBC customers as well. Depending on its reception, it could even replace HSBC’s mobile app entirely, Bhatia said.
On Friday 129 users had given Connected Money an overall rating of 4.4 stars in the Apple app store. Monzo had an overall rating of 4.6 stars from 1,343 users.
HSBC launched a trial version last year for selected customers and launched the app for about 1,000 staff a week ago.
Other major lenders are expected to follow suit with their own so-called aggregator apps in the coming months, spurred by a change in regulation intended to promote competition and provide a boost to smaller lenders and FinTech firms.
Even the largest digital-only bank by customer numbers, Revolut, is dwarfed by traditional players. Revolut has less than 2 million customers across a number of European countries, while Lloyds has 13 million active online users.
(Reporting by Emma Rumney; Editing by David Goodman)


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Our fall Nexage Forum focused on building: building the capabilities that give premium publishers and advertisers the ability to win in an increasingly mobile world. And what a forum it was: standing room only (!!), a beautiful venue, panels that dug into the important issues of the day, and great conversations with our guests who are ultimately the key actors in the play to build the mobile future.
Evolve Panel: David Wiener (VP Product, BlueKai); Charlie Weiss (VP Ad Marketplaces, News Corp.); Bill Demas (President & CEO, Turn); Brian Silver (VP Ad Platforms for the Americas, Yahoo); Brian Gleason (Managing Director, North America, Xaxis). Moderated by Mark Connon (CRO, Nexage).
Evolve Panel: Kalyana Prattipati (Managing Director, Emerging Marketplaces, Accuen); James Lamberti (GM & VP, AdTruth); Michael Collins (CEO, Adelphic Mobile); Vikram Somaya (General Manager, WeatherFX); Parker Morse (VP Platform Revenue, Demand Media). Moderated by Victor Milligan (CMO, Nexage).
The two panels—composed of leaders from across the industry—generously shared their wisdom and experience; here are some of the highlights:
- The consumer is the center of the universe: Customer-first has been a longstanding and guiding principle. The challenge today is that consumers have dramatically changed their consumption habits to mobile—and agencies, advertisers and some premium publishers have struggled to catch up. Increasingly the game is to develop an audience-first approach, as the audience becomes more and more mobile-centric.
“Consumers are interacting with brands across the various screens of their lives as they go throughout their day,” said Bill Demas, president and CEO of Turn. “In order to succeed in this environment, marketers must think ‘audience first’ and plan campaigns that engage these consumers cross multiple advertising channels. We saw this transformation of advertising on the horizon, and today we are pleased to be powering audience-first solutions for Global 2000 brands and their agencies.”
- Mastering mobile: A key reason why agencies, advertisers, and publishers have struggled to catch up is that they did not have the mobile leadership or people in place to effectively respond to the massive consumer shift to mobile. The first wave of “mobilizing” was to try to fit the desktop ecosystem into mobile, which, for obvious reasons, failed. Mobile is different. Agencies and publishers are making the softer investments—leadership and people—recognizing these are critical ingredients to mastering mobile. Without it, organizations risk being left behind in an increasingly mobile world.
- The post-cookie normal: Mobile never had a persistent 3rd party cookie; and the online cookie is going away. The overhaul of the digital, cookie-less data model is underway—built on a consistent stream of mobile identifiers, the exchange’s ability to integrate and deliver 1st and 3rd party data, and buyers’ and agencies’ ability to develop proprietary linking and targeting solutions. The model is informed by privacy considerations: namely, effective privacy management and enforcement is inseparable from a healthy digital advertising market.
“With the reality that the 3rd party cookie is going away, there is high demand for a universal device identification solution that enables advanced targeting and retargeting,” said James Lamberti, GM & VP of AdTruth. “Equally as important to providing marketers the capability to reach and recognize audiences on any device is giving consumers a choice in the matter.”
- Programmatic past the tipping point: Programmatic is taking an ever-increasing role in mobile and digital advertising because it uniquely enables efficiency at scale and decisioning at the impression level. Programmatic also enables highly configurable private exchanges and programmatic guaranteed markets; both are becoming a more important part of premium publishers and buyer and agency strategies. It was inevitable that programmatic technologies would fuel a high-frequency trading market such as mobile and digital advertising. In fact, we are past the tipping point of adoption: programmatic will underpin virtually all transactions (including direct deals) in digital advertising.
- Rationale attribution: Attribution has been a gating factor for large-scale brand spend. But a workable attribution model, premised on view-through, is forming. The model goes well beyond “the click” and gives marketers visibility and analytics to plan, execute, and optimize campaigns in mobile and across channels.
“Advertisers need to understand performance beyond the click—and until attribution capabilities are fully in place, mobile will remain a testing ground for advertisers,” said Parker Morse, VP of Platform Revenue at Demand Media. “There will be great strides around mobile attribution in 2014; we’re even seeing some of that work coming to fruition today. But I expect 2015 will be the year where big budgets will shift to mobile as a result of these attribution capabilities.”
- Jumping into the imperfect pool: Both panels addressed a conflict in the market: if there is such an unambiguous strategic imperative to engage mobile, why have brand dollars lagged eyeballs? That is, in part, an organizational change question and, in part, due to the credible concern that the market wasn’t ready. But real progress has been made and is being made. Our speakers came to the same resounding conclusion: advertisers and agencies are increasingly “jumping into an imperfect pool” because the risk of getting left behind far outweighs the imperfections of mobile.
Our forum took a hard look at the issues shaping our market, and the priorities we have to build this market. Thank you to our panelists who shared their views and wisdom, and to our guests who helped make this event a success. It was simply a great night at a great venue with great people.


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Ferrarelle has always known, managed and protected a natural resource: water. A commitment that goes beyond water, beyond the protection of natural resources, which is realized in the third edition of the company's Sustainability Report, the first with augmented reality. Ferrarelle which, from 2021 has chosen to become a Benefit Company, has in fact identified over time the most relevant aspects of environmental, social and economic sustainability, sharing them with its stakeholders and increasing the culture of corporate social responsibility. It follows that respect for the environment has always been a priority, a concrete commitment that is expressed in a series of concrete actions from the recycling of PET bottles to generate new ones up to the conscious management of energy, consumption and resources.
A 2020 survey on sustainability and environmental concerns #whocareswhodoes carried out by GfK, awarded Ferrarelle as the most sustainable brand in the mineral water market according to consumers. A recognition for a company that is committed, day after day, to a -1 impact world, where everyone recycles more than what they consume. After all, 62% of Italian consumers prefer the purchase of products made by companies that show attention to the environment.
Ferrarelle is moving in this direction, the first Italian company in the food sector to have built a plant dedicated to the recycling of PET. Inside the Presenzano (Caserta) plant, new 100% recyclable bottles are produced and put back on the market, made up of 50% R-PET (PET recycled directly by the company). Thanks to this plant, inaugurated in 2019 and the result of an investment of 27 million euros, Ferrarelle has already removed 20,000 tons of plastic from the environment and is producing its bottles in R-PET (PET recycled directly from the company) in 1.5 liters and 50 cl.
A pack, even more sustainable and 100% recyclable, to enclose the famous natural effervescent, which combines the unmistakable taste with the well-being deriving from the richness of minerals. Since last November, the new 50 cl and 25 cl bottles have also been available while stocks last in a limited edition created thanks to the Disegniamo un mondo impact-1 competition launched by Ferrarelle in 2020, which invited the most small to represent a sustainable world through a drawing.
For 2021, again with the contribution of Me Against You, it started in February A scuola di riciclo: impatto-1. A project dedicated to schools throughout Italy, to raise awareness among the little ones by involving primary school students and their families with digital activities and games and a contest dedicated to recycling, which will give the opportunity to win important prizes. Over 1,000 schools involved for a total of 5,000 classes and over 110,000 families throughout the country to teach that environmental sustainability and building a better world for future generations must be the priority. Each class enrolled in the project received a digital kit, containing educational cards and interactive videos made together with the influencer couple Me contro Te, to accompany the little protagonists during classroom activities and in communication between school and family. The project is destined to evolve with further initiatives in the area, which will involve primary school children even more closely before the summer break.
For more details, you can connect to the site https://www.ferrarelleprogettoscuola.it/


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Finance giant Aviva has announced one-off payments to staff after acknowledging that the cost of living was a worry for many of its employees. The payments will range from £300 to £1,000 for employees earning up to £35,000.
The company said in a message to staff: "We've been thinking about what we can do to help our people, and so today we're announcing that we're giving our colleagues who earn £35,000 or less a one-off payment in October to help with rising energy costs. While we recognise that this won't benefit everyone, we want to focus the payment where we believe it will have the biggest impact.
"The one-off payment is based on salary and subject to normal deductions such as tax and national insurance. If you're eligible, you'll see the payment in your October payslip. Thresholds and payments based on full time equivalent - payments will be pro-rated for part time colleagues.
"We hope that this one-off payment goes some way to helping a large number of our colleagues this winter. We're proud to pay our people the Real Living Wage, plus 8% to pay into their pension.
"The Real Living Wage will be reviewed in September and we'll adjust our salary ranges from January (ahead of the normal April reward review). In response to your feedback, we're also removing the £3 a day charge in our car parks in Norwich, Sheffield, York, Leatherhead and Birmingham from July 1, 2022. Any final parking charges for June will be taken from your August pay."
Union Unite called on the company to commit to a more substantial rise in salaries for all staff.
National officer Caren Evans said: "The campaign to give urgent help to the lowest paid across Aviva has borne some results today, but this doesn't go far enough and Unite will continue to press for the meaningful support the workforce deserve. Aviva made £1.63 billion in profits in 2021 and has announced a payment of £4.75 billion back to shareholders.
"So Unite has no doubt that Aviva can afford to support its staff through the cost of living crisis. Aviva workers deserve a fair share of the pie."


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VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Oct. 15, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Emerald Health Therapeutics has announced that it has notified Pure Sunfarms Corp., its 50-percent-owned joint venture, that it does not agree that Emerald has any liability under the current supply agreement between Emerald and the joint venture with respect to the joint venture’s recent sales of cannabis to third parties at prices below the predetermined purchase price to Emerald set out in the Supply Agreement.
Under the supply agreement, Emerald has the right to purchase, or reject, 40 percent of the cannabis production of the joint venture. If Emerald rejects cannabis offered to it by the joint venture, under certain circumstances, Emerald would be obligated to pay the difference between the purchase price and the price realized by the Joint Venture.
Emerald believes that under the terms of the supply agreement, due to the manner in which the joint venture conducted its recent cannabis sales, it does not have a liability to the joint venture under the supply agreement.
Emerald’s belief is that under the terms of the supply agreement the manner in which the joint venture conducted certain cannabis sales does not create a liability for Emerald to the joint venture.
As at the date hereof, the joint venture has attempted to invoice Emerald for approximately $7 million under this provision of the supply agreement.
Emerald has informed the joint venture that it does not believe it has any liability for such amounts to the joint venture under the supply agreement and has requested that this issue be addressed at the upcoming meeting of the Board of Directors of the joint venture.


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Last Updated: April 2nd, 2011
Details are being kept internally between team members right now but what we do know is that the CyanogenMod has been ported onto an iPhone 3GS.
Everyone is pretty tight lipped for now but this seems so far to be legitimate, as one of the team members has confirmed the port is working via twitter.
It was only a few days ago when reports surfaced of the Android OS having been ported onto the iPhone 2G which was crazy enough to hear but now the advent of CyanogenMod on the 3GS is almost downright insane.
Last Updated: October 21st, 2014
The OnePlus One has had its share of bugs, but there has been one issue that effectively breaks the phone without the owner being even accidentally at fault. One minute you're swiping through the app drawer looking at the best way to kill time for a couple of minutes, the next you're hit with a spontaneous reboot and staring at a phone that boot loops indefinitely, leaving you with a bricked device.


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Budget supermarket Lidl has announced that 5kg boxes of fruits and vegetables priced at just 1.50 have been rolled out to every UK store, in an effort to reduce food waste.The retail giant apos;s apos;Too Good To Waste apos; initiative was launched in August in 122 stores, and had been met with such enthusiasm that it has now been rolled out across the nation.
ATLANTA (CNN) mdash; Kale, that popular green of the health conscious, has joined the ignoble list of 12 fruits and vegetables with the most pesticide residues, according to the Environmental Working Group. The last time kale was on the list was in 2009 when it was ranked eighth. Strawberries and spinach took the top two spots again this year, respectively, followed by kale.Since 2004, the group a nonprofit, nonpartisan environmental organization has annually ranked pesticide contamination in popular fruits and vegetables for its Shopper's Guide, noting those with the highest and lowest concentration of pesticides after being washed or peeled. Pesticides include an array of chemicals that kill unwanted insects, plants, molds and rodents. These chemicals keep pests from destroying produce but also expose humans to residues through their diet. This guide shares the results of the 47 tested fruits and vegetables, so consumers can buy foods with lower amounts of pesticides.
Monday Friday9 a.m. 5 p.m. ET(800) 219 8592
Every year, an independent study delves into what is considered the ”dirty dozen ” in the vegetable world. These vegetables are those that have been studied and are believed to contain the most pesticide residues out of all the vegetables offered for sale. For those that enjoy their kale fix, the news is not good. Nonetheless, it is strawberries that continue to top the list.According to CNN, strawberries have topped the 2019 Dirty Dozen list for the fourth year in a row. However, kale has rejoined the list this year, having been out of the list since its entry in 2009, when it placed eighth. This year, it has rejoined the list at number three. Spinach fills the gap between strawberries at No. 1 and kale at No. 3. By comparison, avocados, sweet corn, and pineapples top the Clean 15 list of produce that contains the least amount of pesticide residue.
Freeze drying Fruits and Vegetables is top technique for retaining nutrients: The freeze drying process (also known as lyophilisation) works by freezing a product before reducing the surrounding pressure. This forces frozen water inside the product to sublimate directly into gas.On the basis of type, the freeze dried fruits and vegetables market is led by the freeze dried fruits segment. Freeze drying helps in enhancing the texture and aesthetic appeal to food products and provides as crispy form to fruits, which helps in gaining consumer 's attention. Some of major type of vegetables preserved through freeze drying technique include various kind of berries such as green peas, mushroom, onion, tomato and other vegetables.
This comprehensive Fresh Fruits amp; Vegetables Market research report includes a brief on these trends that can help the businesses operating in the industry to understand the market and strategize for their business expansion accordingly. The research report analyses the market size, industry share, growth, key segments, CAGR and key drivers.Vegetables and fruits are loaded with vitamins, minerals, fiber, and antioxidants, which have been shown to protect against chronic diseases such as heart disease and cancer. Therefore, recommendations for a balanced diet must include the consumption of fruits and vegetables. Consumers in developing countries have become more concerned about the nutritional aspects as well as the safety of the food they eat due to growing health awareness.
Frozen Food(Ready Meals, Meat, Seafood, Fruits amp; Vegetables, Potatoes, Soup) Market players, stakeholders, and other interested parties are the best receivers of trusted insights and strategic advice that the report provides to help them achieve their mission critical priorities when operating in the global Frozen Food(Ready Meals, Meat, Seafood, Fruits amp; Vegetables, Potatoes, Soup) market. The experienced research analysts who have authored the report offer useful guidance to capitalize on market opportunities that matter the most. The guidelines offered in the report also help to find effective solutions to certain business issues related to the global Frozen Food(Ready Meals, Meat, Seafood, Fruits amp; Vegetables, Potatoes, Soup) market. With strong data and metrics, verified peer driven research, and forward thinking insights, the analysis provided in the report helps to make the right business decisions.
Customers reported waiting in line for hours at 50 sale points in Istanbul and Ankara to buy a limited quantity of of certain vegetables offered at up to half price.
"While further work is needed to demonstrate cause and effect, the results are clear: people who do eat more fruit and vegetables report a higher level of mental well being and life satisfaction than those who eat less, Dr. Neel Ocean of the University of Leeds, one of the authors of the study, said in a news release.The researchers followed the same individuals over an unspecified time period and controlled for other factors that could have affected their mental well being, such as their ages, education, incomes, marital status, employment statuses, lifestyles, and health, the news release said. They also tracked other foods they were eating, such as bread or dairy products, according to the news release. The participants who ate more fruits and vegetables reported better mental well being over time, the researchers said.
Kellogg;s has become a popular household name since its founding in 1906, producing a range of breakfast cereals like Froot Loops, Just Right, Corn Flakes, Special K, and more recently, a vegan cereal that includes vegetables.Kellogg 's has been testing on animals since at least 1954, according to a press release from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the largest animal rights organization in the world. From 1995 to 2016, Kellogg 's conducted, funded, or supplied the materials for animal experiments that used over 1,000 animals.
Organic nectarines lie on display among fruits and vegetables at the Liebherr stand at the 2014 IFA home electronics and appliances trade fair on September 5, 2014 in Berlin, Germany. (Sean Gallup Getty Images)
The report presents the market competitive landscape and a corresponding detailed analysis of the major vendor key players in the market. Top Companies in the Global Dehydrated Fruits amp; Vegetables Market: DMH Ingredients, FutureCeuticals, Kanegrade, Saipro Biotech, NutraDry, Paradise Fruits Solution, Activz, Baobab Foods, Milne MicroDried, Herbafood Ingredients.Click the link to get a free Sample Copy of the Report:
Latest Survey On Dehydrated Fruits and Vegetables MarketThe Dehydrated Fruits and Vegetables market report discusses the key drivers influencing market growth, opportunities, the challenges and the risks faced by key manufacturers players and the Dehydrated Fruits and Vegetables market as a whole. It also analyzes key emerging trends and their impact on present and future development.
Veg Power is born out of the work of The Food Foundation and Peas Please. It aims to harness the creative minds of advertising and marketing to make engaging and powerful content aimed at changing our perception of vegetables in order to encourage our kids to eat more veg.
Despite past campaigns 80% of primary school kids still aren t eating enough vegetables and this ground breaking initiative looks to change that. The campaign is being launched by a partnership between ITV and Veg Power and Eat Them To Defeat Them will engage with kids and parents in a new way, looking to reinvigorate how vegetables are viewed and consumed.The campaign has been funded by a unique alliance of supermarkets and brands that have donated to the Eat Them To Defeat Them initiative. Aldi, Asda, Birds Eye, Co op, Iceland, Lidl, Marks amp; Spencer, Morrisons, Ocado, Sainsburys, Tesco and Waitrose all coming together to help their customers live healthier lives.
Britain's biggest supermarkets have come together to fund the Veg Power ads with ITV also giving a 60 second prime time slot for free


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Certification clarity: Vegan logo application only needed for processed food products - India food safety authority
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has assured food firms dealing in ‘vegan by default’ products that they do not need to have the new national vegan logo displayed on their products and need not undergo the certification process as a result.
The products exempted include agricultural commodities, such as rice, cereals, pulses, oil seeds. All other products will need to make and application and display the Vegan logo.
FSSAI formally launched the national Vegan logo in 2022, mandating traceability as well as compliance as key criteria for food firms looking to pass the vegan product certification process.
South Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) is clamping down on liquid tea sachets sold as health functional foods to elderly consumers.
Most of these products claimed to contain a high percentage of expensive raw materials, such as red ginseng, velvet antler, and cheonma (Gastrodia elata) when only trace amounts were present.
The ministry said that fake product marketing had worsened as domestic spring tourism had resumed after COVID social distancing regulations were lifted.
Market consolidation? Only major domestic brands and MNCs to thrive in China’s tougher infant formula market – experts
It will mostly be the major domestic players and MNCs that will thrive in China’s infant formula market in the upcoming years, claim experts, citing a raft of reasons such as a more stringent regulatory environment, negative population growth, and an under-performing economy as hurdles for other firms.
China’s new national standards (Guobiao / GB) for infant formulas were officially enforced from February 22, where manufacturers would have to reformulate their products’ calories, carbohydrates, proteins, and micronutrients content.
Industry experts who spoke to NutraIngredients-Asia said that the move would have consolidated the country’s infant formula market, as smaller and lesser brands might have chosen not to reformulate the product and exit the market.
Exclusive Malaysia nutrition sector analysis: From vending machine trend to fears over unregistered products online
From emerging sales channels for functional foods and supplements such as vending machines, to fears over unregistered products being sold online, as well as industry concerns over advertising and ingredient rules, the Malaysian industry is currently a hotbed of activity.
In terms of regulations related challenges, the sale of supplements unregistered with the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA) was “one of the biggest threats faced by the members” of local industry body Malaysian Dietary Supplement Association (MADSA).
These are products that were not registered with the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA) and therefore did not come with a registration of notification number.
India nutra enforcement: Regulator sets sights on non-compliant ingredients, exceeding RDI levels, and misleading claims
India’s food and nutraceutical regulator has ordered a special enforcement drive to curb the flow of non-compliant products。
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) ordered on March 7 for all states to carry out a “special enforcement drive” to check for product compliance and to “take strict action against any incidence of violation by the FBOs (food business operators)”.
According to the notice, this is because products not in compliant with the Food Safety and Standards Regulations 2022 (FSS Regulations 2022) were found in the market.


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Soon after donating a week’s revenue to the Philippine Red Cross after the tragic Typhoon Haiyan, last-minute hotel booking app HotelQuickly today announced that it is launching in the Southeast Asian country. At launch, it will only be opened to listings in metropolitan areas of Manila, Cebu and Davao.
At the moment, the Hong Kong-based team has a total headcount of 30 staff, of which 20 are full-timers. HotelQuickly is slowly and steadily looking to build a local team in the Philippines. It will be hiring a marketing manager and sales executives in the near future. A local country manager will also be brought in. Till then, operations will be handled remotely.
Christian Mischler, Co-founder and COO, HotelQuickly shared that a market survey was conducted with 20,000 of their most active users. “The Philippines was most mentioned, which was a clear indication for us that we were missing out on an important market. We also expect domestic travels to be of importance in the Philippines, which is the reason we have included Davao as part of our initial offering,” he added.
When users open the app, they will receive nine hotel deals based on their location. The official press release stated that prices will be hidden until users sign up with HotelQuickly. Such deals are highly competitive, especially when a hotel has multiple online travel partners. If a hotel is found to be cheaper anywhere else, HotelQuickly will refund twice the difference.
Read also: Tripconomics helps enterprises walk on air
By using HotelQuickly’s mobile app, hotels can sell off excess room capacities to HotelQuickly members. Tomas Laboutka, Co-founder and CEO, HotelQuickly said, “Our partners see us complementary to traditional websites of online travel agents, tour operators or their very own channels. They use HotelQuickly to increase sales and to gain competitive advantage; we show only the best nine hotel deals each day in any given location, a prime-listing for our partners is guaranteed.”
Mischler also added that the hotels on HotelQuickly are on an average about 28 percent cheaper than what could be found online, when compared across the 12 countries it operates in. He said, “Since we have launched, we have built very good relationships with hotels. They understand that we are complementary to regular websites, as we target a different user – the spontaneous last-minute traveller.”
Different markets, different needs
Hotels booked often differ quite a bit from market to market. Mischler said, “For instance, we see that in Thailand, many Thais go for the cheap three-star hotels (and) their average spending is about US$30 to US$40. However, incoming travellers from Hong Kong or Singapore usually go for five-star hotels, as their daily budget is much higher, and with the deals in Thailand, they can easily afford to stay in a luxurious five-star hotel.”
He also explained that due to the high price points, travellers headed to Singapore often stay in four-star hotels. Mischler told e27, “Even with massive discounts on the best prices online, it seems this segment is not suitable for spontaneous last minute travellers.”
HotelQuickly is now available in 12 locations (Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan, Australia, Cambodia, Macau, Vietnam, New Zealand, and the Philippines) on iOS, Android and BlackBerry 10 platforms. In the last two months, it has integrated 500 new listings into its platform across all the countries.
For e27 readers who would like to give HotelQuickly a try, use this code for a special voucher: HQE27PH. The voucher entails a US$20 discount for first-time users booking any hotel in the Philippines. The discount is valid till January 31, 2014.


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Miranda Kerr Gives Heavenly Kisses
Miranda Kerr attends the Victoria’s Secret launch of their new romantic fragrance ‘Heavenly Kiss’ at The Grove in Los Angeles on Monday.
As reported earlier, the new fragrance features notes of vanilla accord wrapped in fruits and vibrantly fresh florals. Miranda, 25, gave away personalized autograph kisses from her very own Heavenly Kiss Kissing Booth.
Kerrbloom was last seen on Sunday stocking up on groceries.
I’m sure Miranda saved her last Heavenly Kiss for Orly!


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Nanosys has developed an add-on for blue LED display backlights that converts some of the blue light into red and green light of narrowly defined wavelengths selected to match the LCD’s filters. The company’s “quantumrail,” a thin capillary that can be attached to a backlight, contains a suspension of quantum dots that convert the light.
Quantum dots get their name from their unusual properties: when structured at the nanoscale, the optical and electronic properties of certain semiconducting materials such as cadmium are dictated by their dimensions. Conventional semiconducting materials emit light of a particular color when they’re bombarded with electrons or photons–this is how light-emitting diodes work. By carefully controlling the dimensions of quantum dots at the nanoscale, it’s possible to precisely tune what color light they emit.
Researchers have been making quantum dots since the 1980s, but it’s only this year that these nanomaterials have been incorporated into consumer products. MIT spinoff QD Vision was the first to market with a consumer product. Its quantum dots are incorporated into energy-efficient LED lighting made by Nexus. They convert light from an LED into a mixture of colors that’s more pleasing to the eye. Company CTO Seth Coe-Sullivan says QD Vision is also working with major display companies to incorporate quantum dots into LCD backlights. Coe-Sullivan says these products will launch next year.
The displays incorporating Nanosys’s quantumrail that were exhibited at the conference in Seattle had a better color gamut than traditional LCDs. A good notebook display can generate 72 percent of the colors dictated by a commonly used measurement of color gamut called the National Television System Committee standard, but the LG display rates 103 percent–that is, it can show colors that aren’t included in this standard. Running the display at lower power to create a 72 percent color gamut can add 10 percent to the battery life, according to Nanosys.


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Small businesses have the power to play a significant role in promoting sustainability and shaping the future of different industries. The World Economic Forum 2023 focused on the importance of sustainability and the role that businesses can play in driving change. Effective communication about sustainability efforts can bring a range of benefits to small businesses, including increased consumer trust and brand loyalty, differentiation in a crowded marketplace, and attracting investment.
One of the key ways that small businesses can integrate sustainability is by reducing their environmental footprint.
This can be achieved through practices such as reducing energy consumption, using more efficient processes, and minimizing waste. For example, a small retailer could switch to LED lighting, use reusable packaging, and implement a recycling program. These measures not only reduce the business's environmental impact but can also lead to cost savings and increased efficiency. By communicating these sustainability efforts to customers and stakeholders, the business can increase transparency and build trust.
Another way that small businesses can promote sustainability is by incorporating it into their brand and marketing.
By aligning their values with environmentally conscious consumers, small businesses can attract new customers and build loyalty among existing ones. This can be done through eco-friendly branding, marketing campaigns that highlight sustainable practices, and partnerships with environmental organizations. Effective communication about these efforts can help the business stand out in a crowded marketplace and appeal to customers who are looking for companies that share their values.
The World Economic Forum 2023 emphasized the need for a multi-stakeholder approach to sustainability, involving the private sector, governments, NGOs, and individuals.
Small businesses can play a significant role in driving sustainability by advocating for sustainable policies and regulations and collaborating with other businesses and organizations to drive change. For example, a small business could join a sustainability-focused business network or participate in initiatives that promote sustainable practices in its industry. By communicating these efforts and collaborating with other businesses and organizations, small businesses can demonstrate their commitment to sustainability and help drive change at a broader level.
In conclusion, small businesses have a unique opportunity to integrate sustainability and shape the future of different industries. Effective communication about sustainability efforts can bring a range of benefits to small businesses, including increased consumer trust and brand loyalty, differentiation in a crowded marketplace, and attracting investment. By reducing their environmental footprint, incorporating sustainability into their brand and marketing, and advocating for sustainable policies, small businesses can not only improve their financial performance and appeal to customers but also play a significant role in creating a more sustainable and equitable world. The time to act is now, and the World Economic Forum 2023 has emphasized the importance of businesses of all sizes in driving sustainability and shaping the future.
Author: Nicoleta Talpes
Entrepreneur, strategic communications expert, sustainability communication strategist, and international advisor for companies, NGOs, and startups.


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Well, that was fast. We already reported earlier today that we're anticipating our first proper look at Toukiden 2 due to the fact that the game's teaser website has opened, but Japanese publication Famitsu's gone ahead and released several screenshots from the demon slaying sequel just a couple of hours after we posted the story.
The pictures give us an early glimpse of the title's open world, which is unsurprisingly crawling with deadly oni enemies. Set to launch on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, and Vita in Japan, we're not expecting a graphical powerhouse of a game, but we have to admit that the project's looking rather pretty, and apparently, it's only 60 per cent complete.
How do you think it looks? Are you eager to get stuck into an open world oni hunt? Cleave your way into the comments section below.


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April marks a new wine grape growing season and Virginia Vineyard Month. It’s also a good time to toast one of the state’s fastest-growing agricultural industries.
The popularity of Virginia wine continues to grow, and October’s 29th annual Virginia Wine Month is the perfect time to sample some.
There’s a Virginia wine for every taste and occasion, and Virginia Farm Bureau has supported the industry along the way.
The crush of Virginia’s wine grape harvest is ahead of schedule, and the fruit is robust.
Agritourism plays an important role in the $70 billion annual economic contribution made by Virginia’s agriculture and forestry industries.


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After years of slowly falling behind the competition when it comes to what’s under the hood, Aston Martin decided to increase the pressure on its Italian and German supercar competition with an AMG partnership, the German engineering genius that hand-builds super-performance engines. The British luxury car maker revealed that its next-generation vehicles will be powered by AMG engines. Going into partnership with AMG, Aston Martin hopes to create new better engines, electronics components, to speak the same language with the latest Ferrari, Lamborghini, or Porsche.
Mercedes-AMG will supply Aston Martin with engines, while Mercedes-Benz Cars will provide the British luxury sports car manufacturer with e/e (electric/electronic) components for Aston Martin’s future models. In addition to those agreements, Daimler will receive up to 5% equity in Aston Martin without cash consideration in several steps following the progress of the technical partnership. At the same time, the company will receive an observer status in the Board of Management of Aston Martin.
“We are proud to work with Aston Martin and provide them with powertrain and e/e components for their forthcoming sports cars. This is proof of AMG’s technological and performance expertise and a real win-win situation for both sides,” said Ola Källenius, Head of Mercedes-AMG GmbH.
“We have selected AMG specifically as the basis for this powertrain development process. Aston Martin sources cutting edge technology from key suppliers around the globe and the opportunity to include content from Mercedes-AMG GmbH in our next generation sports cars is, clearly, good news,” said Aston Martin Product Development Director Ian Minards.


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The Internet of Things is going to change everything, especially field service, Tim Faulkner of ClickSoftware explains why…
Much has been made of the Internet of Things (IoT). For many years now the concept of a plethora of interconnected devices working together has been mooted.
Devices communicating with one another to share information, pass content, allow for tasks to be completed -all creates a grand mesh of interlocking technology that allow for people to be connected anywhere and anytime.
To do this, more devices will need to become “smart”. They will require a constant connection to the internet or to other devices in order to communicate. From traffic lights, to door locks, to home heating systems, everything will be connected to the internet and working in harmony with other smart devices. Take the traffic light as just one thing that will change in the IoT.
It is regulating traffic while the information it observes is sent to the central command hub, which is then shared with the vehicle and driver half a mile down the road to urge them to change speed and ease congestion. Three disparate objects are working together thanks to the interconnectivity an IoT curates.
There is no point having an IoT car when as soon as you leave the city, all the functionality becomes redundant. Equally, the hardware needs to change.
Each piece of equipment, product, and even building, needs to have connectivity built into it. We are already seeing items like tablets built specifically for businesses to support fieldworkers in any kind of environment and effectively communicate with other mobile workers.
But IoT technology will see that taken a step further. Hard hats, wristbands, tools – all will have sensors built-in to allow for interaction with other smart devices.
Because of these initial hurdles, we are still some way off that point, but we are seeing early signs of enterprise adopting the approach and looking at where connected devices can work together to make tasks a little easier. With the launch of a range of new smartwatches, most notably the Apple Watch, we now have devices that function far more effectively when connected to another device. Arguably, this is the first mainstream example of the IoT making its way into our everyday lives.
Meanwhile, at the recent CeBIT event in France, the talk of the technology show was the impending influence a Connected Economy is going to have.
Think of the Connected Economy as the opening foray into a full IoT concept, with devices that have some interconnectivity and some that are wearable too. Each device gains, shares, and passes information from one to another, all of which is then captured and controlled from a central hub.
For enterprise companies, the potential for this technology is significant. If you are running a big logistics project for example, much of the success or failure of the project hinges on human error.
Workers are constantly checking in, updating stock, and ensuring the right rosters of skills and expertise are in place.
An automated system which is instantly updated thanks to connected devices will go a long way to eliminating the risk of human error, and should allow people to get on with the job they have been asked to do, rather than the often time consuming administrative elements.
Cisco has predicted that the Internet of Everything, their take on IoT, could be worth $14.4 trillion of value for enterprises globally ahead of 2022.
The reason for this is because the concept opens up a whole new platform for businesses to operate in, from streamlining costs, to using cloud services to hosting data, to designing and implementing the new smart devices.
It is streamlining of costs where businesses will see the most value. Data can be collected in the field, sent back, and then the appropriate task and resource assigned.
Devices stationed in remote locations will be able to flag when maintenance is due, or when damage has been sustained. That data can then be shared and a team dispatched to handle the issue.
As consumers, we will receive a package at home and the moment the smart box is opened, that will be the signal the job has been completed There is a huge opportunity for all businesses in the IoT space. Our growing dependence on smartphones suggests the concept of always being “on” is one that appeals to people.
To get to that point however, we will need to see dramatic improvements in connectivity and an overhaul of how we produce items. Connectivity now needs to be at the heart of how products are designed to ensure this grand mesh of technology interacting together leaps from the pages of theory into the practice of reality.